BRKN Soul Care

A place where you are seen, heard, and never alone.

BRKN Soul Care

A place where you are seen, heard, and never alone.

SOUL MATTERS — THE BRKN BLOG

  • The One Who Turned Back

    Topic: Thanksgiving Series  —   Key Scripture: Luke 17:11-19 There’s a detail in Luke 17 that I think gets lost in the familiar shorthand of “The Ten Lepers,” because the number itself is the point, and we tend to skip past it. Jesus heals ten men with leprosy in a single moment — all of them cleansed, all of them restored, all of them given back a life that disease had taken from them. And “when he saw that he was healed, [one] turned back, praising God with a loud voice” (Luke 17:15). One. Out of ten. Jesus’s response isn’t subtle:…

  • The Redeemer Has Not Left You

    Topic: Kintsugi and Redemption  —   Key Scripture: Ruth 4:13-17 I left Naomi somewhere heavy — renamed Mara, bitter, openly holding God responsible for a grief that hadn’t resolved and wasn’t asked to. I didn’t tie that up neatly, because I don’t think it should have been tied up neatly. But the book of Ruth doesn’t end at chapter one, and I think it’s worth going back to see what actually happens to that bitterness by the time we reach chapter four. The concept that changes everything in this story is the kinsman redeemer — in Hebrew, the “goel”. Under the…

  • Call Me Mara

    Topic: Grief and Trauma Awareness  —   Key Scripture: Ruth 1:19-21 There’s a name change in Ruth 1 that I think we read past too quickly, because the book eventually turns toward redemption and we’re eager to get there. Naomi has lost her husband and both of her sons. She returns to Bethlehem after years away, and when the women there recognize her and say her name, she stops them. “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me”. Naomi means pleasant. Mara means bitter. She is asking the entire community to stop…

  • Stone to Flesh

    Topic: Kintsugi and Redemption   —   Key Scripture: Ezekiel 36:26 There’s a promise in Ezekiel that I think gets treated too often as historical — something that happened once, long ago, in a theological sense, rather than something with real implications for how a person navigates an actual Tuesday. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh”. This isn’t a minor tune-up. It’s a full replacement — stone removed, flesh given in its place.…

  • Search Me and Know Me

    Topic: Soul Care Basics   —   Key Scripture: Psalm 139:23-24 People ask me fairly often what soul care actually is, looking for a distinction from counseling in general or a Sunday sermon or a good self-help conversation. It’s a fair question, and I think the honest answer starts with a prayer that most of us find genuinely uncomfortable to pray sincerely. “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” David isn’t asking God for information God doesn’t already…