#26: We are glad to meet all of you! | Ruck The Way Launch

#29: Seen, Encountered, Released: Two Pilgrims on St Cuthbert's Way | Ruck The Way Podcast

UPCOMING PILGRIMAGE: https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage [https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage] Some pilgrimages begin with a plan. This one began with a change of plans. Six men were meant to walk St Cuthbert's Way this season. In the end it was two. Chris and a pastor named Joshua Nash, alone on seventy miles of border country, walking into questions neither of them could have scripted. What they found was the kind of thing the walk tends to give when you stop trying to manage it. A slow reveal. A golden year. A quiet word from God on a tidal island where people have prayed for almost fourteen hundred years. This episode comes in two parts. First, Chris sits down with Gabe to reflect on the journey and on what it means to guide rather than lead. Then we take you out onto Holy Island itself, down into the prayer holes, for a conversation with Joshua about what the road did in him. Timestamps: 00:32 Home from the borders. Chris survives another seventy miles. Recovery, the toll on the body, and why this one was different. 01:29 Cracking the blister code. Flat feet, the wrong wool, and the hard-won wisdom of caring for your feet. 03:04 Every pilgrimage is its own. Chris's fifth St Cuthbert's Way, and his first in June. A month he went into expecting little, and the healing greenness he found instead. 05:00 Meet Joshua Nash. A pastor in midlife. A sabbatical. Two pilgrims where there were meant to be six. 06:55 Receiving the context you did not choose. A new angle on the tagline. Letting the walk do the work means receiving the walk you are actually given. 09:21 Guiding, not leading. The vulnerability of walking alongside. Why the guide has to stay a pilgrim too. 12:20 What pilgrimage actually is. Melrose to Holy Island. Hills, valleys, ruins and abbeys across some of the most heart-achingly beautiful country in the world. 14:00 The five encounters. The land. Your fellow pilgrims. Your own story. The saints who walked before us. And finally, God. 16:14 Evenings at the inn. Boots off, feet up, the day relived around a table. One of the favorite hours. 18:46 A golden year. Chris on his own walk. A fiftieth anniversary, a jubilee, and three words he carried home. 20:42 Seen, encountered, released. What God kept highlighting, mile after mile. 21:40 Into the prayer holes. What these thin places are, and why heaven and earth feel close there. 24:29 On Holy Island with Joshua. The last day, the final ridge, the descent toward the sea. 26:31 A thin place. The prayer holes, Cuthbert's Island, and the saint who loved to get away and be alone with God. 28:20 Who Joshua is. Mercy Road Church outside Detroit. A three-month sabbatical. A desire to go deeper. 31:06 Expectations meet reality. Harder than he imagined. The things he did not anticipate outran the things he did. 33:30 The slow reveal. Pilgrimage is not an event you attend. It is a posture you carry into the rest of your life. 35:45 The sands as the whole journey. Crossing the pilgrim sands, the tar pits in the middle, and finding his footing again. 38:00 Setting the stone down. A bench, a burden laid down, and a word Joshua had rarely heard so clearly. I see you. I love you. I like you. I am proud of you. 40:05 His word to you. If you are facing big decisions or carrying uncertainty, do it. Not a vacation. A transformation. 42:34 Let the walk do the work. Upbeat song credits: Fireworks Reprise (Jay Denton) Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/jay-denton/fireworks-reprise [https://uppbeat.io/t/jay-denton/fireworks-reprise] License code: 3NIGGUVUOD4RRPRN

#28: Mythmakers, Friendship, and the Holy Work of Making Things with John Hendrix | Ruck The Way

UPCOMING PILGRIMAGE: https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage [https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage] Amazon link to John’s author page: US: https://www.amazon.com/stores/John-Hendrix/author/B002YTBY0A [https://www.amazon.com/stores/John-Hendrix/author/B002YTBY0A]? UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B002YTBY0A [https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B002YTBY0A] Some conversations feel like they happen on the trail, even when everyone is sitting still. This one did. We sat down with John Hendrix, New York Times awarded author and illustrator, professor at Washington University in St. Louis, and the creator of The Mythmakers, a graphic novel about the friendship between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. What started as a talk about books became a conversation about friendship, fellowship, failure, and the strange grace of being made to create. John reminds us that the Inklings did not know they were the Inklings. They were just friends writing stories for one another, and in doing so they reshaped literature almost by accident. He shows us why myth is not a lie but a truth beyond the facts, why every honest creative act has to pass through the pit of despair, and why the way we spend our days really is the way we spend our lives. If something creative has gone dormant in you, this one might wake it back up. Chris said as much before we even stopped recording. Let the walk do the work. Timestamps 00:00 Meeting John. St. Louis roots, a day in Edinburgh, and the wider world of the Inklings 07:00 The Mythmakers and a friendship that came up in our episode on the F word, fellowship 08:30 Why everything John makes is art first, and the subject comes second 10:30 The superpower of the graphic novel, bending time and the "third thing" that belongs only to the reader 16:00 Writing a myth about the Inklings, and why the ending could not stop at their deaths 19:00 Friendship versus fellowship, a shared destination, and why male friendship gets harder as we age 23:30 What working with other people's stories teaches you about your own 28:30 Made to create. The calling that is not always your career 31:00 If everyone kept a sketchbook, the world would be a better place 34:00 Make more than you consume, and giving your work the best part of your day 37:00 Path-dependent creativity. You do not know the destination until you walk toward it 44:00 The Pit of Despair, and why this is a human phenomenon, not just an artist's one 48:00 A bad liturgy, and remembering that God does not need any of it. It is all a gift 51:00 Chris picks up his brushes again 53:30 Art is not art until it is shared. Make it, then send it to someone

#27: Living in the Moment, Measuring in the Decade

UPCOMING PILGRIMAGE: https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage [https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage] In this profound episode of the Ruck the Way Podcast, hosts Chris and Gabe dive deep into how we evaluate our personal growth and spiritual maturity. Drawing from Morgan Snyder's book, Becoming a King, they challenge the modern urge to measure progress by daily increments, which often breeds self-criticism, impatience, and discouragement. Gabe shares vulnerable insights from his personal health journey and the realization that short-term charts often obscure long-term transformation. Together, they explore the concept of "living in the moment, measuring in the decade," demonstrating how looking backward over a ten-year horizon reveals deep emotional and narrative healing that daily check-ins completely miss. Shifting from frantic performance to micro-steps of awareness, this conversation offers a spacious, compassionate framework for anyone navigating midlife transitions, identity development, and the long, slow road of becoming who God called them to be. Know more about our cause: https://www.rucktheway.com/ [https://www.rucktheway.com/] Subscribe to our Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@RucktheWay [https://www.youtube.com/@RucktheWay] Meet the founders: https://www.rucktheway.com/about [https://www.rucktheway.com/about]

#26: We are glad to meet all of you! | Ruck The Way Launch

NOTE: This episode is best appreciated on YouTube https://youtu.be/r4rpTLc2xkg [https://youtu.be/r4rpTLc2xkg] UPCOMING PILGRIMAGE: https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage [https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage] In this special official launch event recorded live at the Cove Trail in Charlotte, North Carolina, Ruck the Way founders Gabe and Chris introduce a gathering of pilgrims to the transformative power of a "walk with a purpose." Gabe shares how his background as an army infantry soldier seamlessly merged with the ancient Christian practice of pilgrimage, leading to the birth of this unique ministry. Chris explains the fascinating neuroscience behind how walking heals the brain and soul through left-right movement. Together, they guide the group through a mini-pilgrimage tracking the journey from a desolate, dried-up cove to a flowing stream of living water. The episode culminates in a powerful symbolic ritual where participants place "burden stones" onto a flat rock to build a traditional cairn, choosing to release their heavy loads to God. Know more about our cause: https://www.rucktheway.com/ [https://www.rucktheway.com/] Subscribe to our Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@RucktheWay [https://www.youtube.com/@RucktheWay] Meet the founders: https://www.rucktheway.com/about [https://www.rucktheway.com/about] Upbeat Song credit information: Near You (Kite Flight) Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/kite-flight/near-you [https://uppbeat.io/t/kite-flight/near-you] License code: RMGGMTRY6LO2UFNU Road to the Sun (Vens Adams) Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/vens-adams/road-to-the-sun [https://uppbeat.io/t/vens-adams/road-to-the-sun] License code: H3SYP7298LFHTJNE

#25: The Three Mile an Hour Life: Embracing the Pace of Eternity

UPCOMING PILGRIMAGE: https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage [https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage] https://www.google.com/search?q=https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage At what pace are you living your life? We hit the trails together for the first time in a year to unpack the profound concept of "the three mile an hour life." We dive into the internal and external forces that pressure modern men to sprint life, confronting the underlying currents of shame, comparison, and the fear of running out of time before retirement. From practical daily boundaries like keeping phones out of the bedroom to the intentional practice of benevolent detachment, this conversation serves as an invitation to realign your daily rhythm with the sustainable, relationally rich pace modeled by Jesus. Learn more about us: https://www.rucktheway.com/ [https://www.rucktheway.com/] Subscribe to our Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@RucktheWay [https://www.youtube.com/@RucktheWay] Meet the founders: https://www.rucktheway.com/about [https://www.rucktheway.com/about]