Mid-faith Crisis

Happy New Year! We’re back with a discussion of how to reflect on last year using the examen approach. And we talk about setting themes for the new year, rather than new year’s resolutions.

In a strange reversal, Joe is quite grumpy, and Nick is quite upbeat. It’s the shortest day of the year, but there is light in the darkness, folks. We talk about naming our hopes and fears, dealing with the overload of drama, being aware of God's presence and what Christmas really means to us. Happy Christmas everyone!

• Mid-faith Crisis - The Big Conversation

• How to Survive the Mid-Faith Crisis: Lee Abbey 8-12 June 2020
• Paying Attention to God: Lee Abbey 2-6 March 2020
• Support the Podcast

Joe has been putting his coffee cup on the altar. Which is not a euphemism for some kind of spiritual discipline, but a real event, which leads us into lots of chatty rambling about winter, fasting, how stripping things back reveals the underlying structure of our lives, and how even though it looks like nothing is happening, God is always happening. Meanwhile, Nick, as usual, delves into obscure bits of liturgy and Joe has been seeing some strangely shaped clouds.

• Mid-faith Crisis - The Big Conversation

• How to Survive the Mid-Faith Crisis: Lee Abbey 8-12 June 2020
• Paying Attention to God: Lee Abbey 2-6 March 2020
• Support the Podcast

We reflect on the profound effects that something as simple as kindness and hospitality can have. It’s all about being the Kingdom of God and how we need each other to live it out. Meanwhile, Nick’s had a review, Joe gets bored of history (again) and there’s the Mid-faith Crisis Christmas Appeal.

• Mid-faith Crisis - The Big Conversation

• How to Survive the Mid-Faith Crisis: Lee Abbey 8-12 June 2020
• Paying Attention to God: Lee Abbey 2-6 March 2020
• Support the Podcast

It’s Advent - which is really the start of the liturgical year. It’s supposed to be a period of fasting and waiting and paying attention to the coming of Christ. It’s all about hope, people. Nick gets obscurely historical, Joe gets needlessly wiffly and Ethel rebukes us both. And it’s the return of Martin Buber’s Christmas album.

• The Two Ronnies: Four Candles
• Martin Buber, I and Thou

• How to Survive the Mid-Faith Crisis: Lee Abbey 8-12 June 2020
• Paying Attention to God: Lee Abbey 2-6 March 2020
• Support the Podcast

More fantastic feedback. More hope in the darkness. Some tough, poignant and sacred stories this week. But we also talk about science, human growth, not looking down on others and the amazing ability of humans to look for patterns and imagine the future.

• BBC: The Secret History of Science and Religion
• Journal through Grief - Nick’s blog about his son Josh
• How to Survive the Mid-Faith Crisis: Lee Abbey 8-12 June 2020
• Paying Attention to God: Lee Abbey 2-6 March 2020
• Support the Podcast

An interview with Lacy Finn Borgo, friend, teacher, author of famous emails, spiritual director and founder of Good Dirt ministries. Joe and Lacy pick up on recent discussions about death and sorrow, as well as talking about the crucial value of seasons of silence, and the importance of helping your children to wonder. Also, we share the perils of man-flu, and Nick discovers that he has another god-child. Much to his surprise.

• Good Dirt Ministries
• Anda Union
• Murdoch’s Crazy Eyes
• How to Survive the Mid-Faith Crisis: Lee Abbey 8-12 June 2020
• Paying Attention to God: Lee Abbey 2-6 March 2020
• Support the Podcast

We have more wonderful, moving emails reflecting on last week’s episode about death. Thank you to the listeners who share such poignant, sacred things. Along the way, we explore the difference between facing your own mortality, and coming to terms with the grief of losing a loved one. And we touch on the importance of properly grieving and saying goodbye. Meanwhile, Joe quaffs from the full flagon of life, while Nick sips the dry sherry of isolation. And we come up with the great idea of countering the All-Black Haka with Morris Dancing.

• How to Survive the Mid-Faith Crisis: Lee Abbey 8-12 June 2020
• Paying Attention to God: Lee Abbey 2-6 March 2020
• Support the Podcast
• England v New Zealand: The Haka

We discuss death, the afterlife and all that stuff. Basically because we have two fabulous emails. Can you really make friends with death? What happens after? Will Joe really be a star? And can Jesus' injunction to ‘love our enemies’ apply to death and the other things that happen to us?

Ruth is the Global Advocacy and Influencing Director with Tearfund - a job title which makes Nick and Joe quite jealous. She talks about her work as an environmental campaigner, the Christian response to climate change and the single most important thing we can do to make a difference (hint: it involves eating fewer sausages).

• Ruth’s Blog
• L is for Lifestyle