But what if we've tried to keep gratitude too quiet? What if it gets buried in the lines of our journals? What if gratitude is looking for a way to ripple beyond us–spilling over like uncontained laughter?

Links mentioned:

1. The Spill-Over Gratitude Challenge
2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

Reversing the hurry of the holidays sounds lovely, but let's get practical. Without a plan, I get swept into the busyness of the holiday season. I don't linger. I squeeze in more and move faster and connect less. You too?

Links mentioned:

1. The Spill-Over Gratitude Challenge
2. The Greatest Gift: Unlocking the Full Love Story of Christimas by Ann Voskamp
3. Merry and Bright: Rediscover the Hope, Peace, and Joy of Christamas by One Story Well.
4. The Spirit of Christmas: Discovering His Presence Throughout the Advent Season by Cyntha Ruchti.
5. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
6. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

You might find yourself in a similar situation, caught between what you think you should be able to do, and what you can, at this moment, achieve. Between the voice in your head that says slowing down is shameful and the kind tone you'd use to encourage anyone besides yourself.

So until you have the courage to tell this to yourself, here is permission to break pace. Do solid B work. Set a boundary. Begin something brand new.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

Perhaps the biggest threat to thriving is apathy.

Have you found this to be true?

Stop reading your Bible and your hunger for it dissipates.

Stop listing gratitude and it's harder to find gift in the hard.

Stop praising God and fear settles in.

Stop praying and God feels farther away.

Stop investing in your marriage and it begins to fray.

Stop your workout rhythm and it's difficult to pick it back up.

Stop your healthy eating habits and old cravings come back.

The law of inertia comes into play when we pause forward momentum in anything. We either keep learning, growing, becoming–or our gains begin to dissolve.

There is no stand-still.

It's forward or backward.

Growth or regression.

Thriving or declining.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

We enter autumn a bit unsteady. Feeling behind but also needing soul stillness. Burning candles as we grasp for inner peace.

So for both you and I, here are ten fall-back-on truths to anchor us this autumn season.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

That longing you can't silence for community–to know and be known–is neither superficial or selfish. It's the evidence of God's heart for you.

Belonging wasn't your idea first. It was His. Before the first created man had breath in his lungs, God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit existed in perfect community. As Jennie Allen says, "Our God has been relational forever. It means that He created us out of relationship for relationship."

And we feel it sharply when we're out of sync with God's design. While we're created for community, many walk around feeling lonely. No matter the number of people in our periphery, aloneness is often internal. Even in a crowd of people, many feel like an outsider.

Perhaps that's how you feel today. Like few know the actual you. Like you're the only one without a "best friend."

Researchers tell us the percentage of people without close friends is rising at a concerning rate. But it's not a statistic when it's your own life. Your own ache.

You might downplay what's missing by staying busy. Filling your life with God-honoring activity. Trying to grow "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). But still you crave relational depth . . . and there's a reason why.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.

2. For my top friendship deepening tips–applicable to both neighbor and non-neighbor friendships–grab the free download HERE.

3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

We're hearing ripples of revival. Seeing fresh hunger for God in unexpected places. Feeling the stirring within our own souls.

God is on the move, as always. But we're noticing it now.

The cracks in our culture—the very things that deeply grieve us—let the light of Christ in. Light is always brightest when the dark is darkest. And isn't it like God to bring uncontainable hope alongside the hard-to-reconcile and still-being-redeemed?

The holy rumble of God's kingdom coming here "on earth as it will be in heaven" (Matthew 6:10) begs the question: how do we fan the fire?

What will keep our hearts expectant? How can we nurture this new hunger for God?

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

I see it in your eyes that can't mask the tiredness, hear it in the cracks in your voice, feel it with you in the hurried steps and anxious scrolling: life feels fractured. Unsteady. At times, unfathomable.

We quiet our questions, assuming God sees coming redemption before we can glimpse it. But we can't hush the disquiet in our souls. Is there a way to thrive no matter what life throws our way? To grow resilience that keeps hope alive?

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.