On March 25, 2018, women, men and children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador began walking north toward the US border. As weeks passed, their numbers grew… and their story began to move toward the stoplight of major American News sources.

Of course, the tint of that spotlight varied in shade depending on its source. For instance, the sitting administration warned of the potential threat this group of people posed should they reach San Diego; even suggesting at one point that there might be “unknown middle easterners” among the group… making it a kind of Trojan horse for a more recognizable international terror threat.

On Sunday afternoon, Nov 25, what be are known as the “Migrant Caravan” finally began to the reach, and cross the southern border of the US, just north of Tijuana, Mexico. And as they reached the doorstep of America, the various and often opposing narratives surrounding them rose to a kind of peak volume.

And, as is so often the case, .. somewhat quietly, under the buzz, dust and noise… thoughtful and caring women and men went about the business of meeting this moment and the real people in it, eye-to-eye.

One of those people is my guest, Jer Swigart. His work with the Global Immersion Project approaches and addresses many of the same questions the Migrant Caravan story has raised among those paying attention:

What do we do with the tension between law and human good.

– What does it mean to be a neighbor?

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Earlier this month, John Allen Chau was killed by members of one of the most isolated peoples on earth. According to his own journal, Chau was committed to sharing what he knew of Jesus with the Sentinelese people…  and even after being forcefully deterred several times prior, returned the island of North Sentinel on Nov 14, in some form of faith and hope that he would be received, along with his message.

He wasn’t.

This part of Chau’s story touches on and highlights themes that have moved their way close to the center several conversations on this podcast.

It was because so many of these things seemed to collide in this story that I moved the podcast calendar around a bit to make room for this episode.

My guest is Matt Mikalatos. Along with being a clever, thoughtful and oftentimes poignant author, he’s a fantastic guide in conversation online and off (find him on Facebook, specifically). He has also worked for years in an organization that trains and sends out missionaries not online John Chau.

I think you’ll find Matt helpful, challenging, confounding and stirring. I plan to and promise to have him back as a guest to talk about his own work.

But for now, listen in on our conversation about a moment I think highlights a good number of the issues and realties facing American religious and spiritual practice.

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In her landmark book “Caring For Words in a Culture of Lies” Marylin McEntyre writes…

“If language is to retain its power to nourish and sustain our common life, we have to care for it in something like the way good farmers care for the life of the soil, knowing nothing worth eating can be grown in soil that has been used up, fertilized or exposed too many toxic chemicals.”

—

His most recent book is entitled “Learning to Speak God From Scratch” and is, in my reading of it, a courageous and wise effort to care for the words that shape contemporary religious life.

In my conversation with him, we dig into his recent book, its history and a few other pieces of the soil beneath out feet.

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This is part two of my interview with visual artist and storyteller Scott Erickson. If you haven’t had the chance to check out part one, it’s not necessary to hear it first .. but… it might be helpful.. and it’s a great conversation.

The second half of our conversation turns more specifically to the role of art in personal life and well as communal and religious life. We also dig a bit into the difficult of spoken language vs the freedom of visual expression and look, as best as we can into the future.

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My guest on this episode is long-time friend and co-creator Scott Erickson. He and I created and released the book “Prayer: 40 Days of Practice” a few years ago and his partnership has been not only enjoyable but enriching and transformative.

Scott’s work as a visual artist and storyteller comes from and carves out what I consider a vital and sincerely unique place in American Religious culture. Unique to such a degree that I’ve divided this interview into two parts, of which this is part one… I intend to give you the opportunity to be challenged, inspired and moved by an artist whose work I consider right for this shared moment in our history.

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Jan 1 2018 was a landmark day for marijuana legalization in CA. For many, the moment was another stumbling misstep towards even more compromised societal norms. For others, including my guest, it was a hard-fought-for moment emblematic of a culture coming to its senses and embracing a kind of inevitable tide.

Either way, It was a divisive moment, charged with the energy that often comes from social, economic and interpersonal difference. It was a moment I decided this podcast needed to enter into.

My guest, Matt Shotwell, has been in the weed business for over a decade and was featured on Discovery Channel’s reality show “Weed Country.” He’s also a son to his parents, brother to his siblings, an adoptive parent to a piranha named Brittany,  a person of faith and a long-time friend of mine.

So, I’m inviting you into a conversation about a real-life cultural shift. I’m inviting you into a conversation with someone whose world you may not be at all familiar with or comfortable. I’m also inviting you into a conversation between friends.

As I’ve said in the lead-in to other podcast episodes, I’ll issue fair warning to listeners for whom traditionally foul language is a problem. You’ll find a bit of it during this conversation. I’ll also add to that warning an equally fair challenge: that if I’m sincerely interested in someone else story, I don’t get to decide how they tell it.

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“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,

You may have noticed a bit of a lag between episodes of this podcast. If you’ll allow… that lag as been rather intentional. I’ve not known what to say, what to this shared cultural moment of ours… I didn’t honestly know if it was even my place to say or add anything.

I don’t want to just be making noises.

So, I spent some time doing the thing I’m learning is the key to not only a good/great podcast, but a well -lived life: I listened.

My guest on this episode is Michael McBride. And just as he did in Season 1 of the @ Sea podcast. He offers an invitation, a challenge and a wisdom that not only clarifies my place in the world around me, but also the path before me, through that world, as a culture maker.

I hope and expect this conversation may do the same for you.

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You may have heard the rumor or legend or sorts that certain cultures throughout history have been at least suspicious or cautious about photography in fear that something of the soul was captured in the process. The other side of that coin is that, to many purveyors of the arts, a great portrait actually has to do just that.

I came across Jeremy Cowart’s work in the weeks and months after a horrific earthquake nearly flattened Port Au Prince, Haiti in January of 2010. With the project, entitled “Voices of Haiti,” Jeremy captured the collision of and tension between ruin and resolve, hope and despair,.. all of which to say, his work captured, set against the backdrop of a devastating natural disaster, a very human picture.

His work since then has continued to range from photo shoots with some of the most recognizable names in entertainment to the development of a hotel that will, when it comes to life, will revolutionize the way we stay somewhere when we’re not home.

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The question “What do you do?” or “What do you do for a living?” it’s not so much a question about work as it is a way to figure out who someone is; a question of identity. And that relationship between who I am and what I do can be tricky,… even confusing.

Too closely tying my identity to my work can lead towards a dehumanized, utilitarian view of my own humanity… while drawing a thick black line between who I am and what I do can lead to a kind of dysphoria …

Carlos Whittaker has developed apps, written and performed songs, led an online weight loss program, taught courses on the proper use of Instagram as well as having written two books, including his most recent work “Kill The Spider.”

As I think you’ll hear in my conversation with Carlos, his process and evolution has been one in which he relentlessly pursues a sense of his place in the world at the cost of safe career steps and even, at times, at the cost of safe religious conclusions. All the while, he invites his readers and listeners to join him along the way.

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The ways we move into and out of one another’s lives… the modality of relationship, is a matter of art. In fact, I resonate with Seth Godin’s definition of art as anything that facilitates human connection… including, in my own iteration of the definition, a relationship with one’s self.

For nearly two decades Sandra McCracken has been making music that not only facilitates human connection, but has done so with a particularly thoughtful attentiveness. In our conversation, we consider whether or not it is that connection that makes art sacred… rather than a particular setting or use.

Check it out.

Order In The Low - NEW Book with Scott Erickson
Coaching with Justin
Order In Rest - New Book of Poems

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NEW Single - Let Go

NEW Music - Sliver of Hope

NEW Music - The Dood and The Bird

Hearts and Minds Amazon Barnes and Noble