1. Who would I be if I was happy? Trevin Wax warns us, “Many young people are increasingly drawn to establishing and expressing their identities through their psychological maladies.”

2. Wherever he leads, I’ll go: Glenna Marshall shares a story I bet you might identify with, “In young, untried faith, I nearly invited him to test me, telling him in a long, journaled prayer that wherever he led, I would most certainly go. I banked on my obedience. I would be stalwart, no matter what came. But life came. And the Lord led me to places I longed to escape from: decades of infertility, disease, chronic pain that battered my body for years on end.”

3. Religion as cultural and political identity: Ryan Burge with an important post on the radical shift of what a self-described “evangelical” is and the significant number who don’t attend church. He shares, “Democrats are moving away from the *idea* of religion faster than they are moving away from actual religion. For Republicans, it’s the opposite. They are moving away from religious attendance faster than they are moving away from the *idea* of religion.”

4. How not to apply the Bible: Kenneth Berding concludes, “Applications should flow out of what a biblical author is trying to do with a text. Make sure to keep your applications of Scripture tethered to the text.”

5. But I did everything right: Barbara Lee Harper shares, “Most of us realize the “prosperity gospel” is wrong—the belief that if you obey God, especially in giving big offerings to their evangelists, you’ll be blessed with health, wealth, and prosperity. But we unwittingly buy into a version of the same thought: if I am doing God’s will, then everything should work out. We don’t expect wealth or perfect health, but we feel there shouldn’t be any obstacles and God should bless us.”

Photo by Jacqueline Munguía on Unsplash