Pa Avett and faith

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 11:16:17 -0700

A few years back, I was at an Avett Brother’s concert, and during an interlude one of the brothers talked about his background with faith. As he shared, he said something like, “Growing up my dad told us, ‘There’s nothing more important than your faith, but don’t take it too seriously. I mean, what do you do with that?!’”

I imagined how confusing that instruction could have felt to a kid, but as an adult attempting to live a version of faith with less intensity and angst than in my earlier years, the sentiment deeply resonated. I’ve mulled it over a lot since, wanting language to express what ‘Pa Avett’s’ instruction stirred up in me. There’s so much tension in it. How can something be The Most Important Thing yet also carry the risk of being taken too seriously?

I was taught to painstakingly filter every aspect of life through my faith, because my well-being now and for eternity depended on it. And with those stakes, how is hypervigilance not the best response? But I started getting burned out, and I remember jadedly wondering when all the attention to certainty and right-ness would end. Would I need to make sure I was going to the ‘right’ grocery store so I wouldn’t miss some opportunity that God had for me? Do I start examining the motives in my sock choice?

Jesus spoke of offering life to the full. Paul speaks of unburdened peace. Yet, what I often observed in both me and others was an anxious striving, a heavy-almost oppressive-weight of fear and responsibility, and an endless list of expectation. It seemed...Read More

Bound to come some trouble...

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:56:40 -0800

The line “bound to come some trouble to your life” popped into my head the other day as I exited the shower. It’s from a largely forgotten song of my youth. I let it play out in my head until I had to just sit and listen to it. Commence complex tears.

There's bound to come some trouble to your life

But that ain't nothing to be afraid of
There's bound to come some trouble to your life
But that ain't no reason to fear
I know there's bound to come some trouble to your life
Reach out to Jesus
Hold on tight
He's been there before and he knows what it's like
You'll find he's there

There's bound to come some tears up to your eyes
That ain't nothing to be ashamed of
I know there's bound to come some tears up in your eyes
That ain't no reason to fear
I know there's bound to come some tears up in your eyes
Reach out to Jesus
Hold on tight
He's been there before and he knows what it's like
It was pre-2020, and I was full of hope and vision, bursting with an idea of starting something. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it might include enneagram work, spiritual direction, and various other ‘life enriching’ elements. I called it Flourish, as in, to flourish in life. When I looked for a web domain, Flourish was taken (no surprise there), so I started playing with words to flesh out the vision I had in my head, settling on ‘Engage, Rest, Flourish”.

Those words represented the mix of doing and being that seemed core to human flourishing, and I still think that’s a decent assumption. During that hope filled season, I was experiencing some of the deepest spiritual beauty that I ever had, and it was happening after a bout of cancer that had gutted me and our young family. It seemed that maybe all I (we’d) gone through might be leading to something truly full and rich ahead, and I dreamed of bringing others along on that kind of ride.

But like life so often does, it twisted and turned and that season of beauty ended up being a small oasis between the cancer and the next stretch of hell and heartbreak.

My Flourish site has sat vacant, even as I got certified in the Enneagram and am nearing completion of my training as a spiritual director. At this point I have no illusions of prescriptive answers to inspire flourishing in myself or others, but I do believe flourishing is possible, even if the road there is long and winding. My hope is that here you will find a door to the rest and connection that you need, and a safe companion for the journey.

To just...Read More