Josh Smith

Joe Rogan and Abigail Shrier nailed a truth that feels increasingly rare to say out loud. In our safer, more comfortable era, the threshold for what counts as 'trauma' has dropped hard. Rogan put it simply: the 'worst thing that’s ever happened to you' is totally relative — a dented car can feel like the end of the world if that’s your biggest reference point. Shrier took it further: throughout human history, people lost parents, siblings, homes, and jobs… yet most rebuilt, formed families, showed up for work, and kept living. Resilience was the norm. Today we’re often telling kids that normal life struggles equal trauma they may never fully overcome. This conversation made me pause. It seems like many of us have turned ordinary setbacks into major emotional events. Our comfort might be quietly training people to be more fragile than generations that faced far worse. If we keep labeling everyday hardship as trauma, we risk raising people who lack the toughness that helped humanity survive real adversity for centuries. Have we over-diagnosed trauma and under-taught resilience — or is modern life actually harder on the mind?

The recent discussion/ debate between Gavin Ortlund and Lila Rose about the magisterium, church history, sola scriptura and (a little bit of) mariology is REALLY good. Recommend listening. These topics start at 48 mins.

Theologians Struggling To Explain How Loving God Could Allow Ohio buff.ly/E98PuYd

The more time you spend on your phone, the less likely you are to understand the meaning of your life. Arthur Brooks explained this on CBS News: Constant scrolling and distraction push us into the left side of the brain — the analytical, problem-solving part — and away from the right side, where we process love, beauty, mystery, and meaning. We’ve engineered a life where we’re always “doing” and never really “being.” Our grandparents didn’t have panic attacks behind the mule because their brains were working the way human brains evolved to work. The solution isn’t complicated — it’s old: Ask big questions. Cultivate real relationships. Sit with beauty. Learn from suffering instead of trying to eliminate it. How much daily screen time do you think is quietly stealing your sense of meaning? What’s one non-screen habit that helps you feel more grounded or purposeful?

Students who take notes by hand get better grades than those who use laptops, especially in STEM fields.

Great balance of showing compassion while sharing truth as Wes Huff responds to the question of why a good God would allow evil: "Well, that is arguably the hardest and most pressing apologetic question there is, because ultimately, the very tidy philosophical and theological answer isn't the right answer sometimes. You know, sometimes the right answer to the wrong question is the wrong answer, because I've encountered situations where someone has brought up a variation of the problem of evil to me, and I've just felt uneasy about maybe the tenor that they're coming at with the question...and asking them, 'You know, that's a great question. Why are you asking that question in particular?' and finding out once again (like the previous question related to it), they're personally hurting. And so, in that sense, I could give a tidy answer about if you're positing that something is good, you're positing that there's an objective good and evil, and if there's an objective good and evil, then you're positing an objective law, and objective law needs an objective lawgiver. So where do we find the groundwork for an objective lawgiver to begin with? Otherwise, you may not like certain things, but to say they ought not to happen is actually an ethical leap to an objective reality that you may or may not have groundwork for. But if that person is struggling because a family member of theirs has cancer, then that particular, maybe tidy, tied-up-in-a-nice-bow answer is not going to speak to them whatsoever. And so that's why that's the hardest question because there are actually very good answers to it, but often it doesn't speak to the person in front of you, because questions have questioners that sit behind them. And one of the pitfalls of my chosen field of ministry apologetics is that sometimes we give answers where we talk at people rather than with people. And there's a danger to that because the Christian faith isn't just an intellectual assent, right? It's a personal relationship. And that should also be played out in the answers that we give..."

How’s your YAC this week? summitchurch.com/message/the-de…

@jdgreear @bpoind

@autocorrect2_0 Would you the have to come to the same conclusion about head coverings?

This is how you explain the different roles between men and women in the church. Notice he doesn’t diminish women or their role. He doesn’t infantilize them. Insult them. Tell them they can’t even teach other women. Imply they are stupid or dangerous. Yet he still affirms biblical roles. But he won’t get attention for it. And there’s the issue.

The medical exam scene at the end of Captain Phillips used a real Navy corpsman, Danielle Albert, who performed the procedure as she would in real life. Paul Greengrass kept the moment largely unscripted, capturing Tom Hanks’ raw, shaken performance.

Oxford professor John Lennox on testing the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: "Now, my final point is this. I'm a scientist of sorts, and people say to me, 'Come on. You can't believe this stuff.' Because in science and practical science you do experiments. You test your hypothesis. Christianity is not testable. Isn't it? Isn't it? You see, the difference between the two last things I read were the difference between seeing something, those grave cloths, and working out an intellectual conclusion that something utterly remarkable has happened. That's not quite the same thing as meeting the risen Jesus. And you see, ladies and gentlemen, if it is true that Jesus rose from the dead, then He's still alive, and it's possible to meet Him. Now, you can do an experiment, and it's this—this Jesus who claims to be risen tells us that if we're prepared to trust Him, repent of the mess we've made of our own lives, and the lives of other people, and we're prepared to receive Him as Lord and Controller of life as the risen Son of God, then He will give us forgiveness. Does the word forgiveness mean anything to you? He'll give us new life and a new power... Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is the test...When you see people with narcotic or alcohol dependence, and they've no food to put on the table in front of their children, and you meet them then a year later, and something has happened. You say, 'What's happened to you?' and they say something like, 'Well, I met Jesus,' or 'I became a Christian,' or they'll put it different ways. When you see that again and again, you add two and two to get four. I wouldn't sit here for a nanosecond if I didn't believe that not only is the resurrection of Jesus intellectually credible, but I believe it's existentially credible because the center part of my life and that of my wife and family is to walk with Him from day to day. Now, that may sound absolute jargon and mumbo-jumbo to you, but we're living in a universe where we discover that we are persons, and every analogy we know tells us that our origin cannot be sub-personal. It's supra-personal. And if we enjoy human friendship, what a magnificent thing it is if God makes a way where we can through faith in Christ become His sons and daughters and enjoy the biggest friendship and the most exciting friendship in the universe, and that is friendship with the risen Christ."

The Detroit Pistons 2004 NBA Finals introductions go ABSOLUTELY INSANE #DetroitBasketball

A deep dive into the Ark of the Covenant—what it was, where it may have been, and why its significance goes far beyond the mystery of its location—this conversation unpacks the historical and archaeological context surrounding Shiloh, challenges popular claims about the Ark being hidden in Ethiopia, and breaks down why many widely circulated biblical “discoveries” fall into speculation rather than evidence, before shifting into an evidence-based case for the resurrection of Jesus through prophecy, historical accounts, and archaeological support, while also exploring spiritual warfare, including the reality of demons, the nature of evil, and how these ideas are often distorted by modern media. @_jeremiahj

Creed. Third Day and Brandon Heath.

This Easter, I invite you to look at Jesus, consider what he said and did, and ask for yourself what I believe is the most important question you will ever answer: Did he really leave behind an empty tomb? And if he did, what does that mean for you? This video was made possible and in collaboration with my friends at @ChildlikeMedia.

29 years ago today. 🐢

A growing number of college professors say they are turning to oral exams, and combining a variety of old-fashioned and cutting-edge techniques, to help address a crisis in higher education. abcnews.link/8kybVc2

LeBron never did that