Ruck the Way

Gabe Smith and Chris Furr
  • 5.0 (13)
  • Self-Improvement

Ruck the Way is a podcast about the sacred work that happens when you put one foot in front of the other. Hosts Gabe (a former Army infantry officer turned coach) and Chris (a Scotland-based guide, coach, and ministry leader) have spent the last decade walking ancient paths together across continents—discovering that pilgrimage is a physical journey for a spiritual purpose, and that something real gets unlocked “on the way.” Each episode feels like the kind of honest conversation you only have while walking beside someone: stories, faith, healing, and the weight we all carry—what’s in your rucksack. We’ll explore “thin spaces” and “moments of reckoning,” talk about the brain science behind why walking helps us process (yes, really), and share guest stories of struggle, joy, and transformation. Our tagline says it best: Let the walk do the work. So slow down to the “three-miles-an-hour life,” and come ruck with us.

  1. 5d ago

    #36: RUCK RELOADED: The History & Mystery of Celtic Christianity

    Ruck Reloaded! We look back into the deep history and spiritual mystery behind the ancient pilgrimage routes of Scotland and Northern England. Exploring the roots of Celtic Christianity, they trace how early missionary movements spread from Ireland across Western Europe through figures like St. Patrick, St. Columba, St. Oswald, and St. Cuthbert. The hosts discuss the unique, missional nature of Celtic monastics—who embraced relational hospitality, wilderness retreat, and living in rhythm with nature—and contrast their journey with modern life. Uncovering the sacred significance of Holy Island (Lindisfarne) and St. Cuthbert's Way, Gabe and Chris invite listeners to reflect on stepping back from control, embracing physical discomfort, and discovering spiritual renewal through pilgrimage. Compelling Moments: 00:00 | Introduction to Rock the Way and the Passion for History 01:31 | Chris’s Life as a Collector of Interesting Things 02:23 | Amplifying the Hiking Experience Through Ancient Stories 03:46 | Saint Patrick and the Explosion of Christianity in Ireland 05:44 | Understanding the Concept of Missional Communities 09:13 | The Hardcore Faith of Monks in Coracles 11:40 | The Era of Anglo-Saxons and the Worship of Norse Gods 13:21 | King Oswald: The "Return of the King" and Tolkien's Inspiration 17:23 | The Battle of Heavenfield and the Dedication to Christ 19:47 | Saint Aiden’s Challenge: Spreading the Gospel with Gentleness Know more about our cause: rucktheway.com Subscribe to our Podcast: youtube.com/@RucktheWay Meet the founders: rucktheway.com/about

  2. Aug 10

    #35: LOUD DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE LEADING: RJ CASWELL ON QUIET INFLUENCE

    UPCOMING PILGRIMAGE: https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage ON THE TRAIL THIS EPISODE The last time Gabe, Chris, and RJ Caswell were in the same room, it was a Charlotte brewery, a pint, and a conversation nobody wanted to end. This episode is what happened when they finally decided to hit record. RJ has covered a lot of ground. A master's in counseling. Eight years pouring into teenagers as a school counselor. A nonprofit counseling practice he founded from scratch, bylaws and all. Twelve years as executive pastor of a large multi-site church — the one job he was certain wasn't for him, and the one where he learned to lead a six-and-a-half-million-dollar organization. Now he leads Mission Charlotte, equipping nonprofit and ministry leaders across the region. Different rooms, different titles, one constant: RJ has spent his whole life figuring out people. Chris names it best late in the conversation — a golden thread of relationship running through every single mile. What makes this one worth your walk is how generously RJ tells it. He talks about the mentor he wishes he'd had, and how that gap became the reason he now says yes to coffee with twenty-somethings all over Charlotte. He talks about learning that purpose and a paycheck were never meant to be rivals. He names the word he's still working out — loyalty — and what it looks like to aim a strength well. He tells about a season of unemployment when he connected three other people to jobs, and says he'd do it again tomorrow. And he lets us in on the quiet joy of finding himself, in midlife, baking bread at the kitchen counter because he wanted to make something he could hold in his hands. If you've ever suspected that the gift you give away most freely is the one you're worst at using for yourself, lace up. This walk is for you. Worth adding to your pack • Give and Take, Adam Grant — the research behind what RJ lives instinctively, including the trap of the giver who never asks. • Working Identity, Herminia Ibarra — on midlife career transition, and why you act your way into a new identity rather than think your way in. • How to Know a Person, David Brooks — seeing others as a learnable craft, not a personality trait. • Emotional Intelligence 2.0, Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves — a practical on-ramp to the self-awareness RJ calls pivotal. • Halftime, Bob Buford — the classic on moving from success to significance in the second half. Connect with RJ • LinkedIn (the best place to reach him) — linkedin.com/in/rj-caswell-704 • Mission Charlotte — missioncharlotte.org • Faith Driven Jobs — faithdrivenjob.com

  3. Aug 3

    #34: Madeline Smith : who are you becoming?

    There wasn’t a day when I remember being better. But there was a day when I remember checking on him, and he was almost too light to feel.” — Madeline, on the slow lifting of depression On the Trail This Episode Some conversations you prepare for. This one, Gabe has been walking toward for nineteen years. In part two of our Daughters series, Gabe welcomes his daughter Madeline to the trail — a Gen Z college student, certified personal trainer, brand-new podcast host, and a young woman who has already packed and unpacked her life more times than most of us will in a lifetime. Born in South Carolina, raised barefoot in South Africa, uprooted at eleven, and now finding her own footing after her first year away from home, Madeline has thought hard about what it means to belong somewhere. Her answer reframes the whole question. Home, she says, was never the house. It was the people. And if that’s true, then every goodbye is less an ending than a handing-off — you carry what you became with them into whatever comes next. But this is not a tidy conversation. Madeline walks us into the hardest stretch of her story: the three-month gap between one life ending and the next beginning, when depression and anxiety arrived before she had names for either, and a thought she never asked for showed up on a back road in South Carolina. What happened next — a father pulling the car over, taking her hands, and refusing to let the lie stand — is one of the most quietly holy moments we’ve had on this show. Chris turns the microphone toward Gabe mid-episode to ask what it’s like to hear your daughter tell that story back to you. What follows is a father and daughter on the same path, walking at the same pace, for a little while in front of all of us. There is also levity: a rental car meeting a South African curb, an AI-generated Father’s Day card featuring strangers as family, and a party trick nobody saw coming. A NOTE FOR FELLOW TRAVELERS This episode includes an honest discussion of anxiety, depression, and a passing thought of self-harm experienced in childhood. It is handled with care and hope, but please listen when you have the room for it. If any part of your own story is close to the surface right now, you don’t have to walk it alone — in the U.S. you can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, any hour of any day.

  4. Jul 27

    #33: Daughters, Part One: Foraging the Journey with Maren Furr

    “We long for security and to feel like we are on fully stable ground… but that is what God calls us to — to trust him. And it's not trust if you know at all times where you're stepping.” — Maren Furr On the Trail This Episode This summer, both of our households have adult daughters home from university — so we're walking a two-part series simply called Daughters. In Part One, Chris sits down (about thirty feet away) with his daughter Maren Furr, a newly minted twenty-one-year-old and theology student at the University of Edinburgh. Maren has lived a whole pilgrimage already: born in North Carolina, a childhood in France, tween years back in the States, and now teenage and university years in Scotland. That road has left her with what she calls a “split heart” — always slightly longing for the place she isn't — and a rare gift for seeing the world from more than one angle. The conversation finds its shape in an unexpected place: foraging. Maren has taken up gathering elderflower, dandelions, and (cautiously) mushrooms from the forest near home, and it becomes the episode's living metaphor — for a season of life spent out in the world discovering what's nourishing and what's poisonous, working hard for small harvests, and learning that abundance isn't always better. From there the trail winds through studying theology at a secular university, becoming okay with not knowing, embracing mystery as an act of trust, art as a balm for a wrestling mind, and what it looked like for her parents to raise third-culture kids with room to struggle and space to become. What's in Your Rucksack Why “where are you from?” is the hardest question a third-culture kid can be asked — and how a split heart becomes a gift What foraging in a Scottish forest taught Maren about slow work, small harvests, and the beauty of toil What happens to your faith when you study theology at a big secular university — and why Maren says it's the best thing that could happen to it Life isn't a line, it's a spiral: why coming back around to the same struggles is normal — and holy A father-daughter exchange on raising kids across three cultures, letting them struggle, and keeping your eye on thirty, not eighteen Maren's current favorites: burned CDs, Celtic animation, elf monologues, and a second run at The Lord of the Rings Keep Walking With Us Walk with us in person: explore upcoming pilgrimages at rucktheway.com Trail Notes: subscribe to our newsletter at rucktheway.com for reflections between episodes Share the trail: if this conversation walked with you, pass it along to a friend — especially a parent of a young adult or a student wrestling with big questions Support the journey: Ruck the Way is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift at rucktheway.com keeps these conversations on the trail.

  5. Jul 23

    #32: Attached: How the First Miles of Your Story Shape Every Relationship

    UPCOMING PILGRIMAGE: https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage On the Trail This Episode Long before any of us could speak, we were asking three questions: Is someone going to come? Do I matter? Am I safe? In this episode, Gabe and Chris open up attachment theory — the well-researched framework describing how the answers we received in our earliest years wired the way we connect, trust, withdraw, and love for the rest of the journey. This isn’t pop psychology, and it isn’t finger-pointing at our parents. It’s understanding — the kind that makes forgiveness possible and healing real. Gabe and Chris walk through secure attachment and the three insecure styles (anxious, avoidant, and disorganized), get honest about which ones show up in their own stories, and explore why your attachment style shapes not only your marriage and your friendships, but the way you see and experience God Himself. The trail ends where hope lives: awareness, story work, empathetic witnesses, and the ultimate attuned Listener who sets His face toward us. What’s in Your Rucksack The three unconscious questions every infant asks — and how the answers get wired into your brain before you can speak Why roughly half of us carry insecure attachment into adulthood — and why that number appears to be dropping “Good enough parenting”: the surprisingly gracious research on attunement and repair that lowers the bar for every parent listening Anxious, avoidant, disorganized: which patterns Gabe and Chris each recognize in their own stories — and why naming yours isn’t a life sentence Why anxiously attached people so often marry avoidantly attached people — and the push-and-pull that follows How your attachment style shapes the bosses you chase, the burdens you place on others, and the way you picture God Mirror neurons, narrative therapy, and why healing that was broken in relationship can only be rebuilt in relationship TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Introduction: Diving into Attachment Theory 03:17 - What is Attachment Theory? The Core Unconscious Questions 05:00 - Secure Attachment and the Power of "Good Enough" Parenting 17:58 - Anxious & Ambivalent Attachment: Fearing Abandonment and Seeking Reassurance 25:39 - Avoidant Attachment: Independence, Minimizing Needs, and Latchkey Roots 37:12 - Disorganized Attachment: Navigating Relational Harm & Trauma 41:31 - How Attachment Styles Shape Our View and Experience of God 44:22 - Practical Steps to Healing: Relational Narrative & Story Work 48:20 - Neuroplasticity, Mirror Neurons, and Inviting Christ into Memory Work 55:11 - Pilgrimage as an Attuned Space: Letting the Walk and Listening Do the Work Keep Walking With Us Walk with us in person: explore upcoming pilgrimages at rucktheway.com Subscribe to Trail Notes, our newsletter, for reflections between episodes If this episode touched something in you, share it with a friend who needs to hear that healing is possible Ruck the Way is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit — your tax-deductible gift at rucktheway.com keeps these conversations on the trail Let the walk do the work.

  6. Jul 13

    #31: Life as Pilgrimage: The Terrain Gets a Vote

    UPCOMING PILGRIMAGE: https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage On the Trail This Episode What if pilgrimage isn't just a week of your life — what if it's the lens for all of it? Chris and Gabe pick up a thread from recent pilgrim Josh Nash, who finished the St. Cuthbert's Way and realized he could actually do life this way. From there, the guys take a hard look at the metaphors our culture hands us — the up-and-to-the-right graph, the ladder you'd better lean against the right wall — and hold them up against a truer, kinder picture: the walk. Meandering, surprising, sometimes drudgery, occasionally glorious, and never fully in your control. Along the way they land on a phrase that might just end up on a t-shirt: the terrain gets a vote. Transcript: 01:54 The framing question: what does "life as pilgrimage" do in you? 03:12 Josh Nash's slow reveal on the St. Cuthbert's Way — not a conference, not a worship night, but something that could guide the second half of a life 05:54 The metaphors we're handed instead: up-and-to-the-right, and the ladder leaning on the wrong wall 09:46 The drudgery is part of it: blisters, one foot in front of the other, and letting go of the "rapturous experience" expectation 10:54 Gabe on control: you can't control results — only inputs — and there's something very kind about that 15:01 Chris in midlife: pilgrimage as a pressure valve on "have I done enough?" — hills, valleys, and the road to Emmaus 17:37 "The terrain gets a vote" — you choose the journey, not what's around the bend 19:27 Pitching tents on the Mount of Transfiguration — and why Jesus leads them back down into the valley 21:25 The illusion of rest: the beautiful overlook has no inn, no pub, no nourishment 24:39 Laying rails: the destination is not the full purpose — what happens along the way matters as much as arriving 25:22 No self-made pilgrims: letting people in, being known, being seen References & Resources Josh Nash's pilgrim interview — recorded on the St. Cuthbert's Way pilgrimage; find it in the episode feed and on YouTube St. Cuthbert's Way — the ~70-mile route to Holy Island (Lindisfarne) walked on the most recent Ruck the Way pilgrimage The Mount of Transfiguration — Matthew 17:1–9; Mark 9:2–8; Luke 9:28–36 The Road to Emmaus — Luke 24:13–35 #pilgrimage #scotlandhistory #catholicfaith

  7. Jul 13

    #30: Conversation on Israel, Faith, and Story with Jess Cantelon

    UPCOMING PILGRIMAGE: https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage Jess' website: https://www.jesscantelon.com/ What happens when your childhood playground is the city of Jerusalem? In this episode of Ruck the Way, we sit down with entrepreneur, theologian, and fluent Hebrew speaker Jess Cantelon to explore how growing up as a Gentile kid in Israel fundamentally transformed his understanding of scripture. Moving beyond flat, Westernized depictions of faith, Jess unpacks the essential "Jewishness" of Jesus, examining how ancient rhythms, rabbinical debates, and the physical reality of the land illuminate Christ's true identity. We dive deep into the concept of pilgrimage as a literal and spiritual mechanism for repentance—turning away from secular routines to step incrementally closer to the presence of God. Finally, Jess invites us into a space of historical and cultural nuance regarding modern Israel, challenging believers to embrace complex truths over simple media narratives. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 – Welcome Jess Cantelon to the mobile office; life in Montreal. 00:01:45 – Growing up in Jerusalem: King of Kings community and Hebrew public school. 00:03:47 – Sensory memories of Israel: The smells of the Shuk and authentic hummus. 00:06:48 – How living in the Holy Land shapes an intuitive understanding of the Bible. 00:08:40 – Challenging liberal theological assumptions with geographic reality. 00:10:47 – Studying the land: Plants, soils, and the nomadic Bedouin cultures. 00:13:06 – Deconstructing a Westernized Jesus: Embracing His authentic Jewishness. 00:14:42 – Jesus as a Second Temple Rabbi participating in the podcasters’ debates of His day. 00:17:27 – The three pilgrimage feasts and the geography of repentance. 00:21:45 – Skateboarding and snowboarding when hell freezes over in the Valley of Gehenna. 00:24:03 – The drone shot perspective: Viewing Jerusalem settled like a crown. 00:29:44 – The modern melting pot: Demographics, language, and everyday life in Israel. 00:33:15 – The danger of simple stories and Western discomfort with historical nuance. 00:39:00 – Eyewitness accounts: Driving the northern border two weeks after October 7th. 00:44:52 – Understanding Jerusalem Syndrome and navigating internal Israeli politics. 00:47:11 – Divine faithfulness: Why God’s promises to the Jewish people matter to the Church. 00:49:58 – How leaders can guide communities through complicated global questions. 00:53:01 – Closing Benediction: Letting the walk do the work. Know more about our cause: https://www.rucktheway.com/ Subscribe to our Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@RucktheWay Meet the founders: https://www.rucktheway.com/about

  8. Jun 29

    #29: Seen, Encountered, Released: Two Pilgrims on St Cuthbert's Way | Ruck The Way Podcast

    UPCOMING PILGRIMAGE: https://www.rucktheway.com/pilgrimage Some pilgrimages begin with a plan. This one began with a change of plans. Six men were meant to walk St Cuthbert's Way this season. In the end it was two. Chris and a pastor named Joshua Nash, alone on seventy miles of border country, walking into questions neither of them could have scripted. What they found was the kind of thing the walk tends to give when you stop trying to manage it. A slow reveal. A golden year. A quiet word from God on a tidal island where people have prayed for almost fourteen hundred years. This episode comes in two parts. First, Chris sits down with Gabe to reflect on the journey and on what it means to guide rather than lead. Then we take you out onto Holy Island itself, down into the prayer holes, for a conversation with Joshua about what the road did in him. Timestamps: 00:32 Home from the borders. Chris survives another seventy miles. Recovery, the toll on the body, and why this one was different. 01:29 Cracking the blister code. Flat feet, the wrong wool, and the hard-won wisdom of caring for your feet. 03:04 Every pilgrimage is its own. Chris's fifth St Cuthbert's Way, and his first in June. A month he went into expecting little, and the healing greenness he found instead. 05:00 Meet Joshua Nash. A pastor in midlife. A sabbatical. Two pilgrims where there were meant to be six. 06:55 Receiving the context you did not choose. A new angle on the tagline. Letting the walk do the work means receiving the walk you are actually given. 09:21 Guiding, not leading. The vulnerability of walking alongside. Why the guide has to stay a pilgrim too. 12:20 What pilgrimage actually is. Melrose to Holy Island. Hills, valleys, ruins and abbeys across some of the most heart-achingly beautiful country in the world. 14:00 The five encounters. The land. Your fellow pilgrims. Your own story. The saints who walked before us. And finally, God. 16:14 Evenings at the inn. Boots off, feet up, the day relived around a table. One of the favorite hours. 18:46 A golden year. Chris on his own walk. A fiftieth anniversary, a jubilee, and three words he carried home. 20:42 Seen, encountered, released. What God kept highlighting, mile after mile. 21:40 Into the prayer holes. What these thin places are, and why heaven and earth feel close there. 24:29 On Holy Island with Joshua. The last day, the final ridge, the descent toward the sea. 26:31 A thin place. The prayer holes, Cuthbert's Island, and the saint who loved to get away and be alone with God. 28:20 Who Joshua is. Mercy Road Church outside Detroit. A three-month sabbatical. A desire to go deeper. 31:06 Expectations meet reality. Harder than he imagined. The things he did not anticipate outran the things he did. 33:30 The slow reveal. Pilgrimage is not an event you attend. It is a posture you carry into the rest of your life. 35:45 The sands as the whole journey. Crossing the pilgrim sands, the tar pits in the middle, and finding his footing again. 38:00 Setting the stone down. A bench, a burden laid down, and a word Joshua had rarely heard so clearly. I see you. I love you. I like you. I am proud of you. 40:05 His word to you. If you are facing big decisions or carrying uncertainty, do it. Not a vacation. A transformation. 42:34 Let the walk do the work. Upbeat song credits: Fireworks Reprise (Jay Denton) Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/jay-denton/fireworks-reprise License code: 3NIGGUVUOD4RRPRN

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5
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

Ruck the Way is a podcast about the sacred work that happens when you put one foot in front of the other. Hosts Gabe (a former Army infantry officer turned coach) and Chris (a Scotland-based guide, coach, and ministry leader) have spent the last decade walking ancient paths together across continents—discovering that pilgrimage is a physical journey for a spiritual purpose, and that something real gets unlocked “on the way.” Each episode feels like the kind of honest conversation you only have while walking beside someone: stories, faith, healing, and the weight we all carry—what’s in your rucksack. We’ll explore “thin spaces” and “moments of reckoning,” talk about the brain science behind why walking helps us process (yes, really), and share guest stories of struggle, joy, and transformation. Our tagline says it best: Let the walk do the work. So slow down to the “three-miles-an-hour life,” and come ruck with us.

Information

  • Creator
    Gabe Smith and Chris Furr
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    36
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Gabe Smith and Chris Furr

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