Lore Ferguson Wilbert
10 min read ⭑
“When I hear from a reader who thought X before going on this journey with me but now believes Y, nothing delights me more. I believe movement and fluidity are the marks of faith.”
Lore Ferguson Wilbert first started publishing her thoughts on the internet back in 2000, before the word “blog” was even a thing. Since then, her writing has created a platform where curious readers can join her on a journey of continual spiritual and intellectual exploration. She’s now the author of the award-winning book “The Understory” as well as “A Curious Faith and Handle With Care.” When she’s not writing or reading, she’s busy enjoying God’s physical creation by kayaking, gardening, spending time in New York’s lush forests, and making art with paper.
In today’s interview with Lore, you’ll find out how she works to slow down her racing thoughts; the comfort she takes in the Bible’s quirky, introverted characters; and how she’s taking care of her body as an act of obedience to God. You’ll also discover the deep cultural questions she’s been asking lately and the resources that have guided her evolving faith over the years.
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
There’s much more to food than palate and preference. How does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?
We’ve recently relocated, so I haven’t found my go-to meal or favorite restaurant here yet. But at our last location, my favorite restaurant was a farm-to-table place that has operated continuously since 1844.
A few years ago, I ordered scallops smothered in saffron sauce, and both of those ingredients are not in my normal fare. We eat a lot of chicken and vegetables in our house, and because of various allergies, we limit our spices. But I will never stop trying to replicate the flavor and feel of those melt-in-your-mouth scallops and fragrant saffron mixed in butter. I never describe anything as divine, but it truly was.
Even though I appreciate spice and flavor and heat and newness, I tend toward the same things over and over again. I sometimes wonder if that’s because I’ve moved so much. Very little in my surroundings or locations has stayed the same, so a thick PB&J on rye bread with corn chips will always feel like the ultimate home food to me.
Josh Duncan; Unsplash
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So what are yours? What so-called “nonspiritual” activity (or activities) do you love engaging in, which also helps you find essential spiritual renewal?
There’s this scene in “The Good Place” where Chidi says to Eleanor, “You know the sound a fork makes when it gets stuck in a garbage disposal? That’s the sound my brain makes all the time.” I’ve never resonated so much with a fictional character before or since.
My brain feels like it’s constantly going 1,000 miles an hour. I’m never bored, I’m always thinking about something, I’m rarely lonely, and I never run out of things to do. So for me, to be truly renewed, I need to move out of that brain space and into the body space. I love to kayak and feel that truly renews me. We just recently left our home on a river, so I am on the hunt for new places to put my kayak in the water now. I miss that.
I’m obsessed with survival TV shows. From “Alone” to “Survivor” — it doesn’t matter how unproduced or scripted it is, something about humans being deprived of creature comforts and learning to exist alone or coexist with strangers will never not fascinate me. I’m sure that says something about my own proclivity to aloneness and learning how to exist in society.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness. Every human too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite, and how do you hide it?
I’m terribly shy and extremely introverted. I can muster up all my reserves and be hospitable, curious and interested, even extroverted, but it really takes a toll on me, ultimately. The truth is that I truly enjoy the company of a few at a time, but I mostly enjoy being alone or with my partner. I don’t feel proud of this, and in fact, I feel pretty ashamed of it a lot of the time. Especially in the church, there seem to be intrinsic rewards for extroverts, and going out of your way to be approachable and to approach is often spiritualized. I take a lot of comfort in the Jonahs and Elijahs and even the John the Baptists of the world — a little quirky, a little avoidant, but still loved deeply by God and used to bring about good in the world.
It’s fairly easy for me to hide this shyness and introversion by staying focused on the other person in front of me. If I can keep the focus on them, I feel less self-conscious of that shyness. But that has a dark side as well, which I’ve learned more about in the past seven or so years, and that is that everyone will feel known by me, but I will feel known by no one. I’ve had to work on this self-protective mechanism and learn to be OK with awkward silences if the other person doesn’t show interest in knowing me.
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your current obsession? And why should it be ours?
My husband teases me, saying I get hyper-focused on things and tasks and, in doing so, shut everything else out. In recent months, that’s been the Camino de Santiago, the life and work of William Morris, a deep dive into the history of reproductive rights and the question of when life begins, and Christian perspectives on climate change. I read a lot for work, and right now, the giant stack of books in front of me spans all those subjects equally. I’m really interested in the intersection of our faith and our work and what compels us and restrains us — because we need both. I write about all this on my website, lorewilbert.com, where there is no niche or lane in which I stay. My poor readers probably have whiplash.
I’m also very interested in helping younger writers push back against the instant production/gratification of the world of content right now. It’s just suffocating, and some gifted people are getting lost in it all. I’m a big fan of slow work over a long period of time. You can’t replicate what happens in us over the long haul, no matter how much a sponsor or magazine pays you for “content.”
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Cashiers, CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?
Intuition or a gut sense — or, as I like to call it, the spirit within me — plays a big part in my work. I don’t schedule my writing work, create a huge content calendar or even plan far ahead for my books. I get a sense in my spirit (or gut or intuition) that there’s something here to explore, and then I just explore it as far as I can. Usually, there’s something to mine there, whether it’s a book or an article. But I don’t know for sure — and won’t until it seems done, but that’s part of the fun.
My last book started with a hike a friend and I took to a backcountry, old-growth forest where the tallest tree in New York had recently fallen. It was a beautiful and holy moment, and I expected to feel a lot of grief, but instead, I felt curious. When something inspires my curiosity, I want to run straight toward it and see what I can find.
A writer friend told me years ago that some writers are experts and some are explorers. Experts want to teach you everything they know while explorers want to bring you along on the journey. I am an explorer. I want to bring my readers along with me. I’m an experiential learner, and I think my readers are too.
When I hear from a reader who thought X before going on this journey with me but now believes Y, nothing delights me more. I believe movement and fluidity are the marks of faith. I believe the Spirit hovers over the waters. I believe God is present in the continual formation of the people of God.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied habits that open our hearts to the presence of God. So let us in. Which spiritual practice is working best for you right now?
This feels silly to say (and my 33-year-old self would have judged me for saying this at 43), but prioritizing the rest my body needs, eating well, healthy movement and supplementing the things I physically need — this is a spiritual practice that is both working the best for me right now and also working me over the most right now. I’ve experienced nearly a dozen interstate moves before, and none has wiped me out quite as much as this one.
I am learning that submitting to the body I have today is a work of obedience to God. For a long time, I just wanted a different body or a body like theirs or just a body that felt a certain way. But more and more, I’m living with the reality that as a created being, I am not god of my body. The best way to honor God with my body is to care for it as it is, not as I wish it was.
This means more time spent in the kitchen making good-for-our-bodies food, more time in bed getting good-for-our-bodies sleep and more time moving our bodies in ways that are good for us. I never expected to say these were spiritual practices, but they are.
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Looking backward, considering the full sweep of your unique faith journey and all you encountered along the way, what top three resources stand out to you? What changed the game and changed your heart? What radically altered your life? What changed your reality?
At the end of my 20s, I went through a crisis of faith, and I realized I didn’t actually believe any of this stuff. I was brought into a better understanding by some in the gospel-centered movement. I have issues with some of the movement now, but at 29, it was a lifeline for me. People like Tim Keller taught me things I’d never heard before, even after a lifetime in the church.
Ten years later, having grown deeply disillusioned with the behavior of many in the movement and particularly the reformed/Southern Baptist church, I’ve found myself gravitating to church fathers and mothers, the mystics, the vagabonds and ragamuffins. The idea of building my life around an organization or institution became really distasteful to me, and more and more, I just wanted to build my life around Jesus. I became more influenced by the work of Ronald Rohlhesier, Eugene Peterson and others who put forth this beautiful and compelling vision of what building a life around Christ alone would look like.
These days, I’m obsessed with the relationship between the secular and sacred, the eternal and mortal, creation and Creator — these sort of dichotomies, or tensions, in which we live and must learn to live with. I’m interested in competing truths or the things that make us uncomfortable because they’re not black and white. I exist very happily in gray areas on 99% of things in my life, and I don’t sense that’s the reality for most of us. I’m interested in why that is, and also how we become better at nuance, at not “othering” others, at hospitality and welcoming even strangers and the strange. Thinkers like Wendell Berry, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Rachel Carson and more all continually help me think more broadly about the world and what is good for the whole world, not just the church and Christians.
We all have things we cling to to survive (or even thrive) in tough times — times like these! Name one resource you’re savoring and/or finding indispensable in this current season, and tell us what it’s doing for you.
I don’t know when this will be published, but as I’m writing this, we’re just one month away from the presidential election. We’re also just a year away from the attack on Israelis near Gaza and the war and genocide that’s followed. We’re also smack in between one devastating hurricane (Helene) and the imminent arrival of Hurricane Milton, which is, as of today, a category 5 storm hurtling toward Florida. There is literally nowhere in the world we can go to escape the awfulness of it all.
I keep abreast of it with good, unbiased news sources and podcasts, but honestly, laughter is what I need most of these days. I’m too serious of a person and will go whole weeks without a good bout of laughter. So almost every night, my partner and I pull up the late-night guys from the night before, and we spend an hour just laughing. It helps me to sometimes laugh at the future and not just frown at it.
QUESTION #8: dream
God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
This is such a good question — and one that it’s good for me to think about sometimes! I don’t want to talk about it too much because talking about things prematurely takes the spark out of it for me, but I’m really interested in the intersection of good art for the masses and terrible art for the elite. I’m thinking of things like AI, which mostly benefits the upper echelon of society such as billionaires, and poetry, which is accessible to anyone who picks up a book.
I’m trying not to get too specific, so I know that’s vague. I’m just interested in why we think that only the elite get the good stuff. They don’t — not really — and they shouldn’t. Beauty is for everyone, or it’s not truly beautiful.
When Christians discuss important spiritual habits, they may rattle off actions like Bible reading, worship, prayer and fellowship. While these habits are truly indispensable, fewer people also lump caring for our bodies into that list.
But as Lore pointed out, “The best way to honor God with my body is to care for it as it is.”
Scripture seems to agree. At one of the lowest points in Elijah’s ministry, God told him to eat bread and take a nap. When the people of Israel were starving and thirsty, God miraculously provided manna and water in the desert. And don’t forget that Jesus lovingly and supernaturally multiplied a few fish and loaves to feed a very large, very hungry (spiritually and physically) crowd.
Take a moment to ponder these moments of physical provision. Now ask yourself, “What practical steps can I take this week to honor God by taking care of the body he’s given me?”
Lore Ferguson Wilbert is an award-winning writer, thinker, learner and author The Understory, A Curious Faith and Handle With Care. She has written for She Reads Truth, Christianity Today and more, as well as her own site, lorewilbert.com. She has a master’s degree in spiritual formation and leadership and loves to think and write about the intersection of human formation and the gritty stuff of earth. You can find Lore on Instagram or on her kayak. She lives with her husband, Nate, and their pups, Harper and Rilke, in Pennsylvania. She really has read all the books on her shelves.
