Wonder on the Web

What You’d See if You Waited in the Desert

Treat yourself to 180 seconds of wonder in this time-lapse film of an Arizona national park. Not to sound like a BuzzFeed title, but honestly, wait around: you won’t believe what happens at the end.

A Third of Humanity is Christian

And by 2050, we’ll have 36 percent of the world, thanks to explosive growth in the global South. Facts & Trends reports this and more in 7 Encouraging Trends in Global Christianity. Staggering figures.

The Moral Weight of Lying

That’s what the former dean of admissions at MIT preaches in this NPR segment. She lied on a resume at the beginning of her career, and tells of the toll that small act took physically and spiritually over her lifetime:

"There was a moment where, in my office, I had a direct knowingness that I was going to die, if I didn't clear this," she says. "I had to face it. So I called in a miracle. I actually went to my knees, in my office."

What’s most amazing is the testimony she then gives about the healing power of confession.

Nostalgia and the Novel

There are many reasons you may want to read this review of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s newly-released memoir, Pioneer Girl, at CT’s Her.meneutics. The most obvious would be if Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie caught your imagination as a child.

However, you should read Jennifer Grant’s reflections if you’ve ever been seduced into sentimentalizing the past: maybe drawn in by a novel or a black and white film. It strikes some of us while looking at old photos or even seeing centuries-old architecture. The grittiness of Wilder’s world as portrayed in this new book helps us enter into the real past.

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