A World In Tension

Welcome to Season 2! Come join us as we explore Stories of Tension: Real People, Real Stories, Real Solutions.

No matter how hard we try to avoid it, or how we may try to circumvent it, none of us can escape the simple fact that we are all getting older. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Robert Belding to examine the tension of aging.

Although many of us want to steer clear of this uncomfortable topic, at some point we all must come to grips with our own mortality. Come join us as we consider how to live successfully in the latter stages of life and how we can prepare ourselves before getting there. Robert shares some insights about the trials, temptations, and obligations associated with aging and some of the surprises he personally encountered along the way.

Welcome to Season 2! Come join us as we explore Stories of Tension: Real People, Real Stories, Real Solutions.

How do we let go of our finances, our family, and our familiarity to live a life of true surrender? In this episode, we speak with missionary Josh Rose to hear his story of wrestling with life's core tension, the tension between personal control and surrender to God.

Consistently surrendering to God is not an easy task. We must regularly examine our motives and let go of areas of life that we are seeking to control. Josh Rose, a missionary living in Mexico, walks us through his progressive journey of applied surrender. He recounts the foundations of his pathway and call to missions, his early days of questioning his missionary call, and discusses his current struggles with applied surrender after over a decade of service.

Welcome to Season 2! Come join us as we explore Stories of Tension: Real People, Real Stories, Real Solutions.

In this episode, we investigate the tension of time with our special guest Kevin Roig.

Our lives are passing by minute by minute, exposing us to the reality that time really is our most precious commodity. Unfortunately, this sobering truth can leave many of us feeling a tremendous amount of restlessness and despair. At some point in our journey, we all wonder if we are living life to its maximum potential and purpose. How do we measure the use of time? What metric can we use to qualify and quantify the effectiveness of our lives? Kevin shares personal stories about how he has wrestled with this tension throughout his life and how it has consumed his thoughts, emotions, and actions. We discuss the pitfalls of being either overly analytical or too nonchalant about time. We explore practical solutions and resources to shift our focus from being consumed by time to offering it back to it's Creator.

Welcome to Season 2! Come join us as we explore Stories of Tension: Real People, Real Stories, Real Solutions

In this episode, we investigate the tension of loving neighbor vs. loving self with our special guest Rainer Bantau. Rainer shares how he wrestles with this tension on a daily basis as the Senior Operations Manager for a ministry called OurCalling (https://www.ourcalling.org/). Our Calling (OC) is addressing the challenges of providing a community of integrity for the chronically homeless living on the streets of Dallas and ensuring they do so with excellence. We explore how loving your neighbor as yourself can be a difficult pursuit, especially when that neighbor is homeless. We also examine the inextricable link between loving self, loving others, and loving God.

Rainer also serves as part of the OC preaching team providing weekly church services and as the Saturday ambassador educating and equipping volunteer groups with the tools and experience they need to minister to the growing homeless population in the DFW area. In addition to preaching and teaching God’s word and ministering to others, Rainer can be found blogging at The Devotional Guy™ (https://thedevotionalguy.blog/). Rainer and his wife, Terri, live in Richardson, Texas where they enjoy going to music concerts and catching a Texas Rangers game.

Welcome to Season 2! Come join us as we explore Stories of Tension: Real People, Real Stories, Real Solutions

In this episode, we investigate the tension of the fear of God vs. the fear of man with our special guest Drew White. Drew recounts his constant pursuit to keep up public appearances and how he wasn't able to satisfy the never ending expectations of others. We probe down into the layers of tension to uncover how God used some very difficult experiences to draw Drew closer to Christ and how he found true freedom in Him alone. We also discuss practical solutions and resources to shift our focus from pleasing others to pleasing God and how that liberates us to live more securely and love others with greater confidence.

Welcome to Season 2! Come join us as we explore Stories of Tension: Real People, Real Stories, Real Solutions

In this episode, we investigate the tension of worldly vs. Godly success with our special guest Dan LaRock. Dan shares his personals stories of how he pursued and acquired a life of wealth and success, only to find it to be hollow and empty. We explore Dan's journey of discovery from worldly success to a world of faith and how his catalyst for change came from the insightful words of his deceased grandfather. We also discuss how Dan's growing surrender to Christ led him and his wife to transform their Minnesota ranch into a Christ-centered, horsemanship ministry.

Dan is an executive shareholder with HUB International and has published a book entitled 'Grandpa's Gift: How Old Wisdom Can Inspire New Life' (https://www.grandpasgiftbook.com/). He is also the co-founder of Rock Ranch, a charitable organization which provides horsemanship training, riding lessons, senior programming, and mental health counseling, all in a natural, Christ-filled setting (https://www.riderockranch.org/).  

Welcome to Season 2! Come join us as we explore Stories of Tension: Real People, Real Stories, Real Solutions

In this episode, we investigate the tension of God's plans vs. our own. Before we get too far down the guest list in Season 2, we thought it would be appropriate for us to share some of our own struggles and confessions. We talk honestly and openly about our difficulties in discerning if our plans are from God or our own creation and how we respond when God seems silent. Come join us as we unpack some key lessons from Proverbs and tell stories of quickly jumping into passion projects or getting stuck in our own paralysis by analysis.

Welcome to Season 2! Come join us as we explore Stories of Tension: Real People, Real Stories, Real Solutions

In this episode, we investigate the tension of community vs. solitude with our special guest Rebecca Dragoo. Rebecca recounts her personal struggles of being broken by solitude as an extraverted extravert. We probe down into her personal layers of tension to uncover what Rebecca learned about herself, others, and her relationship with God. We also discuss practical solutions to effectively move between periods of earnest reflection in solitude to meaningful engagement with others in community.

This is a no-frills bonus episode recapping our first season of ‘A World in Tension’. 

Come join us as we share an uncut, inside look at the podcast. We get into listener feedback, share our key reflections about Season 1, and lay out a future plans and direction for Season 2.

Throughout this podcast we talk a lot about tension and surrender. We often say that our fundamental tension is between our desire for control and our need to surrender. In other words, surrender to God is the ultimate remedy to the tensions of life we all experience. That sounds great in theory, but how do we apply this truth in a practical sense? How can we become more effective at practicing surrender in our every day lives? Are there specific tactics we can use or identified steps we can take? Come join us as we unpack the three essential ingredients of surrender and walk through a practical example of applying surrender to one of our current tensions - making this podcast.