Your weekly installment of things we’ve been reading around the web.
Articles of the Week
Tweeting Himself to Death, Justin Taylor. Sammy Rhodes shares what he learned during a hiatus from Twitter:
“In my wildest dreams I never thought I’d have as many followers on Twitter as I did. 130,427 to be exact. But who’s counting? I was. It was my self-worth stock market, and I followed it hard. Counting your followers on Twitter is like counting your money in Monopoly: you know it’s not ultimately worth anything, yet in that moment it feels like everything. Your card may have just been declined at Chipotle, but guess who owns Boardwalk and runs that town like Rihanna and Jay-Z?”
The People Who Challenged My Atheism Most Were Drug Addicts and Prostitutes, Chris Arnade.
“In these last three years, out from behind my computers, I have been reminded that life is not rational and that everyone makes mistakes. Or, in Biblical terms, we are all sinners.
We are all sinners. On the streets the addicts, with their daily battles and proximity to death, have come to understand this viscerally. Many successful people don’t. Their sense of entitlement and emotional distance has numbed their understanding of our fallibility. Soon I saw my atheism for what it is: an intellectual belief most accessible to those who have done well.”
How to Read More in 2014, Al Mohler.
Almost everyone I know would like to read more, but most people just don’t know where or how to start. While we can’t all be Al Mohler, plowing through “several books a week” (wow!), all of us would do well to take to heart his suggestions.
Pornography . . . To Go, Please, Tim Challies.
This article discusses the rise of mobile porn—52 percent of all pornography was on mobile devices in 2013. So what does that mean and why does it matter?
5 Ways To Bomb a Sermon to Young People, Adam Ramsey.
“When I sat down after preaching my first sermon, I felt like I had done a pretty decent job. In reality it was about as smooth as a circle of white guys on the dance floor during happy hour. . . . Unless you’re some sort of prodigy (you’re probably not), the brutal truth is you will likely look back on your first couple hundred sermons as something comparable to the earnest delusion of most American Idol auditions.”
On The Lighter Side
Best of @FakeJDGreear in 2013, Trevin Wax. Legends abound regarding the true mastermind behind the twitter handle, “Fake J.D. Greear.” But in the meantime, let’s just enjoy the frivolity and farce.
