Welcome to a new week! Here are three articles to get you thinking about things that matter…
- Seth Lewis points out a crucial truth that is often overlooked in our super-specialized, expert-driven world: “Often the most helpful acts of support and kindness are also some of the most mundane – the kinds of things almost anyone could do.” This brings two questions to mind: first, is this same tendency true in churches like ours? Second: will you be the sort of person who will step up and do “what anyone could do”?
- One of the common struggles of evangelical churches in America is that we tend to react two ways to the world around us: either we embrace it too much, compromising the Gospel message that we are called to embody and share; or we retreat too far, walling ourselves off from the very people who need to see the Christian life up close. Andrea Sanborn offers a challenge to these two reactions: “2022 presents us with a challenge. Will we capitulate to the forces of evil around us? Give in to those same forces within us? Or will we walk bravely into the surf to offer a hand to those sinking in the deep? The only way to disarm the powers of darkness is to love those caught in their undertow. It is far easier to criticize than to rescue. Which will it be for you this year? For me?”
- John Piper regularly references this article from quite some time ago, and it is a helpful one to return to and think through regularly: 10 Resolutions for Mental Health. I, personally, have found #6 to be especially encouraging.
