Today’s weekly find is an article by John Pavlovitz, “The Greatest False Idol Of Modern Evangelical Christianity:”

“You can see it in the way they complain on social media, in the way they comment on the news of the day; in the defeatist, alarmist language that they use as to describe the world. You see it in the way they furrow their brows and throw up their hands and slam their pulpits. It shows-up in the lazy stereotypes and the religious rhetoric that flows so easily in church lobby coffee chats and extremist blog rants…”

What is it, you may ask?

“…The symptoms of Fear Idolatry are pretty easy to spot. When you’re not sure that God is there or that He’ll really come through, you start to spend most of your time defending Him in absentia. You become a self-appointed Crusader of Truth, whose mission is to do the holy work of policing the world (just in case God can’t or won’t). You spend a lot of time calling out evil, forecasting disaster, and predicting damnation.”

To read the entire article, click here to visit Pavlovitz’ blog.

Here are a few more favorites from autumn in the Smokies:

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Fall is my favorite time of year — and the week before Halloween is one of my favorite weeks of the entire year.

This past weekend I visited The Great Smoky Mountains and it was a breathtaking trip. I could write about the beauty of autumn in the mountains of east Tennessee, but pictures speak louder than words.

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For some reason the words to What the World Needs Now has been stuck in my head lately. “What the world needs now, is love, sweet love.”

Faith, hope, love – it’s true, we all need these things, but some of the most sorely needed elements in modern society today are some of the most gloriously underrated. In fact, if you were to try and put together the top five things the world needs, other than peace, they may not even make your list.

I submit to you a short list of the top five things I’d like to submit that the world needs now. Starting with:

1. Kindness

In a world full of road rage, sarcasm, online opinions, individualism and righteous indignation, kindness is a rare virtue.

The internet can be a hateful place. It is not our example. Nor are the snarky sitcom comments that bring laughs at the expense of someone’s humiliation. Or bullying. Or fat-shaming. Or thin-shaming. Or mom-shaming. Or any kind of shaming. The world we’ve created for ourselves in 2015 can be full of impatience, judgment and even cruelty.

What if our first instinct when we encountered a difficult person was kindness, not indignation? In Disney’s 2015 Cinderella, Lily James’s magical mantra is “Have courage, and be kind.”

I’ve never heard truer words spoken from a Disney princess.

To put it another way: Be kind, for everyone you know is fighting a hard battle.

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I was reading this earlier this week and was struck by the beauty of this passage.

Thought of the day, taken from II Corinthians 4:

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God… For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you…

All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

May your thanksgiving this week overflow to the glory of God!

II Corinthians 4:4-16 (NIV)

Interesting post this week, shared by a friend: It’s Complicated: Our Relationship Status with Global Poverty

“Remember when it was funny to list your relationship status on Facebook as “It’s Complicated”? There was always a spec of irony in doing so because, of course, there probably was a bit of underlying conflict at hand. A passive aggressive hint that although the person identified was close, all relationships have an element of messiness. Even the deepest and most well-intentioned ones…If there were ever a “relationship status” to most accurately divulge the essence of this impassioned connection with the cause it is this: It’s Complicated.”

I’ve never heard a truer description of the task at hand. Why, you may ask?

As author David Curtis explains, “Sometimes we are dealing with deep-seated evil in this world. Other times we are confronted with systemic injustice and corruption. And in still more cases we are simply challenged by the oft occasion of people marginalized from opportunity, disconnected from basic human services, and devoid of reasons to hope that any of it will change.”

Great food for thought. You can check out the entire article here on Food for the Hungry’s blog: https://blog.fh.org/2015/08/complicated-relationship-status-global-poverty/

Great post today from Life is Mostly Noise: “Are You Missing out on the Real World?” about the author’s encounter with a child in a coffee shop:

“I had a few options. It was too late to be Northern, which is to avoid eye contact with every human being in the room. I was left with two other choices. I could be polite for a few minutes then cut the conversation off and go work elsewhere, or I could ride it out and see where the conversation took us. I decided to ride it out. As a mother, I wanted to respond the way I want my children treated — with dignity and kindness. I’m glad I did. Often the best lessons are learned at the most inconvenient times, and through the most unlikely individuals…”

You can read the full post here: http://www.lifeismostlynoise.com/realworld/

Thanks to Lydia for a great blog. Happy Friday!

Sometimes there are verses too rich and lovely not to be shared. Today’s thought is taken from Hebrews 12:

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy…

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned. The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands on thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Continue reading…

Every now and then I run into truths that need to be taken out of the closet and re-examined. Today’s post is a good example of that, #TBT from December 2012. Things you think you know, but keep forgetting:

My pastor once gave a fantastic sermon on marriage, in which he preached on the power of expectation. The problem, he argued, is when we come to expect certain things from our spouse – cleaning the house, fixing a car, grocery shopping, cooking dinner, mowing the lawn – and they become “required” or assumed. When these things become expected, he pointed out, the spouse can no longer show their love by doing them. When it’s taken for granted that a husband is going to work long hours to support his family, he can no longer show his love by doing it – he can only break even in his wife’s eyes. Likewise, when a wife is expected to cook the meals, wash the clothes, clean the house, etc., bathing the kids is no longer seen as an act of love, but a duty. Showing love, therefore becomes, “…and then what?” Sure you’ve done all that, but what are you going to do on top of that to show me that you love me? Continue reading…

Having traveled internationally, I’m sometimes asked how I feel about being American – specifically, our place in the world. The person asking is usually genuinely curious, looking for a political answer or hoping to dispel negative press they’ve heard in the news.

My thoughts on this are usually a lot simpler than what they are expecting. In honor of July 4^th, I give you those thoughts.

If you are an American, you have freedom of speech, press, assembly, religion and the right to bear arms. Some countries don’t have one of those, and you have all five.

You vote on your leaders.

Your rights are protected.

You have access to clean water.

Education is mandatory, and literacy is seen as a basic right.

Government corruption still makes headlines. Continue reading…