Anita Lustrea

My husband, Mike Murphy, joins me again as we continue our series on how to move forward when we are stuck. We look at some of the stages of grief and talk about how to refocus our lives after loss. We also open up the Faith Conversations mailbag and answer one of the recent questions we’ve received via email. If you’d like us to tackle a question on the podcast you can email me at [email protected].

Also, I’ve made it into the 21st century and you can now give donations to Faith Conversations via PayPal. Use [email protected] as the email to Send it to. If you’d rather do it via check and regular mail, send to Anita Lustrea, 8 White Oak Terrace, Sarasota, FL 34237.

Thanks!

My husband, Mike Murphy, joins me on the podcast to talk about how to move forward with our lives when we get stuck. Ever happened to you? My guess is, if you have breath in your lungs, it has happened to you. And when it happens to us, it affects those around us.

Mike reads an insightful poem on the podcast called Autobiography in 5 Chapters by Portia Nelson that some of you might want to look up and ponder during some quiet moments you find. We also suggested a resource that both of us have worked our way through, titled Discovering Our Spiritual Identity by Trevor Hudson. We highly recommend it as it has had a profound effect on both of us. Mike has been through the workbook and has taken groups through it 3 times.

If you’d like to support the podcast, you can do it by writing a check and sending it to Anita Lustrea, 8 White Oak Terrace, Sarasota, FL 34237, or by giving through PayPal to [email protected]

Thank you!

Everyone longs for meaningful relationships! Community is modeled first by the Trinity–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–but even with that ultimate model we struggle to develop deep friendships. Sometimes our issue is to admit our need for deeper relationships.

Renee Swope is part of the (in)courage community, and they’ve put together a great resource called Craving Connection: 30 challenges for real life engagement. The (in)courage community of contributors addresses deeper connection with God as well as purposeful connection with friends and being more intentional about developing community.

As the new year is underway, maybe you are sensing your own need for deeper relationships like never before. The podcast might just be the encouragement that you need. Also, check out Renee’s blog as well as the resource Craving Connection.

Follow Renee on Twitter @reneeswope or her author page on facebook.com/renee.swope.

Tish Warren captured my imagination with the concept of life viewed through the lens of liturgy in her book Liturgy of the Ordinary. Annie Dillard’s words, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives,” are a touchstone for the book, a quote from which everything emanates. Tish looks at how transformation takes place. We all have ordinary elements in our lives. Even the President wakes up with bad breath and has to brush his teeth. Everyone deals with difficult drivers on the freeway, or maybe it’s us! How do we live in the ordinary. How do those everyday moments shape us?

Tish Warren takes us through an entire day, from making the bed to losing keys, Warren opens up a practical theology of the everyday and it really works. I appreciated this conversation and I think you will too! Follow Tish on Twitter @Tish_H_Warren.

Leslie Vernick is a wise voice. She is a relational coach with a focus on helping women in difficult relationships. Her latest book, The Emotionally Destructive Marriage, is essential for anyone in a difficult and possibly abusive marriage.

On the podcast we talk about how each of us just made a major move—me to Sarasota, Florida, as many of you know, and Leslie to Arizona. Leslie and her husband moved cross country from Pennsylvania, and Mike and I went North to South from Chicago to Florida. We both traded up for a better climate! But what are the trade offs? What happens when you lose your relational network? Leslie brings her licensed counselor hat to the conversation and talks broadly about all kinds of transitions.

If this is where you find yourself, or you know a friend walking this road, then listen and pass on the link!

Esther Emery is effervescent and fascinating. Not only is she a beautiful writer, but her subject matter hit me where it hurts. She disconnected from the internet for a whole year. In her book, What Falls From the Sky, she recounts what precipitated her disconnection and how the quiet space that opened up for her led her back to God.

Today, Esther, her husband, and their three children live off the grid in a yurt in the foothills of Idaho’s Rocky Mountains. Don’t know what a yurt is? Esther explains on the podcast. Hers is a unique story with plenty of onramps for anyone who is sensing the need to slow down and reconnect or connect more deeply with God.

You’ll not only enjoy the podcast, but also their YouTube videos.

Carolyn Custis James began her influence on my life when I found a copy of her first book, When Life and Beliefs Collide. Her influence continued with each subsequent book. I’m pleased she could join me this week as we focus on her very relevant book, Malestrom.

There are a plethora of distorted images of manhood in our society and even in the church. Carolyn discusses those and focuses on stories of some incredible men in the Bible. You’ll want to listen to the podcast as she casts a vision for manhood that is big enough to encompass the diversity of men in our world.

This week’s podcast is all about a huge transition taking place in Mike’s and my life. He is my guest and we are talking with everyone who encounters transitions in life. So, basically, everyone on the planet.

We are leaning into this advent season and leaning into God as we begin a new life in a different location. I hope you have time to check out this week’s podcast for your own dose of encouragement if you are in a new season of life.

Our new address is 8 White Oak Terrace, Sarasota, FL 34237.

Blessed Advent season to all of you!

Mike Tenbusch is fearless. He is inspiring and he has written an important book with a powerful message for anyone who despairs about neighborhoods riddled with poverty and schools with struggling students. In fact, if you give Mike a hearing, God might just tap you on the shoulder to be a part of the solution, to help connect your church with a school that needs the nurturing presence of God’s people.

This might be my most favorite podcast yet. If you want to be challenged to pray and do, then you’ll want to listen to the podcast and get a copy of Mike’s book, The Jonathan Effect. It’s all about helping kids and schools win the battle against poverty.

Mark Scandrette stopped by my kitchen table to talk about something he and his wife Lisa have written about and are passionate about—and that is, how to create a thriving family culture. In their new book, Belonging and Becoming, Mark and Lisa cast a compelling vision for all that a family can be. They talk from a platform of experience as well as compassion, but certainly not as people who have it all figured out. They help spark our imaginations for what family life can look like.

Whether you are just starting your family or you’re down the road a piece, this podcast will inspire you to take new steps toward a thriving family culture.

Follow Mark and Lisa on Twitter @MarkScandrette.