Welcome to The Light, where we slow down long enough to listen.
Kirk Franklin released his new double album, I Am What I Am, today — a pairing of studio recordings and live church sessions that he describes as thirty-three years of answering his critics. With characteristic warmth, he put it simply: he needs a little gravy on his God.
That spirit of faith expressed through gesture finds a quiet echo in Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs, who explained this week that his touchdown celebration — hands briefly clasped behind his back — was never a reference to his recent arrest, but a tribute to the gospel song Break Every Chain. Sometimes a body carries a prayer before the mouth finds the words.
And yet the question of who is still finding their way to faith remains open. Pew Research tells us that adults between twenty-three and twenty-six are among the least religious in the country, while those just below them, eighteen to twenty-two, attend church at higher rates than nearly any other age group. The spiritual map of a generation, it seems, is still being drawn.
That's this hour's reflection. Carry the light gently.
