I’ve been out of the habit of sharing my weekly list of favorite online finds.  I plan to reinstate this practice on Friday mornings under the “Weekend Reading” heading, sharing a handful of links that you can explore over the weekend.  I’ll do my best to limit these short lists to items not too heavily trafficked.  I hope you’ll find an item or two of interest each week.  And if you stumble onto a sign of life you believe worth sharing, please leave a comment or send me an email with the link.

• Effrem Smith reflects on a recent trip to Kenya: I believe there is a deep connection between issues facing African children and youth and African-American children and youth. For some reason though, many evangelicals have developed a deep sensitivity and compassion for African children and youth, but not as much for African-American children and youth.
• Eric Metaxas answers six questions about his Dietrich Bonhoeffer biography (one of my favorite books last year) in Harpers Magazine.
• David Brooks on the antidote to sadness in a secular age: Spiritually unmoored, many people nonetheless experience intense elevation during the magical moments that sport often affords. Dreyfus and Kelly mention the mood that swept through the crowd at Yankee Stadium when Lou Gehrig delivered his “Luckiest Man Alive” speech, or the mood that swept through Wimbledon as Roger Federer completed one of his greatest matches.  The most real things in life, they write, well up and take us over. They call this experience “whooshing up.” We get whooshed up at a sports arena, at a political rally or even at magical moments while woodworking or walking through nature.
• My friends at rednoW are running their monthly film recommendations again this year.  Check out Into the Dark each month for five new films, each in a different category.
• J. Kameron Carter’s musician of 2010 is jazz and spoken word artist Esperanza Spalding.  Here she is preforming at the White House in 2009.