The Saturday Stoke

Join Tim as he reflects on the significance of wildflowers on the mountaintops.

Explore the value of everyday architecture with Tim.

Join Tim to discover the reason why we love the idea of adventure.

Join Tim to revisit the idea of what it means to spur each other on toward love and good deeds.

Join Tim for an inspiring reminder of faith in the face of opposition.

Join Tim for a few minutes as he reminds us of the value of building bonfires with friends.

Join Tim for an encouraging discussion on what we can do for one another in a time of selfishness and bitter outrage.

Join Tim as he discusses the lure of being in the "in crowd" and offers a hack for what it takes to live as an outsider.

Live counter-culturally by nourishing your soul with goodness.

Join Tim as he provides three tips for how to make better use of time.

Join Tim as he whisks you away on an epic six minute jaunt across the Four Corners to listen to wonder.

Sometimes, we have to encourage ourselves in the Lord. Join Tim as he offers some inspirational thoughts on seeing the potential in everything.

Join Tim as he explores what it means to pursue wisdom and live in the fear of God.

Join Tim for some inspiration on how to speak with humility and care in a culture that delights in rudeness.

Listen to The Saturday Stoke Subscribe on iTunes Sitting with friends we heard them. Out there in the night, amid the terrible and beautiful sounds of a pounding summer storm cell passing through the piedmont. “Storms are strange here,” my friend Jo lines to say. “It will flood in one area while another remains untouched.”But not so on this night. I know as much because Jo had texted my wife and me about the storm and mentioned that her husband was driving in it. And there we sat, mid the flashing sky, dark, then lightning white, and thunder peeling off in the distance like a Titan shredding oak trees.The wind pushed the treetops into a fury.Clack, then clack-boom!The woods felt alive out behind our house.And as we talked quietly about the state of our union and the state of our souls, we heard it: Ow-ooooooo!Over and over. One calling to another. One scout, followed by the pack, they carried on behind our house near the creek.They chased their prey on the tumult of wind and crashing sky—ranging along the creek plain, and on the single track trail, I walk with the girls. For us, the trail represents a family hike in the dappled afternoon wood-shaded sunshine. For them, a heated chase for survival. A chase to kill and to eat.They cried out as the thunder clapped, hollering like teenagers in a frenzy.And then, they were gone. Shadows in the storm.We all of us walk the storm-laden path. Some days it's dappled with the sunlight of hope. The next, it's overwhelmed with the darkness of a mid-summer storm.And our natural inclination is to keep an eye out for dangerous beasts along the way. The bobcats and coyotes that linger along life's path. We walk as aliens in a wood that is not our home.But as true as that might be, for we are none of us wild animals, do we miss something of the soul of the woods when we view ourselves as visitors and not citizens of the wild-ness all around us?“But Tim,” you say, “are you suggesting some modern form of paganism? I mean, aren't we bombarded enough with gnostic ideas about the world and God and life.”“Ah yes,” I reply, “I do beg you pardon, but this is not some strange progressive Christian pantheism I speak of. Think of it more like a listening heart for the soul of Creation. There, now. How does that sound?”The storm-laden path we like to call life feels insecure when we walk in the fear of beasts.But what if we adopted the heart of the creek-ranging coyotes? What if we roamed the dark woods of the stormy night unafraid of the cracking air and vein-streaked thunderheads above?I am trying to teach my daughters the beauty of storms. The elegance of the wilds. The holiness of creation. I'm not teaching them naive disregard for danger. But a courage that produces a kind of fearlessness. I want them to walk unafraid in these lands, both wooded and of the soul. It's a type of courage that when seen by outsiders looks like fearlessness. But in reality, it's a quiet confidence—a knowledge and respect of the wood and storm and beasts.Be strong and courageous, the saying goes. Given to us by God himself to his beloved Joshua. Joshua, who knew the God of the mountain because he was with Moses in the tent of meeting. And yet he still needed reminding by the God of the thunder mountain. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And I am beginning to understand. And that understanding, I hope to pass along to my girls.This is the courage that looks like fearlessness. But in reality, it is a holy reverence for the Maker of the Wilds, the holder of the storms, the Creator of the path.So let us walk in the storms. Let us walk along the fear-laden paths of the dark woods. And let us give it our best howl. For the coyotes are close. And they will show us the way.Stay stoked my friends.

Do you find yourself distracted and frustrated by recent calamity? Join Tim as he offers an idea for how to make the most of our moment-to-momentness.

In this episode, Tim explores the different applications of wilderness in our lives. It's a place we go to for rest, a place we enter metaphorically in our lives, wasteland times. But the wilderness forges us into men and women of spiritual grit. Join Tim, and explore the wilderness.

Join Tim as he explores the power of the empty page and encourages us to view each day as an opportunity to write the lines of our lives on the new page given to us by God.

Join Tim as he explores what Jesus really means when he says, "Come to me, and I will give you rest."

When did we our kid-power? Join Tim as he looks at how we can regain it as it relates to managing our relationships as adults.

Join Tim as he reflects on the what hope really looks like in an age of calamity.

Join Tim for this special Easter edition in which he recounts the story of Mary at the tomb of Jesus and reflects on how Jesus is making everything new. As an added bonus, enjoy Tim's song, "Away."

Join Tim today for a look at the Pilgrim King, Jesus, and the beauty of his pursuit for his children.

What is going on in this world of ours? How do we look at the suffering, uneasiness, confusion, and fear as it relates to life on planet earth right now? Does God care about us? We all have questions and those questions are valid. Join Tim in this inspiring episode as he digs into these questions.

In this episode, Tim encourages listeners to not give in to panic and fear, but instead, to live life to the fullest.

On this episode, Tim breaks down what it means to be loved by a love that is incomprehensible.

Join Tim as he explores the power of unanswerable questions and how they create an apologetic wormhole for mystery and wonder.

Have you ever visited a place or met a new friend or listened to a song that made you feel like you'd found a bit of home? Join Tim as he explores that feeling of home.

Join Tim as he reconsiders what it means to pursue silence in a culture of noise and distraction.

Join Tim for a reflection on how to cultivate more kindness in your life. Here's a hint: it has to do with passionate pursuit of God, and a dash of solitude.

Join Tim this week as he offers a reminder to love God for who he is, and to pursue the life that is our life.

Today, renew your sense of togetherness and get stoked.

This week Tim shares some reflections on simplicity and what it means to live life from the center.

Happy New Year! This week, Tim looks at the path ahead for the new year and what it looks like to live one's life as a frontiersman.

Has the idea of the Incarnation lost its luster for you? Join Tim as he reflects on the beauty of what makes this season shmmer.

Join Tim as he takes you on a hike through the Lake District in England and some encouraging verses in Habakkuk and discover how the heights can make our hearts strong.

It's the season for Joy and hope. But what exactly is Joy? Is it something more than we give it credit for? How does it affect our everyday? Join Tim for some digging on the wonderful topic of Joy.

Sometimes we need to take a step back and perform a macro-edit of our lives. Join Tim this week as he encourages us to change our normal in order to gain a fresh perspective on life.

What does the landscape teach us about God? Join Tim today as he explores the wonder of our sacred memories, from childhood to adulthood, and how those memories make us who we are and shape our perspective of God.

Join Tim as he looks at our binge-crazed culture and offers some ideas on how to add life-giving-ness to the holiday season.

What does it look like to take the broken pieces of this world and make something beautiful? Tune in today to learn how we can shift our view off of ourselves, and onto the vision of mending the brokenness of others.

Living is a constant becoming. Tune in today to hear some of Tim's journey and how it shaped him, and what he's learned along the way.

Who are you trying to impress? Stop it! Stop listening to the voices telling you who you're supposed to be. Here's a quick hack for living as God made you.

To be known. It's a primary human longing. But has the world twisted this longing, and made it into something centered on the self? Check out this week's Stoke to find out.

How do we find peace amidst the chaos? How do we make space for beauty in our lives? How can we be participants instead of spectators in this thing we call life? Tune in and get stoked.

We live in a world that changes at a break-neck pace. But God never changes. And each morning, he waits for us with renewed mercies. Get stoked on that thought.

When did we lose the magic of knowing how to be together as real human beings in this world? Join Tim for some encouraging thoughts on how we reteach ourselves how to be in better communion with one another and God.

Faith requires an adventurer's heart. We must be ready to step out onto the water if that's where God calls us. In today's Stoke, we hear about Amelia Earhart's story and grab some inspiration from it for the road ahead.

Listen to The Saturday Stoke “Maybe all a man gets is strength to wander for a while. Maybe the only gift is a chance to inquire, to know nothing for certain. An inheritance of wonder and nothing more.” — William Least Heat Moon, "Blue Highways" Thank goodness for life's backroads; for by-way living; for the green-dotted roads. You know, those roads marked on the map as “scenic by-ways” by the U.S. Department of Transportation. We forget that we don't have to take the highway—what my daughters call the fast road—to reach our destination, wherever it may be. In fact, one of my own unwritten rules for travel is, when available, always take the scenic route. In life, I'd like to think I'm adventuring on the green-dotted road. And you and I know, all adventures include a bit of danger and an obstacle or two? Here's one: beware of the plastic people. I'm convinced that the plastic people who have everything figured out with formulas and pre-determined GPS coordinates for life, are the same people who've helped to shape our world into a land of bottom-line thinking, pragmatic living, and market-driven achieving. Whatever happened to the dreamers, the pioneers, the explorers, the people running to the frontier? What happened to the people who viewed the world not as something to be conquered but as something to be experienced in all its terrifying mysterious wonder? What happened to the people who do not live following the plastic people's coordinates? How desperate we are for these people. How incomplete our world would be without them. And yet, I think we all have a bit of plastic in us. It's just that some of us remain in the plastic world, while others happen upon a way out of it. And once we squeeze through the portal, we find the whole world staring us in the face.“What to do with it?” we ask. “How do I understand it?” we puzzle. I find the best way to understand something or someone is to explore. “Explore?” someone says. “Isn't there a set of directions or a drop-down box we can click on? “Just check the manual,” someone else says. “Ask Google, or call the help desk.” But that won't do. Life doesn't come with a browser. We must listen to that voice buried deep inside of us and take that first step into exploration. Escaping the plastic world is a feat in and of itself, but it is only the beginning. Once out, we must learn to live in this gigantic organic beautiful world.And learning to live does not require our complete understanding; it only requires our participation, and perhaps a cup of Earl Grey tea with some honey and a splash of whole milk, organic, of course. You and I are pilgrims, wanderers. And as the road stretches out before us, we must decide if we will actually walk it, or if we will sit up in the balcony and watch the passersby, which is the plastic-people choice. We must embrace our pilgrim status. The Latin phrase homo viator means “man on a quest” or “man as traveler or pilgrim.” But the concept of human beings as homo viator does not indicate hapless wanderings. Quite the opposite. It's the theological idea that we were created to search. There's a lingering sense of incompleteness to life. And that's not a bad thing. The fourth century theologian Augustine touched upon this idea of homo viator when he famously began his timeless work Confessions with this reflection: “You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”[i] Think about those words, stir and restless. How does God stir us? And with what? And restless. Who doesn't feel this in their life? How many of us fill our lives with things or experiences because we're trying to satisfy the hungering in our hearts? Augustine was a wanderer. He describes life before and after a person finds God as a journey. Before he found God, he indulged in sexual and philosophical pursuits he thought would satisfy his desires. But it wasn't until he gave his life completely to God that he realized all the beautiful things of the world draw us closer to God, and that life itself is a journey into God. When Augustine realized that it was not the beautiful things themselves that he desired, but their creator, he responded with one of the most beautiful sections of writing you'll ever read: “Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. “The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.”[ii] It was beauty that lured Augustine. It was the touch of Beauty that set him on fire. Apart from God, beautiful things can become the love and pursuit of the pilgrim. Those beautiful things take many forms. You can spot them easily enough because they find their way into your life as things that delight the senses, giving momentary pleasure. For Augustine it was women and parties. For others it might be status or material possessions. Here's a little hack for us wanderers.When you embrace your pilgrim status and pull close to God, a sense of freedom displaces anxiety. The first step on a new trail always causes the heart to flutter. But down the path, when the countryside opens up before our eyes, we realize our desire lies “further up and further in.” You and I? We are wired seekers. The road to life is our becoming. And there is no one way of becoming. Beware of the plastic people. Remember your wayfarer roots. And keep your eyes peeled. For the glories dance all around us, ready to set us on fire. Stay stoked my friends. Listen to The Saturday Stoke Join The Edges Family Sign up with your email address and get stoked. Email Address Sign Up Great content. Half the calories. Thank you!

How can we participate in the daily fullness God gives us through beauty? Listen to today's Stoke to find out.

Stop following the ways of the world, which wants you to go home, put your feet up and watch something on Netflix. There's plenty out there worth fighting for.