We begin our Advent season by reading the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth. What if Zechariah's muteness wasn't a punishment from God, but a gift? What if silence is an invitation from God to experience Him in greater measure? In entering into silence, we enter more deeply into the mystery of God and experience true peace.

God calls us to practice gratitude not for His sake but for our own. Gratitude has a powerful effect on our lives. Practicing gratitude has been scientifically linked to significant benefits psychologically, emotionally, relationally, and even physically. It's no wonder the enemy wants to rob us of our thanksgiving. This week, we explore three enemies of thankfulness: complaining, comparing, and coveting.

What would our lives look like if we could see the world through God's lens of redemptive beauty? Where even the ugliness of injustice, pain, and brokenness can be made beautiful? The hope of the Gospel is that God is making all things beautiful. We conclude our collection on beauty with a short exhortation about how we can begin seeing our world through this lens of beauty.

We had the honor of having Dave Gibbons in the house for our 3-year anniversary. Dave posed a simple question: What does it actually look like to love the one? Tune in this week as we explore the power of seeing, knowing, affirming, and giving.

Stories have the power to shape our world. Stories shape our culture, our values, our dreams and ideals. They teach us about love and friendship and courage and hope. It's significant that the way God chooses to reveal Himself to us is through the story of Scripture. What if the stories we carry aren't just for ourselves? What would happen if we could create a culture where our stories of God moving were shared and shared often? This week, we explore beauty through the lens of story and how God uses our stories to increase His activity in our lives.

Flowers are commonly associated with beauty. We enjoy them because they're beautiful to look at and touch and smell. But what can flowers teach us about the Gospel? As a floral designer, guest speaker Sammy Go shares his unique perspective about what flowers teach us about God, about ourselves, and about the order of creation itself.

One of the greatest challenges we face in our spiritual lives is learning how to remain childlike while growing up. You never have to convince children that they're creative. Yet somewhere along the way, so many of us get disconnected from our creative nature. How do we tap into the childlike wonder and creativity we once had? And what would it mean for our lives, for our world?

Most of us don't have a problem seeing God as beautiful, but we really struggle seeing beauty within ourselves. How different would our lives look if "beautiful" wasn't a status to be earned, but simply something we already are? We are God's living masterpieces. Our lives are a work of art. When we live with that awareness, it changes everything.

When considering Christian faith and practice, we often ask, "Is it true?" or "Is it good?" But what about, "Is it beautiful?" Along with apologetics and ethics, there is also an aesthetic to the Gospel. Christianity needs not only to be defended as true or good, it also needs to be presented as beautiful. Beauty is integral to the Gospel message. But what is it that makes our faith so beautiful? This week we explore the beauty that saves the world.

We conclude our Vocation collection by hearing stories and insights from people within our community. Vanessa Liu, Dan Fang, and Jonathan Yun open up about how they discovered their callings and what they learned along the way.

[Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, the first 10 minutes of the discussion is not available. Sorry for the inconvenience.]