Happy Friday,
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Proverbs
It’s not uncommon to hear that the command “fear the Lord” — which occurs frequently in the Bible, especially in Proverbs — doesn’t really mean fear the Lord. We are told that it means something closer to revere him or hold him in the highest awe. Sorry, but no. Reverence and awe are fine as far as they go, but they do not go far enough. The Hebrew word yir’ah means more than awe. It’s not a “run-away-scared” fear as much as it is a “fall-on-my-face-because-there-is-no-way-I-can-stand-in-His-presence” fear, but it’s fear. I think C.S. Lewis helpfully captures the gist of yir’ah in the dialogue between Jill and Aslan in The Silver Chair. (It is here). I particularly love the spot where Aslan refuses to promise that he will not eat Jill if she comes forward to drink from the stream. BTW, it’s not just that we misunderstand yir’ah; we also underemphasize it, doing so to our demise. Augustine was right. Our life works better when we rightly order our fears and our loves.
Thanks to All Those Who are Pushing: I annually kick off the fall by saying, “Go Bears!” and then noting that September is when a now-retired pastor friend used to go to the nearby train station “to watch something start moving without me needing to push it.” Thanks to all of you who are helping jump-start programs of all types. Your pushing is appreciated.
Homo Sapiens: I recently added a new definition to my collection of secular definitions of humanity. My previous favorites included: 1) Mankind is the temporary pinnacle of the evolutionary process; 2) Humans are the random collision of space, time, and chance; 3) Man is a mammalian bi-ped; and 4) Humans are nothing more than hairless apes. The new definition describes us as “the purposeless coalescing of stellar dust.” As you might imagine, I prefer the biblical framing of humankind to any of these. Being described as “a child of God,” the “imago Dei,” or as “a little lower than the angels” is more affirming than being called “purposeless stellar dust.” But I appreciate more than the memorable phrasing of these secular definitions; I also appreciate their honesty. Most people who deny (or ignore) God are not so clear-minded. They may say we are nothing more than stellar dust but then claim that we are special, worthy of rights, and entitled to lives of meaning. Richard Dawkins is at least consistent when he says there is no meaning, no design, and no good or evil in the universe, just “blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither cares nor knows. DNA just is and we dance to its music.”
Quotes Worth Requoting: 1) “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” J.R.R. Tolkien; 2) “Social media was catastrophic for happiness. . . . There’s a lot of neuroscience behind this, but everybody knows that when you’re bored or you’re lonely and you start looking at your devices and at your phone, you actually get more bored and you get more lonely. This is a huge problem, especially for young adults.” Arthur Brooks, HBR; 3) “Before I married I had three theories about raising children and no children. Now I have three children and no theories.” John Wilmot
Clean Up: My comments about the Amish in last week’s Updateled several Amish-adjacent individuals to ask me why I thought they did not use cell phones. Apparently, they do. I am told that they do not use them very often and that “they do not mindlessly stare at them or any other screens,” but at least some Amish communities have approved them because of their utility. I stand corrected.
Brush Your Teeth: From time to time, I remind you to cultivate gratitude, often citing a new study documenting its many benefits or talking about how amazed I am that simply rehearsing the things I can be thankful for lifts my mood. Today, I’m going to take a different tack. I just heard that “cultivating gratitude” is a basic life maintenance practice — i.e., that it should be as routine as brushing our teeth. I like that, so brush your teeth already!
Perspective: I’m aware that our country faces serious challenges; however, I wish those channeling Chicken Little would step back from the ledge. I get weary hearing some Christians refer to inconveniences as persecution, some progressives claiming parental objections to certain books as Book Bans, and some on the right claiming our courts are descending into Stalinist Show Trials. No. No. And not even close. Let’s not use big words for small things. It not only puts everyone on edge, it makes it hard to describe big things.
WOTW: The fact that half the churches I know are in a sermon series on Exodus — coupled with the number of times I heard the “burners” flight out of the Nevada desert described as an exodus — led me to consider exodus as this week’s WOTW. Given that I started reading Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism, I also considered honoring his term digital decluttering. Finally, in light of the earlier entry, I considered making up the term crisis-inflation and selecting that. But in an effort to accentuate the positive, I’m going with steel-manning instead. Steel-manning — which stands opposite straw-manning — is the term used for “ascribing the strongest possible argument to the other side.” We need more of it. When you are describing a position you disagree with, do your best to describe it in such a way that those affirming it would not only recognize it, they’d say, “Yes, that is what I think and why I think it.” Any fool can channel Chicken Little. The world needs a lot more crisis deflators right now.
Listen Closely: Though many argue we are becoming less religious by the day, I not only see people worshiping their sports teams, I hear them praise the game’s star. I also read writers who ascribe biblical significance to political issues and define sexual identity as sacred. And this week, I listened as someone told me how they were purifying their body — which was a divine temple — by engaging in a fast. Chesterton was right. When we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing; we worship everything.
Without Comment: 1) The size of the average U.S. home has nearly tripled since 1950; 2) Only one in ten Americans give high ratings to the way democracy is working in the U.S.; 3) In “normal times,” 30% of people report being very happy, 15% say they are not happy, and the rest report being in the middle. At the moment, the stats have flipped; 30% are not happy, 15% are very happy, and the rest are in the middle; 4) 4% of Americans are vegetarians, down from 6% in 1999; 1% are vegan, down from 3% in 2018; 5) This story made me smile; 6) According to psychologist Jean Twenge — author of Generations — among high school seniors, 30% of the young women identify as conservative, which is down more than 10% in the last decade; meanwhile, the number of young men who identify as conservative is at an all-time high of 65%.
Resources:
- Lakelight: As I noted last week, Lakelight is hosting two events this fall.
- In Austin (on Sept. 12), Nashville (on Oct. 3), Bellingham (on Oct. 18), Lake Forest (on Oct. 29), and Naples (on Nov. 2), we will be hosting Lakelight Live, where I will speak about ways the news has changed, how these changes are changing us, and what we can do about it. Space is limited. Sign up here.
- On Oct. 14th, we will be staging The Good Work Summit, an exploration of critical marketplace issues. For more information — or to sign up — click here.
- The Press On Podcast: In this week’s podcast, I interview Jeff Brannon, an NT professor at Belhaven University, the host of BABEL, and the author of The Hope of Life After Death: A Biblical Theology of the Resurrection. Jeff and I talk about the resurrection, the importance of framing life in light of eternity, and how Christians need a more robust — and biblical — view of heaven.
Closing Prayer: Be kind to your little children, Lord. Be a gentle teacher, patient with our weakness and stupidity. And give us the strength and discernment to do what you tell us, and so grow in your likeness. May we all live in the peace that comes from you. May we journey towards your city, sailing through the waters of sin untouched by the waves, borne serenely along by the Holy Spirit. Night and day may we give you praise and thanks, because you have shown us that all things belong to you, and all blessings are gifts from you. To you, the essence of wisdom, the foundation of truth, be glory for evermore. Amen (Clement of Alexandria, c.150–c.215)