The Week In Review
March 7, 2026
One Good Thing This Week
I am on the Mizzou campus this week. And I love meeting with college students. Those years, 18-26, are the most influential in a young person’s life. Thus, the chance to speak into those years is a gift.
In the last 24 hours, I have been asked about porn no less than a dozen times. Which is par for the course, our culture [and campuses] are indoctrinated with it. From scantily clad women [this university is a minefield] to outright sexual exploitation, no wonder young men are not having physical sex. Many men report an inability to get erections. Others view 'normal,' actual sex as well, boring. Think about these statistics [out of Texas Tech University] regarding young men and pornography:
70% of young men [18-24] view pornography at least monthly.
The average age for a child’s first exposure to online pornography is 11.
56% of divorces in one study involved one partner with an obsessive interest in online porn.
10% of users report addiction, with excessive use linked to desensitization, reduced arousal to real partners, and increased anxiety or depression.
The fake thing has replaced the real thing, and we are all worse for it. Or, as Romans describe, "they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…" [1:25].
Now, you say, "Harp, what about the good news… isn't this section one good thing this week?"
Absolutely. Enter, Kellen. Kellen is a student from Rwanda who is helping at the event this week. Kellen, graciously, has driven me everywhere. During one ride, we talked about temptation. I asked him how he fights lust on a campus like this. His answer was simple. Every time he is tempted, he reminds himself: "I love Jesus more."
More than porn.
More than masturbation.
More than fantasy.
Jesus is greater.
And that’s the secret many men miss. The fight against lust isn’t won by suppressing desire—it’s won by reordering desire. Your porn addiction is just a symptom. The deeper issue is misplaced desire. Augustine called this disordered love. Sin happens when we love lesser things more than the greater thing. When our loves are out of order, our lives will be too. We try to solve the problem by managing behavior—filters, rules, and accountability groups. Those things help. But they don’t reach the root.
That’s because the human heart doesn’t stop loving. It simply redirects its love. When Christ becomes your greatest love, the counterfeit begins to lose its grip. The problem isn’t that our desires are too strong. It’s that they are aimed too low.
Not Kellen. Kellen is aiming high. Kellen is remembering the words of C.S.Lewis: "Aim for the world, and you get nothing. Aim for heaven, and you get the world too."
Head up, Kellen.
Something Beautiful This Week
My son turned 13 this week. A teenager. Hard to believe. Can I tell you what I love most about him?
He is grateful.
Not entitled. Not demanding. Grateful. He notices things. He says thank you. He celebrates small gifts. Whether it’s a meal, a ride somewhere, or a moment together, he receives it like it matters.
Gratitude is a rare trait in a young man. But it is one of the strongest indicators of character. Grateful people recognize that life is a gift, which makes gratitude is the seedbed of humility and joy. And boys who learn gratitude grow into men who carry both.
I love this guy…
Something Worth Imitating
Read this from an Ol’G this week… incredible advice:
My Grandparents Were Married For 60 Years. One day, I asked my grandfather, "What’s The Secret To Loving The Same Woman For A Lifetime?"
He didn’t laugh. He didn’t say 'communication.' He didn’t say 'date nights.' He looked at my grandmother, who was in the kitchen, and said, "You don’t love the same woman."
That confused me. He said, "She changes every few years. And if you don’t update the way you love her, you lose her." He told me the girl he married at 22 wasn’t the same woman at 30. Motherhood changed her. Loss changed her. Time changed her.
"At 40," he said, "she needed respect more than romance. At 50, she needed partnership more than passion. At 60, she needed presence more than promises."
And every time she changed, he had a choice: Complain that she’s 'not like she used to be.' Or learn her again. He said the biggest mistake men make is this: "They fall in love once. Then stop paying attention."
"Loving a woman for a lifetime," he told me, "is deciding to stay curious about her." Not assuming you know her. Not freezing her in the version you met. He leaned back and said something I’ll never forget: "If you stop studying her, someone else eventually will."
Sixty years. Not because it was easy. Because he kept relearning her.
Keep studying your bride.
My 3 Favorite Quotes of the Week
"Madness does not come by breaking out, but by giving in; by settling down in some dirty, little, self-repeating circle of ideas; by being tamed." ― G.K. Chesterton
"J Vernon McGee compared the TV to a hole in the wall leading to a snake den. People said you just gotta tell the good snakes from the bad ones. McGee said 'Why not just board up the hole.' That was decades ago. Now the hole is in your pocket. Your living room. Your kid’s bedroom. And you’re paying monthly for the snakes to have access…" — Anonymous
"When you need clarity, subtract." — James Clear
Something I Found Interesting This Week
I was on a call with a social scientist this week, and heard him say this: "Women have a biological clock. Men have a generational clock…"
Still sitting with that.
My Favorite Pic[s] This Week
Last weekend. Three cities. 1400 miles. Thousands of men. The Bride is more beautiful when the men are more godly…
Book(s) I Read This Week
I have not read this book, but I ordered it. It comes out this fall, and I’m stoked. I enjoy learning from Anthony B. Bradley. This week, he asked people to share his forthcoming book. So this is me, doing more than giving him a polite 'yes.' I'm telling everybody I know, order this book:
"America has spent decades arguing about crime, poverty, addiction, mental health, and failing schools. We convene panels. We fund programs. We draft reforms. Yet beneath these urgent debates lies a quieter destabilization: the erosion of fatherhood.
On November 17, 2026, The Fatherhood Effect: Consequences of a Dad-Deprived Culture—and Practical Strategies for Positive Change, will be released on November 17, 2026. Pre-order today."
More and more, I am convinced that the problems we face in our homes, churches, and communities are all downstream of fatherlessness.
Song(s) I Listened To This Week
And the Clever Few…
"Lay me down beside my mother and my brother, and to the left of my old man.
Just an old pine box, 72 inches underneath that old black sand…"
What God Taught Me This Week
"But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first." — Rev 2:4
The American church is bracing for persecution. We act as if the greatest threat to our faith will come through hostility, legislation, cultural exclusion, or public opposition. We imagine a dystopian future, where we will be forced to choose between Christ and the state.
Yet, the book of Revelation does not primarily warn the churches about persecution. It warns us about seduction.
That distinction matters. Persecution clarifies allegiance. Seduction confuses it. Persecution draws sharp lines. Seduction blurs them.
Most Christians do not abandon Jesus because they are threatened. We drift from Him because we are comfortable.
When John writes Revelation, he is addressing seven real congregations in Asia Minor. These were not fringe radicals or political dissidents. They were ordinary Christian communities trying to follow Jesus while living inside the machine that was the Roman Empire. And Rome was not merely a political regime. It was an economic system, a cultural epicenter, and a religious atmosphere. It shaped what people desired, valued, and worshiped. John gives that system a name: Babylon.
Babylon is not just a city. It is a civilization built on power, pleasure, and prosperity apart from God. And John’s warning is not that Babylon will destroy us. It’s that we might fall in love with it.
I was forced to ask myself this week, "What do you love?" "What do you want?" It was the first question Jesus asked His would-be disciples, and it’s the question He has been asking ever since: "What do you desire?" [John 1:38].
My answer then, is the same now: "I want you, Jesus."
Looking to connect in person? Here are some places I’ll be in the next few weeks:
North Shore Men’s Conference, Hastings, NE, March 14, 2026.
Noble Warriors Conference, Richmon VA, March 21, 2026.
Dallas Bible Men’s WKEND, Dallas, TX, March 27-28.
National Discipleship Conference, Houston, TX, April 15-16.
Brothers, my pledge to you…
"You will never suffer at my hands. I will never say nor do anything knowingly to hurt you. If you're down and I can lift you up, I'll do that. I will always, in every circumstance, seek to help and support you. If you need something and I have it, I'll give it to you. No matter what I find out about you, no matter what happens in the future, either good or bad, my commitment to you will never change."
For the King,
—Harp
Another good read! Thank you.
A comment on one section, in which you said, "The American church is bracing for persecution. We act as if the greatest threat to our faith will come through hostility, legislation, cultural exclusion, or public opposition. We imagine a dystopian future, where we will be forced to choose between Christ and the state.... Yet, the book of Revelation does not primarily warn the churches about persecution. It warns us about seduction."
I think that we have examples of each of the seven churches diagnosed and presribed for by Christ in the modern world. I think the Remnant of full-Gospel preaching, Bible-teaching, small-group building, Gospel outreaching churches WILL face persecution in America, as they have to varying degrees in the rest of the world [even in ostensibly so tolerant Europe, etc.]. American churches were given a little taste of it during the Progressive Pandemic Panic. The next Progressive president [or governor] is likely to send more because the Progressive agenda opposes Christ's agenda. But sadly the bulk of what calls itself "the church," or, worse, "The Church," has indeed caved in to the culture and won't face persecution, but will be pointed to as an example by the State. The "churches" that endorse alternative lifestyles, that have women as senior pastors/bishops/elders, that overly identify with [or look down upon] one ethnic group or favor a particular age cohort, or promote feminization of the church -- they probably won't face persecution. They won't have to make any hard choices -- because they've already made the easy choice to slide into lukewarm worldliness.
I look forward to your weekly review. Outstanding!