So, I Have a Podcast!

this good word podcast actual pastorI am at my best when I am creating and expanding and risking. That's not true for everyone, but I know it's true for me. And when those risky, expansive creations involve words, I explode with joy. Today is one of those days that I get to share something brand new with you, and I hope it delights you, inspires you, and makes you hungry to live your life.About two and a half years ago, I started The Actual Pastor, because I wanted to share my attempts to live my life as is, instead of as if. I wanted to share my actual experiences - all the joy, pain, beauty, and ugliness, all of it - with the hope that you would be inspired to live your actual life as is, instead of as if. It's been such a great journey and it's not over. I'll keep writing and I am looking forward to continually being expanded right alongside of you (remember, we're verbs, not nouns). Thank you for your encouragement, your partnership, and for helping to create this community here at The Actual Pastor.But today, on to the creative, expansive, and risky: I'm launching a podcast.It's called This Good Word, and it's all about reclaiming what's holy about our humanity.We've been taught in so many different ways that our humanity stands in the way of our holiness. We're taught to try hard to master our humanity, keeping it at bay so that we can access the sacred. We're taught that we need to try hard to be less human if we want to be more spiritual. In this podcast, I'd like to joyfully and playfully blow that notion up.I've found that it's precisely the messy reality of my humanity that is almost always the portal to experiencing God. Over and over again, my experience is that I'm met in my humanity by a Divinity that isn't threatened by the darkest corner of my darkest thought or action. And I've found that when I'm met by God before I get things straightened out, I experience a kind of joy that is limitless and generative. Being holy both includes and transcends our humanity. And when we realize that, we can give birth to good things. When we fail, and then we find out there is a reality greater than our failure that launches us back out into a new beginning, we are truly free. And more free people makes this world very good.So every Thursday, I'll unpack one word that will help us reclaim what's holy about our humanity. I'll tell stories of my own life, the lives of others, and of the unbelievably bizarre and human stories found in the Scriptures. Sometimes I'll interview some of my amazing friends because sharing friends is one of my favorite things to do. And at the end of each podcast, I'll share a few things that have been blowing my mind lately - books, songs, art, movies, other podcasts, recipes, poetry - and maybe your mind will be blown as well.Today's word is human. I had so much fun recording it. Hope you like it.You can listen to This Good Word on iTunes, or podbean, or you can copy my RSS feed and plug it into whatever you use to listen to podcasts. Or, you can just come over here to The Actual Pastor, and click on the link on the right side of my homepage.And oh, if you like it, would you please share it with people you think might also like it, and/or give it an honest review on iTunes? Thank you!In it together!