Links to Your World, Tuesday June 9

When your prayers are unanswered and you wonder what God’s up to, Paul Miller in A Praying Life has some suggestions. Andree Seu lists them off in her blog post. Such as: “He wants to expose your idols—and deal with them—in a natural way.” And, “He wants you to come to the point of surrendering completely.” And, “He wants you have mad joy at the way he finally answers your prayer, rather than the lesser joy of an answer given too soon.” Read the rest here, especially if you’re in a season of unanswered prayer!


“Why do blogs have a higher failure rate than restaurants? According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned.” (NYT)


CT has a profile on one of my favorite church leaders, Tim Keller of Redeemer Church in NYC, including this tidbit on his wife: “Kathy had become a Christian after reading the Chronicles of Narnia as a girl; the books opened her to a wider world in which the unthinkable was true. (She wrote to C. S. Lewis, and his replies, among her most precious possessions, are included in C. S. Lewis' Letters to Children, by Lyle Dorsett and Marjorie Lamp Mead.).” Replies from C.S. Lewis: how cool is that? And this nugget: “Keller's unique gift is to preach to both Christians and non-Christians in the same terms, without making a choice between evangelism and discipleship: ‘Tim uses the gospel surgically on the heart. The gospel is what we need to come to faith and also what we need to grow.’” Amen and Amen.


“‘One of the greatest challenges or losses that we face as older adults, frankly, is not about our health, but it’s actually about our social network deteriorating on us, because our friends get sick, our spouse passes away, friends pass away, or we move,’ said Joseph F. Coughlin, director of the AgeLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ‘The new future of old age is about staying in society, staying in the workplace and staying very connected,’ he added. ‘And technology is going to be a very big part of that, because the new reality is, increasingly, a virtual reality. It provides a way to make new connections, new friends and new senses of purpose.’” (From a NY Times article about the growing popularity of social networking sites for senior adults)


Study: TV May Inhibit Babies' Language Development


Wow. You’ve got to read the Texas Monthly story, “Flesh and Blood,” about the small-town girl who conspired to have her family killed. “This was not the most brutal or cold-blooded case I had ever prosecuted,” [Texas assistant attorney general Lisa Tanner] told me. “But when you took all the different factors and put them together—how young and seemingly normal the perpetrators were; how ruthless they were; how stupid they were; how cavalier they were; how utterly undeserving this family was—it was, without question, the most disturbing case I’d ever dealt with.”


“Boys who have a so-called ‘warrior gene’ are more likely to join gangs and also more likely to be among the most violent members and to use weapons, a new study finds.” Notice when you read this story that a genetic basis to antisocial behavior doesn’t keep the author from passing judgment on violent aggression. Of course not. Simply because there’s a genetic basis to our tendencies—like, (perhaps) homosexuality—doesn’t mean we have freedom to act on our tendencies. Those with a genetic predisposition to alcoholism, or violence, or depression, or homosexuality, have a tougher personal battle than those without these genetic codings. But it’s still a battle one has to enter.


Our church assists with Paul Ingram’s financial support at the church plant, Revolution Church, in Tucson, AZ. Check out Paul and Jennifer talking about their decision to move.


“Some of what Oprah promotes isn't good, and a lot of the advice her guests dispense on the show is just bad….Oprah, who holds up her guests as prophets, can't seem to tell the difference. She has the power to summon the most learned authorities on any subject; who would refuse her? Instead, all too often Oprah winds up putting herself and her trusting audience in the hands of celebrity authors and pop-science artists pitching wonder cures and miracle treatments that are questionable or flat-out wrong, and sometimes dangerous” (Newsweek’s “Why Health Advice on ‘Oprah’ Could Make You Sick”). What concerns me even more is the spiritual advice from quack guests that she heartily endorses. This article touches on that as well.


A Palm product has been with me most of my adult life: the original, then the Palm V (what a sweet device), then the Sony Clie, and finally the Treo. Wired takes an endearing look at Palm on the eve of Palm Pre’s debut.


“I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God.” (Evan Thomas, Newsweek editor) Nah, the MSM isn’t weak in the knees over Obama at all . . . .