Happy Friday,
“You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.”
Samuel
1 Samuel 12:20b
Many ancient religions and many modern people end the sentence after “you have done all this evil.” But God regards our failures as only a semicolon. Did you fall short this week? Are you carrying any guilt? “Do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.”
From Rags to Riches: Two hundred and ten days ago, in this very newsletter, I (Glenn Wishnew) pleaded with you to subscribe to Lakelight Monthly because your subscription “could help me buy a house someday.” Today, the moving trucks are ready, and the Wishnew family is closing on our first home. In the words of athletes all around the world, I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ—as well as the entire TFU community.
Without Comment: 1) A new study indicates that men value romantic relationships more than women and suffer greater consequences from breakups; 2) Per this report, a job change creates about a third as much stress as the death of a spouse, half as much as divorce, and about the same amount as the death of a close friend; 3) A RescueTime study of 185 million working hours reveals that the average employee checks communications every 6 minutes at work and spends 21% of clocked-in hours browsing entertainment and social media; 4) According to a 2023 study, the professions with the highest average IQ are Physical Scientists, Solicitors, and Air Traffic Controllers; and 5) In the USA, about 40% of kids are born to unmarried mothers.
Why?: TFU is known for sharing excellent content. But in the interests of making a broader point about our informational ecosystem (and adding some humor, to be honest), I’m going to highlight a few articles that didn’t need to be written. 1) “My Friend’s Instagram Account Has Taken a Dark Turn” – ooooo interesting!! 2) “Heart Attacks Rise During the Super Bowl. You Can Take Precautions.” – the precautions are: “moving around and avoiding binge eating and drinking.” Who knew?! 3) “Ozempic Slimming Can Make Skin Sag. Enter the $20,000 ‘Body Lift.’” – ahh, yes, thank you. I almost forgot about the extra 20 grand I have lying around to make sure my skin is nice and tight after my ‘Ozempic Slimming.’
Quotes Worth Requoting: 1) “The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.” – Thomas Merton 2) “Never confuse motion with action.” – Benjamin Franklin
Cold Sweats: “I wake up in cold sweats every so often thinking: What did we bring to the world?” – Tony Fadell, co-developer of the iPhone. It’s easy to disparage Tony and his buddies for our digital hellscape (I do it regularly, and my wife loves it). But let’s take the log out of our own eyes here and ask ourselves: what challenge am I avoiding today that may cause a late-night cold sweat 10 years from now?
Ross Douthat Wants You to Believe in God: The NYT columnist’s newest book, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious, makes the strongest case against strict metaphysical naturalism that I have ever read. If your eyes glazed over the previous sentence, here’s the gist: over 300 years of skepticism toward religious miracles and 200 years of scientific advances have conjured 1) an increase in the share of Americans reporting supernatural experiences over the last 100 years, 2) a universe governed by physical laws so finely tuned for biological life that the probability it could have happened by chance is 10 X 10^120’, and 3) a subjective ‘consciousness’ problem for naturalists that becomes more vexing as we learn more about how the brain actually works.
‘A Small and Passing Thing’: As the late pastor Tim Keller was lying down on the operating table before a life-threatening surgery, he found comfort in this passage from The Lord of the Rings: “For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach.” If you are in darkness right now, remember that the resurrection of Jesus means every shadow is ultimately a small and passing thing. There’s light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. Or, as my pastor likes to say, eternity changes everything.
Mike Woodruff Advertisements: After he spends this week meditating on the top of the Himalayan Mountains, Mike will be in Denver on Feb. 24 to speak on C.S. Lewis at Cherry Hill Church. Then, he heads south to North Carolina, where he will preach at Lake Norman Church (Charlotte, NC) on March 16 and at Corinth Reformed Church (Hickory, NC) on March 23 before he delivers a lecture on C.S. Lewis at Corinth Reformed Church that evening. Finally, if you’re still reading this (God bless you), you can purchase Mike’s newest book, On The News, here. (Note: Mike and Sheri are actually not in the Himalayas this week).
Prayer: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven, Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one (Jesus, 4 BC-33 AD)