So Much to Think About

Peter Kuzmic, a noted theologian from Croatia, is believed to have said, “Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future. Faith is having the courage to dance to it today.”
via JD Walt

Criticism 
firmly believe that institutions and individuals are more responsive to internal critique than external criticism, no matter how thoughtful or eloquent. 

Or, to put it another way, while thoughtful external criticism has its uses, at the end of the day, only the church can reform the church, only the right can reform the right, and only the left can reform the left. In fact, in a hyperpolarized time, critique of the right from the left (or the left from the right) often only serves to empower its targets. 
David French

Mockery
When you start mocking instead of persuading, you signal that you now view someone as an enemy to be defeated, rather than a person to be persuaded…the key to all sin against another is to first dehumanize them…then label them…you have to convince yourself that the other no longer possesses the image of God and God wants them gone as well…we’re all getting too good at this…
Phoenix Preacher

It is all about winning
At this point, at least in the United States, it appears that our cultural meaning has pretty much shrunk down to this: It is all about winning. Then, once we win, it becomes all about consuming. I can discern no other underlying philosophy in the practical order of American life today. Of itself, such a worldview cannot feed the soul very well or very long, much less provide meaning and encouragement, or engender love or community.
Richard Rohr

Tribal
Despite all the contrary rhetoric, contemporary Americans are not highly individualized: we are tribal, in the extreme. It is the group, however constructed, that gives identity, for the identity that is sought is one that covers us, that hides our vulnerability and gives us the safety of those who agree. A tell-tale sign of this dynamic is found in our culture’s anger. Anger is largely driven by shame and we can affirm our tribal protection only by shouting at the outsider. Everything outside the group threatens to unmask us. To an increasing extent, the group to which we belong is that set of people who share our anger.
Fr Stephen Freeman

Proud of America
A false narrative popular today states that Republicans are extremely proud of America and don’t see any faults, while Democrats are embarrassed by America and only see faults. Surveys show this is a gross overstatement. A majority of Democrats are still proud to be American, and majorities in both parties say that some things about America make them ashamed.
By and large, Democrats and Republicans are proud to be Americans, yet they are not blind to the country’s faults.
Allsides Blog. https://www.allsides.com/blog/surveys-show-democrats-not-just-republicans-are-proud-be-american

Love is a paradox
It often involves making a clear decision; but at its heart, it is not a matter of mind or willpower but a flow of energy willingly allowed and exchanged, without requiring payment in return. Divine love is, of course, the template and model for such human love, and yet human love is the necessary school for any encounter with divine love. If we’ve never experienced human love—to the point of sacrifice and forgiveness and generosity—it will be very hard for us to access, imagine, or even experience God’s kind of love. Conversely, if we have never let God love us in the deep and subtle ways that God does, we will not know how to love another human in the deepest ways of which we are capable.
Richard Rohr

Til death do us part…
I have had the pleasure of presiding at many weddings over the years. Three different times, as I prepared the couple to exchange their vows, the groom actually fainted and fell to the ground. But I have never seen the bride faint. To the well-protected and boundaried male ego, there are few greater threats than the words “till death do us part.” 
Richard Rohr

Lean in to painful honesty
We’ve all been in that situation where we want to say something that’s important but there’s also a good chance that we’ll upset someone if we say it. There’s that uncomfortable tension inside us as we go back and forth on whether we should say it or not.
Create a new rule for yourself: if there’s something uncomfortable that you believe is important to say, just say it. Don’t think about it. Just trust that in the long run, more times than not, you’ll be happy that you said it. In fact, chances are, in the long run, other people will be glad you said it.
Mark Manson

Nice Teachers
Some new research looks at how friendly teachers were with their students and compared that to the students’ academic performance in later years. What’s important to note here is that the researchers didn’t look at academic performance in the teacher’s class itself because—surprise, surprise—friendly teachers tend to give higher grades for shittier work. Instead, the researchers focused on how the students did the following academic years. 
Allow me to spoil the pool party and say that, basically, the nicer the teachers, the worse off the students were in the following years. Now, I’m not suggesting that we bring back corporal punishment or hire drill sergeants to teach multiplication tables. But once again, we find that the most important things in life (in this case, being highly educated and understanding a subject) require some unpleasant experiences. 
Mark Manson

The spirit of the age
The spirit of the age declares that if you get the “big” things correct (your political ideology, your complementarian or egalitarian theology) then cruelty and self-righteousness in the pursuit of those goals are either minor flaws (“bad manners”) or outright virtues (after all, didn’t Jesus drive the money-changers from the temple with a whip?)
David French

Listening to vinyl
…listening to music on vinyl is more like sitting down to a nice relaxed meal and listening to music using a streaming service is like fast food in your car while your driving somewhere you don’t really want to go.
Matt Redmond

---

LISTEN FOR THE WEEK

Still working on my funeral playlist. Not sure the crowd can be replicated at the funeral but…