The Friday Update - A Peace that Overcomes

—October 25, 2024—

Happy Friday,

 I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side.

Psalm 3

Psalm 3 is a favorite of mine. For starters, though I seldom struggle with fear, there are days when it seems I’m facing ten thousand problems. Secondly, I take comfort knowing David wrote this while fleeing Absalom—i.e., while facing problems of his own making. (The older I get, the more I realize that most of my headaches are my own fault.) But the deepest comfort comes with the reminder to locate my hope in God. In Him, we find a peace that overcomes cancer, elections, wars, problems, political animus, market losses, and whatever else the news is screaming about.

Pelikan: Jaroslav Pelikan, a professor of Christianity and Medieval Intellectual History at Yale, was a fountain of quotes. Here are two: 1) “If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen, nothing else matters.” 2) “Tradition is the living faith of dead people… Traditionalism is the dead faith of living people.”

Three Cheers for the DMV: Given Musk’s claim that the government is just the DMV on steroids—and given that I’ve dissed the DMV in the past—I need to note that my recent experience was 2,000% better than expected. I’m sure whoever engineered Chick-fil-A’s drive thru could make it better still, but count me surprised. One can only hope whoever is behind it has been asked to set their sights on the IRS and elections.

Old Tennessee: It’s time to roll out Dan Fogelberg’s classic, which opens, “End of October, the sleepy brown woods seem to nod down their heads to the winter. Yellows and grays paint the sad skies today…”

Without Comment: 1) The University of Nottingham issued a trigger warning for Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, noting that the book “has incidences of violence, mental illness, and expressions of Christian faith;” 2) In 1830, US alcohol consumption was 3x that of today; 3) Missiologists claim that "if present trends continue through 2050,” 1/3 of the global church will be made up of Nigerian women; 4) The last full-size US Kmart superstore closed last weekend; 5) 75% of TV ads are for pharmaceuticals; 6) Migrant crossings at the US–Mexico border have plunged recently, but there’s been an explosion in forced prostitution of immigrants in the US; 7) The Economist says the US economy is “bigger and better than ever,” but has concerns about an aging population, the rise of artificial intelligence, and the “rewiring of the global economy;” 8) Olivia and Noah remain the top US baby names, with Ellie displacing Evelyn for a spot in the top ten; Asher is doing the same to Luca; and 9) Humans are the only animal that tries to suppress a yawn. 

Questions: 1) Who has a key to your house? I’m asking a literal and a metaphorical question. And your answer says much about your life. (BTW, “no one” is a bad answer.) 2) Does the Bible shape your reading of culture, or does culture shape your reading of the Bible? 3) Will AI learn to write good comedy?

Freedom vs Equality: My comments about the mutual exclusivity of freedom and equality garnered expected pushback. FWIW, Will and Ariel Durant wrote about this in The Lessons of History, arguing that complete freedom allows those with more talent, desire, or opportunity to rise—i.e., produce inequality. Efforts to maintain equality require curbing individual freedoms via taxation, regulation, etc. The Durants also claim that managing the oscillation between complete freedom and complete equality is a never-ending project. 

More on Freedom: At 7 PM on Oct. 30^th, I will be interviewing Dr. Robert George, the legal scholar / political philosopher / public intellectual / celebrated author and Princeton professor. We will be exploring this moment, with a special focus on freedom of speech and freedom of religion. You can register to attend this free Lakelight Talk either in person or via live stream here.

The Pod: I agree with those who were stunned (even horrified) by the AI-generated podcast on my recent book, On the News. To think that in 90 seconds, it could “read” it and then produce an 11-minute dialogue on it makes me feel a bit replaceable. (I have yet to read a fifty-page book in less than five minutes.) FWIW, I also agree with those who found the podcast a bit sappy and solicitous. If you’re late to the party, you can get a free audio or digital copy of the book here or find the podcast here. 

WOTW: Handhelds (this is the new shorthand way cool people refer to sandwiches, iPhones, and, well, things you can hold in your hands), Mental Health CPR (I’m not sure what it is, but I’m pretty sure I needed it once or twice last week). Full honors go to orthocardia, which I found in a Michael Reeves book. He argues that in addition to right thinking (orthodoxy) and right living (orthopraxy), we need a right, true, straight heart (orthocardia).

Resources: 1) Click here to watch the first Lakelight Short—a 6-minute video exploring the intersection of faith and work. It features Dr. Michael Walsh, a local neurosurgeon, and member of the first Lakelight Fellows program; 2) Click here to listen to my sermon on Ephesians 3, which explores hope.

Closing Prayer: Forgive me my sins, O Lord; the sins of my present and the sins of my past, the sins of my soul and the sins of my body, the sins which I have done to please myself and the sins which I have done to please others. Forgive me my casual sins and my deliberate sins, and those which I have labored so to hide that I have hidden them even from myself. Forgive me, O Lord, forgive all my sins, for Jesus' sake. Amen (Thomas Wilson – 1663 - 1775)

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