Month: November 2025

Kids Know More About Joy

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Got to spend five hours with lovely Emerlyn on Tuesday. The featured picture is us reading together-her attempt to stay occupied and avoid napping. It worked.

On my drive the next morning, I heard this exchange between Kate Bowler and guest Nikki Grimes on “Everything Happens“:

Kate: Yeah, Nikki, I feel like I could hear your heartbeat when you talk about joy. It really sustains you. Do you think kids know more about joy than other people? Because I have this sense about the way that it’s connected to noticing and gratitude and hope and delight. Like these are all things kids are particularly good at. I just wonder if some of that—the particularity of kids’ ability to notice and be grateful and to be in the details—makes them maybe more… I think so.

Nikki: Oh, they really can hone in on things in a way that we don’t. If you really want to see something or you want to see it a new way, look through a child’s eyes. They’re always noticing things that adults miss.

Emerlyn is a noticer. A busy railroad track lies earshot from her Rara’s and Pop’s home. Each time the passing trains “chooed,” her head would shoot up, eyes would widen as she echoed, “Choo!”

So yes, Kate, kids are better at joy than their adult people. They don’t seem to know not to be. Everything hasn’t been normalized or discounted or experienced. As Emerlyn’s Rara described, she lives in awe and wonder.

On this Thanksgiving day, find the youngest person you can and spend more time with them than you planned. Tap into joy. Notice along with them.

May gratitude, hope, and delight reign your day.

“Why Not” > “What If”

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I’ve worked part-time for the last two years for Chemistry Staffing as a candidate interviewer. If I thought I knew anything about interviewing before then, I learned quickly I had more to learn.

In a recent staff meeting, the leadership team shared a mindset shift that I completely found refreshing and certainly gracious. Already leaning this direction, the alignment was immediate.

Mindset Shift: “Why Not” ➝ “What If” 

Moving away from disqualifying too quickly and leaning into curiosity:

Old posture: New posture: 

“Why not move this person forward?” “What if this could work?”

Examples:

  • Experience: “He only has 6 years, not 10.” → What if his 6 years included higher complexity than average?
  • Education: “She doesn’t have a master’s.” → What if her teaching and theology are stronger than most grads?
  • Age: “He’s 32; we wanted 40+.” (pick the age, vice versa) → What if he brings energy and innovation beyond his years? What if she has plenty left in the tank?
  • Compensation: “They’re at $75k; we can’t afford them.” → What if they’d take less for the right fit?

Key takeaway: Stay open-handed in early conversations. Gather more information. Avoid prematurely filtering out strong potential fits.

How this is an improvement:

  • Less transactional > more relational
  • Less arrogant > more humble
  • Less rigid > more flexible
  • Less closed > more open
  • Less judgmental > more gracious
  • Less about the interviewer > more about the interviewee

CHALLENGE: Put yourself in both seats. What’s your current mindset? What shifts would you like to pursue?

Photo by Mina Rad on Unsplash

Who Else

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This is a newer worship song by Gateway Worship

Lyrics

I am an instrument of exaltation
And I was born to lift Your name above all names
You hear the melody of all creation
But there’s a song of praise that only I can bring

Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy?
There is no one, only You, Jesus
Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy?
There is no one, only You, Jesus

You are the infinite God of the ages
Yet You chose to make my heart Your dwelling place
You healed my brokenness, showed me Your glory
So I have songs of thanks not even angels sing

Lamb of God, anointed one
Who was and is and is to come
Seated on the throne above
Holy, Holy
Righteous one who shed His blood
You proved to us the Father’s love
Jesus Christ be lifted up
Holy, Holy

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Abbie Gamboa / Josiah Funderburk / Zac Rowe

Who Else lyrics © Capitol CMG Publishing

Let Them Release First

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I don’t recall where or who I heard say this about hugs, but it has stuck with me.

To be a great hugger, let them release first.

Those of us who are not naturally big on hugging no matter the reason can, however, practice being great at hugging.

Got some practice yesterday after church.

One of the men who got baptized crossed my path after the service. We’ve hardly spoken in the past. Just some eye contact and short head nods while I’m playing the keyboard and he’s within spitting distance in the audience.

When he saw me coming, he came in for a hug. The Spirit whispered, “Hang on ’til he’s done.”

We didn’t say much. The embrace was plenty.

God shows his glory all day long. Even in hugs.

Photo by Alex Gallegos on Unsplash

Waiting, Choosing, and Giving Up

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“To wait with openness and trust is an enormously radical attitude toward life.  It is choosing to hope that something is happening for us that is far beyond our own imaginings.  It is giving up control over our future and letting God define our life.”  Henri J. M. Nouwen

I’m guessing this is an ongoing discipline for everyone. Sometimes we wait well. Sometimes we choose well. Sometimes we give up well. We live in the ebbs and flows.

That last phrase, “letting God define our life,” is another way of describing my word for 2025 – Rest.

No other picture best captures how it’s played out than this.

I’m eager to play, create, commune, and gather the fruits of waiting, choosing, and giving up.

Beautiful & Terrible

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More than once recently, authors I’m reading have shared this quote:

“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.” -Frederick Buechner

The West

The East

The Middle East

Beautiful Waterfalls

Terrible Floods

Beautiful Mountains

Terrible Mudslides

Beautiful Creatures

Terrible Beasts

Beautiful Hearts

Terrible Wounds

Beautiful Words

Terrible Twists

Beautiful Creations

Terrible Destruction

While climbing the mountain, don’t be afraid of falling and miss the view…don’t be afraid of lifting your head long enough to absorb the beauty.

Whenever we’ve experienced beauty, simultaneously, others close by and around the world have endured terrible. It’s challenging to accept this reality. It can be confusing and difficult to hear or to heed the well-intentioned phrase, “Don’t be afraid.”

Maybe that’s why in the 1300’s, a different phrase was offered. A phrase of hope. A more positive nudge to action. “Take heart.” “Take heart” implies finding the strength and courage to face challenges, while “don’t be afraid” can sometimes feel like a dismissive or even a command to suppress natural emotions. “Take heart” encourages an active response to difficult situations, suggesting that we can find the inner resources to overcome obstacles. 

Rather than huddling in siloed fear, we can take heart by openly and collectively assembling in courage.

Rather than douse our minds with worry, we can take heart and ease our spirits with truth.

Rather than suppress our bodies into paralysis, we can take heart to walk, dare run with purposeful action.

After viewing beauty, may your eyes use that filter to interpret the terrible. In the world’s attempt to steal your heart, may you surround yourself with every resource needed to respond, “This heart is mine. It’s not for your taking.”

Take heart as you engage our beautiful and terrible world.

Photo by Artyom Kabajev on Unsplash

3 Losses Worth Counting

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I resumed listening to Everything Happens this week after referring it to a friend. Always superb.

At the end of episode 8, season 15, Kate made this statement:

The places we come from, the people we love, the losses we carry, they shape us. They shape how we endure, how we hope, how we begin again.

“The losses we carry” struck me. I imagine because that describes some of my experience the last six months. These losses caught me by surprise-I didn’t see them coming. Well, sorta, but not in the way they came.

As I thought about them, a curious thought crossed my mind. “What if, in the effort of naming things, I counted my losses?” It wasn’t a “cut my losses and move on” thought. Rather, it was, “I believe there could be some value in reviewing them, determining what may have caused them, and defining the lessons learned.”

Somewhat like Seph Schlueter’s song Counting My Blessings, but the opposite.

Through this lens, here are three losses that have shaped my year that I’m happy to count:

Losing what I didn’t need-trust in the wrong people. Losing trust is always hard. I’ll go out on a limb to say that’s universal. But however long it takes, we can endure, find hope, and begin again. It took me a couple of months this time. And one key to endurance was leaning in to those who’ve proven they are the right people to trust.

Losing what I’d misplaced-hope in the wrong object. This one is on me. And it’s pretty universal also. We often find ourselves falling for what we can see becoming the object of our hope. If you can see it, it can become your hope bank. But when the wakeup alarm sounds, I see it as a notice to run back to the right object of hope and begin again.

Losing unhealthy emotions-anger for what can’t change. These emotions are everywhere, continuously on display, even celebrated. Exhausting. Disruptive. Gap-widening. They are not to be endured. They can be acknowledged, then I’ve found it best to begin again by working toward the grace to forgive myself for choosing them and averting my mind, heart, and body to gaze, consume, and maybe even fake healthy emotions until they take root and restore hope.

Loss seems harder and harder while aging. Maybe the lack of counting them is to blame. Here’s to better balance. Count it all.

Photo by Hisham Yahya on Unsplash