As the father of a daughter myself I found this from Tim Challies on how he prays for both of his daughters poignant and encouraging.

“And finally, I pray that God will protect my girls from God. Ultimately, God saves people from himself. R.C. Sproul says it well: ‘The grand paradox or supreme irony of the Christian faith is that we are saved both by God and from God.'”

“I long for God to protect my girls from his own wrath which he must pour out on those who will not put their faith in Christ.”

–Challies

A sportswriter I like on Twitter wrote recently about Bill Simmons who wrote recently about the scourge of the middle-aged white man’s anger over Marshawn Lynch.

This accurately sums up the tension between reporters and bloggers and I still have no idea what to do about it.

“However, if it weren’t for the foot soldiers who cover these guys face-to-face, how much more poorly informed would Simmons be about them? It’s like the guy who hates seeing undocumented workers waiting in the Target parking lot but loves the price of his fruit.”

–John Wolters

“Putting words in rows on a page is at once the only task I can reliably perform well enough to get paid for it, and the only one in which — on the best days — I can still find those elements of exploration and freedom that make work and play seem to flow into one.”

–Dana Stevens

I identify with both reasons and would add that it’s one of the few tangible tasks I can complete unambiguously.

This is simple but smart and helpful. I often find myself stuck throughout the day when looking at my to-do list. Maybe it just needs to be smaller.

“A well written list is the fastest way out of most problematic situations… Writing things down is powerful. When thoughts are written down you can move them around, compare them, combine them, or divide them as your thinking progresses.”

–99U

I loved this on the emptiness of winning championships and how it implicitly points to satisfaction being found only in the Lord, though sadly the author doesn’t explicitly state this.

“The emptiness of sports, you see, is most felt in victory…it is difficult to notice the emptiness of these pursuits until we actually obtain them.

“What is the solution to this dilemma? To be honest, I’m not entirely sure.”

–Becoming Minimalist

This is a quote from somebody who the New Yorker dubbed the king of clickbait.

“The way we view the world, the ultimate barometer of quality is: if it gets shared, it’s quality.”

–Washington Post

That’s a fascinating concept as a blogger because at some point you go from having to share interesting things to build a reputation to defining to your audience what’s interesting.

It’s disingenuous and lazy to fully give yourself over to the latter, I think, because in the end that’s a model that someone else can so easily overturn.

“At the heart of FOMO is a fear of missing good. At the heart of our gospel is a God who has sent his only Son so that he could buy for us the great and precious promise that fully crushes the root of FOMO.

“In him we have every scrap of good.”

–Fabienne Harford

“What would happen if rejection letters said, ‘you were good enough, totally good enough to be part of this class, but we randomly chose 25% of the good enough, and alas, you didn’t get lucky’? Because, in fact, that’s what’s actually happening.”

–Seth Godin

I can’t decide if this is more important for those choosing or for those being chosen.

“These humble improvements accrue over generations, so that the Bronze Age straight pin becomes a toga fastener becomes a safety pin. Money begins as seashells, evolves into metal coins, diversifies as paper, and eventually becomes virtual as bitcoins and abstruse financial derivatives.”

–99U