Two Ants
“So all the people went to Gilgal and made Saul king in the presence of the Lord. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before the Lord, and Saul and all the Israelites held a great celebration.”
1 Samuel 11:15
Happy Friday,
It is hard to imagine a faster rise to a higher perch.
One day Saul was a nobody from a second tier tribe; the next, he’s king of Israel. Alas, what happened next was his decades-long descent that earned him a place alongside Moses, Gideon, Samson, David, Solomon, Judas, Hezekiah, etc., etc. on the list of leaders who showed promise but ended poorly.
The Bible is quite candid about its heroes—perhaps because it never intended them to be the Hero.
good news
There’s never been a safer time to be born than today.
(BTW, while the Update has sported a typo or two, I’m using the small “g” and small “n” on purpose. I’m highlighting the difference between good news and The Good News.)
College Rankings
I used to whine that newspaper coverage of Higher Ed was limited to the sports page. Now I wish that were still true.
Between grade and tuition inflation, not-to-be-believed courses, DEI deans, inane congressional testimony and about fifty other things, I’d like to limit my higher-ed news to stories about Alabama football losses.
We’ve come a long way since Harvard’s 1646 “Rules and Precepts” instructed students that “the main end” of their lives and studies was “to know God and Jesus Christ”—and “to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.”
Today’s Question
Will my dog go to heaven? As more people opt for pets over babies, this question is coming up more often. I appreciate the late Billy Graham’s answer. When asked this question by a little girl, he said,
“God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes your dog being there, I believe he’ll be there.”
Without Comment
1) The U.S. Debt now exceeds 40T – roughly $117K for every citizen.
2) The University of Chicago – which accepted ~40% of its applicants in ’06 - now accepts 4%.
3) Self-identified conservatives have—on average—1.4 kids while self-identified liberals are having only 1.09, according to the Institute for Family Studies.
4) For the first time in decades, more men attend church than women, with the attendance gap widest among Gen Z.
5) HBD to Winnie-the-Pooh, who just turned 100.
6) A Chinese robot named Lightning just beat Usain Bolt’s 100-meter sprint record.
7) The average U.S. wedding now costs $36K, with 40% of that going to the reception venue and catering.
8) 53% of engaged or married Americans under 45 signed a prenup - up from 41% of Gen Z and 34% of millennials in a comparable ‘22 survey.
9) The number of U.S. abortions – which declined for most of the 2010s – started ticking up just prior to Dobbs and has continued climbing since then.
Overheard
1) We love ourselves more than other people, but we often care more about their opinions than we do our own.
2) We’re not expected to cite the Bible when it's convenient, but to obey it when it's not.
3) You will never be as young as you are right now.
4) Few people want to be a saint nowadays but everyone wants to lose weight.
5) The plural of anecdote is not data.
6) It’s become quite popular to diss institutions, which not only makes them less stable, it makes leading them much harder.
7) Few liberal parents send their kids off to college worried they’ll return home a conservative by Thanksgiving.
8) In a dysfunctional family, the black sheep is often the healthy one.
Two Ants
I do not have a WOTW, but I do want to highlight Two Ants, which is now being used around AI.
The idea is that, just as discovering two ants in your kitchen means there are more about, discovering two incidents of an AI program jumping its boundaries or hiding information means it’s done it more than twice.
The Great Moon Hoax
One hundred ninety one years ago this month, the New York Sun reported that an astronomer had discovered “winged humans, unicorns and intelligent beavers” living on the moon. Circulation of the paper soared.
Those silly, gullible people. I’m so glad no one believes crazy news stories today.
Quotes Worth Requoting
1) "Americans got the idea of equality from Christianity, which argues that every person has a divinely created soul, and that all souls are equal before God. However, if we do not believe in the Christian myths about God, creation and souls, what does it mean that all people are equal?" — the atheist Yuval Noah Harari
2) “The common denominator of those who emerge from significant poverty is friendship with someone not in significant poverty.” — Hal Donaldson, President of Convoy of Hope.
Resources
1) Click here to hear my second sermon in The Greatest Story Ever Told series. It’s an overview of Genesis 3—the chapter that explains why the world is such a mess.
2) Click here to watch a 90-second video promoting Lakelight’s Sept. 21 event on anxiety. It features Dr. Warren Kinghorn and you can sign up for the free event (live or remote) here.
Closing Prayer
"Most gracious Father, we most humbly beseech you for your holy church. Fill it with all truth; in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purge it; where it is in error, direct it; where anything is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen and confirm it; where it is in need, furnish it; where it is divided and torn apart, make up its breaches, O holy One of Israel. Amen.” (William Laud - 1573-1645)
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P.S.
If TFU has become part of your Friday rhythm—and you’d like to help us out—then send it to a friend. Preferably one who reads. But we’re trying to be hospitable.
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