Daly Focus Blog
Tomorrow is Good Friday and Sunday is Easter. Those holidays don’t mean much for a lot of families. It’s just another routine Friday followed by a warm spring day where kids get all the candy they want and hunt for colorful eggs.
There’s a deeper significance to those days that many people overlook. I remember years ago, back when video stores were still around. My wife and I went looking for a well-known film that told the story of Easter.
Laura Story and her husband Martin Elvington have often told people that their marriage went from the honeymoon straight to the E.R.! That wasn’t just a metaphor.
Barely two years into their lives together, they thought the world was open to them. They could do anything they wanted to do, and they were happily anticipating all that God may have had in store.
Within a few months of a big move to Atlanta for Martin to attend grad school, he began experiencing physical symptoms that went undiagnosed for nearly a year.
Tim Goeglein, Focus on the Family’s vice president of external and government relations in our Washington D.C. office, had the privilege of being a guest for the swearing-in of Judge Neil Gorsuch as the newest member of the United States Supreme Court. Here are his reflections. – J.D.
Today was the most beautiful day of the year in Washington. The skies were blue; the birds were singing; the spring tulips were in full bloom on the South Lawn of The White House; it was a festive occasion as the newest member of the Supreme Court prepared to take his seat at the high bench.
“How much is enough?”
Somebody asked John D. Rockefeller that once. His answer?
“Just a little bit more.”
I wonder if most of us secretly agree with him. We try to be content, but it’s hard with so many shiny things to choose from and advertisers convincing us of needs we didn’t know we even had. We’re easily lulled into believing that we could be happy if we had just a little bit more.
But how much is enough?
This is my statement on the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court of the United States. – J.D.
**
“As a fellow Coloradan, I am thrilled that our very own Judge Neil Gorsuch, from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, was confirmed today by a vote in the U.S. Senate. Judge Gorsuch now becomes ‘Justice’ Gorsuch upon taking the oath of office – and he will be the type of justice our Founders envisioned.
After eight years of an administration that was friendly to abortion in any and every instance, Congress and the Trump Administration have taken steps to pull back pro-abortion policies on a couple of fronts – and that’s good news.
Here are the details.
Last week, the U.S. Senate followed the House of Representatives in repealing an Obama-era rule that banned states from denying federal funds to groups that commit abortions, including Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.
As author and speaker Lee Strobel tells it, someone once came between him and his wife, Leslie, that almost destroyed their marriage. It wasn’t a co-worker or an old boyfriend.
It was Jesus Christ.
Leslie had become a Christian. Lee remained a staunch atheist.
Their worldviews were diametrically opposed to one another. The friction that created is why God gave us the sort of wisdom found in 2 Corinthians 6:14, which says, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.”
Yokes were heavy wooden implements that were fitted over the necks of two animals, so they could pull a plow together.
Ask a 20-something a few generations back what their religious affiliation was, and chances were the answer would fall within predictable lines: Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Jewish, for example.
Ask the same question of today’s young adults, otherwise known as “Millennials,” and you might hear something new.
“I’m spiritual,” they might say, or “I believe in a higher power, but I’m not religious.”
That’s because Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) are more comfortable than any other generation in identifying their religious affiliation as “none of the above.”
In fact, about 35 percent of adult Millennials are religiously unaffiliated, according to Pew Research Center.
Does this visual remind you of your parenting style?
You probably recognize that formula from a math class somewhere in your past. It guarantees that every time you add A and B together, you get C. So 2 + 2 always equals 4, and 1 + 5 always gives you 6. Every time. It’s simple. It’s reliable. It’s predictable.
That certainty is why formulas are the go-to parenting method for so many moms and dads.
The miraculous, hope-filled story of Easter might have been closer to a Shakespearean tragedy if God had left it up to the men.
Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and hanged himself. Peter denied Jesus three times. Thomas doubted the Resurrection. And all of the disciples hid fearfully behind locked doors for three days. And when they were told that Jesus had risen, the message “seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe it” (Luke 24:11, ESV).
Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is Marriage Done Right.
