The Slow Way

I find that Jesus is always in the business of calling us to his way, a way that will totally ruin our comfort seeking, surface level naval gazing. He demands a bigger, truer pleasure. The kind that wakes up our whole selves — our desires, our bodies, our moral courage, our self-giving love.  This is the final The Slow Way Podcast episode. I have delighted in recording these episodes, in sharing my writing with you in this particular way. I know some of you will be disappointed with my decision to close this part of my work down. Me too! I have loved being here with you and I wish I had endless finances and time and energy. But the internet is a tough place and I'm putting my resources toward my Substack letter and will continue over there to work towards new ways of offering you content. If you haven't yet listened to the audiobook of Blessed Are The Rest of Us you might enjoy that! I'm giving a copy away every week of September over on Instagram. Or you can get it the good old fashioned way. Thanks for being here on this 101 episode journey! What a thing we've done.  xoxo, Micha Find the audiobook for Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole here.  Leave a review for Blessed on Amazon here!  It's availble at 40% off the price of other booksellers at BakerBookHouse. Just use the code SLOWWAY at checkout. Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.   

Celebrating all the stories, all the practices, all my attempts to tell the truth.  Here's a link to Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole. Find it at Target, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Bookshop.org Blessed on Amazon here! It's availble at 40% off the price of other booksellers at BakerBookHouse. Just use the code SLOWWAY at checkout. Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.     

It's true that the world is beautiful. And it's also true that the beauty and goodness in the world can dissolve in front of us. Life is unpredictable, like the author of Ecclesiastes says, it's a “chasing after the wind.”   Click here for Robert Siegel's book A Pentecost of Finches. Here's a link to his poem "Aubade."  I love the Bible Project. Here's their summary of the book of Ecclesiastes.  Find the Lectio Divina scripture passage here. Here's a link to Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole. Find it at Target, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Leave a review for Blessed on Amazon here!  It's availble at 40% off the price of other booksellers at BakerBookHouse. Just use the code SLOWWAY at checkout. Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads. 

How we make meaning is how we live. And the gift of the spiritual life is that it teaches us to make meaning, to find our story in a bigger story. * I'm looking for stories from YOU about what The Slow Way means to you. Here's how to help! Record a video or voice memo of you sharing one or more of the following: Where do you listen to The Slow Way? How do you use the Slow Practices? How has The Slow Way mattered in your life? Send your voice memos to michaboyett@gmail.com and you might be included in my 100th episode! Find Richard Rohr's book Things Hidden here. Here's a link to Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole. Find it at Target, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Leave a review for Blessed on Amazon here!  It's availble at 40% off the price of other booksellers at BakerBookHouse. Just use the code SLOWWAY at checkout. Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads. 

I've been working out how to offer the young people I love a vibrant faith that insists on their own goodness, their own original spark, and I am still fumbling a bit to give them language for encountering God. I believe that the long-way of conversion is a good way. And that Jesus's invitation to move toward wholeness is the kind of faith I want for the kids I love.  I'm not sure if there's an answer to these questions, but I do believe that for all of us who are reconstructing our faith with courage and great hope, we have to do so with the understanding that the ones who come after us will carry the scripts we give them. Find Richard Rohr's book Things Hidden here. Find Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way here. Here's a link to Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole. Find it at Target, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Leave a review for Blessed on Amazon here!  It's availble at 40% off the price of other booksellers at BakerBookHouse. Just use the code SLOWWAY at checkout. Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads. 

When we pray, when we practice holding tight to the vision God has for the world, it makes sense that we might begin to make eye contact as a form of prayer. You are important. You matter. I see you. What is the life of loving our neighbor if it isn't the overflow of sacred love? Jonathan spent the day waiting to be seen. And my gift was that I had the longing of Holy Spirit in me, allowing me to see him, to take his hand in mine. Isnt' this the spiritual life? Presence, generosity of spirit, choosing to see ourselves as deeply loved by our Creator, and every other human we encounter as just as worthy of that love? Here's a link to Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole. Find it at Target, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Leave a review for Blessed on Amazon here!  It's availble at 40% off the price of other booksellers at BakerBookHouse. Just use the code SLOWWAY at checkout. Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads. 

The work of God is not just slow, it's remarkable. It's intricate. It's miraculous, precisely because it takes so much time. As I wrote last week, we are unlearning the ways of an anxious culture. When I first began this process of unlearning, I hoped it wouldn't ache to release the anxious ways I had followed all of my life. But it did ache, and it still does. Slowing our work and bodies, and attempting to realign ourselves with the rhythm of the natural world involves real risk. It can hurt. We need mentors for such a task.    Find Lore Ferguson Wilbert's new book The Understory here. Here's a link to Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole. Find it at Target, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Leave a review for Blessed on Amazon here!  It's availble at 40% off the price of other booksellers at BakerBookHouse. Just use the code SLOWWAY at checkout. Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads. 

Those unlearning the ways of an anxious culture are leaning into queerness as a metaphor for approaching the sacred: We are leaning into “possibilities beyond”...We're learning a new path.   Find Jonathan Merritt's children's book My Guncle and Me here. Find Queering Contemplation by Cassidy Hall here. Find the Contemplating Now podcast episode I quoted from with Therese Taylor-Stinson here. The prayer we pray in A Slow Practice can be found in The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton.  Here's a link to Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole. Find it at Target, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Leave a review for Blessed on Amazon here!  It's availble at 40% off the price of other booksellers at BakerBookHouse. Just use the code SLOWWAY at checkout. Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads. 

This past week I made it home for good after a wild month of traveling and speaking about my book, just in time to sit down with my toughest reader, my life companion, and my favorite guy around, Chris Hohorst, on his experience of Blessed Are The Rest of Us. We've never done this sort of thing before, and it was a delight.  A few more links! Find out more about Suzanne Stabile here. Here's a link to Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole. Find it at Target, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. It's availble at 40% off the price of other booksellers at BakerBookHouse. Just use the code SLOWWAY at checkout. Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads. 

Last Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to gather with friends, family, and readers in the beautiful General Theological Seminary Chapel of the Good Shepherd, to talk about my new book, Blessed Are the Rest of Us. I was honored to have my friend, the beloved author Shauna Niequist, with me to chat about the process of writing the book, some of the books major themes, and even what I hope the youth group I help lead (who were also present in the room!) can take from this book.  So excited to share with you: The Blessed Are The Rest of Us Book Launch conversation, with special guest, Shauna Niequist!  Just a note, towards the end we took questions from the audience: You won't be able to  hear the Q+A questions from the audience. As best as I remember these are the questions that were asked: Who are "the rest of us"? How long did it take you to write this book? What does it look like for a church to be fully inclusive? How can we love and welcome Ace and other people with disabilities into our congregation? A few more links! Find out more about Shauna Niequist's books and other work here. Here's a link to Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole. Find it at Target, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. It's availble at 40% off the price of other booksellers at BakerBookHouse. Just use the code SLOWWAY at checkout. Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads. 

Today my newest book Blessed Are The Rest of Us comes into the world! Today's episode is going to be a little different. I'm sharing a bit about how I came to write this book and what the big ideas are underneath the story I tell of loving and raising my son, Ace.  How did I come to realize that this wasn't just a story about my son, but a story about all of us in Jesus's poem in Matthew 5? How did I begin to recognize that the invitation to explore Ace's vulnerability was actually an invitation to explore and receive my own?  I hope you'll tune into my thoughts about Blessed Are The Rest of Us, and you'll go purchase it today, wherever books are sold! Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole releases one week from today!!! Find it at Target, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. It's availble at 40% off the price of other booksellers at BakerBookHouse. Just use the code SLOWWAY at checkout! Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.   

As Jeff Chu says, “A robust theology of the compost reminds us that death and the things of death, our sin, our suffering, the ways we hurt each other, the ways we harm ourselves— These things are never the end of God's story.” What a thing: to choose to believe that God can redeem our slow-transforming lives, to believe that the Divine slammed God's own heart back into a dead body, waking it up, announcing that death and suffering is never the truest narrative. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Find Jeff Chu's beautiful Evolving Faith talk on the Theology of the Compost here.  Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole releases one week from today!!! You can preorder it and find it waiting in your mailbox on April 9 if you order soon! Get it for one more week at 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and "The Lucky Few" temporary tattoo. So fun! Jump over there and get your preorder in.

In a moment when his life was fading, when his suffering was at its height, I believe Jesus was responding to our suffering with his own suffering. Acknowledging our grief with his own. Today I'm sharing an orginal poem by me, along with a practice of sacred listening to a bit of the Good Friday story.  This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole for 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and "The Lucky Few" temporary tattoo. So fun! Jump over there and get your preorder in.

This Holy Week, we will be reminded that Jesus's answer to the reality of human pain and suffering was to suffer. It ws to gather all of us up and live out the dream of God. Find  Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most here.  Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole for 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and "The Lucky Few" temporary tattoo. So fun! Jump over there and get your preorder in.  

This week, I want to remind us that the movement toward wholeness doesn't have to be that complicated. Sometimes it's simply allowing ourselves to recognize that we're loved.    Find Savannah Guthrie's book Mostly What God Does here.  Here's a link to A Celtic Primer: The Complete Celtic Worship Resource and Collection. Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole for 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and "The Lucky Few" temporary tattoo. So fun! Jump over there and get your preorder in.

When we see the world as it really is we get to live in such a way that our vulnerabilities are exposed. Vulnerability is the way we give and receive love. Vulnerability is also the way toward pain.  This is not anything new in the world. It's simply love—sharing our lives, being honest about our pain, and allowing ourselves to be decentered and recentered. We don't do it so we can be an example. But when we do it with authentic generosity, we can sometimes be an invitation for others. Find Michael Rudzena's recent sermons here, here, and here.  Learn more about Micha's other podcast The Lucky Few at their website and instagram.   Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole for 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and "The Lucky Few" temporary tattoo. So fun! Jump over there and get your preorder in.

We always have an invitation to learn from the wise ones among us, and the turtles and tortoises of the world may not be sexy, but they carry a knowing that just might settle our souls. When we're tempted to speed up simply because everything around us says to hurry, let's remind ourselves that this Lent we're living in Turtle Time. Slowing ourselves so that we can explore the questions that matter, pursue the life that truly satisfies, use our resources with wisdom and love for the people, land, and creatures among us.    Find Sy Montgomery's book On Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell By Shattered Shell  here.  Find Brian Doyles essay "Joyas Vladoras” in his collection One Long River of Song Here is Walter Bruggemann's book  A Way Other Than Our Own.  Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole for 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and "The Lucky Few" temporary tattoo. So fun! Jump over there and get your preorder in.

Repentance is the acknowledgment of our missteps, and the adjustment of our stance so we are in line with Divine Love. And this, according to Sarah Bessey, requires vulnerability and grief.  Can we get serious this week? Serious enough to acknowledge to ourselves, to God, and to one another how we have missed the path of Love? May we carry the weight of God's transformative kindness, believing Sarah's words: “There is no place you can go where you will outrun God's love and longing for your wholeness.” Find Sarah Bessey's new book Field Notes for the Wilderness here. Micha is offering a zoom workshop for her Substack paid subscribers this February 24. Today is the last day to sing up, Here's a link to learn more about it!  Micha will be hosting a weekly virtual book club for paid subscribers this spring, following the release of her new book. If you're interested, become a paid subscriber and support her work! Here's a link to learn more. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole for 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and "The Lucky Few" temporary tattoo. So fun! Jump over there and get your preorder in.

What makes Lent powerful is its insistence on not celebrating, on demanding a season of restraint. What makes Lent powerful is that it invites us to make a choice toward honesty with God and ourselves, a choice to get solemn about what we discover in our core, and live that restraint on the outside. It's a forty day invitation to move from the edges of our lives to the deep, heavy center of us.   Read Jesus's words in Matthew 23 Sarah Bessey's new book Field Notes for the Wilderness releases today! Brian McLaren's book is Faith After Doubt Micha is offering a zoom workshop for her Substack paid subscribers this February 24. Today is the last day to sing up, Here's a link to learn more about it!  If you're interested in participating in the workshop and/or future online interactive conversations with me, become a paid subscriber and support my work! Here's a link to learn more. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole for 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and "The Lucky Few" temporary tattoo. So fun! Jump over there and get your preorder in.

Ash Wednesday sounds morbid to some, but it exists to tell us the truth, to ask us to come close to the reality of this life: we are always transforming, growing toward wisdom. And it will end. But I love that in the Christian tradition death is understood as a both/and. It is a result of brokenness in the world and it is also a threshold, a transition to fullness of life. As the Apostle Paul wrote, death is still with us, but through Jesus it has lost its sting. Read Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most   Here's the “further up and further in” qote from CS Lewis. " a voice behind us whispering" comes from Isaiah 30:21 Micha is offering a zoom workshop for her Substack paid subscribers this February 24. Here's a link to learn more about it! If you're interested in participating in the workshop and future online interactive conversations with me, become a paid subscriber and support my work! Here's a link to learn more. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole for 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and a fun little gift. Jump over there and get your preorder in.

Surrender is sometimes the work of naming my weaknesses and allowing them to drag me to the love of God, where I am fully known, and fully myself, with or without my abilities, usefulness, or performance.. Find “Lake Coatepeque” on The Brilliance's newest album Feel It. Read For the Life of the World by Alexander Shmemann Find Psalm 104 here Micha is offering a zoom workshop for her Substack paid subscribers this February 24. Here's a link to learn more about it! If you're interested in participating in the workshop and future online interactive conversations with me, become a paid subscriber and support my work! Here's a link to learn more. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole for 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and a fun little gift. Jump over there and get your preorder in.

Prayer is an act of intention where I don't deny the micro and macro ache of this life. The hurts that arrive in our lives or the lives of those we love, and the Greater Pain that lives in our societies and systems. And still we choose the thorny, winding path of hope. We choose it with eyes wide open, so we may see when we bump into God.   Find Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr. Read Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age by Richard Beck. Read Marilynne Robinson's novel Gilead. Read “The Sacrament of the Present Moment by Jean-Pierre de Caussade.  If you're interested in more on Epiphany a link to Good Shepherd New York's Epiphany Guide. Learn more about mini breaks here and here. Micha is offering a zoom workshop for her Substack paid subscribers this February 24. Here's a link to learn more about it! If you're interested in participating in the workshop and future online interactive conversations with me, become a paid subscriber and support my work! Here's a link to learn more. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Find Micha on Instagram.  Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole for 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and a fun little gift. Jump over there and get your preorder in.

Glory somehow shows up when we suffer, not because suffering is a payment, but because it's a truth-teller, a revealer. We need winter—for all its ache and ice and clarity—where Love has more space in all the sparseness to reach us.    Find Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr Read Psalm 27 here. If you're interested in more on Epiphany a link to Good Shepherd New York's Epiphany Guide. Micha is offering a zoom workshop for her Substack paid subscribers this Febrary 24. Here's a link to learn more about it! If you're interested in participating in the workshop and future online interactive conversations with me, become a paid subscriber and support my work! Here's a link to learn more. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole for 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and a fun little gift. Jump over there and get your preorder in.

There is no boundary around holiness: all of this world is worthy of God's holy smudge. In fact, the act of blessing is simply recognizing and marking what is already true. This is the task of Epiphany for us. We show up like the wise men, carrying our gifts. What we're invited to bring the Christ is almost always what we love. Blessing the people and things around us is just another way of saying that this world matters, that life is more than the edges of things; it's the white hot center where meaning lives. Blessing is saying that everything belongs there in the sacred space, that what we have to bring is a gift worthy of the Christ child.   Find An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor Here's a link to Good Shepherd New York's Epiphany Guide. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole for 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com from January 15, 2024 through the rest of the year. Just enter SLOWWAY at checkout. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and a fun little gift. Jump over there and get your preorder in. Don't forget to use the code!

Can we allow ourselves to cease the relentless pursuit of doing enough, and instead choose to be kind to ourselves and one another—to make warm and generous meals, to sit with people we love under blankets, to dream, and to ask ourselves who we are if we're not proving ourselves? These are the spiritual practices of Epiphany, to be still long enough to see the revelation for all that is. Find Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times. Here's a link to The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.    

This Christmas, Jesus is making us whole through our longings, our longings for a world of goodness and peace, and also, our longings for things to be put right in our own lives. Find Jonathan Pennington's book The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing here.  Read the Beatitudes here. Find Phillippians 2 here. Read Isaiah 30 here. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.    

“…at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story,” I whispered. It was 2 am. “...which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever.” The work of helping my dad into the next story was holy and heavy with love. And the words I spoke lived in the realest part of me. I think that's what it means to believe, even when doubt is ever present. Maybe it's strange to write about death during Advent, a season of waiting for a birth. But birth and death go hand in hand, and I've been thinking  we should consider them together more often. Last week I wrote about Mary's choice to give birth to a child from God, and how her consent led to her powerful song of liberation. How does consent lead to liberation? The same way that death leads to new life, the same way the end of a story leads to a story that goes on forever. This is the logic of Love. And the door to that Love somehow has to do with belief.  Find The Last Battle  by C.S. Lewis here.  This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.    

 Mary sings that God's justice moves us toward liberation for the ones who are discarded by society, allowing a girl like her, pregnant outside of marriage, to overcome the shame and humiliation her culture placed on her, to reverse the rules of who gets discarded, and who gets to matter. I am certain that Jesus's courageous and wise young mother taught him the power of a God who brings hope to the least of these, that it was her teaching that led him to the heart of the good news he came bringing.    Read The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope by Kelley Nikondeha. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.   Quick LinksGet Embed PlayerShare on SocialDownload Audio File  

Mystery is the core of my faith these days. Because no matter how many people prop a pine tree in water and twist twinkle lights through it, no matter how many Playmobile nativity sets are opened and play-acted by little ones, the story of baby Jesus is wild. When we allow ourselves to sit with it, to ask all the questions there are to ask, we are left with a choice—to either believe in just how marvelous it would be if the Creator came to us as a babe, or to embrace a season of gifts and cozy and connections, but write the Jesus part off along with most of our culture. What do we do with a story of God that lies beyond any modern, practical notions of how the world works?   Find Brian Doyle's book of essays, One Long River of Song here. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

This Thanksgiving, can we think about the concept of gratitude beyond lists or feelings? Let's consider gratitude as a practice that begins in our own bodies, in our choice to stop, our choice to quiet our minds. When we learn to stop and get quiet so we can really look, our graittude becomes more than a feeling. It becomes something we carry into our ordinary lives.  Find the Ted Talk from Benedictine monk David Stendl-Rast here. Find the video A Grateful Day with Brother David Steindl-Rast here.   This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

We who believe in the one Breath can either spend our lives demanding it show up where we'd like for it to show up, or we can stand in the open air and let it blow when it pleases. Find Brian Doyle's One Long River of Song here. Find my previous Slow Way Letter inspired by Doyle's book of essays. Find more information on PROMPT speech therapy here.  This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

We rarely get to finish, do we? Seventy percent. Good enough? Love and apologies and trying again. Hoping for grace to soften the edges of the thirty percent. What else can we do? Find Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful here. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

But sometimes prayer is the act of moving things around, recognizing what in our lives needs removing, and what in our lives needs transforming. The intricate system of our inner soil can be rich, or it can be lacking. And it can survive on its own for a while. But eventually, if we neglect it, the weeds spring up, the soil loses nutrients. Our lifeforce slumps.  Padraig O'Tuama's new book of prayers, Being Here, is available for preorder. It will release in January. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

Find Amber Haines' and Seth Haines' new collaborative book, The Deep Down Things here.  Ivanka Demchuk's icon of young Mary receiving the angel can be found here.   Click here to view Caravaggio's “The Incredulity of St. Thomas.” And see his “Madonna and Child with St. Anne” here. Erin Lane writes extensively about the concept of "mothering" as a verb rather than a noun in her book Someone Other Than A Mother. Read Mary's song of liberation in Luke Chapter 1.  If you're interested in learning more about prayer using icons, Henri Nouwen's book Behold the Beauty of the Lord is a great place to start. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.    

From Every Moment Holy by Douglas McKelvey. “We praise you, O Lord, for our limits!  limits you have given us for our good and for your glory.”  The subtitle of Blessed Are the Rest of Us is “How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole.” I love that word “limits.” Limits speaks to more than weakness, more than failure, more than the ache in us for justice. Our limits in the presence of the divine is part of the core of who we are. Limits, as the prayer says, are for our good.   Find Every Moment Holy by Douglas McKelvey here. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

How do we live, in all our moments, learning to emulate God's mercy? I can be frustrated with the world's lack of care, the intrinsic ableism in all of us that allows for casual complaints about kids and their need to get with the program of typical development. But, even in that hurt I am invited to curiosity and care. To be a mercy-emulator, to practice the way of Jesus.  To see the dignity and worth of every person I encounter, pausing in my frustration long enough to show interest in the real person, made in the image of God, longing for mercy.    Links:  Find Every Moment Holy by Douglas McKelvey here. Click here to read Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

Ritual is part of our daily lives. Rituals are the ways we honor moments of significance. The special occasions that bring us into community with loved ones throughout the year. The carols we sing at Christmas, the blowing out of birthday candles, the first dance at a wedding, the pallbearers carrying the casket, the blessing of babies in our places of worship. We need rituals to make sense of the world. And we need rituals to make room for the holy in our presence, to recognize that the holy is already among us.   Links:  Click here to read Amy Davis Abdallah's new book Meaning in the Moment. Click here to find Shannon K. Evans on Instagram. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

Let me be set free by love, O God. Let me be set free to love. What if that's the thing? Settling into the reality of our lives, receiving it as it is. And being set free by love—the love of ourselves, the love of this season of our lives, the love of ones we're charged to care for, and the love of God?  Discerning the law of love in our hearts, and being set free by it.    Links:  Click here to find Celtic Benediction: Morning and Night Prayers. Click here to find  The Celtic Way of Prayer. Find last week's Slow Practice here. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

Are we paying close enough attention to look with the eyes of reverence, to make space in our imaginations for an image of God that stretches beyond our small experiences and into the “eternal current” of God at work in the world?   Links:  Click here to find the article "The Feminine Way to Wisdom" by David Brooks. This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

Wholeness is not asking for an entirely new way. It's simply asking us to take what's already there and press out the creases, a little at a time.   Links:  Find the full poem by Antonio Machado andTranslated by Robert Bly here. Find  Radical Acceptance: Embracing your Life with the Heart of a Buddha, by Tara Branch here. Find my instagram posts about the brain treatment Ace and I recieved here and here.  This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

Today's replay is from Episode 18, in which I shared about how, after my dad died, I went months without the debilitating migraines that defined my two years before his death. How, when I recorded that episode, I hoped those months of lightness without pain were a true healing. I had been worried to share that story, because what if I called myself “healed” and then the migraines came back?    Listener, they did. In the summer of 2022 they returned with a vengeance and have remained.     What do I believe about those sweet months in my deepest time of grief, when I was free of pain? Was it an answer to my dad's prayer, to mine? Was it a gift in a season of suffering? Was it relief from the stress of watching my dad suffer?    In her book To Be Made Well, Amy Julia Becker writes that, “to live in God's healing presence is like swimming in the ocean: immense, frightening, powerful, beautiful. Where, as the Psalmist writes: ‘deep calls to deep,' where answers don't come easily, where pain is exposed rather than covered over, where healing leads to transformation.”    Whatever healing means for me, I want my pain—both the physical and emotional—to be exposed rather than covered over. Healing as transformation.    Links: This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Click HERE for free downloads/printables  Check out The Slow Way online store Read more from @amyjuliabecker Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads Micha's other podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara. Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

This replay of Episode 34 from August 2022 considers the language we use when we talk about “seeking God.” What is authentic faith? And what does it mean for it to be a long-term, whole-hearted pursuit that involves the world around us, our stories, and our particular ways of being. Healthy spirituality needs the body. It can never be a mind-trick. It involves the kind of integration required in knowing our habits and motives and weaknesses, and connecting those to our pursuit of the expansive love of the Divine. Links: This reflection and practice were also published in my Slow Way letter Read The Sound of Life's Unspeakable Beauty by Martin Schleske Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly letter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads Micha's other podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.   Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

May the last late light of summer glow spread wide enough to stir your longing for whatever it is your body, your soul, your heart is asking you to notice. May you walk slower this week into the end of the summer so you can listen to the stirring. May you notice the nudge of the Spirit pointing to love even in the close of one story and the opening sentence of another.    Links:  I announced my new book and cover a few weeks ago on Instagram. So excited to share it with you! This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

“Inasmuch as we are dying,” Shannon K. Evans writes in her book Rewilding Motherhood, “we are also creating. Inasmuch as old things are passing away, we are also being made new. We are less of who we were and so much more of who we will be. . . God is all in all.”  For something to become new, the old thing must let go—a shadow lengthening, a leaf releasing from the branch, the earth tilting ever so slightly away from the source of light.  Links:  Here's a link to Shannon K. Evans' book Rewilding Motherhood I announced my new book and cover a few weeks ago on Instagram. So excited to share it with you! This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

We only get two billion heartbeats. We can hummingbird them, or tortoise them. The faster we zoom, the more our souls—our engines—burn. That doesn't always have to be a terrible thing. But it does matter.   Links:  Here's a link to Marjorie J. Thompson's Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life And here's a link to One Long River of Song by Brian Doyle. I announced my new book and cover a few weeks agoon Instagram. So excited to share it with you! This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

What does it mean to let our grief shape us into elders, choosing wisdom over bitterness? I'm certain the answer is in the circle of welcome: the magic of our fragile hearts holding one another's fragile hearts, and how, somehow, in this uncertain carrying we honor each other's experiences, loves, and sufferings. We learn to be vulnerable together, which just might be the hardest thing of all.   Links:  Here's a link to The Wild Edge of Sorrow And here's a link to One Long River of Song. I announced my new book and cover a few weeks agoon Instagram. So excited to share it with you! This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads.  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.   Quick LinksGet Embed PlayerShare on SocialDownload Audio File  

Much of life is a choice to fling or not to fling. Will we be extravagant with the love we've been given, or will we hold ourselves back because of fear, the chance that all our flinging might not make a difference, or that we'll be hurt in the process? “An abundant imagination feeds us courage,” my pastor Michael Rudzena said. “There is more than just one shot. There are seeds showering down all around us.”   Links:  Here's a link to some of Barbara Brown Taylor's sermon on this passage. And here's a link to my pastor Michael Rudzena's sermon on the same passage. I announced my new book and cover last week on Instagram. So excited to share it with you! This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads. (Who needs Twitter?!)  Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

In his longest recorded sermon, Jesus taught about the importance of the process. “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”  Asking, I've learned, isn't a one and done process. Just as searching is a thing that keeps on going. We turn the room over until we find one treasure, and then—amazingly?— that treasure leads us to hunt for the next one.  Ask and search, Jesus said. Knock. And do it together. Ask and search and knock together.  Links:  I announced my new book and cover last week on Instagram. So excited to share it with you! This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads. (Who needs Twitter?!)  Micha's other podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

I have a lot of regrets from my younger years of loving a God who seemed both demanding of sacrifice and somehow, simultaneously, filled with mercy. I didn't know how to reconcile the two. So I preached a message of both to myself. Struggling with how one might turn one's heart around without Love in the first place. Not knowing how, when I was most afraid, I leaned into the hollow how-tos, forgoing mercy when it felt too complicated. Sometimes exclusion is easier than the playful mercy of Jesus.    Links:  I announced my new book and cover yesterday on Instagram! So excited to share it with you! This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Threads. (Who needs Twitter?!)  Micha's other podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Preorder my new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and available everywhere books are sold.  

I haven't written much about how I became LGBTQ+ affirming almost a decade ago. It was a slow process, one that was born of relationships with dear-to-me queer folks, revelations of the high percentage of LGBTQ+ people who have suffered deeply in the often abusive hand of the Church, and it was the work of Jesus in me, revealing the way of transforming love in a world where we cling to rules, even we see those rules destroying the lives of God's beloveds. This is about how I've come to know Jesus, how I've come to understand the movement of the Spirit of God in the world. It's not an argument where I try to convince anyone of my reading of particular verses that seem to reject LGBTQ+ relationships. Changing one's mind on this particularly thorny subject in the Church is not about finally understanding the original Greek of Paul's letters, or reading the right scholar. It's about perspective, experience, lens. I can't convince anyone that I'm right, and that's not my job. But I did feel joy in telling the story of how I put on my Jesus glasses, saw my queer siblings in the way I believe God had been inviting me to see for a long time, and learned to imagine scripture in a way I never had before. Mostly I wanted to tell you about the the quiet and holy sweetness of finally listening to my own conscience and finding that my relief was the voice of God there with me: “Hi, honey.” God said. “I've been here the whole time. You can trust me.” Links:  This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Twitter Micha's other podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Found: A Story of Questions, Grace, and Everyday Prayer is available everywhere books are sold.  

On the Southern Baptist Convention's vote to expel churches with women pastors, my calling to pastor (and the complicated denial of that call by my community and by me), and why I left the Southern Baptist church when I was twenty two, but still find myself brokenhearted for what could have been. Links: Read about the Southern Baptist Convention's recent vote here. Find Martin Laird's book Into the Silent Land here.  This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Newsletter. Find a transcript of this episode here.  Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here Find Micha on Instagram Find Micha on Twitter Micha's other podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.  Found: A Story of Questions, Grace, and Everyday Prayer is available everywhere books are sold.