Happy Friday.
Peace: Because we control less than we’d like – and typically far less than we imagine – the peace we are after cannot depend on our circumstances. To be the “non-anxious presence” we instinctively admire, we must absorb the prevailing peace of God. Letting go of worry and control does not mean we do not care, it simply means we realize our limits and dependence.
Two Observations from the Cheap Seats: As a pastor, I have grown to fear both the success and failure of other Christ-followers. My back of envelope calculations suggest that about half grow through failure and only twenty percent survive success.
Flooding: From time to time I think about linking you to a picture (a piece of art, an image from space, etc.) Today I do. This is a series of pictures of flooding in France. I share them not just because they are spectacular – which they are – but because they illustrate both human fragility and the need for firm foundations. (By the way, how are your foundations?)
Podcast: Last week I was interviewed by a former Christ Church intern who is now the senior pastor of a church in Madison, WI. We discussed maintaining our spiritual wellbeing during the challenges of 2020. You can listen here.
Overheard: “If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.” (This is another way of saying, absence the power of forgiveness, “hurt people, hurt people.”
So-Fi Stadium: Ken Follet’s novel about the construction of a cathedral during the Middle Ages – Pillars of Fire – has me thinking about buildings. Churchill’s quote – “First we shape our buildings and then they shape us.” – has me wondering what would be different if more churches met in cathedrals instead of strip malls. But I’m more taken by what our buildings say about us. Many believe that our most expensive buildings advertise our most important values. To this end they note: 1) in DC, height restrictions ensure nothing rivals the Lincoln Memorial; 2) In NY and Chicago, commercial buildings dominate the sky line; 3) in Vegas, it’s casinos that garner all the attention. In light of this I note, gone are the days when a church steeple was a city’s high point. Today’s most impressive cathedrals of Sunday worship are football stadiums. Case in point: LA’s new So-Fi stadium – which cost five billion – is amazing.
Screen Time: You can read – or reread – Jean Twenge’s memorable 2017 Atlantic Monthly article, Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?, here. But you do not need to, this is the money quote: “There’s not a single exception. All screen activities are linked to less happiness, and all nonscreen activities are linked to more happiness. Eighth-graders who spend 10 or more hours a week on social media are 56 percent more likely to say they’re unhappy than those who devote less time to social media. The opposite is true of in-person interactions. Those who spend an above-average amount of time with their friends in person are 20 percent less likely to say they’re unhappy than those who hang out for a below-average amount of time.”
Without Comment:
- California is fighting the first “gigafire” – that is, a wildfire that reaches a million acres in size.
- Global deaths from COVID-19 recently passed one million.
- Though college faculty and fringe groups are increasingly stifling free speech, the latest UCLA study suggests freshman remain open to dissenting voices.