So Much to Think About

the bifurcation of attention
“the bifurcation of attention.” It goes like this. 
The 30-minute sitcom television show is dying. Meanwhile, 45-second Instagram videos and seven seasons of Game of Thrones are thriving.
The classic dramatic film is dying. Meanwhile, Youtube videos and the eighteen thousand sequels of the Marvel Universe are thriving.
Classic magazines and newspapers are dying. Meanwhile, Twitter and non-fiction books are thriving.
Taylor Pearson 

There is a vast gulf between believing in good things and doing good things. One is easy. The other is really, really hard. 
David French

Converted Life
The life-converting experience is not the discovery that I have choices to make that determine the way I live out my existence, but the awareness that my existence itself is not in the center. Once I “know” God, that is, once I experience God’s love as the love in which all my human experiences are anchored, I can desire only one thing: to be in that love.
Henri Nouwen 

Persuasion
…the necessary posture of persuasion is one of deep humility. We can take little credit for our virtues. We’re often imprisoned by vices we can barely comprehend.
True persuasion is much more challenging than winning a debate. Sweeping away a falsehood is of little use unless you can replace the lie with a meaningful and empowering truth. You cannot yank a person from their community and then leave them homeless. Do not pretend we can replace something—no matter how malignant—with nothing.
David French

The PhD
Suppose a superstar of knowledge moves into your house as a boarder. With three PhDs after his name, he sits at your supper table each evening dispensing information about nuclear physics, cyberspace, and psychoneuroimmunology, giving ultimate answers to every question you ask. He doesn’t lead you through his thinking process, however, or even involve you in it; he simply states the conclusions he has reached.
We might find his conclusions interesting and even helpful, but the way he relates to us will not set us free, empower us, or make us feel good about ourselves. His wisdom will not liberate us, it will not invite us to growth and life; indeed, it will in the end make us feel inferior and dependent. That’s exactly how we have treated Jesus. We have treated him like a person with three PhDs coming to tell us his conclusions.
Richard Rohr

True joy
know that true joy comes from letting God love me the way God wants, whether it is through illness or health, failure or success, poverty or wealth, rejection or praise. It is hard for me to say, “I shall gratefully accept everything, Lord, that pleases you. Let your will be done.” But I know that when I truly believe my Father is pure love, it will become increasingly possible to say these words from the heart.
Henri Nowen

Being a truth teller
If your role in another person’s life is (as you see it) the “teller of hard truths,” then you’re at an immense disadvantage when contending for a family member’s heart with the people who share the same lie, but also love them, accept them, and give them a sense of shared purpose. 
You? You just make them feel bad.

“When everyone around us is right, we deserve little credit for conforming. When everyone around us is wrong, we’re also likely to fail.” 
David French

Epitaph for Modernity: I came, I shopped, I died.
Fr Stephen Freeman

Social Media & Polarization
Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell’s 2019 article that presented various reasons social media leads to polarization. They identified a Pew study showing Facebook posts with “indignant disagreement” received twice as much engagement as other kinds of posts. They specifically pointed out the dangers of Facebook’s algorithm based on engagement, which can keep any kind of post near the top of the News Feed regardless of its divisiveness or truthfulness.

A Christian culture that puts all the stress on belief, which cannot be seen, and has very little expectation of change in Christ-likeness this side of heaven, will inevitably create lots of Ravi Zachariases.
Matt Redmond

Let me keep my distance, always, from those
  who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
   “Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
   and bow their heads.   
Mary Oliver

The true purpose of all spiritual disciplines is to clear away whatever may block our awareness of that which is God in us. . . . 
Howard Thurman

Listen of the Week
I am putting together a playlist for my funeral. (Not expecting it to be needed soon, just thinking ahead.) Of course, the list is headed up with “Sweet Home Alabama” and, at this point, this song is next up:

Still on the Journey