Happy Friday, friends and readers! I’m back (finally!) with another 5 Medium posts I’ve read recently that I thought you might find interesting!
“It’s Time To Stop Feeling Guilty About Everything”–Stephen Altrogge gives us a great reminder about the difference between godly guilt (conviction) and fleshy/worldly “guilt.” It’s helpful for me to be reminded that some of my “guilty feelings” are not from God, but are self-imposed and dumb.
“One Year Without A Smartphone”–I’ve been reading a lot of posts lately about the pros and cons of pulling back from technology/social-media, and I found this post by Noah Lekas to be pretty thought-provoking, particularly the idea that intentional “boredom” is a boost to creative thinking. I’m not getting rid of my smartphone anytime soon (especially since I’m still paying it off, which galls me, but that’s another issue), but articles like this help me to regard this tech a bit more suspiciously.
“This is the ONLY Thing You Need To Do To Become a Multi-Millionaire”: Okay, I’ve read more than a few Medium posts, and many of the productivity/rise-and-grind/go-get-em posts seem like they follow a template, or at least fall into a series of cliches and tropes. Well, Luke Trayser nails the tone and ridiculousness of such posts with this great satirical piece. Worth a look…unless you don’t want to be MEGA-SUCCESSFUL!!!
“How 2,000+ random coffee dates changed our company culture”: I found this piece thought-provoking, particularly with how it may be transferred to a church context. Obviously, you would make adjustments for the sake of wisdom and propriety, but in larger churches, it might be an intriguing way to introduce people and families who don’t know each other.
“Forget Atticus: Why We Should Stop Teaching ‘To Kill A Mockingbird'”: Normally, I would put such articles into the “this is why we can’t have nice things” pile, but this one caught my attention. At the risk of sounding dismissive, the author’s issue with TKAM is not that the troubling language and content is offensive, but that the book’s protagonist isn’t “woke” enough. Again, I have a tendency to shake my head at “revisionist interpretations” of classic (or at least much-beloved) literature, but I was interested by the author’s argument: Atticus Finch, forever heralded as a beacon of progressive color-blindness, still holds the experience of black people at arm’s length. By teaching children to emulate Finch, this author posits, children learn to be paternalistic, classist, less opposed to racist language and thought as much as mildly disgusted by and dismissive of it. FWIW, I don’t agree with the author’s overall premise, but I think his reasoning is worth considering as we take another look at this literary figure.
Bonus Video: Cal Newport is a smart guy. Here’s a TED talk from him, arguing why you and I should stop using social media:
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