The Beautiful Purpose Podcast

Season two begins with an invitation to slow down, step outside, and notice what God is doing—both in creation and within your own heart. As winter gives way to spring, we reflect on how God brings healing and renewal through the natural world, and how moments of stillness can open the door to deeper intimacy with Him. In this episode, Bethany shares from her own “wilderness” season and the quiet...

Wow! It’s the final episode of the first season of the Beautiful Purpose Podcast! Thanks for listening (or even just encouraging this new creative venture!) For this last conversation on how to wait well, we’re discussing embodiment through joy and play. I hope it will encourage you! The recent snow in Maryland was a sweet time of play for me with my dog Hunter, reminiscent of days with two dogs i...

Hello, friends! I’m Bethany, and I’m so glad you’re here! This December, I’ve been sharing a biweekly podcast series on Advent and waiting… with an encouragement to spend time in nature and even a challenge to write a poem a day! For the final two weeks of this first podcast season (and I’m praying and dreaming about the future of this venture!), we’ve been talking about how to wait well…for Chris...

Beware of the brambles and thorns. Do you think that sometimes our suffering can blind us to our sin? It’s something I’ve reflected on a lot during my years recovering from betrayal, abuse, divorce, and a season of chronic pain. Yes, our suffering is often unexplainable and unjust, and yet… God still calls us to live obediently. Thanks for checking out this new podcasting venture, and today’s disc...

While we wait for Christ’s return… while we wait for answers, relief, dreams, and healing… how do we wait well? Biblical lament is a foundation. Less are hearts become frozen…. a poem of mine: Dethawing I. A reminder here thoughts that trail there, and I can sense, the temperature dropping, cooling in my heart. Loneliness fills the next day, while aloneness, starts to suffocate, taking the warm br...

A walk in the woods through winter can feel a bit drab, especially right at the beginning when it feels like summer and fall just left, and now it’s 19 degrees and snowing! That’s why I love looking for the signs of life — like the evergreen leaves of the mountain laurel. I walked through it this weekend, visiting my sister, talking of troubles and heartache. Longing for life and healing and hope....

If Advent is about waiting -- what are we waiting for? Thanks for journeying with my writing and storytelling in this new podcast adventure, friends! Thank you for reading, listening, and downloading! I’d love to hear what you think, and thank you for sharing! Celebrating the birth of Christ is about more than a sanitized Christmas story. Jesus was the promised messiah, and his coming was the fulf...

Waiting isn’t a game. Sometimes the seasons are so dark, that even hope can feel distant. As David describes the taunts in Psalm 31 - “terror on every side.” There is no shame if you question hope some days, my friend. I’ve been there too, and still have moments where pain feels crushing. From a little poem last year at this time… Some days the only thing is just to stay alive to exist, to breathe...

Advent is all about waiting. For so long the Israelites waiting for the Messiah to come. Then he arrived — in a messy, lonely birth in Bethlehem. Today, we’ll celebrate Christmas in four weeks to celebrate the incarnation, of God becoming flesh. But we’re still waiting, now for Christ’s return. And don’t we long for his coming again? Because things are not right with this world. We ache and suffer...

I find myself in a liminal space and I want to invite you along as I journey the path ahead. And it’s why I want to share with you about what’s new coming to my Substack… The heavens were open as I stepped into the woods with a crunch underfoot, and the mostly-bare branches sketched across a stratus sky. It will be months again till a canopy covers me on my walks. I sensed a liminal space – not ju...