Sahil Bloom expounded a worthy philosophy of life on July 11, 2025.

He began by quoting the Roman philosopher Seneca:

Ars longa; vita brevis. Art is long, life is short.

Then Sahil went on to say:

It isn’t simply about art, but about an artful life.

To live artfully is to create ripples that extend beyond the self. To shape your very short existence in such a way that its echoes outlast your pulse.

To live artfully is to focus on creation, not consumption. To share your gifts with the world. To share your light.

To live artfully is to embrace curiosity. To learn for the sake of learning. To renew each day the child-like awe with which you used to see the world.

To live artfully is to give with no expectation of return. To center yourself in generosity and kindness.

To live artfully is to live differently. To wake up early. To walk slowly. To listen intently. To stand proudly. To focus deeply.

To live artfully is to treat the ordinary with the sort of reverence typically reserved for the extraordinary.

Ars longa; vita brevis. Art is long, life is short.

So, live artfully.

Good principles, some very Biblical! This piece resonated with me since I had developed an acrostic based on ARTFULLY as a succinct way to remember my life’s goals. I’ll share it tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. (Philippians 2.14, 15, ESV)

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace. (1 Peter 4.10, ESV)

I wrote about “let us go over to the other side” two years ago, but it’s a word we need now.

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out. (Luke 8.22. ESV)

It’s the story of Jesus falling asleep and then being awakened to still a storm.

Matt Holzman, associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs, closed last Sunday’s sermon on Luke 8.22 – 26 with these words:

Verse 26 says, “They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee.” Jesus doesn’t stop the journey. He keeps going. He told them that he wanted to go across the lake, and that’s just what they did together. He brings them to the other side—literally and spiritually.

We’re in the middle of our move – the unpacking phase – about to drown in a sea of boxes. If you’ve moved, you’ve been there. I’m telling people, “We last moved in 2006. Do the math. We’re 19 years older now than we were then.” And I have to remind myself and June that God did not bring us to this new house so we could live in the middle of a mess. He will bring us to the other side!

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1.6, ESV)

I confess…I’m not a great pray-er. Nowhere close to Martin Luther, for example, who started each day with three hours in prayer. Unless it was going to be a busy day. Then he spent four hours. Prayer is a challenge, one aspect of which is, what do we pray for?

Yesterday, my new neighbor and old friend texted and asked if our air conditioning was in yet. I’ve lived in Colorado 36 of the past 41 years and never had a/c, but we are having it installed in the new house. They were supposed to start the day we closed, June 25, and be done by June 30. Today is July 9, and they’re still not done. So yesterday, I texted that maybe we weren’t praying hard enough. After all, we have:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4.6, ESV, emphasis mine)

Seemed pretty important until we got a text yesterday that my friend Rick in Phoenix has been in ICU with a heart attack since last Thursday. Rick! We met in Technical Instructor Course at Keesler AFB in 1971 and subsequently moved to a house around the corner from theirs. Rick is my age exactly: we were born 8 days apart in December 1946. We’ve stayed in touch all these years, and now he’s touch and go. He’s one of the fittest guys I know, suffering the heart attach while on a bicycle ride. Praying for Rick suddenly seemed WAY more important than praying about the “first-world” problem of a delayed a/c installation.

But the Apostle Paul didn’t seem to spend a lot of time praying about such things even though praying for the sick is certainly Biblical:

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (James 5.14, 15, ESV)

O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. (Psalm 30.2, ESV)

Paul prayed for the increased maturity and fruitfulness of people. See, for example:

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1.9 – 11, ESV)

See also Ephesians 1.15 – 23, 3.14 – 21, and Colossians 1.9 – 11.

Paul also prayed for the salvation of entire people groups:

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. (Romans 10.1, ESV)

He prayed for effectiveness in sharing the gospel:

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. (Colossians 4.2 – 4, ESV)

Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators, prayed with a buddy every morning for six weeks, sitting in a canyon near where they lived in Southern California. 100 hours of prayer in six weeks. You can read the story here. Dawson credits the eventual worldwide ministry of The Navigators to that time in prayer. He used to say:

Do you ask The Lord of the Universe for peanuts, toys, and trinkets, or for NATIONS and continents? – Dawson Trotman

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5.17, ESV)

…praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints… (Ephesians 6.18, ESV)

It’s the challenge of prayer. I’m still working on it.

PS God still cares about the little things. The air conditioner installation was finished today around 3:30.

The war in Ukraine is in its fourth year. Hard to imagine. I wrote about it first in War! on March 4, 2022, suggesting an organization to contribute to. I’m reminded again that the battle is ongoing and funds are still needed by my friend Ed Ward, Colonel, USAF (Retired). Ed and I served together both in Alabama and Colorado Springs. After his retirement, he served as business manager of First Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs. Of late, he and his wife, Sally, continue to serve on short-term mission trips even though Ed turns 81 today. I’ll let him explain in a letter which I’m reproducing in its entirety:

Dear Family and Friends,

Yep! Can you believe it: 81 years old on Tuesday, July 8th!  And I’ve been blessed: married to my sweet Sally for 58 fabulous years, helped our Amy celebrate her retirement as a sergeant in the Sheriff’s Office this past week, as well as having a wonderful family and many dear friends. And I’m very fortunate to still be doing short term mission work in China and Mongolia. In fact, I leave for my 29th visit to China at the end of this month. I am blessed.

Not so for Ukraine. I’ve been to Ukraine twice since the unprovoked Russian invasion on 24 February 2022, so I’ve seen with my own eyes what’s going on. We’re all aware of the relentless and growing Russian attacks that continue to this very moment. Nothing is off limits: first responders treating drone and missile attack victims, children’s playgrounds and hospitals, any type of school, overcrowded apartment buildings, active medical facilities, busy shopping centers, churches, cultural centers, museums…absolutely nothing. The suffering gets worse every day.

Ukraine Power is helping alleviate that suffering. A 501(c)(3) founded here in Colorado Springs in November 2022, we raise funds in the US, and then purchase the needed equipment and supplies in Ukraine, ensuring that every item we source reaches its intended destination. We require photographic documentation of all deliveries. In fact, of the 45 shipments we have arranged so far, not a single item has been stolen or diverted. We have reached the Platinum designation with Guidestar, the gold-standard organization ranking non-profits. Further, we have been invited to a session of The Senate of the Colorado Legislature to be honored for our work in support of Ukraine for three consecutive years. 

Among other projects, we’ve supplied essentials to community hubs providing support to those who have lost their homes, livelihood and family members; we are supporting families who have taken in children whose parents have been killed in the war; and we are supporting a massive effort to furnish four University of Kyiv dormitories repurposed into housing for displaced persons from Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, both sharing a border with Russia, and now overrun and occupied by Russian forces. Over 3,300 displaced persons will soon have a new place to live.

I hate asking for money, but this is a moment when I must just swallow hard and simply make the request. So I am respectfully asking each of you to click on the Ukraine Power website link (ukrainepower.org) and make a contribution. Today if at all possible, please. If you have already made a contribution (THANK YOU!), then please encourage others to support Ukraine Power’s work with a financial gift. 

Please help make my 81st birthday the best one ever by contributing to Ukraine Power as we strive to alleviate suffering in Ukraine.

With love and respect,

Ed

Ed Ward, Member, Ukraine Power Board of Directors

If you are able, and God leads, I hope you’ll contribute. I did.

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3.16 – 18, NKJV)

PS My blog Truth is Truth was written early in the war. It’s nasty over there as Ed wrote.

If I were giving driving directions to our new house from the north (a trip we made MANY times during the moving process), they would go like this:

• Go south on I-25 and exit onto Briargate Blvd.
• Turn right at Focus on the Family
• Turn right onto Chapel Hills Drive
• Turn left at World Challenge
• Turn left into Mission Cove

I experienced a sermon every time I made the trip…

Focus on the Family: absolutely. It’s a command.

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. (Deuteronomy 6.6, 7, NKJV)

For I have known [Abraham], in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him. (Genesis 18.19, NKJV)

Chapel: whether the “chapel” is a place to assemble with other believers or a place set aside in your home, or the “inner chapel” of the mind and heart, the chapel is a place for reflection. What does God want me to do? What does God want me to do today?

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up. (Psalm 5.3. NKJV)

And if you’re listening for God’s direction, you’ll find that focusing on your family is not enough. There’s a

World Challenge:

God so loved the world… (John 3.16)

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1.8, NKJV)

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations… (Matthew 28.19, NKJV)

By the way, World Challenge is a continuation of the ministry of David Wilkerson who went to New York City to evangelize teenage gang members. Led by David’s son Gary Wilkerson, their core mission today is:

To see hundreds of thousands of orphans and widows loved, cared for, and introduced to Jesus in the next decade…

The Gospel is at the forefront of all World Challenge has done for over 50 years. From our beginnings ministering to teenagers in the United States, international conferences for Christian leaders and the distribution of literature, to our core mission of caring for orphans and widows as James 1:27 instructs  – World Challenge has seen God impact the lives of millions in word and action. 

Mission Cove: we have a mission, and it’s both/and. We take care of our families (see also 1 Timothy 5.8) AND we’re part of God’s mission to the world.

A lot to take in during a 20-minute drive, yes?

You can observe a lot just by watching. – Yogi Berra

I write from our new house, which we’ve been in since Wednesday. “In” is probably not the right word. We are in it, along with hundreds of boxes, that of this writing are not all opened, and certainly not all put away. Little by little…

Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. (Exodus 23.30, ESV)

In a ministry update letter, I requested prayer for an “uneventful move” the same way I often request prayer for uneventful travel. A friend responded:

How can I pray for an “uneventful” move, Bob, when, by its very nature this is a major event?

He’s right. I should have asked for “no major negative surprises” or something like that. (And we had that – a few minor glitches only.)

It’s been difficult, but progress is being made. Another friend who has moved twice in the last couple of years said,

You will survive.

She was here Friday helping us unpack. Another friend was helping unpack Thursday, and my son Mark who lives in the area (and is our real estate agent) is working very hard on both sides – the moving out and the moving in. So we will survive…because we have help!

And despite all the things we have given away, we still have too much stuff! Giveaway boxes are already full. The new house features walk-in closets for both of us, and I can barely get my clothes into it. I told June, “If I can’t get my clothes into this closet, I have too many clothes.” And I do, a lot of which I don’t wear…

Anyway, it will all come together soon. We love the new house, and the first person I “met” in the neighborhood turned out to be someone we’d met before. We share a lifelong relationship with another couple. A blessing.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1.17, ESV)

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5.18, NKJV)

The proverbs contain upbeat promises as well as chilling warnings. For example, we have this:

The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe. (Proverbs 18.10, NKJV)

And…

He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the LORD. (Proverbs 18.22, NKJV)

Amen!

But the same chapter opens:

A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment. (Proverbs 18.1, NKJV)

I knew someone like that. The verse describes him precisely. Isolated and took no counsel. A shame. He died alone, estranged from his family, proving yet again another proverb:

There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14.12, NKJV)

The solution?

The ear that hears the rebukes of life Will abide among the wise. He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, But he who heeds rebuke gets understanding. The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom, And before honor is humility. (Proverbs 15.31 – 33, NKJV)

More than a day for picnics and fireworks, The History Channel reminds us of what the day is about. A long article begins:

The Fourth of July—also known as Independence Day or July 4th—has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941, but the tradition of Independence Day celebrations goes back to the 18th century and the American Revolution. On July 2nd, 1776, the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence, and two days later delegates from the 13 colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence, a historic document drafted by Thomas Jefferson. From 1776 to the present day, July 4th has been celebrated as the birth of American independence, with festivities ranging from fireworks, parades and concerts to more casual family gatherings and barbecues. The Fourth of July 2025 is on Friday, July 4.

It’s interesting to note…

When the initial battles in the Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, few colonists desired complete independence from Great Britain, and those who did were considered radical.

By the middle of the following year, however, many more colonists had come to favor independence, thanks to growing hostility against Britain and the spread of revolutionary sentiments such as those expressed in the bestselling pamphlet “Common Sense,” published by Thomas Paine in early 1776.

When does a rebellion become a revolution become a war where one must choose sides? In the day, many Christians were quoting Romans 13:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. (Romans 13.1, 2, ESV)

While other Christians were leaders in a movement to do just that: resist the authorities. It’s a non-trivial question and how to apply our response to change rubric is unclear. I’m sure many were applying James’ counsel:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1.5, ESV)

I’m seeing something repeated in Proverbs that challenges me to silence. Silence? See what you think:

A talebearer reveals secrets, But he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter. (Proverbs 11.13, NKJV)

He who covers a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates friends. (Proverbs 17.9, NKJV)

The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, And his glory is to overlook a transgression. (Proverbs 19.11, NKJV)

It’s a simple message. A friend of mine likes to say,

You don’t have to tell all you know!

This seems especially true when it involves someone else’s shortcomings.

I wrote recently about an important perspective on work. Work matters. It’s a continuation of God’s work in the world. Good work makes a difference for A LOT of people.

But we also serve at our work, and I was just reminded of a well-known example with which you’re familiar if you’ve seen 42, the movie about Jackie Robinson, the first black player in Major League Baseball.

Here’s the story as told by Bob Green in the Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2025, The Man Who Stood by Jackie Robinson:

In 1947, when Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and became the first black player in the major leagues, he faced raw hostility everywhere he turned. Some baseball fans cursed him and mailed threats. Many players, some on his own team, made it clear they felt there was no place for him in the big leagues. It was an awful time for Robinson. The sportswriter Jimmy Cannon, covering the Dodgers, wrote: “He is the loneliest man I have ever seen in sports.”

During one road game—most likely in Cincinnati’s Crosley Field in 1947, but some accounts place it elsewhere, in 1948—hecklers were casting particularly vile comments. Pee Wee Reese, the Dodgers’ shortstop, a white man born in rural Kentucky, heard the words. Then he did something seemingly simple, yet profound.

He walked over to Robinson and stood beside him. He met the gaze of those doing the taunting. He didn’t have to say a word. The message was clear: Jackie Robinson is not alone. I am his friend. We are Brooklyn Dodgers.

There’s a statue commemorating the event outside a minor league stadium on Coney Island.

Later in the article, Mr. Green includes this observation:

Reese died in 1999. Although the Dodgers are long gone from Brooklyn, the Cyclones, affiliated with the New York Mets, maintain the sculpture outside their ballpark as a lesson, especially for children: All it takes to overcome cruelty and ugliness is one person standing beside you, someone who cares.

All it takes is…one person standing beside you, someone who cares.

Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me…no one cares for my soul. (Psalm 142.4, ESV)

As [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. (John 9.1, ESV)