Reflections Episodes

Life rarely arrives neatly arranged. It comes as beauty and brokenness, mourning and dancing, abundance and emptiness, sudden moments and long advents. Yet through it all, the Shepherd leads us and prepares a table in the middle of today. The meal is sure. The menu is unknown. A Scattered Feast is a spoken-word reflection on Psalm 23, dependence, providence, and learning to receive each day as it comes—trusting that even when we don't know what tomorrow holds, we know the One who prepares the ...

For years, I thought the world would run a lot better if somebody would just put me in charge. Turns out, I can barely manage my own Tuesday. 😄 In this episode of Scattered Moments, I take a lighthearted look at what happens when I try to take charge of my time, gifts, money, emotions, story, and legacy—and what changes when I finally hand the keys back to Jesus. Maybe surrender isn't losing control. Maybe it's finally admitting we never had as much control as we thought. Thank God I'm not i...

Sometimes it’s a job. Sometimes it’s a ministry, a dream, a responsibility, or simply something we once felt certain God wanted us to do. Discouragement has a way of making an exit look like the only reasonable option. In this episode of Scattered Moments, we begin with the unlikely story of an aging Kentucky restaurant owner whose business disappeared when the highway moved—and who discovered that what looked like the end of the road was actually the beginning of something new. Then we consid...

Why do I keep climbing the stairs to my home office around 8:00 at night, turning on a microphone, and spending the next 45 minutes making a podcast? Somewhere along the way, Scattered Moments became more than a hobby. It became a spiritual discipline. In this episode, I share a little about why I keep showing up—and, more importantly, who I’m showing up for. This podcast is for the preachers and the pushers. The successes and the failures. The honor students and the underachievers. The holy an...

There are moments when every instinct tells us to run—when the future feels uncertain, the cost of moving forward seems too great, and control slips from our hands. Everyone has a Gethsemane. In this Scattered Moments reflection, recorded more than a decade ago, Matt Tullos explores the kind of courage Jesus demonstrated in the garden: not fearless courage, but courage that trembles, prays, and still takes the next step. Through Gethsemane, Goliath, the belly of the beast—and even a few too ma...

Fear has a way of convincing us that we are alone. In this modern psalm, Matt Tullos reflects on a life often marked by fear—and the greater truth he has discovered along the way: through every unknown, every failure, every beginning, and every ending, Jesus has remained faithful. Still is a meditation on the relentless love of Christ, the Friend of sinners who refuses to let go. Against the backdrop of an October landscape—falling leaves, cool winds, birds, clouds, and the fingerprints of th...

For thirty-eight years, a disabled man waited beside the Pool of Bethesda, watching others reach the water before him. Then Jesus arrived—and the man discovered that his hope had never depended upon getting into the pool. In “Liturgies with a Limp,” Matt reflects on the exhausting work of carrying the same prayer year after year. What do we do when healing does not come, circumstances do not change, and hope grows weary? This episode explores persevering prayer, the questions Jesus asks us, and...

Paul was beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned, abandoned, bitten by a snake, lowered from a city wall in a basket—and somehow, he just kept going. But Paul’s story isn’t really about toughness. It’s about discovering that Christ is worth more than everything we might lose along the way. In this Scattered Moments reflection, we follow the battered apostle down the long road from Damascus to Rome and discover a grace for our own difficult journeys: You don’t have to call the shipwreck good. You only ...

We spend much of our lives keeping score. We count successes and failures. We replay regrets. We wonder if we've prayed enough, served enough, believed enough, or become enough for God to finally accept us. But what if we've been climbing a mountain God never asked us to climb? In this quiet reflection, we consider one of the most beautiful—and unsettling—truths of the Christian faith: grace cannot be earned because it has already been given through Jesus Christ. While the world teaches us to...

Sometimes grace grows where no one expects it. In this episode of Scattered Moments, we reflect on a friend whose life defied every prediction. Born into a broken family, he encountered Christ as a child and discovered that God's grace is stronger than any family history. From the surprising names in Jesus' genealogy to the transforming power of the Gospel, we're reminded that our past may explain us, but it does not have to define us. God specializes in rewriting stories. No family tree is b...

What if God has been speaking to you all day—and you simply haven't recognized the language? Jesus spent remarkably little time in palaces or places of spectacle. Instead, He walked dusty roads, broke ordinary bread, pointed to birds, seeds, sheep, stones, vineyards, and wildflowers, revealing that the everyday world is filled with reminders of God's grace. In this reflective episode of Scattered Moments, we rediscover creation as the "second great book"—not equal to Scripture, but written by...

There are years we celebrate. And there are years we simply survive. In this deeply personal Scattered Moments reflection, I revisit a season marked by disappointment, loneliness, confusion, and fear—a year when the foundations I trusted seemed to crumble beneath me. Yet it was in that very darkness that I discovered something I had overlooked in brighter days. God did not meet me in my accomplishments, my plans, or my self-sufficiency. He met me in my helplessness. Inspired by Isaiah's words...

What if... It's a simple question. But sometimes the simplest questions are the most dangerous. In this episode of Scattered Moments, we engage in a thought experiment: What if we actually believed the Bible—not merely as a book to study or defend, but as the living Word of God to be obeyed? What would change if Jesus' words about loving our enemies, serving the poor, forgiving freely, and going into the world became more than familiar verses? What would our churches look like? What would our...

Every Sunday, millions of believers gather to worship. Songs are sung. Prayers are offered. Sermons are preached. Hands are lifted across every continent as the Church circles the globe in praise. Yet in the midst of that beautiful chorus, one question from Jesus still echoes through the centuries: "Who touched Me?" In this reflective episode of Scattered Moments, we revisit the familiar story of the woman who reached for the hem of Christ's garment and discover the difference between being p...

I have a confession to make. Sometimes I grow weary of asking. Sometimes I stop seeking because I've convinced myself there is nothing left to find. Sometimes I stand at a closed door just long enough to decide that no one must be home. Maybe you've been there too. In this reflection, we explore Jesus' simple invitation to ask, seek, and knock—not as three religious duties, but as three joyful movements of a life of prayer. What if prayer became less about getting immediate answers and more a...

There are moments when explanation is no longer enough. Moments when another opinion won't heal what is broken. Moments when another argument only deepens the divide. Perhaps this is one of those moments. In this special episode of Scattered Moments, we step away from the noise to offer a simple prayer of collective repentance. Drawing inspiration from the prayers of Daniel, Nehemiah, and Ezra, this reflection invites us to move beyond blaming others and instead ask God to begin His work with...

25 Ways to Share Grace Grace isn't just something we receive from God—it's something we're called to pass along. In this episode of Scattered Moments, Matt Tullos explores twenty-five simple, practical ways to show grace in everyday life. From the words we choose to the way we listen, serve, react, and walk with God, these aren't grand gestures reserved for extraordinary people. They're small, intentional acts of kindness that anyone can practice. You don't have to do all twenty-five. In fact...

Twelve spies entered the same land. They walked the same hills, carried the same fruit, and looked at the same giants. Yet ten came back talking about fear, while two came back talking about faith. In this dramatized reading, journey into one of Scripture's most unforgettable moments from Numbers 13. With multiple voices, a touch of humor, and a timeless challenge, this episode reminds us that our perspective often shapes our future. Are you staring at the giants... or celebrating the grapes G...

Bitterness rarely announces itself as bitterness. It often disguises itself as justice, hurt, or the quiet conviction that we have every right to hold on just a little longer. In this spoken-word episode of Scattered Moments, Matt Tullos explores the devastating path resentment can carve through hearts, families, friendships, and even churches—and the greater invitation Christ offers at His table. Drawing from Hebrews 12:15 and Ephesians 4:31–32, this poetic reflection reminds us that forgive...

The Run-On Sentence of Grace This may be the longest sentence we’ve ever attempted on Scattered Moments. A breathless list of all the things we use to measure ourselves—and each other: weight, IQ, credit score, parenting success, athletic ability, Facebook friends, square footage, the size of your boat, the shine on your floor, and about a hundred other things that seem important until they aren’t. The good news? God’s love isn’t hanging on any of them. Not your résumé. Not your failures. N...

Wrecks Welcome There was a man in our accountability group years ago who made the rest of us look pretty good—or so I thought. For about three seconds. In this episode of Scattered Moments, Matt reflects on the difference between the wreckage everyone can see and the hidden struggles we work so hard to conceal. From public failures to private battles with pride, resentment, greed, and ambition, we discover that we're all standing on the same ground before God. Drawing from Psalm 130, this epi...

What can two very different dogs teach us about the Christian life? In this episode of Scattered Moments, Matt Tullos shares the humorous story of Frank, a dachshund whose life mission was escaping every fence ever built, and Arthur, a faithful companion who had the freedom to go anywhere but simply wanted to stay close to the people he loved. Along the way, you'll discover a gentle truth about God's boundaries, our tendency to wander, and the surprising freedom found in abiding with Christ. ...

The world tells us to become more—to gather more influence, more recognition, more success, and more control. But Jesus points us in a different direction. In this episode of Scattered Moments, we reflect on the surprising beauty of humility, the freedom of becoming smaller, and the grace that fills hearts that make room for God. Through Scripture, quiet reflection, and the wisdom of the saints, we'll discover that the goal of the Christian life is not to be full of ourselves, but to be filled ...

Waiting can feel like a prison, a wilderness, a storm, or a silent tomb. In this reflective episode of Scattered Moments, Matt Tullos explores one of the most difficult realities of the Christian life: trusting God when nothing seems to be happening. Through Scripture, prayer, a classic hymn, and an original spoken-word piece, you'll be reminded that God's delays are not His absence and that hope continues to breathe even in the longest seasons of waiting. If you find yourself waiting for hea...