Jessica Richie shares the story and practices behind “The Lives We Actually Have”, written with Kate Bowler.

“The Lives We Actually Have” (Releasing February 14, 2023) is a collection of blessings for the struggles of our shared humanity, from the New York Times bestselling authors of “Good Enough”. A blessing for a painful day? A blessing for when things don’t make sense? These feel like strange times to consider blessing. But, as Jessica points out, perhaps those are the instances when we’re drawing closest to God.

This episode contains special blessings from both Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie.

(00:00) Introduction

(00:56) Blessing our doubt from Kate Bowler

(03:11) Introducing Jessica Richie

(04:20) Developing a deeper language for talking “God”

(08:14) Why a book for blessings?

(09:54) Favorite blessings

(12:10) Blessings are a form of placement

(15:35) Compulsive blessing

(18:33) A blessing for stretching your heart