The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz Podcast

Sometimes, what we see can make us forget what we know. The swirling storm of bad news can craft a nihilistic narrative in our heads, one where possibility is drained away and hopelessness begins to settle in. I know that all too well. And today, I guess I just wanted to remind myself (and maybe some of you) of the other State of the Union. We know the version we hear from one person or one small...

You say that you're pro-life, friend. You let me know in hashtags and bumper stickers and t-shirts and memes and march photos and sermons and high-horse sanctimony. You treasure and revere and defend life, so you say. You loudly testify that you honor life’s value, its originality, its sanctity. I have some news for you: Ukrainian people are lives, you know. They're actual living, breathing, senti...

Throughout three presidential campaigns, people who’ve voted for Donald Trump have repeatedly said they’ve done so, in part, because he was a “successful businessman.” Well, they’re half right. He was a businessman alright, but if you'd been paying attention even a little bit at any time over the last forty-years, there were plenty of better-fitting adjectives to describe the kind kind of business...

"You should let people know what you're for , not what you're against." I hear this sentiment from time to time, and perhaps you do, too. The implication, is that declaring your opposition to people or laws or movements is somehow an unhelpful negative posture that comes across as combative and confrontational and inevitably makes people back away or shut down. On its face, the idea sounds like it...

Everything happens for a reason. That phrase… We've all received it personally gift-wrapped by well-meaning friends, caring loved ones, and kind strangers. It usually comes delivered with the most beautiful of intentions: an intended buffer of hope raised in the face of the unimaginably painful, incomprehensibly ugly things we sometimes experience in this life. It's a desperate lifeline thrown out...

A reader told me that she thinks I’ve become too negative lately: that she misses the optimistic, hopeful version of me that she got to know during Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign. “I miss that version of me, too.” I assured her. I then asked her a question: “So, do you want me to be optimistic or honest?” I wasn’t being facetious or sarcastic with the question. I know that she (like mys...

Watching Donald Trump and JD Vance shamelessly berate and taunt and disrespect Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in front of the world, I was reminded again how much I f****n’ despise bullies. They are the greatest kind of fraud this world produces. Bullies are by their very nature, predators. The bully's tactic is simple: leverage their power to generate fear in someone who possesses less p...

Sunday is coming. Soon, millions of Americans will find themselves in the houses of worship that dot nearly every corner of this country; disparate buildings where they'll gather under the banner of religion, of faith, of goodness. Whether set in trappings that are ancient or modern, filled with polished pews, reclaimed restaurant booths, or plush concert seating—a vast multitude will leave their...

Dear President Zelenskyy, As it is likely that our paths will never cross in person, I could not let this day go by without trying to reach you here. I come to you humbly as an American citizen who is thoroughly and completely embarrassed of our leaders. For the last six years, I like many of those who call this place home have marveled at your courage, your resilience, and your dignity in the fac...

I confess that I'm a little lost presently. I've become a restless, reluctant nomad moving tentatively through familiar places with a lingering emotional dissonance. I am a lifelong American who is profoundly disoriented trying to navigate this nation now. I was born here and have spent most of my half a century and change here, and yet in recent years (and even more so in recent weeks), I've begu...

It’s been said that a budget is a moral document. I agree. House Republicans voted almost unanimously on a budget that would cut 2 trillion dollars from Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP , and drastically reduce or eliminate funding for programs and services that tend to the essential needs of our most vulnerable, most on the margins, most-threatened citizens. They gleefully approved taking food, healt...

At a Kootenai County Republican Central Committee meeting at Coeur d'Alene High School in Idaho, a woman was bound and forcefully removed by a group of unidentified men for supposedly interrupting the public gathering several times. The video is disturbing to watch, with the men violently yanking Teresa Borrenpohl by the arm, zip-typing her, and dragging her out of the auditorium by her wrists and...

Dear Concerned Friend, Thank you for your kind note to let me know you're worried about me, for asking whether or not I realize I'm coming across as angry lately. Your assessment is correct and yes, I do realize it. I am angry. I'm sorry but I’m not sorry for that. I can imagine I'm not all that fun to be around right now, and that from time to time my words may come across as combative or abrasiv...

Lately, I’ve been wondering if we’ve reached a critical mass of cruel people here. It’s hard not to look around and feel as though we are becoming a nation lacking a base-level of compassion for the welfare of other human beings; a place filled with people without a desire to see the world through the eyes of another or the imagination to attempt and emotionally walk a path that they have not pers...

Are we great yet, America? I've been looking around lately and wondering if we're here ; if this is the supposed greatness he was talking about, the kind his supporters were forecasting, the kind their bumpers and t-shirts refer to. It hasn't seemed particularly great to me lately, but hey, I've been wrong before, so I started asking around: I asked a grandmother in Texas, terrified that her socia...

Whenever the subject turns to our current national dumpster fire and the resulting unrest here, There's a similar refrain I hear from the lips of many Christians these days: "Relax, God is in control." The words are designed as a conversation stopper of sorts; an iron-clad, sanctified mic-drop, exempting them from further discussion on the matters at hand and supposedly instantly assuaging all my...

Dear Donald Trump, I grew up believing that Hell is a terrible place. It is a place where horrible things belong; where ugly, vile, sickening stuff should go and never escape from. It is a place where the violent and the predatory and the evil things of this world should forever spend their days. Hell is where hateful souls should permanently call home. It is not a place for underfed children or f...

Yesterday was a long decade. By the end of the day, when my head finally hit the pillow I felt ten years older; as if I'd somehow spent far more than merely 24 hours on the planet, gone through much more than just one earthly rotation. By nightfall, after weathering another indescribably disorienting day here, I felt disproportionately older than I should have. I know I'm not alone. This exhaustio...

America could really use a President right now. I have this thought more often than I care to consider recently. It resurfaces whenever there is a national tragedy or global crisis or natural disaster or moment of consequence, whenever compassion, decency, strength, or goodness are required from a president; whenever an adult human leader would be called upon and compelled to actually lead this na...

Fascism isn’t coming to America, it’s already here. We are long past the warnings of an approaching existential threat looming on the distant horizon of our story, which many of us spent the past decade imploring people not to ignore. The nightmare is no longer a future improbability but a present reality. The current President is keeping his campaign promise to be a “dictator on day one,” wiping...

A vote is loud. Whether that vote is cast joyfully or with trepidation or begrudgingly or without all the information or as protest—it makes the same bold statements: This is my choice. I am with this person. I consent to their conduct. I co-sign their actions. I endorse them. A vote doesn't have qualifiers or caveats or escape clauses. It simply says Yes or No . And as we’re witnessing a rapid an...

Right now, if it really believes what it preaches, the American Church has one foot in Hell and one on a banana peel—and this God-forsaken wannabe theocracy, i s that banana peel. And by "Church," I mean:Every human being who will fill buildings all over the country this weekend, singing and listening and amen-ing for an hour. Those who follow Jesus outside of a local faith community; who pray and...

Three years ago, I was in a Kohl's department store when I received a text from my wife: Everything's fine but the FBI is at the house. I left massive skid marks on the carpet—and elsewhere. I got in my car and drove home quickly. When I arrived, the agent told us that they had been monitoring extremist Right-wing message boards, that my name had been coming up with concerning comments, and they w...

A radio host recently asked me what recurring themes I sense as I talk with my readers, engage online, and meet people across the country in my travels. One word came to mind: exhaustion. Millions of us are thoroughly depleted right now, having spent the past months in a dangerously elevated state, fueled solely by adrenaline, caffeine, shock, sorrow, and outrage. We've been sleeping terribly, eat...

Will Rogers was famously quoted as once saying, "I never met a man I didn't like." Now, Mr. Rogers died well before Donald Trump was even born, so I believe he fully meant his credo at the time. Had he lived a little longer, though, I wonder if he'd make the same blanket declaration. I'm not so sure. I can still remember my mother's stern reprimand whenever as a child, I'd comment that I hated thi...