The Daily Edify

Today's episode is about empathic distress. It's what we experience when we feel the pain of others' but feel unable to help alleviate it. Instead, we're invited to let our empathy be a pathway to compassion, an active place where we can acknowledge the suffering of someone, assuring them of our support, and seek to help them.

Today's episode is about being mindful of the preciousness of life and making two-degree shifts toward "eulogy virtues," the things that matter most. I tell the story of downloading the app, "WeCroak," and how it has grounded me in these weighty days. Thanks for listening!

Today's episode is inspired by a question I first heard from Barbara Brown Taylor: "What's saving your life right now?" It's a powerful question that invites us to name concrete things that are helping us stay attuned to what matters most. I answer the question for myself - and it would be different a day from now and certainly a year from now. But that's part of its...

Today's episode is about how change actually happens: not through outside heroes to swoop in and work on their own, but through small groups of dedicated people who want to heal the world. We hear a few lines from Margaret Mead, Howard Thurman and John Paul Lederach, but then spend a few minutes on the recent TED talk by David Lamotte, " Why Heroes Don't Change the World ." How...

Today's episode is about the cliche, "Life is short." We explore how being fierce with reality can be clarifying and animating for our life. I mention a few recent books: Life Is Short by Dean Nickles and Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkemann. And then we end with words from Henri Frederic-Amiel, "Life is short, so we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who w...

Today's episode is about the practice of "scruffy hospitality," a term coined by Jack King. I learned about it from the recent book by Oliver Burkemann, Meditations for Mortals . The basic idea is that we need to forgo "hospitality with excellence" for the more human and compelling "scruffy hospitality" - a way of living and  inviting others into our presence tha...

Today's episode is about "joyspan," a new concept I learned about recently. Rather than "lifespan" or "healthspan," "joyspan" focuses on the quality of our life and how we might grow, adapt, give and connect with others, especially in the second half of life. The term was coined by Dr. Kerry Burnright, who served as a professor at UC Irvine for nearly 2...

Today's episode is about a conviction of Desmond Tutu, archbishop of South Africa, which later became a hymn. I share a story I learned about from the spiritual autobiography of him I read a couple of years ago, written by this long-time assistant, Michael Battle. In the midst of so much fear and brokenness in the world, it's crucial for me to remember the deepest truths and this story a...

Today's episode is about the potent theological symbol of the table - a place of gathering, connection and sustenance. We remember who and whose we are. This summer, we've been "eating our way" through the Gospel of Luke with Jesus. His table practice was radical, inspiring the harshest criticism from his opponents (e.g. "a glutton and drunkard...a friend of tax collectors...

Today's episodes is about "thresholds" - those times of transition in our lives and what they offer to our spiritual lives. Thinking about our kids growing up, the changing seasons and the gift of being present to each moment given to us. Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at thedailyedify@gmail.com. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about the beatitudes of Jesus - why they still matter and how we can take our cue from them in these tumultuous times. Sorry for the long hiatus! It's good to be back today. Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at thedailyedify@gmail.com. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about the invitation to "get proximate." It comes from Bryan Stephenson, the celebrated human rights lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. He encourages us to get proximate, get close, to those who are on the margins, disfavored, homeless and incarcerated. That's how we truly see them and find deep connection. I learned a lot more about Stephens...

Today's episode is about the " reverse golden rule ." We've all heard of the Golden Rule, found in all major world religions - in Christianity, we hear Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount, "Do unto others and you would have them do unto you." But the "reverse golden rule" is the opposite of that - treating yourself in the way you reflexively treat others. S...

Today's episode is about the concept of finite and infinite games. It was developed by religion scholar James Carse, a longtime professor at NYU. He wrote a book of the same title in the mid 1980s and the idea is really generative. In a finite game, there is a clear winner and loser, the rules are static and the game ends. In an infinite game, the purpose is to simply continue the games, the...

Today's episode is about the changing of seasons and the remembrance of All Saints' last Sunday. We recite Kathleen McTigue's poem, " They Are With Us Still ," and wonder about the impact of the saints, the ancestors, those who've gone before us in this life - making our living possible, encouraging us on, modeling for us how to live the way of love. Feedback? I'...

Today's episode is about a lovely blessing from Julian of Norwich, entitled "God's Love for Us." A friend shared it with me during my sabbatical and reciting it as becoming part of my morning routine. It has helped me relax into the bigness and beauty of God's love. Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at thedailyedify@gmail.com. Thanks for listening, friends. You are...

After a long hiatus, we're back with a new episode today about home. I share a bit more about my sabbatical during spring/summer and a visit to Holy Wisdom Monastery (Madison, WI) in particular. While there, I learned a beautiful rendition of the Lord's Prayer that I recite and then discuss for a moment. Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at thedailyedify@gmail.com. Thanks for list...

Today's episode is about grace. We read Denise Levertov's lovely poem, " The Avowal ," and reflect on a mantra I've come to cherish recently: "Grace has brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home" (drawn from the  hymn, "Amazing Grace").  Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at thedailyedify@gmail.com. Thanks for listening, friends. You ar...

Today's episode is about the juxtaposition yesterday of Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day. I mention a helpful article from the Atlantic written by Esau McCauley, and the book by Brian Doyle, " One Long River of Song ."  Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at thedailyedify@gmail.com. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Glad to be back after a hiatus, friends!  Today's episode is about light and darkness. They are not oppositional, but complementary forces with a symbiotic relationship. It's the Advent theme our church focused on in December and is generative for our spiritual lives, especially in these humdrum days of February. I reference Barbara Brown Taylor's book, "Learning to Walk in the...

Today's episode is about the spiritual practice of blessing - especially with our words. We begin with the most famous blessing in the whole Bible from Numbers 6:24-26 - "The Lord bless you and keep you..." We need to receive this blessing ourselves and then share it with others and with all creation. Our words don't confer, but reveal the blessing that's already there. Th...

Today's episode, in anticipation of the Thanksgiving holiday, features a prayer by Ted Loder, "My Words Can't Carry All the Praise," from his book, Guerrillas of Grace . I hope you have a blessed holiday, friends. Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at thedailyedify@gmail.com. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about the concept of flow developed by Hungarian-American psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. A flow state is when you are so absorbed in what you are doing that you lose all sense of yourself, and time seems to fall away, and you are flowing into the experience itself. He wrote a book in 2008, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience , to explain the concept in an acc...

Today's episode is about a concept I first heard Arianne preach about several years ago in a sermon at the church we served together in Fort Wayne. The concept is "the cushion of the sea," and it comes from Arthur Pierson. The gist is that there's a layer of the ocean so deep that it remains undisturbed, completely calm, even when the storms and wind are churning the much more...

Today's episode is an invitation to tend to your own pain, as we reel from terror and war in Israel and Gaza in these very difficult days. We talk about what is ours to do, Richard' Rohr's line about pain ("If we don't transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it") and the call to engage in healing of ourselves, so that we can be more fully alive in the worl...