Happy Friday,
I try to please everyone in everything I do.
Paul, I Corinthians 10:33
In these confusing and contentious times, the path forward is often both elusive and challenging — i.e., simple solutions seldom are. (If a plan is simple, it’s not a solution. And if it’s a solution, it’s not simple.) That said, Paul provides some handles: when facing a choice between pleasing God and pleasing others, please God. When facing a choice between pleasing others and pleasing ourselves, please others.
A Good Week: I spent the last two days attending an event designed to encourage NFP leaders. It worked. I showed up weary and left buoyed. Yes, the world is still a mess. Yes, our politics remain broken. Yes, way too many people are angry and anxious. (And if the next Lincoln/Mandela/Churchill is out there, I’ve yet to meet him or her.) But take heart. There are lots of thoughtful and faithful people working to make things better, including a number of younger leaders who are hungry, humble, and smart. And most of all, God is bigger than the challenges we face. Indeed, many of the challenges we face can be recast as opportunities to reflect the love and grace of Christ.
Quote Worth Requoting: “The way we understand human life depends on what conception we have of the human story. What is the real story of which my life story is part?” Lesslie Newbigin
It’s Official: Last week, I turned on the Vikings/Broncos game just in time to hear Mike Tirico introduce “the Sunday Night Anthem.” He was referring to Carrie Underwood’s “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” — for which she reportedly makes one million dollars per week. I think Tirico just made it official. If we are going to refer to Underwood’s rehash of a Joan Jett song as an “anthem,” there is no reason to object to the claim that the largest worship services are held at churches named after fields — i.e., Soldier, Lambeau, etc.
Two More Football Comments: 1) Just like many other large churches, the NFL needs to get more people involved. Right now, they have tens of thousands of people desperately in need of exercise, watching a handful of people desperately in need of rest. 2) My wife is right. It’s no longer amazing how young the players look. What’s amazing is how young the coaches are.
IS2M: 1) If it’s true that we can measure the health of a society by how it channels and stewards the passions of its young men, we are in more trouble than we realize; 2) Yuval Levin is right to suggest that one of the reasons trust in institutions is down is because they are trying to do too much. We need schools, government agencies, corporations, the press, etc., to stay in their lane; 3) We can divide the news into two sections: reports suggesting that we are leaving our children a really messed up world and reports suggesting that we are leaving the world our really messed up children; 4) The next time we hear about hot professions, PTSD studies and cybersecurity will be close to the top; and 5) We might have predicted that the children who were parented by people reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People would end up reading The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
WOTW: Given the recent election of candidates the WSJ calls “far-right,” I thought about going with anarcho-capitalism. But given the confusion of the season, I’m going with Advent. FWIW, advent — which means “arrival” or “an appearing or coming into place” — is the four Sundays leading up to a commemoration of Christ’s first coming and an anticipation of His return and is supposed to be a somber, reflective time. Furthermore, even though Christmas trees show up at Costco in September and Christmas music starts playing on the radio on November 1st, Christmas does not officially begin until Christmas Eve and then continues for 12 days. (If you’d like to download an Advent that my friend Paul wrote, you can access it here.)
2 WOTW Adjacents: 1) Last week, I gave honorable mention to mental fog but failed to note the possible link between its spike and the growing number of states legalizing recreational marijuana; 2) You have until December 16 to submit WOTY nominations. The winner will be announced by Warren Buffet, Taylor Swift, Patrick Mahomes, and António Guterres at the annual Friday Update New Year’s Eve Gala (sorry, it’s already sold out again). BTW, SBF now sends his regrets.
Without Comment: 1) According to this USA Today study, 65% of 22- to 40-year-olds receive financial aid from their parents. The average amount is $718/month; 2) Frustrated by the work habits of real models, a Spanish agency created an AI-generated model. Aitana Lopez — who now has 128K Instagram followers and makes over $10K per month — apparently never cops an attitude; 3) According to this Deloitte survey, GenZers are more likely to fall prey to phishing, identity theft, romance scams, and cyberbullying than their parents; 4) Speaking of Zers — who are currently b/w 11 and 27 years of age — the average one living in the US receives 237 notifications a day, with some getting as many as 5,000; and 5) There are over 400M guns in the US, with US citizens buying 60M guns during COVID.
Resources: During the 90s, the college ministry I was involved with regularly sent 50-60 students to South Central Los Angles to work through the ministries of the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church. Their pastor — the late Dr. E.V. Hill — was a gifted leader and preacher. Every few years, I relisten to the sermon he preached at his wife’s funeral. It’s hard to describe — and harder to forget. You can access part one here and part two here.
Closing Prayer: Let your love so warm our souls, O Lord, that we may gladly surrender ourselves with all we are and have unto you. Let your love fall as fire from heaven upon the altar of our hearts; teach us to guard it heedfully by continual devotion and quietness of mind, and to cherish with anxious care every spark of its holy flame, with which your good Spirit would quicken us, so that neither height, nor depth, things present, nor things to come, may ever separate us therefrom. Strengthen our souls, animate our cold hearts with your warmth and tenderness, that we may no more live as in a dream, but walk before you as pilgrims in earnest to reach their home. And grant us all at last to meet with your holy saints before your throne, and there rejoice in your love. Amen. (Gerhard Tersteegen, 1697 – 1769)