Walking with Jesus in the Slow Lane

Epiphanies need margin

Well, it’s been a wildly meaningful week. Which, I confess, is the greatest understatement of the century. Last Sunday evening, a group of five men and I took my newly 13-year-old son Elliot up a mountain where he welcomed him into the journey of becoming a young man. Elliot went up Mt. June as a boy. He came down a man. There were words of blessings, artifacts exchanged, prayers, eucharist, and an anointing with oil. Thus begins the next five years of preparing our only son to be a gentle man in this fierce world. Thanks to Nic, Josh, Trev, Sam, and James for daring to be the Godfathers you are and will be. Elliot is beyond blessed to have you. As am I. Thanks for being who you are to us.

For the weekly devotional, I am overjoyed to share a piece I published over at Beautiful Discipleship. Before the summer kicked into gear, Tabitha McDuffee—the site’s visionary and curator—generously invited me to contribute a piece of my choosing. I said yes. Knowing that this week of the calendar represented the first week of the semester for my students at the University, I knew I’d have limited time and an inability to write two pieces this week. So, I share it here.

Over the summer, I’ve reflected a considerable amount on the intersection between one’s willingness to slow down and one’s capacity to hear God’s voice and experience his presence in a transformative way. I offer this as my weekly devotional, “Walking with Jesus in the Slow Lane.” Click the image below to view it. And consider reading Tabitha’s work. She is making a meaningful contribution to the field of formation and discipleship. I commend her to you.

So, to the piece. And thanks for allowing me to be in your life this week.

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Thanks for reading. You can always find me wasting time on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Or check out my podcast with Dr. Nijay Gupta at Slow Theology. If you found this content helpful to your journey, yay! Consider enjoying my most recent book The Gift of Thorns: Jesus, the Flesh, and the War for our Wants, which was released with Zondervan in February of 2024. Within, I explore the topic of human desire from the perspective of Scripture, theology, and experience—with particular interest to how we can be formed into the image of Christ through our desires. In short, it’s about why our cultural mandate to “you do you” is so profoundly unhelpful to the follower of Jesus. You can support my work by reading it! And sharing about your experience. Click on the image below to get yourself a copy.