A few nights ago, Karen and I stood on the portico of the Lincoln Memorial in the nation’s capital. It was this Lincoln who once observed, “It is good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you can not.” The adage may be true for politics, but not for evangelism—that divine calling that compels the community of faith to both plead what it must and prove what it can on behalf of Christ’s evangel.

That’s what colleges and universities across the land are discovering! Here’s how Justin Pope announced it: “College health officials are finally realizing that healthy sleep habits are a potential miracle drug for much of what ails the famously frazzled modern American college student: anxiety, depression, physical health problems and—more than most students realize—academic troubles.

Now that the brouhahas of the two major political parties in this nation are behind us—namely their back-to-back presidential-nominating conventions—allow me this moment of non-partisan reflection. The longer I live and the more presidential campaigns I survive, the deeper grows my conviction that the life of unabashed self-advancement that seems a requisite to politics these days is blatantly antithetical to the radical call of Christ.

Could it be it is darker than we’ve imagined? “The Dark Night Rises”—but do we comprehend how dark this night? Two emails—one at the beginning of the summer and the other at the end—have set in motion a chain of thoughts. Maybe for you, too. The first email came from a young friend of mine, a student at this university, who is in Bangkok, Thailand, on a short-term mission: “Hello Pastor Dwight—Doing student missions over here in Thailand this semester has been quite eye opening.

They grew up together in this small Maryland town, those two 19-year-old college coeds. Summer was their favorite season. And what’s not to like about a sultry night high atop the railroad bridge in Ellicott City? Which is where Elizabeth and Rose were dangling their feet this Monday around midnight—their last night before heading back to college. The view beneath the stars above that sleepy neighborhood is why the bridge has been a favorite destination for generations. The young women tweeted their friends.

While the roar of the Thirtieth Olympiad is still ringing in our ears, may I muse outside the box for a moment? Wouldn't it be nice if somebody could find a way to bring 10,500 of the world's athletically-inclined young to play together in these 26 sports and 39 disciplines without (and that's the key word) having to end up with so many who go home with no medal at all? But of course, just to be in the Olympic games is a huge accomplishment worthy of personal satisfaction and collective honor.

This story takes the cake—the wedding cake! They met and fell in love at a rodeo, the barrel-racing bride and her bull-riding groom. And at their wedding last month on the plains of central Kansas, Candra in her white gown and Caleb in his cowboy hat and jeans were picture perfect.

If you’re not into bizarre this Memorial Day weekend, don’t read any further. News agencies this week reported that a glass vial of President Ronald Reagan’s blood (reportedly taken after his attempted assassination in 1981) was being offered for sale by a British online auction house.

Paging through my newspaper this week I spotted a familiar face—the late Johnny Carson, “The King of Late Night,” as the new Peter Jones PBS documentary coronates him. I read on: “He had everybody in stiches for 30 years, but offstage Johnny Carson was not the life of the party” (South Bend Tribune May 14, 2012 p B7).

That’s what a new Danish study has concluded. Actually, it’s 6.2 years for men and 5.8 years for women—the number of years a jogger will live longer than a non-jogger. Six years! I have a friend who has sworn off jogging. He quips, “If you want pain in the morning, just get out of bed and stick your fingers in your eyes—that should do it!” But the Copenhagen Heart Study that began back in 1976 just last week announced these startling findings.