The Comfortable Words

There's a word for wanting to fix a broken world and quietly suspecting it's beyond saving, at the same time. It's not in any dictionary. A documentary made it up this year: apocaloptimism.

Eric ran into the feeling twice in one week: once watching a man methodically pick up trash from a roadside ditch that would fill right back up within days, and once catching himself in it, admitting his own uneasy mix of hope and dread while wading into work on artificial intelligence.

Both moments point back to something older than the word, something Jesus's own followers felt watching a man who "went about doing good" end up dead like a failure. The answer isn't optimism. It isn't pessimism either. It's something else.

The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill

Julia reflects on Jesus' words to Peter on the night of his betrayal: 'Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.' She explores what it means to be shaken, personally and corporately, and how Christ's intercession meets us in seasons of failure and testing. Drawing on Miroslav Volf's writing on embrace, she invites listeners to stop striving for control and yield instead to the comfort and restoration Christ offers. She closes with a prayer for when the sky feels like it's falling.

Read the reflection and listen to the audio at https://pickerill.casa/comfortable-words/and-when-you-return


The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill

Finding Your Way Home — Matthew 14

Eric's first Comfortable Words: on being harassed and helpless, the temptation to build a shelter in the valley or an altar on the mountain, and Jesus's invitation to keep moving — all the way home.

References the song "Guiding Light" by Foy Vance.

Read along and subscribe: https://pickerill.casa/comfortable-words

The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill

Julia introduces "The Comfortable Words," a way to let Jesus' words comfort and strengthen you. She leads a "location exercise" to notice where your soul is right now and to picture your current spiritual landscape. Julia explains the Anglican "comfortable words" from the Book of Common Prayer, shaped by Thomas Cranmer to offer fortitude after confession, and highlights Christ's invitation to the weary and heavy laden. She then guides you to name what you're carrying, imagine offering it to Jesus, and closes with a prayer for comfort, protection, and peace.

The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
More at pickerill.casa
© 2026 Eric and Julia Pickerill