Impossible Beauty

We are approaching Lent, a forty-day period of preparation for celebrating Jesus’ resurrection at Easter. It’s a time rich with spiritual significance. It also happens to be a time when the ideas of self-deprivation and fasting can get emphasized in faith-based circles. The tricky part is that both diet culture messages and faith-based messages at times explicitly and implicitly emphasize food restriction and/or self-deprivation.

This Lent I have the privilege of being a part of a teaching series called “Losing the Lies for Lent.” The lie I am tackling is the message that “self-deprivation makes us holier or brings us closer to God.”

In today’s episode, I am so grateful to be joined by Registered Dietitian, Brittany Braswell, to do a deeper dive with me on this particular lie. Brittany is a non-diet dietitian who approaches nutrition and wellness from a holistic standpoint, including physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional wellbeing. She specifically works with women who struggle with disordered eating and negative self-image. Overall, Brittany is passionate about helping her clients establish a healthy relationship with food and body to improve their quality of life and walk free and fearlessly in their purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to our conversation. I hope it brings you closer to that kind of freedom.

In a world where beauty is so often equated with thinness and weight loss with health, willpower, and virtue, Intuitive Eating gives us a different framework-one that emphasizes the beauty of body diversity and makes food freedom possible.

In today’s episode, I have the privilege of speaking with one of the co-creators of Intuitive Eating, Elyse Resch, MS, RDN, CEDS-S. Elyse is a nutrition therapist in private practice in Beverly Hills, California, with forty years of experience, specializing in eating disorders, Intuitive Eating, and Health at Every Size. She is the co-author of Intuitive Eating, now in its 4th edition, the Intuitive Eating Workbook, The Intuitive Eating Card Deck—50 Bite-Sized Ways to Make Peace with Food, The Intuitive Eating Workbook for Teens, and The Intuitive Eating Journal—Your Guided Journey for Nourishing a Healthy Relationship with Food. She is also a chapter contributor to The Handbook of Positive Body Image and Embodiment and her work has been profiled in outlets such NPR, CNN, NBC, KTTV, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associate Press, KFI Radio, USA Today, and the Huffington Post, among others. Elyse is nationally known for her work in helping patients break free from diet culture through the Intuitive Eating process. Her philosophy embraces the goal of reconnecting with one’s internal wisdom about eating and believes that all bodies deserve dignity and respect. She also supervises and trains health professionals, is a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and Supervisor, a Fellow of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals, and a Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

In my time with Elyse, we discuss what first drew her to the concept of Intuitive Eating, what Intuitive Eating is and how it differs from diet culture, sneaky ways diet culture is showing up these days, and how the concept of health can be expanded beyond weight. So, if you’re curious about Intuitive Eating, making peace with food, or looking for a new way to connect with your body, this episode is for you.

In a world of selfies, social media, and self-promotion, the virtue of humility isn’t getting much airtime these days. In today’s episode, I have the privilege of discussing this all-important virtue with Richard Foster and Brenda Quinn.

Richard Foster is the founder of Renovaré Institute for Christian Spiritual Formation, a nonprofit that helps people in becoming more like Jesus. He is also the author of several foundational books on spiritual formation and the Christian journey of faith, including Celebration of Discipline, which has sold over two million copies worldwide. Brenda Quinn is Pastor of Spiritual Formation at Living Way Fellowship in south Denver and helped with idea development behind Foster’s latest book.

In today’s conversation, we discuss Richard’s most recent title, Learning Humility: A Year of Searching for a Vanishing Virtue. In our time together we talk about what spiritual formation is and why it’s important, why humility is considered a foundational virtue, how we can cultivate humility in our life, and how humility is tied to beauty of the soul.

In a world filled with both beauty and brokenness, perhaps the greatest brokenness we experience is death. On today’s episode, we tackle this brokenness head on with author, Sarah Berger.

When Sarah Berger’s nineteen-year-old son went to heaven in an inexplicable single-car accident, Sarah found herself plunged into deep grief. Having journaled her experiences in the wake of that event, Sarah shares her insights with us in her book, Hope in the Eleventh Hour: A Mothers’ Journey Through Grief with Eternal Eyes and in today’s episode.

In our conversation, Sarah helps us see both life and death with an eternal perspective. She also helps us open our eyes and hearts to how God might be speaking to us amidst our grief and how she experienced God as good and loving amidst her own grief. Overall, Sarah encourages us with so many overlooked truths about God, ourselves, and our loved ones this side of heaven. May Sarah’s words and insights encourage you amidst whatever you might be going through today.

Life is all about connection. As humans we seem to thrive most when we are deeply connected to God, other people, ourselves, and our sense of purpose in the world. On today’s episode, I talk with Beth Davis all about deepening our connection with God, other people, and even ourselves.

Beth Davis is the Director of Ministry Advancement for an international sisterhood of women called Blessed Is She. This online and in person community seeks to help women deepen their prayer life and foster community. Beth is also the co-author of the book, Loving God, Loving Others. In our time together, Beth passionately shares about what drew her to a life of faith and how it changed her life, how our relationship with God impacts our relationship with others, how our bodies can be seen as gifts of love, and how she knows Jesus to be Beauty itself.

Every year, when Christmas rolls around, I try to wrap my mind and heart around the significance of Jesus coming to earth. The far-reaching impact of God coming in his fullness to restore and redeem the entire world is a hard one to fully grasp.

In today’s episode, author and Bible teacher, Hannah Anderson, helps us explore one often-overlooked aspect of the Christmas story, inviting us to take a closer look at the created world. In her new book, Heaven and Nature Sing: 25 Reflections to Bring Joy to the World, she invites us to consider the earthy, unnoticed things like snowflakes, trees, bodies, and swaddling bands that reveal the glory of the Promised Son.

In my time with Hannah, she helps us see how creation bears witness to God’s character and spiritual realities, how Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection redeems humanity and the entire creation, the usefulness of seemingly dormant seasons of our lives, and her experience of redefining beauty in her relationship with her own created body. Perhaps most importantly, Hannah reminds us that life is stronger than death. As she says it, “Life is the realer, truer thing.”

Have you ever been stunned by a night sky or deeply moved by the expansiveness of the universe? If so, today’s episode is for you.

Dr. Deb Haarsma is an astronomer, experienced research scientist, and the president of BioLogos. She has studied large galaxies, galaxy clusters, the curvature of space, and the expansion of the universe using telescopes around the world and in orbit. Dr. Haarsma completed her doctoral work in astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and previously served as professor and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Calvin University.

In today’s conversation with Dr. Haarsma, we talk about the compatibility of faith and science, what the natural world can teach us about God, and how the study of space and the physical universe has deeply impacted her faith and what it has taught her about authentic beauty.

Dr. Chinwé Williams is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), the founder and owner of Meaningful Solutions Counseling & Consulting, and an Executive Coach. She also recently co-authored the book, "Seen: Healing Despair and Anxiety in Kids and Teens Through the Power of Connection." Dr. Williams’ clinical expertise lies in the areas of stress/anxiety management, trauma recovery, the intersection of faith and mental health, and youth and women’s wellness.

In today’s conversation, we talk about the current mental health crisis among kids and adolescents; the prevalence of anxiety and despair. We also discuss the impacts of social media and the pressure among kids and teens to be ‘perfect.’ Thankfully, Dr. Williams also shares how she remains hopeful amidst her clinical work and research. She also tells us about and encourages us with the antidote to despair, the power of connection. She explains how and why feeling seen and known heals us and how it can heal and help today’s youth.

Jennifer Tucker leaned into breath prayer out necessity. Amid anxiety and a family crisis, it became a lifeline.

Jennifer Tucker is a mom, artist, and graphic designer, primarily working for Ann Voskamp. Jenn is also the author of Breath as Prayer: Calm Your Anxiety, Focus Your Mind, and Renew Your Soul. As Jenn puts it, “I create art to remind my own soul that God is with us, that we are loved and held and never alone.”

In today’s conversation, we talk about how both Jenn and her daughter’s struggles with anxiety led her to the practice of breath prayer. Instead of being an occasion for shame or a barrier to her faith, anxiety actually became a gateway for drawing closer to God. Jenn also talks about the importance of making church a safe, compassionate, and life-giving space for those struggling with mental health issues. Jenn also reminds and encourages us in the slow work of true beauty; it may not be glamorous or a quick fix, but it is ultimately what brings about wholeness and thriving in our lives.

Justin McRoberts has a way with words. He has a way of breathing new life into familiar topics and inviting us to out of the box thinking that inspires the mind and heart. As Justin puts it, he creates to provide language for the process of faith and life.

In official terms, Justin is an author, musician, host of The @Sea Podcast, retreat leader, and leads workshops on the creatives process. He lives in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children and has been teaching, storytelling, and songwriting for nearly twenty years. In our time together, Justin expands and deepens the ideas of happiness, creativity, and art. He also shares his desire for people to live fully, allowing our souls to actively participate in the world around us. He reminds us that each of us is an essential element in our communities and in the world and that our creative decisions done in love at home and at work deeply matter. Simply put, you and your life deeply matter. Take a listen and Justin helps us remember why.