Human Is A Verb Podcast

A few weeks ago, I wrote about learning to listen to the elephant in the room — and the elephant within us. Last week, that reflection became a workshop at the New England Church of the Nazarene District Assembly: Holy Noticing: Facing the Elephant Within. Thank you, Ken Stanford, for the invitation. Before the workshop, I asked people what conversations feel easier to avoid than engage in their l...

Yesterday I got to sit on the paddleboard as the waves rolled under me. It felt like I was carried. It crossed my mind that I could practice this sense of being carried in other aspects of my life. I was captivated by the dancing sunlight on the water. What beauty. This morning a friend asked if I had made a song for Psalm 149 because she is facilitating a retreat and using some of the songs I’ve...

Dear Human is a Verb Community, I am reading The Cloud of Unknowing this week. (God) wants you to lock your eyes on him and leave him alone to work in you. Your part is to protect the door and windows, keeping out intruders and flies. And if you’re willing to do that, just ask him, praying humbly, and he will help you immediately. (Ch 2, Bucher Translation) I’ve been sitting with this invitation:...

Dear Human Is A Verb Community- In this final episode of the seven-part “Praying with Scripture and Song” series, we pray with Psalm 118, a marching psalm. I imagine a village gathering in the streets to do what Barbara Holmes calls “singing themselves sane” and what Walter Brueggemann calls “risky speech.” We need more of both right now. Psalm 118 gives witness to people who knew what it meant to...

Dear Human is a Verb Community- If you ever feel like you are sinking and crying out from a dark place, this episode is for you. Life is hard, right?! It has been hard for my family lately. People we love are not well. The loss of work and income seems to be the season we’re perpetually living in. We are looking for more stability! I know I’m not alone when I think—more change?!? And yet! God is h...

Dear Human is a Verb Community - Psalm 23 is probably the most familiar psalm in the world. Most of us have heard it at funerals and memorized it as children. I’ve been sitting with this psalm for the past several weeks, and I’m reminded that the psalm isn’t about a life without darkness. The shepherd leads the psalmist through the darkest valley, not around it. The table is set in the presence of...

Dear Human is a Verb Community, This is the fourth installment of our Praying with Scripture and Song mini-series. Each episode take the Psalm and facilitates Lectio Divina and Prayer. When I was working on this someone I love had a major health crisis and I was dealing with other hard life challenges that couldn’t be easily ‘figured out.’ I spent days doing what I imagine you do in your own hard...

Dear Human is a Verb Community— My favorite lines from this week’s song, Still Walking, inspired by Psalm 121 is: Not safe from hurt, not spared from loss. But held through what we face. If evil comes, it won’t have us. You keep us in Your grace. Despite what happens, whether you can walk, crawl, or neither, God is keeping us in his beloved embrace. I know I needed to hear that this week! I hope t...

Dear Human Is a Verb Community, If you’re the kind of tired that makes even good things feel like too much (that IS tired!), this prayer practice is for you. This second episode of the Praying with Scrpture and Song mini-series invites you to pray with Psalm 32. Each episode is designed to join you on the way, while you’re driving, walking, folding laundry, or taking a quiet moment between everyth...

Dear Human is a Verb Community, I’m working on a “Praying with Scripture and Songs” podcast miniseries, and I’m excited to share this first of seven episodes with you. I hope these are a gift to you and your nervous system as they will invite you to breath, slow down, and pray. Even as I was making this, I thought—I need this, to slow down, to breath and to allow scripture to awaken prayer in me....

In this episode, I got to sit with pastor and theologian John Nielson to reflect on Advent as a season where joy and sorrow co-mingle. If you or anyone you know is experiencing grief in this season, this episode is for you (and them!). If you’ve missed the other episodes, here they are: Episode 1: Waiting Without Turning Away, David Young Episode 2: I Got You: Preparing for Peace in the Wilderness...

Dear Human is A Verb Community- I poured my heart into this episode. It includes a recording I made in the weeks after ENC closed. It is raw and shows what it can look like to experience anxiety and trust, sadness and joy all in the same moment. Advent is pregnant with all the emotions — all at the same time. I hope you enjoy. If you’ve missed the other episodes, here they are: Episode 1: Waiting...

Dear Human is a Verb Community- On the first Sunday of Advent, my husband Steve carried a mixing bowl full of red radishes into a church potluck. That unlikely root vegetable became a symbol of an invitation: stay awake to God’s presence by practicing radical hospitality. Radical hospitality is about being rooted and grounded. It is a way of being receptive to our own pain without shame, receiving...

Episode 2: “I Got You” – Preparing for Peace in the Wilderness What does it mean to prepare for peace when your own life feels anything but peaceful? In this episode, we follow Pastor Mat Thomas into the wilderness of infertility, foster care, and adoption, and we meet John the Baptist and Catherine of Siena along the way. Mat and his wife I’Esha longed for children and walked through the heartbre...

Dear Human is a Verb Community— I’ve been working on an Advent resource with a group of colleagues from ENC over created my first-ever storytelling podcast mini-series called Waiting in Wonder. Each episode follows a story of one of my ENC Religion colleagues, a gospel story, and a Woman Christian Mystic who lived in a time of disruption. Episode 1: Waiting without Turning Away: David Young, Simon...

 Welcome to Human as a Verb, an audio newsletter this week about practicing the sacred work of being human. Today, we'll explore the Benedictine rhythm of prayer and work and how contemplative Praxis invites us to view our inner life and social action as an integrated whole, shaping our engagement with the world.  And to bring this to life, I wanted to share a story about someone who listened to m...

Dear Human Is A Verb Community, Here is what you can expect in this (long) essay: * What's left of our humanity when AI can do everything? * Why "bearing God's image" matters in the age of machines * How the Creation and ancient exile stories speak to a people facing disruption * Why emotional intelligence, empathy, and courage are our superpowers This essay is for you if ... have you ever wondere...

n this episode, the story of a cookie in a prison classroom serves as the starting point for a deeper reflection on how dignity shows up in our lives — or doesn’t — in both small gestures and systemic failures. This reflection explores what it means to practice dignity, both individually and communally, and how the choices we make can either build or diminish the relational fabric that holds us to...

Is there someone you need to speak to, not about, but to? What if that phone call became a spiritual practice? Welcome to Human Is a Verb, a podcast about practicing the sacred work of being human. I'm your host, Julene Tegerstrand. Today's episode is a story about my dad and Iabout the phone calls I almost didn't make,and about how that simple choice became a doorway into something holy. I didn’t...

One afternoon, I found myself standing at the kitchen counter with the fridge still open, not sure what I was looking for. I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t even bored. I was just... full. Full of news updates I didn’t ask for, full of things I should be doing, full of opinions and noise and worry. The kind of full that makes you tired and a little mentally hangry. I closed the fridge, walked into our off...