The Daily Edify

Today's episode is about the "eight wonders of life" that Dacher Keltner articulates in his new book, " Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life ." He defines awe as the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world. Fascinating and practical stuff. Feedback? I'd love to hea...

Today's episode is about something I've learned from my social worker friends: unconditional positive regard. As my friend and colleague Allison Bengfort writes, "It's an intentional, emotional posture that the best therapists extend to their clients...assum[ing ]the best in the client. It assumes that the client is inherently good, worthy, and worthwhile. It is able to separat...

Today's episode is about the spiritual practice of gratitude - in particular, deep gratitude. We touch on a retreat I attended last week, a line from the apostle Paul's letter, 1 Thessalonians ("Give thanks in all circumstances") and Diana Butler Bass' recent book, Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks . Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at thedailyedi...

Today's episode features a short poem by Dawna Markova, " I Will Not Die an Unlived Life. " It reflects on how to inhabit our lives, risk our tender significance, and set aside the voices of fear. It invites us to embrace our lives as they actually are,  receive the seed we've been given and to nourish them to blossom and then fruit.  I first heard this poem at a coaching summi...

Today's episode is about the practice of forgiveness - I primarily draw from my experience with the Christian tradition, but the act of forgiving is part and parcel of what it means to be human.  And, in recent years, many other disciplines have taken up the topic of forgiveness, exploring its relevance to their field, from psychology to medical science to philosophy to evolutionary biology....

Today's episode is about failure, and the invitation to keep doing it in our life, our work, our faith, and our relationship. Failure is human. Failure is healthy. Failure is how we grow. We share stories about James Dyson, Dr. Norm Larsen, the apostle Paul, among others. We end with a mention of the recent book, In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility.  Let's reframe failure as i...

Today's episode is about something neuroscientists are teaching us through their research: negative and critical thoughts are like velcro - they stick and hold. Whereas  positive and joyful thoughts are like teflon - they slide away. These thoughts can come from others or ourselves. This is part of a "negativity bias" we all have. But there's a way to counteract this tendency....

Today's episode features is blessing by the inimitable John O'Donohue, "For the Traveler." It's drawn for his book, "To Bless the Space Between Us," which is one of Arianne and I's all time favorites - chock full of gorgeous and evocative language that offers blessings for various and sundry life moments. As my family prepares to take a trip this week, I&apo...

Today's episode is about the concept of blue minding, first popularized by the marine biologist, Wallace Nichols. The basic idea is that being in or near blue water reduces stress and helps us get grounded in a primal and spiritual way. Since our bodies are 60% water and our brains are 75% water, this makes intuitive sense.  I've always found being in or near water to be a "thin pla...

Today's episode is about Loretta Ross and her courageous and brilliant work that invites us to "call in" instead of "call out." Ross is an activist, public intellectual and professor of women’s studies at Smith College. I find her invitation to be both challenging and helpful, a summons to improve the connection and understanding in our corner of the world. I learned about...

Today's episode is about the African concept of "ubuntu," inspired by my reading of the spiritual biography of Desmond Tutu. The basic idea is this: "a person is a person through other persons." The myth of the isolated, self-sufficient individual is not only misleading: it's wrong biologically, psychologically and spiritually. We explore what "ubuntu" might...

Today's episode reflects on something I'm learning from the recent spiritual biography of Desmond Tutu, written by Michael Battle. "Goodness is given" is something I'm learning from Tutu's life - something that kept him sane and compassionate in his remarkable work to participate in resisting the evil regime of apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s and 90s.  Feedback...

Today's episode is about a simple and funny story that happened to Arianne and Noah the other day. It reminded me of the spiritual practice I've committed to this summer: the practice of paying attention and engaging in joy and laughter. 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 aptly titled "today." I share about one of my favorite yard signs in our neighborhood that I walk by a couple of days a week (it simply says "today!"), how often Jesus focuses our attention on "today," and a story from Greg Boyle about how this one-word meditation (on the word "today") has been an ancient spiritual practice in the Chr...

Today's episode is me riffing on the "odd and wondrous calling" I'm privileged to live out. Here I'm referring to the work of being a pastor, but I would argue it applies to whatever your calling is - it may include what you do for a paycheck, but it may not. This is the work you have been put on this earth to do - your purpose, what puts you in the flow, the healing love...

Today's episode is about finding a summer mantra, a way to set an intention and deeply experience all that this season has to offer. We read one of favorite poems by Mary Oliver, "The Summer Day," and then I reflect on the mantra I've settled on this summer: paying attention. The idea is to look and listen, bear witness to the beauty and brokenness I see in myself, in others an...

Today's episode is about the work of Tricia Hersey, founder of the Nap Ministry (in 2016). I first learned of her work in the fall of 2022 that featured her new book coming out, " Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto ." (More recently, she has published the highly practical collection, " The Nap Ministry's Rest Deck: 50 Practices to Resist Grind Culture .") Tricia views re...

Today's episode is about a story, "The Birthday of the World," that Rachel Naomi Remen received as a gift on her 4th birthday from her grandfather, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. Last fall, she published the story , beautifully illustrated by Rachel Sumpter, as a children's book. It's a powerful and moving story about the creation of the world and our call to engage in healing...

Today's episode is about epistemic humility, an idea that goes all the way to Socrates in Plato's "Apology." The basic idea is that we should be humble about anything that we know because it might be revised someday - with new knowledge, new language, new perspective. I was inspired to share after reading a recent article from the U of Chicago's "Center for Practical...

Today's episode is about a poem by Padraig O'Tuama, "The Facts of Life" (drawn from his collection of poetry published in 2018, " Sorry for Your Troubles "). I first heard this poem about a year ago and it's been working on me ever since. It's moving and tender and piercing in its realism and wisdom. After reading the poem, we reflect on a few of its lines a...

Today's episode is about the "myth of closure," a phrase I've borrowed from the recent book by family therapist, researcher and author, Pauline Boss ( The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change ). The basic idea is that, when it comes to grief, "closure" is an unhelpful and unattainable idea. In many ways, "closure" is a made-up med...

Today's episode is about two German words and how to cultivate one instead of the other. Schadenfreude has entered the cultural lexicon here in the U.S. and can be defined as our tendency to take a cruel pleasure in the misfortune of others. Freudenfreude, however, is the something we can cultivate in its place - it means  to take joy and happiness from the success of others.  I read an artic...

Today's episode is about resume virtues vs. eulogy virtues, something David Brooks heard from his rabbi years ago and which he talks about in his book, The Road to Character .  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 Japanese art form of kintsugi, which means "golden mending." I learned about this art form from a friend a few years ago and have returned to it often as a metaphor for faithful and generative living. Kintsugi repairs broken pottery by mending the cracks with a gold lacquer. The breakage is viewed as part of the history of the object and not something to...

Today's episode is about an early church tradition known as risus paschalis - the Latin phrase translates to "the Easter laugh" or "God's joke." If the best definition of a joke is one of exaggeration – the difference between what we expect and what we get – then the “joke” God played on the devil on Easter morning by raising Jesus from the dead is in a league of its...