Why is this library loaning neckties?

The Riverside branch of the New York Public Library has more than books to loan. You can also check out a necktie, bow tie, handbag, or briefcase. They are intended for people with limited resources who are heading for job interviews, auditions, school performances, proms, or other events for which they need to dress up.

In other news, a Chicago schoolteacher on a plane talked about her low-income students. Passengers overheard her and gave her more than $500 in cash to help.

Here’s a similar story: an Alabama man had to walk nearly twenty miles to his new job. When his CEO found out, he gave the man his personal car.

When you read these stories, how did they make you feel?

A surprising survey

There’s something in us that is attracted to that which is selfless, gracious, and joyful. The darker the room, the more we are drawn to the light.

However, it’s a sign of the times that so many of the shows that received Emmys on Monday are so dark and ominous. As I noted yesterday, the world is more unhappy than it has been in a decade. Gallup’s Negative Experience Index found that markers for worry, stress, sadness, and physical pain are all at record highs.

The Index stood at 24 in 2008, as the Great Recession was beginning, and stayed at that level for the next three years. Remarkably, unhappiness began to rise in 2012, a time when many economies were recovering.

Since that time, most global markets have risen dramatically. But so has unhappiness, to an unprecedented level of 30 in 2017.

Why is this?

“Keep your heart with all vigilance”

Marcus Aurelius noted: “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” Wise King Solomon advised us: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23). He also noted, “As he thinks within himself, so he is” (Proverbs 23:7 NASB).

This is why we should ask the Holy Spirit to help us “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2…