Barnabas Piper's Blog
July 24, 2026
3 Things I Like This Week – July 24
Photo by Tony Hand on UnsplashEach week (give or take one or two here and there) I share three things I like – It could be a book, a movie, a podcast, an album, a photo, an article, a restaurant, a food item, a beverage, or anything else I simply enjoy and think you might too. You can find a whole pile of things, especially books, I like and recommend HERE.
1) The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary by Christopher Ash
We’ve been preaching through the Psalms this summer at our church, and I have used several commentaries. And frankly, I find many of them remarkably unhelpful in preparing to preach. It’s not that the scholarship is poor but that the emphases are more on matters that matter relatively little from the pulpit. To preach a Psalm one needs to connect the message to the hearer through fulfillment in Christ whether it is a Psalm of lament, of wisdom, of praise, of ascent, or a royal Psalm. The commentary I found that combined more technical and linguisitic scholarship with interpretation and explanation of the message was this set by Christopher Ash. It is clear and instructive in its interpretations. It guide the reader to Christ in appropriate, biblically consistent ways from each Psalm. And it offers clear instruction on the broader scholarly understanding of the book of Psalms as a whole too. It is so good that ict could be valuable as a devotional resource or a preaching aid.
2) Bill Bryson’s Books
Bill Bryson is the best sort of funny–smart observations communicated wittily. He is one of those writers who sees life keenly, but from unusual angles. He notices the oddities of normal interactions and seemingly boring people. He pinpoints quirky differences in cultures and expressions. And then he relays all this to the reader with a narrative clarity and humorous edge that is often laugh-out-loud funny. It’s hard to make readers laugh with the written word, but Bryson does it regularly. And in the process the reader finds himself learning things about places and people and cultures. My favorite book of his is A Walk in the Woods, a memoir of hiking the Appalachian Trail. He has also written memoirs about moving to England, moving back from England, traveling to Australia, and growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in Iowa. Any of them is worth a read, and all of them are a delight.
3) Garden Fresh Tomatoes
I’ve shared here before about our wonderful neighbor who is a masterful gardener and among the most hospitable people I’ve known. One of the many blessings she has shared with our family is the overflow of her fecund garden, most especially fresh tomatoes. When one buys tomatoes from the grocery store one is purchasing a mere shadow, a suggestion of what God intended tomatoes to be. When one eats tomatoes fresh off the plant, as my toddler makes a point of doing with or without permission, they are practically decadent. They are enough to make me actually excited about salads, or just to eat straight with a dash of salt.
Kindle Deals for July 24
Photo by Aliis Sinisalu on UnsplashSome Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:
Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential by Collin Hansen & Jonathan Leeman – $3.74
Friend-ish: Reclaiming Real Friendship in a Culture of Confusion by Kelly Needham – $1.99
Seven Snares of the Enemy: Breaking Free From the Devil’s Grip by Erwin Lutzer – $3.89
Teaching Leviticus: From Text to Message by G. Geoffrey Harper – $2.99
Gospelbound: Living with Resolute Hope in an Anxious Age by Collin Hansen & Sarah Zylstra – $5.99
Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter by Timothy Keller – $6.99
How Church Could (Literally) Save Your Life by Rebecca McLaughlin – $6.55
Thunderhead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child – $1.99
Plum Island by Nelson DeMille – $1.99
The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux – $2.99
MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten – $2.99
The White Boy Shuffle: A Novel by Paul Beatty – $1.99
Savage Country: A Novel by Robert Olmsted – $3.99
Far Bright Star by Robert Olmsted – $2.99
Jim the Boy: A Novel by Tony Earley – $2.99
The Bounty Hunters by Elmore Leonard – $4.99
The Law at Randado by Elmore Leonard – $4.99
Escape from Five Shadows by Elmore Leonard – $4.99
Gunsights by Elmore Leonard – $5.99
MY BOOKS:
Life After Divorce: Gospel Hope and Guidance for the Road Ahead – $12.99
(Releasing in March, 2027)
Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another – $8.99
Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality – $8.99
The Pastor’s Kid: What it’s Like and How to Help – $8.99
Help My Unbelief: Why doubt is not the enemy of faith – $8.99
The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life – $4.99
All links are Amazon Affiliate links.
July 23, 2026
Kindle Deals for July 23
Photo by Aliis Sinisalu on UnsplashSome Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:
Worship by the Book edited by D.A. Carson
Living in the Light: Money, Sex and Power by John Piper – $4.99
Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper – $6.99
Shaped by God: Thinking and Feeling in Tune with the Psalms by John Piper – $4.99
The Secret of the Abiding Presence by Andrew Murray – $2.99
Humble Calvinism: And if I Know the Five Points, But Have Not Love … by Jeff Medders – $4.99
Enjoy Your Prayer Life by Michael Reeves – $4.99
Before You Open Your Bible: Nine Heart Postures For Approaching God’s Word by Matt Smethurst – $2.99
The Dignity Revolution: Reclaiming God’s Rich Vision for Humanity by Daniel Darling – $4.99
The Mental Floss History of the United States: The (Almost) Complete and (Entirely) Entertaining Story of America by Eric Sass – $2.99
Strange Crime: Oddball Crimes, Capers, Plots, Laws, and More – $2.99
Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition by Owen Beattie & John Geiger – $3.99
The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers Joined Forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe by Stephen Harding – $2.99
The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End by Robert Gerwarth – $3.99
Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill – $3.99
MY BOOKS:
Life After Divorce: Gospel Hope and Guidance for the Road Ahead – $12.99
(Releasing in March, 2027)
Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another – $8.99
Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality – $8.99
The Pastor’s Kid: What it’s Like and How to Help – $8.99
Help My Unbelief: Why doubt is not the enemy of faith – $8.99
The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life – $4.99
All links are Amazon Affiliate links.
July 22, 2026
Kindle Deals for July 22
Photo by @felirbe on UnsplashSome Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:
When People Are Big and God Is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man by Edward Welch – $2.99
1 Peter: Life as an Outsider, Study Guide with Leader’s Notes by Robert Thune – $2.99
Exalting Jesus in 1 Peter by Daniel Akin – $4.99
Pilgrim Prayers: Devotional Poems That Awaken Your Heart to the Goodness, Greatness, and Glory of God by Tim Challies – $1.99
The Essential Bible Companion: Key Insights for Reading God’s Word by John Walton, Mark Strauss, & Ted Cooper – $5.99
The Essential Bible Companion to the Psalms: Key Insights for Reading God’s Word by Brian Webster & David Beach – $2.99
15 New Testament Words of Life: A New Testament Theology for Real Life by Nijay Gupta – $4.99
Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary by J.D. Greear – $4.99
Remember and Rehearse: An Invitation to Participate in God’s Story by J.T. English – $4.99
A Treatise on Good Works by Martin Luther – $1.99
Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart: How to Know for Sure You Are Saved by J.D. Greear – $4.99
Titus For You: For reading, for feeding, for leading by Tim Chester – $2.99
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis – $2.99
God’s Big Picture Bible Storybook: 140 Connecting Bible Stories of God’s Faithful Promises by N.T. Wright – $2.99
Demon Copperhead: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver – $2.99
Tom Lake: A Novel by Ann Patchett – $2.99
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds – $1.99
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo – $2.99
All the Pretty Horses: Border Trilogy 1 by Cormac McCarthy – $1.99
The Short Novels of John Steinbeck – $5.99
Mythos: Greek Myths Reimagined by Stephen Fry – $3.99
Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined by Stephen Fry – $3.99
Troy: The Greek Myths Reimagined by Stephen Fry – $3.99
Odyssey: The Greek Myths Reimagined by Stephen Fry – $3.99
MY BOOKS:
Life After Divorce: Gospel Hope and Guidance for the Road Ahead – $12.99
(Releasing in March, 2027)
Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another – $8.99
Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality – $8.99
The Pastor’s Kid: What it’s Like and How to Help – $8.99
Help My Unbelief: Why doubt is not the enemy of faith – $8.99
The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life – $4.99
All links are Amazon Affiliate links.
4 Questions to Help You Find Happiness
Photo by Tim Hüfner on Unsplash
The questions that follow are ones with which I wrestled in the writing of Hoping for Happiness, and which I continue to think about regularly. I hope these thoughts will help you to find real happiness and rest in it.
1) What is the difference between joy and happiness?
Many Christians think of joy as deeply spiritual and virtuous, and think of happiness as experiential, untrustworthy, and fleeting. Joy is rooted and unshakeable while happiness lives on the whim of a mood and the serendipity of circumstance. As we saw in chapter 10, these definitions are unhelpful and cause people unnecessary turmoil.
Certainly, people can have a version of happiness without having joy in the Lord. Temporal happiness is all around us all the time. Happiness, in this sense, is not the purview of Christians alone. Matthew 5:45 tells us that God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust,” so it’s clear that the good gifts of God are enjoyed by all people to some degree. People eat and drink. People fall in love. People marvel at the beauty of the Matterhorn or an Edgar Degas oil painting. But this happiness—a tug toward the eternal—is incomplete. It is meant to lift people’s eyes to the things of God. Instead most people make their way through life moving from one temporal happiness to another.
This version of happiness is the beginning of something lasting and magnificent. But without an eye toward the eternal, it is happiness without joy—a fleeting pursuit of the next good feeling. However good it looks on the surface, at its root it is idolatrous and dangerous.
So you can have a version of happiness without joy, but you cannot have genuine joy without happiness. To be joyful is to be glad, to rejoice, to be grateful, to be at peace. Joy should be magnetic and compelling, not life in the doldrums. In short, to be joyful is to be happy in those things that are lasting and transformative. A professed joy that lacks happiness is nothing but an articulated belief system, and it is hypocrisy.
When we recognize the inextricable wovenness of genuine happiness and joy it relieves a burden of unnecessary guilt over enjoyment (evangeliguilt) in life’s pleasures. It gives us permission to—and even compels us to—find laughter and peace in the midst of life’s worst circumstances. The complex reality of human emotion is that we rarely experience just one feeling at a time. We find that we can be truly happy in the midst of suffering even though we are grieving and burdened because of the suffering. We don’t need to extricate our joy from our happiness or put one on a spiritual pedestal while the other plays in the yard. To do so is to falsify both.
2) Is unhappiness sin? How about unhappiness in the midst of suffering?Well, that depends.
In chapter 4 we took a long look at how we live under a curse because of sin. Nothing is as it is supposed to be. And every human knows this at a visceral and often subconscious level. We feel the wrongness of injustice, unkindness, illness, brokenness, and death. They make us unhappy, and this unhappiness is a reflection of God’s image in us. We are designed to abhor what is evil, what is wrong, what shouldn’t be. This kind of unhappiness is right.
This means that when we suffer, we are free to lament—to grieve with faith that God is in control. We should abhor the pain that a cursed reality has brought about. We ought to yearn for resolution, for healing, for justice, and ultimately for the return of Jesus to set things right. The Gospels tell of Jesus weeping over the death of a friend, mourning over the plight of a city he loved, and pleading with God for a way out of the suffering of crucifixion. He was rightly unhappy with the devastation wrought by sin.
But he was never selfish. His unhappiness did not turn to complaint, to blaming, to bad moods, or to mistrust of his Father. Just the opposite. When Jesus asked, “Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me,” in the same breath He prayed “Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36). He was unhappy, but trusting. He was unhappy, but obedient. He was unhappy, but he did not let it direct him away from the course God called him to.
Our unhappiness becomes sinful when it focuses on the self. We instinctively do this all the time—and the effects can be devastating. We allow the brokenness in one area of life to splatter its acid all over other areas of life, so that we become blind to that for which we should be thankful. Or we experience a wrong of some kind and our reaction is disproportionate and causes even more wreckage. Or we wallow in unhappiness, as if that will somehow make us happier, rather than seeking the happiness Christ offers through his Spirit and through so many good gifts.
Unhappiness is part of life until we go to meet Jesus or he returns. We will never be completely happy, completely satisfied, or permanently at peace in this life. And this does not have to be sinful. In fact, it can be God-honoring as we respond to life’s unhappiness in the manner Jesus did—selflessly, joyfully, trusting God, pressing on.
3) Are my expectations right, realistic, and godly?So much of happiness is tied to what we expect. But how do we know if what we expect is right? Here are some filters we can run expectations through to help determine if they are realistic and god-honoring.
Who are my expectations benefiting?The easiest thing in the world is to think of ourselves first and only. It is our sinful nature to prioritize ourselves at the cost of anyone else, and it is contrary to everything Scripture teaches about serving others, considering their needs, bearing with one another, and taking up our crosses as followers of Jesus. If the primary, or only, beneficiary of your expectations is yourself, you need to consider how they align with what God says is right and true.
When you head into a relationship, are you thinking primarily of how it will be good for you, or how it will be good for the other person? When you join a church, are considering only what it offers you or what you can bring to it? In any decision, are you considering the cost to yourself or only the benefit? Are you willing to absorb that cost for the good of others, even if it is unpleasant? And have you considered how the benefit to you might actually be a cost to others?
Who do I depend on to meet my expectations?This question goes hand-in-hand with the one above. It is impossible to have expectations that truly depend on God and are also self-centered in their outcome. To depend on God (to “fear God”, Ecclesiastes 12:13) is to put him first. When we do this, it rearranges or replaces our selfish motivations and orients us toward expectations that truly please God. When we have expectations that are selfish we can be sure that they are dependent on ourselves, or other people, to fulfill them.
That’s not to say we don’t need other people or that leaning on them is wrong. God has designed us for relationships in which we depend on one another. But there is a significant difference between the kind of depending on people that puts all our faith in them and the kind that recognizes their need for God to empower and enable them. The former places a burden of expectation on people that will inevitably lead to disappointment. The second acknowledges their God-given abilities and capacities with gratitude, while resting in God’s ongoing work through them. This is freeing and gracious.
When our expectations are God-dependent they become God-defined. We simply can’t expect God to do anything that God didn’t say he would do. Remembering this keeps us from hoping for things that dishonor God, while enabling us to expect remarkable, mind-blowing things from God by faith. We often will not know what to hope for or expect in particular situations, but when we depend on God, we know that he will do what is best—whether or not our expectations come to fruition. When we depend on ourselves, or on others, we risk becoming proud or embittered, depending on whether our expectations were met or not.
What do I know of the one I am depending on?When we depend on God, we know that our expectations are in perfect hands—but they are also in mysterious ones. God will do things we never thought possible and that we never asked for. His wisdom is too great and wonderful for us, so we will never know the full picture of why and how he does what he does. However, if we know him well—his character, his word, his promises—we will find peace and happiness in the outcomes he gives. If we don’t have a firm grasp on God’s character, we’ll struggle to believe and find peace in outcomes we did not expect or want.
When we depend on people, even in a healthy way, we need to be equally aware of who they are—image-bearers of God with an incredible capacity for good and evil. We are fools if we don’t let this shape our expectations of people. They can bring us great joy and do us real good, but they will inevitably let us down too. There is only one person who works for our good in all things, all the time—and it’s not our spouse, or our friend, or our pastor (Romans 8:28). This is why we depend on God even as we depend on people. It is only through God’s work that people do good and can be trusted. Another way to put it would be: who does the one you depend on depend on?
4) How do I freely enjoy life without guilt? How do I keep enjoyment from becoming idolatry?One of the main reasons I wrote this book was because I was tired of wrestling with guilt over having fun and enjoying myself. It seemed strange that God would give so many wonderful gifts only for me to feel guilty for enjoying them. On the other hand, I could also recognize my propensity for turning good things into idols, and that wasn’t ok either. Thus began my efforts at wrangling these tensions into a (hopefully) coherent and biblically faithful book. In the spirit of Ecclesiastes, and hopefully a dash of Solomon’s wisdom, I’ll conclude with the following thoughts.
Be grateful in everything. If you acknowledge and thank the source of your blessings it is so much harder to turn them into idols of any kind.
Appreciate good gifts as God intended. Savor the delicious things. Laugh at the humorous things. Thrill at the exhilarating things. Enjoy the entertaining things. Cheer at the joyous things. Ponder the deep things. Rest in the peaceful things. Reflect on the somber things. Wonder at the beautiful things. Cherish the precious things. And share them all, for happiness is multiplied when gifts are experienced together.
Live the life God has given you to the fullest. Imagine taking a child to the playground. If she continually came back asking, “Am I swinging right?” or, “Am I sliding right?” you would eventually say, “Just go play! Enjoy yourself. Have fun.” We are like that child when we worry too much about how to enjoy life rather than simply being fully engaged and enjoying it.
Repent often and eagerly. We will get things wrong dozens of times every day for the rest of our lives. We will sin in our hearts, minds, and actions. We can either let our sins drive us from God, or we can remember the work of Christ and take our sins to God, our good Father, who stands ready to forgive and is generous with good gifts. When we repent the Holy Spirit changes us, by degrees, toward holiness, where perfect peace and happiness are found.
Fear God and keep his commandments. These words are the final instruction of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, and they are the perfect summation of our pursuit of happiness. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7). It is the grounds for all gratitude. It is the orientation of our hearts to truth and right expectations. It is dependence and honor and trust. From it flows a desire to keep God’s commandments because we see them as life-giving and good. In God’s words we have freedom to enjoy, strength to overcome, and a promise of true happiness.
This is an excerpt from my book Hoping for Happiness. A biblical framework for living a grounded, hopeful, and genuinely happy life, this book gets far beyond the topic of work and helps us to throw off both the unrealistic expectations that end in disappointment and the guilty sense that Christians are not meant to have fun.
July 21, 2026
Kindle Deals for July 21
Photo by @felirbe on UnsplashSome Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:
The Excellency of Christ by John Owen – $3.99
The Expulsive Power of a New Affection by Thomas Chalmers – $2.99
The End for Which God Created the World by Jonathan Edwards – $.99
Proverbs by Charles Bridges – $2.99
The Treasury of David: Charles Spurgeon Commentary on Psalms by Charles Spurgeon – $4.99
Understanding the Bible by John Stott – $6.99
The Storied Life: Christian Writing as Art and Worship by Jared C. Wilson – $.99
Discourses and Selected Writings by Epictetus – $.99
In Praise of Doubt: How to Have Convictions Without Becoming a Fanaticby Peter Berger & Anton Zijderveld – $2.99
Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg – $2.99
Start with Why 15th Anniversary Edition: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek – $4.99
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle – $1.99
Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors by Stephen Ambrose – $1.99
The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII by Jack El-Hai – $1.99
MacArthur at War: World War II in the Pacific by Walter Borneman – $2.99
Check Six!: A Thunderbolt Pilot’s War Across the Pacific by Jim Curran & Terrance Popravak Jr. – $2.99
Dog Company: A True Story of American Soldiers Abandoned by Their High Command by Lynn Vincent & Roger Hill – $3.99
Fighting Fox Company: The Battling Flank of the Band of Brothers by Terry Poyser & Bill Brown – $2.99
The Black Scorpions: Serving with the 64th Fighter Squadron in World War II by James Lynch – $4.99
MY BOOKS:
Life After Divorce: Gospel Hope and Guidance for the Road Ahead – $12.99
(Releasing in March, 2027)
Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another – $8.99
Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality – $8.99
The Pastor’s Kid: What it’s Like and How to Help – $8.99
Help My Unbelief: Why doubt is not the enemy of faith – $8.99
The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life – $4.99
All links are Amazon Affiliate links.
July 20, 2026
Kindle Deals for July 20
Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel by Ray Ortlund- $3.99
Marriage: 6 Gospel Commitments Every Couple Needs to Make by Paul Tripp – $6.99
Married for God: Making Your Marriage the Best It Can Be by Christopher Ash – $3.99
God, Marriage, and Family: Rebuilding the Biblical Foundation by Andreas Kostenberger – $5.99
When Sinners Say “I Do”: Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage by Dave Harvey – $4.99
The Priority of Preaching by Christopher Ash – $2.99
Who are You?: Answering Questions about You, Me and God by Wiliam Edgar – $2.99
The Fulfillment of the Promises of God: An Explanation of Covenant Theology by Richard Belcher Jr. – $2.99
Priceless People: Loving Older People and People Living with Dementia by Ben Boland – $2.99
A Day’s Journey: Stories of Hope and Death-Defying Joy by Tim Keesee – $.99
Gamble in the Coral Sea: Japan’s Offensive, the Carrier Battle, and the Road to Midway by Michael Piegzik – $2.99
The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King–The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea by Walter Borneman – $1.99
The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe by David Kirtzer – $1.99
Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History by Keith O’Brien – $2.99
His Majesty’s Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World’s Largest Flying Machine by S.C. Gwynne – $2.99
Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All-Women’s Ascent of Denali by Cassidy Randall – $2.99
The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks by Terry Tempest Williams – $1.99
The Extraordinary Life of A. A. MilneThe Extraordinary Life of A. A. Milne by Nadia Cohen – 2.99
The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate – $1.99
Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith – $1.99
Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn by Christopher Cox – $1.99
Rutherford B. Hayes: The American Presidents Series: The 19th President, 1877-1881 by Hans Trefousse – $2.99
Harry S. Truman: The American Presidents Series: The 33rd President, 1945-1953 by Robert Dallek – $2.99
Life After Divorce: Gospel Hope and Guidance for the Road Ahead – $12.99
(Releasing in March, 2027)
Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another – $8.99
Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality – $8.99
The Pastor’s Kid: What it’s Like and How to Help – $8.99
Help My Unbelief: Why doubt is not the enemy of faith – $8.99
The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life – $4.99
All links are Amazon Affiliate links.
The Stability of Our Times
Photo by Winggo Tse on Unsplash
Isaiah 33:6
. . . and he will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.
It is fair to say we live in unstable times. As has every generation before us. Since the fall of mankind, there has never been stability; every empire, every nation, every era has been marked by varying levels of chaos brought about by sin. And yet we continue to yearn for stability, to fight for it, and often (sadly) to put our hopes in the wrong source of it.
Yet we have a source of stability. We have the source of stability–Christ himself. He is our internal stability, giving us every reason for hope and calm and gentleness in a bleak, angry world of upheaval. He is our communal source of stability as our means of loving one another and finding deep, meaningful relationships. And he will one day be our societal source of stability when he returns and makes all things new.
We don’t need to grasp about, hoping to find stability in some political party or societal trend. We don’t need to fear what will happen in the coming months or years. Christ is our stability and our salvation, so we can live with calm, kind hope.
I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville, in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.
July 17, 2026
3 Things I Like This Week – July 17
Each week (give or take one or two here and there) I share three things I like – It could be a book, a movie, a podcast, an album, a photo, an article, a restaurant, a food item, a beverage, or anything else I simply enjoy and think you might too. You can find a whole pile of things, especially books, I like and recommend HERE.
1) At Baker’s Keyboard Lounge by the Oscar Peterson Trio
There are no new recordings from Oscar Peterson, but there are new releases. This one dropped a little earlier this year, and it is wonderful, showing the full range of Peterson’s styles and talents. It is classic Jazz in the best way. And for those who are unfamiliar with jazz or would like to get into it a little bit more, Peterson;s music is a wonderful starting point. It is not avante garde or experimental. He communicates a melody in the midst of his improvisations so the songs are easier to latch on to. The trio (piano, bass, drums) provides a steady, clear groove to follow and enjoy. Their music is deceptive in its simplicity, and it is delightful.
2) Songwriter’s Nights at Rock Castle
This one is for the Nashville area residents and is one of those events you only find in the Nashville area. Once a month during the summer Rock Castle, an 18th century historic home on a peninsula in Old Hickory Lake, hosts a songwriter’s night. For four hours in the evening musicians ply their craft in 45 minute sets while attendees relax in lawn chairs or on blankets. The grounds are beautiful and there is a permanent stage set up to adequately feature the musicians. Food trucks are brought in, and many people bring in picnics. They often have an area set where kids can play without disturbing the listeners. It’s basically all the good stuff about a music festival without any of the obnoxious stuff. And it is only $10/person. My family has been attending a couple times per summer for the last several years and love it. If you are in Nashville or passing through, check it out.
3) The Boundary Waters
I have loved the Boundary Waters since I was a teenager and first experienced it. Today the area is on my mind especially because of the wildfires ravaging the area. (Of course, in the course of history, the Boundary Waters have experienced innumerable wild fires from lightning and camp fires and I suppose that is part of its ecological cycle and health. But right now it’s awful.) This 1.1 million acre natural area borders Minnesota and Canada. It is a web of lakes and forests and is reserved only for canoeing, kayaking, hiking, and camping. The North Woods are unlike anywhere else in the United States in their serenity, isolation, water features, wildlife, amazing fishing, and true wilderness feel. It is one of the few places you can disappear into and see no people for days on end. From mid June through early fall there isn’t a more beautiful place.
Kindle Deals for July 17
Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy by Jane Leavy – $2.99
The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant – $6.99
The Closer by Mariano Rivera – $2.99
The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever by Mark Frost – $1.99
Dr. J: The Autobiography by Julius Irving – $2.99
The Amateurs: The Story of Four Young Men and Their Quest for an Olympic Gold Medal by David Halberstam – $2.99
The Last Great Fight: The Extraordinary Tale of Two Men and How One Fight Changed Their Lives Forever by Joe Layden – $2.99
Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson by Mark Kriegel – $6.99
Hands of Stone: The Life and Legend of Roberto Duran by Christian Giudice – $5.95
The National Team: The Inside Story of the Women Who Changed Soccer by Caitlin Murray – $2.99
The Players’ Coach: From Bradshaw to Manning, Brady, and Beyond by Tom Moore – $2.99
Parcells: A Football Life by Bill Parcells – $6.99
Atlas: From the Streets to the Ring: A Son’s Struggle to Become a Man by Teddy Atlas – $2.99
One for the Record: The Inside Story of Hank Aaron’s Chase for the Home Run Record by George Plimpton – $2.99
The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy by Bill Simmons – $6.99
Basketball: A Love Story by Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew, & Dan Klores – $4.99
Why We Love Football: A History in 100 Moments by Joe Posnanski – $4.99
Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments by Joe Posnanski – $5.99
Life After Divorce: Gospel Hope and Guidance for the Road Ahead – $12.99
(Releasing in March, 2027)
Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another – $8.99
Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality – $8.99
The Pastor’s Kid: What it’s Like and How to Help – $8.99
Help My Unbelief: Why doubt is not the enemy of faith – $8.99
The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life – $4.99
All links are Amazon Affiliate links.
