Living Compass Spirituality & Wellness

The Beautiful Game: Soccer as a Guide to Living a Beautiful Life Living Compass Spirituality and Wellness Podcast Episode Summary Host Scott Stoner — Episcopal minister, licensed marriage and family therapist, 40-year soccer player, and lifelong fan — draws on the principles of "the beautiful game" to explore what it means to live a beautiful life. Recorded during World Cup season, this episode is an invitation to see the wisdom embedded in the world's most beloved sport. Key Themes 1. Simplicity Soccer is the simplest of games — all you need is a ball and two goals (even makeshift ones made from backpacks or duct-taped newspaper). With only 17 rules, it's accessible to the youngest children and the most resource-limited communities. Scott reflects on a teammate from Indonesia who learned to play with a homemade newspaper ball and garbage can goals — and became one of the finest players Scott has ever shared a field with. The invitation: where might simplicity open up more beauty in your own life? 2. Diversity The World Cup is a living celebration of human diversity. Scott reflects on the remarkable Spain vs. Cabo Verde match — the largest ranking gap in World Cup history — and the overnight fame of Cabo Verde's 40-year-old goalkeeper. He also shares from his own playing community, which includes people from Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, England, South Africa, Peru, Russia, Colombia, and Tunisia. Diversity isn't just welcome in the beautiful game — it's essential to it. The same is true of a beautiful life. 3. Flow Unlike American sports that emphasize constant action and scoring, soccer invites us to appreciate flow — the movement, the playmaking, the improvisational dance of the game. A 0-0 match can be among the most beautiful games ever played. Scott notes that soccer coaches do their real work in practice; during the game itself, the players are in charge. Life, too, calls us into this kind of trust — less micromanaging, more presence and responsiveness. 4. Improvisation Within the flow of the game, players are constantly making real-time decisions without a script. This improvisational quality — responding to what's actually happening rather than what was planned — is as essential to living well as it is to playing well. Reflection Questions Where might you simplify your life to create more beauty? How are you embracing diversity in your relationships and community? Are you focused more on goals and scores, or on the flow of the journey itself? Where is life inviting you to improvise rather than control? Connect with Scott 📧 scott@livingcompass.org 🌐 livingcompass.org The Living Compass Spirituality and Wellness Podcast is rooted in the belief that our spirituality can be a compass in all aspects of our lives.

Is Your Recreation Truly Re-Creative? As summer begins, host Scott Stoner invites listeners to reflect on a simple but important question: Is your recreation actually restoring you — or are you just zoning out? Scott distinguishes between mindlessly scrolling or numbing out (easy to do, but not truly restorative) and activities that create genuine flow — that quality of being so present and engaged that you lose track of time. For Scott, those activities are playing mandolin at bluegrass jams and riding his bike. Both draw him fully into the moment and replenish him body, mind, and spirit. This idea of true rest has deep roots. Sabbath — woven into the founding traditions of Judaism and Christianity — is ancient wisdom about the necessity of restoration. When we neglect it, the signs show up across all dimensions of our wellbeing: emotional flatness, spiritual dryness, physical depletion, relational withdrawal. A simple practice to try this week: Choose one dimension of your wellbeing — physical, emotional, spiritual, or relational — and do one thing that is genuinely replenishing for that area. You already know what it is. The challenge is simply remembering and then choosing it. Bonus points if one activity nourishes more than one dimension at once. The Living Compass app offers courses, self-guided retreats, and guided meditations. Find it at app.livingcompass.org or in any app store. Questions or reflections? Reach Scott at scott@livingcompass.org.

Show Notes In this episode, Scott reflects on one of spring's most quietly profound lessons: that trees bud in their own time, on their own internal rhythm — and that the same is true for each of us. Walking near the Ice Age Trail and in his own neighborhood, Scott has noticed that even two trees of the same species, standing side by side, can be weeks apart in their budding. One is fully leafing out while the other shows barely a sign of life. And yet neither is ahead or behind. Each is simply following its own inner clock. This observation opens into a deeper invitation: to release the pressure we place on ourselves — and on others — to bud on our timeline. Whether we're longing for clarity, resolution, healing, or change in our own lives or in someone we love, the wisdom of the trees reminds us that we cannot force the budding. We can only trust it. Scott draws on several threads woven throughout the Living Compass community: The Quaker saying "Way will open" — revisited from a recent episode, and deepened here through the image of a tree's patient, unhurried unfolding. Coaching youth soccer — a vivid reminder that children, like trees, bud in dramatically different ways and timeframes, physically, emotionally, and in skill — and that the difference is not a deficit but a beautiful symphony. The hidden life of trees — recent research showing that trees in distress are actually supported by neighboring trees through their root systems, sending nutrients underground. Not competition, but communion. That underground network becomes a metaphor for the Living Compass community itself — people whose roots, Scott reflects, are by divine design interconnected, supporting one another as the life force moves through each of us in its own time. The episode closes with a gentle reframe: we are not the creators of our own growth. We are the receivers. The river is flowing. Our calling is not to force it, but to trust it. Please know that a seven-minute Guided Meditation is offered on this same theme in our Living Compass app. See below for how to access the app--you can also access it here at: https://app.livingcompass.org Connect with Scott about this episode or your own journey with integrating spirituality and well-being at scott@livingcompass.org The Living Compass mobile app with Guided Meditations, Courses, Self-Guided Retreats, and Contemplative Practices is available through any mobile app store (Apple or Google) or online at our web app--here are the links for each. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/living-compass/id6738334257 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.livingcompass&hl=en https://app.livingcompass.org

Way Will Open: An Easter Reflection Living Compass Spirituality and Wellness Podcast Episode Summary In this Easter season episode, Scott explores the ancient Quaker wisdom phrase "Way will open" and its profound connection to the resurrection story. With honesty and hope, he reflects on why we sometimes close ourselves off to new life — and why trusting that way will open is both a radical act and a deeply grounded spiritual practice. In This Episode Why "Way will open" may be the most-used phrase in Scott's coaching work How we sometimes unconsciously seal ourselves inside our own tombs — in relationships, at work, and in our inner lives The healing of the man ill for 38 years (John 5) and what his response reveals about our own resistance to new life Why way doesn't always open in the direction or manner we expect — and why that's actually part of the wisdom The cave illustration: sometimes the opening is right behind us, if we're willing to turn around and walk through the darkness Easter as a way of seeing — a counter-cultural mindset of hope in the middle of a world full of Good Fridays Key Quote "Do I believe that way will open? Yes, I do. Believe it? Heck, I've seen it." Scripture Reference John 5 — The healing of the man who had been ill for 38 years Reflection Question Where in your life right now might way be opening — perhaps in a direction you haven't yet turned toward? Resources & Connect 📧 Reach Scott at: scott@livingcompass.org 📱 Living Compass App: available in your phone's app store (search Living Compass) or at app.livingcompass.org 🎧 A guided meditation based on this episode will be available in the Living Compass app Living Compass is a nonprofit spirituality and wellness initiative helping tens of thousands of people walk toward greater wholeness through the integration of faith and well-being.

The Living Compass Spirituality and Wellness Podcast Episode: Disarmed, and Armed with Love As we enter Holy Week, Scott reflects on one of the most overlooked details of the Palm Sunday story — how Jesus enters Jerusalem. Rather than arriving with military might, chariots, and armor as the leaders of his day would have done, Jesus enters humbly, on a donkey, armed only with love. This simple but profound choice sets the tone for everything that follows in Holy Week. In this episode, Scott explores: What Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem reveals about the nature of true power Why healing and wholeness are always rooted in love rather than might How vulnerability and simplicity — not armor and force — are the hallmarks of love in action The through-line connecting Palm Sunday, the washing of feet on Maundy Thursday, and the cross Why, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, only love can drive out hate — and what that means for our world today As the Lenten season draws to a close, Scott reminds us that cultivating healing and wholeness with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind is ultimately another way of saying we are choosing love — and that love, as Easter proclaims, always wins. Blessings to you as you enter Holy Week — disarmed, and armed with love. The Living Compass app is available in any app store or at app.livingcompass.org

Prayer Doesn't Always Change Outcomes, But It Always Changes Us Living Compass Spirituality and Wellness Podcast Lent 2026 Series: Cultivating Healing and Wholeness in Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind Episode Summary What happens when the healing we pray for doesn't come? In this episode, Scott Stoner — pastor, therapist, and founder of Living Compass — explores one of the most honest and tender questions in the spiritual life. Drawing on decades of walking with people through serious illness, disability, and dying, Scott reflects on the crucial distinction between cure, healing, and wholeness, and why prayer remains transformative even when outcomes don't change. Key Themes The difference between physical cure and deeper spiritual and emotional healing Why prayer changes us even when it doesn't change our circumstances Holding grief and anger honestly as part of authentic faith The "container" metaphor: how the spiritual life expands our capacity to hold suffering Walking with others through illness as its own form of healing ministry Quote of the Episode "Prayer doesn't always change outcomes, but it always changes us." Featured Prayer Scott reads the Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer (p. 461), from the Ministry to the Sick: "This is another day, O Lord. I know not what it will bring forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. Make these words more than words, and give me the Spirit of Jesus. Amen" (BCP, p. 461). Resources Mentioned 📖 Lent 2026 daily readings — livingcompass.org 📱 Living Compass App (guided meditations by Scott and Robbin Brent) — app.livingcompass.org Reflection Questions How does the idea that "prayer doesn't always change outcomes, but it always changes us" connect with your own experience? Where in your life are you being invited to expand your container — your capacity to hold suffering with grace? How might you bring healing and wholeness to someone in your life who is suffering, even when cure is not possible?

Show Notes: Healing and Wholeness — Wrestling with God and Listening for Whispers Living Compass Spirituality and Wellness Podcast | Lent 2026 In this episode, Scott Stoner reflects on two powerful biblical stories that illuminate what healing and wholeness can really look like — not always peaceful or easy, but sometimes raw, wrestling, and hard-won. Drawing on the story of Jacob wrestling with God the night before his reconciliation with his brother Esau, Scott invites us to see that God is present not only in the moments of clarity and consolation, but in the darkness, the struggle, and the dis-ease we carry. Whatever we are wrestling with — a broken relationship, a physical challenge, an emotional weight — we do not walk through it alone. Scott also revisits the story of Elijah from 1 Kings, reminding us that God's healing voice doesn't always come in the dramatic and overwhelming moments of life. More often, it comes as a gentle whisper — through Scripture, a meaningful conversation, a moment of stillness in prayer, or a quiet sense of being led forward. The episode closes with a beautiful reflection from contributor Robbin Brent, who writes that faith is not about certainty or the absence of questions, but about the willingness to keep trusting in the deeper reality of God's healing presence, even when circumstances seem to contradict it. Wherever you are on your Lenten journey, this episode is an invitation to be still, listen for the whispers, and trust that way will open. The full Lent 2026 devotional booklet and the option to sign up to get the Lent daily reflections for "Cultivating Healing and Wholeness" by email are available at livingcompass.org.

Host: Scott Stoner, Episcopal pastor and licensed marriage and family therapist Episode Summary Recorded the day before Ash Wednesday, this introductory episode launches the Lenten podcast series centered on the theme Cultivating Healing and Wholeness with All Your Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind. Scott reflects on what it means to tend to our whole selves during the 47 days of Lent, drawing on his 40 years of experience as pastor and therapist. Key Themes Scott opens with a simple but powerful question: When was the last time someone genuinely asked how you're doing? He invites listeners to treat Lent as an annual spiritual check-up — an unhurried season to reflect on body, mind, heart, and soul. Healing, he suggests, is less like a lightning bolt and more like tending a fire: patient, gentle, and attentive. The Ash Wednesday words "Remember that you are dust" are framed not as shame but as an invitation to humility and openness. He also introduces the Living Compass model of well-being — four quadrants (Heart, Soul, Strength, Mind) with eight dimensions of wellness — and reminds listeners that wellness begins with "we." Resources Mentioned Daily readings booklet — PDF download or daily emails available at livingcompass.org Living Compass App — search "Living Compass" in your app store or visit app.livingcompass.org; includes guided Lenten meditations; free trial for one year, then $10/year Spanish-language content — daily reflections by Estela Lopez and Pedro Lopez (Bruja La De Vida), PDF available at livingcompass.org and posted daily on the Bruja La De Vida Facebook page During This Series Two new podcast episodes will be released each week throughout Lent. Blessings on your Lenten journey.

Many of the people Scott works with as a coach and therapist are reporting that they are experiencing compassion fatigue. In this episode, he talks about what compassion fatigue is and how to address it.

Sometimes an encounter changes us so deeply that we cannot return the same way we came. When has that been true for you? The story of the Wise Men being warned not to go back to Herod, but to go home by a different way after they encounter the Christ child, is a metaphor for how when we encounter the Divine, we often choose to move forward in a new way.

A Generous Dinner Party Jesus tells this story to remind us what a true Christian approach to generosity and hospitality looks like. How might you and I practice this in our own lives? Luke 14:15-25 (The Message Translation) 15 That triggered a response from one of the guests: "How fortunate the one who gets to eat dinner in God's kingdom!" 16-17 Jesus followed up. "Yes. For there was once a man who threw a great dinner party and invited many. When it was time for dinner, he sent out his servant to the invited guests, saying, 'Come on in; the food's on the table.' 18 "Then they all began to beg off, one after another making excuses. The first said, 'I bought a piece of property and need to look it over. Send my regrets.' 19 "Another said, 'I just bought five teams of oxen, and I really need to check them out. Send my regrets.' 20 "And yet another said, 'I just got married and need to get home to my wife.' 21 "The servant went back and told the master what had happened. He was outraged and told the servant, 'Quickly, get out into the city streets and alleys. Collect all who look like they need a square meal, all the misfits and homeless and down-and-out you can lay your hands on, and bring them here.' 22 "The servant reported back, 'Master, I did what you commanded—and there's still room.' 23-24 "The master said, 'Then go to the country roads. Whoever you find, drag them in. I want my house full! Let me tell you, not one of those originally invited is going to get so much as a bite at my dinner party.'"

Generosity is amplified when it is practiced together in community. Communities of generosity are essential for our individual and collective wellbeing.

You may be more familiar with the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Still, the title "The Parable of the Generous Parent" emphasizes the story's primary message: God's extravagant generosity and love.