In my weekly Works & Wonders column, I combine a brief devotional with other interesting and uplifting bits and pieces I gleaned throughout the week. I hope you enjoy this week’s collection! It includes:
- Devotional: Because God Says So
- Gone Away With A Friend
- Rhinoceros at Sunset
- Hymn Sings
- A €1 House
- Eric Church & Jonathan Haidt
- Nate Bargatze vs. Beyoncé
1.
Devotional: Because God Says So
Last week we saw that “the ultimate fact about the universe is a personal God.” But how do we know this to be true? How do we know that this personal God actually exists? Theologians have offered many methods through which we can have confidence that there is a God, some of them by focusing on the existence of order in the universe, others on the existence of morality in humanity, and still others on the existence of a deep spiritual longing within the human heart. Each of these is said to prove that God exists and to put a moral imperative on us to believe. Each of these methods has its own strengths, but ultimately, we must believe God exists because he has told us so. Here’s how John MacArthur says it in his characteristically straightforward way: “God exists. He exists as he is revealed by the Bible. The reason one must believe that he exists is because He said that He exists.” God has revealed his existence, his character, and his actions through the words of sacred Scripture, and we are under obligation to believe him. Because he has spoken, we have no excuse to deny that there is a God, to deny that he has created us, and to deny that he relates to us personally. We know he exists because he has told us he exists. It’s really as simple as that.
2.
Gone Away With A Friend
Though I am relatively new to the music of the Red Clay Strays, I do appreciate it (and am looking forward to their upcoming album). I really enjoyed this new rendition of “Gone Away With A Friend.” I think you’ll enjoy it too.
3.
Rhinoceros at Sunset
Last year, I spoke at a series of events in southern Africa. I had a bit of free time, so I visited a national park in Namibia. The park gates were due to close at 7 PM, and we had been delayed, so we were racing to beat the deadline when a rhinoceros suddenly ambled across the road. All I had time to do was stick my camera out the window and grab the shot, but I think it came out pretty well.
4.
Hymn Sings
Every now and again, my church has a “Hymn Sunday.” I suppose that is pretty much self-explanatory, but I’ll explain it nevertheless: It is a Sunday in which we sing only hymns, either a capella or with minimal accompaniment, such as a single piano. We enjoyed such a Sunday last week, as it happens. And speaking of hymns, here are a couple of new albums that feature just that—hymns sung by a congregation. For the first two, the track is the first song in a playlist that will take you through the whole album.
This one is a little bit different, in that it is an organization in this area that hosts hymn-sings for men only. Because it draws mainly from the Dutch Reformed churches, the men know how to sing!
5.
A €1 House
Haven’t we all read of those houses in Italy that go on the market for €1 and think, I should do that! I know I have, though obviously I’ve never followed through with it. But many people have, and some have done very well with it. This article at The Times introduces you to some of those intrepid people and shows the results of their work. It’s impressive (and often expensive)!
6.
Eric Church & Jonathan Haidt
‘Tis the season for commencement addresses, and two of them gained a lot of attention this week.
In the first, country music star Eric Church delivered the commencement address at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While admitting that I had never even heard of him until this week, I enjoyed his address. He framed it around a chord with the six strings of a guitar representing faith, family, marriage, ambition, community, and individuality. I’m not sure if he knows the Lord, but it was good nonetheless. I mean, who can argue with this: “Your faith will go quiet when you need it loud. Your family will get complicated in a way only the people who love you most can complicate things. You will go through hard seasons with your spouse. Your ambition will hollow out, and your resilience will wear thin. Your community will start to feel like an obligation, and your world will try to sand down the edges of exactly who you are.”
You can watch the video below or read about it here.
The second was by Jonathan Haidt, whom you may know as the author of The Anxious Generation. He was asked to deliver the address at New York University, where he teaches. Predictably enough, his address was protested because he is supposedly racist or homophobic or something (he did, after all, write The Coddling of the American Mind), but he delivered a powerful address, which you can read in full at The Atlantic. One of his main themes was regaining our attention from the big tech companies.
They compete with each other to capture your attention. Think about that phrase. It acknowledges that your attention is valuable. But it also reveals that some of the biggest corporations in human history aren’t trying to earn your attention, or deserve your attention. They’re trying to take it from you.
Consider just one example. Meta is valued at well over a trillion dollars, even though few of us have given it any money. How is that possible? Because it invented a business model that extracts attention from nearly half of all human beings and sells it to advertisers. Other industries followed: video games, dating, gambling—even investing has been gamified and optimized to keep us all staring and swiping. We’ve all had the experience of picking up our phone, maybe for a good reason, only to find ourselves, an hour later, mindlessly scrolling. That’s not an accident. That’s our phones and apps, doing what they were designed to do.
7.
Nate Bargatze vs. Beyoncé
It’s always nice to see the good guys thriving, and I think Nate Bargatze is one of the good guys. At a time when so much comedy is vulgar and extremely family-unfriendly, it’s good to see him positively profiled in the Wall Street Journal in “America’s Favorite Comedian Wants to Be the Next Walt Disney—and He’s Not Joking.” The article includes some incredible statistics. For example:
Bargatze drew more people and made more money on the road than any other stand-up comedian for the past two years. His shows grossed $77.5 million in 2025 —$34 million more than the No. 2 comedian, Sebastian Maniscalco—according to Pollstar. By filling sports arenas and breaking attendance records, he’s on track to sell more than 2 million tickets for his ongoing Big Dumb Eyes tour. For comparison, Beyoncé sold 1.6 million tickets on the top-grossing music tour of 2025.
What makes him so special?
Locking in on regular family life is what makes Bargatze a unicorn in his world. He’s the rare heavyweight comic whose material is clean and uncontroversial. No cursing, no politics, no culture warfare. His performances are geared for all-ages escapism, with some shows starting at 3 in the afternoon.
While Bargatze often pokes fun at his devout parents and Christian upbringing, he never does so disrespectfully. And he never stoops to filthy comedy. Now that he has reached pretty much the pinnacle of the comedy world, I hope he can maintain his down-to-earth charm, and I hope fame does not ruin him as it has ruined so many others. If you’re new to Bargatze, look him up on YouTube and watch some of his material there. I think you’ll soon be hooked.
