Happy Friday,
Be still and know that I am God.
Psalm 46:10
The twenty-first century leaves many agitated. Our disquiet comes in three forms. The most basic is the nagging sense that we should be checking our phone, attending to email or finishing some half-baked project. The second is the suspicion that we should be attending to one of those Quadrant Four things Covey wrote about – i.e., the important but not urgent. Think: learn Spanish, Read The Brothers Karamazov or review my will. The final is the unanswered existential questions in front of us – e.g., What really matters? What is expected of me? or What happens when I die? Ironically, while level three concerns the most important matters, they are the least disruptive. We have to be very still before they surface and most of us never are.
Uncommon Sense: Every person has value and deserves respect, but not every idea does. Some ideas are wrong, some are silly and some are evil. Not embracing a bad idea is not an act of aggression towards those who do embrace it. On a related note, some cultures are better at some things than other cultures. Given the rabid relativism many now champion, this is routinely denied, but it is surely true. The ethos and convictions of the Amish – or of those advocated by Nelson Mandela – are better than those embraced by groups advocating Female Genital Mutilation.
Plus Ten: A simple drill that can yield big returns unfolds in two steps: 1) Add ten years to everything (and everyone) around you; 2) Ask yourself, “What is now broken?” There are things about the future that we cannot know, but there are some things that we can. If I am still alive in ten years, I will be ten years older. So will our house. So will the roof. So will my knees. What can sixty-year-old Mike do today that seventy-year-old Mike will appreciate?
Gap Analysis: When the Brits implore you to “Mind the Gap,” they’re suggesting you avoid falling between the platform and the train. I’m using the phrase to suggest you close the distance between yourself and Christ. However, I do so with this caveat: Your awareness of your need for grace will increase. When I first came to Christ, my sense was that I was at -3 and Jesus was at +10 – that meant, I needed 13 points of grace. Over the intervening decades, while my actions have improved, my awareness of my sinfulness has expanded. So, while others might rank me at a -2, I would score myself far lower. What’s more, I now realize that Jesus is not a +10, He is a +10,000. I no longer think I need 13 points of grace. I think I need one thousand times as much. This is the thinking behind Dallas Willard’s famous line, “A saint burns grace like a 747 burns fuel on takeoff.”
Word of the Week: “Hegemonic” deserves honorable mention. After all, it’s only slightly less trendy than Squid Games. But because I think it’s peaked, I’m going with “safetyism” instead. Best I can tell, “safetyism” became a buzz word via Lukianoff and Haidt’s 2015 Atlantic piece about the “coddling of the American mind.” There they defined it as “a culture or belief system in which safety (which includes ‘emotional safety’) has become a sacred value.” It seems ironic that we are so obsessed with safety when in so many ways we have never been safer, but we are. BTW, this conversation brings I Thessalonians 5:1-3 to mind. It reads: “Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”
Expectations: I am currently reading Tim Townsend’s book, Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis. It tells how Henry Gerecke (rhymes with Cherokee) wrestled with his assignment to serve as the chaplain to the top twenty-one Nazi war criminals as they awaited their trials in Nuremberg. I’m not far enough along to know if I should recommend the book, but this paragraph jumped out at me. It comes from a letter the Major General in charge of Chaplains sent to Gerecke on the latter’s first day as a military chaplain. “Inconveniences, difficulties and hardships will be your portion…. Loyalty, obedience, devotion, and self sacrifice will be expected and required.” Think about how much easier our lives would be if we read such a letter. BTW, we did have just such a letter sent to us.
Without Comment: 1) The 2021 World Series averaged 11.7 million viewers; up 20% from last season but still second lowest audience ever; 2) The US stock market rose to record highs this past week; 3) Children’s screen time doubled during the pandemic and shows no sign of coming back down; 4) According to the Labor Department, 4.3 million workers voluntarily quit their jobs in August, the most in the two decades the government has been keeping track; 5) Almost half of US congregations are involved in efforts to feed the hungry.
See It!: On Wednesday night, Sheri and I saw Max McLean’s CS Lewis. The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis. Do yourself a favor, watch it.
Recommended for Parents: I thought this piece by Eric Geiger – Eight Reasons We Have Delayed (Further) Getting Our Daughters Phones – is worth reading.
FWIW: As Halloween has gotten darker – i.e., as it has transitioned from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown to slasher movies – it has become more popular. It is now officially the number two party night of the year (after NY Eve) and the number two holiday in terms of retail spending.
Closing Prayer: Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and forever. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)