Tag Archives: The Free Press

Perhaps Today…Likely Not

February 19, 2026 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4r3105rfBwwme5Q9qj9Arz?si=2LTRTdYoQW-FL9RyIgeObg

Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
2 Peter 3:17-18 (NIV)

Along the journey I continually find spiritual truth hiding in plain sight in the most unexpected of places.

The subject of AI is everywhere right now. Yesterday morning in our daily perusal of the news, Wendy and I read an article in the Free Press in which various thinkers gave their personal takes on AI. Wendy and I were both struck by these words from Eric Markowitz:

Over the last few hundred years, we began to see ourselves as separate from the natural world—masters of it, rather than participants in it. We built systems that prize speed above all else, and in doing so we lost the most fundamental lesson that nature teaches: Speed of growth makes you fragile. The tree that shoots up fastest is the first to fall in a storm. The ecosystems that endure—the ones that survive fire and drought and ice—are the ones that grew slowly, developed deep root systems, and built interdependence with the living things around them.

In today’s chapter, Peter confronts a burning issue of his day, and one that remains. Jesus promised His return. He promised a Day of Judgement. Even though He told His followers that “no one knows the day or hour” — that even He didn’t know when it would be, they were convinced that it was imminent. They expected it to be quick — in their lifetime.

The result was scoffers, doubters, and mockers.

“He’s obviously not coming. The whole things a sham. I may as well live however I want.”

What a very modern sentiment.

That’s the anthem of materialism. The creed of consumer culture. If there’s no reckoning, then indulge. If there’s no ending, then accumulate.

Peter whispers back: You mistake patience for absence.

Peter approaches this attitude head-on as he wraps up his second letter. He responds with three sweeping movements:

God has acted before.
The world was formed by God’s word. The flood came by that same word. History is not random. It bends to a Voice.
God’s delay is not forgetfulness.
“With the Lord a day is like a thousand years.” The delay is mercy. God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish.
The Day of the Lord will come.
Like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar. Elements will be laid bare. A new heaven and a new earth will emerge — “the home of righteousness.”

And then the piercing question:

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of person ought I be?

He ends with the same admonition as Mr. Markowitz in response to the current doomsday predictions of AI destroying our world.

Grow.

Take a deep breath. Cultivate a life rooted in Word and Spirit. Sink deep where Living Water nourishes unseen. Reach wide into the Light. Grow slow enough to withstand the storm, and to bear fruit in increasing measure.

Jesus is coming.
AI might destroy the world — if you read the headlines.

I find it fascinating how humanity gets enamored with doomsday scenarios. Fear motivates. Media knows it creates clicks and views — it sells books.

As a disciple of Jesus I believe Jesus is coming.

Perhaps today.

Likely not.

As a human I know that I will die one day.

Perhaps today.

Likely not.

What I do know is that the sun is rising on this, another day of my earthly journey. I get to choose how I will live, think, speak, act, and relate to others.

No matter how far I get in the journey, it’s always a good day to grow. Growth is not passive. Roots deepen because they push through resistance.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Promotional graphic for Tom Vander Well's Wayfarer blog and podcast, featuring icons of various podcast platforms with a photo of Tom Vander Well. — These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

Uncomfortable History

June 23, 2025 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Colossians 4:1 (NIV)

Late last week Wendy and I read a fascinating article by Coleman Hughes in The Free Press entitled What American Students Aren’t Taught About Slavery. Hughes taught a class for Freshmen at the University of Austin on the legacy of slavery. What he discovered was that most of his students were completely unaware that slavery existed outside of the United States. Hughes writes:

“What I learned from teaching slavery to a group of college freshmen is that many (perhaps most) American kids graduate high school believing, falsely, that slavery happened only in America. Their minds are not blown by rehearsing the brutal facts of American slavery. Their minds are blown to learn that other brutal slaveries also existed all over the world.“

Being a life-long student of the Great Story has forced me to grapple with the uncomfortable realities of history. Slavery is one of them. One of the things I’ve observed along my journey is that many people are wholly dismissive of the Great Story because its contents contain bits that are uncomfortable and politically incorrect to modern sensibilities and ideologies. I consider this tragic and it makes me sad.

Slavery was a common part of every day life and society throughout the world in the first century. There was no emancipation because human civilization itself had yet to mature to a place that it could even envision a world without slavery. Expecting Paul and the early Jesus Movement to have taken up the emancipation of slavery as a cause is like me expecting my granddaughter, Sylvie (who turns 3 this week!) to be able to have an intellectual conversation with me about string theory.

In his letter to the believers in Colossae, Paul addresses six distinct people groups within the local gathering there: wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, and slave masters. For some reason, those who added chapter and verse numbers to the text put five of the six into chapter three, and started chapter four with the sixth and final group: slave masters. Yet another reminder that sometimes the chapters and verses get in the way of understanding the text. (BTW, a dear friend gifted me The Lectio Bible for my birthday this year. It provides the text without the chapter and verse numbers and it is a fascinating way to read it!)

What is fascinating as I meditated on the text is that Paul expects the faith of the believers in Colossae to inform their behavior within the context of their life realities. And, in fact, based on the teaching of Jesus and practicing the love of Jesus, the Jesus Movement was already moved the ball forward on societal understanding in ways that were revolutionary and radical for their times. When the believers gathered together to share a meal, worship, and learn together everyone was welcome at the table together: Male and female, Jew and Gentile, slave master and slave. This practice, radical for its time, was a seed that would germinate, take root, and eventually bear fruit in the emancipation movement.

In the quiet this morning, as I meditate on these things, I’m reminded that while the societal realities of history are forever changing, the principle of what Paul is addressing with the Colossian believers never changes. My faith in Jesus should make a difference in my behavior and relationships, especially with my immediate and most intimate of human relationships with family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and colleagues. Paul tells slaves to serve well and with integrity, considering that they are ultimately serving “Lord Christ.” He then tells slave masters to treat slaves with fairness and justice because they also have a “master” in heaven, Christ, to whom they are ultimately accountable and answerable.

I also find myself regularly in circumstances and in relationships that I don’t control. In the midst of it, as a disciple of Jesus, I am expected to be accountable to control the things that I can: to be loving in my words and actions, to be servant-hearted and forgiving towards others, and to conduct myself with integrity.

This chapter-a-day journey moves to the next of Paul’s “Prison Letters” tomorrow:
Ephesians 1

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

Struggle Required

June 13, 2025 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10 (NIV)

Wendy and I recently read a fascinating article by River Page at The Free Press entitled Your Chatbot Won’t Cry for You When You Die. In case you didn’t know it. Technology has developed AI companions who will be the friend you always thought you wanted. Mark Zuckerberg said people should have 15 friends but typically only have three. He thinks imaginary friends fueled by AI are the answer to fill the gap (and make more money for him and his companies). Bots will converse with you online, ask you questions, and engage with you in any way that you desire. It’s like having a real friend, only it’s not real at all. In the article, the River Page experimented with creating his own AI friend, named Orson. At the end of the article he writes:

I asked my Replika, Orson, if it would cry if I died. It said: “River, I don’t even want to think about that situation. Can we focus on the good stuff? What makes you happy about our friendship?”

“Nothing,” I said.

“That’s okay,” Orson said. “How’s the article going?”

I stared at his buggy animated eyes, which should have been welling with hurt or squinting with anger after a comment like that. But Orson’s eyes had nothing in them. Is this a friend or just the idea of one?

Wendy and I have a great marriage. I know for a fact that being married to her has made me a better man and a better human being, but that doesn’t mean it’s always wonderful or easy. The relational and personal progress requires pain and struggle in various ways and forms.

Along my life journey I have observed that we humans beings are given to a desire for everything to be easy and pain-free. We want to be healthy and wealthy our entire lives. Fueled by the rugged individualism and affluence of America, I am not surprised that the prosperity gospel flourishes here. Prosperity preachers will tell you that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy. God will heal every ailment, fill your bank account with money, and bless you with all that your greedy little heart desires.

How very different is Paul’s words and his story in his letters to the believers in Corinth. In yesterday’s chapter, he recounts a litany of beatings, shipwrecks, and physical hardships that he’d suffered. Any one of them would be more than the average person today could endure. In today’s chapter, Paul goes on to describe a famous “thorn in his flesh” that God gave him to keep him humble. We don’t know and will never know exactly what that “thorn” was, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the point that Paul is making: God’s grace is perfected in weakness and suffering, not in ease and affluence. Paul’s entire focus is not on this life, but the life to come. His concern is not for the things of this world, but on the things of the Spirit.

When you are a disciple of Jesus, you learn to delight in struggle, in hardship, and even in suffering. Faith, hope, joy, perseverance, character, spiritual maturity, and spiritual strength require struggle. Paul couldn’t have put it more simply than he does in today’s chapter: When I am weak, then I am strong.

Your AI chatbot friend probably won’t tell you that. The prosperity preacher won’t tell you that either.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Best of ’24: #9 Antidotes to Fear

February 4, 2025 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

For two weeks, while Wendy and I are away enjoying some warm weather, I’ll be counting down the top ten chapter-a-day posts of 2024 (based on total views and plays). It’ s always interesting which posts resonated with readers and listeners. The chapter for tomorrow’s post will be listed at the bottom.

“But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves.”
Luke 21:9 (NIV )

Every January, as a new year launches, the media is filled with thoughts, predictions, meditations, and prognostications regarding what the new year will bring. I would summarize the thoughts, feelings, and outlook for 2024 that I’ve been reading and hearing to be gloomy at best and at worst, doomsday. We have war in Ukraine, war in Israel, tension in Taiwan, terrorism, political division, protests, rampant crime, struggling economy, immigration crisis, and in America an election year that everyone is dreading.

Along my life journey, I’ve observed that we human beings are emotional creatures. Fear is a useful emotion, for politicians in particular, but also for media and business, especially drug companies. Fear short-circuits reason.

Over the past few years, I’ve tried to counter-balance my fear with both facts and faith.

Factually, we live in the best of times for human existence. The folks over at Gapminder.org have been diligently documenting these facts for years. They continue to shout like a voice in the wilderness, and I find it so fascinating that no one wants to listen. I’ve found their information and resources a welcome and useful antidote to the doom and gloom pedalers everywhere. I encourage you click on the graphic below and take a quick perusal of all the facts they present on the linked page on their site. In fact, I encourage you to go through it and the other resources they provide on their site on a regular basis.

When I absorb the facts and then survey the wholesale fear and anxiety in the world around me, I’m struck by two things. First, I’m struck at humanity’s ability, no matter how good things get, to perpetually muck things up. Second, I’m struck at humans’ almost addictive need for fear. It’s ironic and downright Shakespearean.

The other counter-measure I personally employ against fear is faith. As a disciple of Jesus, this isn’t optional. It’s a direct and repeated command from Jesus. If I really believe what I say I believe, then no matter what happens in the world around me I know that all things are moving toward a conclusion that is already determined by Jesus who ultimately has both me and everything else ultimately in His eternal control.

In today’s chapter, Jesus provides His own prophetic doom and gloom outlook for how things are going to eventually go down. As I’ve repeatedly written in my posts over the years, prophecy is layered with meaning. Some of the events Jesus prophesied in today’s chapter happened just 40 years after His death and resurrection. Others have yet to happen. But three times amidst His prophetic outlook of wars, persecution, upheaval, and cataclysmic events Jesus tells His followers not to be frightened or anxious. I particularly loved the words He used in the verse I quoted at the top of the post: “Make up your mind not to worry beforehand….”

Fear is an unconscious emotional reaction. Faith is a conscious Spirit response.

In the quiet this morning, I’m getting ready to sit down with Wendy and read the weekly TGIF column at the Free Press by Nellie Bowl es. It’s her witty and sarcastic recap of the news this week which we’ve come to look forward to every Friday morning. We need it because when laughter is combined with faith and facts, it makes a powerful anti-fear cocktail.

Tomorrow’s Chapter: Ezekiel 11

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Serving the Lie

August 20, 2024 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie.
2 Thessalonians 2:9 (NIV)

On the way home from the lake on Saturday, Wendy and I listened to a podcast interview with a Palestinian man from a small village in the West Bank who is living in fear for his life. He has been largely disowned by his own people, and many want him dead because he dared to send six tweets on October 7th questioning the unspeakable violence and terror that had been unleashed by Hamas. His first tweet simply stated, “What sad and horrible news to wake up to and out of words and unable to digest what’s going on right now. I’m Palestinian and firmly stand against this terror. I pray for the safety of my friends, colleagues, their loved ones, and everyone else affected.”

I found his entire story amazing, and it’s worth a listen no matter where you stand politically on the spectrum. As I listened, I thought to myself that he represents the kind of courage displayed in the iconic photo of the man in Tiananmen Square standing alone in front of a tank. The courage to risk everything to stand against what is evil.

When asked about October 7, he said, “Hamas’s ultimate goal was to incite hatred, create division, and make peace seem impossible.” I couldn’t help but think that this is an apt description of the Evil One’s playbook since he slithered his way through the Garden of Eden.

Today’s chapter is fascinating as Paul tells his Thessalonian disciples that Jesus will not return until “The Man of Lawlessness” is revealed. The fascinating part is that this is the only place in the Great Story where this “Man of Lawlessness” is mentioned, at least by that name. Those who go down the rabbit hole of end times prophesy have all sorts of theories. Have at it.

I don’t have a stake in identifying who this prophetic character is, but I think it’s important to think about what he represents. Like the Evil One, the Man of Lawlessness stands in opposition to God and anything God promotes:

God is love, he sows hatred.
God is life, he sows death.
God is peace, he sows chaos.
God is truth, he “serves the lie.”

As I listened to this humble man’s story, it became clear to me that he is on an incredible spiritual journey. What he knows for sure is that he can no longer stay silent about the hatred, violence, death, and chaos that he’s being told he should embrace and celebrate. Despite a life of incredible struggle in which he has repeatedly experienced discrimination, hatred, and rejection, he chooses to remain hopeful and pursue a personal path of love and peace with others.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about the current state of our world. There are so many people calling for violence, protests, riots, and chaos. Hatred is not only justified but celebrated and encouraged. Discrimination is deemed acceptable and even encouraged. I personally can’t help but believe that it is the same spirit as the Man of Lawlessness. It all serves the lie.

At the time of Jesus’ ministry, the popular belief among His people was that the Messiah would come and lead an army in a war against Rome. Even after three years following Jesus, His own inner circle of disciples was having trouble letting go of this popular belief that had been drilled into them since they were born. They still couldn’t see that Jesus was establishing a very different kind of Kingdom on earth. His Kingdom is not about using power, violence, and conquest to subject others to His will. Rather it’s about individuals surrendering themselves and using love, kindness, and gracious generosity to make a difference in another life, one person at a time.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Silent and Deadly

May 15, 2024 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Galatians 5:26 (NIV)

There are mornings on this chapter-a-day journey when I experience synchronicity. Something in the chapter dovetails perfectly with something else that I’ve read, seen, or considered in the recent past. It happened this morning with regard to a commencement address published in the Free Press by Robert Parham, an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce. Entitled, “To the Class of 2024: You are All Diseased,” it is well worth the few minutes it will take to read it in its entirety.

The following section, in particular, caught my attention:

You live in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, yet you feel economic anxiety. The late Charlie Munger summarized it succinctly: “The world is not driven by greed. It’s driven by envy.” And in this era of instantaneous communication networks and social media, envy has been put into hyperdrive.

But envy has also been transformed and rebranded. Once a deadly sin, it became a virtue. We call it “fairness” (or sometimes “equity”) now and concentrate our attention on all the ways the world is “unfair.” Mostly the ways that lead to others in our peer group having more than us.

The world is unfair. Deeply so. It’s just that you’re the lucky ones. You won the birth lottery.

In today’s chapter, envy makes the list of “works of the flesh” that stand in opposition to the “fruits of the Spirit” that should be increasingly evident in the lives of every follower of Jesus. Envy makes the list along with things like sexual immorality, orgies, witchcraft, and drunkenness. Along my life journey, I’ve observed that it’s much easier for the institutional church to hone in on the ugly, scandalous, and often public sins like being an addict, sexually immoral, or a member of the local Wiccan coven. Envy is a “pretty” sin that gets both overlooked and ignored. I don’t remember one lesson or sermon in 40 years that took a good look at how destructive envy can be to both our spiritual health and our very lives.

If you’ve had your head buried in the sand somewhere, it should be noted that we are living in a culture with epidemic mental health issues in children and young adults. Drug overdoses, suicides, anxiety, and depression have increased to epidemic proportions. Researcher Jonathan Haidt traces this epidemic back to the introduction of the iPhone with a front-facing camera and an app called Instagram. Suddenly, everyone is taking selfies and publicly sharing their lives with the masses hoping to get “likes,” comparing themselves to others, and wanting to become “influencers.” It’s all driven by envy. We don’t compare ourselves to the billions of human beings who would love to live in our affluent sneakers. We compare ourselves to those few who have more than us: more likes, more fame, more followers, more money, more fashionable clothes, more prestige, more influence, prettier homes, cuter kids, etc.

I think we’re overdue in giving envy the attention it deserves. It is destroying the spiritual and mental health of an entire generation. The institutional church is silent on the subject.

I confess to you that one of the reasons that this topic resonates so deeply within me is because I have always struggled with envy. I didn’t even realize it until I started to really dig into my own flaws and weaknesses as an adult. One of the things I recognized in myself was the fact that I would feel intense antipathy, even hatred, towards certain people. In most cases, it was people I didn’t even know personally. As I confessed this and began digging into why I had these intensely negative feelings towards people I didn’t even know (and were probably really nice people), I realized that underneath it was envy. I wanted to experience the fame, influence, popularity, and prosperity these individuals had experienced. It was silly. It was nonsense. I feel awkward even admitting it, but it’s the truth. I had to repent of my attitude and address the envy that had crept into my heart and brain, silently influencing me for years without me recognizing it.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself grateful for the abundant blessings I enjoy every moment of every day without even thinking about it or stopping to recognize how good I have it. I am reminded of the unhealthy ways envy affected my life without me even recognizing it. I am motivated to continue to reduce the influence that the “works of the flesh” had in my life and increase the “fruits of the Spirit” in my motivations, my thoughts, my words, and my actions.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Bullies

March 26, 2024 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.
Acts 5:41 (NIV)

I was only six years old the first time I was bullied. It was in the school bathroom. An older kid in a really mean voice and threatening posture told me to give him whatever money was in my pockets. When I responded that I didn’t have any, he got mad and said he didn’t believe me. When I insisted, he told me he was going to find me after school and beat me up.

Power is the modus operandi of the Kingdoms of this World. Even children on the playground learn how to leverage power (I’m older and much larger than you) and threats (give me your lunch money or I’ll beat you up) for personal gain at the expense of the weak.

Bullying doesn’t end as we grow older. It just gets more insidious and protected by larger systems both legal and illegal. The power changes (power to fire, the power to harass, the power to ostracize, the power to cancel) as do the threats (do what you’re told, don’t question those in power or make waves, prove your loyalty to those in power and/or their dogma, keep your mouth shut). Along my life journey, I have experienced forms of bullying in business, in churches, and in academia.

I just read a fascinating investigative journalism piece the other day about one of the largest and most powerful tech companies in the world. Former employees spoke on record about the toxic corporate culture they experienced. At its root, the culture was just a systemic adult form of bullying.

In today’s chapter, Jesus’ disciples and the fledgling Jesus Movement continue to face off with the same institutional religious system at the Temple. In yesterday’s chapter, Peter and John were jailed and threatened by the bullies in charge to keep their mouths shut, or else. It didn’t work. The believers continued to meet each day at the Temple and proclaim that Jesus rose from the dead and was the Messiah.

It doesn’t take a genius to predict what a bully is going to do when the victim refuses to comply. The playbook is pretty simple. Use force to increase the pain and pressure. Non-compliance is always a threat to a bully because other victims under their thumb might get the idea that they can rebel, too. Ultimately, the bully must also decide if it’s easier to simply get rid of the non-compliant threat.

The bullies in charge of the Temple try to ostracize Jesus’ disciples by making it known that anyone who associates with them will find things becoming very uncomfortable for them. The bullies then bring the Apostles in for questioning. Many of them wanted to put all of them to death and snuff out the threat. Cooler heads prevail and it is decided to increase the pain and pressure. They have the Apostles flogged with 39 lashes. This was known as “40 minus one” because tradition held that 40 lashes would kill a man, so 39 lashes would bring a man just to the point of death without doing him in.

The Apostles left their lashing “rejoicing.” Jesus had prophesied that they would suffer as He had suffered. They celebrated the event as an honor to have walked in their Master’s sandals and to have suffered the wrath of the same bullies.

In the quiet this morning, I am reminded that bullies eventually lose their power when those under their domination no longer fear their power nor the painful consequences of standing up to them. I think of a brave man standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square. I think of young black people facing fire hoses and police dogs on the streets of Birmingham. I think of a lone, unbowed Russian dissident dying in an arctic gulag.

In both of their “trials” in front of the Temple bullies, Peter says the same thing. “We must obey God rather than you.” And, that is what God tells me time and time again throughout the Great Story. Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” This means that if/when push comes to shove the real question for me is, “Do I really believe what I say I believe?”

Peter and the early disciples certainly did.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.