Tom Long: Number Our Days

Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

Everything Happens Studios

Health & Fitness, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

4.8 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Reverend Tom Long wrote the book on funerals. No, really. When grief threatens to swallow us whole, Tom reminds us of our place in a bigger story of hope and faith, of interdependence and the importance of community. He describes the necessity of ritual to pull us into a wider, truer story than the trite version our culture likes to tell. In this warm conversation (trust me! You will laugh!), Kate and Tom discuss: What it means to be called into emotionally-expensive professions (jobs where you decide to really care!) The importance of truth-telling at a funeral Seeing people through the prism of God’s love for them (more specifically—through the lens of their baptism) Why people die at all and what happens with all the love we have for one another (hint: it’s never, ever, ever lost) The importance of the rituals we create to walk people through death and dying No one likes to talk about funerals, but this one is a must-listen. *** Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here. Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter. THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here. We have free Lent guides for you to use by yourself, with a group, or with your church. Click here to get started. Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	There are some truths that we need to stand on. Truths that are wider and deeper than the
0:09.5	trite platitudes that we hear are the everything happens, podcast, love to debunk.
0:17.8	These are the truths that help carry us through the most unthinkable of moments. Truths that
0:23.9	we can find ourselves wrapped inside of, comforted by, rest against. This is everything happens,
0:33.8	and I'm Kate Boller. Today I wanted to talk to someone about what true things we can say
0:41.0	when the world seems to be absolutely coming undone. When we lose people we love,
0:47.4	when the unexplainable happens, what can we say then? And who do we trust to do that kind of
0:56.0	truth telling? My guest today is Thomas Long. Reverend Dr. Long is the Banty Professor Emeritus
1:06.1	of Preaching at Candler Theological School at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. And he got his
1:11.9	PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary, began his ministry at a Presbyterian church near Atlanta,
1:18.0	and has apparently not suffered from being that Presbyterian. This is some pretty peak Presbyterian
1:24.1	content here in 1996. Dr. Long was named one of the 12 most effective preachers in the world,
1:30.6	and he is the author of Accompany Them With Singing, The Christian Funeral, The Witness of Preaching,
1:37.5	and co-author of The Good Funeral with a Friend of the Podcast Thomas Lynch. Tom, I'm so happy to be
1:44.5	speaking with you today. Here we are at last. Wonderful to be here. Thank you for having me.
1:49.7	Oh my gosh. Oh, it's my pleasure. I wanted to start by asking you a question about why,
1:57.4	because we spend so much of our lives doing things, and we don't always know why. Well, I guess
2:04.6	most people, but people who say they are called to things have to know the why. So I wondered if we could
2:12.7	start there. How did you know that you were called into ministry? Well, I was pre-med in college,
2:19.5	and was heading to be a physician. And there was in our little college town, a minister on the
2:27.4	campus church who was standing tall for racial justice. This was in the 60s, and he was paying the
2:36.2	price for it. This is in a South Carolina town. And he was a profile encouraged to me, and I thought
	...

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