HeyJaredThe Waiting Country
Weekly Bible reflections, to encourage and help. New signups welcome.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 9
- Latest publication
- Aug 31, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 8, 2026
Latest issues
Catching my breath (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Please forgive this extra Waiting Country. I just wanted to let you know what’s happening with this substack over the next few weeks.I’m retiring from full-time ministry this coming Sunday (6th September) and have decided after posting here every week for over five years to take a short break.1 Which means there’ll be no posts during September.I’ve been asked many times over these past months by those who know I’m retiring what retirement is likely to look like. At the mom
Thirsty? (opens the original)
Read excerpt
If you wake thirsty, remember to hydrate before you caffeinate. Good advice, or so they say. And after exercise make sure your fluid intake is sufficient to replace what you’ve lost (especially during unseasonal heatwaves).Some thirsts are easily satiated — but others can last for years or more. We’re thirsty for answers to questions and prayers. For real and lasting change in our circumstances. For the life of the local church to be renewed.It wouldn’t be hard to grow that list. But scripture a
No longer a sinner (opens the original)
Read excerpt
At a ministers conference I was at a few years ago, I voiced the point I’m going to make in this article — and it didn’t go down very well. At all. There was a fair degree of scepticism about the opinion I expressed (albeit not from the speaker who was receptive to it). For the majority it probably sounded not just counter-intuitive but plain wrong — it goes against all our instincts and is probably thought to be driven by a reluctance to face grim reality.So I probably need to ask you to hang o
on the other side of blue (opens the original)
Read excerpt
If I had a playlist of the saddest songs ever (now there’s an idea…) Tom Baxter’s The Other Side Of Blue would definitely be on there. One plaintive voice, one vulnerable piano, and lyrics as raw as freshly cut meat:People change, we don’t noticeI guess I thought we’d alwaysbe the same.What I mean is, I’m in piecesand this sinking feelingjust won’t go away.But we both know it
love and faithfulness at a glance (opens the original)
Read excerpt
I’m on leave for a couple of weeks so I’m re-posting edited versions of pieces I wrote for The Waiting Country some years ago. I hope they’ll still be helpful.With his trademark wry humour and punchy insight, Steve Turner1 wrote a poem about, well, short poems:Short poemsare fun.You can see at a glancewhether youlike themor not.</spa
Publishing over time
Last 90 days. Choose a month to open its work.
Recurring subjects
Named in the text we hold. One piece can cover several.
Audience
No verified audience measurement yet.
About this data
Counts cover the work we have indexed. Tone needs enough text and a confident classification. Excerpts and episode notes are not full articles or transcripts.
Identity or attribution wrong? Suggest a correction.