The three things I liked this week were inspired by three pieces I read—two books and one blog. Let’s get started.

First, in Julie Smith’s book Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? she addresses a variety of topics that help readers better understand their emotions, navigate difficult experiences, and develop practical skills for improving their mental and emotional well-being. I found her comments related to emotions particularly insightful. She writes:

Emotions are real and valid, but they are not facts. They are a guess. A perspective we try on for size. An emotion is the brain’s attempt to make sense of the world so that you can meet your needs and survive. Given that what you feel is not a factual statement, neither are your thoughts (101).

I found this helpful because I’ve seen how easily I, and others, can be hijacked by our emotions, treating what we feel as though it were necessarily true. Learning to recognize that an emotion is real without assuming that it is always telling us the truth may help us respond to anxiety, depression, and other difficult emotions with greater wisdom and freedom.

Second, I was intrigued by (I didn’t necessarily like or rejoice in) Tim Challies’s article Why Fallen Pastors So Rarely Walk Away. (The reality of fallen pastors is grievous to me.) Challies asks why pastors who have disqualified themselves from ministry so rarely walk away from it but instead find ways to reappear in another church or denomination. I agree with his assessment, and I find the phenomenon troubling. But his article also prompted another question—one that’s been rattling around in my brain for some time now, and one I hope to address when I finish my thesis (which I hope is soon!). Here’s the question: Why do so many pastors, even those who have served faithfully for decades, seem so reluctant to step out of the spotlight? Why, when their formal ministry comes to an end, do more pastors not embrace a quieter life of prayer, contemplation, and obscurity?

Third, I liked (inspired is a better word) Matthew Arbo‘s description of early Christianity’s confrontation with, and response to, persecution. Read the following carefully:

The earliest Christian communities were widely and ruthlessly persecuted. Christians were maligned, castigated, deprived, tormented, and executed. Children were torn from their parents. Spouses were executed before one another’s eyes. Whole communities were slain en masse, sometimes for the entertainment of the coliseum. This era of intense persecution defined the shape of the church’s life and mission for more than a century. . . . To be a Christian required courage. At least until Constantine’s fourth-century edict decriminalizing Christianity, churches accepted the prospect of arrest and execution. Churches met secretly in catacombs. No one was assured another day. It took courage to believe. There were no latent social advantages to being Christian, as there may still be in certain parts of the world today. Quite the opposite—believing was perilous. To bear witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ was to risk everything (66–67).

Let’s remember this as we bear witness to Christ each day and gather with his people weekly. And don’t forget to pray for persecuted Christians around the world.