Happy Friday
I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.
Joseph, Genesis 40:15
It’s worth noting what Joseph does not say. More than a decade after he had been sold into slavery, Joseph — the once and future cup-bearer to the King — did not tell his fellow prisoner that it was his own brothers who’d turned on him. Was he too embarrassed? Too traumatized? Did the wound run so deep that he had yet to fully face it? In both life and Bible study, we do well to make note of what is not being said.
In Praise of Hypocrisy: A few weeks ago, I noted that morality had given way to immorality, which had subsequently slid towards amorality with occasional dalliances of anti-morality. One reader responded in praise of hypocrisy. “Oh, for the days, when people hid their duplicity because they knew it was wrong, instead of celebrating it as some act of courage and self-definition.”
Two Things: I’m still thinking about two things from last week when I attended an event designed “to encourage those working to advance the common good.” The first was seeing Jon Ferguson, the lead singer/songwriter for Switchfoot, helping the hotel staff. (I did not expect a platinum-selling rock star to notice the needs of the hourly employees.) The second was the life of Emel, my Uber driver, who spends most of her days attending to the needs of her severely autistic, 6-year-old son Calvin. Emel — who was driving me home at midnight — moonlights so she and her husband can afford additional care for Calvin. God bless moms (and dads) like Emel.
Two Things About the Two Things: 1) One of the reasons we need strong families is because we cannot find — nor could we afford if we could find them — government employees who will love Calvin like Emel does; 2) If you want to see Jon Ferguson in action, this is Switchfoot’s best-selling song and this is my favorite.
In Case You Missed It: 1) The energy drink Celsius is way cool, and you can impress important people if you drink it, and 2) the word impactful is no longer impactful.
Clean Up: 1) I employ abbreviations (e.g., WOTW, IS2M, etc.) to keep the Update short, to keep you guessing, and to make you feel smart when you crack the code. Last week’s use of NFP was an exception. In my world, NFP means Not For Profit. I mean, duh. Isn’t that OBVIOUS? And what else could it mean? My apologies to those of you for whom it means Natural Family Planning, Not for Publication, No Flash Photography, or Non-Flying Pilot. 2) Several wrote to thank me for forwarding EV Hill’s eulogy for his wife. It’s not too late for you to listen to it. Part one is here, and part two is here.
FWIW: Ayaan Hirsi Ali — a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institute and a former senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School — recently joined the growing number of public intellectuals announcing their allegiance to Christ. As you might expect, I’m thrilled. However, as this piece articulates, Ali and others like her seem to be endorsing Jesus as a way of advocating Western liberalism over Nihilism and radical Islam more than embracing him in a more traditional manner — i.e., as Savior and Lord. I may be wrong, or Ali may grow in her awareness of why we should follow Jesus. I simply raise it because it seems to be a growing trend.
Reindeer Tribe: Brad Coleman (who is frequently confused for Jon Ferguson at the Highland Park campus) recently joined his Reindeer Tribe friends (all of whom drink Celsius) to record new Christmas music. This year’s songs are not yet out, but here is a video from last year, and here and here are links to two songs Ferguson — I mean Coleman — wrote.
Without Comment: 1) The wealthier a man is, the more likely he is to be married and have children. Meanwhile, the wealthier a woman is, the less likely she is to be married or be a mother; 2) The biggest predictor of the educational attainment of children is the educational attainment of their parents; 3) After two years of decline, US life expectancy climbed from 76.4 in 2021 to 77.5; 4) According to the CDC, a record high49,449 people died by suicide in the US last year. The spike was most pronounced among older Americans;5)According to this report,Home Alone now edges out both A Christmas Story and A Charlie Brown Christmas as the most rewatched Christmas classic; 6)Kraft now offers a vegan mac & cheese, which I think means their new mac and cheese has no cheese; 7) The median age of home buyers has climbed from 31 in ‘81 to 53 in ’23; 8) Business Insider notes that a Cheesecake Factory is a sign of a mall’s financial health — i.e., where you find “The Factory,” you find a strong bottom line. (Note: This may be the only place where The Cheesecake Factory and health are used in the same sentence.); and 9) According to the Yale Daily News, 78.9% of grades given to Yale students in the 2022-23 school year were an A or A-.
HDYK: My book How Do You Know — which explores how to navigate competing truth claims of our day — will be officially released in January; however, copies are immediately available to anyone who makes a year-end gift to Lakelight Institute. (Lakelight is the 501C3 that Christ Church founded to bring timeless wisdom to the challenges of modern life.) To make a donation and receive my book, click here. Please note: 1) Orders received by Dec 13th will arrive in time for Christmas; 2) Lakelight is providing a gift copy to anyone who attends a Christ Church service this weekend.
WOTW: Honorable mention goes to orthosomnia (the “obsessive pursuit of optimal sleep metrics”) and Malibu Marxist (a term applied to wealthy elites who advocate communism — i.e., most US econ professors). Full honors go to budget dust, an inside-the-beltway term used to refer to small amounts of money — i.e., around one hundred billion. Reminder: December 16th is the deadline for WOTY nominations. (Note: the dictionaries have mostly weighed in: Webster’s selected authentic, Cambridge hallucination, and Oxford rizz.)
Closing Prayer: Grant Lord, we ask you, that we may learn to have our hopes and fears, our joys and sorrows, all grounded on your holy Word, that we may learn to love what you love and hate what you hate. Amen. (William Wilberforce, 1780 – 1825)