HeyJaredThe Goodness / from JL Gerhardt
I look for God and write about God. Always with wonder. Never like a jerk. "I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 5
- Latest publication
- Sep 22, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 20, 2026
Latest issues
It’s the End of the World As We Know It (opens the original)
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“What was your earliest obsession?” I ask this of my husband, Justin, who sits beside me and across the booth from our nephew, Corbin. Our nephew loves airplanes. Always has. He’s training to be a pilot. He’s just told us a story about the first time he remembers riding on an airplane, about noticing a specific detail on the wing and then later pretending to be an airplane on the playground, incorporating his newly-found fact into the shape of his out-stretched arms. “I ordered a survival kit fr
Maybe It Will Always Be Hard (opens the original)
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No one in my family lives in my town. This is mostly my fault, but whoever’s to blame (me), the distance increases the relationship upkeep by a magnitude exactly matching the number of miles between us. Here’s what we’re dealing with:My eldest daughter lives in Key West, Florida (more than 1,000 miles away from us). My parents live in Fayetteville, TN. A ten hour drive. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law (and her family) live in Madison, AL. Which isn’t too far from Fayetteville, TN unless you’r
Slow Art Telling Slow Truths for a Slower-Than-We-Realize World (opens the original)
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Yesterday my family finally made it up to Crystal Bridges to explore its newly unveiled campus extension. Crystal Bridges, a free-to-the-public art museum housing one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of American art in the country, is one of our holy places, the kind of place where, were it appropriate we would take off our shoes. Not every piece of featured art glorifies the Creator but many do, and the space itself definitely does. We walk through light drenched hallways, stop
Is Nolan's Odysseus a Millenial? (opens the original)
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I’m sorry. I have fallen ill with the plague infecting all think-piece writers on the Internet—the need to talk about Christopher Nolan’s latest movie. I’m aware that this is not my lane (though I did teach The Odyssey as a college world literature lecturer), and I’m aware that you did not subscribe to The Goodness in order to hear my opinions about Matt Damon’s acting. Unfortunately, I’m afraid I cannot recover from this flu until I’ve purged myself of these feverish opinions. You’re welcome to
Hungry (opens the original)
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I am 45 years old these days and too old to believe my thoughts are Important. I write less and more slowly, because I am unconvinced of your need for my words. Aren’t there enough words out there? Sometimes people think that because I’m a writer, writing is easy, something like delivering a fifth baby—it might happen by accident in the car. Those people are mistaken. Writing is (almost always) like climbing a tall mountain in a storm. You have to have a very good reason to do a stupid thing lik
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