Let's normalize listening to albums again instead of playlists. Today, I'm starting my morning off with The Gorillaz eponymously named debut album from 2001. open.spotify.com/album/0YvYmL...

What would it look like for the Church to confront the daily injustices in our world while also reclaiming its role as prophet & pastor in the valleys of dry bones that produced these dark days in the first place? We have to avoid the trap of treating only the symptoms of the sickness.

From a scriptural point of view, an argument can be made that using people as props as you write your own story is one of the most egregious things we can do in the eyes of God.

If your country is funding policies that end with children holding empty pots and dishes through a fence hoping for some rice or stew, you’re NOT on the right side of history.

So, how many of you went back to Twitter eventually because engagement was abysmal everywhere else?

Modernity taught us to eschew the mystery in exchange for scientific methods. You can’t find the beauty of birdsong by dissecting the bird.

The blog drop from last week: Being Clothed in Christ www.storyofndblake.com/p/the-24-rhy...

I’ve taken to wearing suspenders. I think they are superior to belts in every way except when you want to wear a shirt untucked. My wife said, “Oh man, you’re firmly entering your old man phase.” But I ask you, what gives more elderly vibes … suspenders or moo-moos?

Generational “sin” is actually generational trauma. A rose by any name still has thorns. Talk amongst yourselves.

Side note: I put suspenders on this morning with my dress clothes, and I’ve never felt more confident. Take that pants. You’re not going nowhere!

History is going to condemn to our generation. They will look at the data and wonder how we ever got here, and why we stood by complicity and watched it happen. There's a chance we will be judged more harshly than Nazi Germany. I don't believe we're there yet, but we're pacing ahead of the curve.

Man, I’ve really neglected this space. When engagement drops, it takes all the fun out of it. But I keep collecting followers somehow, so maybe it’s time to spend more time here. Are my post-evangelical, parish-focused, new monastic friends still here?

The irony of what is happening in LA, the makeup of ICE as far right extremists, and the reaction of the population is that THIS is the true meaning of “Don’t Tread on Me”. No flag needed.

The most profoundly deep and spiritually impactful books in my life have been “little books”— Merton, Schmemann, many of the Desert Fathers. So, why does everyone want to write big books? Let’s write smaller books with fewer words, focused deeply on one singular thing.

Here's a universal fact about story, and I don't care if the narrative is spiritual, professional, relational, or about what happened last weekend. No story gets good. No story becomes transformational to the listener. No story becomes worth hearing ... ... until something goes terribly wrong.

Dear TikTok ... I want to thank you for making me sing, "I ain't got no panties on, ain't got no panties on. I ain't got no panties on, on the dance floor." Over and over again. This is not an ideal situation for someone in ministry and under public scrutiny.

Happy to be a part of this team.

When the government tries to limit the dyes in our food because they're unhealthy at the same time it rolls back almost all of the regulations surrounding industrial dumping into our water, you're being bamboozled.

My feed is filled with hot takes & responses to the current administration. while I agree it’s important to be informed & prophetic in our response, I also believe we can lose sight of the forest for the trees. These days are symptoms of a larger sickness. The church must address the sickness.

We removed the church from the boundaries of "place", but in doing so, we also removed the context by which "church" is lived. A group of individuals, no matter how large or small that group is, can not be called a "church" if they experience their faith in a vacuum of individual(ized) salvation.

Scripture doesn’t attempt to answer every question. The goal of study isn’t to master the text, it’s to be mastered by the Spirit through it. We don’t study to know, but to be formed—not for better apologetics but for better attunement. New Post Drop Below. 👇 open.substack.com/pub/storyofn...

Learning to love the place God has rooted me for what it is presently and not for it’s potential is helping to teach me to love my neighbor (and myself) fully in the present instead of measured against some imagined potential.

Most of what I know about Alcatraz I learned from playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2.

New Post Just Dropped! There is a kind of mercy to a daily rhythm rooted in prayer. The body knows it. The land knows it. Our souls remember it too. Praying modified hours may not fit our way of life, but that might entirely be the point. www.storyofndblake.com/p/simplified...

Lots of plates spinning right now. Bandwidth meter is blinking red. But God is moving, and there is nowhere I’d rather be than in that presence & opportunity. But all of that calls me into the wild to recalibrate and quiet myself for the week ahead.

Holy Week Retreat Views

What we are seeing is the systematic and strategic dismantling of an educated middle class in efforts to create a class with less upward mobility & more dependency (and less leverage) on the upper class for jobs and wages. This is not a drill.

On a long enough timeline, nature will learn to speak a new language of interdependence and syncronicity. On a long enough timeline, nature wins. When will we learn to speak the language again as well? www.bbc.com/future/artic...

One of my newest considerations when deciding whether to make a new friend as an adult is whether or not I want another person sending me videos all day, every day. Mostly, I do not. My backlog is daunting as it is.

In the course of the idom, "F*ck around, and find out." We, as a country, are now firmly in the " ... find out" phase.

Hello, friends. I am through seminary midterms. What have I missed?

A couple years ago, I set out to try to better understand my wife and daughters by writing poems to them and through the way they see and experience the world. This showed up in my memories today. I think it's one of my favorite poems that I've written.

How many of you are over on Instagram? I’m trying to do more visual stuff over there. Hit me up if you’re so inclined. www.instagram.com/storyofndblake

Obedience often defies reason. Giving with an open hand isn’t about logic—it’s about trust. The widow in Zarephath gave what little she had, and God provided. What if generosity is less about what we have & more about the posture of our hearts? Read more: www.storyofndblake.com/p/the-24-rhy...

On this St. Patrick’s Day, we remember a saint who walked the wild places by choice, in obedience, with faith as his guide. Sláinte to the pilgrims, the storytellers, and those who find home in the hinterlands of faith. May you find a welcoming hearth today. ( art via our church speaks )

Anyone interested in a pack shakedown video? My 2025 Three-Season Rewilding Retreat bag is packed & weighed: Base pack weight of 19.4 lbs, but that includes moving to a bear canister full-time & bringing the old Thermarest RidgeRest out of retirement as a luxury item for my 45 year old back.

New post just dropped ... We won't bring The Kingdom of God to earth by sitting atop a conquered throne. We'll cultivate it around a shared table. His kingdom advances through hospitality, generosity, and shared meals, not manipulation & force. www.storyofndblake.com/p/24-rhythms...

When I think of where I was just a few years ago—broken, riddled with anxiety, tired of being alive—and how blessed and hopeful I feel today, I can only smile and be grateful that in my most desperate hour, G-d heard my guttural cry and met me, as he always has done.

It seems like there is yet another influx of users jumping over here from Twitter/X. If you're seeking a community of post-evangelicals, exvangelicals, spiritual wildlings, and hopeful exiles ... I've been curating this starter pack for awhile. go.bsky.app/UEvvYhk

Just saw someone post that they didn’t have “buying weed at the store and eggs off the streets” on their teenage bingo board, and I feel that.

Last Tuesday evening was such a welcome reprieve from the cold of this long winter that I went outside to enjoy my Tuesday evening class at Pillar Seminary around a good fire. These classmates have become my spiritual family, and I feel so grateful to have them in my life.

Me: In Christ, we're called to treat immigrants with respect in their imago dei. Facebook: No country on the planet has open borders! Me: I'm not talking about open borders. I'm talking about treating people with dignity. Facebook: So, you want people to kidnap & abuse your daughters?! Me: ...

In that spiritual & emotional exhaustion today, I keep thinking of this meditation. “Give me a candle of the Spirit, O God, as I go down into the deeps of my being ... Take me down to the spring of my life, and tell me my nature and my name ... Out of the depths I cry to You …” George Appleton

Radical hospitality is an act of defiance in a world obsessed with productivity. It refuses to measure worth by usefulness & instead builds tables wide enough for the forgotten. Hospitality is not a gesture. It is the architecture of the Kingdom already here. www.storyofndblake.com/p/the-24-rhy...

For me, Lent is a forty day wilderness of putting my spiritual house in order so that I can fully celebrate the majesty & miracle of Christ’s complete victory on Easter. I repair neglected walls & drag spiritual serpents from their hiding places. Not a great time, but absolutely worthwhile.

Explain your theology in one gif. I’ll start.

100% chance I’m sleeping outside on Tuesday evening — gotta’ touch some grass and have my morning coffee with the brisk air against my skin.

I’ve been on a quiet weightless journey since I was diagnosed with diabetes in 2023 — I’m down about 53 lbs. What that means is that while I am not “confident beach thin”, I AM “hide in a closet and scare my daughter on Sunday morning thin,” and that’s almost better.

I’m pretty sure my boys could beat me up (though I tell they couldn’t), so I like to remind them that I’m still cooler than they are.

Somehow ... Pope Francis being on his deathbed makes everything else going on in the world seem all the more ominous.