The Daily Edify

Today's episode reflects on something I'm learning from the recent spiritual biography of Desmond Tutu, written by Michael Battle. "Goodness is given" is something I'm learning from Tutu's life - something that kept him sane and compassionate in his remarkable work to participate in resisting the evil regime of apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s and 90s. 

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about a simple and funny story that happened to Arianne and Noah the other day. It reminded me of the spiritual practice I've committed to this summer: the practice of paying attention and engaging in joy and laughter.

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone! 

Today's episode is aptly titled "today." I share about one of my favorite yard signs in our neighborhood that I walk by a couple of days a week (it simply says "today!"), how often Jesus focuses our attention on "today," and a story from Greg Boyle about how this one-word meditation (on the word "today") has been an ancient spiritual practice in the Christian tradition (as it has been in many faith traditions) for centuries. 

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone! 

Today's episode is me riffing on the "odd and wondrous calling" I'm privileged to live out. Here I'm referring to the work of being a pastor, but I would argue it applies to whatever your calling is - it may include what you do for a paycheck, but it may not. This is the work you have been put on this earth to do - your purpose, what puts you in the flow, the healing love you have to offer this world. Listen in as I share a recent series of things I had the opportunity to be part of. 

Like you, some days I'm exhausted and wonder if anything I'm doing is helping anyone at all. And in other season I'm blown away with gratitude. Right now is the latter and I want to tell you about it as we enter the downshift of summer routines.

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone! 

Today's episode is about finding a summer mantra, a way to set an intention and deeply experience all that this season has to offer. We read one of favorite poems by Mary Oliver, "The Summer Day," and then I reflect on the mantra I've settled on this summer: paying attention. The idea is to look and listen, bear witness to the beauty and brokenness I see in myself, in others and in creation. I encourage you to land on a mantra for these warm and winsome days as you seek to be fully alive to the love that is your ever-present companion.

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone! 

Today's episode is about the work of Tricia Hersey, founder of the Nap Ministry (in 2016). I first learned of her work in the fall of 2022 that featured her new book coming out, "Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto." (More recently, she has published the highly practical collection, "The Nap Ministry's Rest Deck: 50 Practices to Resist Grind Culture.")

Tricia views rest as an issue of racial and social justice, a connection to her enslaved ancestors and a way to resist white supremacy and capitalism. She runs a "Nap Chapel" in a little-used Presbyterian church down in Atlanta, where she lives with her husband and son. Her Instagram account, thenapministry, is the easiest way to connect with her inspiring work. 

I'm pondering how to engage in deep and frequent rest this summer, as I take a break from the podcast and daydream about the next season that will begin in the fall. Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone! 

Today's episode is about a story, "The Birthday of the World," that Rachel Naomi Remen received as a gift on her 4th birthday from her grandfather, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. Last fall, she published the story, beautifully illustrated by Rachel Sumpter, as a children's book. It's a powerful and moving story about the creation of the world and our call to engage in healing the world with the unique light we've been given. We've read it with our kids a number of times and they love it!

Remen is trained as a pediatrician and for many years has taught medical students at UC San Francisco, focused on the art of healing. She has published two award-winning books, "Kitchen Table Wisdom" and "My Grandfather's Blessing." For more from Remen, listen to this interview with Krista Tippett or check our her website here.

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about epistemic humility, an idea that goes all the way to Socrates in Plato's "Apology." The basic idea is that we should be humble about anything that we know because it might be revised someday - with new knowledge, new language, new perspective. I was inspired to share after reading a recent article from the U of Chicago's "Center for Practical Wisdom" - which was founded 7-8 years ago to study how we might apply wisdom to our personal and communal lives. 

Needless to say, our world is sorely lacking in epistemic humility, with the most outlandish rage-fueled pronouncements garnering the most attention and the most clicks. How might you embody epistemic humility in your life, your work, in your home, family and neighborhood? It may seem trivial, but this posture can change the world. 

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about a poem by Padraig O'Tuama, "The Facts of Life" (drawn from his collection of poetry published in 2018, "Sorry for Your Troubles"). I first heard this poem about a year ago and it's been working on me ever since. It's moving and tender and piercing in its realism and wisdom.

After reading the poem, we reflect on a few of its lines and how they speak to the depth and rhythm of our spiritual journey. Here's a video of Padraig reciting the poem and explaining a bit more of its context.

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about the "myth of closure," a phrase I've borrowed from the recent book by family therapist, researcher and author, Pauline Boss (The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change). The basic idea is that, when it comes to grief, "closure" is an unhelpful and unattainable idea. In many ways, "closure" is a made-up media word that fails to capture the complexity of the grieving process. 

It's more helpful to speak about grief in terms of learning to live it or finding meaning in it or beginning to carry it differently. Boss is most well known, however, for a term she coined in the 1970s as a graduate student: "ambiguous loss." This type of loss as a graduate student in the 1970s to articulate the type of grief that doesn't have official verification or immediate resolution (e.g. the death of a loved one when the body is not recovered; a loved one with Alzheimer's).

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!