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In this world of never enough, our culture pushes us to create whatever façade makes you look better, sound better, feel better because obviously your current life is not the most attractive.

Bach lived in Germany in the first half of the eighteenth century, yet in his day, he was virtually unknown as a composer, and those who knew of his work hated it. He was an accomplished organist, yet the genius of his work as a composer would not be discovered until 80 years after his death. This humble man, who would become the baroque era’s greatest organist and composer, wrote most of his music never knowing if it would ever be played by anyone other than himself.

We inhabit different universes. We have no shared standards of conduct, especially sexual conduct. Our elites jettisoned all the old rules a long time ago, and we have to limp along on the thin reed of consent. There were odd twists in the latest spectacle. Some traditionalists excuse Kavanaugh for youthful indiscretions; for sexual progressives, his opposition to Roe is evidence he’s a creepy serial rapist. Our rudderless sexual ethics make no sense: The same people who defend pornographers and sex workers are in high dudgeon whenever someone acts out a pornographic fantasy.

Measurement of ministry effectiveness by way of clear, stated, and calculated metrics should have guided most church systems, but rarely have. Rather, fannies in seats and coins in offering plates have traditionally been the only indicators of church health.

Millennials are the canary in the mine telling us that our impersonal reliance upon technological shortcuts, in both work and personal interactions, has its drawbacks. They long for greater connection and purpose. A fundamental aspect to the imago Dei in each person is the inter-relatedness of the Trinity. The next generation has noticed what many of us have not seen creep up all around us as technological advances have claimed more and more of our attention.

In our culture we are abundantly blessed with opportunities for laziness. We don’t have to walk miles for clean water or hunt for food. At the press of a button, without leaving our homes, food and things appear on our doorsteps from all over the world. We can afford to be picky, to have a brand preference, to complain about calories. Even more so, we can afford to quit when things just are not working out the way we had wanted or planned. Everything is convenient.

My core Evergreen business, Spraggins Inc., is a building products and construction services company based in Orlando, Florida and focused on the contract residential market. In 2007, the great recession hit our business extremely hard. Homebuilders just stopped building.

The job shaming of actor Geoffry Owens (known primarily from The Cosby Show) last week should cause all of us to pause. In case you missed it, let me catch you up on pop news. Geoffry Owens, like many actors, is a part of an industry that is not known for steady work. Geoffry took a job at Trader Joe’s to remain flexible for auditions and still provide income to support his family.

I often lay in bed at night, exhausted from the day, and think, “Isn’t it amazing that God made our bodies capable of recharging as we sleep so we can get up and do the same thing again tomorrow?”  We can be utterly spent in the evening and wake up refreshed in the morning.  But sometimes, it’s not that simple.  Sometimes, life is overwhelming and we need more than just physical refreshment.  Sometimes, our hearts need to be revived; we need spiritual renewal.

Strange how it keeps happening, how the greatest works of Chinese art keep getting brazenly stolen from museums around the world. Is it a conspiracy? Vengeance for treasures plundered years ago? We sent Alex W. Palmer to investigate the trail of theft and the stunning rumor: Is the Chinese government behind one of the boldest art-crime waves in history?