Sarah laughed to herself… [Genesis 18:12]

Wouldn’t it be nice to laugh like that—to hear God promised something so preposterous that all we can do is laugh?

Ha! That’ll never happen. That prodigal will never come home. That cancer won’t go in remission. That boundary respected? Never happening. That marriage improved? Can’t see it. That hard heart softened? Impossible. That unbeliever believing? Would be nice.

Sarah was 90 years old. I suppose that she and Abraham were trying to have kids for many years. At 90, Sarah had to have given up hope of being a mother.

Old Sarah was then told by God that she would have a son. Ha! Very funny. What’s the punchline? No joke, Sarah. Sometimes God does preposterous things. Sometimes God pulls off the most amazing things.

And then Isaac is conceived and born! “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:5–6). Yes…laugh, Sarah, laugh. God’s ways can be beautiful and laughable. Turn that incredulous laugh to one of joy.

May that be our story, too.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem (and Gaza and throughout the region)

Hamas partially agrees to ceasefire plan
Hamas agreed Friday to some elements of President Trump’s twenty-point peace plan proposal. He introduced the plan last week alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hamas said it would give up power in the Gaza Strip and release all remaining Israeli hostages. And they said it was ready to enter mediated negotiations on the other points. Hamas assented “to the plan’s main outlines in principle, but its implementation requires negotiations.” We can hope…and pray. Pray for the leaders and peacemakers that they may build a foundation upon which lasting peace can rest.

From circa 1700 BC (when God promised Abraham and his descendants the land of Canaan) to now (as the latest brutal skirmish between Israel and Palestine that started on October 7, 2023 rages on), the “Promised Land” has seen incessant bloodshed and fighting. Here are several books that may help give background and nuance to this generational feud.

Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel by Elias Chacour & David Hazard (Chosen Books, 2013)

Whose Promised Land? by Colin Chapman (Baker Books, 2002)

The Israeli–Palestinian Conflict: Tough Questions, Direct Answers by Dale Hanson Bourke (IVP, 2013)

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan (Bloomsbury, 2006)

For your viewing choices

John Candy: I Like Me
This is a documentary on the person and life of this very funny and gentle actor. I am intrigued not only because I like Candy and his work but also because my high school friend and movie director Chris Columbus has a lot to say about John in the documentary. (Candy acted in several of Columbus’ movies, including Home Alone and Only the Lonely.)

This statement about Candy was very telling. While filming Wagons East!, Candy’s “crippling, chronic” anxiety reached a peak. He had an anxiety attack on his way to set but kept it to himself. Not long after, he died in his sleep. “When I heard how they found him, and it looked like he had sat up on the side of the bed and opened up the Bible and was reading from it and just passed away on the bed, I remember thinking how he was trying to find home,” recalls longtime friend Don Lake in the film.

Ruth and Boaz
Okay, I am skeptical. Netflix has recently produced a “modern retelling” of the Old Testament’s Book of Ruth: a beautiful story of “hesed” (God’s loyal love as evidenced through the characters of the book). Here’s the tagline of the movie: “A young woman escapes the Atlanta music scene to care for an elderly widowed woman and in the process finds the love of her life and gains the mother she never had.”

We’ll see if this film contributes to my sermon preparation on Ruth scheduled for October 19. 😊

Volkswagen ad
Brilliant and sobering on the distracting dangers of cell phone use while driving.

They said it

About the iPhone
“I wake up in cold sweats every so often, thinking: What did we bring to the world?” [Tony Fadell, co-developer of the iPhone]

I get it. And it’s easy to criticize Fadell for the distracted, gullible, no-eye-contact world his invention has created. And I do. Criticize. Often. But before I cast the first stone, I need to ask myself: What disciplines am I practicing to put down that electronic addiction? Also: What big dream am I putting aside today which could cause me late-night cold sweats down the road?

About LOTR
“The Hobbit is an Adventure, but The Lord of the Rings is a Quest. The Hobbit is a book for children, it is more light-hearted, an Adventure that is a ‘there and back again.’ It’s an exciting thing you choose. You go and you have your adventures and have all your thrills and it spices up your life and then you come home again and you pick your life again where you left off.

“But a Quest is not something you choose; it comes to you. You sense a requirement. You’re called to it because of what’s involved. And you never really come back from a Quest. In a Quest you either die for the Quest or, if you do come back, you are so changed that you never in a sense really do come back. You’re never the way you were.

“I want you to know that Christianity is not an Adventure. It is not there and back again. It’s not like: I want to have some fun, I want to enrich my life. Christianity is a Quest. God says, ‘Get out…you’re going to be radically changed. Don’t ask me whether what I am about to do will fit into your agenda. Christianity is a whole new agenda. Don’t say how will Christianity fit into my life because Christianity is a whole New Life.’” [Tim Keller, in a sermon on Genesis 12]

“Be kind to Your little children, Lord; that is what we ask of You as their Tutor, You the Father, Israel’s guide; Son, yes, but Father as well. Grant that by doing what You told us to do, we may achieve a faithful likeness to the Image and, as far as is possible for us, may find in You a good God and a lenient Judge.

“May we all live in the peace that comes from You. May we journey towards Your city, sailing through the waters of sin untouched by the waves, borne tranquilly along by the Holy Spirit, Your Wisdom beyond all telling. Night and day until the last day of all, may our praises give You thanks, our thanksgiving praise You: You who alone are both Father and Son, Son and Father, the Son who is our Tutor and our Teacher, together with the Holy Spirit.”
[St. Clement of Alexandria, 150–215 AD]