5 Quick Things #335 🍃

not being a billionaire, real charity, a modern sage, & youth pastors

Sep 13, 2024

Hey there,

Ah, the time of year when we southerners go crazy... People up north are talking about the hint of leaves changing and the cozy enjoyment of cooler evenings; all the while we’re here willing the weather to shift just enough to justify wearing jeans and maybe sip some non-iced coffee.

I went to our local farmer’s house this week to pick up our weekly raw milk, and in shooting the breeze she mentioned the annual tradition of debating whether it was too soon to break out the front porch fall decor. On the one hand, she said, setting out the pumpkins might jinx the whole proposition and tempt the autumnal winds to blow the other direction, like a southern Punxsutawney Phil. On the other hand, perhaps the pumpkins and faux leaf garlands will let us live just a bit more in our delusional belief that the south even has a real fall to begin with.

I'm going with the latter. ...Probably sending Kyle up to the attic this weekend to retrieve the fall decor box. Even with a high of 96 predicted.

*A Lane near Flatford*, by John Constable (1810-1811) #

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. New episode of A Drink With a Friend! Fr. Gabe Bouck was a musician, tech employee, and a good homeschooled Baptist kid …and also got a DUI on his record. God used that moment to wake him up — and long story short, now he’s a priest. Fr. Gabe is my new friend (he recently joined us in Greece and Turkey), and we chat about his story, why he loves what he does, and what our time on pilgrimage this summer meant to us both. …You can’t not love Fr. Gabe.
2. I love reading
Andrew Klavan
and
Spencer Klavan
’s (no relation) father-son letters to each other in their shared newsletter. This week’s was short but a gut-punch from the wise father Andrew: “‘I don’t think Jesus wants the poor to be helped as much as he wants you to be the one that helps them.’ That doesn’t mean that Jesus didn’t care about the poor, of course. ...In other words, charity is a practice that helps create, in the giver, the sort of soul that God will bless. Gratitude is the practice that shapes the soul of the receiver.”
3. “People only use around 600 square feet of space. Extra space beyond that inevitably becomes storage, accessory, or aesthetic. Billionaires are more capable of buying those 8,000+ square foot Zillow homes, but they’re not any more capable of using them.” Astute observations from
Griffin Gooch
unpacking why he doesn’t want to be a billionaire. I concur.
4. I’m still watching it (it’s three hours!), but my favorite living thinker is on Pints again this week. …I love this man so much.
5. And finally, youth pastors by the decade: “In the late nineties, there was an accident at the Coke factory: someone dropped a Smashmouth CD and a Teen Study Bible into a vat of Surge, and the resulting explosion created Pastor Todd.” Always grateful for
matthew pierce
’s insight.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

this Reading Adventure playlist (I’ve been playing it in the background during my classes)

Quotable 💬

“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.”

― G.K. Chesterton

Rhine River 2025 ⚓️

Join me, my family, and some of your new kindred spirits (truly, it happens every time!) as we go on pilgrimage next summer along the Rhine River. You won’t regret it.

We’ll voyage down the Rhine River in a boat to ourselves from Amsterdam to Zurich, visiting monasteries, cathedrals, vineyards, windmills, villages, and more. Along the way, we’ll talk about living liturgically: how do we adopt a rhythm of vitalizing liturgy in our ordinary lives?

These trips tend to book fairly quickly, so make your plans now to join us — all are welcome!

Learn more & sign up 🍷

You're hankering for a snack. What do you grab? 🧀

I chose this poll question when I was hungry, if you couldn’t tell… My current go-to snack made it dead-last for this one, but I am all about the cheese, too. Once again, I am writing this hungry.

Chips & dip: 25%
Cheese & crackers: 25%
Chocolate: 20%
Nuts: 18%
Fruit: 9%
Jerky/Meat: 3%