What Is A Good Life? #142
Cultivating A Faith In Life Itself with Jim Palmer
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Over the past few years, Iāve interviewed more than 300 people on the question: what is a good life? In an upcoming free webinar, Iāll share some of the most revealing insights from these conversations ā along with reflections on why they matter for us today.
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This Weekās Podcast
On the 142nd episode of What is a Good Life?, Iām delighted to welcome Jim Palmer, Founder of the Center for Non-Religious Spirituality. A critically acclaimed author, former megachurch pastor, adjunct professor of Ethics, Linguistics, and Comparative Religions, and chaplain with the American Humanist Association, Jim is also a trained counsellor in religious trauma and spiritual abuse.
In this conversation, he reflects on his journey through a crisis of faith, his experiences as a megachurch pastor, and his challenges of navigating religious culture. We explore theological deconstruction, rewilding spirituality, and the importance of embracing diverse perspectives.
This episode invites you to consider a faith in life itself as a way to deepen our connection with existence.
The weekly clip from the podcast (2 mins), my weekly reflection (3 mins), the full podcast (69 mins), and the weekly questions all follow below.
1. Weekly Clip From The Podcast
2. My Weekly Reflection
There are some expressions on this path that can sound like trite theory, depending on the mouth they come from. I am lucky to have heard the sentiment spoken by people who have truly lived it.
And the more I hear it, and reflect on my own path, the more I see it as integral to experiencing a good life.
It is the importance of being with all of it. All of life.
The ups and downs, the wins and losses. The awe and the horror, the heartbreak and the love.
As Jim points out in this weekās interview, it is present in the most mundane, profound, intense, and ordinary moments.
For him it begins with the question: āWhat is life currently asking of me? What does this moment require?ā
If heās having a coffee, it may be to enjoy the coffee.
If heās feeling hurt, itās to feel the hurt.
And sometimes it asks him to do what he dislikes mostālike dealing with confrontation. Yet, in tending to that inquiry, he always finds something redeeming in this life, in every moment.
Across these 300+ interviews, Iāve heard from people who faced situations that might seem like the very point to give in to despair. Yet again and again, they found comfort in being with the experience.
One person spoke of lying in an ICU bed and maintaining their version of this inquiry: āWhat is this dream trying to tell me?ā
Another shared deep personal tragedyāyet kept their sense of wonder open. Not to escape sadness or loss, but to allow the fullness of it.
A couple of months ago, in interviewing death doula Diane Button and reading her book What Matters Most, I saw again the stunning grace that can appear at the end of life. One story that stayed with me was of a woman on her deathbed, in complete acceptance, telling each person around her deathbed how much they meant to her and why.
This reminded me of when my aunty was terminally ill in hospital. Even then, she would remember moments of significance in the rest of our lives and send encouraging messages while she still could.
At the time, our moments seemed insignificant compared to what she was facing. Yet on reflection, diminishing them would also be to diminish the rest of life.
This is not about becoming impervious to fear, grief, or pain. Not an attempt to escape the human experience.
Rather, it is an openness, a porousnessānot getting trapped by any one thing. And even when stuck or clinging, being willing to wonder about that too.
I arrived in Hamburg yesterday for a few days with my in-laws. My daughter, the only grandchild, is sometimes affectionately called āDie Hauptpersonā (the main character) by my father-in-law. She brings such joy into the house.
My mother-in-law, however, is living with dementia. The range of feelings one can move through here in a single day is beyond words.
Nothing balances anything out. Everything is there to be felt.
And in those moments when Iām not clinging to a preferred state, when everything is acknowledgedāwhether in this family setting or elsewhereāthat is where I oddly sense the divine, in that vast range.
A faith in life itself, regardless of what the moment is serving.
It isnāt about avoiding the range of experience, but about being with all of it, moment by moment.
Thanks for reading What is a Good Life?
3. Full Episode - Cultivating A Faith In Life Itself with Jim Palmer - What is a Good Life? #142
4. This Weekās Questions
Can you think of a moment in your life when an experience of despair or loss was also accompanied by a deep faith in life?
Was there ever a perspective you once held firmly that you later let go of? And what do you suspect youāre holding firmly now that you may one day release?
About Me
I am a coach, podcast host, and writer, based in Berlin, via Dublin, Ireland. I started this project in 2021, for which Iāve now interviewed nearly 300 people. Iām not looking to prescribe universal answers, more that the guestsā lines of inquiry, musings, experiences, and curiosities spark your own inquiry into what the question means to you. I am also trying to share more genuine expressions of the human experience and more meaningful conversations.
If youāre interested in exploring your own self-inquiry through one-on-one coaching, my 5-week group courses, or fostering greater trust, communication, and connection within your leadership teams, feel free to contact me via email or LinkedIn.