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.

Grace is a trust equation: our nothing plus God’s everything equals ripple-effect redemption.

God’s grace, according to my friend Jennifer Sakata–and host of Living the Grace Life Podcast–“is that forward movement that restores connection and rebuilds relationships.” How perfectly this line summarizes 2 Corinthians 5:19!

It is central to our good news that God was in the Anointed making things right between Himself and the world. This means He does not hold their sins against them. But it also means He charges us to proclaim the message that heals and restores our broken relationships with God and each other.

The Voice

There’s better up ahead—relational wholeness between God and us, us and others–and grace gets us there.

Links mentioned:

1. Grab the Enneagram Neighboring Lists (available both as phone wallpaper and as a printable pdfs).
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.

An others-first mentality seems rare these days. Maybe that’s why “charity of the heart,” as Paul describes it, always makes my gratitude list (1 Cor. 8:1). Life can feel like a race in slow motion, where making space for someone else comes at a cost.

But you and I get to be the sort of people who normalize uncommon rhythms–like noticing the people in front of us, getting to know our neighbors, and building others up.

We are those who love because we’re outrageously loved (1 John 4:19). Who serve because we copy the One who serves us (Matthew 20:28). Who go lower, not higher. Who build up, not tear down, each other with our words. Who let others go ahead while we look out for their blind spots.

Have you caught the shift in your heart when you put someone else first?

Making someone else’s day makes yours better too.

Encouraging someone else lifts your spirit as well.

Building others up also builds you up.

But perhaps you need some fresh ideas, relevant to your life and your neighborhood. Here are eight practical ways to build up others.

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.

To the one doing the work while someone else gets promoted.

To the one diligently practicing, who hasn’t been picked yet.

To the one quietly faithful, serving in selfless and unseen ways.

To the one holding up the team but never getting credit for it.

To the one behind the brilliant ideas, the one always building others up, and the one quick to assume responsibility but not the praise.

To the mama making sacrifices no one will ever know about.

To the beautiful soul who carefully avoids the spotlight.

To the neighbor offering snacks, rides, toys, or encouragement, never expecting a thanks.

Here’s good news: the praise that matters most is already coming–from Him.

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.

The very lives we live fit like iridescent shapes into the kaleidoscope of God’s plan for this wonderful, aching earth. We bump up against each other as life jostles us. It may feel at times like friction. But look through the kaleidoscope and you’ll see the stunning picture we create together.

We’re a colorful assortment of polygons differentiated by shape and shade. And all this difference, together, makes the ever-changing picture beautiful.

Together, we point to Him–as God-reflectors and missional neighbors. You and I get to mirror the example Christ set through the way we love our neighbors.

Let’s look at a few practical, genuine ways to be a good neighbor.

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.

The very lives we live fit like iridescent shapes into the kaleidoscope of God’s plan for this wonderful, aching earth. We bump up against each other as life jostles us. It may feel at times like friction. But look through the kaleidoscope and you’ll see the stunning picture we create together.

We’re a colorful assortment of polygons differentiated by shape and shade. And all this difference, together, makes the ever-changing picture beautiful.

Together, we point to Him–as God-reflectors and missional neighbors. You and I get to mirror the example Christ set through the way we love our neighbors.

Let’s look at a few practical, genuine ways to be a good neighbor.

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.

3. For more ideas on how we can help each other out of ruts and cover each other’s blind spots, check out the Enneaneighboring Summer Series. You can also grab the Enneagram Neighboring lists–available both as phone wallpapers and printables–for tailored ideas on being a good neighbor HERE.

It makes all the difference, doesn’t it, whether we’re running away from or towards something?

One feels like friction, the other like invitation.

One feels like failure licking at our heels, the other like movement itself is a win.

I slow to a walk beneath the cloudless sky, pondering a question: When have I been the one running from something?

From a decision I didn’t want to make.

From conflict I’d rather avoid.

From a yes that felt too costly.

From a necessary no that could disrupt the peace.

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.

Can we talk about how to stop hiding where it feels safe and cozy and predictable? Because maybe what makes you “come alive,” as Howard Thurman famously wrote, is somewhere beyond the line of where risk meets comfort.

Links mentioned:

1. To learn more about Enneagram 8s–including what we appreciate most about you, how you can use your strengths to mirror God’s grace to your neighbors, and (for the rest of us) how we can best missionally love the Enneagram 8s we know–grab the Enneagram Neighboring Lists. Each list is available both as phone wallpaper and as a printable pdf.
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.