Meet visual artist, world traveler, and essayist number one for “A Tale of Two Trees”, Emily Verdoorn. Emily chose the song “You Belong” from the album, and wrote an essay called “Rain” exploring a new kind of thirsty longing that often follows having tasted Living Water.

I had a conversation this week about the need for encouragement, and how we often keep the good things we could say to each other to ourselves for a variety of reasons. They go unsaid. But no one can fill their own cup; we need to say the good things out loud to one another.

A friend asked about how to deal with cynicism, and it’s been on my mind since. What an important question. This week, I’m sharing some thoughts on that, and I’ll close with a prayer.

So often, good things are made to feel bad. But the Lord is always redeeming words and ideas that have gotten muddied by bad experiences or deceit. This week, I’ll share a recent occasion of that for me, and my friend Amy Malskeit will close us with a “Prayer for God’s Nearness.”

I make terrible art all the time. I think what keeps us from making stuff, is feeling like we ought to be good at it first. But that’s impossible. So, this week, I’m thinking about the invitation to art-making as a way God extends grace to us, which frees us to just start enjoying it.

On a walk this week, I felt a reluctance to acknowledge the goodness of the emerging springtime beauty, and I wondered why gratitude felt a little dangerous to me. This week, I’ll be exploring how gratitude is connected to hope, and how hurt can make hope scary. I’ll close with a prayer for God’s healing kindness.

Welcome to Season 5 of “One Thousand Words – Stories on the Way!” This week, I felt like I didn’t want to add to the noise, but instead to point to words and sounds that “make quiet.”

Meet teacher, poet, and essayist for “Only the Lover Sings”, Rex Bradshaw. Rex chose the song “Meet me at the Well” from the album and wrote a wonderful essay called “The Digger’s Tale”. In it, Rex explores the wells we all dig on our own that run dry, and a meeting with One who is himself the wellspring of Living Water.

Meet educator, author, and essayist for “Only the Lover Sings”, Junius Johnson. Junius chose the song “That won’t stop Him” from the album and wrote a gut-wrenching essay of the best kind called “All you have to do is die: the power of abiding in death”. In it, Junius walks with us to the shadowed valleys of our hearts, where we discover Jesus is more than willing to meet us with his redeeming care.

Meet writer, gardener, and essayist for “Only the Lover Sings”, Amy Baik Lee :) Amy chose the song “I See a Light” from the album and wrote a rich essay called “The Sound of Eucatastrophe”. In it, Amy leads us in story as she goes looking for the ways Jesus, in the midst of our darkness, meets us with a sudden, unexpected turn towards joy from “beyond the walls of the world.”