This week, as this episode is released, I am in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, serving with the Appalachian Service Project. Alongside youth and adults from Dulin United Methodist Church, I’ll spend the week helping make homes warmer, safer, and drier. It is a week of service, but it is also a week of practice. This … Continue reading Ripening Intention: Showing Up as Yourself
This week I head off to Annual Conference. For those unfamiliar with United Methodist life, Annual Conference is a yearly gathering of clergy and lay members from across a region. We worship together, study scripture together, conduct the business of the church, approve budgets, celebrate ministry, commission new leaders, and make decisions about our shared … Continue reading Ripening View: Learning to See Relationally
Five years ago, I started a podcast by accident. At least that’s how it feels when I look back on it now. In the fall of 2021, I was serving as chaplain to a group of seven young adults involved with Appalachia Service Project. Brendan, Gabi, Haley, Katie, Manon, Megan, and Mollie invited me into … Continue reading The Gifts You Never Saw Coming
Recognize. Release. Return. Hello, beloved. There are seasons in life when the pressure quietly builds. Sometimes it’s obvious—deadlines, responsibilities, expectations stacking one on top of another. Other times it’s more subtle, but just as real: the quiet hope that what we offer matters, that what we say or do might reach someone, might make a … Continue reading When the Pressure Bears Down
There are moments when a question finds its way to me that feels less like a question and more like an invitation—an invitation to speak into something tender, something widely shared but often quietly carried. This week, someone asked me to reflect on guilt and shame. And the truth is, we all live somewhere in that … Continue reading Guilt, Shame, and the Truth About Who You Are
The spiritual life is often described as a journey. That image has been on my mind lately—the sense that we are walking a path that continues for as long as we draw breath, and perhaps beyond. Along that path there are stopping places. Sometimes we sit on a bench along the side of the road … Continue reading Ripening Along the Path
Some days feel heavier than others—not because anything has gone wrong, but because everything is happening at once. The calendar is full. The expectations are high. And before the day even begins, the anxiety has already arrived. I’ve had several days like that recently. You may be having one too. When the schedule fills up faster than … Continue reading Giving the Best You’ve Got Right Now
There are moments in life when the ways we have understood ourselves, the world, and even God simply stop working. The stories that once held us together lose their coherence. The beliefs that once gave us certainty begin to feel thin. The practices that once grounded us start to feel empty or incomplete. And suddenly … Continue reading When Meaning Breaks Down
Most of us don’t reject rest outright. We postpone it. We tell ourselves we’ll rest after one more thing is done—after the list gets shorter, after life slows down, after we’ve earned it. Rest becomes conditional, something we imagine waiting patiently on the other side of our productivity. And yet, that “other side” never quite arrives. Busyness … Continue reading When You’re Too Busy to Rest
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about presence—what it really means to be present, and what it might mean when we find that we’re not. Over the past several weeks, life has been full. The end of the year, the beginning of a new one, gatherings, worship, conversations, responsibilities—good things, meaningful things. And yet, in … Continue reading When the Mind Wanders
Infinitely Precious 