This Advent season, we’re taking a few minutes each week to reflect on Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. And to mix things up a bit, I’m sharing a short spoken-word piece every week.This week, I’m talking about Peace.

Advent Peace isn’t the soft, candle-lit word we print on cards. It’s not the “if I could just get my life together…” kind of peace. And it’s definitely not the version we try to manufacture by control, comfort, or numbing.

In the poem, I explore how real peace doesn’t show up in palaces or power structures — it shows up in the wilderness. In unexpected places. In unlikely people. And ultimately in Jesus, who brings peace not by force, but by presence.

If you’re carrying worry, striving for calm, or trying to hold it all together during a season that promises “peace and quiet” but rarely delivers… this reflection is for you.

Take a breath. Listen in. And let this be a reminder that peace isn’t something we achieve — it’s a gift already given.

Watch, reflect, and share if someone in your life needs a small moment of peace today.

Make a plan and join us this Advent: https://linktr.ee/bethanydenver

00:00 — Opening Reflection: What Do We Mean by Peace?00:32 — The Peace We Chase (and Can’t Quite Catch)01:13 — Peace in Jesus’ Day: Power vs. Promise01:50 — The Wilderness Word: John’s Message02:28 — Peace as Gift, Not Achievement03:05 — Peace in the Manger, Cross, and Resurrection03:48 — Closing Invitation: Stop Running, Receive Peace

Every year, Advent shows up with candles, wreaths… and, strangely enough, apocalyptic readings. And if you’ve ever thought, “Wait—why are we talking about the end of the world when we’re gearing up for twinkle lights and baby Jesus?”—you’re in good company.

In this episode, I’m talking about why the church calendar always begins with the end. Why Jesus keeps bringing up apocalyptic moments. And why “apocalypse” doesn’t really mean destruction—it's about transformation.

I share a story about binge-watching House when my daughter Evelyn was a newborn (yes, really), and how a cliffhanger episode helped me understand what Advent is actually trying to teach us: We don’t know every detail of what’s ahead, but we do know how the story ends—with God gathering all things in love.

And maybe that’s why Martin Luther could say, “If I knew the world was going to end tomorrow, I’d still plant my apple tree today.” Because faith in an apocalyptic God isn’t about fear—it’s about hope. It’s about trusting that God is already in the future, pulling us toward something good, something whole, something new.

As we step into Bethany’s Advent theme, The Beginning of Everything, I pray this episode helps you hear those apocalyptic texts not as doom, but as a promise: Something new is beginning. Something hopeful. Something God-shaped.

Thanks for listening, and as always—stay in peace.

Sunday School Remix is a new Together 4 Good series re-examining familiar Bible stories to uncover what they really tell us about faith, humanity, and grace today.

📍 Listen & Subscribe:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/together-4-good-making-sense-of-life-and-faith/id1529196060 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0aFHcs9xjcRK54uXJzUBbH?si=VwBUEjyQQnieXyKHdkcfvA 🙏 Bethany Lutheran Church ELCA | Cherry Hills Village, CO https://linktr.ee/bethanydenver

This Advent season, we’re taking a few minutes each week to reflect on Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. And to mix things up a bit, I’m sharing a short spoken-word piece every week.

This week, I’m talking about Hope.

Hope and fear can live in the same space inside us — same heartbeat, same tight shoulders — but they push us in very different directions. Fear shuts us down. Hope asks us to open up, even just a little.

In this reflection, I’m naming that tension we all feel when life is unclear, and why Advent is the perfect time to lean toward hope while we wait for Jesus to show up.

If you’re needing that shift toward hope this week, I’m right there with you.

Join us this season https://bethany-denver.org

In this Sunday School Remix I take another look at one of Jesus’ most well known miracles, the feeding of the 5,000, and explore a different angle than what many of us learned in Sunday School. Yes, Jesus multiplies bread and fish, but what if that is not the only miracle happening on that hillside?

As I walk through the story, I share:

• Why this is one of the only miracles recorded in all four gospels

• The small detail most people miss, Jesus organizing the crowd into little communities

• What happens in our hearts when someone goes first in generosity

• Why “You give them something to eat” might be the real invitation

• How gratitude, neuroscience, and faith overlap in surprising ways

• Why Thanksgiving is not only giving thanks but giving it back

• How sharing even a little of what we have can bring God’s kingdom closer
  

My hope is that this story shapes your Thanksgiving week with a deeper sense of abundance, gratitude, and community.

Thank you for being here. Truly.Stay in peace, friends.

Sunday School Remix is a new Together 4 Good series re-examining familiar Bible stories to uncover what they really tell us about faith, humanity, and grace today.

 💬 Tell us what story you want to see remixed next! 🙏 Bethany Lutheran Church ELCA | Cherry Hills Village, CO https://linktr.ee/bethanydenver

📍 Listen & Subscribe:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/together-4-good-making-sense-of-life-and-faith/id1529196060 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0aFHcs9xjcRK54uXJzUBbH?si=VwBUEjyQQnieXyKHdkcfvA

You’ve heard the story of Adam and Eve before: a snake, an apple, a garden, and a whole lot of trouble.But what if that’s not what the story was ever meant to be about?

In this first episode of Sunday School Remix, Pastor Nate digs into the Garden of Eden story with grown-up eyes. Together, we look at how this ancient story speaks to our world today, where we still wrestle with control, guilt, and the temptation to “play God.”

Maybe the serpent wasn’t Satan.Maybe the fruit wasn’t an apple.And maybe the real “fall” was never about disobedience at all — but about shame and blame.

In this episode:

• The surprising details Genesis actually says (and doesn’t say)
  
• Why calling the serpent “Satan” misses the point
  
• The connection between the fig tree and Jesus’ last week
  
• How shame and blame became humanity’s oldest reflex
  
• What it means to let God be God — and live unashamed
  

✨ Sunday School Remix is a new Together 4 Good series re-examining familiar Bible stories to uncover what they really tell us about faith, humanity, and grace today.

📍 Listen & Subscribe:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/together-4-good-making-sense-of-life-and-faith/id1529196060 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0aFHcs9xjcRK54uXJzUBbH?si=VwBUEjyQQnieXyKHdkcfvA

💬 Tell us what story you want to see remixed next! 🙏 Bethany Lutheran Church ELCA | Cherry Hills Village, CO https://linktr.ee/bethanydenver

When faith feels complicated or life gets messy, why do we still show up?

In this guest-hosted episode of Together 4 Good: Making Sense of Life and Faith, Kimberly—Bethany’s podcast producer—takes over while Pastor Nate is away and looks back at our summer series, Why Are You Still Here? This collection of stories from the Bethany community reminds us what keeps us grounded in faith—hope, belonging, and grace.

From the “God-size hole” that faith fills to the “foreverness” of church that anchors us, these voices reflect what it really means to be part of something bigger than ourselves. You’ll hear moments of honesty, humor, and deep connection that show how faith is lived through people—on mountaintops, in worship, and everywhere in between.

💙 Whether you’ve been at church forever or you’re just finding your way back, may these stories remind you why you’re still here, too.

🎧 Listen now:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/together-4-good-making-sense-of-life-and-faith/id1529196060 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0aFHcs9xjcRK54uXJzUBbH?si=VwBUEjyQQnieXyKHdkcfvA

Follow Bethany Lutheran Church for more reflections and the best moments from the show: https://linktr.ee/bethanydenver

It’s Pastor Nate’s birthday episode and he’s using it to talk about one of his favorite topics: spirituality in everyday life.

Because let’s be honest sometimes faith can start to feel like another thing on the to-do list.

Go to church. 

Read your Bible.

Say your prayers.And all of that matters, but having faith is so much more than just going to church or reading your Bible.

It’s about connection and relationships. Remembering that God is bigger than any one practice or person.

After 15 years as a pastor, Nate admits that worship and Bible study can sometimes feel more like work than rest, so he’s learned to look for God in other places, too:

in gratitude before a meal,in a walk under the trees,in the rhythm of a ritual that brings you peace,or even in a sticky note on your bathroom mirror that reminds you:God’s here.

He shares how the Bible talks about forgetting and remembering God and how spiritual practices are really just ways to help us remember who God is, who we are, and who we’re called to love.

📖 In this episode:

• Forgetfulness vs. sin and why “ah shoot, I forgot” might be a gentler way to understand grace
  

• How your faith practices can change with the seasons of your life
  

• Why ritual and repetition (yes, even lighting the same Advent wreath every year) matter
  

• What gratitude and nature teach us about remembering God
  

• And why even a few seconds of stillness can be an act of worship
  

This episode is a reminder that God’s already here — in your work, your car, your chaos, and your quiet. You don’t have to be in church to be close to Him.

🎧 Listen now:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/together-4-good-conversations-on-faith-family-and/id1529196060

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0aFHcs9xjcRK54uXJzUBbH?si=VwBUEjyQQnieXyKHdkcfvA

Follow Bethany Lutheran Church for more reflections and the best moments from the show: https://linktr.ee/bethanydenver

Everyone’s talking about artificial intelligence, but beneath the headlines and hot takes, many of us are quietly wondering: what does this mean for our faith?

In this episode of Together 4 Good, Pastor Nate explores our shared AI anxiety, that uneasy feeling that technology might outpace our humanity, and what Scripture has to say about it. From the story of creation to the healing miracles of Jesus, this conversation reminds us that the heart of the Gospel has always been about relationship, incarnation, and community.

As AI reshapes how we live, learn, and even pray, Nate challenges us to see the hope within the change, that God is still at work, calling us back to real human connection and reminding us that we are more than what we produce.

You’ll hear about:

• Why AI is changing everything — but maybe for the better
  

• How technology can push us toward deeper community instead of away from it
  

• What Jesus’ incarnation teaches us about the importance of being physically present
  

• The danger of idolatry when we start thinking we can “save ourselves”
  

• How faith invites us to hope beyond our fears of the future
  

💬 Whether you’re fascinated or fearful about AI, this conversation will help you see how faith still holds steady — even when the world feels like it’s upgrading faster than we can keep up.

Key Scripture:

Genesis 1:27

Luke 10: 25-37

Download the podcast here:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/together-4-good-conversations-on-faith-family-and/id1529196060

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0aFHcs9xjcRK54uXJzUBbH?si=VwBUEjyQQnieXyKHdkcfvA

Follow Bethany Lutheran Church on social media for all the best moments from the show: https://linktr.ee/bethanydenver

What if the moment you thought your faith was slipping away… was actually the moment it started growing deeper roots?

In this episode of Together 4 Good, Pastor Nate wrestles with a truth that’s both unsettling and freeing: sometimes, you have to lose your faith to find it again. He explores why doubt isn’t a failure—it’s often the beginning of a more honest, mature faith.

This episode unpacks how God meets us in our uncertainty, how compassion heals more than clichés ever could, and how even in the silence, God is already showing up, sometimes right in the palm of your hand.

You’ll hear about:

• Why “childlike faith” isn’t the same as childish faith.

• The harm in faith clichés like “God never gives you more than you can handle.”

• What it really means to suffer with someone (compassion’s truest definition).

• How doubt and belief can coexist and why faith actually requires both.

• A personal story about doubt, communion, and discovering God in the middle of it all.

Whether you’ve ever felt disconnected from church, uncertain about your beliefs, or frustrated by easy answers, this episode is for you. It’s a reminder that resurrection comes after death of faith, of certainty, of what we thought we knew.

Maybe what feels like losing faith is really God inviting you into something more real.

👉Share this episode with a friend who’s asking the same big questions.

Read: The Great Dechurching https://www.amazon.com/Great-Dechurching-Leaving-Going-Bring-ebook/dp/B0BN19KT5M

Download the podcast here:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/together-4-good-conversations-on-faith-family-and/id1529196060

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0aFHcs9xjcRK54uXJzUBbH?si=VwBUEjyQQnieXyKHdkcfvA

Follow Bethany Lutheran Church on social media for all the best moments from the show: https://linktr.ee/bethanydenver

Let’s be honest, a lot of us are doing everything right. We’ve got the job, the family, the house, the hobbies. Maybe even a decent morning routine. And yet…we’re not happy.

Why?

In this episode of Together 4 Good, Pastor Nate digs into that question we all wrestle with but rarely say out loud. Why do we keep chasing the next thing, the next achievement, the next purchase, the next version of ourselves, only to end up feeling restless again?

It’s what psychologists call the hedonic treadmill: the more we get, the more we want. And that cycle can leave even the most faithful among us exhausted and unsatisfied. 

But grace tells a different story. Grace says you don’t have to keep running. Grace says you are enough, right now, exactly as you are. 

Nate shares a real-life confession about stress-buying on Amazon (because we’ve all been there) and even pulls a surprisingly wise lesson from NBA star Kevin Durant. This episode paints a picture of how our endless pursuit of happiness, more stuff, more success, more “nexts” can blind us to the joy that’s already sitting right in front of us.

Because maybe the question isn’t “Why am I not happy?” Maybe it’s “What if I already have everything I need?”

Listen if you’ve ever felt like:

• You should be happier than you are
  

• You’re stuck chasing “the next thing”
  

• You can’t rest until life finally feels perfect
  

• You want to find a joy that actually lasts

👉Share this episode with a friend who’s asking the same big questions.

Download the podcast here:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/together-4-good-conversations-on-faith-family-and/id1529196060

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0aFHcs9xjcRK54uXJzUBbH?si=VwBUEjyQQnieXyKHdkcfvA

Follow Bethany Lutheran Church on social media for all the best moments from the show: https://linktr.ee/bethanydenver