Briefly

The photos were on a site which covers sports, but the feature had more to do with the body of a scantily clad woman than anything else, even though the woman used to play college volleyball. I’ve seen things of this nature a thousand times and they always repel me. I spent a few minutes tonight thinking about the reason why I have this reaction. I have nothing against former Marshall University volleyball Kayla Simmons, but this depiction of her reminds me of so much of what I hate in modern culture. Simmons might be a brilliant and talented woman. I have no idea. But I do know that she is choosing to promote herself as a sex symbol of sorts for social media fame — and I know that what I want is absolutely nothing like this. The kind of woman I want would run from this sort of depiction of herself even if she had the world’s most perfect body, because she wouldn’t be eager to share her body with the world and she wouldn’t want to be stereotyped as a sexually attractive bimbo. The woman I want is brilliant, competent, compassionate, driven and has character. Simmons might have all those things. I honestly don’t know. But promoting yourself this way suggests you are the fantasy that most men want — which is exactly the opposite of what I want and need.

I did something hilariously stupid a few minutes ago. I had just finished showing a house and was going through the place turning all the lights off when I became frustrated because I couldn’t find the light switch to turn this remaining light off in a bathroom. After searching and fuming for at least three minutes about my inability to figure it out, I finally noticed that there was no light to turn off. That’s a skylight in the ceiling instead. I felt pretty stupid, but I had a good laugh at my own expense. Sometimes, we’re not nearly as bright as we think we are. Remember to laugh at yourself. It makes mistakes more bearable.

David Platt and Donald Trump don’t belong on the same stage. Other than both being humans, I know nothing similar about the two. Platt is one of the best people I’ve ever known. Trump is among the worst I’ve ever seen on the world stage. Platt is pastor of McLean Bible Church in Virginia. He moved to Virginia to be president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board. Before that, he was my pastor at the Church at Brook Hills here in Birmingham, so I feel qualified to offer an opinion about him. He was the most godly and humble pastor I’ve ever known. He loved people and was passionate about personally becoming more like Jesus and teaching others to do the same. On Sunday, he had just finished preaching and he stepped off the stage to prepare for the Lord’s Supper. He got a message that Trump was on the way to the church and wanted for the church to pray for him. In a letter to the church Sunday night, Platt explained that he thought praying for Trump was the right thing — in a very non-political way. Unfortunately, Platt was naive not to recognize that it would be seen in the context of the political support that many religious right Christian ministers have given to Trump. I think Platt made a mistake by allowing Trump onto the stage — because of the appearance of an endorsement — but knowing him as I do, I know it was a naive mistake made by a godly man trying to do the right thing.