The Chaplain's Chair

Do you ever find yourself worrying about something bad happening even when everything is fine?

A late-night phone call, a message from your boss, an unanswered text, or an upcoming doctor’s appointment can send your mind racing toward the worst possible outcome. In this episode of The Chaplain’s Chair, Tim Lajoie explores why we anticipate trouble, the difference between responsible preparation and worry, and what Jesus teaches about fear, uncertainty, and tomorrow.

Drawing from Matthew 6 and Philippians 4, Tim looks at a practical Christian response to worry that doesn't pretend bad things never happen. Instead, it asks a simple question: Are you dealing with something that has actually happened, or suffering through something that exists only in your imagination?

You don't have to experience tomorrow's trouble twice.

For more podcasts, essays, books, and other material, visit www.timlajoie.com.

Does life ever feel like nothing more than work, responsibilities, bills, sleep, and doing it all over again tomorrow?

Nothing may be terribly wrong, yet somewhere along the way life can become a routine we simply get through instead of something we intentionally live. In this episode of The Chaplain’s Chair, Tim Lajoie explores what the Bible says about purpose, time, attention, and making our everyday lives count.

Drawing from Ephesians, Psalms, and the teachings of Jesus, this episode isn't about becoming busier or squeezing more productivity into your day. It's about paying attention to the life God has already given you and asking a different question at the end of the day:

Did I actually live the day I was given?

How do you live with guilt and regret after you’ve done something you can’t undo?

Some mistakes can be corrected. Others leave consequences that an apology, sobriety, changed behavior, or even genuine repentance cannot erase. In this episode of The Chaplain’s Chair, Tim Lajoie talks about guilt, forgiveness, taking responsibility, making amends, and learning how to live differently after you’ve seriously screwed up.

Drawing from years of encounters with people in corrections, at the end of life, and during other broken places in life, Tim looks at Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery in John 8 and the challenging words that followed His mercy: “Go, and sin no more.”

You may not be able to change what happened. The question is: What does obedience look like from here?

How do you help someone with drug addiction or alcoholism without enabling them? What should families do when a loved one keeps relapsing, refuses addiction treatment, or returns to opioids, fentanyl, alcohol, or other drugs after getting sober?

In the final episode of The Hell of Addiction, Chaplain Tim addresses the difficult realities of addiction recovery, opioid and fentanyl addiction, alcoholism, substance use disorder, relapse, enabling, family boundaries, treatment, and sobriety—and what it means to love someone caught in addiction without allowing their addiction to destroy the rest of the family.

Drawing on nearly thirty years around criminal justice, corrections, ministry, and chaplaincy, Tim explores what happens when someone leaves the structure of incarceration and has to learn how to live sober in the real world. Recovery from addiction often requires more than simply stopping drugs or alcohol—it can require rebuilding an entire way of life.

For families, that creates painful questions. When does helping become enabling? Should you give money, provide housing, or allow someone using drugs back into your home? How do you maintain healthy boundaries without abandoning someone you love? And how do parents, spouses, children, and friends cope when addiction ends in overdose and death?

This episode also examines recovery one day—and sometimes fifteen minutes—at a time, the grief addiction leaves behind, and the Christian hope of freedom and redemption through Jesus Christ.

You cannot make another person choose recovery, and you do not have to follow them into the darkness.

Sometimes love means setting a boundary while still leaving the porch light on.

Why can someone know that drugs or alcohol are destroying their life—and still feel pulled back toward them?

In Part 2 of The Hell of Addiction, Chaplain Tim examines the spiritual battle of addiction alongside its physical, psychological, and behavioral realities. Addiction treatment, counseling, medication-assisted treatment, and recovery support can all play important roles—but from a Christian perspective, addiction also raises deeper questions about temptation, deception, sin, bondage, captivity, and the human soul.

Drawing on nearly thirty years around criminal justice, corrections, ministry, and chaplaincy, Tim explores drug addiction, alcoholism, opioid addiction, fentanyl addiction, substance use disorder, relapse, cravings, recovery, and spiritual warfare through the lens of Scripture and firsthand experience.

What does the Bible say about temptation and captivity? How can someone recognize the people, places, and patterns that make relapse more likely? And where does Jesus Christ fit into addiction recovery?

This episode doesn't present faith as a substitute for legitimate addiction treatment. Instead, it asks us to recognize the whole person—body, mind, relationships, behavior, and soul—and the full battle involved in becoming free.

Addiction may be powerful, but bondage does not have to have the final word.

Addiction destroys lives—but no human being should be reduced to the word “addict.”

In Part 1 of The Hell of Addiction, Chaplain Tim draws on nearly thirty years around criminal justice, corrections, ministry, and chaplaincy to examine the human reality of drug addiction, alcoholism, opioid addiction, fentanyl, substance use disorder, overdose, relapse, and recovery.

What causes someone to keep using drugs or alcohol when addiction is destroying everything they love? Why do some people relapse even after months of sobriety? And how can families respond with compassion without enabling destructive behavior?

Through firsthand experiences with people battling substance abuse, opioid dependence, incarceration, withdrawal, overdose, Narcan intervention, addiction treatment, and recovery, Tim challenges the stigma surrounding addiction while refusing to minimize personal responsibility or the devastating consequences addiction can cause.

Addiction may involve trauma, mental health struggles, physical and emotional pain, destructive choices, environment, and powerful physical and psychological dependence. Understanding those realities doesn't excuse harmful behavior—but it can help us understand the person behind it.

Whether you are struggling with addiction yourself, supporting a loved one with a substance use disorder, grieving an overdose death, or trying to understand the opioid and fentanyl crisis, this episode begins with one essential truth:

Everybody has a story. Addiction is part of that story, but it is not the whole story.

Have you ever caught yourself wishing that someone you love would finally die—and then felt terrible for even thinking it?

When someone you love has been suffering for weeks, months, or even years, exhaustion can take you places you never expected to go. You love them. You don’t want to lose them. But you desperately want the suffering to stop.

In this episode of The Chaplain’s Chair, Tim Lajoie talks about caregiver exhaustion, anticipatory grief, guilt, death, and the complicated emotions that can come when someone you love is dying. Through Scripture and the Christian understanding of suffering, prayer, and grace, he explores whether wanting the ordeal to end means you have somehow stopped loving the person.

God is not frightened by the thoughts you are afraid to say out loud. You can tell Him the truth about what you’re carrying.

The Chaplain’s Chair — Chaplain care is soul care.

Have you ever wondered whether God really sees what you’re going through?

Your grief. Your questions. Your anger. Your past. The things you’ve told other people and the things you haven’t told anyone.

In this episode of The Chaplain’s Chair, Tim Lajoie looks at several encounters from the Gospels and the remarkably personal way Jesus responds to people. Martha receives truth and the promise of resurrection. Mary receives His tears. The woman at the well discovers that Jesus already knows her story.

Jesus listens, but He is not afraid to speak. He comforts, teaches, challenges, and tells the truth. He doesn’t respond to everyone in exactly the same way because He sees the person standing in front of Him.

Whatever you’re carrying today, there is comfort in knowing that Christ sees more than your circumstances.

Jesus sees you.

Beginning with a powerful scene from The Madisons, Chaplain Tim considers what happens after someone has talked, cried, answered questions, and tried to make sense of what they are experiencing.

Sometimes people need to be heard. Sometimes they are asking whether we have anything to offer them. But what happens when listening isn’t enough?

In this episode of The Chaplain’s Chair, Tim Lajoie explores Christian chaplaincy, spiritual care, grief, guilt, forgiveness, death, and the moments when a hurting person finally asks, “Will someone just help me?”

Through Scripture and the Christian understanding of grace, grief, death, and resurrection, this episode considers what it means to listen carefully while also being willing to speak when someone is searching for hope.

The Chaplain’s Chair — Chaplain care is soul care.

Hospice is associated with dying, but much of hospice care is about helping people live the time they still have. In this episode, I talk about seeing the person beyond the diagnosis, listening to the stories that make up a life, and making room for conversations about family, regret, faith, forgiveness, and death. A person receiving hospice care may be dying, but until that person dies, there is still a life being lived.