Happy Friday,
Those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
The Prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 40:31
Isaiah does not say those who trust in their efforts, their intellect, their 401k plan, their network, their morals, their health care plan, their doctor, their president, their pastor, or their nation… He says those who trust in the Lord will be renewed and flourish. Lord, may our hope rest in you.
True/False: 1)The median age for an MTV viewer is over 40; 2) ER admissions for self-harm is spiking for 10- to 14-year-old girls; 3) America’s #1 “export” is Friends; 4) To be unclear is to be unkind; 5) More than 100,000 people die of overdoses in the United States every year; 6) China has over 25 nuclear reactors under construction; 7) There’s currently a larger gender gap on college campuses in the US than there was before Title IX was installed to promote gender equality. Extra Credit: Name two aspects of a wedding that correspond to longer-lasting marriages.
Quotes Worth Requoting: 1) “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.” Charles Spurgeon; 2) “If I’ve brought any message today, it’s this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. Have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.” Judge Antonin Scalia; 3) “Evil is always temporary. The worst does not last.” Eugene Peterson.
Answers: 1) True, per this WSJ article, the median age of those watching MTV is not only over 40, it’s 51; 2) True as this piece by Jean Twenge shows, between 2010 and 2022, self-harm for young girls quintupled. Thankfully it appears to be declining as we get further away from COVID lockdowns; 3) True. It’s been long claimed—though not documented—that America’s number one export is its culture and that BayWatch and Friends are the leading products; 4) True. When niceness is the goal, many say less than is helpful because they do not want someone to be uncomfortable; 5) True. Per this CDC report, 107K people in the US died last year from an overdose; 6) True. Per this piece, 26 reactors are currently under construction with plans to build 300 more. 7) True. The gender gap today is greater than it was before Title IX was passed, but it’s flipped. Today women are way ahead of men. Extra Credit: per this 2014 study, the two aspects of a wedding that correspond to a lasting marriage are: a large guest list and a low wedding bill.
WOTW: Honorable mention goes to ugly angry (which I’ve yet to see in print but see quite often in life); tsundoku, (which refers to books stacked in piles because they are going to be read. I may or may not see this when I look around my office); and juiritocracy (a country in which the courts exercise power ascribed to the legislature). I’m giving full honors to compliment sandwich, the derisive term Gen Z’ers use to describe performance reviews that include affirmation and correction. Note: this leaves bosses with the mentor’s dilemma—i.e., the reality that constructive criticism directed at a Z’er may not only “crush their confidence and sap their motivation” but be very unwelcome.
Resources: I am about to start a six-week series called Afterlife. In addition to sermons and small group material, there will be daily morning devotions. Sign up here. They will start on Monday, August 19th.
TWLR: This Week’s Long Read is a 2012 article in American Political Science Review by Dr. Robert Woodberry, entitled, “The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy.” In this heavily footnoted piece, Woodberry argues that Protestant missionaries influenced the rise and spread of stable democracies, by “spreading religious liberty, mass education, mass printing, voluntary organizations and colonial reforms.” A short and accessible summary of Woodberry’s work is here.
Random: 1) When the horse dies, dismount; 2) Christians living in the West today have little grounds for optimism but great reasons for hope; 3) AI is making bad writing better, but it’s not making good writing great; 4) The best time to plant a tree is 25 years ago. The second-best time to plant a tree is today; 5) I am wondering if one of the things I have an unhealthy attraction to is stability; and 6) Politics is not a meaning-giving enterprise. The best we can hope for from the state is that it creates space for meaning-giving institutions like the family and the Church.
Closing Prayer: O God, the true and only life, in whom and from whom and by whom are all good things that are good indeed; from whom to be turned is to fall, to whom to turn is to rise again; in whom to abide is to dwell for ever, from whom to depart is to die; to whom to come again is to revive, and in whom to lodge is to live: take away from me whatever you will, so that you give me only yourself. Amen (Thomas Dekker, 1570-1623)