Wisdom For Your Weekend: your weekly installment of things we’ve been reading (and watching) around the web.
Free Books of the Week
700 Free Audio Books, Open Culture. Okay, so they’re just audiobooks. But those are real books, too! Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Victor Hugo, C.S. Lewis, Edgar Allen Poe, William Shakespeare, and (of course) Dr. Seuss. Not a bad lineup, plus hundreds of others. Now you have one fewer excuse for not brushing up on those classics.
Articles of the Week
12 Benefits of Waking Up an Hour Earlier (on Monday–Friday), Chuck Lawless. I (Chris) get up before the sun does on most days. It’s not my favorite experience in the world, but the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, as Lawless enumerates here. Maybe you’ve tried waking up early before and needed a little more motivation. Well, here you go. Maybe you’ve never even considered it. Well, you should! (As a side note, I’m sure there’s a “12 Benefits” post out there defending going to bed an hour earlier. Extra credit on the exam for whoever finds it.)
The Downward Spiral of My Discontent, Melissa Kruger. We’ve all been there—or most of us, at least. Life is getting out of hand, things just aren’t breaking our way, and to top it off, we’re shaming ourselves for our own lack of contentment in the midst of it all. Minor frustrations get under our skins, but the moment we realize how minor they are, we start to pummel ourselves with guilt. Is a crack in my windshield enough for me to doubt God’s goodness to me? And downward the spiral proceeds. Kruger describes the spiral better than anyone, and even offers some hope for those of us who want out.
Five Prayers to Pray for Your Husband, Tish Hedger. There isn’t much reason these rich (yet brief) prayers need to be restricted specifically for husbands. They seem to be important prayers for just about anyone in your life that you love and want to grow closer to Christ. (And if you’re a distracted pray-er like some of the rest of us, it can only help to have some tracks to run on.)
Why This Election Makes Me Hate the Word “Evangelical,” Russell Moore. Words have always been fluid, shifting and changing as language grows. So it’s not surprising that a nice word like “evangelical” doesn’t seem to mean what it used to. But for many people, it wasn’t clear just how confusing the word was until this current election cycle. People began calling themselves “evangelical” because they wanted to communicate that they truly believed the gospel (in Greek, the “evangel”) and all it entails. That’s not the case for self-proclaimed “evangelicals” anymore. So what are we to do with this slippery word?
On The Lighter Side
Fix Your Grammar, Glove and Boots. “The internet needs a refresher course on words and what they mean. And we’re here to help.” Even if you insist on continuing to use “literally” figuratively, you’ll probably find this amusing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ2SHSg5rIY
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.”
