The Friday Update - Sufficient Grace

Happy Friday,

Three times Paul asked God for help, and three times God said, “No.” His experience is not unique. God also said “No” to requests from Jesus, Moses and David. We should note this well, and remind ourselves to not only be thankful when God says, “Yes,” but also when He says, “No.” As others have noted, God will either give us what we ask for, or give us what we would have asked for if we knew everything He knows.

Sasse Strikes Again

A month ago, I cited this Uncommon Knowledge interview with Ben Sasse - the 54-year-old former Nebraska senator who’d just learned he had months to live. Many noted how powerful the interview was. Last week, the WSJ published this piece on Sasse, which is also worth your time.

Seems About Right

During COVID there were reports that most pastors wanted to quit. I said then that I knew few seriously considering it, so I thought the number more alarmist than accurate. Now we’re being told that “as many as one in four pastors want out of the ministry.” I think that sounds about right. But I don’t think it’s much of a story. I suspect 25% of people want out of their job. Work is not a curse, but it is cursed. Gardens East of Eden all grow weeds.

WOTW

Honorable mention goes to parasocial relationships (one-way, screen-mediated intimacies) and god term (a word or phrase that carries such strong positives that it “organizes and justifies other arguments beneath it and functions as a supreme unquestionable good.” E.g., progress). Full honors go to vice-signaling (a ritual performance that indicates that you oppose those who are virtue signaling. Those praising Hitler are vice-signaling).

Overheard

1) At some point we need to stop asking the Lord to bless our day, and start asking Him to let us be part of His.

2) Unlike you Tesla-owning rabble, I drive a Volkswagen, a family values car with an unblemished and unproblematic history.

3) We need to prepare the child for the road not the road for the child.

4) What if, instead of being greeted by the Father, the prodigal had been met by the Older Brother?

5) Happiness doesn’t depend on abundance. It depends on the deliberate cultivation of gratitude for the gifts from God.

Evaluating the Evaluators

About ten years ago, a bevy of fact checkers started handing out “Pinocchios” and “Pants on Fire” awards to news agencies they thought skewed stories. Not long after that, others started grading those fact-checking the fact-checkers, especially – SURPRISE, SURPRISE – if they disagreed with the views of those fact-checking the checkers. Any day now I’m expecting someone to start fact-checking the fact-checkers of the fact-checkers. I’m writing to let you know I’m on it. From my humble perch of moral clarity, I will point out the hypocrisy and self-importance of those judging the judgers.

Unrepentantly, Consistently Wrong

Paul Ehrlich, the 93-year-old author of The Population Bomb, died last week. I was going to note how profoundly and stubbornly wrong he was. (In his book, he predicted that food shortages would lead to the starvation of hundreds of millions in the 1970s.) I’m happy to note that not everyone reporting on Ehrlich filed Pinocchio-worthy accounts of his views. And direct my ire instead on a bigger story – the Replication Crisis in science. Count me as one who trusts the science but is skeptical of science reporting. We need better. And that could start with people telling the truth on those who get it very wrong, like Paul Ehrlich.

Resources

Click here to hear (or watch) my Mark 1 sermon on Silence and Solitude. Both are necessary. Many today experience little of either. Also, please note various upcoming Lakelight events.

Click here to register for (or to learn more about) my April 9^th Lakelight lecture in Nashville (Franklin). I’ll be speaking on The Abolition of Man, which some now believe is CS Lewis’s most important book.

Click here to register for the Spring Lakelight class – The World Behind the Wardrobe. (I will give lectures on Lewis’s The Abolition of Man, JRR Tolkien’s views of evil, and GK Chesterton’s thinking on Wonder. And Dr. Josh Moody will give a lecture on John Stott. The course begins on April 8.

Finally, we have just a few remaining spots on the October Reformation Tour of Germany and Switzerland. For details – or to sign up – click here. 

Saint Patrick’s Prayer

This week’s closing prayer is the classic from Saint Patrick, who many celebrated this past week. If you want to listen to this prayer sung by The Brilliance, click here.

Closing Prayer

“Christ be with me. Christ within me. Christ behind me. Christ before me. Christ beside me. Christ to win me. Christ to comfort and restore me. Christ beneath me. Christ above me. Christ in quiet. Christ in danger. Christ in hearts of all that love me. Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. I arise today. Through a mighty strength. The invocation of the Trinity. Through belief in the Threeness. Through confession of the Oneness. Of the Creator of creation. Amen.” (Saint Patrick - late 4th/early 5th century)