Happy Friday
Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah,
the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing on the throne…
John, Revelation 5
If our savior were a superhero, super-heroish things would be expected of us. But the magisterial Lion who opened the scroll was a Lamb who had been slain. Superhero hijinks are not required. Adoration of the Lamb and selfless sacrifice are what is needed.
Quitters’ Day: Given how many people quickly bail on their resolutions, the second Friday in January is now dubbed “Quitters’ Day.” If you’re still frequenting the gym—or are current with your read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year” plan—don’t quit. But if you bailed, start over. Today, I celebrated one-day-in-a-row of doing pushups.
WOTW: Honorable mention goes to skibidi (which means “cool,” “bad,” or “dumb” depending on the context. When I asked one of my Millennial sons if I could say, “I’m too skibidi to use skibidi,” he said, “that’s Gen Alpha slang. Don’t ask me.” Given that he can’t use it, I’m going to treat it like skinny jeans and keep far away), stammtish (a German word for informal gatherings—often around a meal—which are spiking as Germans seek community), and Tokenization (the process of creating digital representations of real-world assets on a blockchain). Some claim Tokenization is the next really, really, really big thing. We’ll see. I was drawn to the word because I thought it was Tolkenization—i.e., something linking JRR and The Lord of the Rings to crypto). Full honors go to deformation professionale (a French term for the maladies common to a profession), e.g., physicians grow callus to pain, lawyers grow cynical of the courts, and pastors professionalize their relationship with God.
RIP: Last week, we noted the passing of 2024 and Jimmy Carter. This week, I’m mourning the passing of D1 Football. This is not a lament over the end of the season. (The big game is still ten days away.) I’m noting that between online betting, NIL deals, the trade portal, and conference realignments, what I used to enjoy is gone.
Quotes Worth Requoting: 1) Those who only know one country know no country. Seymour Martin Lipset; 2) The acceleration of disintegration is breathtaking. Paul Maurer; and 3) Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter. DL Moody
Without Comment: 1) Per this report, teen drug and alcohol use is declining; 2) Per this report, Barnes and Noble has stopped closing stores and started opening new ones; 3) Per this report, nearly 1/3 of Evangelicals did not donate to a church or charity last year; 4) Per this article, only 20% of the US’s 350K churches are growing, and only 30% of those are growing via conversion; 5) Per this UK House of Commons report, Christianity is again the most persecuted religion in the world; 6) Per this report, Mohammad, which was the #1 boys name in London last year, tied with Mike as one of the top ten names for boys born in NYC in ’23; 7) Per this report, the Orthodox Church is seeing an uptick in attendance of young men; and 8) Do note that Generation A is “so last year.” Babies born in 2025—as our recently born second granddaughter was!—are Gen Beta.
Persecution in Perspective: Given the note about the spike in the persecution of Christians, it seems prudent to note that while some US Christians are claiming to be persecuted, we’re not living in ancient Rome or present-day North Korea. With few exceptions, the hassles we face are hassles (or marginalization or loss of power). They do not rise to the level of persecution.
The All In Podcast: Last year, I started listening to four self-made Silicon Valley gazillionaires banter about science, tech, and business. Their program—which occasionally includes long-form interviews with people like Musk, Altman, Dalio, Trump, and Sandberg and which now claims one of the country’s largest podcast audiences—is sometimes fun, sometimes crude, often clever, and generally fascinating. (It turns out I don’t think like—or nearly as fast—as any of the four “besties” who host the show.) But having logged 10 episodes, I want to note that their show is thin. I do not want to be critical, but I’m left wanting engagement, history, beauty, and something transcendent. I feel like I am listening to the best and brightest of those who are Masters of the last ten minutes but for whom long-term thinking is next year, not eternity.
Nicaea @ 1,700: In honor of the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed—and with an effort to better understand Western culture and this moment—I will be leading a Lakelight tour of Constantinople next October. Details are here.
Miscellany: 1) Evangelicals are using words like wonder, mystery, awe, and transcendent more than ten years ago. I sure am; 2) This WSJ piece is another in the legion of articles noting that many thirty-something males are failing to adult (or—to parrot C.S. Lewis—are becoming “men without chests”); and 3) We need to remember that just because there are no easy answers doesn’t mean there aren’t simple ones.
Closing Prayer: Dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I hold up all my weakness to your strength, my failure to your faithfulness, my sinfulness to your perfection, my loneliness to your compassion, my little pains to your great agony on the Cross. I pray that you will cleanse me, strengthen me, and hide me, so that, in all ways, my life may be lived as you would have it lived, without cowardice and for you alone. Amen (Mother Janet Stuart, 1857 – 1914)