Freely & Lightly Podcast

Kicking off season 2, we begin by discussing, as James Brian Smith puts it “soul training”. In this new season we will be focusing on transformation by engaging in spiritual practices and training our soul for godliness.

Being open to receive God’s love for us is often a learning process. Equally challenging is learning to love God, as well as our neighbor. Mark and David are joined by Tom Ashbrook, an author, spiritual director and, spiritual formation missionary with Imago Christi. In this rich and encouraging conversation, Tom shares his story of being changed by the love of God in deep and meaningful ways.

How would your approach to life change if you went from simply believing that God loves you to knowing he loves you? In this conversation, Mark and David discuss the challenge of truly knowing God’s love - rather than just holding it as a belief. They share about some of their experiences in learning to rest in God’s love and offer a helpful practice for learning to know God’s love in a meaningful way.

Responding to the Lord’s invitation or trusting God in our daily life can be very challenging. Mark and David talk with Kathy Pyrc, a Spiritual Formation Missionary with Imago Christi, as she shares her experiences of trusting God in places of pain, creating space for the Lord in everyday life, and living a life transformed by the love and presence of God.

Understanding God’s love can be difficult because the notion of what passes for love often falls short. Mark and David address many misconceptions about love presented and accepted in our culture, contrasting them against the reality of God’s perfect love. This episode begins to explore what is means to love others “because he first loved us” and learning to receive God’s love in our own lives.

Sabbath is important - but what does that look like practically? In this final episode on rest, Mark and David discuss what do on your Sabbath. They each share their experiences of learning to find what Sabbath looks like for each of them and offer helpful suggestions for how to examine your own activities to find what the Lord’s invitation may be for you personally in experiencing this practice in your day to day life.

We all know that rest is important for our physical well-being, yet it is a more complex than that. Our culture of “busyness” and “usefulness” can create resistance within us to embrace rest as a spiritual practice. Mark and David discuss the “why” behind rest - why it matters and is important to practice, and explore how God designed creation to need rest, and the gift Sabbath is intended to be.

Although rest may be viewed merely as sleep or inactivity, it is much more than that. Rest is an invitation from the Lord, a form of worship, and a space to simply be with God. Mark and David continue their discussion on the top of rest, exploring the complexities and gifts of the practice, and address some of the baggage and struggles that people have around the practice of rest.

After examining what rest is NOT in the last episode, Mark and David continue their conversation this week by looking at what rest IS, asking the question: What does real rest actually look like? They provide framework for assessing whether or not an activity is restful, and offer questions to ask as you seek to find rest in your own life.

In order to implement a Sabbath rhythm in your life, you must begin with rest. Modeled by God, rest is an integral spiritual practice. Mark and David discuss what rest is - as well as misconceptions about rest in our culture. They also address the challenges that accompany the practice of rest, in order to find practical ways to cross the hurdles that accompany this important practice.