Are We Being Manipulated?

March 19, 2026

Are you the product—that which is sold?

Many (most?) technologists are amoral. Without morals. They design most products to exploit human weaknesses to capture and sell our attention to advertisers. That attention can also be given (sold?) to governments who wish to track people.

When we allow ourselves to be immersed those created worlds of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and now all the gambling apps, we need to consider the value we receive versus time lost to mindless provocations. What’s lost in the emotional upheaval of negative posts. What value to our life is gained? How much money do we throw at the gamblers?

Let’s face it. Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t need any more money.

And us? What value could we add to the world through living rather than scrolling.

These thoughts were prompted while watching the only commercial TV programs in our house—Premier League soccer. I can’t believe the gambling apps. You can bet on anything—instantaneously. Talk about getting sucked in.

This isn’t an old man telling you young people not to have fun. It’s an old man who has lived through many things attempting to point to better ways to live. After all, Jesus had fun. He was often the life of the party. He didn’t get sucked in to addictions.

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The World Can Be a Complex Place

March 18, 2026

You do something. You thought it was simple and isolated.

People don’t react the way you thought they would.

The action affects situations or people you didn’t expect.

People  see through your motivations that you thought were so pure.

But ego plays a role. And pride. Perhaps selfishness.

We’ve been considering simplicity.

Sometimes we must strip away our ego. And pride. And selfishness.

Before we act—what is the next right action. Considering kindness. Considering what we’ve learned from Jesus.

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Beauty–The Antidote

March 17, 2026

“The luminous and shocking beauty of the everyday is something I try to remain alert to, if only as an antidote to the chronic cynicism and disenchantment that seems to surround everything, these days. It tells me that, despite how debased or corrupt we are told humanity is and how degraded the world has become, it just keeps on being beautiful.”​— Nick Cave (Singer, Musician, Writer)

We can get sucked into cynicism and negativity so easily. Media, social media, conversations can accumulate ideas of how bad people are and how divided we are. 

Poll after poll show actually the inverse. Most people are kind. Most people are helpful. Most Americans want basically the same thing—maybe with subtle differences left or right.

Listening to Nick Cave reminds us to look for beauty everyday. It’s there. Awareness is in itself a beautiful thing.

Some people look at the Gospels and see “separating the sheep from the goats.”

I see Jesus grieving for each person who came to him and could not find the courage or strength to make the right decision to change directions and follow him.

Just for today, look for the beauty in something—nature, a building, a relationship, seeing a parent with child. And then maybe you look tomorrow. And maybe it becomes a way of life which will change our very attitude toward life. 

That would be a beautiful thing.

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Simplify Decisions

March 16, 2026

The same day I received an essay from Om Malik on simplicity and renewal and from my meditation teacher on stripping away complexity, I downloaded the next podcast from Tim Ferriss. He asked five acquaintances to reply with thoughts about what they have done to simplify life in 2026.

I offer some thoughts that you may find helpful.

Maria Popova noticed that she found herself in long conversations that were not nourishing her life. So, she stopped giving time to those conversations.

Morgan Housel replied with a “do nothing” thesis. His wealth basically consists of house, cash, and funds. He invested in a number of diversified funds. Then, he no longer found himself needing to make constant decisions. “The fewer decisions, the better.”

Computer scientist, professor and writer Cal Newport asks, “What request deserves a yes when the default is no?”

Craig Mod quit alcohol and decided to concentrate on only one craft (he is a writer, photographer, and occasional leader of long walks through Japan and southeast Asia).

Debbie Millman stewed over the decision to leave the corporation she had helped found or accept the offer to become CEO. Her boss and mentor finally told her, “If it takes four months to decide, you probably don’t want it.”

Thinking about deciding once and eliminating future emotional drain for decisions, I think of Steve Jobs. On a trip to Japan, he noticed everyone at the companies wore a uniform. He returned home. Cleaned out his closet. Bought black mock-turtle shirts and jeans. That was his uniform. No daily decisions. [He didn’t have my wife, who constantly wants me to add to my wardrobe—you need more colors…]

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Simplify

March 13, 2026

I wrote yesterday about how the word “neo” contains the meaning of not just new but re-new—refresh, strip away accumulated crud that a philosophy (or a life) attracts to return to the simple truth.

The same day that the article appeared the provoked my thinking about renewal meaning return to the simple beginnings, my meditation teacher dropped this statement into the day’s meditation:

Strip away added complications returning to simple presence.

Jesus made everything seem so simple. Yet, the bar for achievement often seemed impossibly high for the normal human.

Forgetting the bar, think only on the simple. Throw away all accumulated justifications and fuzzy thinking. Look at the few things he spoke with clarity. Living with these leads to participation in God’s Kingdom.

  • Choose to change the direction of our life (the usual translation is the single word Repent)
  • Acknowledge the change leads to living with-God in the Kingdom
  • Orient our life toward always acknowledging God (Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind)
  • Live out this Kingdom orientation with our changed life (Love your neighbor as yourself, and Love one another as I have loved you)

Simple, yet keeping it up requires practice and persistence. 

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Neo = Renew

March 12, 2026

Apple just released a new laptop. You can get one choosing from among five cool colors for $700 or less. The laptop is called MacBook Neo.

Neo means something more than “new.” More like “renewal.” Think of stripping away accumulated baggage returning to the basics. Simplifying things. 

Writers and podcasters who follow Apple are in love with this stripped down, but still powerful, computer. One of my favorites, Om Malik, wrote a thoughtful piece.

The neo-Platonists, especially Plotinus, remain among my favorite philosophers. They stripped several hundred years of accumulated gunk on Plato’s philosophy. The returned to the thinking that everything in the universe came from The One. They sound almost Christian without the theology.

Jesus announced the beginning of his ministry saying, “Change the direction of your life! The Kingdom of God is all around you, here, now.” I think you could look at that first word as a form of “neo.” Renew yourself. Strip away the accumulated gunk of the burdensome laws the Pharisees have loaded upon you. Step into God’s Kingdom. Or as we like to say, live a “with-God” life.

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Now What?

March 11, 2026

Some people worry that AI will put an end to writing. Maybe it will—for those who don’t think. Many of us, on the other hand, write to think.

I wrote yesterday to think through the horrible comment by a church leader somewhere up the road from me—Grace is for sinners; Laws are for Christians.

Yes, I am still shocked by that philosophy. One that would be hard to justify biblically. At least, from a New Testament perspective.

I’m still thinking about grace (and I wish the joke from Christmas Vacation would leave my memory). “Grace, she died years ago.”

Sorry for the digression.

There are other people who think that grace is like a vaccination (I guess they aren’t anti-vaxxers). One dose and you’re cured of the disease. Same as education for some.

As Paul guides our spiritual formation process in his Letter to the Romans, he devoted about a third of the text to discussing life after receiving grace. Read those last few chapters as a guide to living with Jesus after receiving your first big dose of grace.

After all, Matthew records Jesus’s teaching as “Change your life’s direction, for God’s Kingdom is right here.” (Usually rendered “Repent! For the Kingdom of God is at hand.”)

I think we forget the “change your life” part. Living under Grace (and not Laws like the Pharisees whom Jesus battled) doesn’t prevent us from ever sinning (we could wish) but it does enable us to live differently. And better.

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Sinners and Christians

March 10, 2026

[Sitting at the second tee of our little golf course across the street from our house. Beautiful day for March 9. Typical northern Illinois 35mph wind.]

I swear I wasn’t eavesdropping on the conversation. The Starbucks has a long bench seat along the windows with small table aligned and a chair across from the seat. I took a seat with my Doppio Espresso with s dusting of cinnamon, plugged my air pods into my ears, and proceeded to listen to an engineering software press conference.

That over, I paused in quiet to compose my thoughts before writing. A young man and then an older man sat at the table beside mine. During that moment of quiet (for me), I clearly heard the young man talk about a church he was thinking of attending.

They told me that grace is for sinners, and laws are for Christians.

I am still shaken by that statement.

So, according to that unknown church, Christians are not sinners?

And, Christians are under the Law?

What version of the New Testament are they reading? Have they ever sat and read the Letter to the Romans straight through? Several times successively?

All are sinners. Some have grace and are forgiven. Forgiven doesn’t mean never going to sin again. It just means the past is forgiven. Speaking from personal experience, I need that forgiveness  probably more than once daily!

And what about the Letter to the Galatians where Paul clearly (OK, clearly for Paul) discusses freedom from the Law for Jesus Followers.

I think I could write a book fleshing out these thoughts. I’m beyond disturbed.

In fact, I’ve completed writing what will soon be a series of videos on my YouTube channel guiding people through the spiritual development process Paul outlines in Romans. The final third of the letter discusses how we live under grace. But he doesn’t tell us that we’ll never sin again. Or that we will be living under the Law. He disposed of that idea early in the letter.

Living under grace is liberating. Never cynical. Never tyrannical. Always helpful. Joyful.

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Change

March 9, 2026

“What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.” ― Maya Angelou

This thought is similar to the Serenity Prayer attributed to theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

My professor in graduate school hated that last part about accepting things you cannot change. But that is ancient wisdom. I use this thought when accosted by the daily deluge of news (which I mostly ignore). If I can’t do anything about it, why dwell on it? Live in the present moment.

I also like the tag that Angelou puts on the thought—Don’t complain. Once again, why waste that energy?

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Overthinking

March 6, 2026

Philosophers have devised “razors” that “shave off” unlikely explanations. I rather like Hanlon’s Razor—Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

The razor of the day today is another of my favorites, Occam’s razor. “Explanations that require fewer unjustified assumptions are more likely to be correct.” We usually shorten this to “the simplest explanation is often the best.”

The other day, I read this thought from Adam in The Pump App (my fitness newsletter). I worry people overthink fitness and want everything to be perfect when it never will be. When you use that much brainpower stressing and beating yourself up, you are wasting the energy you can use to get moving forward.

The same thought holds true for far too many of us in biblical study. We think too much. Maybe Jesus meant what he said. Maybe there isn’t an underlying devious theology beneath what Paul wrote in his letters. 

We do need to read a complete thought and put it into context. But there’s probably not anything beyond what Jesus said and what he did.

Don’t overthink your fitness experiences. Don’t overthink your various relationships. Don’t overthink Jesus. Take him for what he said. No more. No less.

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