Welcome to the Infinitely Precious Podcast produced by Infinitely Precious LLC. Your host is James Henry. Remember, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.

Hello, beloved. It's me, James. It's good to be with you as your companion and you as mine here on the Infinitely Precious podcast together. Today, I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the surprises and gifts that life gives us, some that are unexpected and become things we did not anticipate. Back in the fall of twenty twenty one, so about five years ago, was the birth of this podcast.

Probably was born a lot longer ago than that in me. But in the fall of twenty twenty one, I was working with seven young adults through Appalachia Service Project, Brendan, Gabi, Haley, Katie, Manon, Megan and Mollie. And all of them were delightful people. I was charged with being their chaplain and helping them to discern life direction perhaps, ways of articulating their faith, and just to be present with them. And in one of the conversations with them, one of the things they asked for was podcasts.

Now, little did I know that what they were really asking for was a list of some podcasts that might fit their interest. I heard them ask for a podcast for them. So not knowing much about podcasts except that I listened to them, I began to do some research. I got out one of my good microphones and got an interface with my computer and began recording podcasts for them about faith and about the journey they were on. And I'm so thankful to Podbean, which offers you a certain amount of free space because Podbean was my first podcast host.

It became an opportunity for me to share with them in a way that they could consume asynchronously, that they could listen to it whenever they wanted to listen to it If it was available to them and if they wanted to, it could become a conversation piece for us. Now, fast forward to now I use Transistor FM. It's a different podcast hosting service. I'm not here to compare those or to say anything necessary about them, but to say that I had no idea when I began being the fellows chaplain for Appalachia's service project in the fall of twenty twenty one, that those relationships would create a tool by which I have come to share with other people in the world how I think, how I feel, and how I see. And without knowing it, those seven young adults gave me a gift, the gift of podcasting.

I'm not sure that I'm that much more sophisticated about doing it than I was six years ago, five years ago, but I am more experienced in it. And I feel comfortable talking to you and to others about the topics that are on my heart. So you never know when a seed gets planted or an invitation to learn something new might become a gateway for something bigger than you imagined it would be. I said yes to doing some work with these young adults. They probably did more for me than I ever did for them in terms of listening and encouraging and giving me a space in which to be their chaplain, letting me into their lives and letting me share their journey of faith in a way that came to shape for me a larger picture of what it's like to accompany people on a journey.

They were with me and I was with them. And the path for each one of them individually as well as for me unfolded in its own way. And as is the case with all things, they were unique to us. It was those seven young adults with whom I tried out articulating the very root of this podcast by speaking to them that they were infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift they already were and are to this very day. Those young folks, those young adults entered my life and as is the case with all relationships brought transformation.

I'd like to believe the same is true in reverse that I brought transformation to them, not so much because I'm so wise or learned or anything else, but because we were in relationship. And when you are truly in relationship with one another, you learn and you grow and you experience. It helps to stretch you. You take risks that you might not have taken otherwise. You grow in ways you don't expect and you learn skills like I learned.

How to record a podcast and then over time how to edit a podcast And how to then upload and do all the things that make the podcast work for others to share in it. This journey has taught me a lot. But you couldn't have told me five years ago that this is where I'd be, that I'd be serving a different church than I was five years ago, that ASP would have changed me in the ways that it has. That it would afford me the opportunities and that these seven young adults in particular would grant me entree into their lives in a way that changed my life. The beauty of this life in which we live, dear friends and fellow journeyers here on the podcast with me, is that it is always offering us surprises and gifts if we are aware enough of what they are.

I could not have known that I'd be a part of three podcasts in my life concurrently right now, that I would use that tool as a way to communicate with people so that they could listen at their own pace, in their own time to the things I have to share. And it would give an opportunity for me to express myself in this way. In a way that I hope is helpful for you in the way that it has helped shape me. I looked for something deep and wise to say when I come here sometimes. And sometimes it's in the looking that we realize that life itself is the beauty.

That the learning that I did for love of these seven young adults, that it was the love itself that transformed me. It was the love itself that caused me to learn. It was the love itself that brought out this new skill that I now get to share with you. And it's love of you, some of whom I know and some I don't, may never have met, may never meet in the future who listen to this podcast that receive that love. This speaking into the world is my gift, my attempt to share a hope in the midst of what is sometimes a very divisive and occasionally unhopeful feeling world in which we live.

I feel like those seven young adults still live forward in me in the gift of this podcasting thing that I do. I will always be thankful to them for where they came to me in the midst of my life and the hope they offered me, the space that I offered them to be themselves, and that they invited me to be the person that I am as their chaplain. Not somebody else, not some label like the label chaplain, but instead someone who could accompany them on a journey, this journey that we call life. And I find that to be a beautiful reality. I hope that it's a beautiful reality for you as well.

Pay attention. That is one of the things that just seems to keep coming up for me. Pay attention in life because the little gifts that come your way that surprise you, you might learn a little new skill that unbeknownst to you becomes a key piece of how you communicate the gifts you have with others in the world. So be on the lookout, be attentive in your life. Know that you matter, that you are indeed infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.

And as you receive the gifts that life offers you and the challenges as well, may you find that those gifts and challenges work together to bring out the very best of who you are in the world you were made to be part of, that you already are a part of. So engage in this world, love this world, love yourself and be precious, the precious gift you already are loved unconditionally. Until the next time I see you or speak with you, I wish you all the best on this journey.