Tommy reunites with close friend and collaborator Patricia Clarke for a rich, wide-ranging conversation on one of life's most important and most misunderstood questions: what does it actually mean to find and live a life of purpose? They bring two completely different approaches to the table, one intuitive and spontaneous, one intentional and structured, and together they land on something that applies to everyone regardless of age, season, or personality type. This is one of those conversations that will make you think differently about your own life.

What You'll Hear in This Episode:

• Why the question of purpose never goes away and keeps changing at every age and stage of life
• Patricia's Michelangelo framework: purpose is not something you implant, it is already inside you waiting to be revealed
• Tommy's four P framework for finding your purpose: passion, power, personality, and purpose
• Why the things that come most naturally to us are often the things we discount the most
• How accepting your deficiencies, not just your strengths, is one of the most freeing parts of living on purpose
• Patricia's waterfall story from Joshua Tree and why anything done in love has an eternal quality to it
• Why your grandmother's mashed potato recipe matters more than you think

Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro and reunion

(3:03) Purpose is a question that never goes away

(5:47) Michelangelo and the purpose already inside you

(11:08) Patricia's approach: spontaneous, intuitive, looking back

(20:12) Tommy's four P framework: passion, power, personality, purpose

(33:21) Accepting your deficiencies and living in your lane

(44:08) The Joshua Tree waterfall and love's eternal quality

(54:56) Closing encouragement for people who feel stuck

Resources / Next Steps: Share this episode with someone who is navigating a season of uncertainty about their purpose or calling.

Tommy sits down with Katherine Wolf, stroke survivor, author, and co-founder of Hope Heals, for one of his dream conversations. At 26, Katherine had a massive brain stem stroke that left her permanently disabled, and nearly two decades later she is one of the most compelling voices on suffering, hope, and what it means to live a truly good life in the middle of an impossibly hard one. This is a conversation about what it looks like when good and hard coexist, and why the pain you are carrying right now might be too precious to waste.

What You'll Hear in This Episode:

• Katherine's story: the brain stem stroke at 26 that changed everything and the nearly two years of recovery that followed
• Why there is no quota on suffering this side of heaven, and how that reframing actually brings freedom
• The invisible wheelchairs we all carry, and why the disabilities nobody can see often do the most damage
• The difference between wanting a cure and actually needing healing, drawn from the blind man in John 9
• What the practice of hope looks like when the feeling of hope is completely gone
• The Isaiah 45 passage that became the foundation for Treasures in the Dark and why she chose to gather treasure instead of waste it
• How to radically accept your story and trust an unknown future to a known God

Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro and Katherine's story

(7:35) No quota on suffering

(11:51) Invisible wheelchairs

(14:43) Redefining what good actually means

(21:34) Treasures in the Dark and Isaiah 45

(28:18) The difference between a cure and healing

(30:18) Practicing hope when you can't feel it

(36:04) Hope Heals Camp and radical belonging

(45:51) Trusting an unknown future to a known God

Resources / Next Steps: Learn more about Katherine and Hope Heals at hopeheals.com. Listen to The Good Hard Story podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Pick up Treasures in the Dark on Amazon. If you are in Atlanta, visit Mend Coffee!

Tommy sits down with Drew Daniels, founding pastor of Boulevard Church in Richmond, Virginia, to explore what the resurrection of Jesus Christ actually means, not just theologically, but historically and personally. They walk through the evidence, wrestle with the hard questions, and land on why a 2000-year-old event still changes everything about how we live today. Drew brings an honest, grounded faith to one of Tommy's favorite conversation topics of the year.

What You'll Hear in This Episode:

• Drew's family inheritance of faith, from a self-taught preacher grandfather in rural Nebraska to his own call to plant a church
• Why Christianity is the only world religion built on the claim that God came to you, not the other way around
• The historical and extra-biblical evidence that gives the resurrection credibility 2000 years later
• Why Tommy believes the resurrection can't be proven but says the preponderance of evidence is overwhelming
• The C.S. Lewis framework: Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord
• What Tim Keller meant when he said the gospel changes everything
• Drew's raw story of asking God for a week off from belief during the hardest season of church planting, and what happened the next morning

Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(3:37) Drew's story

(10:31) Why the resurrection matters

(22:57) Historical evidence for the resurrection

(26:11) The disciples' martyrdom and women at the tomb

(34:03) What difference does it make?

(50:22) Final Thoughts + Connect with Boulevard Church

Resources / Next Steps: Learn more about Drew and Boulevard Church at blvdchurchrva.com. They meet Sundays at 1212 N Arthur Ashe Blvd in Richmond's Scott's Addition neighborhood. Whether you're a person of faith or still figuring out what you believe, they'd love to have you.

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