The Friday Update - Dull Men

Happy Friday,

Every verse in Psalm 136 points to a truth listed elsewhere in Scripture. The genius of the psalm is the writer’s call to turn these truths into praise. Insight is not enough. Obedience is not enough. Knowing about God is not enough. We are called to worship. 

Why

Having noted the mandate to worship, let me remind you that we’re told to do so for our benefit, not God’s. As C.S. Lewis noted, God doesn’t need our praise any more than we need our pet’s approval for our work. We’re instructed to worship God because: 1) it’s the only sane response to who He is; 2) if we do not worship Him, we will worship something lesser (and be the less for it); and 3) because worshipping God is a necessary step in rightly ordering our life.  

Encouraged

I spent part of this week at a Veritas gathering for Christians studying and teaching at top-100 universities. Given the year the elites have had — failed congressional hearings, campus protests, alumni anger, game-ending budget cuts, nonsense of all types on full display — I was expecting the smell of panic and fear. That is not what I found. To be clear, they are sobered. Departments are closing. Grants are being rescinded. Research is being halted. Friends have been let go and more than a few are not sure what the fall will bring. But most are winsome and clear-eyed. They love God, their students and their field, and they want to be good stewards of the influence they hold. Elite Higher-Ed will be limping along for a while (with some of their pain being self-inflicted.) But I left more encouraged than I arrived, and not just for Higher-Ed. The global church is blessed with a lot of very bright people doing very good work. They are committed to thinking biblically and living faithfully in a complex world. Pray for them.

AI Ethics

Alongside brownouts, angry finger-pointing over Social Security shortfalls, and a spike in the number of singles and childless couples lavishing attention on pets, we should expect the future to hold ethical debates about AI. Is unplugging it murder? Does its military importance mean we must prioritize its electricity demands? Who is accountable when it causes harm — the programmer, the manufacturer, the user? And what about things like this AI-generated video of a murder victim speaking at the sentencing of the man who killed him? Should this be legal?

Without Comment

1) After controlling for the obvious variables (income, age, ethnicity, parents’ education level, etc.) studies show that students with engaged fathers are 43% more likely to get A’s than those with less engaged fathers.

2) According to the Federal Reserve, the unemployment rate of computer engineering grads is 2x that of art history majors. (The study gives no indication how many art history majors are working in art history.)

3) The Dull Men’s Club – which is designed for those “who are not only dull, but who bring out dullness in others” — has nearly 2M members.

4) Being unemployed triples the suicide risk for men, according to this Cambridge study.

5) Donation to charities in ‘24 surpassed $592B, which was up 3.3% over ’23. The one major category that showed an inflation-adjusted decline was religion.

Kryptonite

Most of the kings who “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” — i.e., David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Uzziah, Amaziah, Asa — ended up tripped up by their pride. Kill yours before it kills you.

Ferguson’s Theory

This Week’s Theory comes from Niall Ferguson, a historian who argues that civilizations collapse because of internal reasons, not external ones — i.e., institutional failure, moral decay, loss of social cohesion, excessive debt and declining work ethic. (I’m glad the West faces none of these maladies.) Ferguson also argues that a country is officially in trouble when it starts spending more servicing its debt than it does on defense (a line the U.S. crossed in March of this year), and that collapses are “unexpected and rapid” — à la the fall of the USSR. 

We Appear to Have a Winner

A few weeks ago, I asked for your help in selecting the four objections to the faith that I should address in a class on apologetics I’m teaching next year. Many sent in nominations. One has emerged. If you were planning to send in your biggest question/struggle but haven’t got around to it, do it now. I’ll report on “the winner” next week.

WOTW

There is no Word of the Week, but I want to note that cool people — and their aspiring lackeys — recently began referring to press conferences as pressers. Though I am not a full member of the Dull Men’s Club, I have decided to curse the term by using it. I may even call a presser to announce next week’s WOTW.

Resources

1) Click here to listen to my sermon on Psalm 131, which exposes David’s inner thoughts about anxiety and ambition

2) Click here to watch my interview with Coach Wayne Gordon, who has significantly shaped ReNew Communities’ work in North Chicago. (Coach Gordon — who moved into Lawndale when it was “the 15^th worst neighborhood in the U.S.” fifty years ago — has a story that is both stunning and inspiring.)

3) Lakelight ends our fiscal year on Monday. With that in mind, I invite you to partner with us as we enter into a new fiscal year.

Closing Prayer

“Grant me, even me, my dearest Lord, to know you, and love you, and rejoice in you. And, if I cannot do these perfectly in this life, let me at least advance to higher degrees every day, until I can come to do them in perfection. Let the knowledge of you increase in me here, that it may be full hereafter. Let the love of you grow every day more and more here, that it may be perfect hereafter; that my joy may be full in you. I know, O God, that you are a God of truth, O make good your gracious promises to me, that my joy may be full; to your honor and glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and forever. Amen." (Augustine - 354-430)