Morning Mike Check

At times I find myself wondering, with all that Mike and I have talked about, what is our path forward. What do I do with my work, my family, my community to bring glory to God? In this conversation Mike provides an answer; one that is, in his usual fashion, quite provocative.

This week Mike and I discuss contentment and what is has to do with godliness. Paul mentions in 1 Timothy 6 that godliness with contentment is great gain. What does that imply? Does the call to contentment mean we should accept our circumstances and stop looking to change them?

Last week we ended our conversation on three great debates, the final debate regarding human nature. This week we pick up where we left off and talk about how this debate affects what is beautiful, good, and true.

As Mike has been writing about poetry lately I thought it would be good to bring that into our conversations. In today’s conversation we talk about just that – poetry. We look at how it relates to human nature and widens our faith.

In my spheres, I’ve picked up on this underlying notion of feelings being “valid”,  “real”, and therefore “true”. Yet I have found myself qualifying my own statements with, “this might not be how I should be feeling, but I feel…” I was curious if this self suspicion had merit and related to some of the conversations Mike and I have had.

Mike recently wrote about making his next ascent. In this conversation, we look back at the meadows Mike has been through and the lessons he’s learning as he makes his ascent into the next meadow.

Mike and I talk about artificial intelligence, what its implications are, and what we ought to be mindful of moving forward.

Does God call us to suffer? If so, how do we suffer well when He does? This is no easy question to answer, but as Mike and I stumble our way through it, the Martial Gospel offers hope.

Many have an end game, the end of the road, the “good life”. It’s what we pursue, and why we do the things we do. I was curious how Mike viewed the “good life” and how his view has changed over time. We spend time talking about his early days in college ministry, planting a church, discovering Augustine, and many more steps along the way.

You read about layoffs in the news a lot these days. The surprising headlines of course have been large tech companies many of us thought were insulated from economic challenges. We read what happened, but we often don’t know how it happened. How can companies manage layoffs while still respecting the dignity of the individual? How ought individuals respond when receiving a layoff notice? These are hard questions to answer. Naturally, that’s why I asked them to Mike.