It’s been awhile. Have you missed the linkage?
Don’t answer that.
Here are some things for you to click on, look up, read about, and ponder. Enjoy!

This post over at Gospel Coalition, “Searching for Paradise in The Descendants“ makes me realize how out of touch I am with the film industry these days. Unless it shows up in blog posts I follow, I probably don’t know about it. After reading this description, I’m at least interested (although they do warn about spoilers) in seeing this film.

I really appreciated this post by Tim Challies, “Empty Minds, Empty Hearts, Empty Lives,” though it is depressing to step back and look at how we live dependent on manmade tools. After looking at several research studies, he writes, “It’s not just that we are no longer remembering things, but we are entrusting to our tools the things we used to entrust to ourselves.”

Learning Worship from Idolaters is a good reminder as we all get together and get crazy about sports this weekend. Honestly, I kind of forgot the Super Bowl was happening this Sunday until a new friend asked if I wanted to come to their party. I was so relieved she asked because I probably would’ve wondered where everyone went on Sunday afternoon.

My cousin Vince and I are kind of in a band – we sing for the walls in the basement and we’re working on two covers right now – Bob Dylan’s, “It ain’t me, babe” and John Mayer’s, “Daughters.”

This book by Russell Moore is on my list of “need to read.” This book trailer gives you an idea of what, “Tempted and Tried” is all about.

Russell Moore also wrote, The Humanity of Christ Matters recently and it reminded me of some of my reflections around Christmastime – how we always view Christ in a manger with rosy lenses. Moore asked his seminary students if they thought Jesus had ever vomited, they didn’t know how to respond. He writes, “The answer to this question has to do, first of all, with the one-dimensional picture of Jesus so many of us have been taught, or have assumed. Many of us see Jesus either as the ghostly friend in the corner of our hearts, promising us heaven and guiding us through difficulty, or we see him simply in terms of his sovereignty and power, in terms of his distance from us. No matter how orthodox our doctrine, we all tend to think of Jesus as a strange and ghostly figure.”

I loved reading Eric Metaxas‘ biography of Bonhoeffer, so I was interested to see what he would say at the National Prayer Breakfast. You should probably read this article, “Pious Baloney” … it might surprise you. I’m also interested to know what you think.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got because I have some serious homework to do today for Perspectives, in addition to a meeting with a monster called taxes. I’m considering writing a letter to the IRS with a white flag enclosed, “I have no idea what I’m doing so if I make mistakes it’s not because I’m trying to cheat you out of money, but because I just really have no idea what I’m doing.”