Sometimes a malady comes along for which there needs no better a descriptor.  Brain Rot, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration. Brain Rot—is what you might know as endlessly scrolling Facebook, SnapChat, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, We Chat, Threads, Truth Social, X, You Tube, and on and on. It is like watching the same television station hour after hour, or the opposite, constantly channel surfing. Brain Rot is the 2024 Word of the Year. According to the OED, the term was first used in 1854 by Henry David Thoreau, in his book Walden, comparing the devaluation of intellectual ideas to a mental form of potato rot. I have run across a sub-set of the malady called PDF Brain Rot, a classification afflicting students and employees required to read vast quantities of digital books, research papers, and AI summaries of such materials.  

There is a remedy for brain rot. I suggest three simple ways to lessen the brain rot that may be infecting us.  1. Make something. Use your creativity—draw, cook, sew, plant, build, write, sing, listen.  2. Help someone. Find a need. Make a visit. Serve a meal. Volunteer.  3.  Develop a new spiritual discipline. Explore a time of simplicity, fasting (not just food), generosity (not just money), confession, humility, silence.

As with all forms of fungus and mildew, actual sunlight is the best disinfectant. Take a walk around the block or sit in front of a sunny window. You will begin to feel a real difference.  Brain rot happens because we are bored, exhausted, or unfulfilled in some areas of our inner being.  Read Psalm 37:30-40 and examine yourself before God. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Let in the light. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

 by Kevin Avery

When following Jesus, there are no shortcuts. Life doesn’t become easier simply because we love Him and trust Him—Jesus is not a genie in a bottle. Neither does it mean life will always become harder just for believing in Jesus, though persecution certainly happens when we follow Him with all our heart. We oversimplify to assume Jesus will make our life easier or harder. Either perspective needs to be transformed because the truth is: Life is Jesus. Truth is Jesus. The same thinking applies to the journey we are taking. The journey is—at least should be—Jesus. I do not mean this in a philosophical way like when Pilot asked Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). I mean it in a transformative way. 

In John 14:6, Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. When John wrote this verse, he was using Greek. Often, the Greek term ὁδός (hodos) is translated as way, as when Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life. However, it can be translated literally as road, path, or journey, or figuratively as way (or manner) of thinking, feeling, or deciding. Most English translations of John 14:6 use the figurative way. However, I believe all these possible translations have much merit. Everything about a believer’s life, whether literal or figurative, should point to Jesus and be about Him. 

In this manner of thinking, I understand that whether we are blessed with treasure—like being married to an amazing wife—or afflicted with adversity—like dealing with an autoimmune disease—everything is a part of our journey to know our Heavenly Father through Jesus. Each day as Hebrews 12:2 tells us, we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. Every difficulty or joy we encounter is a chance to know Jesus better. In addition, we are on this journey together, even if some members, like me, are homebound. Thankfully, at Braden Park, homebound members are just a phone call away, and prayer is not limited to a location. As Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, it begins: Our Father who is in heaven … and what a blessing it is to pray for and pray with other disciples of Christ Jesus.

Rev. Kevin Avery is our former missionary to China. Through his on-line ministry with ITEE Global, he encourages and prays with pastors in Asia, Africa and the US. (iteeg.org)

Of all the books in my bookcases, one has a treasured place in my heart. I have mentioned this before. It is called Bible Biographies, edited by Robert Sears and published in 1848. It belonged to Rev. Abraham V. Leonardson, my grandmother’s grandfather on my mother’s side. He received it as a gift of appreciation in 1880. Abram Leonardson, as he called himself, was a Methodist circuit-riding pastor between the Civil War and World War 1. I have a couple of his Bibles, a small number of scrapbooks and this volume on the lives of the people of the Bible that is illustrated with scores of engravings. He and I have been ministering about 100 years apart. He was licensed to the Gospel ministry in 1867, and I was licensed in 1966.

My great-great grandfather served churches in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. He would pastor as many as four churches at a time, preaching one Sunday a month at each, taking his wagon, later his buggy, to the next church. He was also a writer and turned many of his thoughts into newspaper articles, which he kept in his scrapbooks. Many of the scrapbooks were lost to time but in the few that I possess, his articles focused on holy living, temperance, and faithful prayer. His Bibles are filled with sermon notes and outlines, and even the occasional illustration. In many of his sermons he cried out against materialism. He suggested a better way was humility. He longed for people to find holiness in relationship with Christ.

To A.V. Leonardson, materialism was another word for greed. For our day materialism has been dressed up and passed off as consumerism that is necessary for a thriving economy. The appeal is to our pride, vanity, and pocketbook. Move out of the way Thanksgiving, you are being replaced—the world of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and consumer greed is heading straight for Christmas. Same old sin, only with better marketing, and more costly than ever.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Find humility this holiday. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

Have you ever seen a barge gliding down the Verdigris and Arkansas River Channel? That barge and its cargo could be headed to any port in the world. Located fifteen miles east of downtown Tulsa, the Port of Catoosa is the most inland seaport in all the United States. The McClellan-Kerr Arkansas Navigation System, all 445 miles of it, allows cargo to travel to the Mississippi River and on to the Port of New Orleans. Cargo can also go north on the Mississippi to St Louis, Minneapolis, Chicago and even on to Pittsburg. A single barge can carry the equivalent load of 60 semi-trailer trucks, or 15 railroad cars. The power to drive the barges is provided by tow boats.

Dorothy and I once attended the christening of a brand-new tow boat at the Port of Catoosa. The boat was named in honor of former Tulsa Mayor James M. Hewgley, Jr. We were invited to this event because Dorothy’s office was next door to Mayor Hewgley’s in the Philtower Building downtown. It was at the christening that I learned there was a difference between a tugboat and a towboat.

To me, tug and tow seemed to be interchangeable terms. As a kid, I always heard about tugboats guiding big ships and tow trucks pulling stuff, never about towboats. To me, pulling a boat in the water with ropes and chains seems very similar to towing a boat behind a truck. But in the practical world of navigation, these boats have different designs and different roles.  A tugboat has a pointed bow, works in harbors and open water, and pulls and pushes large ships to safely in a harbor.  A towboat has a flat bow, works in rivers, and pushes and guides barges from the back. A barge that is pushed is easier to control and guide through winding rivers than if it were pulled or tugged. Both kinds of boats have the same purpose—safe passage. Sometimes some of us need a push; others may need a pull. That is one more reason God provides the Holy Spirit—to help navigate us through the week.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Find safe passage. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

There were a few times that, as a youngster, I remember our family taking road trips, some by car and at least one by train. Road trips are sometimes like pilgrimages to revered sites almost sacred in meaning. They all begin with a destination in mind and may, or may not, end well. Dad and Mom loaded the car with suitcases and three kids in the backseat in the days before seat belts. We set off from Miami to Jacksonville, staying with relatives there. We were late for my cousin’s wedding, but we arrived in time for the reception at the Yacht Club. We were underdressed for the party, and I was disappointed that we were not allowed to drink the orange juice punch.

We headed north to the Smokey Mountains and learned the story of my mother’s family trip to the Smokey’s when, as a little girl, she walked over to pet the baby bear. The bear ripped the front of her dress and she was fortunate to survive without scars. We made it to Washington, D.C. to stay with my Aunt Clyde, whoever she was. She took us to the zoo where we witnessed, in horror, a sleepy grizzly bear leap straight up to catch and eat a hapless pigeon that had landed in the tree above. Along the way back we ran out of relatives and stayed at one of those little cabin-like motor inns. The room had a vibrating bed, if you could come up with the quarters. The three kids in the backseat were somehow always in trouble. Then, before we knew it, we were home. 

God’s call to Abraham set him on a family road trip to a land of promise—he obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8) Like Abraham’s, our life-long road trip is filled with unexpected twists and surprises, bickering and beauty, tragedy and grace. While some may choose to make their pilgrimage on their own, Christ gives us the church, a community of believers to share the journey. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Don’t pet the bears. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.