Five Things: Love, Ethan Hawke, and the End of the World

five things that are sustaining me

Housekeeping note: Thank you so much to all of the new paid subscribers, including several new founding members! I am incredibly grateful.

Every month or so I take a break from article-length reflections and mix things up with a grab-bag post. It’s a good week for one of those… it’s been another 500-piece puzzle with extra pieces, but thankfully most of them are good pieces, pretty pieces, that will come together in time’s fullness to make a gracious whole. This I believe.

In the meantime, here are five things that have given me life lately:

1. Author John Green recently spoke at the Memorial Chapel of Harvard University, and he had me right from the title, “How the World Ends.” 

2. “You have to fall in love with the challenge.” Last week I was with some pastors in Louisville to talk about creative ministry. Lots of insights and light bulbs, but that line in particular stayed with me. It strikes me as fundamentally hopeful, in all the best ways, to fall in love with the challenge. Because if you love the work, you’ll labor long and well for its sake, even if solutions are hard to come by.

3. I have to take the Smartless podcast in small doses–I enjoy Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes, but the yuks get a little much sometimes. But their conversation with Ethan Hawke was an absolute delight. A real master class on creativity.

4. Every Wednesday morning on Zoom, a small group from Trinity Presbyterian where I’m currently pastoring part-time gathers for prayer. One particular member of the group is very faithful in lifting up prayers for the United States, and these prayers are framed in a way that leaves little doubt where she falls on the political spectrum. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) This week she wasn’t able to be there, and another member of the group said, “[Name redacted] isn’t here, but if she were she’d ask us to pray for our nation in the wake of the election, so I want to do that in her place.” I am virtually certain that these two people cancel one another’s votes, but I was touched by his standing in for her. Say what you will about the church, and I could say plenty… that’s a special thing in our hyper-partisan age.

5. Some Novembers ago there was a big push on social media to do a gratitude post each day in honor of Thanksgiving. I have no idea if that’s still going on, but this month I’m doing a variation on that. I call it Dayenu, after the Hebrew word and Passover song recounting God’s kindness and care. Dayenu means “It would have been enough.” Each day I ask myself, If today were all we had left, what moment would suffice? Yesterday’s was the walk I took with my middle kid, leaves scraping and crunching underfoot, the afternoon sunlight a cool smudginess low in the sky. Dayenu.

~

What I’m Up To

I’ve started scheduling interviews for season 2 of the Blue Room podcast. These conversations will serve as a sort of read-along to Hope: A User’s Manual, so it’s a great time to get the book, and also catch up on season 1. 

I’ll be in Birmingham on Friday December 2, meeting with pastors around the theme “Hope All the Way Down.” We’re looking at hope in theological and spiritual terms but will also drill down to systems and structures–what would a hope-filled life look like together? Let me know if you’d like details.

Steady on.