Impossible Beauty

It was an encounter with beauty that changed Winfield Bevins’ life. As a result, Winfield quit his job and founded Creo Arts, a non-profit that exists to bring beauty, goodness, and truth to the world through the arts.

Dr. Winfield Bevins is an internationally recognized author and artist. He is also an affiliate professor at several academic institutions and artist-in-residence at Asbury Theological Seminary, where he champions the integration of art, theology, and mission.  

In today’s episode, Winfield discusses his latest book, entitled How Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Power of the Arts for the Christian Life. Specifically, he highlights a renewed longing for beauty and transcendence he’s noticed recently, both inside and outside the church, as well as a Renaissance of the arts in communities of faith. Winfield also shares what art teaches all of us, how beauty brings hope into the world, and why we are all invited to be missionaries of beauty.


Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

How might our days and conception of beauty change, if we started our morning with God, the author and origin of beauty itself? This is the exact topic we tackle in today’s conversation with Tara Beth Leach. 

Tara Beth is an author, speaker, and the senior pastor at Good Shepherd Church in Naperville, Illinois. In today’s conversation, she shares about her latest book, The Great Morning Revolution: Daily Spiritual Practices for Meaningful Moments with God. Specifically, Tara Beth discusses how an invitation from God to connect with Him in the morning changed her life, rhythms, and perspectives amidst a desolate season of loss.

She also shares how connecting with God in this daily rhythm not only can make us more attentive to God, but can help us live into a truer understanding and experience of beauty. As Tara Beth says, “We were made to be in relationship with the most beautiful one of all.” May our mornings be an opportunity to connect with the One our hearts are made for.

Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

Anna Rollins is the author of Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl. Anna’s debut memoir examines the rhyming scripts of diet culture and evangelical purity culture, both of which direct women to fear their own bodies and appetites.

Anna is an award-winning instructor who taught English in higher education for nearly 15 years, and her writing has appeared in outlets like The New York Times, Slate, Electric Literature, Salon, Joyland, and more. In today’s episode, Anna shares how societal messages around beauty and body image contributed to her struggles with disordered eating. We also discuss Anna’s research on purity and diet culture’s impacts on women’s relationships with their bodies and food, as well as how the concept of self-control might be helpfully framed as we enter the season of Lent.

My hope is that as we name and shed unhelpful theologies related to food and our bodies, we might find more freedom, healing, and wholeness.

Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

Kids and teens these days face all kinds of stressors, including pressures around beauty and body image. In today’s episode I talk with Dr. Chinwé Williams all about the power of connection in building both emotional resilience and body image resilience in kids and teen.  

Dr. Chinwé Williams is a speaker, best-selling author, and Licensed and Board-Certified therapist whose expertise includes child and adolescent development, women’s wellness, & anxiety and trauma management. In today’s conversation, we discuss Dr. Williams' most recent book, entitled Calm, Courageous, and Connected: A Parent's Guide to Raising Emotionally Resilient Kids. Specifically, she discusses how and why building emotional resilience is a relational posture, how she sees beauty and body image pressures impacting kids and teens, and the emotional impact of young people getting the message that their value comes from their appearance.

Dr. Williams' insights are both wise and encouraging. May you leave this conversation feeling empowered to see and connect more deeply with the young people in your life.

Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

On this week’s episode, we talk about current societal trends impacting women and girls, leading them to believe that they are always on show and that the way they look is the most important thing about them. Thankfully, we have a trusted companion to do so in Oona Hanson. 

Oona Hanson is an educator and parenting coach. Through her writing, workshops, and private consultations, she supports families in raising kids who have a healthy relationship with food and their body. She has been featured in television programs, like Good Morning America, and her work has been featured in various publications, including People, USA Today, US News & World Report, Today, CNN, and The Washington Post. 

In our time together, we unpack a recent article Oona wrote on her Substack, entitled, The Life of a Girl Who’s Always on Show: Help Your Daughter Navigate a World That’s Constantly Judging Her Looks. Specifically, we talk about the showgirl imagery in Taylor Swift’s latest album, how we might interact with the next generation around the prevalence of weight loss ads, and the recent TikTok, now banned hashtag, #skinnytoc.

Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

On this podcast, I am committed to helping listeners (and myself) understand beauty in its truest, most life-giving sense. And that is why I am so excited to start the new year with David Taylor as today’s guest.

David Taylor is a theologian, author, speaker, priest, and director of initiatives in art and faith. As Associate Professor of Theology & Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, he has lectured widely on the arts, from Thailand to South Africa. He has also written for The Washington Post, Image Journal, Theology Today, Worship, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today, among others. Additionally, in 2016 he produced a short film with Bono and Eugene Peterson, entitled Bono and Eugene Peterson: THE PSALMS.

In today’s episode, David not only gives us a behind-the-scenes look at his class on beauty at Fuller Seminary, but also shares his own biblically grounded understanding of what true beauty is. David also uncovers lies about beauty he sees at work in Western society, discusses how we might navigate aging in a broken world, and helps us see how we can know God in and through the arts. My hope is that this conversation will leave you feeling deeply encouraged, as you are reminded that true beauty is alive and at work in the world.

David's latest book: Naming the Spirit: Pneumatology Through the Arts 

Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

Amidst the busyness of the Christmas season, it can be hard to take the time to slow down and contemplate the breadth and depth of Jesus’s birth. In today’s episode, Trillia Newbell helps us do just that. 

Trillia is the author of numerous books, including Bible studies, children’s books, and non-fiction titles, such as her latest book: Behold, The Lamb of God Has Come: Celebrating the 25 Days of Christmas Together. Trillia also supports other writers as the Acquisitions Director at Moody Publishers. 

In today’s conversation, Trillia invites us to reflect on the character and work of Jesus, as well as how the Christmas story helps us persevere in faith amidst a broken world. Trillia also helps us see why societal beauty standards are unhelpful and, instead, invites us to embrace the beauty of diversity. My hope is that this conversation may open your mind and heart anew to the beauty and hope that the Christmas season brings.

Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

Amidst the inreasing pressures of beauty culture to run from any hint of aging, it makes sense that cosmetic procedures and skincare products are surging in popularity. And, yet I wonder if we might meet aging in a different way. And that’s where Joyce Rupp comes in.

Joyce Rupp is the author of numerous bestselling books, an international retreat leader, a conference speaker, was a volunteer with hospice for fifteen years, and is a member of the Servites or Servants of Mary community. In today’s conversation, Joyce helps us see aging from a more life-giving perspective and expands our view of what beauty is and what role it plays in our transformation. Joyce also shares about her own faith journey and how she persists in knowing God as good and beautiful amidst a very broken world.

May this conversation ground you in knowing a deeper beauty that is already present in you and all around you.

Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

In 2013, after 16 years of hospital and community work, Registered Dietician and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist, Jessica Setnick, closed her private practice to fulfill her mission of educating primary care professionals about eating disorders, dysfunctional eating behavior, and how to best promote recovery and prevention. In addition to speaking and authoring numerous publications, Jessica also mentors the next generation of eating disorder professionals through case consultation and supervision.

In my conversation with Jessica, she discusses how shame and fear-based messages in the health care field often make people's eating issues worse, as well as the normalization and prevalence of disordered eating behaviors in American society. Jessica also addresses recent food trends like orthorexia and clean eating and when trying to eat healthily becomes unhealthy.

In our conversation and in her work, such as in her Heal Your Inner Eater Workbook and workshop, Jessica helps all of us take a step back and evaluate what our food behaviors and beliefs are and if they bring us life.

These topics and Jessica's work are important for all of us who have been exposed to the inundation of diet and wellness culture; may this conversation help you find greater wholeness in your relationship with food and your body. 


Link to handout on Orthorexia: Positive vs. Pathological Nutrition

Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

On this podcast I seek to redefine beauty as “the life of God at work in us and all around us.” In today's episode, Courtney Ellis helps us experience the life of God at work in nature, specifically among birds. 

Courtney Ellis is an author, speaker, pastor, and host of The Thing with Feathers Podcast. She holds a master’s degree in English literature from Loyola University, a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and alongside her husband, she pastors Presbyterian Church of the Master in Orange County, California.

In my time with Courtney, we discuss her latest book, Looking Up: A Birder’s Guide to Hope Through Grief. Courtney shares how birding can be a gateway to a deepening awareness of beauty in the world, how it can lead us to hope, and why she sees birding as a spiritual practice. In short, Courtney helps us see that birds remind us that God is at work all around us and that He is with us; all we have to do is look up.

Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.