Happy Friday,
“Pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments because you know they produce controversy.”
The Apostle Paul, 2 Timothy
Here is some earthy, realistic advice from Paul. Lots of noise out there, lots of foolishness and stupidity—ignore it. Your personal character > the outside chaos. How can you pursue faith, love, and peace today?
Kamala For Biden: My name is Glenn Wishnew, and I’m filling in for Mike this week. I work for both the Lakelight Institute and North Star Classical Christian School. The last time I guest wrote for The Friday Update, I anointed myself the ascending Brady and Mike the declining Bledsoe. This time, it appears God, in His providence, supplied the apt metaphor.
Name That Generation Quiz: Your answers to the following questions include: Silents (ages 79-99), Boomers (60-78), Gen X (44-59), Millennials (28-43), and Gen Z (12-27): 1) Which generation gave us self-help books? 2) 6 out of 10 people in this generation believe that America is not “a fair society where everyone can get ahead.” 3) This generation was the last one where a majority of the public watched the same shows and listened to the same music. 4) 70% of 18-year-olds in this generation believed they would be a top 20% performer in their jobs.
The Answers: 1) Boomers. Case in point: My mom made me read Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People when I was 11 years old. 2) My people, Gen Z! The world is wrong. We are right. 3) Gen X —the pop culture lovers. No, I don’t remember Jim Carrey on SNL. Sorry, I wasn’t alive at the time. 4) Millennials, obviously. (BTW, all this is from Jean Twenge’s excellent book Generations.) (Sorry for leaving you out, Silents, but I don’t believe in participation trophies—I’m not a Millennial.)
Something I Can’t Stop Thinking About: “Let us consider our relationship to our own body… We climb on to the scale: we should lose weight. We look into the mirror: we must get rid of that pimple, those wrinkles. We take our blood pressure: it should be lower. We track our steps: we should walk more. Our insulin level, our bustline: we invariably encounter such things as a challenge to do better, even if it is a challenge we can ignore or reject.” – Hartmut Rosa, The Uncontrollability of The World
Quote Worth Requoting: “The game of life is hard, and a lot of us are playing hurt.” – Anne Lamont
It Seems 2 People Much Smarter than Me (& me too, tbh): 1) Democracy presupposes a society that believes in the existence of truth, a meaning and purpose for history, and the capacity of citizens to shape it. (James Davison Hunter, Democracy and Solidarity); 2) The Left de-regulated the culture. The Right de-regulated the market. The burden now falls on individuals to self-regulate. “Some indication of how well we are bearing this burden can be found in the fact that we are now very fat, very much in debt, and very prone to divorce.” (Matthew B. Crawford, The World Beyond Your Head)
Without Comment: 1) According to this piece, 45 percent of young adults (18 to 29) live with their parents; 2) Per this report, there is a greater gender imbalance in college degrees awarded today than in 1972 when Title IX was first legislated. However, it is in the other direction; 3) From the same source, among 18–29-year-olds, Black women are more likely than White men to have graduated from high school, be enrolled in college, and hold a post-graduate degree.
A Parable About the Press: “The conduct of the Republican party in this nomination is a remarkable indication of a small intellect, growing smaller. They pass over…statesmen and able men, and they take up a fourth-rate lecturer, who cannot speak good grammar.”The New York Herald (May 19, 1860) commenting on Abraham Lincoln’s nomination for president at the Republican National Convention. If you’re curious about how the media has changed over time, Mike has a book on the media coming out in the fall. Stay tuned.
A Tale of Two Worldviews: Friedrich Nietzsche said, “What is good? Everything that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself.” Meanwhile, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” It’s worth asking, which one of those worldviews is guiding me today?
What’s Ahead > What’s Behind: George Sayer spent much of his life studying and writing about C.S. Lewis. He read the Narnia stories with his daughter, who, after finishing them all, wept bitterly and said, “I don’t want to go on living in this world. I want to live in Narnia with Aslan.” Sayer replied, “Darling, one day you will.”
Resources: If you’re in favor of thoughtful Christian content, you should subscribe to Lakelight’s monthly newsletter which drops tomorrow. Your willingness to receive an email from Lakelight once a month could help me buy a house someday.
Closing Prayer: “Lord, I have a heart that continually inclines me to sin, and I’m spiritually powerless to change one bit of it without your supernatural help. How can I feel superior to anyone at all? Remind me of that—and of your amazing love for me—all throughout the day. Amen.” (Timothy Keller, 1950-2023).