A La Carte (April 25)

Good morning from Fort Worth, Texas. I’m here to speak at the Called to Counsel conference and am looking forward to meeting some of you along the way.

I added some Kindle deals yesterday morning and, as always, will look for more first thing today.

(Yesterday on the blog: Optimistic Denominationalism)

For Everything There is a Seasoning

This is a wonderful piece of writing. “Now that the house was finally empty, it did not take long for silence to rush in and fill that rather large vacuum left by aunts, uncles, grandparents, children of all shapes and sizes, and all manner of distant relations. The silence was welcome for once. In light of the past few weeks I, to some degree, began to understand why Bilbo chose to slip away from his own birthday party in a cloak of invisibility rather than suffer the insufferable commotion that—good intentions aside—friends and family can stir up.”

Influencer Culture Is Toxic for Teenagers

This is a really good article that looks at more than influencer culture and teenagers. There’s lots here to challenge all of us.

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“Why All the TVs? The Death of Attention and Our Loss of Ability to Listen”

“There’s no going back to the ‘good ol’ days.’ Screens are with us whether we like it or not, some for the good and some for the bad. But the people in your life deserve you.” They do, indeed.

On Using (Real) Wine in Communion

If you’ve ever wanted to read a defense of using wine (as in real wine with alcohol in it) during communion, you won’t do much better than this. “The common practice of celebrating the Supper with grape juice or some other form of substitute for alcoholic wine is, to my mind, a serious departure from the biblical pattern.” There’s no harm in reading the argument and being challenged by it.

Evangelism in Ordinary Life

This is a helpful reminder of what evangelism is all about (and how it so often happens in ordinary life).

A Second Chance With the Child We Miss

I’m so glad that Heidi Tai is once again writing some articles. “Perhaps grand parenting is an opportunity to recreate the Tiny Years—to pause to be fully present, to leave no words unspoken, to have one last hug and kiss. Perhaps it’s a way to heal from past regret, to undo old cycles, to love a past version of a child they miss.”

Flashback: Why Do Billionaires Want to Live Forever?

They want more time to search for anything that will satisfy the longing of their hearts—more money, more women, more cars, more mansions, more plaudits, more power.