Embracing Downward Mobility: Choosing A Different Success

February 23, 2024 By Jeff McLain

Downward Mobility? For generations, upward mobility has defined the American Dream. Upward mobility defines the way we, particularly as Americans, have placed importance on ascending the ladders of success, economic prosperity, accomplishment, fame, and material possessions. Not only have Americans valued upward mobility, but there has been a capacity and capability in the systems for individuals to effectively climb these ladders. For years, the professional and organizational cultures around us were driven by the rewards of upward mobility. An aspect... Read more

Discovering God Podcast: The Pilgrimage of Faith

December 21, 2023 By Jeff McLain

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For the past few months, I have been cohosting the weekly Discovering God Podcast with Rip Wahlberg. On this Discovering God Podcast, Rip and I address many different subjects – including the scriptures, theology, spirit-filled living, Christian living, matters of faith, and our spiritual journeys. For those of you interested, the audio version of our Discovering God Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and a lot of other podcast directories. You can also watch the... Read more

Embracing the Unfinished Journey: Insight from Martha & Mary

December 17, 2023 By Jeff McLain

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Sometimes when I come home and look at the many repairs that I need to do on my house, I become defeated by the overwhelming amount of work that I think needs to be done. There are other moments in which I wake up and think about the many projects that I need to get to, but truthfully I never seem to be able to complete all of them. Many weeks, I am transparently overtaken with anxiety about what I... Read more

In Pursuit of Contentment: Lessons By Leo Tolstoy

November 20, 2023 By Jeff McLain

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Besides Leo Tolstoy, many books have looked to address and hold a mirror to humanity’s struggles with consumerism. Perhaps none have addressed it as creatively as How Much Land Does a Man Need by Leo Tolstoy. Though a lesser celebrated work of Tolstoy, this book creatively portrays the timeliness and insatiable consumerism we often have at play in our lives and our relationships with our possessions. This 2010 release of How Much Land Does a Man Need was translated by... Read more

Embracing Tranquility: The Art of Minding Your Own Business

November 19, 2023 By Jeff McLain

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This week, as I took time to contemplate the “art of minding your own business,” I came across a quote credited to Betty White that said, “Just mind your own business, take care of your own affairs, and don’t worry about people so much.” Though I never was infatuated with Betty as much as many others, I still appreciate her gentle reminder to mind our own affairs. White is not the only individual of notoriety to ever suggest such a... Read more

12 Scriptures That Help Us to Lead A Quiet Life

October 30, 2023 By Jeff McLain

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In my previous post, I shared 12 quotes that offer an understanding of what it means to lead a quiet life as a follower of Jesus. Those 12 quotes have helped me on my journey to embrace stillness and navigate the journey towards a quiet life. I like to think that those quotes put some practical understanding around the timeless wisdom that Paul gives us in 1 Thessalonians 4:11. In this blog post, I accentuate 12 scriptures that I think... Read more

12 Quotes That Help Us to Lead A Quiet Life

October 25, 2023 By Jeff McLain

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Through this blog, I have started the journey towards a quiet life by studying Paul’s timeless wisdom to lead a quiet life which was written to the Thessalonian followers of Jesus in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12. In recent posts, I have begun to wrestle with the way busyness and consumeristic living have derailed us from understanding the contentment and significance of a quiet life. I have also explored how Paul’s idea of quiet is a Sabbath-like living of stillness. Without a... Read more

Quiet Living: The Surprising Way Doing Less Achieves More

October 17, 2023 By Jeff McLain

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This week, I came across an intriguing quote attributed to Craig D. Lounsbrough, that reads, “Greatness is born of ordinary men who decided to work extraordinarily hard” (GoodReads). For good or bad, Lounsbrough’s quote speaks to our innate human ability to pursue, actualize, and even produce success in our lives. Transparently, I do not know Craig or the context of his quote, but I do think this quote captures how a world of self-made men and women subconsciously believe that... Read more

Embracing Stillness: Paul’s Prophetic Call to a Quiet Life

October 14, 2023 By Jeff McLain

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The call to live a quiet life may feel both appealing and impossible in the demanding, loud hustle and bustle of our highly anxious and fast-paced society. However, a socio-economic study reveals that society was relatively as anxious, loud, and fast in Thessalonica when Paul wrote his timeless challenge, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life,” to the Thessalonian church (1 Thessalonians 4:11, NIV). Into a culture of abundance, Paul challenges the persecuted Thessalonian Church to ambitiously and... Read more

Lead a Quiet Life: A Journey to Unravel the Ties of Consumerism in a World and Church Obsessed with Excess

October 9, 2023 By Jeff McLain

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Though it feels like a different lifetime, a few decades ago my entire existence could be contained within the confines of a backpack and a blue Samsonite suitcase that was covered in bumper stickers of the artists that I had worked with, festivals I had attended, and places that I had visited. I experienced liberation, I was not shackled by what I owned, because I had few personal possessions to be responsible for. Something in that era possessed a certain... Read more