Law, Grace, & Daily Living

Happy Friday! Here’s some good news, gospel implications, and random reflections to cap off your week. Enjoy!

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Why Are We In A Rush?

Here’s a New York Times article that considers some of the reasoning behind why we can’t stop rushing all the time…

We rush because we’re late. We also rush because we want to move quickly away from discomfort. We rush to come up with solutions to problems that would benefit from more sustained consideration. We rush into obligations or decisions or relationships because we want things settled.

Worrying is a kind of rushing: It’s uncomfortable to sit in a state of uncertainty, so we fast-forward the tape, accelerating our lives past the present moment into fearsome imagined scenarios.

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No Twerking on the Dance Floor…

A Christian pop-up nightclub in Nashville provides a unique approach to sanctified entertainment…

The young crowd at a Nashville nightclub was ready to dance under the strobe lights to a throbbing mix of hip-hop, rap and Latin beats. But first they gathered to pray and praise God.

The rules were announced on the dance floor by a mic-carrying emcee to more than 200 clubgoers blanketed by thick smoke machine fog: “Rule No. 1: No twerking. Second rule: No drinking. And a third rule: No smoking.” The last unspoken rule seemed obvious by then: No secular music — the playlist would be all Christian.

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No Strings Attached

Here’s a powerful story surrounding the issue of reparations from a grace-centered perspective…

In 1939, the Dongs, a Chinese American family in Coronado, California, found themselves unable to rent a house amid racially restrictive housing laws that favored white buyers and renters.

Emma and Gus Thompson, a Black entrepreneurial couple in town, allowed the family to rent and eventually buy their Coronado property when nobody else would. Now, to thank the Thompsons for helping them get a toehold in American society, the Dongs are donating $5 million to Black college students using proceeds from the sale of the house...

Amid the backdrop of a national conversation about reparations, this isn’t a story about atonement and repair, said Kevin Ashley, a Coronado historian. The Thompsons’ gesture was a transaction with no strings attached; the Dongs didn’t have anything to pay back.

Instead, Ashley said, the story is about honoring and recognizing the enduring impact of one family’s will to help another get ahead. As the country continues to debate the merits and logistics of reparations for its history of chattel slavery, the Dong family’s decision to give back to the Black community could serve as an example…

For another example of grace-in-practice as it concerns the issue of reparations, be sure to also catch the documentary, The Cost of Inheritance, which examines a concerted effort on the part of the church to acknowledge and redress the sins of the past.

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PBS Newshour Highlights

My favorite evening ritual entails surrounding myself with world news via the PBS Newshour for a full hour. Admittedly, sometimes it’s just background noise I absorb while I actively scroll through my social media feed, but there are definitely times in which I am fully engrossed in the programming. This story is must-view about a journalist who found what he described as a ‘second life’ in the midst of a harrowing cancer diagnosis. The PBS Newshour’s Nick Schifrin interviewed Rod Nordland about his latest memoir and about “facing death and his discovery of a grace and love that he had never felt before.” The entire 8 minute segment is worth your time…

Additional PBS Newshour stories I would recommend include this review of Prophet Song, this review of Exvangelicals, and this story about the Church on 8 Wheels…This synopsis says it all, ‘David Miles Jr., known as “The Godfather of Skate,” has been the driving force behind the roller skating scene in the Bay Area of California for the past four decades. He’s known for making skating accessible through the Church of 8 Wheels, a funky roller rink in an old church. ‘

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Is Love Really Blind?

A recent review of the popular Netflix show Love Is Blind considers its unfortunate blind spots (sorry, I couldn’t help it, lol). Consider this quote from the article which you can read here.

I think it’s time we call it: ‘Love is not blind’. Or if it is, the Netflix series Love Is Blind is not proving it to be so. Additionally, love is not self-aware, it is not reliable, it cannot get with your friends; love is not forthcoming about its credit score, or the fact that it has roommates; it is not in therapy despite talking about definitely wanting to get into therapy; love is not mature, it is not honest, it cannot look up from its phone for a serious conversation; love is not ready to be a stepparent, even though it’s not going to come out and say that. Love is, very much, a product of generational trauma. Love will get dirty martini drunk and say the most outlandish s**t you’ve ever heard in your life. Love is maybe, in the end, just here for the Jet Skis...

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The Beatles Song Prince Hated…

I got a kick out of this headline indicating there was a Beatles song the legendary musician Prince called ‘demonic’. According to American Songwriter, had this to say about the song, ‘Free as a Bird‘…

“That’s the most demonic thing imaginable,” said Prince in 1998 of using technology to manipulate songs. “Everything is as it is, and it should be. If I was meant to jam with Duke Ellington, we would have lived in the same age. That whole virtual reality thing. It really is demonic. And I am not a demon.”

Prince added, “What they did with that Beatles song [‘Free As a Bird’], “manipulating John Lennon’s voice to have him singing from across the grave, that’ll never happen to me. To prevent that kind of thing from happening is another reason why I want artistic control.”

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Low Anthropology in Music…

Aliah Sheffield has officially become my new favorite artist. If low anthropology had a theme song, it would be her track, Anti Hero. Noteworthy is the line, ‘Every now and then, the villains sound like preachers‘. The title of her latest album on which you can find this track, These Songs are for Anyone Sick of Earth pretty much says it all…(cf. John 12:25).

I’m only human and I’m bound to let you down
Don’t put me on a pedestal don’t crown me with no crown
I make mistakes sometimes I don’t make the best decisions
But like they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions

I’m not the hero and I’m really not the good guy
Sometimes the villains have it right and I find myself on their side…

If you ain’t disappointin’ people, you just ain’t been living…

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Rituals for Reducing Screentime

Have you heard of Emodiversity? Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton is the author of The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions. In a recent post from Mashable, Norton discusses the concept of emodiversity which refers to rituals we can implement to help guard against overindulging in our smart devices…

For many of us, the word “ritual” has a lot of weighty significance to it. A religious ceremony, an unshakeable family tradition, or hallowed cultural rite might come to mind…rituals needn’t be age-old practices imbued with meaning. Instead, we can and should create our own, out of small but emotionally powerful acts. Even drinking the same tea from a beloved mug every day can have the power to boost our well-being. While habits and rituals are closely linked, there’s a key difference. A habit is something people do because they must, such as brushing their teeth or showering. A ritual contains more meaning. It can be how someone gets ready for the day, like the order in which they brush teeth and shower. That person may feel “off”, somehow, if the two activities switch places...

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Addicted to Having Babies…

Here’s an interesting piece from The Telegraph documenting the women who are addicted to having babies…who knew? According to the article,

Experts argue that the reasons for pursuing a large family can be more complex and, often, worrying.

“When it’s not financially viable, it wasn’t the plan, all the existing children feel like they have a place and yet there is still this compulsive need to keep going and having more children, it may be time to question why,” says the clinical psychologist Dr Amber Johnston.

“From a neuropsychology perspective, that can be about trying to fulfil unmet needs that are normally based in childhood experiences, particularly involving attachment issues or love that has never quite been felt.”

Another part of parenthood that some women find hard to leave behind is the feeling of being ‘needed’ after years of running to hungry newborns and coughing toddlers. When children grow up and require their mother’s presence less, that can – for some – be deeply unsettling.

While most mothers will fill that gap by clawing back a little of their pre-baby life – returning to yoga or taking on more work – some will instead return repeatedly to the baby starting line to fend off the inevitable.

“As children need you less, you may find you have lost a sense of purpose,” says the family counsellor Matthew Adam. “Then there’s a thought: ‘I know how I can create that sense of purpose. By having another child.’”

“It’s the same in women who love being pregnant,” says Adam. “The identity of being a pregnant woman may stop you having to answer the question of who you are on the other side.”

It’s a concern as it suggests the loss of other parts of an identity, outside of being a mother.

“If we feel something is missing, we may try and find it by doing more of the same and having another baby,” says Dr Johnston. “In reality, it may be better to look at other parts of your identity. Making more connections with other women who you go out with may be a better way of filling that space than doing the same thing again and again with more children.”

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Stephen King

What? Say it ain’t so…the master of horror himself has identified the one film he finds too terrifying to watch. According to an Indy100 article, Mr. King found 1999’s The Blair Witch Project too intense to view in its entirety…

Stephen was that taken aback by the film he even wrote about it in a 2010 republish of his book Danse Macabre, a non-fiction book about horror fiction in print, TV, radio, film and comics.

“One thing about Blair Witch: the damn thing looks real. Another thing about the Blair Witch: the damn thing feels real,” he wrote.

“And because it does, it’s like the worst nightmare you ever had, the one you woke rom gasping and crying with relief because you thought you were buried alive and it turned out the cat jumped up on your bed and went to sleep on your chest.”

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‘Jesus Take the Wheel’…Really?

When you have a synergistic view of sanctification…

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Extra! Extra!

And here’s a list of articles that didn’t make the cut this week. They are yet worth your time perusing though. Have a good weekend…

• A substack known as The Honest Broker considers the recent SXSW event at which the audience booed AI…
• An HBCU graduate struggles with the challenges of being broke while trying to recover the level of community that had sustained her during her college years. That community mattered more to her than money says a lot…that she has resolved to cling to whatever semblance of community she can find says even more…
• The Guardian considers why Millennials are giving up on the proverbial ‘rat race’.
• The New York Times profiles a story about a Brooklyn Sex Club in which the boundaries of ‘freedom’, ‘consent’, ‘license’, and rape unfortunately became confused.
• Another New York Times piece challenges you to consider whether you are using right toothpaste.
• A GQ Interview with productivity expert Cal Newport considers ‘How to Do More by Doing Less (and Doing It Better).
• The Telegraph reports on a Church of England Archdeacon who recently called for ‘Anti Whiteness’.
• A NPR article covers a new trend replacing dystopian fiction. Somewhere between the ideal of the ‘utopia’ and the macabre realm of dystopia, Kathryn Murdoch challenges us to consider the newly minted genre of ‘protopia’ fiction.
• An Esquire article asks us to consider, Is “Doomslang” Making Us All Numb?