Welcome!
If I had to distill the question that has compelled and motivated me all my life, it’s this: how do we become who we’re designed to be? Exploring answers has led me through religious and cultural studies, communication, theology, and art—all the ways human beings make sense of the world and themselves.
I’ve spent years trying to figure out how to be creative and a person of faith, only to discover that those two things should never have been separated in the first place. Learning how to live in that tension has shaped much of my life. What I’ve found is that the things I was told to keep separate are actually the same thing. Faith and creativity. Inner life and outer structure. Who you’re becoming and how you spend your days.
Twenty-three years inside retail, nonprofit, ministry, and theological education institutions also taught me something I didn’t expect: the systems we build around our lives either support who we’re becoming or subtly work against it. Most of us never stop long enough to notice which one is happening.
I left that work in 2022 to build something of my own, and found out almost immediately that knowing what you want isn’t the same as knowing how to design a life that gets you there.
That’s where you find me today. I work with people who are capable, thoughtful, often overextended, and uncomfortably aware that what they’re looking for and the life they’re living don’t quite fit. Not because they’re doing it wrong, but because no one has helped them find the one thing that’s actually in the way.
Here at Be(com)ing, we explore how formation meets purpose and systems. That means learning how to answer the questions “Where am I going, how am I getting there, who am I becoming on the way?” We usually think of them as three separate questions. I think they’re the same question.
Human Be(com)ing essays explore what’s actually shaping us, and how to respond deliberately rather than just react.
Sustainable Systems offers tools, practices, and processes that help us connect our purpose to our daily systems.
People Watching profiles and interviews take a closer look at the lives of people, historical and contemporary, who’ve figured out something worth learning.
The Monthly Muster is an end-of-cycle digest that pulls the threads together: synthesis, links, and a few thoughts you won’t find anywhere else.
The newsletter runs on a six-week rhythm: four weeks of original content, one week of integration, and one week of rest. Because sustainable rhythms matter.
I write as someone doing this work alongside you, not as someone who has it figured out. I hope you’ll join me.
Sometimes the newsletter is enough. Sometimes you need something more direct.
That’s where Purpose-Focused Productivity helps. It’s single-session coaching to help you name where you’re going, how you’re getting there, and who you’re becoming on the way, so that you can design the systems that keep you in conversation with those answers. It’s less about getting more done, and more about being in conversation with your life.
It’s a hard, strange world, and it matters that each of us keeps creating and sharing what we find beautiful. Let’s be hopeful, creative, and wise—together.
Shalom,
WHAT’S WITH THE LOGO?
The skull represents our present life and mortality.
The wings embody our hope for resurrection and eternal life.
And the Bowie-inspired lightning bolt reminds us to stay weird.
Elsewhere
You can find my full professional and academic history here.
Book Reviews
Journey to the Heart: Christian Contemplation Through the Centuries - An Illustrated Guide, ed. Kim Nataraja, at PRISM
Essays
"Graphic Theology: Community, imago Dei, and Temptation in 300," in Light Shining in a Dark Place: Discovering Theology through Film, ed. J. Sellars (Wipf and Stock | Amazon)
Poetry
Things Holy & Mundane, a short collection
"Consumer,” Ruminate, Issue 07, Spring 2008: Addictions
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
