Forgiveness is central to the Christian faith – not only God forgiving us, but our forgiving others. It is a command. Indeed, forgiveness is to be granted before it is felt, not felt before it’s granted.
Name the Two: A friend makes a persuasive argument that the trajectory of 2020 was altered by two “things.” The first is obvious: COVID. But what is the second? I mention his answer below, but I want to give you time to think of your own answer. Besides COVID, what do you think radically reshaped 2020?
Question of the Week: Annie Dillard – the provocative, unconventional, occasionally unorthodox and nearly-always brilliant writer, claims that THE theological question of all time is: What the Sam Hill is going on? Perhaps, but that’s not my question this week. I am trying to figure out: How many of the changes swept in by COVID are here to stay?
The Virtual Promotion of Virtue: Count AA meetings among those now facilitated via Zoom. And that is a good thing. Because now there is always an AA meeting available for someone struggling in a moment of weakness.
A Rerun: I appreciate Rick Warren’s reminder that God can use those of us who are tired, broken and spent. Indeed, those who see themselves this way are the ones He uses most. “Abraham was old, Jacob was insecure, Leah was unattractive, Joseph was abused, Moses stuttered, Gideon was poor, Samson was codependent, Rehab was immoral, David had an affair, Jeremiah was depressed, Jonah was reluctant, Naomi was a widow, John the Baptist was eccentric, Peter was impulsive, Martha worried too much, the Samaritan woman had several failed marriages, Zacchaeus was unpopular, Thomas had doubts, Paul had poor health, and Timothy was timid.”
J, A and R: Jerusalem (the Bible), Athens (reason) and Rome (rule of law) combined to give us the West. In this brief post, George Weigel claims that because we rejected the first, we are losing the second and will soon lose the third.
Without Comment: 75% of the time a parent spends with their children has been spent by the time the child is 12 years old; nearly 3 in 8 homes in the US are rentals, and in 2019 nearly half of all renters had a net worth of less than $7K; the average attention span for a Millennial is 12 seconds, and for a Gen. Z is 8 seconds (you are to be congratulated for reading this far!); several decades ago, trust in institutions ran about 70%. It is now down to 19%. More disturbing: trust in others – which was 60% – is now down to 32%; more disturbing still: it is age related. Boomers are more trusting of others than Millennials and Gen Z.
Good News: David Brooks notes that journalists are not encouraged to share “good news,” but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any. Here is some for this week: 1) According to the FBI, violent crime has fallen for the third year in a row, and it has dropped by over 50% since the 1990s. Today’s young are committing crimes at a significantly lower rate than their predecessors; 2) At the turn of the 21st century, 27.7% of the globe survived on $1.90 a day or less. That number is now 9.4% (and would have been 7.9% were it not for the pandemic); global life expectancy is up from 67.1 years to 73.2 years; adult literacy is up from 80% to 86.7%, the world-wide child mortality has dropped from 9.8M annual deaths to 5.2M; US per capita income is up from $42,970 to $56,663.
The Second Half of the Answer: What other than COVID changed 2020? Phone-based video recorders. (Think George Floyd.)
Declining the Gift: Down Syndrome has been called the “canary in the coal mine”for selective reproduction. And in case you haven’t noticed, the canary has died. Although women are having children later in life – which should mean more Down Syndrome children – both the numbers and the percentages of Down Syndrome children is down. Last year in Denmark, only 18 Down Syndrome children were born. I headlined this entry, “Declining the Gift,” because parents raising Down Syndrome children often feel that it is a huge privilege. I might have labeled it Eugenics.
Follett: I am just finishing the third book in Ken Follett’s Pillars trilogy set in the Middle Ages. They were a welcome diversion during COVID – and the arrival of the Plague in Kingsbridge made me appreciate how well we are weathering COVID. But I found the characters thin. I did not expect Follett – an atheist – to portray the Medieval church in a positive light. (He didn’t.) But I am surprised at how much he misunderstands how faith in God shapes people.
Closing Prayer: Grant me O most sweet loving Jesus, to rest in you above every creature, above all health and beauty, above all glory and honor, above all power and dignity, above all knowledge and subtlety, above all riches and arts, above all joy and exultation, above all fame and praise, above all sweetness and consolation, above all hope and promise, above all desert and desire, above all gifts and presents which you are able to bestow or infuse, above all joy and gladness which the mind is capable of receiving and feeling; finally, above angels and archangels, and above all the heavenly host, above all things visible and invisible, and above all you are, O my God! Amen (Thomas a Kempis – 1380-1471)