the worst thing about the internet
good news weekly 4.3.25
we are moving into 2025 Q2 … lots of things happening this month.
we would love to be part of it with you. we need some folks to jump in and make a contribution to make it all happen, could you help?
the worst thing about the internet
someone asked me the other day about my least favorite thing on the internet.
which, a question like that, they probably had an answer they wanted to give more than wanting to hear my thoughts, but anyway,
i didn’t even have to think about it.
i said, ‘people who are selling so hard they stop being human.’
you know the kind.
posting a photo of themselves kneeling in a field with a caption about humility,
i bet God is really impressed.
posting a video of themselves pushing their kid on a swing with a paragraph about parenting,
idk, let’s see if the kid turns out ok before we start advising everyone else.
long, confident threads about the evils of public education from people who’ve never walked into a public school etc etc etc.
something about being online makes people louder, more certain, less interested in new perspectives.
it rewards performance over presence.
certainty over nuance.
selling over being.
but being something > selling something.
being quietly curious.
being deeply interested in others.
being a learner, not just a talker.
sometimes we’ve got it twisted.
we think not promoting it means it doesn’t matter.
we think if we don’t post it, we didn’t do it.
we think if we’re not teaching it, we must not know it.
but the truth is — there’s something holy about the quiet stuff.
the parts we don’t monetize. the parts we protect from the algorithm.
the parts that are just ours.
i love being a dad. i have learned a lot lessons over the last 16+ years through trial and error.
but my kids are my treasure, not a component of a brand i’m building. happy to share if someone asks, but no desire to try and fashion myself into an expert.
i have been working really hard at my fitness over the last 2 years, slowly adding new additional exercise and fitness elements to my life. i have learned a lot, but i have literally 0 desire to socially-monetize it. please don’t ask my opinions, find someone who really knows.
people with after a little therapy or right after a divorce make the semi-pro mistake. they think their newly learned lessons MUST be told to everyone and maybe turned into a brand.
the pressure to be an expert messes with us.
it pulls us out of our own lives and into performance mode.
it makes us chase applause instead of depth.
it makes us focus on resume virtues, the stuff strangers might be impressed by, and forget the eulogy virtues, the stuff people who really knew us love us for.
selling is attractive,
being is harder.
but being is better.
Life is too short to… what’s your fill in the blank? For me recently, the fill in the blank (call me superficial if you want) was to have a bad driver’s license picture. It was time to renew my driver’s license and for the last four years I’ve looked at my picture and hated it. So although I could renew online without having to go to the DMV, I made the appointment and went so I could get a different picture. It ended up being a painless, 14 minute experience and less than two weeks later I got my new license in the mail. I was so excited about it that I showed my son while we were in the car and without thinking I held the license in my hand. Luke called me and I walked around our yard talking to him on the phone as I picked up some garbage that had blown in the yard over the winter. Later that day, I realized I didn’t know where the license went. Well, low and behold I was bringing the trash out yesterday and found the new license in the bottom of the outside trash bin! Life is too short to have a bad driver’s license photo.
I share this ridiculous story because this week I was reading through Ecclesiastes and the thing that stuck out to me was a word that Solomon says twice, see if you can find it in both of these verses.
“I explored with my mind the pull of wine on my body- my mind still guiding me with wisdom - and how to grasp folly, until I could see what is good for people to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.” Ecclesiastes 2:3
“Here is what I have seen to be good: It is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward.” Ecclesiastes 5:18
The word that shocked my heart from these verses is : few. ‘During the few days of his life God has given him.’ Often, the days don’t seem few. The days seem long, monotonous, full of problems to solve, things to figure out and a family to raise. But, what if my days ahead are fewer than I think? What if I am wasting my time on things that don’t matter? Am I really enjoying life and all the blessings God has given me?
David says it this way in the Psalms, “LORD, make me aware of my end and the number of my days so that I will know how short-lived I am. In fact, you have made my days just inches long, and my life span is as nothing to you. Yes, every human being stands as only a vapor. Yes, a person goes about like a mere shadow. Indeed, they rush around in vain, gathering possessions without knowing who will get them.” (39:4-6)
I have a grandmother who is almost 96 (she might be defying the odds of few ;)) and I’ve sat through the funeral of a 10 month old. Most of us won’t know when our ‘day’ is coming. But, this little newsletter is dropped in your mailbox to bring reminders of God’s Word and hopefully some hope along with it. Since your days are few, is there anything that needs to shift? Because if our days are few, let’s make them count. Show the people in your circle that they are loved, testify that Jesus is real and enjoy the life that God has given you. And, maybe just maybe, life's too short for a bad license picture. ;)
Last Weeks Sermon
we started a new season studying the book of John, the message focused on a simple question, why did they kill Jesus Christ?
Song of the Week
this is a new one we will be singing on Sundays, I think it will encourage you
Cup of Leadership
we have a teenage driver. and a house full of kids with so many words, Kristen + I have a hard time finding time to chat. and aging family members. and a growing church. a friends hitting their 40s. my point is …. sometimes what used to work, doesn’t work anymore and you have to find a new way to do things.
healthy relationships require a lot of tools, a dexterity for knowing what and how and when. encouragement, instruction, rebuke, space, listening, etc etc etc all help you build a beautiful relational house, but not if they are the only tool you use.
when you to use a chainsaw to hammer a nail, you end up with mutilated wood and a frustrated carpenter.
if newlyweds only develop a physical connection, then a baby or an illness can tear them apart.
if parents only utilize fun to build camaraderie, when the child is old enough to find their own fun, the parents are useless.
if christians only know how to punish those they perceive as sinful, they can’t actually complete the cycle of redemption.
often when you find something broken, it’s because people refuse to develop new ways of communicating + solving problems + building trust. usually when someone describes to you a right way + a wrong way, they are really expressing that only their way is acceptable.
so go buy a bigger tool belt and develop some new tactics.
1 Thessalonians 5.14
this is good news,
luke+kristen