Recommendations, History, Church, Finance, Nature, Suffering
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. Take a closer look at Noah’s ark: Pete Lee says, “An analysis of its design indicates that the ark represents three things: a microcosm of creation, a temple-home, and an emblem of resurrection.”

  2. God is everywhere, why go to church? James Williams says, “Of course we can meet with God anywhere, but is that a good reason to dismiss ourselves from a local church? Thankfully, God’s word isn't silent.”

This Week's Recommendations
Leadership, Wisdom
John Beeson
Servant Leadership and Decision Making

What do you want for dinner tonight?

What do you want to watch?

What do you want to do this weekend?

Do you ever feel exhausted by making decisions? More than a few times, Angel and I have come home from hard days at work and looked at each other, “Would you please make a decision about what we are going to eat for dinner?” Researchers note that “by the time the average person goes to bed, they’ve made over 35,000 decisions and all of those decisions take time and energy.”

Servant Leadership and Decision Making
Culture, History, Identity, Racism
John Beeson
Does Systemic Sin Exist?

Is America racist? I’m aware that the question itself likely creates a strong emotional reaction in you. But, if we set aside our temptation to make that question a political question and take our cues from scripture instead of political pundits, there is much we can learn from the question. Before we can answer the question, we have to ask an underlying question: does systemic sin exist?

In other words, is sin just an individual problem or are there elements of sin that are corporate in nature? Does the way a country organizes its government, for instance, have sin imbedded in its design?

Does Systemic Sin Exist?
Recommendations, Church, Culture, Fear, Evangelism, Parenting, Nature
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. The lesbian seagulls that weren’t: Maria Baer reports on when “NPR’s popular Radiolab podcast tries but fails to find homosexuality in nature.”

  2. Multiply your time with this simple framework: Craig Groeschel with some helpful advice. His first piece of advice is to “Schedule your values. Wise time management doesn’t mean you do more. It means you do more of what matters you most, so you need to schedule your values.”

This Week's Recommendations
Christian Living, Culture, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
Cheater

I am not an avid gamer.  

 

I've aspired to be at different intersections of my life, but I just don't have the knack.  And so it goes for those who can throw the football nearly a hundred yards right out of the box, versus those who struggle even to catch the thing.  Thus, the advent of practice, and training.  There have been innumerable stories of nobodies becoming somebodies across history by putting in the effort, by showing up, working hard, day after day until the breakthrough.  For this there is no substitution.

Cheater

Christian Living

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1. 1 in 3 Teens Say They're Religiously Unaffiliated: Aaron Earls reports on findings about teens and religion. One of the interesting notes is that, "Among those who dropped out between the ages of 18 and 22, only 31% say they now attend church regularly."

2. A Tale of Two Failures: My friend Jeff Johnson with a reflection on true engineering failures and why they ought to make us rethink the "fail fast" motto adopted by many in the business world.

3. 12 Things I'd Tell My 25 Year-Old Self About Life and Leadership: Such a great list by Carey Niewhof. He begins with an invitation to trust and submit to the Bible: "For almost my entire life, I have believed that the Word of God is just that – the Word of God. I always landed on the side that trusts the authority of scripture. But I would read certain passages and say to myself “Come on….really?” I thought I knew better."

4. How is Your Prayer Life? Crossway asked that question to Americans and got a helpful glimpse into the average American's prayer life.

5. Interactive Fireflies: This is a fun and interactive explanation of how fireflies can synchronize.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1. Every Movie Cliche About Teenage Dating is Basically Wrong: Chris Bourn begins, "As told by Hollywood, the humiliation of simultaneously being a teenager and being unable to get a date is one of the deepest, most difficult emotional traumas a person can endure." Bourn argues that the truth is quite the contrary, that teens who don't date are, on average, more socially adept and psychologically healthy.

2. Christianity Continues to Lose Numbers in US: New Pew Research report shows important data. Headlining this detailed study is that, "Christianity has dropped to 65% of the U.S. population, while the religiously unaffiliated or “nones” grew to 26%."

3. I Finally Wrote My Resignation Letter: Chris Thomas pens a poignant reflection on exhaustion and disappointment in ministry. "I think I entered ministry too early. Puffed up by praise, I charged forward on the toxic confidence of a vapour made of 90% gifting and 10% character. I was 18 and ready to change the world. I knew what was wrong with the church, what was wrong with other Christians, and what was wrong with, well, pretty much everything. Now here I am 25 years later. I’m 43 years old, and I’m not sure what I know anymore."

4. Are You Too Concerned with Your Child's Behavior? Tedd Tripp asks important questions about our motivations in parenting. One of several important points is, "Many idols of the heart will pollute our interventions with our children. These idols will not motivate us to act for the well-being of our child, but for our own reputations."

5. Occupation Growth and Decline since 1970: This is a fascinating infographic. Some unsurprising occupations on this graph and some surprising ones, too.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1.       The Average American Hasn't Made a Friend in Five Years: Oh my, this is disturbing news in a new study commissioned by Evite. And the friends we do have don't appear to be that close: "So what about the friends we already have? According to the survey, the average adult has 16 current, active friendships. Of those friends, three are considered friends for life, five are worthy of a one-on-one hang out session, and eight are generally well-liked but not enough to hang out with in person all that often."

2.       What Are Your Sexpectations? Expectations regarding couples' sex lives can be destructive. I appreciate this article's comparison of cultural verse biblical expectations for sex.

3.       5 Keys to a Great Apology: Carey Niewhof begins, " Two of the most powerful words a leader can utter are simply “I apologize”."

4.       Things Stay-at-Home Mothers Aren't Allowed to Talk About: Melissa Edgington concludes this thoughtful post with this perfect conclusion, " Emerald made me a card this weekend, saying she loves it that I “didn’t want a job.” I have never specifically talked with her about being a stay-at-home mom, but at seven years old she is already understanding a little bit of my heart when it comes to our family. I don’t know if she’ll wind up being the PTO President or a CEO, but if she chooses to stay home with babies, I pray that she will find in it the complete joy that I have. Because this world needs kind and artistic and smart and funny women like her in the kitchens and the laundry rooms and the carpool lines, and there is nothing at all wrong with her giving herself to her family, undivided."

5.       Vorticity: Mesmerizing cloud formations.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1.       Just Give Me a Sign: Angus Martin blasts the tendency for Christians to look for a "sign" as unbiblical.

2.       Why You Should Escape the Algorithm: Carey Niewhof reminds us that, " An astonishing amount of your life and mine is run by algorithms these days, and that’s something that has changed rapidly in the last decade, almost without us knowing it." Niewhof considers four negative implications of that reality and three solutions.

3.       On Being an Inflatable Tank: Tim Challies reflects on the Allied practice of creating dummy armies to fooling the enemy to some today who have dummy public lives. He says, "[M]any Christian leaders are essentially the same way. They can withstand the distant scrutiny of their fans, but not the far more intimate inspection of those who encounter them in real life. Like that fake army, they are useful for deception but not for fighting in the battle."

4.       When Your Plan for Killing Sin Isn't Working: Lara D'Entremont with an insightful piece on our battle with temptation. She begins, "Many of us also know the crushing defeat when the same sin continues to tempt and sway us. I am well acquainted with the doubt that follows when a sin persists. “Maybe I’m not truly saved. Maybe I’m not seeing victory over this sin because I’m still a nonbeliever. Maybe God isn’t with me."

5.       Why Does Time Seem to Fly As You Get Older? Neuroscientist David Eagleman answers.

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What We've Done Well and Poorly as Parents (According to Our Kids)

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What We've Done Well and Poorly as Parents (According to Our Kids)

We have two wonderful teenage kids. Camille is 16 and Soren is 14. It’s hard to believe that adulthood is just a few years off for both of them. With their elementary years not too far in the rearview mirror and adulthood not too far ahead of them, we asked our kids if they would share what they thought we have done best and where we could improve.

What follows is a Beeson living room chat. I hope by listening in you can benefit from both our highlight and blooper reels.

Their list at times converges with our perspective of our strengths and weakness and at times diverges. I didn’t ask for a certain number of positives and negatives and didn’t edit their list, but I did add comments after each item.

What our kids said we did best (their words are in bold):

1.       Trusting us and giving us freedom (you’re not helicopter parents).

I’m so glad to see this on their list. We’ve given far less freedom than some parents, but we have been intentional in these past few years to release our kids in order to prepare them for adulthood. If they merely perform a certain way at home but immediately stop behaving that way once they leave for college, then our parenting was in vain.

2.       Supporting us in our passions.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1.       3 Lies Our Life Online Tells Us: Samuel James digs beneath the surface to three lies that a life of constant connectivity speaks to us. The third is "I have to say something!" James explains, " Because digital space is without any embodied presence, people tend to be reduced to their input — who they are is what they post. This means that a major liturgy of online culture is that silence is a problem."

2.       52 Things I Learned in 2019: This is a cool list by Tom Whitwell. There are lots of fun gems like this one, "Harbinger customers are customers who buy products that tend to fail. They group together, forming harbinger zip codes. If households in those zip codes buy a product, it is likely to fail. If they back a political candidate, they are likely to lose the election."

3.       How Do You Face Crippling Anxiety? My friend Brie Wetherbee with five pieces of practical and hope-filled advice.

4.       Is God Guilty of Genocide? What do we with the conquest narratives in the Old Testament? Michael Kruger begins, "When the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, was it not God who commanded them to wipe out all the indigenous people (Deut. 20:17)? Is God not guilty of genocide? It makes me think of the famous bumper-sticker quote, 'The only difference between God and Adolf Hitler is that God is more proficient at genocide.'"

5.       The Size of Space: You won't want to miss this awesome interactive site. Our Creator is inconceivable!

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1.       Modern Research About Happiness Repeatedly Reflects Biblical Principles: Randy Alcorn walks through eight findings about happiness from psychological research and their eight biblical parallels.

2.       The Top 50 Countries Where It’s Hardest to be a Christian: Of particular interest to me is India not only remaining #10 on this list, but unfortunately taking the top place in a new designation. Jayson Casper explains, “India ranks first in the new category of physical or mental abuse, which includes beatings and death threats. The continuing rise in the subcontinent of a militant Hindu nationalism contributed to 1,445 of the reported 14,645 cases worldwide.”

3.       Patrick Lencioni's Personal Leadership Crash: This Carey Niewhof podcast is gold. It's loaded with helpful leadership insights about a leader's health.

4.       National Giving Trends: Lifeway recently published a report on national giving trends. A few takeaways: the national giving percentage has remained at 2% for decades. Diving deeper, "giving to religious causes receives the largest amount of gifts when compared to other sectors. It is at 31%. However, in the 1980’s, religious giving received 58% and has been on a steady decline every year. This is not good."

5.       Can The Cosmic Crisp Live Up to Huge Expectations? You might have heard of the new breed of apples that just hit store shelves. But can the apple pay back the huge investment that has been made in it?

6.       What Does the Bible Say About Divorce and Remarriage? Tom Schreiner answers this difficult question.

"Thanks for talking with me."

"Thanks for talking with me."

There is an older lady I see at the gym that has become a friendly acquaintance. She used to come in with her husband. He was in worse health than she was and nearly blind. She would walk him in, take him to the treadmill, get him situated, and go do her workout while he walked slowly on the treadmill.

She’d go back to check in on him in-between every exercise. It was a gift to watch her love him. I first spoke with them a few years ago when I introduced myself, told them how beautiful it was to watch them together, and asked how long they had been married. In total, 75 years they told me. They both celebrated 50 years with their spouses before they were widowed. Then they married and now they were coming up on 25 years themselves. Amazing!

He passed away a couple of years ago. She comes to the gym alone now. This past week a friend and I saw her doing reverse sit-ups and decided to say hello. We told her that she was making the rest of us look bad because she was so incredible. We visited for a minute or two wishing each other a wonderful Thanksgiving. As we parted, she turned to us and said, “Thanks for talking with me.”

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1.       Where Did Family Come From? Tim Challies begins, "We are at an interesting and perhaps unprecedented time in history when our understanding of family is being confronted and our definition of family is being rewritten." He begins his answer to that question.

2.       God Created Family to Carry Out His Will: Tim Challies says, " The family was always meant to be the core social unit in the world and everyone is meant to be part of one. All other structures build upon family."

3.       God Created Family to Picture His Truth: Tim Challies begins, " First, family pictures the Trinity. If you don’t understand family, you can’t understand God himself. Why? Because God reveals the first person of the Trinity as God the Father and the second person of the Trinity as God the Son."

4.       5 Questions to Ask When You Don't Get Anything of Your Pastor's Sermon: Have you ever sat bored stiff through your pastor's sermon? Maybe I have been the perpetrator. Daniel Darling offers five great remedies. They are all great questions. I love this one: "Am I hoping the sermon hits others rather than me?"

5.       The Faroe Islands Running Pastor: What an incredible place!  "Sometimes, when Sverri Steinholm is in the midst of a particularly difficult trail run, he wonders why he puts his body through these feats of endurance in the first place. ‘Why are you doing this stupid thing?’ he thinks to himself. ‘I’ll never do it again." But he always does. "I have to do it. My body needs it, or my soul, or my mind. It’s something almost magical.’"

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The Gods Fight for Your Devotion

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The Gods Fight for Your Devotion

The competition for your devotion is fierce.

We just arrived in India: it’s my second time visiting this beautiful nation. One of the first thing that strikes you as a Westerner is just how different religious devotion manifests itself in this country. In this Hindu nation, the competition for devotion is manifested in the temples—some lavish, some simple—erected to the 33 million Hindu gods. The gods scuttle for devotion based on geographic region, power, and personality.

If Hinduism is foreign to you, you might roll your eyes at the idea of 33 million gods clamoring for your devotion. It might as foolish as believing that leprechauns are at the end of a rainbow or that there are unicorns sipping water in faraway forests.

American Gods

And yet, is our context any different? There are no fewer gods fighting for our hearts in America than there are in India.

Many Christians would be on guard in a Hindu context. You might even feel a measure of oppression passing in front of a Hindu temple. Perhaps it would make you pause and pray. And yet, the gods of the Western world barely register in our daily lives.

What gods am I speaking of? The gods of self, pride, respect, lust, comfort, distraction, law, religion, bitterness, fear, and anxiety fight for our hearts. The demigods of money, vocation, social media, job titles, cable, internet, sexuality, cell phones, productivity, health, pornography, education, body-image, cars, spouses, children, friends, sports, and on and on can do the bidding of gods.

33 million doesn’t seem like such an overwhelming number all of a sudden.

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