Coffee 3.0
“O Lord, make me know my end and the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting our lives are.”
King David, Psalm 39:4
Happy Friday,
Perhaps this passage hits hard because I’m about to turn 65 – and thus only able to consider myself middle-aged if I plan to live into my 130s. But I am increasingly aware of how short life is and want to make it count. Please Lord, teach me to number my days, and to invest what you have entrusted to me in ways that reflect your heart and will.
Overheard
1) If your theology does not bless your neighbor, something’s wrong with it.
2) Many who admit that gadgets diminish attention spans are unwilling to admit (even to themselves) that they avoid thinking about what really matters because doing so is unsettling.
3) It’s not just that ideas have consequences, it’s that bad ideas have victims.
4) We need to kill sin before it kills us.
5) If we want to be joyful, we need to serve others.
WOTW
Honorable mention goes to age-gating (Open AI’s strategy to regulate porn on an age continuum), self-partnered (Emma Watson’s description of her relationship status – i.e., “do not call her single”), Grok (the term Elon Musk lifted from Robert A. Heinlein’s 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land – where Grok referred to something you understand so deeply that it becomes part of you. Musk first used it as the name of his conversational AI model developed by xAI. He is now also using it as he launches Grokipedia – which he claims will be 10X more powerful than Wikipedia and free from Wikipedia’s ideological bent), consanguinity (marriage between descendants of the same ancestor, the use of which has spiked after it was noted that 55% of British Pakistanis are married to a first cousin). Full honors go to de-skilling (a catchall term used in this Atlantic piece to describe “the rot” teachers are seeing as more students depend on “AI aid.”)
Amazing
Having just returned from Turkey – AKA: Türkiye, Asia Minor, the home of the Seven Churches in Revelation and the birthplace of the Nicene Creed – I was drawn to this sound track created by Stanford acoustical engineers curious about what it would have sounded like to sing in the Hagia Sophia before it was converted to a mosque (and carpeted) in the 1400s.
Coffee 3.0
Speaking of Turkey — and thinking of Turkish Coffee — coffee-ophiles keep sending in their related quips: 1) Don't let anyone tell you that fairy tales aren't real. I drink a potion made from magic beans every day, and it brings me back to life; 2) "I have a genetic defect whereby my body does not produce caffeine, so I have to supplement"; and 3) touch my coffee and I will slap you so hard even Google won’t be able to find you.
Noteworthy
1) Charles Murray is the latest public intellectual to renounce his faith in atheism. The no-stranger-to-controversy, Harvard-trained political scientist explains his spiritual journey in this WSJ piece.
2) Speaking of Harvard, HBS professor Arthur Brooks’ latest book argues that boredom is good for you. (I hope you’re not self-medicating with this newsletter.)
3) Even NPR is now noting that we face an under- (not over-) population threat.
Quotes Worth Requoting
1) “The modern world has divided itself into conservatives and progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected.” — G. K. Chesterton
2) “I’m an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” — Mark Twain
3) “People often care about belonging more than they care about accuracy. We don’t always believe things because they are factually correct. In many cases, we cling to beliefs that make us look good to the people we care about.” — James Clear
Without Comments
1) Fueled by frustration among D’s, trust in the media has fallen 15 more pts to a 53-year low.
2) According to this report, the average U.S. retirement now lasts more than 20 years.
3) Per this study, “reading for pleasure” in the U.S. has fallen 40% over the last 20 years, and over 30% of British adults have “given up reading altogether.”
4) The gap between those who think the U.S. is going in the wrong direction — which is 92% of Ds and 24% of Rs — has never been wider.
5) Given the rise in the price of cocoa beans, Halloween is likely to be more expensive and less chocolate-y this year.
5) A new study suggests that 40% of drivers who died in car accidents over the last six years have elevated levels of THC — pot’s psychoactive ingredient.
6) Nvidia just became the world’s first $5Tn company.
7) In 2025, the global number of people belonging to the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) (17.51M) surpassed the global number of Jews (15.8M).
Resources
1) Here is my latest sermon on Revelation, which is on a passage that fuels hope and resilience.
2) Here is my interview with Justin Brierley. In addition to being a best-selling author and popular podcaster, Brierley has facilitated hundreds of debates between some of the world’s most prominent advocates for the Christian faith (John Lennox, William Lane Craig, Alister McGrath, etc.) and of some of the world’s most prominent skeptics (Richard Dawkins, Tom Holland, Bart Ehrman, etc.). His most recent book, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God, was one of the earliest to note the global pivot towards faith.
3) I’m interviewing Rusty Reno, the editor of First Things and the author of several books, this Thursday (Nov. 6th) for a Lakelight event. You can join us online or in Lake Forest. Register here.
Closing Prayer
“Lord! Going out from this silence, teach me to be more alert, humble, expectant, than I have been in the past: ever ready to encounter you in quiet, homely ways: in every appeal to my compassion, every act of unselfish love which shows up and humbles my imperfect love, may I recognize you: still walking through the world. Give me that grace of simplicity which alone can receive your mystery. Come and abide with me! Meet me, walk with me! Enlighten my mind! And then, come in! Enter my humble life with its poverty and its limitations as you entered the stable of Bethlehem, the workshop of Nazareth, the cottage of Emmaus. Bless and consecrate the material of that small and ordinary life. Feed and possess my soul. Amen.” (Evelyn Underhill, 1975-1941)
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