Focus: faith, the good life, leadership, and civility. Energized by justice and strongly value humility, contribution, and long-term thinking | No DMs
Southern California
Joined December 2008
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David Blenko retweeted
God doesn’t promise we’ll know what’s coming. He promises we won’t face it alone. That’s a pretty solid reason not to live in fear.
David Blenko retweeted
I've probably read this poem 100 times, but when the world seems particularly gone to hell, it still brings me to tears.
David Blenko retweeted
This is not a photograph.
It’s called Oak Grove, and it was painted in 1887 by Ivan Shishkin. Every furrow of bark, every leaf, every blade of grass in the shade of these old oaks was put there by hand.
Shishkin painted trees so faithfully that his canvases are less like pictures of a forest and more like portraits of the trees themselves, each one rendered down to its smallest detail.
He spent his life wandering the woods near his home outside Saint Petersburg, studying nature so closely that Russia gave him a nickname: the singer of the Russian woods.
What I love most is that these oaks feel so alive, you can almost feel the coolness of their shade on your skin. And like very old trees in real life, they make you feel small in the best way possible, as if they have seen everything and are telling you that it will all be alright...
David Blenko retweeted
It is funny how Pope Leo has all the influence the Christian Nationalists covet, yet it is not through the Nietzschean will to power they employ, but through the gentle and loving proclamation of the gospel.
David Blenko retweeted
This is not a photograph.
Every leaf and every reflection was put there by hand, in oil, by the Danish painter Peder Mørk Mønsted in 1894.
It is called Wooded path by a river, and it captures the hardest thing there is to paint: a forest in full sunlight. Light through trees never falls evenly. It scatters into countless flecks of brightness and shadow, a glow on one leaf, darkness on the next, a glint on the water that would vanish the moment a cloud passed. Get those even slightly wrong, and the whole thing collapses into a green blur.
Mønsted got every one of them right, and in doing so he captured something anyone who has stood alone in a wood will recognize immediately: that hush that falls over you, the sense of being completely at peace, and the feeling that the whole world has paused to breathe…
David Blenko retweeted
Harry Kane’s 32, married to his childhood sweetheart, got four kids, runs his own mental health charity and quietly donates to the armed forces and mental health causes. Barely drinks, doesn’t smoke, and in 15+ years in the spotlight he’s never had a single scandal. Proper clean living.
On the pitch? Ridiculous numbers. England’s all-time top scorer, Spurs’ all-time top scorer, six Golden Boots (four in the Prem, one at a World Cup). Most strikers could only dream of that.
Yet the bloke still gets written off and disrespected more than anyone in his generation. Gives everything for club and country, never puts a foot wrong off the field. Proper professional.
If you’re after a role model, it doesn’t get much better than Kane. The fact we even have to say it says it all, doesn’t it?
David Blenko retweeted
Probably and possibly one of the best speeches of all time. 😍
Mohammed Qahtani, a Saudi Arabian engineer, won the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking.
In his winning speech, he highlighted the power of words, stating that they can be a source of strength.
David Blenko retweeted
A little Bach accompanied by the sound of rain. For anyone who needs a beautiful, peaceful moment today. 🎻🌧️
David Blenko retweeted
Personal ownership precedes corporate change. As we allow God to transform us personally, we become better equipped to love our city, reach our neighbors, and reflect the life-changing power of Jesus.
David Blenko retweeted
That’s a powerful reminder. ❤️ Faith isn’t only about what we believe, but also about how we love and treat others. When love is at the center, our beliefs should lead us toward compassion, kindness, and grace. 🙏
David Blenko retweeted
Picasso was 15 years old when he painted this.
It looks nothing like a Picasso, and the reason why is one of the most beautiful things he ever said...
It's called First Communion, made in 1896, and it was the first large canvas he ever completed. There are no strange angles here, no fractured faces, none of the wild reinvention his name now brings to mind. It is a stunning and technically flawless scene: a young girl kneeling at the altar in a white dress, about to take her first communion, the moment a child is meant to step toward adulthood.
The translucence of the girl's veil, the altar boy's surplice, the light falling from a source outside the frame, all of it revealing a command of paint startling for his age. He built the whole picture around whiteness, linking the white of Lola's dress to the white of the altar cloth and the candlelight, so the eye reads the whole scene as a passage from one life into another.
He was only 15, and he understood that...
It was shown at a major exhibition in Barcelona, where the local press marveled that a boy not yet old enough to shave had painted like a master of the academy.
At fifteen Picasso could already do this, the thing that thousands of trained artists spend their entire lives trying and failing to do. He had it as a boy. And he would spend the rest of his life trying to get back the one thing this perfect painting does not have: the freedom of a child, who paints without fear, without rules, and without yet knowing what is supposed to be impossible...
He said it himself: "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."
David Blenko retweeted
I asked my mother a few days ago if, after almost sixty years of marriage, she was still in love with my father.
She looked at me for a moment, as if searching for words that don't fit into sentences. She didn't answer. She just smiled.
Later, when I got home, I found on my phone the answer that her silence had already conveyed:
“Sometimes you ask me if I’m still in love with him. I smile, not because the question is silly, but because the answer isn’t simple. How can I say yes—but not like before?”
It's no longer about butterflies in the stomach or fireworks. It's about roots.
Love, after so many years, is no longer a hurricane that sweeps you away. It's the firm ground that sustains you. It doesn't quicken your heart—it calms your soul. It doesn't make your hands tremble—it gives you the strength to raise them every day.
There are no more surprises, but there are rituals: coffee drunk at the same time, little arguments about towels, the blanket being pulled away when the other sneezes. They don't seem like big things... but they are.
Today, I don't expect grand gestures. I hope he notices when my back hurts, that he hugs me when I fall apart, that he doesn't leave me alone even when I don't know how to deal with myself.
Loving someone after a lifetime together isn't like in the books. It's like having a secret language that only we speak. It's understanding the weight of a tired gaze, the pause in silence, breathing at the same time.
So, yes. I'm still in love with him. But not with the initial charm. I'm in love with everything we've built. With the peace of knowing that, in any storm, he still is—and always will be—my refuge.
David Blenko retweeted
We are called to ALWAYS protect, honor, respect, and care for the small, the vulnerable, and the powerless. To protect is not simply to prevent physical harm—it is acting in a way that bestows dignity, never shame.
David Blenko retweeted
A healthy church doesn’t just fill seats it helps people flourish.
It cares for the whole person: Spiritual, Physical, Mental, Emptional, Volitional, Moral, Relational.
It worships deeply.
It builds real belonging.
And it serves its neighbors with compassion.
David Blenko retweeted
The most accurate articles in English about the US are now being published by the British press: Financial Times, Guardian, Telegraph, BBC.
The represent different views but they all publish the truth that is now dangerous to publish in the US because of Trump's retribution.
David Blenko retweeted
For eight decades, the U.S. built up something as powerful as aircraft carriers and squadrons of F-35s: credibility.
The Iran war has been a master class in how to squander it.
My latest column:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/…
David Blenko retweeted
“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk.”
- Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard wrote these words in an 1847 letter to his ailing sister-in-law, emphasizing that walking was essential not only for physical health but also for mental clarity. The Danish philosopher, who was known for his daily walks through the streets of Copenhagen, believed that constant movement was one of the best remedies for existential anxiety and mental stagnation.
By saying he could walk away from even his heaviest thoughts, Kierkegaard portrayed walking as more than a simple distraction. He saw it as a powerful way to work through grief, anxiety, and life’s most difficult questions. His words remain a timeless reminder that physical movement can inspire emotional and intellectual progress, while remaining still can leave us feeling trapped.
