![\"Auto-generated](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8609/2026/4.png\")
![](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8609/2026/aa4b19ff66.png\")
\n\n\nIn this episode, I explore how faith can unravel without collapsing. I walk through a practical way to tell the difference between the core of Christianity and the packaging around it, offering questions to help you sort through doubt, grief, and uncertainty with honesty. My focus is on what remains when old assumptions fall away—especially the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, grace, and love as the center of theology.
\nKey Topics
\nFour Questions for Discernment: I close with four actionable questions to help guide your process.
\n\n\n\n",
"date_published": "2026-09-02T18:29:32-04:00",
"url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/09/02/what-to-keep-what-to.html",
"tags": ["Photos","Essays","Podcast"]
},
{
"id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/09/01/this-man-he-will-be.html",
"content_html": "This man. He will be missed. May God raise up another. Well done, good and faithul servant.
\n![\"an](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8609/2026/e10a193cf8.png\")
\n",
"date_published": "2026-09-01T17:52:11-04:00",
"url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/09/01/this-man-he-will-be.html",
"tags": ["Photos","Microposts"]
},
{
"id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/09/01/wendell-berry-has-gone-to.html",
"content_html": "Wendell Berry has gone to be with the Lord today at the age of 92. He was one of those authors that have influenced me on a profound level.
\nI am grateful for his words that live forever in so many.
\nI think this eulogy from C. Christopher Smith - Author hits the perfect note.
\n", "date_published": "2026-09-01T17:41:08-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/09/01/wendell-berry-has-gone-to.html", "tags": ["Microposts"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/09/01/theres-a-new-episode-for.html", "content_html": "There’s a new episode for The Pastor Next Door coming tomorrow. Until then check out this highlight from last week.
\nFaith isn't certainty in outcomes, it's a relationship.\n\n", "date_published": "2026-09-01T17:31:33-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/09/01/theres-a-new-episode-for.html", "tags": ["Microposts"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/31/abide-crushing-the-myths-of.html", "title": "Abide - Crushing the Myths of Self, Comfort, and Speed", "content_html": "
Listen to the unabridged sermon here: Abide - Crushing the Myths of Self, Comfort, and Speed
\nIn our household, we have two family mottos that get repeated constantly:
\nThese two principles frame Jesus’ final words to His disciples in John 15 and 16. Sitting in the Upper Room, the disciples were in a state of emotional shock. Communion was over, Judas had departed, and Jesus had just dropped the news that He was about to be executed.
\nKnowing their grief, Jesus offered them a foundational truth: to truly live, we must abide in His love. But to abide in Christ, we have to dismantle three common myths that poison our spiritual lives.
\nWe live in a culture that worships grit, self-determination, and independence. We love the famous lines from William Ernest Henley’s poem Invictus: “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”
\nIt sounds heroic, but spiritually, it’s a total lie.
\nJesus directly undercuts this mindset in John 15:5: “Apart from me you can do nothing.” In the original Greek, “nothing” means nothing. You cannot build a life of eternal significance on your own hustle and determination.
\nThe Remedy: Jesus gives us the key to staying connected to Him—keep His commands, primarily the command to love one another.
\nLoving God often feels relatively easy; we can pray, sing, and come to church. Loving people is where the friction happens. Deep community quickly exposes annoying habits, personality clashes, and offense. Yet, staying connected to the Vine requires putting to death the self-centered myth that we can manage life alone. You cannot pull yourself up by your own bootstraps; you need Christ, and you need His church.
\nA widespread misconception in the modern church is that following Jesus guarantees a smooth, pain-free life. Yet Jesus explicitly warns His followers that the world will hate them and that inconvenience, opposition, and struggle are normal parts of the journey.
\nFurthermore, Jesus introduces the uncomfortable reality of spiritual pruning: “Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:2).
\nPruning hurts. When we experience seasons of trial or friction while trying to do the right thing, our knee-jerk reaction is to ask, “God, what did I do wrong? Why are You punishing me?”
\nOften, you aren’t being punished; you are being pruned. God, in His love, cuts back certain areas of your life so you can produce a higher yield of grace, patience, joy, and peace.
\nThe Remedy: Do not confuse pruning with punishment, and do not expect ease from a world that rejected Christ. Sacrificial love and radical grace make a broken world uncomfortable, but they are the precise fruits we are called to bear.
\nWe are an instant-gratification culture. When a TV breaks, we order a new one for next-day delivery. When a person hesitates for two seconds at a green light, we hit the horn. We hate waiting.
\nBecause of this, when trial or pain strikes, we demand immediate resolution. When relief doesn’t come instantly, we tend to numb ourselves through entertainment, alcohol, or endless distraction.
\nIn John 16, Jesus acknowledges the disciples’ immediate sorrow over His departure, but He points them beyond the present moment: “You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy… In a little while you will see me.”
\nJesus offers something far better than instant circumstances-fixer: He gives us the indwelling Holy Spirit to walk with us through the wait. He closes His teaching with an decisive promise:
\n\n\n“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
\n
Notice the tense. Jesus spoke those words before the cross and resurrection, treating the victory as already finished.
\nWhich of these three myths is the hardest for you to let go of?
\nThe Myth of Self? Pray: “Lord, I stop striving on my own strength and choose to abide in You.”
\nThe Myth of Comfort? Pray: “Father, give me grace to submit to Your pruning and to stop fearing the world’s disapproval.”
\nThe Myth of the Immediate? Pray: “Jesus, help me to take heart and trust in Your finished victory over my present trial.”
\nGod is sovereign and good, and reality is your friend. Step out of the myths, anchor yourself in the Vine, and trust the One who has already overcome the world.
", "date_published": "2026-08-31T12:15:03-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/31/abide-crushing-the-myths-of.html", "tags": ["Photos","Essays"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/29/i-have-crossed-the-rubicon.html", "content_html": "I have crossed the Rubicon. I get sore after my lifts. To stop being sore, I need to lift again. 🤣
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-29T09:37:58-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/29/i-have-crossed-the-rubicon.html", "tags": ["Microposts"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/28/i-resonate-with-this-quote.html", "content_html": "I resonate with this quote from James Clear, ““Long-term thinking changes short-term actions. Spend a little time today doing things that will benefit you in ten years.”
\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8609/2026/10e902d014.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2026-08-28T06:45:51-04:00",
"url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/28/i-resonate-with-this-quote.html",
"tags": ["Photos","Quotes and Notes","Microposts"]
},
{
"id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/27/next-week-i-am-going.html",
"content_html": "Next week, I am going to post the podcast as a video in the podcast feed. I am curious to see if it shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube as video.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-27T17:05:03-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/27/next-week-i-am-going.html", "tags": ["Microposts"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/27/i-bumped-into-this-quote.html", "content_html": "I bumped into this quote from Simone Weil today. What does it look to be rooted in your life?
\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8609/2026/acc2699f3f.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2026-08-27T13:46:45-04:00",
"url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/27/i-bumped-into-this-quote.html",
"tags": ["Photos","Quotes and Notes","Microposts"]
},
{
"id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/27/i-really-dont-enjoy-leg.html",
"content_html": "I really don’t enjoy leg day. It’s hard.
\nI really love leg day. I can do hard things.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-27T11:46:54-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/27/i-really-dont-enjoy-leg.html", "tags": ["Microposts"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/26/what-happens-when-faith-fails.html", "content_html": "What happens when faith fails?
\nI tried to be a bit more succinct to keep this episode of The Pastor Next Door under 20 minutes for those of you that prefer to watch a video. Thanks to micro.blog I can host the video episode right here! I hope you enjoy it.
\n\n", "date_published": "2026-08-26T16:59:36-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/26/what-happens-when-faith-fails.html", "tags": ["Microposts"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/26/when-faith-stops-working.html", "title": "2.2 When Faith Stops Working", "content_html": "![](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8609/2026/00bb56016d.png\")
\n\nWhat happens when the faith framework you grew up with slowly stops working? In this episode of The Pastor Next Door, I sit down to explore the quiet, unglamorous moments when prayer feels flat, answers no longer satisfy, and emotional certainty fades away.
\nRather than viewing spiritual dryness, doubt, or deconstruction as a collapse or divine rejection, I reframe these seasons as a natural threshold of spiritual maturity . Drawing from John 6 and the life-giving choice to “stay” even when confused, this conversation offers a compassionate roadmap for navigating faith transitions without falling into cynicism or isolation.
\nKey Topics Covered
\nEpisode Quote
\n\n\n“Sometimes what’s falling apart isn’t faith. It’s a version of faith that could not carry us into adulthood.” — Daniel Rose
\n
Next Up\nTune in next time as we explore what to keep, what to let go of, and how to begin rebuilding a grounded, resilient faith without pretending.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-26T16:21:03-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/26/when-faith-stops-working.html", "tags": ["Photos","Essays","Podcast"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/25/time-to-get-that-first.html", "content_html": "Time to get that first lift of the week in. Planning to go Tues/Thurs/Sat this week.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-25T15:44:33-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/25/time-to-get-that-first.html", "tags": ["Microposts"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/25/is-anyone-else-having-notification.html", "content_html": "Is anyone else having notification issues in iOS app? As in, there aren’t any? @manton any thoughts?
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-25T11:41:25-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/25/is-anyone-else-having-notification.html", "tags": ["Microposts"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/25/we-have-some-bees-sneaking.html", "content_html": "We have some bees sneaking into the house. So, today, the pest control company is rolling out. Hopefully, they can sort the issue quickly and completely.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-25T08:41:25-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/25/we-have-some-bees-sneaking.html", "tags": ["Microposts"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/25/i-think-about-this-quote.html", "content_html": "I think about this quote nearly every day…
\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8609/2026/img-3920.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2026-08-25T07:33:01-04:00",
"url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/25/i-think-about-this-quote.html",
"tags": ["Photos","Quotes and Notes","Microposts"]
},
{
"id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/24/i-am-reminded-almost-every.html",
"content_html": "I am reminded almost every day that presence is the most important function of a pastor.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-24T11:57:55-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/24/i-am-reminded-almost-every.html", "tags": ["Microposts"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/23/not-lost-not-alone.html", "title": "Not Lost, Not Alone", "content_html": "Listen to the unabridged sermon here: Not Lost, Not Alone
\nWe don’t live in an easy world.
\nThat’s not a particularly inspirational way to open, I know. But it’s where John 14 begins, and it’s where Jesus begins, so it’s where we need to start.
\nThe scene is the upper room. Judas has slipped out into the night. Jesus has predicted his own death. He has told Peter, loyal and headstrong, that before the rooster crows at daybreak, he will deny knowing Jesus three times. A shadow of foreboding hangs over the whole evening. And into that shadow, Jesus opens his mouth and says:
\n“Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
\nI’ve spent a lot of years in ministry telling people that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life. And honestly? It’s a pretty easy sell to college students. College is, for many people, four years of living your best life — no real responsibilities, buffet dining halls, a kind of extended cruise before adulthood begins. In that season, a message about God’s wonderful plan lands well.
\nBut then real life starts.
\nAnd real life is hard. We live in bodies that break down. We inhabit a world fractured by sin and suffering — and we contribute to that fracturing ourselves. We’re not simply victims of a broken world; we’re participants in it. And when your marriage is struggling, or the diagnosis comes back, or the relationship falls apart, or the grief won’t lift — “God has a wonderful plan for your life” doesn’t just ring hollow. It can feel like a lie.
\nWhat Jesus offers instead is something more honest, and more durable.
\nHe doesn’t deny their pain. He doesn’t paper over the darkness of the evening. He looks at eleven heartbroken men and says: I know your hearts are troubled. Do not let them be.
\nThat’s not the same as “everything is fine.” It’s an invitation to trust — in the middle of something that is clearly not fine.
\nJesus moves almost immediately into the language of home.
\n“My Father’s house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” (v. 2)
\nThe word translated “house” here carries the idea of dwelling — a place where you belong, where you are expected, where there is room for you specifically. This echoes back to the very beginning of John’s Gospel, where he tells us that the Word “dwelt among us.” The whole arc of John is the story of God making his home with his people.
\nWhen everything is falling apart, Jesus says: you are not lost. You know where you are going. There is a home being prepared. You are not wandering without a destination.
\nThomas, predictably, pushes back: “We don’t know where you’re going, so how can we know the way?”
\nAnd Jesus gives one of the most famous answers in all of Scripture: “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
\nThis isn’t just a theological proposition to be believed. It’s a promise for the person lying awake at 3 a.m. staring at the ceiling. You are not lost. You know the way, because the way is a person — and that person is with you.
\nBut Jesus doesn’t stop at future hope. He knows his disciples need help for right now — for the next hour, the next day, the next year of their lives after he is gone.
\nSo he makes a promise that is easy to read past: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate.” (v. 16)
\nThe word for “another” here is worth pausing over. Greek has two words that can be translated this way. One (heteros) means another of a different kind. The other (allos) means another of the same kind. Jesus uses allos. The advocate coming is not a substitute or a lesser version — he is one of the same kind as Christ himself.
\nThat is a staggering claim. The Holy Spirit — the paraclete, the one who stands alongside us, who advocates on our behalf, who dwells within us — is of the same kind as Jesus.
\nYou are not an orphan. That’s Jesus’s own word for what they will not be: “I will not leave you as orphans.” (v. 18) The Spirit comes to live with us and in us. We are not left to navigate this world alone.
\nThat brings us to the final gift Jesus offers in this passage: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” (v. 27)
\nThe disciples knew what the world’s version of peace looked like. Pax Romana — the peace of Rome — was enforced through violence, domination, and fear. It was conditional. It required compliance. It came with strings.
\nJesus’s peace is different. It is unconditional. It is not the absence of trouble — he has already made clear that trouble is coming. It is a settled confidence that you are held, that you are known, that you are not alone — even when the world is shaking.
\nWe experience that peace through the Spirit living in us. Which means we can have it now, not just at some future point when circumstances improve.
\nHere’s the honest question this passage presses on us: what are we actually leaning on when things get hard?
\nBecause we all have our go-to’s. Some of them are as benign as a Dairy Queen run or an evening of Netflix. Some of them are more serious — the drink that becomes drinks, the escape that becomes an addiction, the relationship that starts as comfort and ends in wreckage. The spectrum runs from the banal to the devastating.
\nBut they share a common logic: they trick us into feeling like we have some control. And that’s the seduction. We’d rather hold onto something we can reach for than release control to the Spirit — who is real, and present, but cannot be managed.
\nI remember sitting in my mentor’s office and he asked me: Why don’t you want to trust the Spirit? What are you afraid of?
\nI said: Losing control.
\nAnd he let that sit there.
\nLife, it turns out, is too big to control. Too hard to hold in our hands. Eventually we either find something powerful enough to numb us to that reality, or we learn to release it to the one who can actually hold it.
\nThomas à Kempis, writing about this very chapter, captured what Jesus is offering in a few spare lines:
\n“I am the way which thou must follow, the truth which thou must believe, the life for which thou must hope. I am the inviolable way, the infallible truth, the never-ending life.”
\nWithout the way, there is no going. Without the truth, there is no knowing. Without the life, there is no living.
\nYou are not lost. You are not alone.
\nIn the midst of pain — trust Christ.
\nThis post is adapted from a sermon on John 14 preached at Peace Presbyterian Church in Flint, Michigan.
", "date_published": "2026-08-23T14:05:35-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/23/not-lost-not-alone.html", "tags": ["Photos","Essays"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/22/it-might-be-weird-for.html", "content_html": "It might be weird for a pastor to post this, but it resonates with me on so many levels.
\n\n", "date_published": "2026-08-22T11:12:14-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/22/it-might-be-weird-for.html", "tags": ["Microposts"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/22/i-appreciate-the-work-of.html", "content_html": "I appreciate the work of Chuck DeGroat. I think he gets to the heart of many of the issues in the contemporary church with this post.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-22T09:59:15-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/22/i-appreciate-the-work-of.html", "tags": ["Quotes and Notes","Microposts"] }, { "id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/21/this-season-the-pastor-next.html", "content_html": "This season The Pastor Next Door I am exploring de- and re-construction.
\nListen here: The Pastor Next Door
\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8609/2026/896b8007a7.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2026-08-21T13:28:23-04:00",
"url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/21/this-season-the-pastor-next.html",
"tags": ["Photos","Microposts"]
},
{
"id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/20/this-quote-from-james-clears.html",
"content_html": "This quote from James Clear’s newsletter today resonated:
\n“The measure of a life is not what you consume, but what you contribute.
\nSpend less time owning, consuming, taking. Spend more time giving, creating, making.”
\n![\""The](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8609/2026/16f75f8939.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2026-08-20T19:06:37-04:00",
"url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/20/this-quote-from-james-clears.html",
"tags": ["Photos","Quotes and Notes","Microposts"]
},
{
"id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/20/this-quote-from-st-bernard.html",
"content_html": "This quote from St Bernard of Clairvaux really resonated with me. Perhaps it will resonate with you too.
\n“Blessed,\" he says, \"are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God\" (Mt 5:9). Consider carefully that it is not the people who call for peace but those who make peace who are commended. For there are those who talk but do nothing (Mt 23:3). For just as it is not the hearers of the law but the doers who are righteous (Rom 2:13), so it is not those who preach peace but the authors of peace who are blessed.”\n\n\n\n
- St. Bernard of Clairvaux,\nabbot/ theologian
![\"“Blessed,"](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8609/2026/a8f26a7523.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2026-08-20T13:29:01-04:00",
"url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/20/this-quote-from-st-bernard.html",
"tags": ["Photos","Microposts"]
},
{
"id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/20/leg-day-is-diabolical-i.html",
"content_html": "Leg day is diabolical. I can barely traverse the stairs in my home. 😂
\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8609/2026/9429f55502.png\")
\n",
"date_published": "2026-08-20T09:04:14-04:00",
"url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/20/leg-day-is-diabolical-i.html",
"tags": ["Photos","Microposts"]
},
{
"id": "http://danielmrose.micro.blog/2026/08/19/i-see-many-posts-aimed.html",
"content_html": "I see many posts aimed at pastors telling them how to create “effective teams.”
\nThose are great for CEOs.
\nWe are to start with presence. Being present is not “efficient” or necessarily “effective.”
\nBeing faithfully present in the lives of our teams creates a faithful culture rooted in love.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-19T15:12:58-04:00", "url": "https://danielmrose.com/2026/08/19/i-see-many-posts-aimed.html", "tags": ["Microposts"] } ] }