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The hour is coming when we shall be astonished to think what mere trifles were once capable of discouraging us.

—John Newton

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Many aspects of the Christian faith perplex me. Many aspects cut hard against the way I naturally think the world ought to work. If the Lord had charged me with helping him to design the Christian faith, I would undoubtedly have suggested he do many things differently. I would have been wrong, of course, but I am self-assured enough that I probably would still have argued my point.

Let me offer an example. One of the aspects of the Christian faith that I find particularly perplexing is the freedom God gives his people to obey him in different or even opposite ways, so that one person’s obedience is another person’s disobedience. Even as two people take the same action, one might be obeying him and the other disobeying him.

For example, the person who believes it is wrong to eat meat that has been sacrificed to an idol honors God when he refuses it and dishonors God when he eats it. Yet the person who believes it is acceptable to eat meat that has been sacrificed to an idol dishonors God when he refuses it and honors God when he eats it. Two people can take opposite actions and both honor the Lord as they do so. (See Romans 14)

Similarly, the one who is convinced from Scripture that God requires him to baptize the children of believers honors God when he baptizes those babies and dishonors him when he refuses. Yet the one who is convinced from Scripture that God requires him to baptize only professed believers honors God when he declines to baptize infants and dishonors him if he shrugs his shoulders and baptizes them anyway. The same is true for those who believe the Lord calls his people to sing only Psalms or to sing only without the use of instrumentation. The same is true when it comes to using or not using wine in the Lord’s Supper, celebrating or not celebrating holy days, and so on. 

If I had been in charge of designing and codifying the Christian faith, I would have created something like a systematic theology, except that I would have put Grudem to shame by making it a hundred times longer. It would account for every context, answer every question, and address every eventuality. It would plainly state exactly what Christians are to believe in every possible matter and precisely how Christians are to behave in every possible situation. It would be exhaustive, and undoubtedly exhausting. Through its innumerable volumes, it would press Christians to be exactly the same, assuming that the more Christians look like one another in their convictions and practice, the more they look like Jesus. I would gauge my success as a codifier by the degree of uniformity I saw in the church, whether in matters great or small, critical or mundane. 

But that is not the book God has given us, and here’s what I find so surprising about the Christian faith: To conform to Christ, we do not need to conform to one another. In fact, to truly conform to Christ, we must not conform to one another in every way. Why not? Because God means for his people to reflect some degree of variety, and that variety is related to culture, conscience, and a host of other factors. We are to live the Christian faith in light of the setting we inhabit, in light of our theological understanding, and in light of the development of our conscience, not someone else’s. And this means that what is sinful to one person may be God-honoring to another, and vice versa.

Yet it’s important to state that God is no relativist. In each of these matters there is an objective truth and error or right and wrong. God either intends for babies to be baptized or intends baptism for those who profess faith. It can’t be both, because the positions contradict one another. Either God permits the use of instrumentation in worship or he does not, and again, it can’t be both, for while God may permit both A and B, he cannot permit both A and not-A.

And yet, God allows us to live and worship in ways that are different from one another, provided we draw our convictions from Scripture and carefully tend and heed a Spirit-informed conscience. The upshot is this: You can conform to Christ even if you do not conform to me, and I can conform to Christ even if I do not conform to you. We can both conform to Christ even as we do not conform to one another. It’s perplexing, but it’s true. It’s perplexing, but it must be good, because this is how God tells us we honor one another and, in that way, honor him.

Good morning. Today’s A La Carte has articles on prayer, bringing your whole self to work, selfless service, and more. You’ll also find some interesting news headlines down toward the bottom. I hope you enjoy it all!

The man who has once fallen under strong temptation, and has been mercifully lifted up by the divine arm, should not only walk more carefully; he should use his experience for the warning of others.

—Theodore Cuyler

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The God of love and peace be with you today, my friends. Thanks for reading today’s A La Carte!

It’s not His way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present.

—J.I. Packer

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This week, the blog is sponsored by Missionary.com, and this article was written by Mark Dever. Dever will be joining John Piper, Kevin DeYoung, Michael Reeves, and many others at this year’s Missionary Conference in Dallas-Fort Worth. Registration is now open.

In our church, we have a service review every Sunday night where we get the staff and interns together and try to go over the core seminar classes, the Sunday school classes, the morning service, the evening service, the prayers, the hymns and service, the sermons. We’re trying to model four things: giving godly criticism, giving godly encouragement, receiving godly criticism, and receiving godly encouragement.

I think the most advanced test is receiving godly encouragement, to not to be confused by it. Especially when it comes to the powerful important topic of sharing the gospel with those who’ve never heard, we tend to idolize success, apparent success. We know that the Great Commission will succeed (Revelation 5 & 7). There is no doubt. What His word is purposed to do, it’ll bring about. The question that I want us to consider is: how will this happen? What will success in the Great Commission look like? 

Here are six counsels for you to think of, note down, and meditate on.

1. Question Current Norms

First, let’s learn to patiently question current norms. For example, the other day I was lovingly told by a dear Christian brother that our goal in the Great Commission is to make disciples. Making disciples is certainly good, it is certainly commanded, but we have to be very careful. We need to look at the apparent agreement we have and ask a few questions. I think it’s sometimes harder for us to remain faithful through half-truths presented as the whole truth, as J. I. Packer used to warn us about, than it is for us to deal with complete untruths. 

I remember what John Owen said once: “I would rather meet a hundred devils roaring than one smiling.” I think I know what he means – when somebody seems to agree with you and yet events expose the fact that they really don’t. We need God’s help, His Spirit to help us see the truth, to discern. My friend deployed the phrase “making disciples” in distinction from and possibly in opposition to planting good churches. But what I understand from the witness of the New Testament, from what the men who heard the Great Commission did in Acts, what they wrote about, is that they were planting churches in order to obey the Lord Jesus’s Commission. 

2. Define Terms

Another way to be faithful stewards of this gospel going forward around the world is to define our terms. Now, I have found by personal experience that this exercise is not the way for you to become popular. It is seen by some as the nerds crashing the jocks’ party. The jocks know what they’re doing, they don’t want to waste time defining it. But I would suggest that a little time spent in definition can bear lots of fruit. There are plenty of good examples of words I’ve seen used significantly differently than we might assume. Words like gospel, Christian, church, missions, conversion, elder, conversion, and others.

Do you assume when somebody else says they “affirm the gospel,” that they mean what you mean by it? I remember once being in a group of pastors gathered from around the country and different denominations to settle some issues on the doctrine of the church. After a morning’s conversation, I went up to the guy who was leading it and I said, “You know, I think it would probably be a good thing if we would just define the word gospel.” And he kind of laughed at me and said, “Well, we don’t need to do it. We all agree on that.” I said, “If we all agree on it, it won’t take long.”

So after the break, he invited us to go up to the whiteboard. Immediately, as soon as someone wrote down a weak starting point, the criticism started. In about five minutes, it was like we were at the Tower of Babel. That was on “the gospel” with a room full of seminary presidents, denominational leaders, bishops, and pastors all calling themselves evangelical. 

Brothers and sisters, define your terms. Make sure you know what you’re talking about.

3. Make Distinctions

Let me suggest, especially in terms of missions, that we distinguish long-term work from short term work.

I say that with real appreciation for short-term work. Our church regularly has short-term mission trips going out. But endeavors that don’t result in sound healthy reproducing churches are generally supplementary. There’s nothing wrong with that. But we believe work that results in healthy multiplying churches is something we need to be able to discuss clearly and distinctly without meaning any offense to others. Matt Rhode’s book No Shortcut to Success offers some useful guidance in that area.

Some methodologists have made distinctions like this seem insignificant. Charles Van Engen, in his 1996 volume Missions on the Way, wrote that “to confess with one’s mouth and believe in one’s heart that Jesus is Lord—that is all there is. Nothing else really matters. All else is to be held lightly. Everything else is negotiable.” That sounds good to modern American evangelicals, but if we want to be sensitive to the revelation God has given of Himself in His word, we’ll find there are many things that are not essential for salvation, but that might be essential for us to be able to have a church together or to go on a missions trip, like Paul and Barnabas found out when they wanted to take Mark. These aren’t unimportant matters. They’re not essential for salvation, but they’re still significant. 

This kind of “essentialism,” the belief that all that matters is what’s essential for salvation, is actually a small island that’s always making itself smaller until it shrinks and vanishes. You defend what God has in His word. What He has revealed, He has a reason for revealing. 

4. Listen to the End of the Great Commission

Resolve to listen to the end of the Great Commission, the sort of “lost dimension” of the Great Commission. 

In Matthew 28, you see the alls: We tend to concentrate on the “all nations.” It’s a great thing to concentrate on, but we don’t know the other alls as much: “all authority,” “observe all that I’ve commanded you,” and “I am with you always.” I want you to notice that “always to the end of the age” seems to presume that the work we’re to be involved in is work that is not of a passing nature. The work of seeing churches established will endure until Christ returns.

The quality of the work is related to the goal of the work. What we want to see in our own churches, is what we ought to desire in our missions. When somebody buys a house owned by a builder who built it for himself, that’s a good sign. The buyer knows the house will be well-built. That’s what we want our churches to be like. That’s what we want for the churches that we establish. We want them to be solid and well-built. 

Brothers and sisters, human strategies are often fads. They come and they go. God’s evangelism plan is the local church. If we can see what the New Testament teaches us about the local church, we’ll know that it’s the love that we have for one another – that interior work of the church – that is used by God’s Spirit evangelistically. That’s how the world will know Christ. The world will know that you are mighty disciples by the love you have for one another (John 13:34–35). Sometimes we see the fruit and sometimes we don’t. Know that as you share the gospel with your kids who don’t seem to respond to it, at least right now. Know that when you’re sharing the gospel with friends or neighbors who seem unresponsive. Charles Bridges said, “The seed may lie under the clods till we lie there, and then spring up.” We like immediately visible results, but God has a different timetable. God will sometimes use us, call us home, and then keep the work going with others. We need to trust him with that, and establish our churches toward that end.

5. Fund the Good Stuff

This is a simple one but an important one. Let’s fund the good stuff. 

Pastors, I need you to get involved with your church missions committee. I need you to get involved with your church missions budget. Please take some of the theological acumen that you bring from your study of God’s word to your sermons and apply it to the missions work that you support too. Have you seen what the people who you’re giving your dollars to are actually doing? Have you weighed up and evaluated not merely their own personal sacrifices, but what it is specifically they’re doing on the field? You should be leading and encouraging your elders to do exactly that. Encourage them to be the main leaders in searching out good missions to be able to get behind with your money and your emphasis and your leadership. 

In our church we spend money on sending our pastors to visit our missionaries. It’s very useful (Acts 15:36). But at the same time, in our church, we’ve found spending money to advance the gospel is, frankly, a challenge. I’ve been wrestling with Romans 10:14: “How then will they call on him and whom they have not believed and how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And now how are they to hear without someone preaching and how is someone to preach unless they are sent?” And I’ve had to ask, as Capitol Hill Baptist Church, do we send people to preach to those who’ve never heard? Well, yes, in terms of individuals. But, in terms of reaching an unreached language? No, I’ve been there for 30 years, and I’m not sure we’ve directly sent anyone to do that, and I’m not proud of it.

Pray for us, as a church, that we would see the missions work that we are involved with prosper, and that we would recover a concern for, and an ability to reach unreached languages. And I would likewise challenge you to look at your own church’s mission’s budget. See what you’re supporting. If we want to send, we have to spend.

6. Treasure Personal Obedience

Teach your congregation to esteem, even to treasure, personal obedience, even small obedience. 

“And he said, with what can we compare the kingdom of God or what parables shall we use for it? It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which when sewn on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sewn, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” (Mark 4:30).

The contrast between the smallness of the seed and the largeness of the plant is striking. The point is not simply that the kingdom of God will be great. Everybody knew the kingdom of God would be great. The surprise is that the kingdom of God could appear insignificant. 

Even so, it appeared at the time to be an exceedingly insignificant movement composed of an itinerant rabbi and a varying band of hangers-on, hardly a movement to shake the world, let alone to shape it. Surely there must be some more obvious means of growing a kingdom – the media, the academy, the military, the marketplace, politics, or multiplying disciple making movements. But Jesus already faced that temptation at the beginning of his earthly ministry. Satan had said, worship me and I’ll give you all the nations of the earth. Instead, Jesus looked over that small band of disciples and said, I’ll take them instead. Surely we can sympathize with the incredulity of the disciples. Surely if we wanted some way to affect the world, we could find something more powerful than preaching, than sowing seed.

Any seed looks insignificant the day you plant it, but then it grows and how it grows. And this seed, the word of God, is particularly prolific. This parable was to cause the disciples to look to the future when they could imagine it being the largest plant, and to reinterpret the present in light of that future. When we do this, we begin to see what God is doing, not only with you and me, but with all creation. You begin to want to be a part of it. Pastors, teach your people this. Teach them to treasure the small specific obedience that will shape the ultimate gospel victory.

The Will and Wisdom to Send and Go

In 1857, from Prince Edward Island in Canada, came young George Gordon with his young wife, Ellen, to take the gospel message to the island people of the South Pacific. They landed on the island of Erromango, an island already well known for producing some of the first missionary martyrs. Gordon spent time learning their language. He shared his medical skills and established a good reputation for the new religion that he brought. He established a school for the people. He gave most of his time to translating the Bible into the language of the people. He felt that this was the longest lasting service he could render the people of Erromango. Though threatened and repeatedly told to leave the island, Gordon resolved that to do great things a man must live as though he never had to die. 

After four years of living there, on May the 20th, 1861, George Gordon was murdered, and then mere minutes later, his wife Ellen was as well.  When the news of the martyrdom reached George’s aged and sightless mother, she cried out “my son, my son,” and she wept. He had a younger brother, James. James was studying for the ministry. When the news came to him, he was plowing on the family farm. He immediately sent in an application to the mission board. He asked that he might be sent to take his brother’s place in Erromango and preach the message of forgiveness and love to his brother’s murderers. He knew that even his brother’s death had not ended God’s plan for the gospel to go to the Erromangans. 

In fact, James did see the fruit of the gospel on Erromango. But in the strange providence of God, James too was martyred there. News of the martyrdom reached Canada, and at first they were afraid to tell his mother. But when the story of her second son’s death was told to her, she quietly exclaimed, “I wish that I had another boy to send, that the heathen may receive salvation.” 

Friends, I would say that Mrs. Gordon’s gospel resolve matched her sons. She was as willing to give as they were to go. May God give our churches today that kind of willingness, that kind of wisdom to do so as well.

Note: This was originally posted here.

I don’t know exactly when it happened, but at some point we all began to talk about “content.” Together we began to refer to the massive deluge of articles, podcasts, videos, and other media being uploaded to the internet as “content” and to the ones who make it as “content creators.” And you don’t need me to tell you that these days we are drowning in content. In fact, we are creating so much of it that it becomes almost impossible to quantify or to wrap our minds around what the numbers mean. I’ve heard it said that we are creating nearly 500 million terabytes of data per day, but that figure means little to me. Whatever the actual number is, and whatever it means, it is accelerating rapidly so that 90% of the data humanity has ever created has been created in just the past couple of years. The trends suggest the pace will increase exponentially in the years ahead.

When it comes to the content Christians create and consume, I often find myself dividing it into two categories. Admittedly, the categories are artificial, sometimes difficult to assign, and occasionally overlap, but I find them useful nonetheless. I divide it into content that exists primarily to serve others and content that exists primarily to serve the one who created it. I think it’s helpful to distinguish between the two and then to be mindful of the kind we tend to consume the most.

Some content is created to make other people’s lives better. I trust you find such content day by day as you click the links in my daily A La Carte feature, where I carefully curate articles by other writers that share wisdom to help you live more nobly, columns that explain current events to inform your mind, videos that help you marvel at God’s creation, songs that give expression to your heart, and so on. We are blessed to have so many writers, filmmakers, musicians, and others who express their gifts by creating such content and making it available, often completely free. I trust you also find such content in the articles I write, for that is very much my passion.

Yet there is another kind of content, and it is created not so much to serve others as to serve the one who makes it. A ready example is the classic BuzzFeed-style article that is created to be almost irresistible, but is also completely insipid. It does nothing to help you, bless you, or make your life better, but it does do a lot to help the organization that wrote it. Another example is the endless videos on YouTube that are simply responses to other videos—content that perpetuates a cycle of vapidity that brings nothing good to those who watch it. YouTubers manufacture outrageous situations so others will create response videos that, in turn, generate more response videos. None of this brings any benefit to the ones who watch them, but they do bring subscriptions and sponsorship fees to the ones who create them. The content exists to benefit its creators.

In the Christian world, it is in this category that you may find self-styled experts in discernment who write articles or create videos that are essentially clickbait meant to lead you to view ads. You may find writers or YouTubers who respond and react to every possible situation and controversy, regardless of whether they understand it or have anything useful to say about it. Though they claim to function like reporters, they are more like gossip columnists. They don’t serve you, the viewer. They don’t make your faith stronger, your heart braver, or your life better. They just funnel power and money from the content consumers to the content creators, often through content sponsors.

When you become aware of these categories of content, you can begin to ask yourself questions like these: Does this content exist to make my life better? Does it give me a sharper mind? Does it give me a stronger faith? Does it give me a deeper love for Christ, his people, and the lost? In short, is it clear that this content was created by a Christian who is eager to serve and bless other Christians?

Or, negatively, you can ask yourself questions like these: Can I only understand this content if I watch and read previous content? Does it appear to exist primarily for the purpose of perpetuating more like it? Do the title and thumbnail deceptively overpromise and underdeliver? In short, does it seem likely that this content was created to leverage the attention of Christians in a way that primarily benefits the one who created it?

I do not mean to indicate that everything we read or watch has to be of great spiritual benefit. We are free to enjoy entertainment, though obviously all things must be enjoyed in appropriate moderation. Yet we are inundated with content today and need to be disciplined in what we give our attention to. When we consume content, we are tacitly supporting the ones who created it, giving credence to their efforts, and training the algorithm so it provides more of that content not only to us, but to people like us. There are consequences to what we read, watch, click, listen to, and consume. Hence, it is wise for us to continually apply a filter like this: Does this content exist to bless me, or does it exist primarily to serve the one who created it? The more of our attention we give to content that falls into the first category and the less we give to the latter, the better off we will all be.

Good morning. Grace and peace to you. I trust you enjoyed your weekend and are looking forward to serving the Lord through another week. In case you didn’t check in yesterday, I thought the Works & Wonders compilation was a good one. Where else would you find Ferrari, cheese curds, and Covenanters together?

My Books

Every now and again I like to introduce one of my books, in case you aren’t familiar with them. Today it’s Visual Theology. I had already been working with various graphic designers to create infographics when Josh Byers and I decided to team up for a book that would combine words with visuals. We made it our goal to teach doctrines in a fresh, beautiful, and informative way. It could only have worked with an artist as talented as Josh is. (Amazon)

One grain of faith is better than a gallon of tears. A drop of genuine repentance is more precious than a torrent of weeping.

—Charles Spurgeon

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In my weekly Works & Wonders column, I combine a brief devotional with other interesting and uplifting bits and pieces I gleaned throughout the week. I hope you enjoy this week’s collection! It includes:

1. Devotional: The Wonder and Beauty of It
2. Older and Rarer
3. His Love
4. Ferrari Luce
5. The Covenanter Story
6. Curds
7. The Pilot Who Sacrificed His Life

1.

The Wonder and Beauty of It

In ancient times, God made this promise to his people: “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 29:13-14). Though that was a promise made to a specific people in a specific context, it powerfully displays God’s tender heart. God turns away none of those who come to him with empty hands and a broken heart, none of those who come to him with a humble sincerity. Later, Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). He tells us that the people who are loved by God will inevitably come to God, find acceptance, and be held safe forever in his unbreakable grip. What’s more, God waits patiently, for it is not his will “that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The reason God gives us knowledge of his being is so we can respond to the wonder and beauty of it, so he can save us by his mercy and grace. No wonder we love to join with our fellow believers to praise him Sunday by Sunday!

2.

Older and Rarer

This is a fun story from the Washington Post. It tells of a couple of relic hunters who were searching a farm field in Virginia, hoping to find artifacts from the American Civil War. Much to their surprise, they actually discovered artifacts from the Revolutionary War.

Crabtree and Lagasse had stumbled onto a find rarer than any Union bullet or Confederate belt buckle: evidence of a French encampment from the Revolutionary War. On this sloping cornfield that has changed little since 1782, French soldiers who helped defeat the British at Yorktown rested on their way to rejoin Gen. George Washington in New York.

No other encampment of the French march across a country they helped create has been thoroughly documented in Virginia, historians said, and only one in Connecticut has been fully surveyed and excavated.

That must be the dream of every treasure hunter, right? They set out to find one thing and found something even better!

Read: They searched for Civil War artifacts. What they found was older and rarer.

3.

His Love

Skye Peterson released a new album last week. A couple of the tracks stood out to me, but I especially appreciate “His Love.” It’s got a great sound and a great theme, so what more could you want?

4.

Ferrari Luce

So listen, I’m not defending the purchase of a Ferrari. However, I think we are free to appreciate luxury products as works of art. They are, after all, created by some of the greatest designers and are built out of some of the greatest materials, so they can achieve some of the greatest results. There’s beauty in that! Ferrari recently unveiled their newest model, which is also their first EV. It was designed by Jony Ive, who worked at Apple for years and who played a key role in designing the iPhone and many other products.

Not surprisingly, Ferrari purists are decrying the design, saying that it looks more like an iPhone than a Ferrari. I see their point. But I think it has a real beauty to it that’s displayed in several ways, not least in the symmetry Ive seems to love. Anyway, give it a look and let me know if I’m wrong. You can see it at the Ferrari site or read this story at The Verge. (I can’t find any photos of it that allow me to share them, but I can share this video.)

5.

The Covenanter Story

Banner of Truth recently released a documentary on the Scottish Covenanters. If you’re not familiar with that term, you can read the appropriate entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica—or just watch the documentary since it’s free on YouTube (though only three of the four parts so far—the other is coming soon). It begins with The Sure-Footed Guthrie, then moves to The Pentland Resistance, and John Brown of Priesthill. If you would like to learn even more about the Covenanters, be sure to look at the descriptions for the different episodes, since they contain an extensive list of resources.

6.

Cheese Curds

Last weekend, my family went to St. Lawrence Market in downtown Toronto. It’s a popular spot in the city where you can find lots of good food and groceries, and, less interestingly, lots of mediocre souvenirs. I went in search of one of my favorite foods—cheese curds. What are cheese curds, you ask? According to Wikipedia, “cheese curds are moist pieces of curdled milk, eaten either alone as a snack, or used in prepared dishes. They are consumed throughout the northern United States and Canada.” They are, of course, an essential ingredient in Canada’s favorite dish, poutine. (And yes, they are essential; you can’t have proper poutine with grated or melted cheese. It must be curd because of the unique texture and high melting point.)

I will admit that the description makes them sound rather unappealing, but I assure you that they are an extraordinary food that wonderfully combines fat, salt, and texture. You know you’re eating a good curd when it squeaks between your teeth. If you happen to live in Canada or the northern United States, then maybe you should grab some and let me know if they are as good as I say they are.

7.

The Pilot Who Sacrificed His Life

It’s amazing that World War II continues to divulge its stories of bravery and sacrifice, like this one, which tells of a brave American pilot who sacrificed his life for others.

You have probably heard of Davy and Natalie Lloyd, even if the names aren’t immediately familiar. In May 2024, you most likely heard the news about two young American missionaries to Haiti who, along with one of their Haitian colleagues, were brutally murdered by one of the many gangs that dominate the country. I suppose it’s more accurate to say they were martyred since their deaths were directly related to their mission to the people of Haiti. Their story is now told and told well in Strong to the End: The Simple Service and Sudden Sacrifice of the Martyrs in Haiti, a biography of the couple written by Davy’s parents, David and Alicia. 

Davy Lloyd was born and raised in Haiti. His parents founded Missions in Haiti in 2000, intending to minister specifically to the nation’s children, which they identified as Haiti’s most pressing need. They raised their own children there as well, including Davy. He professed faith at a young age, was baptized, and eventually set out for Bible college, intending to return to Haiti and continue the work there. He excelled academically, spiritually, and socially and graduated with a determination to “live my life intentionally, in light of eternity.” He was especially motivated by three key biblical truths: Hell is horrible, Jesus is good, and heaven is great. 

Along the way, Davy met a young lady named Natalie, a politician’s daughter from Missouri. She, too, took her faith seriously, and she, too, was considering how to spend her life in the Lord’s service. Soon the two were dating and considering a future together. A missions trip to Haiti sealed the deal—Natalie would marry Davy and together they would serve the nation of Haiti by serving its children. They were married in the summer of 2022 and soon set out for Haiti, not knowing their marriage would last for just 23 months.

Haiti has long been poor and unstable and has long suffered under oppressive governments and ineffective leaders. Into the leadership void have stepped hundreds of gangs that each rule pockets of the country through threats, extortion, and brutal violence. In May 2024, a couple of these gangs set their sights on Missions in Haiti’s House of Compassion, the home for orphaned children, and the compound around it. They attacked in several stages and, by the time they left, had brutally murdered Davy, Natalie, and their colleague Judes, all of whom had preached Christ to the end, seemingly concerned less for their own lives than for the souls of their attackers.

The rest of the family, back in America at the time, learned about much of this in real-time through broken phone calls and sporadic messages. Eventually they received the tragic news that Davy and Natalie had been murdered—and not merely murdered, but tortured to death, and their remains desecrated. The news soon broke across the United States and across the world. CNN and other media outlets reported on the effort to repatriate their remains. And then, just shy of their second anniversary, the couple was memorialized and buried in Neosho, Missouri, together in death as they had been in life.

I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been for Davy’s parents to write this book, but I’m thankful they did. It is good for us to know about those who have suffered and died for the sake of the gospel. It is good for us to learn their stories, to be encouraged by their zeal, and to be moved by their sacrifice. It is good for us to know that there are martyrs today as there have been in every day for the past 2,000 years. I hope many Christians will read this book to learn about a couple whose story deserves to be heard and whose lives were sacrificed for the greatest of all causes. 

As we head into the weekend, I wanted to remind you what’s coming up. Tomorrow I’ll feature some think pieces and long-form content in Weekend A La Carte. On Sunday I’ll share some interesting, uplifting, and encouraging bits and pieces that are meant to help you start the new week well.

Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him.

—R.C. Sproul

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The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you, my friends. If you’re interested in podcasts, be sure to scroll right down today, as there’s a whole list of them down there. Of course, there are lots of good reading recommendations before then.

The appearance of an angel from heaven could add nothing to the certainty of the declarations he has already put into our hands.

—John Newton

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Father’s Day is fast approaching and I recently found myself wondering this: What do dads actually want for Father’s Day? I decided to crowdsource the answer, so I attached a form to my website and asked people to let me know. I was thankful that many people tapped out an answer, and today I’m sharing the results.

Time

There is one response that dominated: time with family that is unhurried, undivided, and preferably free from digital interruptions. Some prefer this to be a day out on the lake, others a hike, and still others a backyard barbecue, though since Father’s Day is a Sunday, the ideal day would first include being in church together. Far and away, what dads want most from their children is their presence, even if just for a few uninterrupted hours. 

Some of the responses are quite poignant:

A special day with my family. An entire day. A mountain hike, a picnic with my favorite picnic food, local live music, ending with stargazing and exhaustedly falling into bed. They don’t have to plan it or pay for it. Just be there.

In a similar vein:

Unfettered, unhurried time—time where the usual routines and responsibilities are set aside and absorbed by another. Focused time to spend as you will is a rare jewel in many a father’s life, and a precious thoughtful gift when given deliberately.

And this:

A personal, in-person, lengthy conversation together at a good, quiet restaurant with my wife and with each of my adult children.

A wife writes on behalf of her elderly husband:

Though his days are becoming shorter, they are long, as he’s unable to physically maneuver about as before. They don’t know this, because he doesn’t want to burden anyone. They have enough on their plates. Yet the phone is silent, the visits are few during the year. Just a phone call once a week would bring him much delight and lift his spirits. Doesn’t cost anything but “time” – one of our most valuable gifts. So, no tie or golf balls for dear Dad … maybe check on him more frequently and let him know you’re thinking of him, appreciate him, and love him.

And one more:

As an older father and grandfather, the greatest gift I could receive is to simply spend time with all my children. To have them all in one place, at one time, with no special event attached, just relaxing in our company—together. We will gather on holidays or at funerals and weddings, but we seldom all gather just to hang out, share a meal, etc. I would not want the attention to be on me. It fills my heart to see them interact with one another, laugh, and play with their children and spouses. I know their past. When they were young, I’d wonder and dream of who they would become as they grew up. Watching them interact as adults blesses me with a glimpse into the future. There’s a quiet sense of peace there for me. 

So there it is: At least half of the responses are simply a request for dad to get some time with his favorite people. Closely attached to this is the desire for reconciliation between family members. With many families experiencing struggles and others torn apart, dad would like nothing better than for his family to be together and to get along on Father’s Day.

Recognition

Following time, the next most common desire is recognition. This usually takes the form of meaningful letters. 

A letter telling your dad how important he is and what he’s done that has made a difference in who you are now and who you want to be. Please also tell him in what ways he’s like your Heavenly Father.

Again:

Handwritten notes from my family just being honest about their perspective of me as a father.

Another:

To feel appreciated as a father, though lacking and messing up much!

And one more:

The best gift I can receive is a heartfelt letter from my kids. Something that reflects their appreciation, but includes most importantly their desire to serve and grow closer to Jesus Christ. 

Have you told your father lately how much he means to you? And have you told him how he has helped you become more like Jesus? Forming your thoughts on the matter and writing them out on paper could be a great gift. You could consider combining that with a book or a bag of coffee. Why? Keep reading to find out.

Books

I was not the least bit surprised to see books come in as the most common gift apart from time and recognition. Sometimes this is as simple as “Books!” or “theological books.” Sometimes it is a request for a gift certificate (e.g., Westminster Books or Logos) so dad can get whatever catches his eye.

A few people suggest specific titles, so here they all are: Using Authority Well by Jonathan Leeman; Disciplines of a Godly Man by Kent Hughes; The Letter to the Ephesians by Thomas Schreiner; Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung; The Psalms by Christopher Ash; Galahad and the Grail by Malcolm Guite. (You could also look at my book review section to see if something there might be a good fit.)

Another common request is Bibles, and specific options include a Schuyler Stridon ESV Bible, an ESV Spiral Bound Journaling Bible, and an LSB MacArthur Study Bible. 

Coffee

I was surprised at how many dads would like some good coffee for Father’s Day. From what I can surmise, most of us drink relatively cheap coffee day by day, perhaps especially now that coffee prices have risen substantially over the past couple of years. What a lot of dads would love for Father’s Day is some coffee beans that are a bit of a treat—a splurge that can be justified when it’s a gift rather than mere groceries. So maybe you can go to that local coffee roaster or boutique shop and see what might delight him. My kids once got me a subscription that introduced me to a variety of coffees over a year, and I really enjoyed that.

Time Away from the Kids

While time with family is far and away the greatest desire, there are a few who are eager for time away from the family—a guilt-free day to step away from the busyness of the home to hunt or fish or engage in another favorite activity. I am quite certain these are younger dads who love their wee ones very much, but who would find a lot of joy in a day away to rest and recharge. 

This & That

I received a lot of other ideas:

• A good number of dads would love to go to a professional baseball game, especially if their children come with them.
• Leatherman-style multitools are a surprisingly common request. I guess that makes sense since multitools are the kind of thing people buy as gifts but rarely for themselves. Apart from multitools, just tools in general, though the more tools a man has, the riskier it is to buy him a new one, since he probably either already has it or has decided he doesn’t want it.
• Some older dads would love their kids to pitch in on chores around the house that they can’t do themselves anymore.
• A poignant little cluster of responses expressed that the gift dad wants most is for his children to come to faith in Christ. This is not the kind of gift a person can buy for dad, but perhaps there is a son or daughter out there who has been putting off what they know the Lord is calling them to do, and will do it now to delight dad’s heart on Father’s Day.

Conclusion: Presence over Presents

Overall, the data is more coherent than I thought it would be. The great majority of dads want presence more than they want presents, and the older they get, the more this desire grows. Most younger dads are already around their children all the time, so some of them would appreciate coffee, gadgets, and other things they can’t justify day by day. But as dads get older, their desire becomes simpler and clearer: “Please, let’s just spend time together as a family.” 

Good morning. May the Lord be with you and bless you today. I’ve got some sales and deals for you, some recommended reading, and then some news headlines I think you’ll find both interesting and encouraging. Enjoy!

As short as time is, it is long enough if we rightly employ it.

—De Witt Talmage

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While I am committed to reading and reviewing Christian books, I also enjoy reading a steady diet of books published for the general market. Though my interests lean toward history, I do enjoy other topics as well. Here are a few of the titles I’ve enjoyed over the past couple of months. (Note: These are all general market books, so they may include elements like profanity.)

I have long been concerned and dismayed by the precipitous rise of sports betting. Having now read Danny Funt’s Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling, I am extremely concerned and dismayed. He explains how companies like DraftKings and FanDuel springboarded from fantasy sports to gambling and how they have come to extract hundreds of billions of dollars from gamblers. Many of these gamblers are young and the great majority of them lose far more than they win. He shows that these apps are every bit as evil and unethical as the illegal backstreet gambling operations of days gone by. With more and more people involved in gambling, and especially more young people, this is a book worth reading.

The Lost Airman by Seth Meyerowitz tells a remarkable story from the life of the author’s grandfather. During the Second World War, turret-gunner Staff Sergeant Arthur Meyerowitz was shot down over Nazi-occupied France. He survived the leap from his burning plane and initially evaded enemy soldiers as they searched for him. With the help of the French Resistance and the use of his disguise as a deaf mute, he managed to survive for more than six months before finally escaping to freedom. It’s a fast-paced book that will appeal to those who are interested in general history or military history.

Canada was recently rocked by a scandal involving several of its former youth hockey stars. Rick Westhead’s We Breed Lions lays bare a terribly broken system in which young men are not only expected to misbehave, but often absolved of blame when they do. The book is hard to read at times as it looks deep into disturbing events—events and coverups that are similar to ones we’ve seen in Hollywood, Washington, and sadly, even the church. Westhead calls for a reckoning and is optimistic that it is not too late for change. I hope he is right, because no amount of entertainment is worth so high a price in ruined lives.

Just to be transparent, the title of this book has a bad word in it, but I neither want to offend you nor have your spam filter delete this email so I won’t type it out. I read Enbleepiffication because I have been intrigued by Cory Doctorow’s explanation of how the massive tech companies consistently build products we want and enjoy, then inevitably wreck them for the sake of their own profit. Eventually, they leave us with products we no longer enjoy using, but have trouble breaking away from (e.g., Facebook, X, Google search, etc.). While I could hardly be further apart from Doctorow socially or politically, he aptly describes a phenomenon we have all witnessed and all despise. Some of his potential solutions seem sound, while others seem like a socialist fantasy. Either way, his book is a fascinating read that made me long for the good old days of Internet 1.0. It also left me wondering how long it will be before AI goes the way of all these other apps and becomes barely tolerable. If you’re tech-minded and can handle a lot of uses of the “s-word,” you may benefit from reading it.

Freya India is an interesting young social commentator who writes from the perspective of the first generation who were raised entirely within a world dominated by social media. Her book GIRLS® can be read as a kind of lament for her generation. It expresses the trials that came with growing up as a subject for what was essentially a giant social and technological experiment in which girls were leveraged to bring value to the tech companies. She writes for people like me to help us understand, and writes for people like herself to express sympathy. Best of all, she calls today’s girls to break free from their apps and devices. It’s a hard read, but one that may help the next generation avoid the sorrows of the one that came before it. It’s worth pointing out that India seems to be slowly accepting some form of the Christian faith, though it’s still too soon to know what it will look like once it has settled.

Few historical characters are more evil, repulsive, or fascinating than Grigori Rasputin. Not surprisingly, then, few historical characters have been so shrouded in myth and mystery. Antony Beevor tries to separate reality from rumor in his new account of Rasputin’s life, Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs. In the end, you could probably say that on one level it doesn’t really matter what was actually true about Rasputin, because it was the myth and mystery that gave him so much power, both in his time and in the historic imagination. Still, Beevor expends great effort in separating truth from lie, fact from fiction, and reality from mere gossip. He offers a fascinating and discomforting profile of a man who rightly continues to evoke horror, even a century after his death.

Often I spot a book on the list of bestsellers, read a couple of quick reviews, and then decide to give it a try on that basis. That was exactly the case with London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe. His book tells the strange tale of a young man who got in far over his head with the wrong kind of people. He eventually suffered the dire consequences of his actions, leaving his family trying to unravel a mystery. The story exposes the kind of people and situations most of us have no experience with and no knowledge of, and gladly so. I felt the book got a little wordy and “tabloidy” along the way, but it was still interesting enough, I suppose.

There are several famous Roosevelts in American history. Most people know of the two Presidents, Theodore and Franklin, but fewer know of Ted. Ted was Theodore’s son and a man who lived a life that was, well, larger than life. He fought heroically in the First World War, went on to a successful career in business, failed in his attempts to succeed his father in national politics, but served with abnormal heroism during the Second World War (in which he was the oldest man to land with the first waves of troops on D-Day). His life is told well in His Father’s Son: The Life of General Ted Roosevelt, Jr., though I wish the book had captured the man as much as it captured his actions. It’s well worth reading, but I hope it’s not the final or definitive account of an especially fascinating individual.

The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson is the second volume in Atkinson’s magisterial Liberation Trilogy that follows the American army across the European front of the Second World War. This volume covers the war in Sicily and Italy. It is every bit as well-written as the first volume and every bit as informative. The Liberation Trilogy has quickly become one of my favorite series on the war. I managed to wait patiently and buy the volumes as they went on sale in their Kindle editions, so eventually the whole series cost me less than $12!

Speaking of that trilogy, The Guns at Last Light is the third and final volume. I really cannot say enough positive things about this series and recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Second World War. If there is one thing that I wish Atkinson had done better in the series, it would be to celebrate examples of not only military heroism but also moral heroism. He rightly tells of some of the Allied servicemen who disgraced themselves by their moral conduct, but gives few examples of those who maintained their virtue or who stood for the weak. A reader could easily get the impression that every man let go of his morals when he reached Europe, so I wish Atkinson had focused some attention on those who did not. Still, his series is pretty much a must-read for anyone with an interest in military history.

Welcome to A La Carte, where I help you break free from the algorithm by carefully curating news, articles, and information that is of interest to people just like you.

Men are opposed to God in their sin, and God is opposed to men in His holiness.

—J.I. Packer

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There is an interesting new reality in the world today and we are only just figuring out how to respond to it. It’s a good reality, and a product of incredible advancements, inventions, and innovations. Yet it’s requiring us to rethink long-established habits and patterns. Or it should be, at least.

Here’s the reality I am thinking about: human beings are far wealthier than they have ever been and are, on average, living far longer than they ever have in the past. This is leaving vast amounts of wealth and power in the hands of people who are not merely senior citizens, but who are often well into their 80s or 90s. The opening paragraphs of the article “An Oligarchy of Old People” in The Atlantic describe this.

Donald Trump will soon be an octogenarian, and is president in part because the preceding octogenarian, Joe Biden, did not want to admit his senescence. The median senator is 65, and the oldest, 92-year-old Chuck Grassley, has not ruled out running for reelection in 2028. The typical general-election voter is a spry 52, but in primary elections, which decide the majority of political contests, that number rises to 59. Half of all the money donated to political campaigns comes from Americans age 66 and older.

This provides lots to consider on the level of national leadership, and perhaps church and ministry leadership as well, something I may try to think through at another time.¹ For now, though, my main interest is in the area of finances. Here’s how the article continues:

Although political gerontocracy has operated overtly, the rising economic power of the elderly has escaped much notice. Over the past 40 or so years, American wealth has grown ever more concentrated among the oldest generations. In 1989, Americans over age 55 held 56 percent of it; today they hold 74 percent. During that same period, the share of wealth held by Americans under 40 has shrunk by nearly half, from 12 to 6.6 percent. The color of money is now gray.

While independent adult life is beginning at roughly the same time as it always has—in the early 20s, when school is finished and full-time work begins—it is continuing much longer. In 1900, the average American could expect to die in their late 40s, in 1930 their late 50s, in 1950 their late 60s, and today in their late 70s. The most recent projections suggest that within the next two or three decades, life expectancy may rise well into the 80s. What humanity has achieved over the past century is nothing short of remarkable.

Just a century ago, and for all the many millennia before then, the average human being had a short childhood and a relatively short old age that together bookended a 25 to 30-year career. The period that fell between the end of work and the onset of death was typically quite brief. Today, though, that period can easily last for many decades. For an entire generation of Westerners, the dream was to work hard for 30 years and then retire at 55 or 60. Many did so, expecting to then enjoy 15 or 20 years of retirement living. Yet many have lived far longer than they would have guessed and have now been retired for more years than they ever worked. Because of savings, pensions, inheritances, rising real estate values, and savvy investments, many have as much wealth now as they did on the day they walked away from the workplace. And good for them, truly! (Of course, I need to acknowledge that not everybody has been able to accumulate such wealth, so even if this subject matter is common, it is by no means universal.)

Here is what I find especially interesting: While lifespans have increased dramatically, our traditions for passing wealth through the generations have remained relatively static. In the early 1900s, when the average person died in their 40s or 50s, a man would most often be leaving an inheritance to his children when they were quite young. They were probably still in the years of grinding and building—the stretch of life when they had not yet reached their peak earnings, but when expenses were elevated as they bought and paid for a home, raised and educated children, built a business, worked their way up the corporate ladder, and so on. An inheritance came to them at the period in life when they needed it the most and when it would do them the most good.

Today, though, that same man may not die until he is well into his 80s or even 90s, which means his children may already be in their 60s or 70s when they receive an inheritance. In many cases, they will have already passed through the most difficult life stages and already stored up wealth of their own. Most of them will presumably add that inherited wealth to their own accumulated wealth, then pass it down a generation when they themselves are 80, 90, or even 100. It is not hard to imagine ever-growing sums of money being passed from one elderly generation to another, with a lot of that money never accomplishing much other than offering an ever-increasing sense of security.

At the same time that this is happening, economic realities in the West are rapidly shifting, so that it seems harder for young adults to get ahead today than it was for Boomers or Gen X. Inflation, taxation, and healthcare have been taking a greater chunk out of earnings, and housing costs—especially in cities—have increased five- or ten-fold in just a generation. Every trip to the grocery store and every purchase of a car makes us realize that all of life’s necessities have spiked. And just as economic realities have shifted, so have generational values, so that Gen Z is placing a greater premium on work-life balance, meaning they may be unwilling to grind out the 50- or 60-hour workweeks that were so familiar to their parents and grandparents.

So how do we think about all of this and respond to it? I have a couple of suggested approaches. And to be clear, I am not speaking to the last generation of retirees, or passing judgment on them in any way. I am speaking to the next one—to the people who will be retiring in the decades ahead, and who need to begin thinking and planning now for the legacy we will leave to our children, should the Lord prosper us.

The first approach is to consider whether the Bible actually says it is wise or necessary to leave a financial inheritance to our descendants. We tend to take it for granted that this is our duty, but Randy Alcorn argues that the Bible is far more concerned with a spiritual inheritance than a monetary one. He suggests we may have read passages about leaving an inheritance to our children’s children through modern Western eyes and missed the Bible’s greater concern. If this is the case, then the ideal financial plan might be to do our best to ensure we have stored enough wealth to meet our needs until we die, and then leave the bulk of our remaining estate to church, ministry, or other distinctly Kingdom-advancing work. This would be leaving our wealth to what matters most to God.

A second option is a “generations-together approach” in which we soften the independence and autonomy of the generations so they work together financially. This is not so much an innovation as it is the recovery of an approach the West diverged from a few generations ago, and an appreciation of one that still exists in many places in the world. According to it, the older generations strategically reduce their wealth before they die in order to help the younger generation grow and stabilize theirs, thus providing money to them when it will be most meaningful. This could be through grandparents paying some or all of the tuition for their grandchildren’s education, or providing a regular stipend to enable one of their children to work only part-time and thereby homeschool the grandchildren. It could be through covering a few regular expenses like housing or cars, or through funding a business startup. For many people, a dollar given to them in their 20s or 30s will have far more benefit than five dollars given to them in their 50s and maybe a hundred or even a thousand dollars given to them in their 60s. If there is an inheritance at the end, it could mean skipping a generation and leaving it to grandchildren or even great-grandchildren (in the form of a trust if that’s considered wise or necessary).

Of course, these two approaches can be perfectly complementary. Though Alcorn advocates giving away the majority of an estate, he also says, “Wise parents can leave enough to their children and grandchildren to be helpful without leaving them so much as to hurt them.” And just as parents can leave an inheritance, they can provide an ongoing “pre-inheritance.” They may need to be careful that they are not unwisely generous, thus potentially making their children or grandchildren lazy, entitled, or dependent. They may need to be careful that they are not so generous that they end up destitute before they die. They will need to prayerfully consider how much to apportion to family and ministry, and when to do so.

But whatever the case, the reality is that the traditional Western system seems ripe for an overhaul. As Christians, we are charged by God to be faithful stewards of our wealth, and I fear many of us have a plan that will pass money from those who no longer need it (because they have died) to those who no longer need it (because they are already well established). There are a host of ways to steward money poorly, but surely one of the worst is to bury it in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds that may grow, but never get deployed in such a way that they are a blessing to others. Whatever else we do with our money, whether it is much or little, let us at least consider how we can use it to best serve God’s purposes. Let’s at least pray that God would show us how to be faithful stewards of what he has assigned to us.

1. Though if you are interested, Aaron Renn has done some good writing on the subject. See, for example, The Gerontocracy Rolls On and The Boomer Paradox. ↩︎

Good morning. Grace and peace to you. I hope and trust you had as enjoyable a weekend as I did. We had guests in town, so we did something we almost never do—leave suburbia to visit the city. It was a beautiful day to explore St. Lawrence Market and Kensington Market—something I hadn’t done since I was a child.

Without eternity, what would God’s perfections be, but glorious yet withering flowers, a great but decaying beauty!

—Stephen Charnock

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In my weekly Works & Wonders column, I combine a brief devotional with other interesting and uplifting bits and pieces I gleaned throughout the week. I hope you enjoy this week’s collection! It includes:

1. Not Something but Someone
2. You Can Tell the World
3. Fence Digging
4. Weird Bird Sounds
5. As __ As __
6. TypeLit

1.

Not Something but Someone

It is good and necessary to believe that God exists, but it is also insufficient. After all, “Even the demons believe—and shudder” (James 2:19). Satan himself has stood in the presence of God and has not the least shred of doubt about his existence. Yet he continues to lead the rebellion against him and continues to attempt to steal God’s glory for himself. Thus, as we awaken to the existence of God, we must do more than give assent to the fact of it. And that’s because God is not merely something but someone. Peter Williams says this: “The existence of God does not just face us with something to be believed or rejected, but someone to be accepted or rejected.” God is not a fact to be believed or rejected, as we may choose to believe or reject disputed facts of science or history. Rather, God is a being who must be either accepted or rejected, for God is not interested in our assent but our reception. His desire is not merely that we would believe he exists, but that we would put our faith in him and enter into a living, vital, and deeply personal being-to-being relationship where we relate to him as children for whom their father has deep love and deep delight.

2.

You Can Tell the World

I mentioned on Friday that in the past little bit I have enjoyed rediscovering the music of The Seekers, an Australian band that had its heyday in the 60s. Even if the name doesn’t ring a bell, you’ve probably heard “Georgy Girl” at some point. Though they sang the standard 60s-style pop songs, they also sang a lot of traditional gospel songs. Of all of their tracks, I think this rendition of “You Can Tell the World” is my favorite. Did Simon & Garfunkel do it better? No way! Chad Mitchell Trio? It’s closer.

3.

Fence Digging

I love a good poem and wish there were more talented contemporary poets willing to share their work. I enjoyed this new one from Abram Newcomer, who does what poets do—finds something very ordinary and turns it into an opportunity to ponder the big realities of life and death. I’ll give you the first couple of stanzas and encourage you to click through and read the rest.

Fifteen holes for a fence
At ten feet spread for every head.
The ground was stiff and tense,
But we were fresh, and so I said,
“Two days of work, or three, I think,
We’ll end before the moon can wink.”

So we began to dig
With digging irons, spades, and lines,
No simple drilling rig,
Just hands to harrow holes and mines,
Finding roots and worms—a bone!—
And other secrets long unknown.

…

You can read “Fence Digging” and other original works here.

4.

25 Weirdest Bird Sounds in the US

I thoroughly enjoyed this video roundup of 25 of the weirdest bird sounds you can hear in the U.S., though obviously you’ll need to go to many parts of the U.S. to hear them all. I love how creative the Lord was when he made animals, to not only make them different in form, purpose, and appearance, but to also make them sound so different—and often so strange. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be the loon. I spent much of my childhood at a cottage and would often fall asleep to the sound of the loons making their haunting sounds.

5.

Comparisons as Predictable as the Sunrise

I thoroughly enjoyed this examination of similes, focused on the ones that follow this form: “as __ as __.” The English language is extremely rich in the means it gives us to express ourselves, and this article proves it. It also offers some neat interactive elements.

Similes are all around us. But, if you haven’t considered this figure of speech since grade school, here’s a refresher: similes compare a shared quality of two things, often using “like” or “as.”

I pulled every simile in the form “as ___ as ___” from tens of thousands of fiction books for the top 500 most common adjectives.

It’s a great read!

6.

TypeLit

Speaking of a great read, how about typing one out … in full? TypeLit allows you to practice your typing by typing out great books one character at a time. If you’re a writer, you can type out the entirety of The Elements of Style. If you want to brush up on your Bible, you can type out the entire KJV. If you really want a challenge, you can type out Anna Karenina (and therefore be constantly typing names like Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky and Darya Alexandrovna—good luck to you!).