The Friday Update - A Long Time

Happy Friday,

This broken world provides reasons for our hearts to be unsettled. But we must not simply sit in our melancholy. Despair is a sin. Hope is a virtue. The path ahead does not involve burying the sadness, but fighting for the bigger picture. Paul’s advice here is critical. We are to set our minds on things above. There is much about God’s plans that we cannot understand. But we must not doubt his love. He sent his Son. This ends well. God wins. Jesus prevails. Our setbacks are temporary. Eternity changes everything.

For-GIVE-ing > For-GET-ing

We’re told to forgive those who wrong us because holding a grudge hurts us — it’s like “drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.” Yes, but no. We do win when we stop dreaming of revenge, but God invites us “further up and further in.” In Steps: A Guide to Transforming Your Life When Willpower Isn’t Enough, John Ortberg cites research noting that those whose forgive for the benefit of the other — not simply so they feel better — reach the deepest peace. (BTW, he talks more about this in my interview with him on Beneath The Headlines.)

Quotes Worth Requoting

1) “The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

2) “Life is all about perspective. The sinking of the Titanic was a miracle to the lobsters in the ship's kitchen.” - Wynne McLaughlin

3) “When I look at myself, I don’t see how I can be saved. When I look at Christ, I don’t see how I can be lost.” - Martin Luther

Without Comment

1) Between 1995 to 2022, the THC content in cannabis increased 307%. According to this report, frequent cannabis users are now 11X more likely to develop a psychotic disorder than the general population.

2) More than 60% of US adults take at least one pharmaceutical drug, and 27% take 4 or more according to this research.

3) Per this report, depression is more contagious than happiness, and female friends spread it more efficiently than male friends.

4) The American actor David Michael Hasselhoff — AKA "The Hoff"— holds the Guinness World Record as the most-watched man on TV.

5) Per this WSJ report, 19 individuals gained $1 trillion in wealth in 2024 — more than the value of Switzerland’s entire economy.

It’s Been a Long Time

While recovering from a serious medical issue 11 years ago, I asked my physical therapist if it would be okay for me to try running at the beach. “That way,” I said, “if I fall, it will be in the sand and I won’t get hurt.” She looked at me silently for a while and then said, “Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve heard an idea that stupid.” Well, in the Washington Post this week, the term marriage sabbatical showed up. It’s clearly designed to sound more thoughtful and mature than “hall pass.” But wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve heard an idea that stupid.

Spring in Chicago

I appreciate all four seasons, but spring in Chicago is my favorite day of the year.

Overheard

1) When Americans are asked, “what unites us across our differences?” The increasingly common answer is: nothing.

2) The genealogies of Matthew 1 and Luke 3 suggest that God is playing the long game.

3) Physiologically, stress and fear are basically the same, but we're far more comfortable saying “I'm stressed” than “I’m scared.”

4) The culture wars are not sustainable nor winnable. The future belongs to those who transcend them.

5) Individualism has played out on both the left and right. Young people are now rebelling by going hard into tradition. Trad is the new punk.

6) This is a moment of high spiritual openness but low institutional trust.

WOTW

Honorable mention goes to coolcations (vacations in cooler climes), toxic uncertainty (an old term now showing up in discussions about tariffs), LARPer (previously short hand for Live Action Role-Player, now a Gen Z term for loser), and tradcaths (traditional Catholics, especially those who are young — think 25 year old married Catholics attending Latin Mass). Full honors go to semiquincentennial (a term that literally means “half of five hundred years”). Expect to see more of it as the United States approaches its 250^th B-day in 2026.

Much Appreciated

I enjoyed this Washington Post op-ed by former Indiana governor and Purdue President Mitch Daniels. It draws a clever link between the cries of despair found in the Book of Lamentations and modern faculty lounges. We need more leadership and insight from wise, calm, grown-ups.

Resources

1) Click here to read an op-ed I wrote for last Sunday’s Chicago Tribune on the resurrection.

2) Click here to listen to last Sunday’s Easter sermon — also on the resurrection (go figure).

3) Click here to register for my May 4^th lecture on C.S. Lewis in Tacoma, WA, or here to register for the same talk on May 5^th in Bellingham, WA.

Closing Prayer

Grant us, O Lord, to know that which is worth knowing, to love that which is worth loving, to praise that which can bear with praise, to hate what in your sight is unworthy, to prize what to you is precious, and, above all, to search out and to do what is well-pleasing to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Thomas à Kempis - 1380 - 1471)