Happy Friday,
We are saved by grace through faith, not of ourselves, it is a gift of God.
Paul, Eph. 2
God knows the worst about us. Indeed, he is more aware of the darkness of our hearts than we are. And yet… when we stand in Christ, he loves us perfectly and completely. Your goal today is to be shaped by his profoundly scandalous, uncommon, counter-intuitive, subject-generated, and eternally significant grace-based love. To the extent that you do that, you will bless others.
It Doesn’t: Years ago, Sheri persuaded me that those wishing me “good luck” were just being nice and didn’t need (or deserve) my lecture on the sovereignty of God. (Note: It takes three years to go to seminary and at least that long to get over the fact that you went.) I’m writing this to let you know that I’ve extended her advice to other things. For instance, if you ever say to me, “It beats the alternative.” As in, “I may have bad knees, weak eyes, and a diet limited to bran cereal, but I’m still kicking. And being here ‘beats the alternative.’” I will not say, “No it doesn’t. If you are in Christ, you are wrong! This is the land of the dying. We are headed to the Land of the Living.” I will think it, but I will not say it. You can thank her.
The Truth: Millions have watched this TikTok video of a Gen Z woman rejecting a marriage proposal after she imagines what lies ahead. Because not everyone is called to be married—and not everyone who wants to be is—I don’t want to push too hard on this, but young people deserve to hear the truth. Study after study shows that married women with children are happier than their single and childless counterparts.
Utah: On a related front, Utah’s economy ranks #1 in the US, and the state also ranks very high in happiness. In this article, sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox argues that it’s not just the state’s “unique civic, religious, and political endowments” that are driving up happiness. It is “the strength and stability of its families.”
Ironic: It’s ironic: 1) that the Bible is stolen more frequently than any other book, and 2) that the McDonald’s employee manual once warned employees against eating McDonald’s fries. It’s less comic – but no less ironic – 1) that many young wish they were older while many old wish they were younger; 2) and that many who used to complain that single young people were having sex are now complaining that they are not. (FWIW, I am not complaining that they are not, but I am concerned that many seem not to want to.) But perhaps the biggest irony is that the sinful people God extends grace to often balk at extending that grace to others.
Quote Worth Requoting: “There have been societies in which people couldn’t trust what the government told them, couldn’t trust what the newspapers told them, couldn’t trust what the inspectors and police would do with them. Those societies collapsed. There is no higher priority for a healthy society than to have a truthful communications and news media.” – Tim Keller.
Without Comment: 1) If you rank US states by adjusted per capita personal income, Washington DC beats them all; 2) If you look across the pond, you realize that the poorest US State—Mississippi— has a higher PCPI than France; 3) In order to fight climate change, college students are willing to give up having children and eating meat, but they are not willing to give up their cell phones; 4) More than 500K people have now died or been wounded in the Ukraine War; 5) 90% of the sermons preached in the US are based on texts from the New Testament; 6) Shake Shack is looking to hire a CAO— as in “a Chief Avocado Officer.” The ideal candidate will be “obsessed with avocados in every single way.”
Resources and Opportunities: Here are a number of opportunities and resources you might be interested in.
- Lakelight Live: Given your response to the Sept. 12th event in Austin, TX, we are holding similar events in Bellingham, WA (Oct. 18), Naples, FL (Nov. 2), and Franklin, TN (Oct. 3). Sign up here.
- Conspiracy Theories: Click here to listen to this week’s podcast, in which I interview Jared Stacy, whose doctoral studies are on Conspiracy Theories.
- The Good Work Summit: Registration is now open for our Oct. 14th conference exploring critical issues in the marketplace. We have an embarrassingly strong lineup of presenters, including Dr. David Miller, who leads the Faith & Work Initiative at Princeton.
- The Exodus: I am excited to finally be starting a new series on Exodus. The first sermon— in which I list the three reasons you need to dig into this book— is here.
Closing Prayer: O Son of God, perform a miracle for me: change my heart. You, whose crimson blood redeems mankind, whiten my heart. It is you who makes the sun bright and the ice sparkle; you who makes the rivers flow and the salmon leap. Your skilled hand made the nut tree blossom, and the corn turn golden; your spirit composed the songs of the birds and the buzz of the bees. Your creation is a million wondrous miracles, beautiful to behold. I ask of you just one more miracle: beautify my soul. Amen. (A Celtic Prayer, c.450–c.700.)