Wisdom For Your Weekend: your weekly installment of things we’ve been reading around the web.
Articles of the Week
How to Work Out Before Work—5 Tips, Hannah Newman. You don’t have to work out first thing in the morning, of course. But if you’re like me (and 95% of the rest of America), you’re more likely to skip a workout later in the day. So how do you move “morning workout routine” from the “good intentions” column to the “actual practice” column? With this handy list, you’re 5 steps closer.
6 Questions To Ask Ourselves In Conflict, Mark Altrogge. “In this fallen world, conflict is inevitable. Husbands and wives, parents and children/teens/adult kids, roommates, co-workers, brothers and sisters in Christ, believers and non-believers – we all sin against each other at times – at times intentionally but many times unintentionally. We have misunderstandings, fail to keep promises, do things that annoy or even hurt others. Sometimes we can overlook others’ sins. At other times we must address them. Sometimes we are the ones who are confronted.”
How to Talk About Pain, Joanna Bourke, The New York Times. In a technological world in which pain can (and almost always is) reduced, diminished, or outright eliminated, it seems that we have a hard time knowing just what to do with pain when it lingers. Bourke’s insights here are welcome, both for those who suffer chronic pain and for those who minister to them: “Perhaps, my friend mildly remarked, the problem is not that people in pain cannot communicate, but that witnesses to their pain refuse to hear. I was so struck by his observation that I forgot how much pain I was experiencing. For a few moments, his empathy overcame my suffering.”
10 Things Missionaries Won’t Tell You, Adam Mosley. “Being a missionary is hard work. Everybody knows that. But the things we think of as the hard parts – lack of modern amenities, exposure to disease, and the like – only begin to scratch the surface of the difficulties of real missionary life. Often, it is the things left unsaid that really begin to erode the passion and soul of a missionary. Here are just a few of those things.”
Why Appealing To “Progress” Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be, Trevin Wax. “There’s no reason to assume that the position we hold to is right because it’s Tuesday and not Monday. And yet, that’s the kind of ‘appeal to the calendar’ we often witness in popular progressive circles. ‘I realized it was time,’ politicians say about why they are now in favor of redefining marriage. ‘It’s time’ may be rhetorically powerful to some, but it shouldn’t be confused with actually making a case.”
On The Lighter Side
The Beauty (And Unintended Hilarity) of Church Signs, Ed Stetzer. Stetzer posts a few of these every week, sent in via Twitter from his readers. I continue to be amazed at the endless variety expressed in these church sign puns. It’s a skill set all its own.
