Church, Culture
John Beeson
Disney Shirts and Being Part of Something Big

I was handed my Mickey Mouse shirt as we packed and told this was what I would wear (I would be matching our son, Soren). Camille and Angel, meanwhile, wore matching Minnie ears and red tank tops. It seemed a little over-the-top to me, but I’ll do anything for my family. On the day of our Disney adventure, we woke up early, got into the virtual queue for the Star Wars ride (which happened to be the best ride at the park—don’t miss it!), and strode out of our hotel down Disney Way. It was then I began to notice something: we were not alone. We passed group after group in matching outfits. “Ahhhh,” I thought, “this is what people do!”

Disney Shirts and Being Part of Something Big
Recommendations, Counseling, Wisdom
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. We’re living in the dystopian future Neil Postman predicted 40 years ago: Brett McCracken says, “From the rising of the sun to its going down, we scroll our way through the day. We scroll our way through life. And we are scrolling ourselves to death.”

  2. Five hard truths about marriage most couples learn too late: Psychologist Mark Travers’s findings echo truths in the Bible, “One of the biggest misconceptions about marriage is that truly compatible people don’t argue. But not only is conflict inevitable, it’s also essential.”

This Week's Recommendations
Biblical Studies, Christian Living, Death
John Beeson
Let not him who straps on his armor boast ...

We would do well to heed Ahab and Roosevelt’s warnings. In our contemporary world, shrunk by media, it is enticing to microwave hot takes for all types of issues. Geopolitical events, religious issues, and economic and social policies entice us to weigh in. We want to know what is right and wrong, good and evil, and we want to hold firm opinions in fields in which we have little to no experience.

Ben-hadad meant “son of Hadad,” the Syrian god of thunder. It’s a fitting name. He was booming and terrifying, but relatively harmless. There are a lot of Ben-hadads out there today, those who dial up every opinion to 100 decibels.

Let not him who straps on his armor boast himself as he who takes it off
Culture, Identity
John Beeson
The Worthlessness of Cool

When I was in high school, swimming was my best sport. I still remember the first time I saw Gary Hall, Jr. swim. I was a freshman and he was a senior. We were at the hallowed grounds of the Plummer Aquatic Center at Arizona State University in Tempe. Gary Hall, Jr.’s father was an Olympic swimmer and Gary Hall Jr. would one day join that class. In fact, Hall would go on to win ten Olympic medals. I had never seen anything like Hall in a pool before. At 6’6” and probably 225 pounds, Hall looked more like a linebacker than a swimmer. In the water, his body rose above the water higher than anyone else’s, seemingly buoyed at his hips by an invisible force. He swam freestyle with a hitch, almost strutting through the water.

The Worthlessness of Cool
Recommendations, Christian Living, Nature, Culture
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. An age of extinction is coming. Here’s how to survive. Ross Douthat portends, “The bottleneck of the digital age is different: The new era is killing us softly, by drawing people out of the real and into the virtual, distracting us from the activities that sustain ordinary life, and finally making existence at a human scale seem obsolete.”

  2. Chickens, elephants, and the illusion of freedom. Donal shares a simple, but memorable story, ““the chicken is tied to a tree for so long, that when it is released, as long as it has the string on its ankle (do chickens have ankles?) it thinks it cannot go any further than the length of the original string. It is still attached in its own mind.”

This Week's Recommendations

nature

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1. Don’t scratch the itch: Brittany Allen begins, “I have a weird problem. When I get in the shower, my legs inevitably begin to itch like crazy. I cannot for the life of me find the self-control it takes to not scratch. I have a condition called dermatographism that causes my body to react to scratching with hives. By the time I step out of the steaming hot water, my thighs are covered with wheals. I scratched the itch and the itch only intensified.”

2. Should Christians plead the blood of Jesus? Wanjiru Ng’Ang’A explains the history of this prayer and then offers a warning,

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. The dragon and the rooster: Heidi Tan shares the story of an apology, “Dad began to see that in spite of my ‘Dragon’ spirit, my love for him was always loud with quality time, words, and affection. I had to learn that in spite of his ‘Rooster’ demands, Dad’s love for me had always been consistent with hard work, service, and sacrifice.”

  2. Comforting the dementia sufferer: Matthew Rehrer says, “ Focusing on the temporal is overwhelming, but not when it is viewed in light of eternity. In many regards, dementia helps loosen the grip we have on this world.”

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. The class divide over screen time: O. Alan Noble notes that children in lower class households spend twice as much time per day on screens. He explains the five reasons why he believes this is the cases. For instance, “The reality is that the less income you have, the less resources you have to care for your children. This includes having less income to spend on childcare, but also less emotional and mental bandwidth to care for your children because of the burdens poverty places upon you.”

  2. Life will not get easier: Stephen Witmer begins, “There’s a lie we all want to believe — even against all available evidence. It trades on our God-given capacity for hope. It tempts even those with impeccable theology.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. To (almost) die is gain: Heidi Kellogg with a moving reflection, “To die would have been gain for me, but to live is Christ, and that means serving my family just as Christ came not to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45).

  2. Jesus did condemn homosexuality: Alan Schlemon explains, “Jesus doesn’t reserve his judgment for only those who engage in homosexual sex. He also condemns false teachers who mislead people into practicing homosexuality.”

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This Week's Recommendations

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  1. A theology of leisure: Reagan Rose with an important piece. She says, “Many Christians have unthinkingly adopted a view of leisure that sees rest time as synonymous with me time. But this is a historical anomaly.”

  2. The church’s unsung hero: the persevering Sunday School teacher: Can we get an amen to Trevin Wax’s post? God bless our amazing faithful teachers! “Committed Sunday school teachers are a big part of what makes discipleship effective. Yet how often do we let weeks and years go by without lifting up their example or celebrating their faithfulness?”

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This Week's Recommendations

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    1. What does the Bible teach about divorce and remarriage? Jim Newheiser says, “Due to our increasingly therapeutic culture and its expansive definitions of “abuse,” the pendulum has swung in our day from protecting marriage at the expense of not protecting victims of abuse to protecting alleged victims at the expense of not adequately protecting marriage.”

    2. Fewer want children: A sobering poll from Pew reveals that “Adults younger than 50 without children who say they are unlikely to ever have kids rose 10 percentage points between 2018 and 2023 (from 27% to 47%).

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Why the world’s greatest athletes don’t get paid like it: Most Olympic athletes truly do it for the love of the game. Mark Dent reports, “26.5% of the surveyed athletes had a total income of less than $15k per year, and another study from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee found 59% of Olympic hopefuls make less than $25k during Olympic years.”

  2. How to counter the forces that malform your soul: John Mark Comer explains how spiritual formation happens in this brief video.

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Was anyone more alone? Charisse Compton reflects, “I am hardly alone in my loneliness. About one in four adults across the world suffers from a similar hunger. Bankrupt of any long-term solutions, the world suggests increased human interactions to alleviate the suffering. But for all our digital connectedness, the loneliness epidemic persists and grows.”

  2. When I have intrusive thoughts: This is a subject I’ve done a lot of thinking about as well. Lara D’Entremont offers solid counsel, “Through therapy, I learned that fighting against intrusive thoughts is like trying to stop water from gushing out of your faucet with your hands—it will continue to burst through, perhaps even explosively.”

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Strength and support: addressing domestic abuse within the church: Chris Moles suggests, “In the journey to healing from domestic abuse, it’s important to recognize the importance of God’s church and the community of believers. We are not designed to struggle alone. This community can provide survivors with spiritual, emotional, and practical support as they seek to escape the cycle of abuse and rebuild their lives.”

  2. 5 reasons not to follow your heart: Thaddeus Williams explains, “Under the trendy orthodoxy of expressive individualism, life is no longer about bringing our inner selves into the tempo and key of beauty, goodness, and truth. It’s about finding our own inner tune, marching to our own beat, and conducting those around us to play along with our anthems of autonomy.”

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  1. Preparing children to suffer well: Curtis Solomon with an excellent article. This is a must-read for any parent or grandparent. “We don’t have to wait until trauma strikes to prepare the hearts of our children to face the most intense forms of suffering. There is no way to completely protect our children from suffering in this world, and we can’t guarantee they won’t face lasting challenges from traumatic experiences, but the following measures can help our children be prepared to respond well to suffering.”

  2. Let suffering lead to gentleness, not bitterness: Lara D’Entremont in a similar vein, “Gentle people aren’t gentle because they simply bottled all their frustration and anger inside. A gentle spirit isn’t cultivated through gritted teeth, clenched fists, and a strained smile. Gentleness grows in a heart set on this truth: the Lord is near (Phil. 4:5b)”

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