Welcome to The Light.
Something has shifted in the architecture of the Western world this week. The United States, in a series of deliberate moves, has effectively aligned itself with Russia in its ongoing war against Ukraine. Sanctions have been waived, alliances quietly abandoned, and a security order that held for nearly eight decades now stands visibly diminished. The weight of that is not small.
From the halls of geopolitical power, we turn to something quieter but no less consequential. Maria Popova, after twenty years of writing The Marginalian, has offered nineteen truths and one beguiling lie about a life spent in contemplation. She speaks of looking back and finding strangers where you once stood, of mistaking fear for love, of the strange mercy of not knowing who you were becoming. It is a meditation on impermanence that asks us to hold our certainties loosely.
And in the landscape of American faith, Andy Stanley has announced he will step down as senior pastor of North Point Community Church next year. He has led one of the largest congregations in the country for decades, and his departure marks a quiet turning for a community that has shaped the texture of modern evangelical life.
That is this hour's reflection. Carry the light gently.
