Happy Friday,
If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 24:15
For Better or Worse, I’m Back: I spent the last month working on a book, outlining sermons for ’23 and wrestling with a few other projects. While I was out I discovered that I enjoy reading The Friday Update more than I enjoy writing it, so expect me to tap guest writers from time-to-time. Speaking of guest writers, those of you asking who identified last week’s Jason Woodruff as “Mike’s youngest (and best-looking) son” – that was Jason. His brothers admit to calling him “the Princess,” but insist it has nothing to do with his appearance.
Chart of the Century: I’m a sucker for Mark Perry’s charts. Marketwatch hailed this one as “one of his most important.”
Without Comment: 1) Ten years ago 3% of US citizens consumed no news in a given week; today the number is 15%; 2) In 2021, 56% of Republicans agreed that “the traditional way of American life was disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to stop it;” 3) Prager University – “the world’s leading conservative nonprofit that is focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media” – now has a $28M annual budget and has downloaded 5B lectures; 4) In 2009, a quarter of American high school students said they had “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.” Last year the number was 44 percent, “the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded;” 5) Rihanna’s net worth now exceeds $1.4B, making her America’s youngest self-made female billionaire; 6) The UN believes the global population will hit 8B by the end of 2022, and that India will surpass China as the most populous country in the world; 7) During the Reagan administration a study on hunger in the US revealed that while there was not any hunger, there was malnutrition and obesity; 8) More than 1 million people picked up pickleball during the Pandemic, bringing the “total number of pickleheads in the United States” to 5 million; 9) Tonight’s Mega Millions drawing is expected to top $1B. Your odds of winning with a single ticket are one in 300M, which are about the same as everyone paying off their student loans.
A First World Problem: I’m as guilty as most of complaining about the speed of life, but it’s worth noting that it’s a rich person’s complaint. Our perception of the pace of life increases largely (not exclusively, but largely) as our standard of living climbs. The more money we have, the more options we have, and the more options we have, the more we feel the pinch of time. The woman who lives in abject poverty doesn’t fret because she can’t fit a pickleball game between her Zoom meeting and her need to pick her kids up after soccer practice. She has only one objective for the day: feed her children. Time doesn’t race for her, it crawls.
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Quotes Worth Requoting: Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes; The rest sit ’round it and pluck blackberries. Elizabeth Barrett Browning; 2) Christianity is not the sacrifice we make, but the sacrifice we trust; not the victory we win, but the victory we inherit. P.T. Forsyth
Word of the Week: Several years ago the word None was coined to describe those with no religious faith. I considered it for this week’s WOTW after seeing it used to describe the growing number of those who are not married, do not attend church and do not consume any news. I am going with failed joiner instead. This is the term David Brooks used when describing the young men who commit horror such as the July 4th shooting in Highland Park. Brooks argues that it’s wrong to think of them as “loners.” They are “failed joiners.”
Marriage Advice: Here’s a 2-1/2 minute clip of the findings of the National Marriage Project. Though many contend that 21–25year-olds are not mature enough for lifetime commitments – and that living together first is a good test run of whether the relationship will endure – those who marry young without living together first have the lowest odds of divorce in America today.
Closing Prayer: O God the Holy Spirit, most loving Comforter of the fainthearted, I pray that you will always turn what is evil in me into good and what is good into what is better; turn my mourning into joy, my wandering feet into the right path, my ignorance into knowledge of your truth, my lukewarmness into zeal, my fear into love, all my material good into a spiritual gift, all my earthly desires into heavenly desires, all that is transient into what lasts forever, everything human into what is divine, everything created and finite into that sovereign and immeasurable good, which you yourself are, O my God and Savior. Amen. (Thomas à Kempis – 1380 – 1471)