The Friday Update - Sturgeon's Revelation

Happy Friday,

God’s grace is not reserved for the good-looking and high-performing. It’s open to those John Ortberg calls “the mess-ups and the misfits, the needy and the desperate, the losers and the left-behinds.” The Gospel proclaims both that we’re far worse than we ever imagined, and far more loved than we ever dreamed. Let us then boldly approach his throne of grace today.

Yes and Amen

I’ve been slowed recently by the sadness of the world. Not its wars, famine and oppression (as heinous as they are), but by the fear, cancer, abuse, lies, loneliness, dementia, and unemployment it is visiting on my friends. Thankfully, I stumbled upon this from the Talmud. "Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justice...now. Love mercy...now. Walk humbly...now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it."

Trending

F1 racing has joined Brussels sprouts, weighted blankets, Savannah Bananas, ice baths and pickleball among the fabulously cool. Not quite as hot as the first place Cubs or 64-year-old midwestern pastors, but way ahead of the Cardinals.

Overheard

1) Understanding breeds forgiveness.

2) “Vengeance is mine,” says the Lord, is not supposed to be followed by “and I'm just here to do the Lord’s work.”

3) Those unable to enjoy a moment unless they can film and post it are confusing reel life with real life.

4) The “Machiavellian messiness” of this moment is fueled by an illiberalism that locates truth in the individual, not in tradition or institutions.

5) We need to be skeptical but not cynical of the news. The former is warranted. The latter — even when it feels righteous — spills into ugly attitudes and unhelpful actions.

Quotes Worth Requoting

1) “Few people want to be a saint nowadays, but everyone wants to lose weight.” René Girard

2) “The more modern, the more alone.” David Goodhew

3) “The first and most basic thing we can and must do is to keep God before our minds…This is the fundamental secret of caring for our souls.” Dallas Willard

The Amish and Tech

Though often accused of being Luddites, the Amish are not against either change or tech per se. They simply want to first understand: 1) How will this impact our communities? 2) Is this good for our families? 3) And does it support or undermine our values?  

Without Comment

1) According to scholar Ryan Burge, 62% of white evangelicals (and just 16% of atheists) have watched Fox News in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, 48% of atheists (and just 13% of white evangelicals) have watched MSNBC.

2) Per this article, high school students are less likely to date, hold a part time job – or sleep – than in the past.

3) 27% of Americans are estranged from a family member, with the most frequent severed relationships being between parents and adult children.

4) Although COVID fueled a spike in pastoral stress — and there were reports of many pastors resigning due to burnout — recent studies show that just 1% of pastors leave the ministry each year because of stress, and COVID did not alter that pattern.

5) Deloitte’s 2025 survey of generational aspirations notes that only 6% of Gen Zs want a senior management position.

WOTW

Honorable mentions include NGMI (online slang for Not Going to Make It), undatabased experience (a personal experience that is not digitally documented), X-risk (the X = existential), AI Doomism (the comically dark AI-is-going-to-end-the-world-in-2027 claims circulating everywhere) and unschooling (an old term making a comeback as it becomes obvious some families are never going back to the pre-COVID educational practices). Full honors go to metamodernism (the cultural sensibility that oscillates between the sincerity of modernism and the irony of postmodernism. It’s unpacked further in this Christianity Today article.) 

WWL

There’s been movement in Open Doors’ World Watch List, which documents worldwide Christian persecution. North Korea remains the worst offender, followed by Somalia, Yemen and Libya, but Kuwait and Nepal have replaced Comoros and Nicaragua in the top fifty. And things have gotten better in Indonesia and worse in Lebanon and Ukraine. In general, the trends have been in the wrong direction. It’s hard for those of us in the United States to appreciate how blessed we are. The First Amendment is an amazing gift, and what we might claim as persecution would be labeled a day in the park in many parts of the world.

TWT

Last week I invited nominations for This Week’s Theory (TWT) and you did not disappoint. From among the many, I selected Theodore Sturgeon’s Revelation. In an 1958 issue of Venture Science Fiction, he answered the charge that “90% of science fiction is crud” by stating “that's because 90% of everything is crud.” Please note: Sturgeon’s Revelation does not apply to the nominees for TWT sent in this week. Only 75% of them were crud.

Resources

Lakelight posted the fourth (and final) lecture I gave in last month’s Truth in the Noise class. In lecture one, I talked about culture in general and Western Civ in particular. In lecture two, I shared my take on seven forces silently shaping today. In lecture three, I offered an apologetic for truth – linking it to the Nicene Creed. In lecture four – here – I shared an overview of how Christians in the past have navigated challenging moments and what I think we need to keep top of mind today.

(Note: next week we hope to make our AI discussion available.)

Closing Prayer

“Lord Jesus Christ, fill us, we pray, with your light and life, that we may reveal your wondrous glory. Grant that your love may so fill our lives that we may count nothing too small to do for you, nothing too much to give and nothing too hard to bear. Amen.” (Ignatius of Loyola - 1495–1556)  

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