W. David O. Taylor

In the liturgy for Ash Wednesday last night we prayed Isaiah 58 together. I can’t imagine a more important word for followers of Jesus to pray in these distempered times.

Everything hinges on that little word: “if.” If and only if we choose this way. Anything less leads to the Lord’s judgment.

A blessed Ash Wednesday, friends. May we never forget, both great and small, both the powerful and the powerless, that we are dust and to dust we shall return.

(via "Prayers for the Pilgrimage" @ivpress.bsky.social)

Emotions Don’t Just Happen to You - Christianity Today Our society tends to treat feelings as inevitable and authentic. A new book explores an older understanding in the Bible and the church.

Amen: "emotions are not described in the Bible as spontaneous events in the life of the Christian but as 'a form of practice, a way of being, a stance, an orientation, an action to be cultivated, which can transform the self and the world'.”

www.christianitytoday.com/2026/02/emot...

A happy Shrove Tuesday, friends. Enjoy eating up the “fat” of your pantries tonight and start getting exciting about Lent, because Lent IS THE BEST!!!

Preaching tomorrow morning at my church on the Feast of the Transfiguration and grateful to my colleague @fullerseminary.bsky.social, Eve Tibbs, for her marvelous book, "Seeing the Gospel: An Interpretive Guide to Orthodox Icons," with its close study of icons of the Transfiguration.

I wrote this prayer in memory of all the years that I spent alone as a single person and in memory of all the people who feel alone in their marriages, or in their widowhood, or in any other way within the family of God.

Lord, hear our prayer on this Feast of Saint Valentine's.

The Word of the Lord according to Psalm 37 against those who boast and lie and cheat and treat the weak and vulnerable of this world with contempt and think that they will get away with it all:

Thanks!

A question to my artist and art-loving friends:

What articles or books have addressed the relation between A.I. and art making in careful fashion?

I'd like to point readers of my book on the calling of artists to folks who’ve wrestled with this question in a thoughtful way.

Any leads?

A Prayer for Courage:

“O Lord, make me brave in the face of things that terrify me and strengthen my heart to endure the testing of my trust in you, so that I might become more wholly dependent upon you in the hour of trial. I pray this in the name of the strong name of Jesus. Amen."

AI Companies Sold Us Their Vision of the Future at the Super Bowl. Here’s Why We Should Reject It From Google to Meta to Microsoft, we were handed a world in which all our cares have been whisked away. Except for all the new ones that have come to take their place.

The pyrrhic promise of AI:

"Whatever we want! No limitations or consequences! And new help! Who doesn’t want that? Well, compared to the current kind of Googling — the kind that requires critical thinking — it certainly is new. Better? Less clear."

www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...

Our tragic crisis of dignity R. Albert Mohler Jr. | We had better recover dignity fast—starting in the White House

"The appearance of disgusting images of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama in a recent video posted on Truth Social is the latest evidence of a White House losing dignity fast." -- Albert Mohler

wng.org/opinions/our...

You'd think that politicians in the highest of offices would have learned by that now it pays to have skin as thick as a rhinoceros and a heart as soft as a dove. Instead, we have thin-skinned but cold-hearted leaders who take offense at *every* *single* *thing* rather than leading by example.

A prayer for all #SuperBowl football players and Winter #Olympics2026 athletes.💪🏻

(FYI: writing sport-related prayers is the hardest kinds to write.)

Washington Post Lays Off More Than 300 Journalists

The WaPo cut 300 of the roughly 800 journalists in the newsroom: "the result would be a publication focused even more on national news and politics, as well as business and health, and far less on other areas."

It means the news will be direly narrowed.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...

Fuller Seminary Repositions Brehm Center for Worship, Theology, and the Arts; Elevates Centrality of Worship Across the Institution | Fuller Seminary Fuller Seminary announced the strategic repositioning of the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology, and the Arts from its Leadership Formation Division to the Office of the President. The move underscore...

@fullerseminary.bsky.social is making worship even more central to the Brehm Center.

“For 25 years the Center has been a beacon illuminating areas where worship renewal, liturgical innovation, and artistic vision is deepening people’s engagement with the Gospel."

fuller.edu/posts/fuller...

Review | ‘The Muppet Show’ refuses to modernize in its triumphant revival On the 50th anniversary of Jim Henson’s show, the Muppets — with a boost from guest star Sabrina Carpenter — pick up exactly where they left off.

So much fun except this part, alas: "[Matt Vogel's] Kermit doesn’t sound or act like the Kermits of yore, and that’s weird enough...[his] Kermit is far less flappy, his jaw far less clenched. He’s less vulnerable, less volatile, less tender, less stressed." www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

Opinion | Melania Trump’s Memoir Was Bad. The Movie Is Worse.

"It’s a feat of filmmaking to spend so much time on one person and reveal so little."

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/o...

A Prayer from Psalm 109 (via Jim Cotter):

“O Christ of angry compassion
Sweeping away the exploiters
Moved to speak out for the little ones:
Lift up the crushed in spirit.
Shame the violators to penitence.
Heap coals of fire on their heads,
The fire of love’s wrath and desire."

Opinion | Where Is A.I. Taking Us? Eight Leading Thinkers Share Their Visions. Experts share their thoughts on the future of A.I. and how it will reshape society in the coming years.

This is the dumbest thing ever. 100% no.

"In more and more fields, A.I. proves to be more creative than humans. Any creative activity that boils down to finding patterns and breaking patterns is likely to be taken over by A.I." -- Yuval Noah Harari

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Church protest leads to debate among Christians about the morality of working for ICE Protesters recently interrupted service at a Twin Cities church because one of the pastors works for ICE. That's led some Christians to debate whether working for ICE aligns with their values.

Really grateful to hear what my colleague @fullerseminary.bsky.social, Alexia Salvatierra, had to say on this @npr.org news report about ICE in the Twin Cities.

www.npr.org/2026/01/30/n...

A happy Feast of the Presentation of Christ at the Temple, or Candelmas, friends. May we burn bright this day with the light of Christ.

(via "Prayers for the Pilgrimage" @ivpress.bsky.social; artwork by Fra Angelico, “Presentation of Christ at the Temple” [1304-1306].)

Opinion | The Harry Potter Generation Needs to Grow Up

When art (no longer) tells the story of a time:

"The Harry Potter generation imbibed exactly the message that they were supposed to imbibe: that liberalism will always triumph over the forces of evil. Young people just don’t think like that anymore."

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/o...

I’m preaching today on the role of the body in the liturgy and this is the prayer that I’m praying for our people today. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

I’m preaching today on the role of the body in the liturgy and this is the prayer that I’m praying for our people today. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

This week's 90-SECOND BOOK REVIEW is of the "First Nations Version: Psalms and Proverbs: An Indigenous Bible Translation" (IVP, 2025).

It's such a vivid and beautiful and powerful translation of the psalms. Highly recommend.

www.instagram.com/reel/DUHj3xt...

A Prayer for Those Who Weary of Doing Justice:

May you renew their strength this day, may they mount up with wings like eagles, may they run and not be weary, may they walk and not faint. In your mercy, O Lord, hear our prayer.

There are many reasons why the Psalms and Lamentations are my favorite books in the bible, top being that they represent so much of the human condition. They have informed my work significantly.

Terrific perspective and wisdom here from @wdavidotaylor.bsky.social.

How to Write Your Own Imprecatory Psalm When the world's gone mad, you've got to swear to God and the psalms show us how.

What do you do when the world's gone mad? You swear to God. At least that's what the psalmists do repeatedly.

I've written up instructions here for writing your own imprecatory, or "angry," psalm, with reasons to do so and guardrails to do so with care.

wdavidotaylor.substack.com/p/how-to-wri...

Authority Is a Responsibility, Not an Excuse - Christianity Today The Trump administration should be able to execute on its immigration mandate without executing people like Alex Pretti in the streets.

"The Trump administration should be able to enforce immigration law without tear-gassing infants, arresting peaceful clergy, smashing the windows of open cars...It should be able to do it without using cheap AI edits to callously lie about Americans."

www.christianitytoday.com/2026/01/auth...