Welcome to a new season of Quiet on Purpose, friends - I can't believe we are beginning our 6th year together! What a delight for me.

As 2025 was winding down and I began to anticipate the start of a new year, I began, as has become my practice, paying attention to what God seems to be up to in this season of my life, and where I felt His Spirit at work in my heart, especially seeking a “word of the year” to guide my spiritual focus for 2026. The word I settled on for this year is “Watch!” (Yes, with an exclamation point!) Even before the new year began, I could see how He was inviting me to focus on this word, this practice really, and the hope that is connected to it! I’m excited to “Watch!” and see what God does in this year, and you're invited to join me!

You can read Micah 7.7 here

Questions from today's episode: Where am I longing for God to work in my own life or the lives of my loved ones today? Do I sense an invitation from him to watch in hope as I pour out my heart to him, knowing that he hears me and he is already at work? Am I ready to open my hands and release outcomes and timing to the One True God, whose timing is never wrong? 

Have you ever had the experience of getting together with a dear friend or family member after a long period of absence and wanted to just soak up every moment with them, savoring their presence with you? Have you ever realized, after perhaps hours of sitting and visiting with them, that you’ve lost all track of time because you have been so completely “with” them? The first chapter of the Gospel of John begins with beautifully poetic imagery which helps us to understand Jesus as Creator, eternal Son of God, Life and Light, and, in this verse, Emmanuel, God with us! Dive in to this special Christmas episode as we pause to consider the miracle of God with us!

Read John 1:14

Questions from today's episode:  What does “God with us” mean to you today? How do you need to experience his “with-ness” in your life right now? Have you ever stopped to marvel at the fact that the Creator of the universe stepped into humanity and became one of us in order to help us know Him, to see God’s love for us, and to enact the most amazing redemption plan? Take some time now to linger in awe and wonder at God’s great love for us!

A great listen:

This episode is being released the day before the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. Today's scripture highlights the practice of thanking God for what He has done, and it makes an interesting connection between gratitude and hope. Listen in!

Read Psalm 52:9

Questions from today's episode: What am I grateful for today? What do I have to be grateful for every day? As I take time to be grateful for these things, do I perceive even a tiny spark of hope igniting within me? Am I willing to commit to a spiritual practice of beginning each day with gratitude for a period of  time, being watchful for how it impacts my life in big and small ways?

Complaining about our bodies or our personalities is a "Great-American-Pastime" it would seem. But the scriptures confront that habit in Psalm 139, when the psalmist declares that he is "fearfully and wonderfully made". In today's episode we'll linger in the imagery of being "knit together" in our mother's wombs. Listen in!

Read Psalm 139:13-14

Questions from today's episode: Linger in the beauty that God knit each one of us together in our mother’s womb and is intimately acquainted with everything about us. He declares that you are fearfully and wonderfully made! As you meditate on this truth, is your loving Creator inviting you to surrender your complaint about any part of you, either a physical trait or a personality trait, and instead to praise and thank Him for making you exactly as you are? Would you invite Him to show you how He might use that trait as a blessing to others?

Podcast music written and recorded by Caleb Lieurance

Recently, it has seemed like everyone I know and love is involved in some kind of battle. Battles with various health struggles, battles with addiction, battles with a multitude of unforeseen life circumstances that are completely out of our control. It’s not only the world around us that feels out of control, it’s our own daily, personal lives. Have you ever noticed that sometimes life can be flowing along nicely, with everything seemingly “under control,” and then in an instant, the illusion of control is exposed for just that - an illusion?! Some seasons just bring that more clearly into focus, and for me, and so many of my loved ones, this is one of those seasons! That's what makes the scripture in this episode so remarkable and comforting! I hope you'll listen in.

Exodus 14.14

Questions from today's episode: What season am I in today: one where everything seems under control? Or one in which I am painfully aware of my lack of control? Where am I in the trust cycle? Have I taken up my weapons? Am I overwhelmed, fearful and panicky? Or, have I chosen to lay down my weapons, be still, and trust God to fight for me? Is there an invitation or a comfort for me in this scripture today? 

I think I’ve mentioned here and there over the years that I like to choose a word each year to represent where I see God at work in my heart as I step into a new year. In 2024, I chose the word Dwell. "Sitting quietly in the presence of God and my own soul" is one of the foundational purposes of this podcast, and spending an entire year dwelling on the word Dwell helped draw me back, and draw me deeper, into that practice. Throughout the year, I spent time searching the scriptures for verses with the word dwell in them. What I ended up discovering was this beautiful thread throughout scripture, which I believe is God’s foundational purpose for humanity. Listen in as I share some of what I found!

Read Psalm 91:1-2

Question from today's episode: As you sit quietly in the presence of the Most High, ask Him to gently reveal to you any false shelters in which you are trusting for refuge today, anywhere you seek rest outside His shadow. If anything comes to mind, simply acknowledge and confess it, then walk away, allowing Him to lead you to His dwelling place instead.

Podcast music written and recorded by Caleb Lieurance

What I'm listening to right now

I don’t have extensive experience on the sea, but I’ve spent a bit of time in and around the ocean and other large bodies of water; enough to know what I bet you know too: it doesn’t take much time out on a large body of water to be impressed by the immensity of it. When you’re out in the middle of the water on a vessel that seems large from land, you suddenly feel very small. Imagine being surrounded in that same way, by an overwhelming knowledge of the glory of the Lord! Listen in!

Habakkuk 2:14

Do I have a solid grasp of the reality that a day is coming in which the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, so much so that my heart can hold onto that hope, even in difficult times? Do I have a solid grasp of the reality that only the work that I do toward that end will endure beyond my lifetime? Is there a gentle invitation to my soul through this verse today? How will I respond?

Friends, there was an error in the original upload of this episode, so that the audio was a repeat of Episode 105! My apologies! This episode has been edited with the correct audio now added!

Does your church, or maybe another church in your vicinity, have church bells? Do they ring out on Sunday mornings? Have you had the privilege of traveling abroad and been touring a city when you hear church bells ring, calling out to those within earshot that a worship service is about to begin? I think the sound of church bells is so joyful and sacred! But we don't have to wait for church bells in order to hear the joyful call to worship. If we tune our hearts to hear it, the call to worship can be heard all around us. Today's episode is one! Listen in.

Read ⁠Psalm 89:15⁠

Questions from today's episode: How quick, or slow, is my own heart to notice and respond to the joyful call of worship? Are there specific habits I can adopt that will help me to grow in this area? What are the joyful calls to worship in my life today?

Psalm 89 set to ⁠music⁠

Podcast music written and recorded by Caleb Lieurance

Does your church, or maybe another church in your vicinity, have church bells? Do they ring out on Sunday mornings? Have you had the privilege of traveling abroad and been touring a city when you hear church bells ring, calling out to those within earshot that a worship service is about to begin? I think the sound of church bells is so joyful and sacred! But we don't have to wait for church bells in order to hear the joyful call to worship. If we tune our hearts to hear it, the call to worship can be heard all around us. Today's episode is one! Listen in.

Read Psalm 89:15

Questions from today's episode: How quick, or slow, is my own heart to notice and respond to the joyful call of worship? Are there specific habits I can adopt that will help me to grow in this area? What are the joyful calls to worship in my life today?

Psalm 89 set to music

Podcast music written and recorded by Caleb Lieurance

One of the highest values of this podcast is to help us all banish wrong assumptions about God, such as, his posture toward us is one of anger because of some sin we've committed. This episode takes a look at yet another scripture in which he reveals an entirely different posture toward our sins! I hope you'll listen in!

Read Isaiah 43:25 here!

Questions from today's episode: Do I struggle to truly believe that God lovingly blots out the stain of my sins because it delights Him to do so? Do I continue to listen to an accusatory voice in my head and wrongfully think that God is angry with me? Has it kept me from turning to Him for forgiveness and restoration? Is there a loving invitation to me today as I meditate on this scripture? How will I respond?