Welcome to The Light, your quiet hour of reflection.
There is a difference, some are reminding us, between information and wisdom. Melissa and Courtney of The Gospel Coalition raise a question worth sitting with: when we turn to the internet or artificial intelligence for guidance on marriage, on parenting, on the deepest questions of how to live, are we seeking knowledge when what we truly need is relationship, presence, and the kind of knowing that only comes through trust built over time.
From that question of how we receive wisdom, we turn to one of how we receive suffering. Writer Frederik deBoer, who was once involuntarily committed for bipolar disorder, has written a searching new book cautioning against the cultural drift toward making mental illness a permanent identity. He holds gratitude and concern together, grateful the system saved his life, troubled that healing has grown so rare, and that struggle has become, for some, a way of belonging.
And then, perhaps the most arresting story of this hour. Two young Christian men imprisoned in Iran were asked how we might pray for them. Their answer was this: pray that we would not be released until our work here is finished. They had led fellow prisoners to faith. Chains, it seems, can become a kind of calling.
That is this hour's reflection. Carry the light gently.
