In this episode, I invite us into a guided time of imaginative prayer — a contemplative practice rooted in the early church mothers and fathers that helps us encounter God in a personal, embodied way.

Together, we step into the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus on the night before His crucifixion. As we enter this scene, we slow down, engage our senses, and notice what stirs within us as we witness Jesus’ honesty, sorrow, and surrender before the Father. I hope you'll join me as we walk onto the scene of Matthew 26:36-42 and ask the Spirit to speak to us through this story.

Key words:

imaginative prayer, contemplative prayer, guided prayer, Scripture meditation,  mindfulness, prayer practice, spiritual formation, self-compassion, curiosity, emotional regulation, faith and mental health, soul care practices, Christian spirituality, emotions

There’s a question I hear often — both in the therapy room and in conversations about faith: Why does my healing matter? Why does change feel so hard, and sometimes even unnecessary? 

This week on Faith & Feelings, I invite us to explore why healing isn’t separate from spiritual formation, but one of the primary ways God’s transforming work takes shape in us. Together, we’ll reflect on how healing shapes who we’re becoming, expands our capacity for love, and changes how we show up in our relationships.

This trailer introduces our next series, “Why Does My Healing Matter?”, and invites us to get curious about our own inner lives — not as a self-improvement project, but as a response to God’s ongoing work within us.

Thought-provoking quotes:

“We do this work to become fierce, tender lovers of God, others, and ourselves.” - Mary Ellen Owen

“When we tend to our own healing, we stop unconsciously asking others to carry the weight of our unresolved pain.” - Taylor Joy Murray

"Inner work and healing are not distractions from sanctification. They are the very places where God’s redemptive work becomes concrete, relational, and embodied.” - Taylor Joy Murray

Key words:

Spiritual formation, healing, vulnerability, listening, creativity, emotions, curiosity, presence, process, courage, self-awareness, emotional health, personal growth, hope, connection, community, relationships

Today, we continue our Advent journey by stepping into Anna’s quiet yet powerful moment of worship in Luke 2:36–38. As a widow shaped by years of loss, prayer, fasting, and devotion, Anna’s eyes had been trained to recognize Jesus when He appeared in the temple. Her story invites us to consider how a life turned toward God forms our ability to truly see Him.

Drawing from Bette Dickinson’s devotional Making Room in Advent, this episode explores what it means to make room for worship — to offer our grief, longing, and faithfulness to God. Through Anna’s witness, we’re invited to see how worship clarifies our spiritual vision so that when God shows up in our own stories, we’ll recognize Him — and help others see Him too. I hope you’ll listen in.

Key words:

Advent season, spiritual formation, vulnerability, listening, creativity, emotions, curiosity, presence, process, courage, self-awareness, emotional health, personal growth, waiting, hope, connection, worship

Today, we continue our Advent journey by stepping into the shepherds’ moment of wonder in Luke 2:15–20. As they hurry to Bethlehem and behold the newborn Jesus lying in a manger, we are invited into a deeper way of seeing — one that moves beyond surface-level observation and into holy perception.

Drawing from Bette Dickinson’s devotional Making Room in Advent, we explore the difference between simply seeing with our physical eyes and truly perceiving with hearts open to awe. This episode invites us to rediscover a sense of holy astonishment this Christmas. To make room for wonder and to perceive God’s presence with fresh eyes. I hope you’ll listen in.

Key words:

Advent season, spiritual formation, vulnerability, listening, creativity, emotions, curiosity, presence, process, courage, self-awareness, emotional health, personal growth, waiting, hope, connection, wonder

Today, we continue our Advent journey by stepping into Mary’s honest moment of questioning in Luke 1:34–38. When she asks, “How will this be?” she names the real limits of her life — and yet it’s within those very limits that God chooses to work.

Drawing from Bette Dickinson’s devotional Making Room in Advent, we explore how God chooses not to bypass human limits but to work within them. In the incarnation, God takes on the constraints of our humanity and invites Mary — and us — into partnership not by asking for strength, expertise, or perfection, but by inviting simple availability. I hope you’ll listen in.

Key words:

Advent season, spiritual formation, vulnerability, listening, creativity, emotions, curiosity, presence, process, courage, self-awareness, emotional health, personal growth, waiting, hope, connection, limits

Today, we continue our Advent journey by entering a moment of profound humility in the Christmas story — a moment of divine descent. We pause with Mary as she receives Gabriel’s astonishing message in Luke 1:31–33, and we reflect on the mystery of how the Son of the Most High chose to come not in power or prestige, but in vulnerability and dependence.

Drawing from Bette Dickinson’s devotional Making Room in Advent, we consider how God’s choice to descend into our humanity reveals His heart, and how His downward movement invites us to follow in love, vulnerability, and humility. I hope you’ll listen in.

Key words:

Advent season, spiritual formation, vulnerability, listening, creativity, emotions, curiosity, presence, process, courage, self-awareness, emotional health, personal growth, waiting, hope, connection

Today, we begin our Advent journey by entering a quiet moment in the Christmas story — a moment of hiddenness and waiting. We explore Elizabeth’s five months of solitude in Luke 1:23–25 and reflect on how God used that secluded space to reshape her identity and nurture new life within her.

Drawing from Bette Dickinson’s Making Room in Advent, we consider how solitude becomes a sacred womb where God does his deepest work in us. I hope you’ll listen in.

Key words:

Advent season, spiritual formation, solitude, silence, listening, creativity, emotions, vulnerability, curiosity, presence, process, courage, self-awareness, emotional health, personal growth, waiting, hope 

Preparation for the Christmas season can often feel busy and frantic, but it doesn't have to be this way. What if we stopped and listened to the movement and unfolding of God's plan around us?

Next week on the podcast, we'll begin walking through one of favorite advent devotionals Making Room in Advent by Bette Dickinson. Today, I wanted to give us the chance to get to know her a little bit before we begin. Bette brings such wisdom and depth into this conversation. I want to invite you to take your time listening and really pondering what she offers us today. 

Bette helps us reimagine Advent not as another thing to rush through, but as an invitation to pause and make room for God’s movement in and around us. She reminds us that God often speaks in the most unlikely spaces... in Scripture and in our own lives. I hope you'll listen in.

Use the MRA25 to receive 25% off the devotional on Bette's website.

Thought-provoking quotes:

“Allowing yourself to slow down may be the greatest gift you give yourself — and the world — in this season.” - Bette Dickinson

“What would it look like to allow Jesus to grow within your soul this season — with all the aches and vulnerability that come with new birth? Even your longings and your losses are not lost on God. They can become the very place of encounter.” - Bette Dickinson

 “There’s a reason Paul says he is ‘in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in us.’ The journey of being transformed — of letting God grow something new within us — is vulnerable. It requires surrender. It often feels like limitation. But that is the invitation of Advent. Whether we’re carrying longing, disappointment, joy, or exhaustion, God wants to form something in us. Christ can be born in us in ways we don’t expect.” - Bette Dickinson

Key words: 

Advent devotional, Advent season, incarnation, spiritual formation, creativity, embodied faith, art, contemplative practices, breath prayers vulnerability, longing, Advent practices, slowing down, Bette Dickinson, waiting, hope, wonder

With exactly 45 days left of 2025, I thought it would be good — and honestly, necessary — to pause and get curious about our inner life as we approach the end of the year. How are we doing…really? And how are we ending this year?

In this episode, I guide us through some gentle reflection and invite us to slow down long enough to notice what’s true inside: where we are, what we’re carrying, and how our soul is meeting this moment. I hope you’ll listen in.

Thought-provoking quotes: 

"The reality of your inner life doesn’t arrive as a flashing headline, a clickbait link, or a push notification. It doesn’t announce itself with urgency. It rarely interrupts you.” - Taylor Joy Murray

“The life that wants to be lived in us exists, but it’s subtle. It’s quiet. It whispers more than it shouts. And unless we intentionally turn our ear toward it, it’s incredibly easy to miss the low tones of desire, gifting, calling, and connection that are already moving within us.” - Taylor Joy Murray

“This is what happens when God chooses to dwell with us. He unfolds in us, and we unfold in him. Advent is a gestation process. It is a season of allowing Christ to be formed in us as we also are formed in him.” - Bette Dickinson

Key words:

Advent season, spiritual formation, listening, creativity, emotions, vulnerability, curiosity, presence, year-end reflection, process, courage, self-awareness, emotional health, personal growth, waiting, hope 

As we enter the Advent season, I’ve been longing for a way to slow down. To step away from the rush of December and make a little more room for stillness and wonder. And I thought… maybe you’ve been craving that, too.

So this December, we’ll be walking through one of my all-time favorite Advent books: Making Room in Advent by Bette Dickinson.

If you’ve never read it, this book beautifully weaves together Scripture, art, and reflection in a way that helps you connect not just with the story of Jesus’ coming, but with your own story, too. Through the Advent season, we’ll journey together through the devotional, week by week, creating space to pause, to breathe, and to open our hearts to the ways God is already at work—even in the waiting.

Key words:

Advent season, devotional, Bette Dickinson, spiritual formation, creativity, emotions, vulnerability, curiosity, presence, reflection, process, courage, self-awareness, emotional health, personal growth, art, waiting, hope