It wasn't a remarkable day. Just the road and a reason to stop. A handwritten sign in a diner pie case. Buy one, get one. Nothing spiritual about it. Just a bakery that made a little too much and a diner trying to move it before closing. But somewhere between the first cup of coffee and the second, something shifted quietly. And a few miles down the road, a man standing on a corner with a handwritten sign that said Hungry got a piece of pie he wasn't expecting.

Kindness is not always reactive. Sometimes the decision comes first. Before the moment. Before the need is even visible. This week's Roadside Notes is about what happens when you start living a little more ready than you used to. Hands a little more open. A quiet yes made in a diner before you even know where it's going.

It doesn't take much. A second cup of coffee. An extra slice of pie. A few dollars set aside just in case the road puts something in front of you that you didn't plan for. This one is for anyone who's ever wondered whether staying ready makes a difference. It does. More than you think.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/06/11/kindness-is-not-always-reactive/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

I was sitting at a Route 66 diner not long ago, hands wrapped around a cup of coffee, watching the quiet rhythm of the morning unfold. The kind of place where the plates clink softly, the coffee keeps coming, and nobody's in too much of a hurry. Then something small broke the pattern in the best possible way.

The waitress poured a little more coffee, paused, and said she wanted to cover mine. Not because of anything big. Just because she'd noticed. And in that one quiet moment at a diner counter, something came back around that I hadn't thought twice about giving. That's the whole story. And it's bigger than it sounds.

This week's Roadside Notes is for anyone who's ever wondered whether the small things count. The quiet kindness nobody saw. The breakfast you picked up for someone without making a thing of it. The moment you chose to notice someone who might otherwise go unnoticed. They count. More than you think. Maybe more than you'll ever know.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/06/04/coffee-came-back/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

There's a quiet truth that lives on both sides of the same coin. Every morning is one more day. And every morning is one less day. Most of us live on one side of that and never think much about the other. This week's Roadside Notes sits with both at the same time.

One More Day isn't meant to frighten you. It's meant to wake you up. When you understand both sides of that truth, the ordinary moments of life begin to shine a little brighter. Today is one more chance to show kindness, repair something broken, or tell someone they matter. And it's one less reason to put love, grace, or courage off until tomorrow.

This entry is short, honest, and worth sitting with over your morning coffee. It won't take long to read. It might stay with you longer than you expect.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/05/28/one-more-day/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

Most of us have sat across from someone who was carrying grief and didn't know what to say. This episode begins at a diner counter with a man who'd lost his wife the previous winter and said something that stopped the morning cold. "Everyone keeps telling me the grief will pass. I'm not sure I want it to." That one sentence opens a quiet conversation about what grief actually is and why we've been thinking about it wrong.

Grief isn't a problem to be solved or a phase to push through. It's the echo of a love that had nowhere left to go. The pain we carry after losing someone isn't a sign that something is broken. It's proof that something real and irreplaceable once lived. This episode sits with that truth gently, without rushing past it.

You'll hear stories about the little things that stay with us after someone is gone, the humming in the kitchen, the hand reached for crossing a street, the habits that outlast the person. And somewhere in those small details, a different way of understanding grief begins to take shape.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/05/21/grief-is-the-echo-of-love/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

There is a quiet idea behind the way some character performers at Disney parks approach a child's hug. They don't end it. The child decides when it's over. Whether it's official policy or simply something passed along doesn't matter much. What matters is the heart behind it. You never know how much that child might need that hug.

This week's Roadside Notes entry explores what happens when we stop rushing kindness. The world moves fast, and most of us have learned to keep pace with it. Conversations get shortened. Encouragement turns into quick advice. Presence gets replaced by schedule. But real kindness sometimes asks for something different. It asks us to stay a little longer, listen a little deeper, and let the moment last as long as it needs to.

Don't Be The First To Let Go is a reflection on the kind of grace that rarely makes headlines but is often the thing people remember years later. The person who stayed. The moment that wasn't rushed. The kindness that didn't need a reason to keep going.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/05/14/dont-be-the-first/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

There's a kind of tiredness that doesn't come from lack of sleep. It comes from planting without seeing anything come up. From doing good work quietly and wondering if it's landing anywhere. From showing up day after day in a season that doesn't seem to be turning yet. That's what this entry is about.

A conversation in a Route 66 diner with an old farmer who'd been planting longer than he'd been harvesting said something that stayed with me. He wasn't discouraged. He wasn't measuring. He was simply doing what the season called for. Paul said the same thing in Galatians 6:9 in a way that's less a pep talk and more a steady hand on the shoulder. There will be a harvest. The season belongs to something larger than your timeline.

Some seeds belong to the next pair of hands. Some harvests are gathered by people you'll never meet. This episode is for the ones who are still planting anyway.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/05/07/do-not-grow-weary/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

There is a line Christopher uses with couples when he is deciding whether he is the right officiant for their wedding. He tells them he has the toughest job of anyone in the room. He has to be the center of attention without being seen, and he has to do all the talking without being heard. It gets a laugh. But he means every word.

This entry sits with that idea alongside Matthew 6, the passage that doesn't condemn giving but questions the audience. It asks an honest question: when we share stories of kindness, when we encourage others to act, are we teaching or performing? Are we illuminating the path or spotlighting ourselves? That line is worth examining. Quietly. Regularly. Without flinching.

The goal isn't invisibility. It's proper positioning. Let the love shine. Let the kindness become normal. Let the idea outlast the name of the person who shared it.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/04/30/center-of-attention/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

Most of the time you leave something kind and you never hear what happened next. A note tucked under a sugar dispenser. A tip that was a little more than usual. A quiet prayer in a cracked asphalt parking lot. You walk away and the story moves without you. That is the way it is supposed to work.

This week's entry from the Roadside Notes journal is about a moment I didn't expect. A waitress on Route 66 who recognized me. A note she almost threw away. And a battery that got paid for by grace she couldn't explain. I didn't orchestrate any of it. I just got to hear about it. And that, it turns out, is a gift of its own.

Gratitude reciprocates not because we design it to, but because something received with a thankful heart refuses to stop moving. Sometimes you get to hear a little of the harvest. Not to take credit. Just to stay humble and keep going.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/04/23/gratitude-reciprocates

Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

It started at a cold cement table outside a Dunkin' with a cup of familiar coffee and a head full of heavy things. Bills. Health. The state of the world. The kind of weight that settles in when you sit alone with it long enough. But instead of asking God to fix everything on that list, Christopher bowed his head just to say thank You. Simple. Quiet. No agenda.

When he lifted his head, someone was sitting a few feet away. A man with a worn-haired dog named Pete and a smile that didn't ask for anything. What happened next wasn't planned or dramatic. A donut he couldn't eat. Half a cup of coffee. A few honest words. And then a line that landed like a promise: "Spring is coming, I can feel it."

Gratitude changes what you see. When you stop demanding and start noticing, your eyes adjust. And sometimes what you're holding is exactly what someone else needs.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/04/16/spring-is-coming-i-can-feel-it/ 🎙️

Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

There is a kind of loud that is not confidence. It is defense. Most of us have heard it. Some of us have been it. A man at a diner counter talking about bad breaks and wrong people and what he would do if life would just give him a clean shot. And somewhere in the listening, something familiar starts to stir.

This entry is not about that man. It is about what happens when someone sees through the noise to what is underneath. When grace shows up not because we earned it or asked for it, but because someone knew we needed it before we did.

That is the kind of moment that stays with you long after the coffee goes cold.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/04/09/because-he-knew-i-didnt/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives