by Rhett Smith | Sep 21, 2017 | Anxiety, Podcast
I have recently been thinking a lot about the intertwining of vocation and anxiety. What I mean by that is that it seems that part of the journey towards finding vocation is that anxiety is often along for the journey. In my writing and speaking on anxiety, and in my...
by Rhett Smith | Aug 17, 2017 | Intentional Living, Podcast
Wow! I can’t believe I am already at Episode 100. I published my first episode back on March 24, 2015, with the goal of trying to get at least one episode published per week. With that in mind I was hoping to hit 100 episodes right around the two year mark, if...
by Rhett Smith | May 26, 2016 | Depression, Podcast
In episode 64 (the previous episode) I shared about my more recent, and personal struggle with anger. In that episode I also talk a bit about it’s roots being in depression. I have talked before about the link between depression and anger in some of my writings...
by Rhett Smith | May 15, 2013 | Intentional Living
If you are like me, then your mind probably moves at time from one tangential thought to the next. And when you come to your current thought you can look back at the preceding thoughts that got you to where you are currently at. Does that above sentence even make...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 5, 2013 | Intentional Living
Parker Palmer has written one of my all-time favorite books — one that I re-read every year — Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. Powerful…powerful book, and one that I have written on quite a bit over the years.
by Rhett Smith | Jul 17, 2012 | Men
I have to admit to you all that I knew little about male depression until the last ten years when I started reading more and more writers who were openly talking about it. People like Henri Nouwen, Parker Palmer and Archibald Hart to name but just a few. The more and...
by Rhett Smith | Feb 6, 2012 | Men
In Thomas Moore’s book, Care of the Soul, he writes eloquently about the gift that depression may offer people. It’s an opportunity to embrace emotions that we often don’t deal with, leading us to a better understanding of ourselves and how we want...
by Rhett Smith | Jan 27, 2012 | Men
In my continuation on the topic of depression, especially male depression (here and here), I wanted to share something with you by Parker Palmer. In his wonderful book Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (a must read), Parker has one of the most...
by Rhett Smith | Jul 20, 2010 | Marriage
This last week my wife gave birth to our second child, a baby boy. The birth of a child is an amazing event, but I am hard pressed to find an event that better brings to focus one’s limitations in life, quickly eliminating many choices and options, but therefore...
by Rhett Smith | Oct 13, 2009 | Intentional Living
[image by Tamara Areshian] In my last post, When You Refuse To Take Care Of Yourself, You Are Refusing To Take Care Of Those Around You, I just briefly reflected on some comments by Rob Bell at the Catalyst Conference 2009 and how I felt they played into self-care....
by Rhett Smith | Aug 6, 2009 | Intentional Living
[image by net_efekt’s] Marathon Training In the Spring of 2006 I had this deep yearning to run a marathon, something I had never done before, yet something I always wanted to do. Training for this marathon was going to require some shifting of things in my...
by Rhett Smith | Jul 23, 2009 | Leadership
The fourth and final video I shot for LifeChurch.tv on depression aired today and is titled Finding Hope. Monday’s video was An Anchor in the Journey-Exodus 17:1. Tuesday’s video was Depression-At the Movies continued. Wednesday’s video was Walking...
by Rhett Smith | Mar 23, 2009 | Leadership
“The Quaker teacher Douglas Steere was fond of saying that the ancient human question ‘Who am I?’ leads inevitably to the equally important question, ‘Whose am I?’–for there is no selfhood outside of relationship. We must ask the...
by Rhett Smith | Mar 19, 2009 | Leadership
This post is an ongoing reflection on the book Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer. “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the...
by Rhett Smith | Mar 17, 2009 | Writing
It seems we all like books. And we especially like making lists of books. In 2005 I wrote The Five Books I Would Recommend to a College Student…or Actually, to Anyone!, and listed in another post the Top 100 Religious Books of the 20th Century According to...
by Rhett Smith | Mar 16, 2009 | Leadership
“Everything in the universe has a nature, which means limits as well as potentials, a truth well known by people who work daily with the things of the world. Making pottery, for example, involves more than telling the clay what to become. The clay presses back...
by Rhett Smith | Mar 11, 2009 | Leadership
“We arrive in this world with birthright gifts–then we spend the first half of our lives abandoning them or letting other disabuse us of them. As young people, we are surrounded by expectations that may have little to do with who we really are,...
by Rhett Smith | Mar 9, 2009 | Leadership
I have been returning time and time again to one of my favorite books on the topic of identity and vocation, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer. I first read the book in 2002 when I was finishing up my M. Div. at Fuller...
by Rhett Smith | Aug 12, 2008 | Leadership
Parker Palmer is the author of one of my favorite books, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. If you have not read it, then you need to stop what you are doing and get in your car and go pick it up. Or stop what you are doing and order it online....