20 Proverbs for the Digital Age

I'm Not Solomon, But...

Tomorrow is my last class of the year with the VB Fellows. At the end of each year, I try to give them one glorious summary of a bunch of the practical things we learned together. The key word being practical. These are not so much the theological and philosophical items (though I like those too), but rather the things you can immediately do and use. Over time, this has turned into a kind of personal challenge for me to see how succinctly I can put things that sometimes took me decades to figure out and hours in the classroom to explain and justify. For that very reason, I hesitate to share. Without further context, I’m sure some will seem trite or banal and others odd, even bewildering. Nevertheless, brevity is not normally my strong suit, so I figured I’d bless my dear readers with something pithy for a change. This is my list of “proverbs” for 2024 (with very brief explanations). I hope you enjoy. Let me know if any stand out to you.

— Ross

1. Ask. Pray wordless prayers in the car.

   1. Turn the music/podcast off, and make time to groan to God from the bottom of your being. Tell him—and ask him for—what words cannot express. Show him your face, and he will show you his.

2. Make space for God. Remember the Sabbath, the unseen seventh part of everything. 

   1. Fast from false fullness. Make rhythms that continually return to rest, mystery, and even emptiness. Welcome all seasons, even winter.

3. When God is pruning you, he is holding you close.

   1. No amount of pain is wasted with God. Even when you feel far away and confused, he is holding you.

   2. Even anxiety, depression, grief, and trauma have a purpose in Him; they are reminder alarms to pray and trust.

4. Roots before fruit. Farmer before architect.

   1. Instagram is fruit w/o roots. Do not be impatient about fruit. Do what grows roots, and the fruit will come.

   2. Be a farmer of your future, not an architect. Till the soil. God will bring fruit in his time and way.

5. Honor your father and mother by redeeming them in you.

   1. Remember and respect the givenness of life. If you don’t learn to leverage your ancestors, you will carry them as a burden.

   2. You are, to a great extent, the product of your people & place. You cannot avoid this, but you can redeem it. 

6. Resist the disembodiment of the internet and the automobile. Love your neighbor and your neighborhood.

   1. Despite what the modern world tells you, you are a body. Both dust and breath. Be where you are and help others do the same.

7. Feast and fast. Sing and be silent. Live by a distinct rhythm.

   1. You cannot stop orbiting, but you can trade bad orbits for good ones.

   2. Do not reinvent the wheel. The church has been cutting paths through the wilderness for 2000 years. Join her.

8. A good thing that is not sustainable is not a very good thing.

   1. Set small goals. Everything in baby steps. Play the long game. Love neighbor > love everyone.

   2. Begin with the specific; move slowly toward the general. Remember the push and pull of boundaries.

9. Jesus came to breaks bonds so you can use your hands. You have agency in your mental health.

   1. Emotional health = emotional honesty + emotional surrender.

   2. Mental health = disposition + view of your own competence + view of your place in community 

10. You cannot see what you are not paying attention to.

    1. Worship God first. Swear off false attention magnets. Worship precedes wisdom, morality, and peace.

    2. Repentance is not just about confessing sin. It’s about re-orienting your attention toward God, the Center.

11. The Christian life is participation, more like a dance than a doctrine.

    1. Knowing about is not the same as knowing. If you love him, you will do what he says. If you love him, you will know his love.

    2. The wind blows where it pleases. Learn to trim your sails to it. Learn to tune your heart to his song.

12. 95% of Christian ministry is tilling the soil of other people’s hearts.

    1. God does not usually zap. Love is not a one-way laser beam, but a patient commitment to a long-term transformative relationship.

    2. Aim to make fertile soil out of the rocks and thorns of other people’s hearts. True love begets true love over time.

13. Love loves unto purity. And our God is a consuming fire.

    1. Remember that love is not merely acceptance but admiration. If we want to be admirable, not just acceptable, we must be refined by fire.

    2. Love…Perceives → Purchases → Purifies → Praises (repeat). This is how we are loved by God. This is how we must love others.

14. Dress up for church. If nothing is sacred, then nothing is sacred.

    1. Don’t let your whole life be common. Seek holiness, which is neither the same as morality nor passion. 

    2. Set apart certain times, certain spaces, certain people, certain skills, and certain group chats…for God alone.

15. Be needed. Be a member of a body, rather than an individual in a web.

    1. Modern “communities” are flattened webs devoted to mutual individualistic consumerism (in which we wait to be eaten). 

    2. The body of Christ is a living organism made of many diverse parts which belong and submit to one purpose and one head.

16. Authenticity is not non-conformity, but proper integrity + proper conformity.

    1. Integrity has to do w/ CREEDS (trueness to self: beliefs, desires, affections)

    2. Conformity has to do w/ DEEDS (trueness to healthy patterns/traditions/communities beyond self)

17. Drink deep from the well. Do not merely skim off the surface. 

    1. The water on the surface is easily accessible, but it’s also warm and tends to gather sediment.

    2. The deeper draughts are cold and dark and hard to access. You may even have to jump in. But that’s where life is. Be brave enough to jump.

18. Do not trade beauty and goodness for truth.

    1. Be poets and musicians and bakers and decorators and party-throwers and parents and friends. 

    2. The truth is found in the embodiment of what is beautiful and good. Otherwise it is false, even when it is true.

19. Money is a trick. But once you know it’s a trick, you can trick the trickster and become rich in the unseen bank. 

    1. Trade money for trust and trustworthiness and you’ll be rich (even now) in a way that moth and rust cannot destroy.

    2. Be like Robin Hood. Bless Nottingham, but live in Sherwood Forest.

20. Be confused, and yet, stay. Above all else, abide. 

    1. Confusion and suffering are prerequisites for discipleship. But if you stay, you will not fail to see God.

    2. “If you abide...you are truly my disciples. And you will know the truth, and truth will set you free.”