Conversations about the expectations we have of what the life of faith will feel like. Each week Amanda Held Opelt (author of the book Holy Unhappiness: God, Goodness, and the Myth of the Blessed Life) will interview writers, pastors, artists, and friends about the myths we believe about "the good life." Together, we'll reimagine what blessing can look like when we are willing to look beyond our culture's ...
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In the last week, we've all witnessed the terrible devastation unfold in Los Angeles. Images of destruction - of loss of life, property, and community - are filling our news feeds. Meanwhile, here in North Carolina, my region continues to recover from Hurricane Helene. How are we to process the impact of these natural disasters from both near and far? Josie Gwin is the CEO and co-founder of The Resilience Resource, an organization that seeks to equip individuals, leaders, and organizations facing challenge and change. She is a Mental Health Coach, a Spiritual and Psychological First Aid Instructor, and a certified Chaplain with vast experience domestically and internationally responding to disasters. In this episode, she and I discuss the initial impact of this most recent disaster on L.A. residents, the experience of the broader public watching the crisis unfold online, and how we can tend to our emotional responses in healthy ways. For more on her organization, see https://theresilienceresource.org/
Christmas Day is almost upon us, and during this last week of Advent, we focus on the theme of love - its challenges, its requirements, its embodiment. Today, I speak with baker and theologian Kendall Vanderslice about the way we offer and experience love through the foods we eat. She talks about her new book, Bake and Pray, and walks us through some of the traditional practices of Christmastide and Epiphany.
We live in a time that is dominated by cynicism and suspicion...and joy is sometimes in short supply. Today, I speak with artist and poet Corey Frey about the role curiosity and imagination have in cultivating a life of joy - and why we in the modern West have lost so much of our capacity for wonder. We talk about the power of paradox, the mystery of a dynamic and incarnate God, and the way the holidays habituate delight.
How do we define peace? Is it a feeling? A disposition of the heart? A state of being? To help answer these questions as we meditate on the theme of week two of Advent, I talk with Pastor Rich Villodas about what Jesus has to say about peace in the Sermon on the Mount. Pastor Rich unpacks the difference between peacemaking and peace keeping, and he also talks about his new book The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Path of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls.
Week 1 of Advent is focused on the theme of hope, so for this conversation I wanted to speak with someone who knows what it's like when doubt and shifting faith threaten to steal your hope. Ian Harber is the author of the forthcoming book Walking Through Deconstruction, a gentle guide for anyone who wants to be a companion to those who are struggling in their faith. Ian's voice is a trusted one, as his own journey of deconstruction and reconstruction was forged in the fires of grief and loss. And because Advent is a season of waiting and longing, I hope this episode offers some light and grace for those who are longing for a return of confident faith and seeking to rebuild a hope that once felt lost.