Wisdom For Your Weekend: your weekly installment of things we’ve been reading around the web.
Podcast of the Week
Eric Garner and the Possibility of Racial Reconciliation, Russell Moore. “We may not agree in this country on every particular case and situation, but it’s high time we start listening to our African American brothers and sisters in this country when they tell us they are experiencing a problem.”
Articles of the Week
Pray for Two Men, Alvin Reid. “I do not know what it is like to have to have two different talks with my son: one about the birds and bees and the other about the shadow cast on the life of a young man in America simply because he is black. But I do know this: I can pray for him. I can encourage him when I see him. I can seek justice for him and his peers, and I can learn from him.”
Everything You Think About Aging May Be Wrong, Anne Tergesen, Wall Street Journal. My apologies for the overly dramatic tone of the title, which sounds more like Buzzfeed than the Wall Street Journal. But this is actually a fascinating article backed by recent research (and with a bunch of fun charts!). Tergesen overturns six of the most common misconceptions about growing old. One of the most surprising: older people are less likely to be lonely.
Thanks, But We Don’t Need a Mrs. Jesus, Maureen Farrell. The market for over-sensationalized books about the “real” Jesus continues to soar, so it’s not surprising to find a new book—The Lost Gospel—touting the same tired line Dan Brown gave us ten years ago: Jesus and Mary were married. (Gasp!) We are right to be suspect of these spurious claims, but Farrell points out that even a splash of heresy like this can point out ways we mischaracterize Jesus. No, Jesus wasn’t married. But he was human, a radical truth that we too quickly overlook.
Ten Ways Successful People Stay Calm, David Murray. I scanned this list looking for “having someone tell you to ‘calm down,’” but it was strangely absent. I (Chris) can’t say I follow all of these very well (especially #2 and #5), but I agree that when I do practice these, life is much less stressful. Take a deep breath and peruse the list.
On The Lighter Side
“Knock Knock…It’s the Interrupting Sheep.” A cute riff on a “dad joke” classic. (Not baaaaaad, if you ask me.)
Wisdom For Your Weekend is presented to you by Chris Pappalardo, with occasional guidance from J.D. Greear. This is our attempt to reflect Proverbs 9:9, “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”
