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.