This Week

We are reading:

• Jeremiah 5-26

• Proverbs 14:25-35, 15:1-16

Summary

Jeremiah echoes many other reluctant prophets we have read about. He complains to God, curses the day he was born, and begs to be released from a calling he never wanted. He keeps going anyway, like the reluctant prophets before him.

This week we’re deep in the indictment of Jerusalem and Judah, yet again. We can recite the charges by now — idolatry, injustice, false worship, ignoring the prophets — and Jeremiah delivers them with the flair of personal anguish. He is grieving the downfall of his culture from right inside it.

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 229 — Monday, 8/17 — Jeremiah 5-7, Proverbs 14:25-28

• Day 230 — Tuesday, 8/18 — Jeremiah 8-10, Proverbs 14:29-32

• Day 231 — Wednesday, 8/19 — Jeremiah 11-13, Proverbs 14:33-35

• Day 232 — Thursday, 8/20 — Jeremiah 14-16, Proverbs 15:1-4

• Day 233 — Friday, 8/21 — Jeremiah 17-19, Proverbs 15:5-8

• Day 234 — Saturday, 8/22 — Jeremiah 20-22, Proverbs 15:9-12

• Day 235 — Sunday, 8/23 — Jeremiah 23-26, Proverbs 15:13-16

Day 229 — Monday, 8/17 — Jeremiah 5-7, Proverbs 14:25-28

• In typical God fashion, He tells Jeremiah to go through the streets of Jerusalem and look for even one person who acts justly and seeks truth. If he finds one, the city will be forgiven. He looks among the poor, then among the leaders, but he finds no one.

• The siege of Jerusalem is announced because the people refuse to correct their behavior. Jeremiah tells the people that they cannot expect the temple of the Lord to protect them while they are disobedient.

Day 230 — Tuesday, 8/18 — Jeremiah 8-10, Proverbs 14:29-32

• Jeremiah mourns the persistent rebellion and spiritual sickness of his people, and expresses deep grief over the deceit and falsehood of Judah, leading to impending judgment. He is crushed by the inevitable outcome.

• The contrast between the Creator God and human-made idols, which are sheer delusion, is hammered home for the umpteenth time.

Day 231 — Wednesday, 8/19 — Jeremiah 11-13, Proverbs 14:33-35

• God tells Jeremiah to proclaim the terms of the covenant that the people swore to at Sinai and have been breaking ever since.

• God tells Jeremiah that the men of his hometown are plotting to kill him. Jeremiah asks why the wicked prosper, and God explains that future judgment and restoration is coming.

Day 232 — Thursday, 8/20 — Jeremiah 14-16, Proverbs 15:1-4

• A severe drought hits the land, and God tells Jeremiah not to pray for the people. The false prophets have been telling the people there will be peace — but God never promised that.

• God tells Jeremiah not to marry, not to have children, not to attend funerals or feasts — his isolation is itself a sign to the people of what is coming, much like the symbolism displayed by other prophets. Jeremiah laments his calling.

Day 233 — Friday, 8/21 — Jeremiah 17-19, Proverbs 15:5-8

• Judah’s sin is permanently carved on their hearts, detailed in the infamous line that the heart is deceitful above all things.

• God uses a potter to explain to Jeremiah: as the potter shapes this vase, so too does God shape His people.

• The breaking of a clay flask symbolizes the total destruction of Jerusale

Day 234 — Saturday, 8/22 — Jeremiah 20-22, Proverbs 15:9-12

• Pashhur the priest has Jeremiah beaten and put in stocks overnight. When he is released, Jeremiah renames him: not Pashhur but Terror on Every Side. Jeremiah’s burden is great — he is ridiculed constantly, yet if he doesn’t speak the words of God burn his heart like a fire in his bones. He cannot stop; his blessing is a curse.

• King Zedekiah asks for help, hoping Jeremiah will call upon God to save him, but Jeremiah tells him to surrender to Babylon. God issues a judgment against the kings.

Day 235 — Sunday, 8/23 — Jeremiah 23-26, Proverbs 15:13-16

• The shepherds who scatter and destroy God’s flock are condemned. God promises a righteous Branch will soon come from David’s line.

• A vision of the good figs (those going into exile) and bad figs (those remaining behind). The word of God and the word of the false prophet are not comparable, no matter how similar they sound from the outside.

• Jeremiah is put on trial for predicting the temple's destruction, but is spared.

What jumped out at you the most you this week? It’s the false prophets for me.

Summary

I dislocated/injured my toe a couple weeks ago and completely lost a week of my life. In this article I’m catching up on the last couple weeks of the Bible study (Weeks 31-32) as well as sending the upcoming week (Week 33), so below is the catch up notes and a look back and ahead at the full book of Ezekiel.

Just a reminder that if you have fallen behind, it’s ok! The summer is hard with vacations and kids and now back to school and I totally get it. Reading the Bible is a marathon, not a sprint — even though it certainly feels like we are sprinting through the year! You can skip weeks and just pick back up whenever you have time, and these writeups can serve as a guide if you need. Now is a GREAT time to jump back in because Ezekiel is BONKERS.

But first, we powered through 5 books in 5 days before landing in one of the strangest, most ethereal and visionary books in the entire Bible.

Joel, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah are short, but each serves its own purpose: Joel with locusts and the Spirit, Nahum with the fall of Nineveh, Habakkuk pulls out an audacious argument with God, and Zephaniah with the Day of the Lord.

Baruch is another Deuterocanon text — attributed to Jeremiah’s scribe, actually — and it reads like a prayer of confession from a people who are finally coming to terms with what happened to them and why.

And then we have been reading the book of Ezekiel over the course of a couple weeks. Ezekiel is evocative of some of our discussions early in the Bible study and especially the strange visions and dense imagery of Enoch. Reading Ezekiel makes me wish I had time to make Bible memes and reels on Instagram again.

Week 31

We read:

• Joel 1-3

• Nahum 1-3

• Habakkuk 1-3

• Zephaniah 1-3

• Baruch 1-6

• Ezekiel 1-8

• Proverbs 11:25-31, 12:1-20

This Bible study is free for everyone, made possible by the support of our paid subscribers.

If you’d like to support us, please consider a paid subscription.

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• Full-length weekly cultural and Biblical deep dives

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 208 — Monday, 7/27 — Joel 1-3, Proverbs 11:25-28

• Day 209 — Tuesday, 7/28 — Nahum 1-3, Proverbs 11:29-31

• Day 210 — Wednesday, 7/29 — Habakkuk 1-3, Proverbs 12:1-4

• Day 211 — Thursday, 7/30 — Zephaniah 1-3, Proverbs 12:5-8

• Day 212 — Friday, 7/31 — Baruch 1-6, Proverbs 12:9-12

• Day 213 — Saturday, 8/1 — Ezekiel 1-4, Proverbs 12:13-16

• Day 214 — Sunday, 8/2 — Ezekiel 5-8, Proverbs 12:17-20

Day 208 — Monday, 7/27 — Joel 1-3, Proverbs 11:25-28

• Plague is back! A locust plague of catastrophic scale strips the land bare and Joel uses this event to prophecy about the coming Day of the Lord, calling people and priests to lament and fast. The locusts are a preview, foreshadowing.

• God calls for genuine repentance and promises to restore everything the locusts consumed. Joel prophesies an upcoming outpouring of the Spirit — sons and daughters prophesying, old men dreaming, young men seeing visions — which is referenced in the New Testament.

• God promises to gather the hostile nations for judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, restoring Judah and Jerusalem.

Day 209 — Tuesday, 7/28 — Nahum 1-3, Proverbs 11:29-31

• We’re back in Ninevah — a wicked city that angers God over and over. The fall of Nineveh is described in vivid detail, and the verdict explained fully: Nineveh is a city of blood, built on prostitution, theft, oppression, witchcraft.

Day 210 — Wednesday, 7/29 — Habakkuk 1-3, Proverbs 12:1-4

• Habakkuk echoes a universal complaint: God, why do you tolerate injustice in Judah?
  God answers: I am raising up the Babylonians to punish them.
  Habakkuk complains again: but they are more wicked than us, how can a holy God use them as his instrument? He girds his loins and waits for an answer.

• God answers with a vision and the line that will echo through Paul and through the Reformation thousands of years later: “the righteous person will live by his faithfulness.”

• Habakkuk recounts God’s power in a beautiful poem, detailing His mighty acts and mercy in history. Even though crops might fail, flocks might vanish, and disaster looms, Habakkuk chooses to find his ultimate joy and strength in God.

Day 211 — Thursday, 7/30 — Zephaniah 1-3, Proverbs 12:5-8

• Zephaniah is yet another prophecy of the coming Day of the Lord. A sweeping judgment oracle that begins with Judah and expands to consume everything. The Day of the Lord is near — a day of wrath, distress, anguish, ruin, darkness — and Zephaniah issues a call to seek the Lord before the judgment falls.

Day 212 — Friday, 7/31 — Baruch 1-6, Proverbs 12:9-12

• Baruch — another deuterocanonical text (which again can be found in a Catholic translation on the Bible app, if you need) — is another tale of repentance and God’s wisdom and future restoration. Baruch reads his scroll to the exiles in Babylon and they weep, recognizing their punishment for not listening to God. They fast and send money back to Jerusalem for offerings.

• Baruch illustrates a meditation on Wisdom, echoing Proverbs in asking where Wisdom is found. Certainly not amongst the nations, and not with the wealthy or powerful. Wisdom is with God, and God has given her to Israel as the law. Once again we look forward to a future reconciliation and restoration in the glory of God.

• Baruch ends with the Letter of Jeremiah (Baruch was Jeremiah’s scribe) — a thorough and sharp rebuke against Babylonian idol worship.

Day 213 — Saturday, 8/1 — Ezekiel 1-4, Proverbs 12:13-16

• Ezekiel opens on his 30th birthday with a bang: a storm rolls in with fire and biblically accurate angels. Four human-ish living creatures with four faces (human, lion, ox, and eagle) atop four wheels within wheels, covered in eyes, moving in every direction without turning. Above them, a platform with a throne. On the throne, a figure of radiant fire. The imagery is evocative of Enoch. We’ve been here before. God’s Throne Room.

• God commissions Ezekiel to Israel, warning him they are rebellious and will not listen but he must speak anyway, and only speak what God has told him. God gives Ezekiel a scroll and tells him to eat it. He does. It tastes like honey. We are so back.

• Ezekiel is made a watchman for Israel. If he fails to warn the wicked and they die, their blood is on his hands.

Day 214 — Sunday, 8/2 — Ezekiel 5-8, Proverbs 12:17-20

• Ezekiel shaves his head and beard, divides the hair into thirds: one burned in the city, one struck with a sword, one scattered to the wind. A few hairs tucked into his robe. God tells him that this is what will happen to Jerusalem’s people.

• A prophecy against Israel and then the end is here. Ezekial is taken to Jerusalem and shown a vision. He is shown the temple complex room by room: an idol at the north gate, seventy elders burning incense to images in a darkened room, women weeping for Tammuz (aka Osiris as discussed here), twenty-five men with their backs to the temple worshipping the rising sun.

Yikes.

Week 32

Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 215 — Monday, 8/3 — Ezekiel 9-11, Proverbs 12:21-24

• Day 216 — Tuesday, 8/4 — Ezekiel 12-14, Proverbs 12:25-28

• Day 217 — Wednesday, 8/5 — Ezekiel 15-17, Proverbs 13:1-4

• Day 218 — Thursday, 8/6 — Ezekiel 18-20, Proverbs 13:5-8

• Day 219 — Friday, 8/7 — Ezekiel 21-23, Proverbs 13:9-12

• Day 220 — Saturday, 8/8 — Ezekiel 24-27, Proverbs 13:13-16

• Day 221 — Sunday, 8/9 — Ezekiel 28-30, Proverbs 13:17-20

Day 215 — Monday, 8/3 — Ezekiel 9-11, Proverbs 12:21-24

• God commands the execution of idolaters while those who grieve over the sins of the city are marked for salvation.

• We’re back to the throne room — and we see God is leaving the temple.

• The Spirit lifts Ezekiel back to the exiles in Babylon and he tells them everything he has seen. God promises that though Jerusalem’s residents have scattered his people, he himself will be a sanctuary for them in exile. And one day he will gather them back and give them a new heart and a new spirit.

Day 216 — Tuesday, 8/4 — Ezekiel 12-14, Proverbs 12:25-28

• God tells Ezekiel to pack his bags like a refugee and dig through the wall of his house to leave, acting out the coming captivity and exile.

• The people keep saying the visions are for the distant future, but God warns against idol worshippers and false prophets who proclaim peace when there is none.

Day 217 — Wednesday, 8/5 — Ezekiel 15-17, Proverbs 13:1-4

• Jerusalem is compared to a useless vine, fit only to be thrown in the fire.

• Jerusalem is compared to an adulterous wife — found as an abandoned baby, raised and adorned by God who became her husband, who then used the gifts of gold and oil and fine linen to make idols and offered the children she bore to God as sacrifices to those idols. Yeesh.

• A parable of two eagles and a vine illustrates the failure of Zedekiah breaking his oath to Babylon and turning to Egypt for help, which God holds as a covenant violation.

Day 218 — Thursday, 8/6 — Ezekiel 18-20, Proverbs 13:5-8

• God clarifies individual responsibility in response to an oft quoted proverb — “The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” God says the one who sins is the one that dies. A righteous father does not save a wicked son, and a wicked father does not condemn a righteous one.

• God laments Israel’s fallen princes, comparing them to lions. A historical review of Israel’s persistent rebellion — from Egypt through the wilderness through the land — is followed by the promise of eventual restoration.

Day 219 — Friday, 8/7 — Ezekiel 21-23, Proverbs 13:9-12

• Babylon is used as the sword of the Lord, an oracle of coming destruction against Jerusalem. A catalogue of Jerusalem’s sins is presented as a legal indictment: shedding blood, dishonoring parents, oppressing the foreigner, wronging the widow and orphan, despising sacred things, slandering to cause bloodshed, practicing extortion. Jerusalem and Samaria are graphically described as allegorical prostitutes chasing foreign powers and foreign gods.

Day 220 — Saturday, 8/8 — Ezekiel 24-27, Proverbs 13:13-16

• God marks the day the king of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem, and Ezekiel’s wife dies the same day. He is told not to mourn publicly, not to weep, not to observe any of the customary mourning rites and his silent grief is a sign of the coming loss.

• Oracles of judgment are pronounced against Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia for rejoicing over Jerusalem’s fall. Tyre is described in a beautiful funeral poem as a magnificent merchant ship sinking into the sea.

Day 221 — Sunday, 8/9 — Ezekiel 28-30, Proverbs 13:17-20

• The king of Tyre has said “I am a god” — whoopsie! God responds at length with a diatribe about a guardian cherub in Eden, covered in precious stones, being driven out from the mount of God with fire.

• Ezekiel has a vision of Egypt, with Pharaoh as a great dragon lying in the Nile, dragged out with hooks, thrown into the desert to be food for birds and beasts. Egypt will be laid waste for forty years, then restored to the least of kingdoms, never again to be a power Israel relies on.

This Week (33)

Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 222 — Monday, 8/10 — Ezekiel 31-33, Proverbs 13:21-25

• Day 223 — Tuesday, 8/11 — Ezekiel 34-36, Proverbs 14:1-4

• Day 224 — Wednesday, 8/12 — Ezekiel 37-39, Proverbs 14:5-8

• Day 225 — Thursday, 8/13 — Ezekiel 40-42, Proverbs 14:9-12

• Day 226 — Friday, 8/14 — Ezekiel 43-45, Proverbs 14:13-16

• Day 227 — Saturday, 8/15 — Ezekiel 46-48, Proverbs 14:17-20

• Day 228 — Sunday, 8/16 — Jeremiah 1-4, Proverbs 14:21-24

Day 222 — Monday, 8/10 — Ezekiel 31-33, Proverbs 13:21-25

• Egypt is compared to a cedar of Lebanon — towering, beautiful, the envy of every tree in the garden of God — cut down for excessive pride. A lament over Pharaoh visualizes Egypt as as a lion among the nations, then as a monster in the seas, dragged out with a net and thrown on the open fields while birds and beasts consume it. A graphic portrayal of Egypt’s downfall into the netherworld with the other pagan nations.

• God reiterates that he has made Ezekiel a watchman for Israel, and if the wicked man does not hear the warning and dies, the watchman is responsible. But if he warns and the man does not turn, the man’s blood is on his own hands. Jerusalem has fallen. But hey, at least he can speak now.

Day 223 — Tuesday, 8/11 — Ezekiel 34-36, Proverbs 14:1-4

• God denounces Israel’s selfish leaders as false shepherds who feed themselves instead of tending the flock, and promises to come personally as the True Shepherd to rescue His flock — more Jesus foreshadowing.

• A mountain is indicted when a prophecy of judgement is issued against Mount Seir, the settlement location of the Edomites (descendants of Esau), for perpetually opposing Israel. But there is hope, as God promises a new heart and a new spirit for the mountains and for His people.

Day 224 — Wednesday, 8/12 — Ezekiel 37-39, Proverbs 14:5-8

• Ezekiel is set down in a valley of dry bones. God tells him to prophesy to the bones and they rattle back to life, the bones coming together, sinew and flesh and skin cover them, the breath enters, and they stand as a vast army. The bones are the house of Israel, cut off and without hope. But God will open their graves and bring them up. (Can God please renew the tendon/joint around my messed up toe? Pls & ty)

• And then we have a prophecy against Gog from the land of Magog, an apocalyptic Biblical reference that is infamous in conspiracy circles. A great northern coalition led by Gog of Magog invades a restored and peaceful Israel. God himself fights for Israel with earthquake and plague and fire and the enemy is destroyed so thoroughly that it takes seven months to bury the dead and seven years to burn the weapons. The nations will know that God is the Lord.

• Fun fact! Gog and Magog were George “Dubya” Bush and George H. W. Bush’s nicknames in Skull & Bones, the not-so-secret society at Yale that they were both members of. Rumor has it that when Prescott Bush, father/grandfather of the Georges, was in Skull & Bones, he and the boys dug up Geronimo’s grave and stole his skull. Neat! I’m sure this is just a normal fun boys club for cool college guys! Also, Dubya once called then French president Jaques Chirac in 2003 and urged him to join the invasion of Iraq because Biblical prophecies from Ezekiel were unfolding. Chirac had to find a theologian and ask what “Gog and Magog” meant. Haha! Cool cool cool! Boys will be boys!

Day 225 — Thursday, 8/13 — Ezekiel 40-42, Proverbs 14:9-12

• Ezekiel’s final vision is a three-chapter guided tour of a new temple with precise and detailed measurements. Kinda feels like we’ve been here before.

Day 226 — Friday, 8/14 — Ezekiel 43-45, Proverbs 14:13-16

• The glory of the Lord returns to fill the temple. Coming from the east, the direction it departed, filling the temple with the same overwhelming radiance as the original vision in the first chapter.

• Instructions for the altar, the sacrifices, the consecration of the priests — everything that was corrupted or neglected must be done correctly this time. The east gate, through which the glory entered, is shut permanently. Land allotments are given for the priests and Levites and the city, with a sacred district set apart at the center. The prince gets land on either side of the sacred district — enough that he no longer needs to seize land from the people, in hopes of circumventing that abuse of power.

Day 227 — Saturday, 8/15 — Ezekiel 46-48, Proverbs 14:17-20

• More regulations are detailed for offerings and festivals, the movement of the prince through the gates, the cooking of the sacrifices.

• Ezekiel sees a life giving river trickling out from under the temple threshold eastward, toward the Dead Sea. Ezekiel wades in and sees that everywhere the river flows, things live. The Dead Sea becomes fresh. Fishermen spread their nets along its shores. Fruit trees grow on both banks, their leaves never withering, their fruit always in season.

• The land is divided among the twelve tribes with a portion for the foreigners who have settled among Israel’s children, treated as native-born. The city’s gates are named for the twelve tribes. And the city’s new name will be: The Lord Is There.

Day 228 — Sunday, 8/16 — Jeremiah 1-4, Proverbs 14:21-24

• And now we are in Jeremiah, another prophet during the fall of Jerusalem. Jeremiah is set apart before he was born, and when called up by God he immediately protests that he is too young. God touches his mouth and tells him he has put his words there. As we have seen over and over, prophets are nearly always reluctant.

• Once again, God indicts Israel for chasing idols. He calls them to return, repent, and warns of upcoming disaster.

Whew. I gotta say, I really love the dramatic imagery in Ezekiel. I always find the imagery of God as the “living water” so fascinating, wish I had time to write a deep dive on that (I do already have half a draft started).

What jumps out at you from these readings? Join the conversation in the comments and the chat!

Almost overnight, I became allergic to nearly every skincare and beauty product I owned.

I’ve written a lot about my health crisis and how it changed almost every part of my life: my routines, my priorities, my diet, my home, and my understanding of my own body.

What I don’t talk about nearly as often is what happened to my bathroom cabinet.

At 35 years old, I had to rebuild my entire approach to personal care from the ground up.

Shampoo. Conditioner. Soap. Lotion. Deodorant. Perfume. Toothpaste. Face cream.

Things that had always been part of my daily routine suddenly became things my body could not tolerate, making my skin burn, itch, flush, or swell, and even triggering perioral dermatitis.

It forced me to look much more closely at what I was putting on my skin.

Behind the glossy packaging and alluring claims, most conventional skincare formulas contain a cocktail of chemicals that raise serious health concerns. From endocrine disruptors that interfere with hormone function to carcinogenic ingredients linked to cancer to simply chemicals that sensitive immune systems don’t tolerate, these hidden hazards are more common than most consumers realize.

For most of my life, none of that mattered.

Then suddenly it mattered a lot.

Clean Beauty Didn’t Find Me. Chronic Illness Did.

Today, “clean beauty” has become its own lifestyle.

People arrive in the clean beauty space for all kinds of reasons. Some want to reduce their exposure to certain chemicals. Others are concerned about endocrine disruptors. Some simply prefer shorter ingredient lists. Plenty are drawn in by wellness culture or whatever ingredient happens to be trending on TikTok.

I arrived through a very different door.

I wasn’t trying to optimize my health or maximize my skincare routine, I was just trying to find a face cream that didn’t burn my skin.

After developing Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) alongside Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), products labeled as gentle, dermatologist-tested, or even hypoallergenic often caused severe reactions.

That experience permanently changed the way I think about product safety.

Something can be considered safe for the average consumer while still being a terrible choice for someone whose immune system doesn’t behave like the average consumer.

The mainstream conversations around product and ingredient safety are built on population-level research, which don’t always reflect the experience of people whose immune systems don’t behave like everyone else’s. Population-level studies aggregate the data and don’t take into account that 20% of the population is hypersensitive.

Outliers are tossed out of studies as a fluke, but outliers are still people. Something can be tolerated by the majority of people and still be a serious problem for a significant subset of the population — a subset that may be overrepresented in areas like clean beauty or non-toxic living, as they seek out options suitable for their sensitive skin and bodies.

A simple comparison to illustrate why the data on product safety is often flawed: peanuts are considered safe for most people, but that obviously doesn’t mean they’re harmless for someone with a peanut allergy. And while about 2% of people have true peanut allergies, about 22% of people have a peanut sensitivity. So while a population level study would deem peanuts as safe, nearly a quarter of the population has an issue with them.

The same logic applies when we talk about the thousands of ingredients used across personal care products: Who is being studied? What reactions are being measured? Were researchers looking for major diseases years later? Were they paying attention to chronic irritation, inflammation, allergic responses, and subtle immune reactions that can dramatically affect quality of life? And so on. It’s the same as any other consumer product we question.

Some people will brush off this kind of critical thinking as fear-mongering, but there is a huge difference between fear-mongering and education and awareness.

My experience forced me to stop assuming that a product was safe simply because it was popular, widely used, approved for the general population, or even talked about as fine from popular “clean beauty” influencers.

I had to learn to read labels differently. I had to simplify. I had to rebuild my routines from scratch.

And ultimately, I had to develop a much deeper understanding of the relationship between our bodies and the environments we create around them.

My Beef With Tallow

After throwing away nearly every beauty product I owned, I spent more than a year using almost nothing.

Most days I washed my face with water.

Sometimes raw honey.

I remembered my Nana standing at the kitchen sink rubbing olive oil into her skin, so I tried that too. For a while, it was one of the only things my skin could tolerate.

Then I discovered tallow.

At the time, it felt like exactly what I needed: a simple, minimally processed moisturizer, a single ingredient cream that my skin didn’t immediately react to. I found tallow in 2021 and used it for years, long before it became one of the internet’s favorite skincare products.

Then tallow exploded. Suddenly it seemed like everyone was rubbing rendered beef fat on their faces, with some proclaiming it the perfect natural moisturizer.

I understood the appeal because I’d been there myself.

But after using tallow for several years, I started noticing something.

While tallow never caused breakouts or obvious irritation for me, my skin never seemed truly healthy either. I dealt with a patch of persistent dryness that I eventually realized wasn’t improving. I realized that, upon closer inspection, there was a slight redness and roughness to the very top layer of my skin, instead of a dewy glow. At first I blamed this on my recovering gut health, but once I dug into the science of skincare, I realized it was the tallow. I can now spot this skin texture effect in people who use a lot of tallow on their face.

When I started learning more about skin barrier science everything finally clicked.

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Corneotherapy: Terrain Theory for Skin

Corneotherapy is scientific skincare approach focused entirely on repairing and maintaining the outermost layer of the skin (the stratum corneum). Pioneered in the 1970s, its core philosophy is to protect the skin barrier, microbiome, and acid mantle rather than disrupting them through harsh treatments.

Corneotherapy isn’t just about using “natural” products. It generally emphasizes:

• Mimicking the skin’s natural lipids (especially ceramides, cholesterol, and fatty acids).

• Using the fewest necessary ingredients.

• Avoiding unnecessary exfoliation.

• Avoiding fragrances and ingredients that may compromise a damaged barrier.

• Supporting skin to heal itself rather than continually stimulating it.

While corneotherapy is a theory and approach that applies to everyone, it is especially important for those with sensitive skin.

When you begin to learn about corneotherapy and barrier repair, the underpinning of the tallow craze slowly falls apart, because…

Tallow is not a complete face moisturizer.

Now before I get into it, I have to say — people really love an absolute. They love to be able to say tallow = good, or tallow = bad, and unfortunately the world is just not black and white, and I’m not here to tell you tallow is all bad.

But what I am telling you is that, contrary to popular claims, tallow alone is not bio-identical to human sebum. And because of this, tallow alone is not a sufficient skin care routine, especially longer term or if you have aging or acne-prone skin.

While tallow can be an excellent occlusive (a substance that creates a top level seal), it isn’t a complete moisturizer. On its own, it does not provide the balance of humectants, barrier-supporting ingredients, and lipids needed for long-term skin health. Tallow is completely missing about half of the molecular profile of actual human sebum. Human sebum contains about 50% triglycerides, ~26% wax esters, ~12-20% squalene, and approximately 5% cholesterol. Tallow only contains triglycerides, at 95%.

In short, tallow contains, at most, about half of what your skin barrier needs to be healthy.

Because sealing moisture in and adding moisture aren’t the same thing. Healthy skin needs more than oils. It also relies on humectants that draw water into the skin, along with barrier-supporting ingredients that help replenish what the skin naturally loses over time.

Tallow is an occlusive that creates a top level seal, and if you have a damaged skin barrier or dry skin, tallow is simply sitting on top of that and not repairing or moisturizing what’s underneath. This is why many people who use tallow alone can have a skin texture that looks dewy but still a bit red and somehow dry underneath. It’s not a complete moisturizer.

And moisture isn’t the only thing tallow seals in. In acne-prone skin, tallow can seal in dirt, sweat, and bacteria, and is highly comedogenic, meaning it can clog pores and create more acne.

So while tallow can absolutely be part of a healthy skincare routine, it just isn’t the complete moisturizer the internet often claims it is. In my personal experience, it is much better as a body moisturizer, and is a great option for kids and for use with skin issues like eczema that need top layer barrier protection.

How I Evaluate Skincare

After years of trial and error and education, all my skincare knowledge boils down to two questions when I am evaluating a product:

1. Is it clean? Meaning, is it TRULY clean and not just greenwashed, does it contain endocrine disrupters, are there harsh chemicals, etc etc.

2. Does it work? Unfortunately, there are lots of clean beauty products that are simply ineffective. It’s great when they don’t cause damage, but what we are really looking for is skincare that doesn’t cause damage AND effectively betters the look and quality of our skin.

There are very few products that meet these standards.

A note on Hyaluronic Acid

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is all the rage these days. Companies love to put HA in everything and claim all these great moisturizing benefits. Here’s the catch — HA pulls moisture to it. If you live in a humid or not dry climate, HA is great because it will pull moisture from the air to your skin. If HA can’t pull moisture from the air, it will pull it from deeper layers of your skin. If you live in a dry climate, or have dry skin (or both!), HA will make your dry skin worse.

And, unfortunately, HA is in nearly everything marketed to those with dry skin.

So if you have dry skin issues, and you are using products with HA, this is something to consider. I personally live in the high desert and can use HA in very small amounts during monsoon season, and when I go on vacation to places with more moderate or humid climates, but I skip it during seasons when it’s exceedingly dry here or if I notice dry patches popping up.

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My Skincare Routine

My skincare routine is simple now, and I have the best skin of my life:

• Cleanse — Sometimes I wash my face with a gentle cleanser, sometimes I just use water. My favorite cleanser is Sea Bloom Collagen Cleanser by Abbi & Lahni. In my single ingredient days I washed my face with raw honey and I find that’s still a good option (especially for those who are dealing with active MCAS or MCS).

• Refresh — I always use a hydrosol to add moisture to my skin, my very favorite is this organic rose water hydrosol. I will use this multiple times a day for a refresh, and I keep it in the front of the car with me on long road trips for a little refresh.

• Serum — I look for serums and moisturizers with a good balance of lipids and oils that work well for me, like jojoba oil and squalane. My favorites are the Dewdrop Elixir by Abbi & Lahni, and for a more active serum I love The Bright One Vitamin C Serum by Sun & Moo.

• Moisturizer — As this is the top layer, this can have more occlusive ingredients that seal everything in. My favorite is the Luminous Lipids with Pearl, Rose, and Reishi from Reclamation Organics. In the summer I also like a lighter every day moisturizer like The Beautiful One by Sun & Moo. In winter, as I live in a very dry climate, I often add another thicker face cream with an occlusive layer on top of this (so a larger ratio of tallow, beeswax, or *gasp* petroleum jelly) to fully protect from dry winds. I am looking forward to trying Glow Guard by Abbi & Lahni for our dry high desert winter.

My diet also plays a major contributing role in my skincare, I avoid seed oils and pasteurized milk (raw milk is fine), which both cause acne for me.

My Favorite Skincare Brands

I’ve tried dozens of popular “clean” skincare brands at this point, and I’m sharing with you my top three — as well as two that are very popular in the wellness/clean beauty space that I didn’t love, and why.

Note: I am technically an affiliate for all of these, even the ones I am not recommending. You can trust that these are honest reviews because, well, I’m not recommending all of them. All of the skincare products I’ve tried and liked are linked in my ShopMy Skincare Collection.

Sun & Moo

Sun & Moo began as a tallow brand (actually two brands that merged) that has evolved over the years and recently reformulated many of their products — including introducing new, water-based skincare products. I love that this brand has evolved their products as their knowledge of skincare evolves. I predict this will be one of the few tallow skincare companies that evolves and survives as the tallow craze continues to move past its peak. They make my favorite tallow balm that I use on my body and on my kids, The Healer, which was recently reformulated and has such an incredible texture for a tallow balm. The texture of their newly formulated products, especially The Beautiful One face cream, is honestly insane and I can’t wait to try their other new products coming out in the next few months.

Standout Products: The Bright One (Vitamin C Serum), The Beautiful One, and The Healer

You can use code GLITTER for 10% off Sun & Moo

Abbi & Lahni

A local to me company, Abbi & Lahni is a luxury beauty brand is formulated right here in the high desert of Sedona. They exclusively use high quality organic ingredients, and there is no hyaluronic acid so their products are especially wonderful in extremely dry climates. My personal favorites are the Sea Bloom Collagen Cleanser and the Dewdrop Elixir serum. The Desert Kiss lip scrub is especially useful in our dry climate and I love using Glow Guard as an all-over body oil, and it’s going to be great in my skincare tool kit this winter.

Standout Products: Dewdrop Elixir with organic frankincense and Sea Bloom Collagen Cleanser

You can use code GLITTER15 for 15% off Abbi & Lahni

Reclamation Organics

Reclamation Organics is the brand that introduced me to corneotherapy and helped me understand how to protect my skin barrier. The standout product (and possibly my favorite skincare product of all time) is the Luminous Lipid Complex with Pearl, Rose, and Resins, and there is also an unscented (and less expensive) version of the Lipid Lotion. A serum and lotion in one, both of these have essentially the same base ingredients and are designed to be biomimetic to create a skincare product identical to the lipid profile of the skin barrier.

Standout Product: Luminous Lipid Complex with Pearl, Rose, and Resins and fragrance free version of the Lipid Lotion

You can use code GLITTER for 10% off Reclamation Organics

Not-so-Favorite Skincare Brands

Two of the most popular clean skincare brands I see popping up around instagram, especially from influencers sharing their codes, are Primally Pure and Clearstem.

I tried both and I didn’t like either.

While they both are clean brands, and I appreciate the formulations, they just don’t work for me.

Primally Pure was kind enough to send me their Plumping Serum, Plumping Mist, and Plumping Cream. I also tried their Almond Vanilla Body Butter and a lip balm. Frankly, this just confirmed for me the issue with tallow sitting on top of the skin and not truly moisturizing the layers of the skin barrier. While these products didn’t cause any breakouts (which is definitely a win!), they left my skin feeling a bit dry underneath, and led to a dull and dry look under the sheen of tallow. These tallow products also honestly do not feel well formulated in comparison to other tallow forward companies like Sun & Moo — the tallow isn’t balanced, blended and integrated with jojoba and other oils. The mist and serum do not have tallow in them, but I just didn’t feel like these did anything for my skin, honestly. I’m not a skincare formulator, but after all my years of research and trial and error, my guess is that the issue with this routine is that it relies on too high a percentage of tallow and lacks enough of the other lipids (like jojoba or squalane) to match the natural profile of human sebum.

Clearstem is another brand that was kind enough to send me their Hydraglow Moisturizer, Hydraberry Mask, Goldenhour Watermelon Barrier Oil, Pregame Mask, and Bounceback Serum. Now Clearstem seems more popular with people who have acne-prone skin, which I do not, so I just may not be their target market. While I did like the Hydra-line of products and the Watermelon Barrier Oil, I also find their products have just a lot of ingredients that I’m not sure are totally necessary. And I have bigger concerns with the products as a whole — my Hydraglow moisturizer grew mold within a couple months, and the Pregame Mask and Bounceback Serum both have glitter in them, which is the absolute last thing I want in my skincare. The Pregame mask legit looks like something I would have bought at the mall in 1999. Ironically, my code is GLITTER if you want 15% off of Clearstem products.

Conclusion

Learning about the best practices around how to actually benefit from tallow in skincare perfectly captures my biggest frustration with the clean beauty conversation.

We’re constantly searching for heroes and villains.

One ingredient becomes the miracle cure. Another becomes the toxin everyone should avoid.

But it really doesn’t work that way.

There are no miracle cures.

The most important lesson chronic illness taught me wasn’t that every synthetic ingredient is harmful or that every natural ingredient is automatically better. Poison ivy is natural. So is arsenic. Petroleum jelly is synthetic, yet it’s often recommended by dermatologists because it’s remarkably inert and effective at protecting a compromised skin barrier. (And, it has actually been used by indigenous peoples across continents for thousands of years as an occlusive barrier and skincare solution for burns.)

The better question isn’t, “Is this ingredient good or bad?”

It’s, “How does my skin respond to it over time?”

That’s a much less satisfying answer because it doesn’t fit neatly into marketing. It requires curiosity instead of certainty and observation instead of ideology.

Today, my skincare routine looks very different than it did when I first got sick. It’s still simple, but it’s also more nuanced and has multiple, barrier-supporting steps. I’ve stopped chasing miracle ingredients and started paying much closer attention to evidence — both scientific evidence and the evidence my own body gives me.

For me, that’s what clean beauty has ultimately become: not following trends or avoiding ingredients out of fear, but learning to listen carefully enough to know when something is truly working, and when it only seems like it is.

Interested in learning more about health, wellness and beauty? Check out some of our other articles below:

For those who are new to Capitalism & Glitter, we run a weekly Bible study series for those who are interested in learning about and discussing the content of the Bible. We are reading the entire Bible in a year and discussing everything from world history, human nature, and the spiritual world to the health content and bottom of the rabbit-hole conspiracies.

The article below includes an intro and overview to the 2026 Bible series — and has instructions for subscribers on how to opt-out of the Bible Study articles while still receiving the health articles directly to your inbox, should you be so inclined.

This Week

We are reading:

• Isaiah 52-66

• Tobit 1-14

• Proverbs 10:29-32, 11:1-24

Summary

Isaiah ends this week with the Suffering Servant passage, a clear foretelling of Jesus. God’s big promise includes an end to this suffering and a new heaven and earth.

And then we are moving to a bit of a less common choice: Tobit.

Tobit is part of the Deuterocanon — books included in the original Catholic and Orthodox Bibles and omitted in Protestant traditions. Martin Luther and the Reformers wanted to align the Protestant Old Testament canon with the shorter Hebrew Masoretic Text, rather than the longer Greek Septuagint used by the early church. Judaism rejected Tobit in the 2nd century, post Jesus. It’s not totally clear why the Reformers would switch to the Hebrew text 1500 years later when the Jews obviously had a vested interest in denying Jesus as the Messiah for that entire time, but I of course have my theories and that’s one of the reasons we are reading and discussing this text. Tobit specifically has some interesting insight on angelology and demonology.

Whether or not you consider Tobit Scripture, it’s a remarkable piece of ancient Jewish literature written during the exile period, and it illuminates the world we’ve been reading about in a unique way.

I found an illustrated pdf of the Book of Tobit for those with Protestant Bibles who need access to this text. You can also switch to a Catholic translation in the Bible app and have easy digital access to all the texts of the deuterocanon.

And Proverbs, as always, continues to provide comfort and wisdom alongside everything else we are reading.

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 201 — Monday, 7/20 — Isaiah 52-55, Proverbs 10:29-32

• Day 202 — Tuesday, 7/21 — Isaiah 56-59, Proverbs 11:1-4

• Day 203 — Wednesday, 7/22 — Isaiah 60-63, Proverbs 11:5-8

• Day 204 — Thursday, 7/23 — Isaiah 64-66, Proverbs 11:9-12

• Day 205 — Friday, 7/24 — Tobit 1-4, Proverbs 11:13-16

• Day 206 — Saturday, 7/25 — Tobit 5-9, Proverbs 11:17-20

• Day 207 — Sunday, 7/26 — Tobit 10-14, Proverbs 11:21-24

Day 201 — Monday, 7/20 — Isaiah 52-55, Proverbs 10:29-32

• Jerusalem is called to awake from captivity and dignify themselves again. The Suffering Servant describes a man who is despised, rejected, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities — yet who will save Israel. This was written 700 years before Jesus.

• God graciously and urgently invites all who are spiritually hungry and thirsty to come to Him. The metaphorical invitation to eat and drink with God comes to full fruition with the Last Supper in the New Testament.

Day 202 — Tuesday, 7/21 — Isaiah 56-59, Proverbs 11:1-4

• The vision keeps expanding. God’s house is for all people and the marginalized are welcomed into his covenant family.

• The people complain that their fasting hasn't drawn God's attention and God reveals that true fasting involves freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry, and caring for the poor.

• We once again see how human rebellion has created a massive separation from God and no human can save themselves, requiring God to step in as a “Divine Warrior."

Day 203 — Wednesday, 7/22 — Isaiah 60-63, Proverbs 11:5-8

• The Servant declares He is anointed by the Spirit of the Lord to bring “good news to the poor”, heal the brokenhearted, and announce the year of the Lord’s favor.

• A brilliant picture of the restoration of Jerusalem: The glory of the Lord will rise upon the city, and the nations and kings of the earth will bring their wealth into it. God declares that Jerusalem will no longer be called “Forsaken” or “Desolate,” but rather “Hephzibah” (My Delight is in Her) and “Beulah” (Married).

Day 204 — Thursday, 7/23 — Isaiah 64-66, Proverbs 11:9-12

• God’s culminating response is the new creation vision: a new heavens and a new earth.

• Isaiah ends with a contrast between the ultimate destinies of the righteous and the wicked. God emphasizes that He values a humble and contrite heart over external religious sacrifices. While it has been intermittently dire throughout, the book ends on a universal note, stating that all of humanity will ultimately come to worship God, while the rebellious will face eternal judgment.

Day 205 — Friday, 7/24 — Tobit 1-4, Proverbs 11:13-16

• And now for something completely different (it’s not that different): Tobit. Tobit is part of the Deuterocanon, also called the Apocrypha — books included in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, not in most Protestant ones. Our reading plan includes it as historically significant Jewish literature from the exile period, as well as exploring why this particular text may have been left out of the Protestant canon.

• A devout Israelite living in exile in Nineveh, Tobit keeps burying the bodies of executed Jews despite it being illegal and dangerous. He is left with only his wife and son. Then he goes blind, his wife has to support them, and he prays to die.

• Simultaneously, in a city far away, a young woman named Sarah has had seven husbands, each killed by the demon Asmodeus on their wedding night before the marriage could be consummated. She also prays to die.

• Both prayers are heard in the same moment and God sends the angel Raphael to intercede. He will heal Tobit’s eyes and arrange the marriage of Sarah to Tobit’s son, Tobiah.

Day 206 — Saturday, 7/25 — Tobit 5-9, Proverbs 11:17-20

• Raphael appears to Tobiah in disguise, presenting himself as a traveling companion who knows the road to Media. Tobit interrogates him about his family lineage before agreeing.

• A great fish leaps from the river and tries to swallow Tobiah’s foot. Raphael tells Tobiah to keep the organs as they make good medicine, and that if he burns the heart and liver the smoke will drive out demons, and the gall can heal his father’s eyesight. (I should link to Cod Liver Oil here lol.)

• Tobiah arrives, meets Sarah, and Raphael negotiates the marriage. On their wedding night he burns the fish organs as instructed. The demon flees to Egypt, Raphael follows and binds him. Tobiah and Sarah pray together before they sleep. Her father digs a grave, just in case, but both survive the night.

Day 207 — Sunday, 7/26 — Tobit 10-14, Proverbs 11:21-24

• Tobiah returns home with his bride, the money he was sent to collect, and the cure for his father’s blindness.

• Raphael reveals himself to be an angel and tells them that he heard Tobit and Sarah’s prayers and interceded with God (a scriptural example of the saints and angels hearing our prayers and interceding on our behalf).

• Before he dies, Tobit’s final instructions to his son are leave Nineveh, because it will be destroyed. He dies at 112, having lived his final years with gratitude and at peace.

I so appreciate all of those who are continuing the conversation in the comments and the chat! I love hearing what’s resonating with you all each week.

If you are on a health journey, my two in-depth RCCX articles and How To Heal Yourself are the most likely to contain information and approaches that you wont find from many other sources, and will help you frame a practical approach to healing. These are the topics and articles that continue to spark the most thought, questions, and conversation, the ones that I get the most feedback on from others who have used this information successfully in their own healing journey.

If you haven’t read these articles and you are on a healing journey, this is a good place to start. If you’ve read these articles before, they may land differently now. I continue to hear that people have read these articles dozens of times and find new pieces to their puzzle each time.

I encourage you to read through the comments as well as some of the most interesting perspectives end up there as well.

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Other Health Articles

Below are several more articles on specific conditions that commonly occur under the RCCX umbrella. I would read these in order of how relevant they are to you in helping you continue to piece together your own health:

On Pregnancy Health

I also have a series of articles on pregnancy health, with another installment on postpartum depression and anxiety on the way soon:

Wishing you good health as you continue along this journey!

xoxo Adrian

Someone starts with allergies. Then comes POTS. Maybe a little anxiety or depression. Then an EDS/hypermobility diagnosis. Later it’s MCAS, chronic fatigue, IBS, migraines, autoimmune disease, ADHD, or autism.

At first glance, these conditions seem completely unrelated. They’re treated by different specialists, involve different body systems, and are often given separate explanations.

But what if they aren’t separate diseases at all?

What if they are rooted in the same biological processes?

RCCX Theory is one of the most interesting attempts to answer that question.

A Different Way to Think About Chronic Illness

Developed by physician and psychiatrist Dr. Sharon Meglathery, RCCX Theory proposes that many chronic illnesses share a common genetic foundation and develop out of a cluster of the same biological processes. RCCX Theory attempts to explain why certain chronic illnesses and psychiatric conditions frequently occur together in the same people and families.

Rather than viewing MCAS, POTS, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, autoimmune disease, and certain psychiatric or neurodevelopmental conditions as isolated disorders, the theory suggests they may all arise from inherited differences within a small section of the genome known as the RCCX gene cluster.

The theory proposes that variations within the RCCX gene cluster may predispose roughly 20% of the population to an unusually sensitive stress response, immune system, and connective tissue. According to the theory, this inherited vulnerability can increase the likelihood of developing overlapping conditions such as:

• Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS)

• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)

• Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and hypermobility

• ME/CFS and chronic fatigue

• Autoimmune disease

• Gastrointestinal disorders

• Hormonal disorders such as lipedema, endometriosis, and PCOS/PMOS

• Neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions

Rather than viewing these as unrelated diagnoses, RCCX Theory suggests they may represent different expressions of the same underlying genetic vulnerability.

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The RCCX Gene Cluster

The RCCX module is located within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on chromosome 6, a region involved in immune system function. It contains four genes:

• CYP21A2, involved in cortisol production and the stress response

• TNXB, involved in connective tissue integrity

• C4, involved in immune regulation

• STK19 (formerly RP1/STK19), whose role is still being investigated

The genes in the RCCX module influence several systems that chronic illness patients often struggle with:

• The immune system

• Connective tissue

• Hormone production

• The body’s stress response

When those systems become dysregulated together, the result may not be one disease, but many.

The Proposed RCCX Profile

Dr. Meglathery describes a recurring pattern among many patients with suspected RCCX genetics. Common characteristics include:

• High achievement and perfectionism

• Creativity and strong pattern recognition

• High empathy and emotional sensitivity

• Sensory sensitivity

• Traits associated with ADHD, autism, OCD, or anxiety

• A tendency to thrive under pressure before eventually experiencing burnout or chronic illness

The theory proposes that these characteristics may be linked to the same biological factors that increase susceptibility to chronic illness.

Why It Matters

One of the most compelling aspects of RCCX Theory is that it offers a possible explanation for why so many people develop overlapping clusters of conditions rather than a single diagnosis.

People with EDS frequently develop POTS.

People with POTS often have MCAS.

People with MCAS commonly report food intolerances, migraines, IBS, anxiety, ADHD, autoimmune disease, or chronic fatigue.

All of these groups show a higher incidence of autism and neurodivergence.

These patterns aren’t rare, they’re common enough that patients often notice them and discuss them in chronic illness discussion groups for years, long before medicine explains them.

RCCX Theory offers a possible explanation: these conditions may be different expressions of the same underlying biology rather than completely separate diseases.

The theory also suggests that chronic illness often develops after a significant biological or psychological stressor in someone who already has this underlying genetic susceptibility.

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Genetics Aren’t Destiny

Genetics create susceptibility, not certainty.

You aren’t destined to have all of the conditions you are genetically predisposed to — and if you know how they develop, you can support your body in resolving them.

Many people remain healthy for years before something shifts — a viral infection, pregnancy, major emotional stress, a concussion, hormonal changes, surgery.

For some, that event appears to trigger a cascade of symptoms that never fully resolves.

The theory proposes that the underlying vulnerability was always present, it simply required the right combination of stressors to become visible.

Why This Theory Resonates

RCCX Theory explains something many patients have experienced firsthand:

Their illnesses don’t exist in isolation.

Their symptoms affect multiple body systems.

Their family members often have similar health patterns.

And despite seeing multiple specialists, no one connects the dots.

RCCX Theory attempts to connect those dots.

Managing Suspected RCCX Genetics

Because there is no treatment for RCCX itself, management focuses on treating the conditions a person actually has.

Many people benefit from addressing the highest-impact issues first, which may include:

• Managing mast cell activation and inflammation

• Optimizing nutrition and correcting deficiencies

• Improving sleep and stress regulation

• Supporting autonomic function

• Building sustainable daily routines rather than relying on chronic stress

Learn More

This article is a brief introduction to RCCX Theory.

In previous full-length articles, I cover:

• The genetics behind the RCCX module

• How the proposed stress-response pathway works

• The CAPS psychological profile

• Testing considerations

• Treatment strategies

• Lifestyle approaches that may help support long-term health

If you’ve spent years wondering why your diagnoses seem connected while medicine treats them as unrelated, RCCX Theory is worth understanding.

Join this Substack as a free or paid subscriber to learn more and gain access to these articles:

This Week

We are reading:

• Isaiah 25-51

• Proverbs 10:1-28

Summary

Last week, Isaiah opened with sweeping judgment oracles and some of the most dramatic prophetic imagery in the Bible.

This week we move through Isaiah’s “Little Apocalypse” into passages about God as shepherd and comforter. Isaiah is long, and many scholars believe it was written by 2 or 3 authors. The tone shifts dramatically in this section toward restoration, and at the end of the week the famous Servant Songs begin.

This Bible study is free for everyone, made possible by the support of our paid subscribers.

If you’d like to support us, please consider a paid subscription.

Paid subscribers receive:

• Full-length weekly cultural and Biblical deep dives

• The Edit newsletter, and access to all community chats

• The entire archive of content on health and wellness, secret societies, and more (100+ articles)

  Subscribe now

Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 194 — Monday, 7/13 — Isaiah 25-28, Proverbs 10:1-4

• Day 195 — Tuesday, 7/14 — Isaiah 29-32, Proverbs 10:5-8

• Day 196 — Wednesday, 7/15 — Isaiah 33-36, Proverbs 10:9-12

• Day 197 — Thursday, 7/16 — Isaiah 37-40, Proverbs 10:13-16

• Day 198 — Friday, 7/17 — Isaiah 41-44, Proverbs 10:17-20

• Day 199 — Saturday, 7/18 — Isaiah 45-48, Proverbs 10:21-24

• Day 200 — Sunday, 7/19 — Isaiah 49-51, Proverbs 10:25-28

Day 194 — Monday, 7/13 — Isaiah 25-28, Proverbs 10:1-4

• After a week of judgment, today we open in the midst of Isaiah’s “Little Apocalypse” — a section detailing sweeping, cosmic events that echo from creation and mirror Revelation.

• The warning has been issued, and now God is preparing a banquet for the faithful remnant — a feast for all nations on His holy mountain, removing the shroud of death, and wiping every tear.

• God promises protection and ressurection for the righteous, detailing how He will defeat Leviathan, the sea serpent.

Day 195 — Tuesday, 7/14 — Isaiah 29-32, Proverbs 10:5-8

• Isaiah issues a message to Judah — for the sin of making a treaty with Egypt instead of trusting in the Lord, Jerusalem will be besieged, but God will humble them and deliver them from spiritual blindness.

• A prophecy is given of a future king reigning in righteousness, and a rushing of the Spirit on a parched land — foreshadowing the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Day 196 — Wednesday, 7/15 — Isaiah 33-36, Proverbs 10:9-12

• These readings contrast God’s fierce judgment with the Savior to come — the desert blooming, streams in the wasteland, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame leaping, the mute singing. Jesus later quotes this passage in Isaiah to show that He has come to redeem the nations.

Day 197 — Thursday, 7/16 — Isaiah 37-40, Proverbs 10:13-16

• Hezekiah prays for help against the Assyrians and God grants it, protecting Jerusalem and killing 185,000 Assyrian soldiers.

• Hezekiah becomes deathly ill and Isaiah tells him to get his affairs in order as he will not survive. He prays for healing and God grants him 15 more years of life, and causes the sun’s shadow to move backwards on the sundial of Ahaz as a sign of healing.

• The King of Babylon sends an envoy to Hezekiah to wish him well after he recovered from illness; Hezekiah inexplicably shows the Babylonians all the treasure in the Kingdom of Judah. Isaiah prophecies that Judah will one day fall to Babylon.

• Chapter 40 sets a new tone, written by another author about 150 years later, issued as a great reassurance that comfort is coming for God’s people.

Day 198 — Friday, 7/17 — Isaiah 41-44, Proverbs 10:17-20

• God makes his case directly to the nations in a courtroom scene — challenging the idols to predict anything, to do anything, to explain anything — but they are silent.

• God promises to redeem his people while continuing to mock false idols and those who can’t even bring themselves to ask, “Is this idol that I’m holding in my hand a lie?”

Day 199 — Saturday, 7/18 — Isaiah 45-48, Proverbs 10:21-24

• God names the Persion King Cyrus as his anointed shepherd who will authorize the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Cyrus wont be born for another 150 years, which makes this prophecy (and the book of Isaiah as a whole) one of the most astonishing to modern day historians.

• A poetic downfall is prophesied for Babylon, with their idols carried off into captivity while God’s people are delivered from Babylon to freedom.

Day 200 — Sunday, 7/19 — Isaiah 49-51, Proverbs 10:25-28

• The Lord’s Servant is commissioned and begins four famous “servant songs” in Isaiah. The identity of this servant has been the topic of discussion amongst theologians for centuries — is it the collective of Israel, or Jesus? Both? This, to me, seems like another passage that is purposefully ambiguous enough to apply to multiple contexts.

• It is hard not to read several of the Servant passages as foreshadowing Jesus: “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.”

• God closes by calling his people to look back at Abraham and Sarah — two people from whom an entire nation came — as evidence that he can do it again, from nothing.

What’s the most striking to you this week? Join us in the comments and the chat to discuss!

For those unaware, Bryan Johnson is a tech entrepreneur turned millionaire biohacker. After making a reported $300 million by acquiring Venmo and selling it to PayPal, he turned to a new goal: living forever. Bryan now spends a reported $2 million a year to achieve his simple philosophy — Don’t die.

He pursues this goal by turning his body into a relentless science experiment: downing as many as 100 supplements a day; eating a meticulously optimized vegan diet; undergoing constant blood tests, MRIs, ultrasounds, and biomarker tracking; wearing devices that monitor nearly every physiological metric imaginable; subjecting himself to experimental longevity treatments; receiving blood plasma from his teenage son in a highly publicized (and later discontinued) transfusion experiment; and even measuring and comparing nighttime erections with his child as one of countless indicators of vascular health — all in pursuit of squeezing every possible fraction of a percent out of the aging process.

He publicly documents all of this, including his literal dick measuring contest against his son.

And last week, he announced on X that his stomach is eating itself.

He has developed autoimmune gastritis, a condition where the immune system attacks the cells in his stomach that produce acid. He’d already been living with hypothyroidism, another autoimmune disease, since his early twenties. (This will come as no surprise to those who know of the interrelationship between Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and gastritis, known as thyrogastric syndrome when they occur together, as they so often do.)

For more than 20 years, the man hell-bent on avoiding death has been inching closer towards his ultimate fate, propelled by his own immune system.

All of the resulting conversation has focused on one question: how did this happen?

The resulting discourse has provided no shortage of potential answers. And while some may say that it’s uncouth to speculate on other people’s health conditions, I would argue that the manner in which Bryan shares his health forays so publically invites this speculation, and for those of us who are health researchers this is verrry interesting data.

As with all disease, it is a combination of factors.

In Bryan’s case, the three biggest factors are most likely because he rigidly avoids basic, foundational human health needs including the sun and nutrient dense food, he has achieved peak stressmaxxing by over optimizing every single aspect of his health, and he appears to have never fully processed the abandonment issues he developed from his relationship with his largely absent father.

He also routinely gets vaccines — but given everything else I’ve learned about him, I am starting to suspect this is the least of his problems.

Bryan Johnson is, in my opinion, the worst biohacker with the largest platform. His health influence is so bad that I wonder if he’s not a plant, designed to walk the masses straight into transhumanism and early mortality. In this essay, I will…

Read more

This Week

We are reading:

• 2 Chronicles 35-36

• Isaiah 1-24

• Psalms 145

• Proverbs 7, 8:1-36, 9:1-18

Summary

This week we close out 2 Chronicles and begin Isaiah, and we finish Psalms and move back to Proverbs.

And we have officially crossed the halfway mark through our Bible in a Year Plan! Congratulations to those of you hanging in there week after week. You are certainly among God’s favorites <3

I’m thrilled to be moving on and starting Isaiah, if I’m honest. Isaiah is the prophet whose predictions foretell of Jesus the most, more than any other book in the Old Testament. AND we get the origin story of Satan. Isaiah pulls us out of reading a chronological history book and into the theological underpinnings of our world.

The first twenty-four chapters of Isaiah being covered this week are largely oracles of judgment against Judah, Israel, and the surrounding nations, interwoven with messianic prophecy. A nice poetic pick-me-up following the centuries of terrible kings we just endured.

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 187 — Monday, 7/6 — 2 Chronicles 35-36, Psalm 145

• Day 188 — Tuesday, 7/7 — Isaiah 1-4, Proverbs 7

• Day 189 — Wednesday, 7/8 — Isaiah 5-8, Proverbs 8:1-21

• Day 190 — Thursday, 7/9 — Isaiah 9-12, Proverbs 8:22-36

• Day 191 — Friday, 7/10 — Isaiah 13-16, Proverbs 9:1-6

• Day 192 — Saturday, 7/11 — Isaiah 17-20, Proverbs 9:7-12

• Day 193 — Sunday, 7/12 — Isaiah 21-24, Proverbs 9:13-18

Day 187 — Monday, 7/6 — 2 Chronicles 35-36, Psalm 145

• Chronicles wraps up with a summary of why Israel fell: the people kept mocking the messengers of God, despising His words, scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord was brought against his people.

• Chronicles ends its account of Judah’s fall with the decree of Cyrus king of Persia, allowing the exiles to return and rebuild the temple.

Day 188 — Tuesday, 7/7 — Isaiah 1-4, Proverbs 7

• Isaiah begins like a prosecutor’s opening statement, with the prophet representing God taking his own people to court.

• The charges are social and ritual — meaningless offerings, hands full of blood, oppression of the widow and orphan. The worship continues but the justice doesn’t, and God says he cannot stand the worship without the justice.

Day 189 — Wednesday, 7/8 — Isaiah 5-8, Proverbs 8:1-21

• The parable of the vineyard detailing how God planted a vineyard, tended it, expected good grapes, got wild ones is representative of Israel, and harkens back to Noah, while foreshadowing the same metaphor Jesus uses in the Gospels. It’s simply incredible how these books with different authors thousands of years apart tie to each other so completely.

• And then we get a glimpse of God’s Throne Room. We haven’t been here since Enoch! The mighty seraphim, with 6 wings, who use fire (hot coals) to cleanse the sins of man (Isaiah). Idk sounds like theological support for purgatory to me.

• Chapter 7 introduces Immanuel, a savior conceived of a virgin, once again foreshadowing Jesus. Matthew later quotes this passage in reference to Jesus. The original context is a near-term political sign to Ahaz while the New Testament reads a longer trajectory into it.

• Chapter 8 contains a bit of sharp relevance for the Capitalism and Glitter crowd: The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said, ‘Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don’t live in dread of what frightens them. Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear.’”

Day 190 — Thursday, 7/9 — Isaiah 9-12, Proverbs 8:22-36

• Nevertheless, there is hope in the coming Messiah — a branch from David’s line, emerging out of Galilee.

• Proverbs 8 is Lady Wisdom speaking about her own origins: “I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be.” She was there at creation, beside God as a craftsman. It is interesting to ponder the relationship between God and wisdom, personified, as a separate entity — one highly sought after by esoteric mystery schools.

Day 191 — Friday, 7/10 — Isaiah 13-16, Proverbs 9:1-6

• Isaiah pivots to oracles against the nations — Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab — while revealing the origin story of Satan. Here we read the infamous passage about the king of Babylon falling from heaven, which later tradition applied to Satan’s original fall. Once again the text has near term references that echo a much bigger picture.

Day 192 — Saturday, 7/11 — Isaiah 17-20, Proverbs 9:7-12

• Oracles against Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt. The discussion around Ethiopia is unusual as it ends not with destruction but with gifts being brought to Jerusalem. I find this particularly interesting given how the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has preserved biblical texts that have been lost to the western world. The commentary on Egypt is even more surprising, stating that Egypt, Israel’s original oppressor, will become a worshipper of Israel’s God.

• The nations surrounding Israel are all, in Isaiah’s vision, ultimately caught up in the same story — not as permanent enemies but as peoples with their own trajectories toward or away from God.

Day 193 — Sunday, 7/12 — Isaiah 21-24, Proverbs 9:13-18

• More oracles — the Desert by the Sea (Babylon), Dumah (Edom), Arabia, and Jerusalem itself.

• Chapter 24 begins the apocalyptic climax of this opening section — the earth laid waste, scattered, the earth staggers like a drunk, its transgression lies heavy on it, the floodgates of heaven are opened. It is the covenant curses of Deuteronomy extended to cosmic scale. All of creation feels the consequences of faithlessness.

• And yet, at the end of the devastation, a remnant singing from the west and the east and the sea, glorifying God. The darkness and destruction is real, and the song of God’s glory persists anyway.

What are you thinking about this week — Isaiah's call, the Immanuel prophecy, the origin of Satan, or Lady Wisdom at creation? Let me know below.

I get DMs and emails every week begging me for a savior.

“How did you figure that out?”

“Who helped you with that?”

“Can you recommend a practitioner for X?”

And, to cut to the chase, I just can’t give recommendations like this.

Actually, I could, but I won’t.

You don’t need a doctor. You need yourself.

I used to give recommendations, sparingly, and while there are certainly doctors and practitioners I trust with various issues, I don’t work closely with any of them and I just can’t in good conscience make these kinds of recommendations anymore. And as much as I don’t know if a particular doctor is right for you, I don’t know if you are a good patient for them.

Because, first of all, I don’t know what you need a doctor for, I don’t know what you’re willing to do yourself, I don’t know your gaps in knowledge, I don’t know your expectations, and I don’t know what precisely you need out of a doctor/practitioner relationship.

Are you looking for labs? Diagnoses? Prescriptions?

Asking someone for a recommendation on a doctor implies all sorts of underlying understanding that, frankly, I by and large do not agree with.

And if you are approaching a doctor or practitioner with the attitude that they may finally heal you once and for all, you are very likely to be disappointed.

Because the person who healed me is me.

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The Savior Problem

More importantly than a practitioner recommendation, I think most people with chronic illness need to get it out of their heads that a doctor is going to solve all their problems.

Doctors who operate in the realm of insurance have about 4 minutes to meet with you and treat you within the bounds of whatever specific ICD-10 code you fall under.

And if your labs are “normal,” well, God help you, because there is no place for you in the modern medical system.

I see it every day and I lived inside that hope for decades — cycling through specialists, waiting rooms, referrals that went nowhere, and the slow-burn infuriation of being told your labs are normal while your body is clearly not. Even on the holistic side — from bad reactions to acupuncture to practitioners who claim it’s all metals, or candida, or Epstein-Barr, or Lyme.

Here’s the truth that our culture doesn’t want to admit: a doctor is not designed to heal you.

That is not their role. That is not what they’re trained to do. Despite the way we’ve been conditioned — by hospitals, by pharmaceutical advertising, by the entire cultural mythology of the white coat — there is no precedent in the complex chronic illness world for one doctor becoming the source of all healing. (That’s the role of another Guy, one I am not discussing in this article but who obviously permeates the rest of my work.)

Most doctors are not brilliant saviors. They are not trained in root cause medicine. Most are not even educated in preventative medicine. They are not educated in the basic terrain-level factors that actually determine health: mineral status, mitochondrial function, nervous system regulation, gut ecology, connective tissue integrity. And there is absolutely no way they can cover any of that in their allotted time per patient. They are trained to identify acute disease, manage acute symptoms, and — in the chronic illness space — manage those symptoms indefinitely, often with medications that introduce new variables, creating new symptoms and syndromes, without ever addressing the underlying root cause issues.

If you’re approaching a doctor or practitioner with the attitude that they might finally heal you once and for all, you are probably going to be very disappointed.

There may be a brilliant specialist who finally gave you the diagnosis you’d been seeking for years, or who saved your grandmother’s life in an acute situation. I’m not saying doctors aren’t useful. They absolutely are — for very specific things.

But if you have complex chronic illness, a particular doctor is not going to heal you.

Anybody who DMs me asking me for a doctor or practitioner most likely has a much greater need: to take radical responsibility for healing themselves.

Radical Responsibility Is Not Optional

I know that’s not what you want to hear. I know it’s not what I wanted to hear either.

But our medical system was never built to do what you’re asking it to do. We’ve been trained since birth to hand our bodies to credentialed strangers and trust them to have answers that, in the chronic illness space specifically, they largely do not have.

Understanding and admitting that is the first step in getting better.

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Thanks for joining me here at Capitalism & Glitter!

My favorite credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, is currently offering the highest sign up bonus they’ve ever offered of 100,000 points. This is a limited time offer and they haven’t announced when it will end, so it could be revoked at any time.

This is one of just two credit cards I personally own. While many people cycle through many credit cards to earn sign-up bonuses and accrue literally millions of points, I accomplish a good amount of credit card travel hacking with just two cards.

The annual fee is $95 and the required spend is $5,000 in three months. A sign up bonus this high was last available summer of 2025, and before that it hadn’t been available since 2021. The bonus is usually 60,000 points. The current bonus of 100,000 points is the equivalent of $2,000+ in travel credit on partner airlines and hotel chains, or can simply be cashed out for $1,000 cash.

If you want to learn more about my thoughts on financial literacy and credit card travel hacking, I discussed these topics at length in previous articles.

Are there other aspects of financial literacy you want to see discussed here on Capitalism & Glitter? Let me know and that topic may end up in a future article.

Last Week

Whoops! I missed last week. But we read:

• 2 Kings 7-17

• Hosea 1-14

• Amos 1-9

• Psalms 127, 101, 103, 108, 109, 110, 122

This Week

We are reading:

• Jonah 1-4

• Micah 1-7

• 2 Kings 18-25

• 2 Chronicles 29-34

• Psalms 124, 138, 139, 140, 141, 143, 144

Summary

I missed last week. We continued reading through 2 Kings and got insight from two prophets: Hosea and Amos. The northern kingdom of Israel continued its slow-motion collapse despite the prophets who were trying to stop it.

We open this week with the most famous reluctant prophet in the Bible: Jonah. A man so opposed to his assignment that he tries to sail away in the opposite direction and promptly gets swallowed by a whale — who takes him exactly where he’s supposed to go.

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Last Week

My quick thoughts on last week:

2 Kings 7-17

• We witness the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel with the common pattern — anointed kingship, turning away from God, corruption leads to failure.

• Jehu is anointed king of Israel with a specific mandate to destroy the house of Ahab, killing King Joram, Ahaziah, and Jezebel, avenging the deaths of the prophets that Jezebel had killed.

• Joash repairs the temple, which had fallen into disrepair.

• Elisha dies — and the power of the prophet continues from the grave.

• Finally, Assyria invades, Samaria falls after a three-year siege, and the people of Israel are deported. The northern ten tribes disappear from history as a coherent nation.

Hosea

• God tells Hosea to marry a woman who will be unfaithful to him and the marriage, as told through this book, becomes the metaphor for Israel, an unfaithful wife, with God as the husband who keeps taking her back.

Amos

• Amos is a shepherd and a fig farmer from Judah who goes north to Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II and starts preaching about God’s judgment on Israel’s neighbors before turning to issue God’s judgment on Israel itself.

• Amos closes with five visions — locusts, fire, a plumb line, a basket of ripe fruit, God at the altar.

This Week

Here is the daily breakdown for this week from our annual plan:

• Day 180 — Monday, 6/29 — Jonah 1-4, Psalm 124

• Day 181 — Tuesday, 6/30 — Micah 1-4, Psalm 138

• Day 182 — Wednesday, 7/1 — Micah 5-7, Psalm 139

• Day 183 — Thursday, 7/2 — 2 Kings 18-21, Psalm 140

• Day 184 — Friday, 7/3 — 2 Kings 22-25, Psalm 141

• Day 185 — Saturday, 7/4 — 2 Chronicles 29-31, Psalm 143

• Day 186 — Sunday, 7/5 — 2 Chronicles 32-34, Psalm 144

Day 180 — Monday, 6/29 — Jonah 1-4, Psalm 124

• Just an all around great story with Jonah and the Whale. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh — capital of Assyria, Israel’s greatest enemy — and preach. Jonah says no thanks and boards a ship going the other direction.

• God sends a massive storm and the sailors find out Jonah is the cause and throw him overboard. He is swallowed by a “great fish.” He prays from inside it and is deposited on shore three days later.

• God tells him again: go to Nineveh. This time he goes, gives a brief sermon, and the entire city repents.

• Jonah is furious. This is what he was afraid of. He knew God would forgive them and he did not want that for Nineveh. He sits outside the city hoping God will destroy it anyway. God grows a plant to shade him, then kills the plant, and Jonah is more upset about the plant than the city. The book ends with God’s question hanging unanswered: “Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh?”

• Jonah is the rare prophetic book where the prophet is the problem. It’s less about Nineveh than about what kind of God this is, and whether Jonah can accept it. I have a lot of empathy for Jonah because I, too, believe cities full of sinners deserve the wrath of God. But it is not I but God who decides who gets the Ninevah treatment and who gets Sodom and Gomorrahed.

Day 181 — Tuesday, 6/30 — Micah 1-4, Psalm 138

• Micah is yet another prophet warning Israel of the coming consequences of their widespread corruption.

• Micah details how the leaders, priests, and false prophets are exploiting the poor, taking land by force, and turning religion into a profit-making enterprise. He foretells that as a consequence, Samaria will be destroyed and Jerusalem and its temple will be reduced to ruins.

• He issues this edict not without hope, though. Micah pictures a day when all nations will stream to the mountain of the Lord, weapons will be beaten into plowshares, and everyone will be under their own vine and fig tree.

Day 182 — Wednesday, 7/1 — Micah 5-7, Psalm 139

• Chapter 5 is yet another of the many predictions of Jesus as the Messiah, prophesying that He will be born in Bethlehem.

• God brings a formal "lawsuit" against His people, summing up His ultimate requirements: to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him.

Day 183 — Thursday, 7/2 — 2 Kings 18-21, Psalm 140

• We finally get a good king! Hezekiah is one of the best kings in the entire Books of Kings. Removes the high places, smashes the Asherah poles, even destroys the bronze serpent Moses made in the wilderness because people had started burning incense to it.

• Hezekiah gets sick and is told he will die. He prays, weeping bitterly, and God gives him fifteen more years.

• His son Manasseh undoes everything. Rebuilds the high places, erects altars to Baal, sacrifices his own children in fire, practices divination, fills Jerusalem with innocent blood. The longest-reigning king of Judah — fifty-five years — and the one apparently most responsible for the eventual fall of Jerusalem. Unfortunately, our legacies are not just our own.

Day 184 — Friday, 7/3 — 2 Kings 22-25, Psalm 141

• Josiah becomes king at eight years old and reigns well. He issues sweeping reform, he destroys every altar, every high place, every idol, every shrine to foreign gods across the entire land. He rediscovers the Book of the Law. He reinstates the Passover for the first time since the judges.

• Josiah dies in battle. His son Jehoahaz reigns three months, taken to Egypt. Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah follow in quick succession, Babylon tightening its grip each time.

• Finally, Jerusalem falls. The temple is burned. The walls are broken down. The leading people are deported to Babylon. The bronze pillars, the basins, the lampstands — everything Solomon made — are broken up and carried away to Babylon. The kingdom of Judah is over.

Day 185 — Saturday, 7/4 — 2 Chronicles 29-31, Psalm 143

• Hey, didn’t we just read this? Chronicles’ version of Hezekiah is even more expansive than Kings.

Day 186 — Sunday, 7/5 — 2 Chronicles 32-34, Psalm 144

• Manasseh’s reign gets a bit more exposition in Chronicles than in Kings — Chronicles includes his captivity in Babylon, his repentance there, his prayer, and God’s restoration of him to Jerusalem.

• Josiah’s reform in Chronicles adds a detail Kings omits: Josiah begins his personal spiritual seeking at sixteen, and begins the physical reform at twenty, before the scroll of Law is even found. The scroll confirms and accelerates what was already in motion. The man was looking for something before he found the text. I love this detail because, in my personal experience, God will move us to find something before we think we are ready, before we even know what we are looking for.

HALLELUJAH we are just about finished with Kings and Chronicles! I am so excited to start Isaiah next week! #nokings

What are your thoughts on this week or last week’s readings? Drop them below or join us in the chat! Thanks to everyone keeping the conversation going.

The Inn at Death Valley has been on my bucket list for years, ever since I saw pictures of the 1920s era pool and learned that it remains at a constant 87 degrees, fed by an on-site mineral spring. Because the pool is constantly replenished with fresh water from the mineral-rich underground spring, there is no need to chemically treat it.

We arrived to Death Valley after a short 7-hour drive from Sedona, with 3 tired kids, during a dust storm so severe we were getting blaring emergency alerts on our phones warning us of potential white out conditions and urging us to pull over and wait it out.

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Fortunately, we were minutes from our hotel when the storm got really bad.

With the need to stay indoors during the dust storm, we decided our first stop would be the Ice Cream Parlor at the Ranch at Death Valley. It’s styled like an old-timey soda fountain. Unfortunately, as soon as we walked through the doors, the power went out.

Our family shared a hot fudge sundae, then went to our hotel to check in.

This area of Death Valley was established as Furnace Creek in 1890 by Francis Smith, a.k.a. the Borax King, who produced the famous 20 Mule Team Borax household cleaning product. Furnace Creek was the basecamp for the Pacific Coast Borax Company.

Borax is a naturally occurring mineral composed mainly of sodium, boron, oxygen, and water, and large deposits of it were found in the middle of what is now Death Valley National Park.

The Borax King saw a need — the largest borax deposits were far away from railroads — and provided a very marketable solution, using teams of 18 mules and 2 horses attached to a wagon to bring the borax out of the desert and into the hands of the consumer.

As the mining in the area declined, the Borax King pivoted to tourism. The luxury Inn was opened in 1927 with just 12 rooms initially, and the Ranch was opened in 1933 as a more family friendly property.

In 2018, Furnace Creek underwent a $200-million renovation to update the historic properties and become the Oasis at Death Valley (comprised of the Inn and the Ranch) — modernizing the properties, enhancing the dining and pool amenities, and adding a whole grove of date palms and 22 new casitas to the Inn’s previous 66 rooms (yes, the Inn at Death Valley previously had 66 rooms).

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A highlight of our stay in one of the new casitas was that it came with a golf cart rental to use getting around the property, because there is no car parking at the casitas. The kids loved it.

We arrived at our casita around dinner time — and the power promptly went out. It turns out the power going out will become a running theme of our overnight stay at the Inn at Death Valley. While they do regularly get dust storms, they apparently aren’t normally this intense and they don’t usually last longer than 20 minutes or so. Lucky us.

I should note that the Inn at Death Valley can be exorbitantly expensive. It’s a 4-diamond luxury resort located in an extremely isolated and harsh desert, an unmatched luxury oasis in a National Park. The price, especially for the new casitas — the most luxury accommodations for hundreds of miles — is steep, but it makes sense. If you are a bargain hunter (like me) you can find deals for the Oasis at Death Valley in the summer months, when tourism is down and temperatures soar (regularly reaching temps over 120° in July). We visited mid-May, and saw temps in the 80s and 90s, which was perfect (I could have handled even hotter tbh!).

Unfortunately, due to the dust storm and power outages, we weren’t able to visit the pool on our first day. We enjoyed a very dark dinner at the Last Kind Words Saloon, which was running on a generator due to the power outage. They had a limited menu given the situation and we were lucky to be the last order they took that night.

We spent the evening playing games by flashlights and glow sticks in our casita, and awoke the next morning to clear skies and a fully functioning resort once again.

Pool time!

Fun fact about this pool: It’s an unsuspecting biohacking device.

I discovered the Inn at Death Valley, and specifically the pool, when I investigated the claims that Borax has been used as a traditional medicinal remedy for over a thousand years and could have modern uses to aid in the complaints of those suffering chronic ailments.

Indeed, during the pandemic, the discussion around borax/boron grew tremendously, often getting labeled as misinformation.

So how do you sort fact from fiction?

Like this:

Boron is a trace mineral that aids in absorption, particularly with calcium and magnesium. It’s possibly an essential human nutrient in very small amounts, we still don’t know how essential it is to the human body as it is still being studied, but we do know that it helps with metabolism, brain function, and inflammation. It’s found in foods like fruits, nuts, legumes, and coffee.

And borax contains boron.

Borax has been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years to aid in digestive complaints, skin disorders, wound cleaning, skin treatments, mouth ulcers, eye conditions, coughs and respiratory complaints, infections, gynecological preparations, and in compound mineral medicines.

From Asia to the Middle East, Europe to North America, there is evidence of indigenous use of borax spanning centuries across all continents. Medicinal use of borax has its earliest documentation in ancient Tibetan and Traditional Chinese Medicine, later appearing in India in Ayurvedic medicine, and ultimately spreading from Europe to North America with the later colonization of the Americas.

It’s important to note that there is a difference between boron, a naturally occurring chemical element rarely found in it’s pure form; borax, a naturally occurring mineral salt that contains boron alongside sodium, oxygen, and water; and boric acid, which is a newer man-made compound that is a more refined, acidic derivative of borax (boric acid is also used in medical preparations today).

While borax has fallen out of favor in mainstream due to its danger of toxicity in larger quantities, boron and boric acid are both used regularly in supplements and medicine.

The claims that borax can be used to treat parasites, arthritis, inflammation, etc., which are regularly labeled as “misinformation,” are likely actually true as there are thousands of years of historic evidence of use. However, there are two major issues with this: one, borax is toxic in large quantities, and two, as a naturally occurring mineral it cannot be patented. So there is not a lot of money to be made in the medicinal use of borax, and in fact it may undercut the use of patentable pharmaceuticals by providing an alternative solution.

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Learning about borax led me to figure out that the stunning pool at the Inn at Death Valley is actually one of the world’s most beautiful biohacking devices. It naturally contains sodium, bicarbonate, sulfate, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and boron. Just stepping into this pool, you can feel that the quality of the water is unlike any other pool in the world.

You heard it here first, folks: swimming in this luxury pool is good for my health.

This pool is a true oasis in the desert, a stunning retreat I would love to recreate in my own backyard. The water feels smooth and luxurious as you step into it. The temperature is perfect. It naturally refreshes 4 times a day, every six hours, and is not chemically treated. It should be noted that the pool at the Ranch at Death Valley, the Inn’s sister property, is also fed by this spring and constantly replenishing, forgoing the need for chemical treatment (though it does not quite have the same vibe, lacking the giant palm leaf shadows tiled on the bottom of the pool).

After our luxurious morning at the best pool in the world, we went back to our casita to pack up and continue along our California road trip. On our way out, we took the golf cart for a little joy ride to explore the rest of the grounds that we missed the day before due to the storm.

Below is the tunnel you walk through from the parking lot to the elevator up to the lobby. It was closed for maintenance when we checked out, and I was horrified to learn that Alex willingly got into this rinkydink elevator the night before in between power outages.

Across from the parking lot is an event space, the Mission Gardens, where people can host weddings.

And that’s it!

Short but sweet and full of adventure, we really enjoyed our less than 24-hour stay at the Inn at Death Valley and can’t wait to go back.

This Week

We are reading:

• 2 Chronicles 13-28

• 2 Kings 1-6

• Song of Solomon 5-8

• Psalms 69, 70, 72

Summary

This week we’re back to Chronicles, watching the southern kingdom of Judah continue to cycle through a series of kings. They repeat the same pattern yet somehow never learn the lessons — faith in God brings stability, compromise brings war and loss, and repentance brings restoration. Over and over again.

One of the most interesting things that keeps coming up in Chronicles this week is the idea that physical illness (foot disease, intestinal disease, leprosy) results from a separation from God.

And then we’re back in Kings, where Elijah disappears in a chariot of fire leaving Elisha to pick up where he left off.

And we finish Song of Solomon, wrapping up the Bible’s most erotic book. A poetic testament to what it means to be truly devoted and committed in love — and giving us some insight into why some of the Israelite kings kept getting distracted by foreign women.

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 166 — Monday, 6/15 — 2 Chronicles 13-15, Song of Solomon 5

• Day 167 — Tuesday, 6/16 — 2 Chronicles 16-18, Song of Solomon 6

• Day 168 — Wednesday, 6/17 — 2 Chronicles 19-21, Song of Solomon 7

• Day 169 — Thursday, 6/18 — 2 Chronicles 22-25, Song of Solomon 8

• Day 170 — Friday, 6/19 — 2 Chronicles 26-28, Psalm 69

• Day 171 — Saturday, 6/20 — 2 Kings 1-3, Psalm 70

• Day 172 — Sunday, 6/21 — 2 Kings 4-6, Psalm 72

Day 166 — Monday, 6/15 — 2 Chronicles 13-15, Song of Solomon 5

• Abijah, Rehoboam’s son, goes to war against the northern kingdom and wins despite being outnumbered two to one.

• His son Asa is one of Judah’s genuinely good kings. He removes the foreign altars, smashes the sacred stones, commands Judah to seek God.

Day 167 — Tuesday, 6/16 — 2 Chronicles 16-18, Song of Solomon 6

• Asa’s late reign is yet another cautionary tale: when faced with another military threat, he makes a militarily good decision, but forsakes his reliance on God. He then develops a foot disease and once again seeks only physicians, not God, and he dies. The idea that physical disease stems from a disconnection from God is, of course, not lost on me.

• His son Jehoshaphat is another good king who makes the mistake of allying himself with Ahab of Israel, which costs him.

Day 168 — Wednesday, 6/17 — 2 Chronicles 19-21, Song of Solomon 7

• Jehoshaphat survives the battle but gets a rebuke from another prophet on his return. The alliances with unfaithful kings come at the expense of the credibility of Judah’s good rulers — tale as old as time, a classic Israelite move.

• A vast coalition of Moabites and Ammonites and others marches on Judah. Jehoshaphat’s response is to call a fast and pray publicly in the temple court. They march out the next morning with the choir leading the army, singing praise, and find their enemies have destroyed each other — thanks be to God.

• His son Jehoram takes the throne and his first act is to kill all his brothers. He had married into Ahab’s family and he reigns poorly. A letter arrives from Elijah with a specific prophecy about his death. He dies of a painful intestinal disease, two years exactly as described. Once again we see physical ailments resulting as a disconnection from God.

• Song of Solomon continues to contrast our readings of wars and illness and death with borderline erotica.

Day 169 — Thursday, 6/18 — 2 Chronicles 22-25, Song of Solomon 8

• We learn about more kings and the violence accelerates. Ahaziah is killed by Jehu. His mother Athaliah — Ahab and Jezebel’s daughter — seizes the throne and tries to kill all the royal heirs. A nurse hides the infant Joash in the temple for six years. Athaliah rules Judah for six years not knowing there is a legitimate heir hidden in the house of God.

• At year seven, the priest Jehoiada brings Joash out, crowns him, and Athaliah is executed. The crowd tears down the temple of Baal. Joash reigns well as long as Jehoiada is alive — but when the old priest dies, Joash reverses course, abandons the temple, and has Jehoiada’s own son Zechariah stoned to death when he prophesies against him. Joash is then assassinated by his own officials.

• Amaziah follows — good at first, then captures ten thousand Edomites and brings their gods back to worship — despite the fact that their gods clearly couldn’t save them.

Day 170 — Friday, 6/19 — 2 Chronicles 26-28, Psalm 69

• Uzziah reigns fifty-two years and is mostly faithful. But then he enters the temple to burn incense, which was the priests’ role alone. The priests confront him and Uzziah, furious, erupts in leprosy on the spot. He lives as a leper until he dies, cut off from the temple he tried to commandeer.

• His grandson Ahaz is one of Judah’s worst kings. He sacrifices his own children in fire, sets up high places everywhere, and when invaded strips the temple to bribe Assyria for help. Assyria does not help. In his time of troubles, he becomes even less faithful to the Lord.

Day 171 — Saturday, 6/20 — 2 Kings 1-3, Psalm 70

• We’re back to Kings, and back with Elijah. Two companies of fifty soldiers come to summon him to Ahab’s son Ahaziah. Instead, he calls fire down on them. A third captain comes and falls on his knees: “Man of God, please have respect for my life.” Elijah goes with him.

• While walking with Elisha, Elijah strikes the water of the Jordan with his cloak and it parts. They cross the river. Elijah asks what Elisha wants before he’s taken, and Elisha asks for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. Then the chariot of fire and a whirlwind come to take Elijah. Elisha picks up the cloak, strikes the water, it parts, and he crosses back. The spirit of Elijah is now resting on Elisha.

• Elisha’s first miracles follow immediately, with him healing a spring and dealing harshly with a group of youths who mock him.

Day 172 — Sunday, 6/21 — 2 Kings 4-6, Psalm 72

• Elisha’s ministry is extraordinary and strange. A widow’s oil multiplied until she has enough to pay her debts. A wealthy woman in Shunem hosts him faithfully and he promises her a son — she’s barren and her husband is old. A son is born, and then dies, and Elisha brings him back to life. A pot of poisoned stew is made edible. A hundred men are fed with twenty loaves of bread.

• Then Naaman, commander of Aram’s army, comes to Elisha on the advice of an Israelite slave girl, in order to heal his leprosy. Elisha sends a messenger to tell him to wash in the Jordan seven times. He does, and he is healed — convinced now that there is no God other than the God of Israel.

• An iron axhead falls in the Jordan and Elisha makes it float so they can retrieve it. Then the Arameans come to capture Elisha, but they are instead blinded and led straight to the capital of Israel. Instead of slaughtering the enemy army, Israel feeds them and sends them home — for a while. They ultimately come back and siege the capital, plunging Israel into another devastating famine.

What thoughts do you have on this week’s readings? We’re almost halfway through our Bible in a Year study — are you struggling to keep up (like me), or are you still full steam ahead?

This Week

We are reading:

• Mark 11-16

• 1 Kings 12-22

• 2 Chronicles 10-12

• Psalms 67, 68, 22

• Song of Solomon 1-4

Summary

This week we open with the final week of Jesus’s life in the conclusion of the Book of Mark.

Interestingly, the oldest manuscripts of the Gospel of Mark ended at 16:8 — with the women fleeing from the tomb in fear. You’ll notice your Bible continues to Mark 16:20. Mark was the first written Gospel, and Biblical scholars widely agree that these passages were added later, likely by a scribe who was familiar with the later events (Mark 16:8-20 discusses events covered elsewhere in the New Testament, particularly the Book of Acts).

When Mark was first written, the author likely intended the ending to be a somber look at how we humans fall short of doing right by Jesus. The later Gospel writers ease up a bit on criticizing human failures in the face of God. While some people point to this as evidence of the Bible being manipulated, I personally don’t see anything particularly conspiratorial in the added passages — it just reads like a later Christian trying to round out the Book of Mark in hindsight with a more complete ending.

Then we’re back in 1 Kings, and the kingdom that Solomon built is about to split in two. His son Rehoboam makes one catastrophically arrogant decision and loses ten tribes in an afternoon. The north and south will never reunite. But, at least we get to meet Elijah.

The Song of Solomon threaded through the second half of the week is its own thing entirely — ancient love poetry, read in Jewish tradition as an allegory of God’s love for Israel, in Christian tradition as Christ and the church. Or, you know, a poem about two people in love. Possibly all three at once.

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 159 — Monday, 6/8 — Mark 11-12, Psalm 67

• Day 160 — Tuesday, 6/9 — Mark 13-14, Psalm 68

• Day 161 — Wednesday, 6/10 — Mark 15-16, Psalm 22

• Day 162 — Thursday, 6/11 — 1 Kings 12-15, Song of Solomon 1

• Day 163 — Friday, 6/12 — 1 Kings 16-19, Song of Solomon 2

• Day 164 — Saturday, 6/13 — 1 Kings 20-22, Song of Solomon 3

• Day 165 — Sunday, 6/14 — 2 Chronicles 10-12, Song of Solomon 4

Day 159 — Monday, 6/8 — Mark 11-12, Psalm 67

• Jesus enters Jerusalem on what we now know as Palm Sunday

• Jesus curses a fig tree that has no fruit, and clears the temple by overturning the money changers’ tables and driving out the merchants.

• The religious authorities are looking for a way to kill Jesus and He is now operating entirely in public.

• Jesus watches a rich person make a large donation and a poor widow put in two small coins and says she gave more than all of them — a commentary on the true meaning of giving and generosity.

Day 160 — Tuesday, 6/9 — Mark 13-14, Psalm 68

• Jesus sits on the Mount of Olives and describes for his disciples the destruction of the temple and the end of the age. This prophecy was fulfilled in 70 AD when Rome destroyed Jerusalem — which is likely when the Book of Mark was written, and why the author had a more apocalyptic view when writing his Gospel.

• A woman anoints Jesus’s head with expensive perfume. The disciples are indignant about the waste, but Jesus says what she has done is beautiful. So you heard it straight from Jesus — aesthetics in worship and in life have genuine intrinsic value.

• We re-read another telling of the Last Supper, Gethsemane, and the arrest. Peter was the most likely source material for the Book of Mark so this re-telling of Peter’s three denials, and his reaction at the end of breaking down and weeping, are details that probably came directly from Peter.

Day 161 — Wednesday, 6/10 — Mark 15-16, Psalm 22

• Psalm 22 on the same day as the crucifixion account in Mark is no accident. It was written by David a thousand years earlier and it references the crucifixion in details that are impossible to explain away — “they pierce my hands and my feet... they divide my garments among them.”

• Even with the additional ending to Mark, this Gospel ends abruptly and in a bit of despair — which is probably what the author truly felt in 70 AD after the destruction of the temple.

Day 162 — Thursday, 6/11 — 1 Kings 12-15, Song of Solomon 1

• Solomon is dead and his son Rehoboam goes to Shechem to be confirmed as king.

• The people send Jeroboam to ask Rehoboam to lighten the forced labor assigned by Solomon. He consults the elders, who tell him to listen. He consults his young friends, who tell him to come back harder. He listens to his friends — and loses ten tribes in a day. The United Kingdom of Israel lasts exactly three reigns.

• Jeroboam becomes king of the northern ten tribes (Israel) and immediately makes two golden calves, telling the people these are the gods who brought them out of Egypt, and sets up unauthorized worship sites so the people won’t travel south to Jerusalem. Hmm, I feel like we’ve read this story before.

Day 163 — Friday, 6/12 — 1 Kings 16-19, Song of Solomon 2

• The northern kingdom rapidly cycles through a half a dozen kings (hey! that’s the name of the book!), eventually landing on Ahab. Ahab marries the infamous Jezebel, a Phoenician princess who brings her gods with her, and the text says Ahab did more to provoke the God of Israel than all the kings before him.

• Elijah appears before Ahab and announces a drought. Then he disappears into the wilderness and God sends ravens to feed him.

• Elijah goes to Ahab and challenges 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Jezebel on Mount Carmel. The first to get their god to produce fire wins. The prophets of Baal shout and dance and cut themselves all morning, but get nothing in return. Elijah mocks them, saying, “Call your god louder, maybe he’s on vacation or in the bathroom.” Elijah drenches his altar in water three times and then prays one straightforward prayer, and fire falls and consumes everything. Looks like the real God won.

• Then Jezebel sends a message to Elijah: you’ll be dead by tomorrow. Elijah runs into the wilderness and asks God to let him die. Even a guy who just called fire from heaven is overwhelmed with worldly threats. God sends an angel with food instead.

Day 164 — Saturday, 6/13 — 1 Kings 20-22, Song of Solomon 3

• Two wars against Aram, both won by Israel despite being the smaller force — the text is explicit that God is engineering the victories to show that he is not merely a god of the hills.

• Ahab and Jezebel orchestrate a takeover of Naboth’s vineyard when he won’t sell his ancestral land; Elijah shows up immediately to issue divine justice from God.

• Ahab’s response is genuine repentance and God delays the judgment a generation.

• Ahab wants to retake Ramoth-Gilead. Four hundred prophets tell him he’ll succeed, but one prophet notorious for prophesying bad things for Ahab tells him otherwise. Ahab dies in battle, shot by an arrow between the sections of his armor. Dogs lick his blood from the chariot, exactly as Elijah said. Whew.

Day 165 — Sunday, 6/14 — 2 Chronicles 10-12, Song of Solomon 4

• We’re bouncing around between books because we are reading the Bible chronologically — so, fittingly, we’re jumping back to Chronicles, which covers the kingdom split we just read about in Kings, but then pivots to focus almost entirely on Judah, the southern kingdom. The north largely disappears from Chronicles’ story. The Chronicler’s interest is the line of David and the temple in Jerusalem.

• Rehoboam fortifies cities throughout Judah and then, once he’s established, abandons the law. The Egyptian pharaoh Shishak invades and takes the treasures of the temple, including the gold Solomon accumulated. Rehoboam replaces them with bronze shields.

• Song of Solomon is steaming up, I don’t even know what to say about it.

What did this week leave you thinking about? Mark's extra ending, Elijah saying Baal was probably unavailable on the toilet, Song of Solomon’s borderline erotica, or something else entirely? Tell me below or in the chat!

This Week

We are reading:

• Ecclesiastes 1-12

• Mark 1-10

• Psalms 8, 9, 11, 20, 21, 23, 29

Summary

This week we read Ecclesiastes and find Jesus again in the Gospel of Mark.

Ecclesiastes is believed to have been written by Solomon, written from the perspective of a man who had everything — wisdom, wealth, women, power — and learned it was all vanity. It’s as relevant today as it has ever been.

And then we’re keeping up with Jesus again reading the Gospel of Mark. Mark is the shortest, fastest-paced Gospel — it’s like a catalogue of the greatest hits. No birth narrative, no genealogy, Jesus just shows up and starts healing people.

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 152 — Monday, 6/1 — Ecclesiastes 1-6, Psalm 8

• Day 153 — Tuesday, 6/2 — Ecclesiastes 7-12, Psalm 9

• Day 154 — Wednesday, 6/3 — Mark 1-2, Psalm 11

• Day 155 — Thursday, 6/3 — Mark 3-4, Psalm 20

• Day 156 — Friday, 6/5 — Mark 5-6, Psalm 21

• Day 157 — Saturday, 6/6 — Mark 7-8, Psalm 23

• Day 158 — Sunday, 6/7 — Mark 9-10, Psalm 29

Day 152 — Monday, 6/1 — Ecclesiastes 1-6, Psalm 8

• Solomon catalogues everything he tried — wisdom, pleasure, work, accumulation — and finding it all hollow.

• I know these chapters are dark but I find them oddly comforting. Our troubles, while they may be hard, are not new. Suffering (especially with chronic illness) can feel so lonely and isolating, but we are not the first or only people to have suffered like this. Although arguably Solomon did have a bit of a unique situation, but still, hard relate to the ideas in Ecclesiastes.

Day 153 — Tuesday, 6/2 — Ecclesiastes 7-12, Psalm 9

• The Bible really does have a passage for everything. I’ve been thinking a lot about nostalgic internet trends and how they make people sad, when Ecclesiastes 7:10 jumped right to the heart of it: “Don’t long for “the good old days.” This is not wise.”

• This one too, Ecclesiastes 7:16-17: “So don’t be too good or too wise. Why destroy yourself? On the other hand, don’t be too wicked either. Don’t be a fool! Why die before your time?”

• It may sound silly, but the entirety of Ecclesiastes is why I prioritize family travel and book nice resorts for us when I can (and leverage points when we have less money). There was a period of time just a few years ago when Alex and I were bracing ourselves for the possibility that he was going to be a single father to our little girl; to now have a thriving family of 5 is a miracle we didn’t believe was possible. Solomon had literally everything, but what good was it? I will praise God and enjoy my blessings every single day.

• Ecclesiastes makes blatant what should be obvious: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.

Day 154 — Wednesday, 6/3 — Mark 1-2, Psalm 11

• Mark opens with a bang: John the Baptist, Jesus baptized, Disciples gathered, lepers healed, all in the first chapter.

• Jesus immediately starts pissing off the religious establishment by healing people, forgiving their sins, and casting out demons.

Day 155 — Thursday, 6/3 — Mark 3-4, Psalm 20

• Chapter 3: Jesus heals on the Sabbath and the Pharisees start plotting to kill Him.

• Jesus appoints the twelve apostles, casts out demons again, and is accused of being possessed by Satan. He famously says a house divided cannot stand — a metaphor to explain how Satan couldn’t drive out himself.

• Jesus speaks in riddles, reciting parables that render him perpetually misunderstood.

• In one of the funniest stories in the Bible (imo), Jesus says to his disciples “let’s cross this lake” and then falls asleep in the boat while a storm approaches. The disciples wake Him alarmed that He’s going to let them drown

Day 156 — Friday, 6/5 — Mark 5-6, Psalm 21

• The Jesus hits keep coming: He casts a legion of demons into pigs who proceed to throw themselves off a cliff into a lake, heals a woman after twelve years of bleeding simply from her touching his cloak, and raises a twelve-year-old girl from the dead.

• Jesus goes back to his hometown and they can’t get past knowing him as a carpenter’s kid.

• John the Baptist is executed because King Herod’s wife hates him.

• Jesus feeds 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.

Day 157 — Saturday, 6/6 — Mark 7-8, Psalm 23

• Jesus uses yet another parable to poke holes in the Pharisees empty faith, saying it’s not what goes into a person (food) that makes them unclean, it’s what comes out (their actions). A lesson for the wellness obsessed.

• Jesus heals a Gentile woman’s daughter, a deaf man, and feeds four thousand people with 7 loaves of bread.

• Jesus predicts his own death and tells his disciples what’s about to happen. Peter pulls Him aside and reprimands him for speaking so openly and Jesus doubles down.

Day 158 — Sunday, 6/7 — Mark 9-10, Psalm 29

• The Transfiguration: Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a mountain, and he is visibly transformed, with his clothes become dazzling white. Moses and Elijah appear and have a conversation with Jesus, and then a cloud comes over them and announces that Jesus is the son of God.

• The disciples argue about who among them is the greatest. Jesus puts a child in front of them and says: this is what greatness looks like in the kingdom. 🥹

• A rich man wants to enter Heaven, but does not want to give up his wealth. Jesus says it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.

What came up for you this week? Ecclesiastes, Mark, or both — share below!

This has changed a lot depending on the season of life I am in, so I will share a sample day in my life through four seasons:

1. Pre-diagnosis

2. Bedridden

3. Making Progress

4. “Healed”

Pre-Diagnosis

In my twenties and early thirties, while I did have sporadic symptoms, I didn’t have any diagnoses. I worked as a consultant and had a career climbing the corporate ladder, and I didn’t have kids until I was 33. My health issues started spiking in pregnancy, still undiagnosed, but didn’t hit me in a major way until I was 35.

This is the “day in the life” for about a decade that contributed to my health crash.

Morning

Wake up late. Immediately look at work emails on my phone, respond to anything I can, and clock the time I started working because I’m definitely going to be late getting to the office.

Throw on a dress and a blazer, grab my keys, phone, purse and head out the door to the bus stop. Skip breakfast. Order an almond/coconut/oat milk latte from my phone and pick it up in the foyer of my office building before heading up to my desk.

Afternoon

Grab a salad on my way to a clients office. Or, skip lunch because I have too much to do and no time between meetings to eat, plus my stomach hurts anyway. Get a second afternoon coffee, preferably with a client or coworker with whom I can discuss industry gossip.

Evening

Text my husband around 5 and try to time our commutes home so we can meet near the train station and walk home together. Convince him to pick up food on his way or Door Dash whatever the latest hip restaurant is in San Francisco/New York/Brooklyn/Oakland. Watch TV while working late, festering with irritation about my job.

Work a lot, make a lot of money, low key hate my day-to-day, spend a lot of time travel planning to maximize my PTO and enjoy the time I do have away from work.

Bedridden

Age 35, one toddler, early pandemic days. I was one of the first to have Covid and it set off a cascade of symptoms that got worse and worse until I had to take a leave of absence from work (I ended up retiring early). Friends and family don’t understand how sick I am, everyone is traumatized from the pandemic, no one can see each other, and my husband has almost no help working from home with a toddler and a bedridden wife he has become a full-time carer for, while our family has lost half of our income. I have little in the way of answers and have been told there is a 50% chance I will get better, and a 50% chance I will just get worse until I die. Not great odds. We are mentally preparing ourselves for the possibility my husband will be a single father to our only daughter.

Read more

This Week

We are reading:

• 1 Chronicles 23-29

• 1 Kings 1-11

• 2 Chronicles 1-9

• Psalms 64, 65, 66, 4, 5, 6, 7

Summary

This week we wrap up 1 Chronicles with David in his final days, obsessively organizing everything he couldn’t build himself: the Levites, the priests, the musicians, the gatekeepers, the military, the treasury. The man is dying and he is making lists. Honestly, I get it.

Then Solomon ascends the throne, consolidates power, and does what his father spent a lifetime preparing for — he builds the temple. Seven years of construction. Cedar from Lebanon. Gold everywhere. The ark finally in its permanent home. The presence of God filling the house like smoke.

It is one of the most magnificent moments in the entire Bible.

And then Solomon just throws it all away.

Starting with a foreign wife, a compromise, a high place built for a god that isn’t the God, and then another, and another, until a man who started by asking for wisdom is chasing every idol in the ancient Near East.

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Here is the daily breakdown from our annual plan:

• Day 145 — Monday, 5/25 — 1 Chronicles 23-26, Psalm 64

• Day 146 — Tuesday, 5/26 — 1 Chronicles 27-29, Psalm 65

• Day 147 — Wednesday, 5/27 — 1 Kings 1-4, Psalm 66

• Day 148 — Thursday, 5/28 — 1 Kings 5-8, Psalm 4

• Day 149 — Friday, 5/29 — 1 Kings 9-11, Psalm 5

• Day 150 — Saturday, 5/30 — 2 Chronicles 1-5, Psalm 6

• Day 151 — Sunday, 5/31 — 2 Chronicles 6-9, Psalm 7

Day 145 — Monday, 5/25 — 1 Chronicles 23-26, Psalm 64

• David is old and makes Solomon king.

• The Levites are organized by division and assigned specific roles: overseeing the work of the temple, acting as officers and judges, serving as gatekeepers, leading the music.

• Interestingly, the musicians are named and are treated as a guild of prophets, set apart for “prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals.”

• These chapters cover all the duties and roles related to organizing and worshipping at the temple.

Day 146 — Tuesday, 5/26 — 1 Chronicles 27-29, Psalm 65

• More organization: the military divisions, the tribal leaders, the overseers of the royal storehouses and herds and vineyards and olive groves and camels.

• David assembles all of Israel and gives a speech telling them what God told him: you are a man of war, you have blood on your hands, and you will not build the temple. Your son will.

• He hands Solomon the architectural plans then turns to the assembly and essentially runs a capital campaign. He announces what he personally is giving (massive quantities of gold and silver and bronze beyond the national treasury) and asks, who will give themselves wholeheartedly to the Lord today? The leaders and officials respond with extraordinary generosity, giving hundreds of tons of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and untold numbers of precious stones.

• Solomon is anointed a second time and David dies.

Day 147 — Wednesday, 5/27 — 1 Kings 1-4, Psalm 66

• Jumping back a bit, 1 Kings opens with David very old, and we are back in a more detailed biography of interwoven personal tales that reads very much like\ Game of Thrones.

• Another day, another coup. Adonijah, David’s surviving eldest son, moves to claim the throne. Nathan the prophet and Bathsheba stage an intervention, and David publicly anoints Solomon, undercutting Adonijah’s ploy.

• David dies. Solomon consolidates power. Adonijah makes one more play and Solomon has him executed.

• God appears to Solomon in a dream, and Solomon asks for wisdom — specifically, a discerning heart to govern the people and distinguish right from wrong. God is so pleased with the request that he gives him wealth, honor, fame, and long life on top of it.

• The infamous judgment between two mothers follows immediately after. Two women come before King Solomon, each claiming to be the mother of the same baby. One accuses the other of having rolled over on her own child in the night, suffocating it, and then secretly exchanging the dead infant for the living one. King Solomon proposes an insane solution: the living child should be cut in two, with half given to each woman. One of the women agrees, and the other cries out in protest — proving to King Solomon she is the true mother of the living baby.

Day 148 — Thursday, 5/28 — 1 Kings 5-8, Psalm 4

• The temple building begins. Solomon sends to Hiram king of Tyre — David’s old ally and an icon of Freemasonry — for cedar and cypress timber. The sheer volume of materials, laborers, and logistics described are staggering.

• Four hundred and eighty years after the Exodus (12 x 40 years, just sharing because you know I’m always calculating), in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, construction starts on the temple.

• It took seven years to build. Then, on a roll, Solomon spent another thirteen years building his own palace complex, also described in detail. The contrast in construction time is noted without comment, so make of that what you will.

• The ark is brought in to the inner sanctuary, placed under the wings of the cherubim. There are parallels to the Garden of Eden, as you will remember the cherubim are guarding the entrance with flaming swords. The cloud of God fills the temple.

Day 149 — Friday, 5/29 — 1 Kings 9-11, Psalm 5

• God appears to Solomon a second time. God is explicit in his communication with Solomon: if you walk before me as your father David walked, your dynasty will endure; if you turn away and serve other gods, this temple I have consecrated will become a heap of rubble. The foreshadowing is as thick as the cloudy presence of God in the temple.

• Solomon’s international reputation reaches its peak and the Queen of Sheba arrives and declares that his wisdom and prosperity exceed even the reports she’d heard. A foreign queen praising Israel’s God is exactly what this faithful kingdom was supposed to accomplish.

• Whoopsie! King Solomon’s riches and fame, and particularly the attention of foreign women, goes to his head. He winds up with seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. The marriages were political alliances, which was common at the time, however the consequence is that these wives turned Solomon towards other gods, just as God warned when he told the Israelites not to marry foreign women.

• Solomon built high places for Chemosh, Molek, and the other gods of all his foreign wives. The man who built the temple built shrines for idols on the hills outside Jerusalem, and he worshipped there. Big yikes.

• God tells him the kingdom will be torn away — but not in his lifetime, for David’s sake. One tribe will remain for David’s sake. The adversaries begin to rise.

Day 150 — Saturday, 5/30 — 2 Chronicles 1-5, Psalm 6

• Fun fact: Today is my birthday! Fittingly, it is also the feast day of Joan of Arc.

• We switch books again. 2 Chronicles begins at the same place as 1 Kings 1-2 ends with Solomon firmly established as king, but again skipping past the palace intrigue.

• The workforce and material quantities for the temple are described again, with some variations in number from Kings.

Day 151 — Sunday, 5/31 — 2 Chronicles 6-9, Psalm 7

• Solomon’s prayer of dedication again, and the cloud of God fills the temple.

• God appears to Solomon a third time in Chronicles.

• The Queen of Sheba again.

• In Chronicles, Solomon builds the temple and it is glorious and then he dies and his son reigns in his place. There are no foreign wives, no idols, no distraction from the core story: Solomon built the temple.

Whew, we’re almost halfway through the Bible, and working our way through the origin story of the secret societies! What came up for you this week?

This week we’re talking about Neeza Powers and catching up with our side yard project and new greenhouse.

Plus, another one of my favorite health hacks.

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