Aaron Dowdy

A little bit Texan and Kazakh. A whole lot Virginian. Lover of sweet tea, grower of beards. A husband, daddy, and Christian.

[Matt Smethurst @MattSmethurst]

My 14-year-old is far more developed than my 2-year-old—physically, mentally, and emotionally. But she is not more my child.

Beware of justification by sanctification.

[Matt Smethurst @MattSmethurst]

So much of the Christian life can be boiled down to two simple truths.

1. You are no longer your own. You belong to Christ.

2. You are no longer 𝘰𝘯 your own. He gave you the church.

[Garrett Kell ن @pastorjgkell]

"Jesus wept, but He never complained." - Charles Spurgeon

Lord, guard us from grumbling about anything Your wise providence prescribes.

[Paul Rees. ex Rucksack. @HannahIamthest1]

A truck loaded with thousands of copies of Roget's Thesaurus spilled its load leaving New York.
Witnesses were stunned, startled, aghast, stupefied, confused, shocked, rattled, paralyzed, dazed, bewildered, surprised, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, confounded, astonished, and numbed.

[Josh Kraushaar @JoshKraushaar]

Ben Sasse: "What’s really happening is these superdevices in our pockets — the largest tools any median individual’s ever had access to in all of human history — allow our consciousness to leave the time and place where we actually live, the places where we break bread, the people who are living next door to us, the people that you can physically touch and hug, the small platoons of real community, and we allow our consciousness to go really far away"

[Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽 @JoshEakle]

Artemis II is 170K+ miles from Earth today.

But yesterday, Pilot Victor Glover was asked if he had any thoughts leading up to Easter.

His response is worth listening to.

And his advice is worth internalizing in advance of a difficult year ahead.

[Matt Smethurst @MattSmethurst]

Alistair Begg on knowing vs. feeling in worship.

This is magnificent.

[Garrett Kell ن @pastorjgkell]

"If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him, for you are worse than he thinks you to be." - Charles Spurgeon

[Aaron Dowdy @DowdyAaron]

@TonyReinke It’s great, but not her best. The Garfield book is among my favorite narrative non-fiction reads.

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil @CBSEveningNews]

Charlie Hicks ate his lunch and dinner at the Shrimp Basket in Pensacola, Florida, every day for 10 years. When he suddenly stopped showing up, the chef went looking for him – ultimately saving his life. @SteveHartmanCBS is On the Road.

[Danny @Truth_matters20]

Wes Huff on the serious errors in the Quran:

"The Quran makes a lot of errors and mistakes that screams lack of verisimilitude and credibility. And ultimately, in chapter 4 verse 157, denies one of the most easily verifiable events of ancient history: the crucifixion of Jesus."

[David French @DavidAFrench]

I just taught my first class since Charlie Kirk's assassination. We spoke about the attack for more than an hour. My students at @lipscomb, to a person (and regardless of whether they were on the right or the left), engaged thoughtfully and mournfully. There wasn't a hint of celebration or vengeance. Instead, there was lament.

Do not think for a moment that the dysfunction we see on this website -- or on viral videos -- is the whole story. There are so many good people in this country (and on campus). May their voices win the day.

[Ryan Duff @ryancduff]

BACK UP TERRY! PUT IT IN REVERSE!

Happy Independence Day! 🎆

[Aaron Dowdy @DowdyAaron]

@NancyAFrench I watched it with my teens earlier this year and they loved it too.

[Holy Post Media @HolyPost_Media]

The U.S. is open to resettling refugees again - but only if they're white from South Africa. @PhilVischer @skyejethani 🎙���Holy Post 669 (linked in bio)