Reflections On relentless hoping

Hey. I’m Joel Repic.

I share content here on community, neighborhoods, family, books, media, art, society, theology, church, mission, the Scriptures, monasticism, and more - all things that have become enterprises in hope for me.  I like to tell stories here too.  If you'd like to hope with me, you might find what's here interesting or useful.   

​I live in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, with my wife and three children. Our steel town is northwest of the City of Pittsburgh in the Ohio River Valley. We love our city and neighborhood. For the last couple of decades, I feel like I've been part of a small community of people who get to witness the Kingdom of Heaven in unlikely places. 

This often makes me feel grateful.

///writing where I share thoughts and stories

///photographing where I share pictures

///composing where I post poems I’ve written

///reviewing where I Give my thoughts on books and media

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View fullsize I was abused in childhood and adolescence. Recently, my cousin Liz was taken from us. All of this has me thinking about my family and the mercy of God. One of the more vulnerable posts I’ve made. Trying to be brave. Link in profile. https
View fullsize Evening thoughts.
View fullsize {Hey, You Changed and That Hurt} If you keep changing, how am I to keep choosing you? What of this new, strange work of grace that has come between us? How does our friendship endure it? What if your growth means I actually have a harder time bei
View fullsize {So, What Is Hope Is Protest?} So here it goes. It’s healthy for me to write - to be disciplined about thoughts and ideas and storytelling. I talk too much and write too little. I think I need more of this kind of discipline in my life, so I&r
View fullsize “Sometimes God offends our minds in order to reveal our hearts.” ///John Wimber (1934-1997) was a pastor, author, and founder of the Vineyard Movement. His impact was left on many streams of Christianity by teaching and demonstrating th
View fullsize I recently followed my kids around the winding boulders of Bilgers Rocks, and this got me thinking about how important childhood exploration is to the cultivation of hope. For over an hour, my kids climbed and ducked through these rocks - a moss gre
View fullsize ///CATCHING HOPE We try to recapture hope Through the discipline of reading and prayers Well-crafted sermons Calendared events To perhaps make the conditions That might attract hope again Like standing still long enough For a bird to fly close If we
View fullsize I recently stopped to take some pictures of a building that had burnt down in a neighborhood - that was still smoldering. I've been thinking lately about what it means psychologically as individuals and as groups to live in the kind of places where b
View fullsize /// Last night A man who said he needed prayer Who has been in and out of jail Who was high Who was cold Who one time tried to break into my house Years ago when he was in between being locked up Who is not trusted Who has run out of trust With his
View fullsize "Don't believe in kings, believe in the Kingdom” - Chance the Rapper #hopeisprotest
View fullsize (1 John 3:8) For this purpose the Son of God was manifested: to destroy the works of the devil. #hopeisprotest
View fullsize /// Gratitude for a New Year Gratitude Journal: Today, I’m grateful for a new year. When I think of the Creation story in Genesis, it’s notable to me that God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day