The Friday Update - 30M

Happy Friday,

Sometimes waves stack up. Problems compound. Life stops working and we start drowning. What to do? For starters, we must remind ourselves that the waters are not random. The Psalmist labels them, “your waves,” reminding himself that they do not lie outside God’s reach or rule. Secondly, we let deep waters do the deep work we need done in the deep places of our soul. Our fears, questions, griefs and doubts are often the vehicle God leverages to conform us in the image of His Son. 

Without Comment

1) The NYT is reporting that GLP1-related weight loss will save the 4 biggest US airlines $580M in jet fuel costs this year.

2) Few areas of modern life have changed more in the last 50 years than the amount of time fathers spend with their children. Boomer dads spent 2x as much time with their children as their fathers spent with them, but only half as much as their sons will spend with their own children.

3) Anthropic's growth makes it possibly the fastest-growing business in the history of capitalism.

4) 30% of Americans between 18 and 29 say it’s sometimes OK to use violence to achieve political goals.

5) The near record high US home-price-versus-income-ratio is making it very hard for today’s young to secure a home.

6) The Guardian reports that 422 new U.S. independent bookstore opened in 2025, a 31% increase from 2024.

7) Per this Fortune report, based on the GSS, Americans are more unhappy today than at any time since the survey began 50 years ago.

8) This study confirms what many have felt, for the first time in decades, US church attendance in up.

RIP Spirit 

I have no comment on the failed government bailout of Spirit Airlines, other than to say it was truly a wild ride—every time. RIP.

A Preview of Coming Attractions Challenges:

AI disruption, escalating debt, demographic decline, and geopolitical instability make long-range forecasting difficult. But some trends are not hard to see. The world is aging, and aging societies face predictable pressures: pension strain, rising health-care costs, labor shortages, and slower economic growth. Consider the shift. In 1976, the median age in the U.S. was 28. Today it’s 39. And we are not alone: Japan (28/49), Germany (34/46), Italy (32/48), the U.K. (33/41), France (32/42), China (21/40), and South Korea (21/45) have all aged dramatically. Even emerging economies like Brazil (20/34) are growing older. Only a few countries, mostly in Africa (e.g., Nigeria 17/18), remain young.

WOTW

Honorable mention goes to monotasking (in a world of multitasking zaniness, focusing on one thing at a time now qualifies as a spiritual discipline); rich face (i.e., one stretched taut, incapable of varied expressions and often plumped with filler or implants); ancestor annihilation (Louise Perry’s phrase for the West’s growing habit of not just ignoring its past, but repudiating it), and Islamo-Christian (a description being proffered by those increasingly dismissive of all things Jewish and increasingly positive of many things Muslim). Full honors go to viewbots (AI generated accounts set up to game the algorithm and juice the metrics on certain articles, podcasts, videos, etc.). 

30M

In unrelated news, I’m glad to report that The Friday Update recently surpassed 30 million subscribers. My Mom is very proud. 

TS as Public Theologian

In 1910, G. K. Chesterton responded to a London Times request for an essay on, “what is wrong with the world?,” with a terse reply: “Dear Sirs, I am. Respectfully, G. K. Chesterton.” In 2022, Taylor Swift channeled her inner GKC with lyrics announcing, “It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem. It’s me.” Yes to both. And may we all move through the day with greater awareness that the brokenness we lament “out there” also resides in us. 

Quotes

1) “The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.” — Elizabeth Elliot

2) “I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline.” — Duke Ellington

3) “Christianity is fundamentally a proposition about reality. It’s a story about God’s entrance into history, and its truth does not depend on my feelings on any given day.” — Molly Worthen

4) “Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.” — Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov

Worth Noting

Discussions about meaning have become their own genre. Joining Miroslav Volf’s A Life Worth Living and David Brooks’ “second mountain” reflections are new titles by: Arthur Brooks, The Meaning of Your Life, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, How to Live a Meaningful Life; Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s The Mattering Instinct, and Andy Crouch’s The Life We’re Looking For. Apparently, after decades focused on how to make a living, the West is circling back to ask what makes life worth living.

Resources

1) Calling all who live in the Chicagoland area, Lakelight is hosting NYT best-selling author Andy Crouch for a talk on "Pursuing A Tech-Wise Life." The event is in-person only. You can register here. 

2) Click here to hear the final sermon I gave on Revelation. It’s part fly over of the whole book, part focus on heaven and part reminder that these “light momentary afflictions” are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory. Life is short. Eternity is not. Opportunity is now. 

Closing Prayer

"Lord, I bring the poverty of my soul to be transformed by your beauty; the wildness of my passions to be tamed by your love; the stubbornness of my will to be conformed by your commandments and the yearnings of my heart to be renewed by your grace; both now and forever more. Amen.” (Catherine of Genoa - 1447-1510)