Happy Friday,
How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
Psalm 104:24
There are 5,000 known species of sponges on the ocean floor. Five thousand. There are 300,000 species of beetles. There is a similarly stunning variety of flowers, trees, birds and butterflies. Think about that for a moment. God’s creative genius is stunning, so allow yourself to be stunned. Enjoy His beauty and wisdom.
Perspective and Hope: Perhaps it’s the people I hang with, but I’m hearing more concern over, “the world we are leaving to our grandchildren.” On the one hand, I get it. There is a lot out there I do not like, and several trends that seem ominous. But if you’re slipping down this path, let me remind you: 1) People have always been worried for – andworried about – the next generation; 2) Many things are going well – they do not make the news, but they are; 3) Sin has an expiration date. There may be storms ahead, but God wins. His future rule and reign are certain. Embrace hope.
Without Comment: 1) According to a recent study, ten percent of Americans are estranged from a parent or child, eight percent from a sibling and nine percent from an extended family member; 2) Overdose deaths surged during COVID, up 29 percent from the previous year; 3) On a related note, life expectancy in the US dropped 1.5 years during 2020; 4) Netflix reports the average user watches a series in five days, with millions binge-watching an entire twelve-hour season in a single day. When asked about competition from Amazon Prime – and other up and coming streaming services – Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, shrugged. He said their biggest competition is sleep; 5) A current iPhone has seven million times more memory than the guidance computer on Neil Armstrong’s 1969 spaceship, and over one hundred thousand times its processing power.
Identity: As noted a few weeks back, an upcoming sermon series has me thinking about identity. I landed on this topic before gender identity, identity politics and other identity issues became trendy. FWIW, I do not intend to focus on the trendy side of identity in this series. My goal is to help people see the need to see themselves as God does. However, I’ve felt the need to do some reading. Carl Trueman’s book – The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution – is good, though depressing. (You can listen to a podcast with Trueman here.) Much of the rest of what is out there is, well, depressing – e.g., sociologists note that while those living in the premodern world had their identities assigned (I am a blacksmith because my father was); and while those living in modern times discovered their identities (often in college); today many struggle to figure out who they are. Part of this is because we are asking different questions. Part of this is because we are no longer allowing ourselves to be defined with reference to faith, family or country. As noted, I will be encouraging people to find their identity in Christ.
Not New but Still Creepy: In last week’s Update, I alluded to John David Mann’s new novel, Steel Fear. I have no intention of reading it, but Amazon has been sending me links to it all week. What’s more, although we do not have an Echo, Sheri and I spent a few days visiting our youngest son and his wife, and they do. Apparently, Bezos was listening to those conversations, figured out who we were, and has been sending me related purchasing suggestions all week. This is not the first time this has happened, but it still unnerves me. In fact, “Jeff, since you are no doubt reading this, please go back into space and stay there until you can learn to leave me alone.”
Speaking of Bezos: At first I thought the Bezos, Branson and Musk billionaire space cowboy club was comical. Now it gives me pause. What else are they working on? More to the point, what kind of technology have they developed for their own security? It is starting to feel like there are people – and companies – acting bigger than nations.
Water: Droughts and floods have been much in the news this week, but this article – on the depletion of the aquifer under the Great Plains – is likely of greater import than those garnering headlines. BTW, as you may have noticed, water issues are causing headaches everywhere. I am thinking, for instance, of the problems accompanying the depletion of the CO River and the rising tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia as the latter nears completion of the efforts to dam the Nile.
Helpful: George Yancey, a sociologist at Baylor with a long-time focus on race and racism, has a helpful article out called Let’s Stop the Racial Insanity. After exploring ways forward that will not work, Yancey – who is a Christ-follower – advocates Collaborative Conversations. His article will not please everyone, but I do appreciate his way of framing next steps.
Speaking of Reading: I am very high on Jeffrey Bilbro’s Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News. Bilbro has given voice to many of the half-developed ideas I had been unsettled about. And he says it with some punch. For instance, “As we become increasingly embedded in an ecosystem of interruption technologies that fosters a state of continuous partial attention, our neural networks are being restricted.”
Closing Prayer: Our Father, you called us and saved us in order to make us like your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Day by day, change us by the work of your Holy Spirit so that we may grow more like him in all that we think and say and do, to his glory. Amen. Søren Kierkegaard – 1813 – 1855