A More Beautiful Question Podcast

I have felt like I’ve had to fight harder for my joy lately. I haven’t been depressed — but for more days than normal, I’ve been feeling like Eeyore, with a little black cloud over my head. If I’m not intentional, I’ve noticed my thoughts going to darker places with, “What’s the point? Why is this so hard? I’m so tired!” 

Yes, even I — a joy rebel of the first order — find myself asking the wrong questions! And that’s when I decided to do a whole show about what’s stealing my joy. I made a list of ten things that I’m allowing to depress or distract me, and I thought they might connect with you. 

But we’re not gonna stop there. Once we name them, we’re going to fight back. Because this week, we might be starting with the question, “What’s Stealing My Joy?” But in Ep. 34 of A More Beautiful Question, we’re gonna move on to the more beautiful question of, “What are we going to do about it?” We’re going to equip ourselves to live into the joy God wants for us. 

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I don’t know if it’s my age or wisdom or just life stage or coming off of quarantine… but I’m definitely relishing a slower schedule. And I think that’s what God wants for us, too. 

When we’re rushing from one thing to another, we can lose a lot!

I know what you’re probably saying. “Lain, you don’t get it. I have meals to cook and kids to tend to and a job to do and family and friends to take care of and bills to pay. There’s no time right now to rest!”

Well, all that may be true… but if you’re that busy MOST of the time, it’s that much more important to make time to recharge. You won’t be doing anyone any favors if you run yourself ragged, lose your connection to your loved ones, don’t have time to talk with and listen to God, and enjoy the life you’re living. You may have to make some tough choices now to build in time to recharge. And that is what brings us to what I’d really like us to consider for this week’s question: Instead of, “How do I keep up with the crazy pace of life,” I want you to think about, “How do I build in time to slow down?” 

Listen in to Ep. 33 of A More Beautiful Question so you can create a season of rest and rejuvenation. 

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Each week as I mull over what topic to bring to you, I do a lot of things. I read. I see what people are talking about on social media. I examine my own heart. And I pray. I look for a topic that’s going to capture my own attention as well as offer something I think will benefit you as well. 

And this week, I had planned a totally different topic when God grabbed me. “You need to talk about people — especially women — about being let down,” he told me. 

So this week, in Ep. 32 of A More Beautiful Question, the question I want to start with is, “Why am I always so disappointed?” Listen in and see how we take that question and shift it to one that's more empowering. 

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God put down 783,137 words (that’s in the King James version!), just for us, just so we’d know how he feels about everything under the sun, from dealing with your parents to handling finances. He didn’t do it because he was bored, but because he wanted to communicate with us. 

Few people read their Bibles — even fewer take the time and effort to memorize passages. But these same non-reading, non-memorizing people are the same ones who complain, “I am not hearing from God! I don’t know what he wants from me!”

This week we’ll talk about why — and how — to create a regular relationship with your Bible. Hear more in Ep. 31 of A More Beautiful Question!

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This week, we’re talking about a question most have us faced at one time or another in our lives. Most of us have experienced periods where it seems like God is just silent. We are longing to hear from him, and he’s not saying anything! And we can’t help but wonder, “Why isn’t God talking to me?”

Have you experienced that? I sure have. It can be so painful and frustrating to want so desperately to get guidance or direction, but day after day, we just hear… nothing. That’s what we’re diving into today in Ep. 30 of A More Beautiful Question!

This topic links up with a free challenge I’m leading right now, on hearing from God. We started May 1, but you’re not too late to join in! Just head over to http://lainehmann.com/gods-voice/ and sign up, or follow me on instagram at @lain.ehmann. You’ll get a daily email, I’m doing a daily video, and there are also other free resources. Don’t miss it. 

Listen here: 

http://beautifulquestionshow.com. 

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Over the weeks, we’ve focused on one common thread: How to become a Joy Rebel, someone who stands up and proclaims the goodness of God despite any personal challenges, in order to shine a light for others in an increasingly dark world. 

Shining on behalf of God sounds amazing, and is something that we as Christians should all aspire to. But it’s not without pushback. In fact, the more we stand up and stand out, the more we can be targeted by others who disagree with us, who don’t have the same foundation we do, or by those who are motivated by the enemy to try to tear down anything godly. 

So how do we navigate this world where we can be rejected or punished for our beliefs? It’s not surprising if you’re asking yourself, “How can I get over the fear of being judged?”

But as usual, the question we start with isn’t the question we really should be asking.  And that’s what we’ll discuss in this week’s episode of A More Beautiful Question. 

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We are created to be creators. And when we deny that part of ourselves, we can actually become depressed, frustrated, and angry. That may sound extreme, but I strongly believe it’s true. I’ve seen it in myself, and I’ve seen it in my kids. When we embrace our role as creators, we experience more joy — which is what we’re all about around here!

So today, I’m going to talk about a few things. I’m going to share why it’s important for us to create. What God says about our role as creators. The difference between creating and creativity. And finally, I’ll offer some suggestions for those of you who think you’re not a creator or not creative. 

This is gonna be a fun one… so buckle up!

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We’ve been talking about community, and how important it is to have people to not just be social with, but to support you — and you to support them. But what do you do when one of those trusted people betrays you or harms you in some way? 

Maybe you’ve been there. Maybe you loved someone. Maybe you were closer than sisters and suddenly something happened. She said something that you couldn’t get past, or one of you did something that hurt the other. Or maybe it was a smaller rift in a less important, yet still dear, friendship. You hear that someone said something behind your back, or a friend criticizes your parenting, or puts her name in for a promotion at work that you’ve been talking about for months and for which she never expressed interest. There are so many ways we can hurt each other and betray each other, aren’t there?

That’s what we’ll be jumping into this week in Ep. 27. We’re going to talk about handling that pain, and what to do — and what not to do! — when your feelings are hurt. 

Listen here: 

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We couldn’t begin to talk about community in the modern day without talking about the role that social media plays in our lives and our relationships. 

Many people I know, especially after this last election cycle, are beginning to wonder if social media is Godly, if it’s something we should be involved in at all. 

I completely understand that. There are days when I think that social media is an evil creation. But then something will happen that restores my faith in humanity, when I see people using it for positive purposes. And then I remember that the Internet is just a tool, and we can choose whether we’re going to use it to help us become more Christlike, or we can use it for negative purposes. 

So, as always, the question we start with — “Is social media Godly?” — can actually be angled, just slightly, and a better question to ask is, “How can I use social media in a Godly way?” 

In Ep. 26, we’re going to talk about 10 suggestions (I’m not going to call them commandments!) for how we can use social media to further our relationship with others and with Christ. 

Find out more here:

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Today, we're discussing one of the biggest obstacles to creating  true partnership of support — and that is jealousy, or envy. Especially in these days of FOMO and social media, what others are doing and how far they’re going and how fast they’re running seems to be constantly in our faces. And when we feel like we’re not measuring up, it can hit us right in our insecurities. 

When we are risking, moving forward, operating on behalf of God, we can think we are immune from challenges and problems. Not true. In fact, the enemy may throw even more trouble our way because we are a threat to his rule here on earth. We’re trying to create something based in love, and he hates that. So the more progress we make, and the bigger our goals, the more he’d like to bring us down. And one thing that comes up over and over again is the two-headed beast of comparison and envy.

In Ep. 25, we’ll discuss where envy comes from, why it gets in the way of our relationship with others and with Jesus, and what we can do about it. 

Tune in!

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