Happy Friday,
In this world you will have trouble.
Jesus
If this verse was good news, we’d claim it as a promise. Because it’s not, we ignore it when possible. That is unfortunate. For starters, understanding that this broken world is, well, broken, reminds us to set our hearts on things above – i.e., to look not to the things that are seen but to “the eternal weight of glory that is beyond all comparison.” Secondly, Scott Peck was right. Life is difficult and as soon as we accept this it becomes less so. It is those counting on easy who face the biggest challenges.
BTW, You Can’t Hide: This week I read about a retired couple who decided to flee the threat of nuclear war by retreating to the safest place they could find on the planet. The year was 1982. The place they selected was the Falkland Islands.
A Final McCullough Insight: Sheri and I are among the fans of historian David McCullough, who passed away this week at the age of 89. Among the tributes I recently read was a reference to comments he made in a 1992 NYT interview. “People often ask me if I’m working on a book,” he said. “But that’s not how I feel. I feel like I work in a book.” In a related sense, when people ask me what book of the Bible I am reading what I want to say is, “That’s not how it feels. I do not read the book. The Book reads me.”
Happy Birthyear. According to Wikipedia, George Jetson was born in 2022. Given that “his boy Elroy” appears to be about 10 when the show was airing – I’m not about to guess the age of either Jane or Judy – I’m thinking the show was filmed around 2060. That means Elon Musk has less than forty years to build a car that folds up into a briefcase and someone needs to get busy turning the Roomba into a Rosey. BTW, I always thought Barney Rubble was a better actor than either George Jetson or Fred Flintstone and was disappointed that he never got the Oscar he deserved.
Without Comment: 1) Top Gun: Maverick surpassed Titanic to become the highest-grossing domestic film in Paramount’s 110-year history; 2) According to a WAPO piece about America’s teacher shortage, when students return to school this month it might be to a classroom with twice as many kids or with a college student as the instructor; 3) Following the pandemic, single, non-religious young adults are reporting the highest levels of unhappiness since 1972 (among those who attend religious services at least two times a month, unhappiness during the pandemic rose only 4 percent compared to 15 percent for others); 4) More data was collected for social science research in 2015 than all previous years of human history combined; 5) According to Pew, in the 1960s, about 80% of Americans trusted the government to do the right thing “just about always” or “most of the time.” By the 2000s that number was cut in half. By 2017 it was cut in half again. In 2019 it was just 17%. As this graph shows, the tend has not been straight down, but it has been down.
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Advice I’m Willing to Pass On: I get a fair bit of advice about how I might do my job better. Not all of it is worth passing along, but some is. This week I heard two things that bear repeating: 1) Expect less affirmation. It turns out, lots of people are too tired to think about how tired you might be; 2) Be what you hope to see. If you are hoping for grace, kindness and compassion, extend that to others.
WOTW: Given the events of the last couple years, I am tempted to cop an attitude and select banana republic as this week’s word, but I am going with moral injury instead. I first wrote about moral injury several years ago. It’s a term I hear from military chaplains caring for those suffering from PTSD. It pops up in my reading from time and time and when it does it always jumps off the page. I’m selecting it again because I think it is underused.
It Seems to Me That: It seems to me that someone should tell the staff at Colossal – the bioscience and genetic engineering company working to use CRISPR technology to implant woolly mammoth DNA in an Asian Elephant – that they should watch Jurassic Park.
Quotes Requoted: “I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers – and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her fertile fields and boundless forests – and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her rich mines and her vast world commerce – and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution – and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” Alexis de Tocqueville
Fake News: The entry above was a set up. I often run a Quotes Worth Requoting section in the Update. What I listed there was a Quote Requoted. You have likely seen it. After all, it has been cited by many – including Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. But, Tocqueville did not say it. Indeed, he did not come close to believing it. For that matter, neither did any of the founders. They waxed most theological in their writings on humanity, who they understood to be profoundly broken. To be clear, they did not see mankind as evil or consistently bad. They just understood that “the mass of men are neither wise nor good.”
Closing Prayer: O Lord God, Never leave me nor forsake me, but have mercy upon me for your great name’s sake. And not for myself alone do I ask these blessings, but for all the poor and needy, all widows and fatherless children, and for the stranger in distress; and may they call upon you in such manner as to be convinced that you are a prayer-hearer and prayer-answering God; and yours shall be the praise, forever. Amen. (Maria W. Stewart – 1803 – 1879)