HeyJaredGood Things
A round-up of the good things I'm reading, writing, watching, and pondering.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 5
- Latest publication
- Sep 14, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Aug 3, 2026
Latest issues
Good Things: Start Here (opens the original)
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I’m not here for the numbers. I’m also not not here for the numbers.I want to write things that, hopefully, some of you want to read. And based on the growth of subscribers over the last few months, you guys are rocking with your boy. I appreciate it.Good Things is about faith, literature, and culture through a theological lens, which means the writing shape-shifts a bit. One week I might be reflecting on Scarface, the next offering elite curation in a book roundup, and the next writing about a
18 Thoughts on Matthew 18 (opens the original)
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This passage has often been tragically mishandled. I know I’ve seen it. I know some of us have lived it. And I know none of us should settle for it.There are cases in which pastors have misused this text to publicly discredit and isolate congregants. That is real and heinous. There are cases in which these verses have been applied in love, and in which the unrepentant have been restored and welcomed back to the church. That is real and beautiful.Having recently preached this passage, here are 18
A Notorious Word, Richard Pryor, and Us (opens the original)
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On live TV, Oprah pressed rap megastar Jay-Z about his use of the n-word. “Everybody knows that I feel,” she says in the 2009 interview, “that we should not be using the n-word. You obviously feel differently.”The camera pans to Jay-Z, who is visibly uncomfortable. It’s jarring to see a pop icon look like a boy pulled into the principal’s office.He offers the counterpoint to Oprah’s view. His use of the n-word is a form of “endearment,” stripping it of its “power” used by racists. Oprah firmly d
When Losing is Winning (opens the original)
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<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="965" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8Np5!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F75304aaa-c237-49a2-ae1d-de255da8b615_1565x1037.h
The Shape of an Authorship (opens the original)
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Reading Kierkegaard has me thinking about my authorship.1 That was his term for his writing career — driven, it seems, by the burning exploration of what it means to be human before God and resulting in many pseudonymous works. The pseudonyms — Johannes Climacus, Anti-Climacus among others — served multiple purposes, including juxtaposing or elucidating parts of his complex self while rhetorically luring his readers toward self-examination.2<
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