Happy Friday,
I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Ephesians 3:16-17
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This week, Rebecca Hacker – who has an MA in Bioethics – is the guest writer for The Friday Update. Rebecca, who previously served on the Christ Church staff for three years, and is married to Dustin (who leads worship at the Lake Forest campus) – is Mom to two young girls.
As you may have heard, Highland Park was the location for a tragic July 4th shooting this week – an horrific event that impacted several dozen people who attend the Christ Church Highland Park campus. In future weeks, Mike will comment on the tragedy.
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My life is currently filled with rocking a baby, changing diapers, and Baby Shark (doo doo doo doo.) Whether we are doing the mundane or the exciting, the necessary or the trivial, the only way to thrive is to be strengthened in our inner being through God’s Spirit.
Without Comment: 1) An FCC Commissioner requested that Apple and Google remove TikTok from their app stores for “its pattern of surreptitious data practices;” 2) Americans consume roughly 150 million hot dogs on the 4th of July; 3) Canada is on track to allow assisted suicide (called medical assistance in dying– “MAiD” in Canada) for mental illness; 4) Wimbledon Finals are later this week and the total prize money is $49.55 million.
The Red, the Blue, and the Tired: In this recent newsletter, David French points out that the “exhausted majority” (borrowing language from this Hidden Tribes report from 2017) makes up two-thirds of Americans who have less animosity towards the “other side” and are more willing for compromise. He argues that the radicalized American might be the loudest, but the exhausted American is looking for friendship and understanding. French calls for the exhausted to be energized. I would call for us to remember where our salvation lies.
Quotes Worth Requoting: 1) It all comes to this: The simplest way to be happy is to do good. – Helen Keller; 2) May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right. – Peter Marshall; 3) I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them. – Mark Twain. After driving to my home state of Georgia this past week with kids in tow, I have to agree with Twain.
What’re You Selling?: You don’t have to look far to see that social media addiction has become a crisis. Paul Poteat, Midwest Network Director of Campus Outreach, reminds college students that “[social media] is selling you. You are the product. And they’re selling you to companies that will solicit your interest and your consumption.” An important reminder to all of us who are engaged with social media. And for the record, I see an alarming number of friends and fellow parents looking to Instagram influencers and “experts” as their primary source for parenting advice.
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WOTW: Sittervise– To supervise your children from a seated position without intervening. Speaking of influencers, the parenting influencer @busytoddler with 1.8 million followers coined the term and it’s one I try to do as often as possible with my two-year-old.
John Marshall Harlan: My parents are reading a biography of John Marshall Harlan who was the only Justice of the Supreme Court who dissented in the Plessy v. Ferguson case. (They would recommend it, The Great Dissenter.) Harlan argued that separate but equal was not equal. In his dissent, he stated that in the eyes of the law, “the humblest is the peer of the most powerful.”
Power: It’s worth noting that the “powerful” Chief Justice Harlan mentions is a power of self-promotion. The power that Paul prays for in Ephesians 3 is a power that gives us strength to submit to Christ and understand his love.
Prayer/Hymn: Maybe it’s that my husband is a worship pastor or maybe it’s my Baptist upbringing, but this hymn has brought me great comfort in recent days. He doesn’t change and his compassions never fail.
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!