Jay Wolf says he "retired" from speaking, but every now and again he'll join me on stage. This month we spoke about how disability is a gift to society at the @praxis_hq annual summit. I think it might be the second most hopeful place on earth...right behind Hope Heals Camp! Our two days with the Praxis community were proof that God is healing humanity, and he’s doing it THROUGH humanity. Praxis is an organization that gets the most creative Christians together in a room to make really good things happen. They call all this good work “redemptive quests”—meaningful actions that bring healing to the world through risk, imagination, obedience, and sacrificial love. These quests are changing the trajectory of the human story, bending us toward wholeness. Many of the redemptive quests we heard about were happening on a large scale, like housing solutions and employment opportunities. But I think redemptive quests are available on a personal level, too. I’m convinced the most fundamental healing of the world might happen if we each embarked on a small, quiet redemptive quest of our own. After all, the big trajectory of humanity is made up of the paths of individual humans. So if a critical mass of us are living out little stories of hope and healing, humankind’s big story might tilt in that direction as well. All of our lives (and problems) are invitations to imagine what a path to redemption might look like. You and I are capable of finding our creative best within the boundaries of our realities. This boundary isn't a curse. It’s the beginning of your unique quest. I’m praying that God fills you with a tireless hope in one-day redemption that makes all the hard parts of your quest bearable. I can't guarantee you it will be easy, but I can guarantee you this: You’ll never be alone on the journey. There are a multitude of us arcing toward healing right alongside you, including Jesus himself. 💌 This is the short version of a longer reflection because I NEVER have a shortage of words! Subscribe to my (free!) Hope Note to get all my thoughts on redemptive quests in your inbox tomorrow morning. Comment HOPE NOTE and I'll even send you the link to sign up! (fb)

At some point, you’ve probably felt like you were living in some strange alternate version of your life. Maybe it was after a tragedy as dramatic as a stroke. Perhaps it was something as mundane as realizing you’re middle aged. We desperately want to find our way back to the way life used to be, but it turns out that version of life is beyond our reach for good. So what are our options here? We can keep longing for what was—unsatisfied, absent, and stuck. Or we can learn to love the “new normal” in front of us. Yeah, I like that option. Today I’m joined by my wise and wonderful friend Susan Robinson to uncover how we can learn to love the lives we never imagined living. I loved this conversation so much. Here’s a preview of what we got into… ❤️‍🩹 The thing that helped make my life feel not only normal, but hopeful ❤️‍🩹 What advice I’d give to my pre-stroke self ❤️‍🩹 What I miss most about my old life ❤️‍🩹 The childhood dream that has been the most difficult to release I hope you enjoy this important conversation, friend, and, even more than that, I hope you can learn to truly enjoy your one precious life. (fb)