PRN: Pause, Renew, Next

When’s the last time you were curious? To be human means you are a question asker, and in today’s episode we’re going to reflect together on both the beauty and the frustration of this process. I hope you come away from this episode with a new perspective on learning.

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus.

In this podcast episode, I’m joined by my colleague Josh Howlett, to talk about an often mentioned, but little understood emotion, joy. Josh embodies joy, and I’m so thankful he could join us to share his perspective on this subject. We talk about cultivating joy, the importance of joyful movement, and Josh shares what it means to enjoy and be enjoyed by God and others.

Before he was a counselor, Josh worked in pastoral ministry. In our conversation, he tells the story of how he transitioned into the counseling field. He also shares some of the wisdom he’s gained doing marriage counseling. I think you’re really going to enjoy this conversation!

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus.

Ruptures can occur in all of our relationships, but have you ever considered that you can have ruptures within your relationship with yourself as well? Today, we’re continuing our series on being a human in process by examining this idea. We’ll also talk a bit about the importance of attunement and grace.

If you enjoy this episode, and you’d like to hear more about the rupture and repair cycle, you can go back and listen to my previous episode on this topic: Rupture and Repair. Additionally, the Being Known Podcast has a whole series about Rupture and Repair in their Season 11.

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus.

Today, we’re continuing our theme of being a human in process, by considering normal human emotions and reactions that tend to come up as we are navigating life as a human on planet earth. Particularly, we’re looking at emotions and reactions related to the fight/flight response. In January we talked about anger, fear, and stress, and today we’re turning our attention to worry and anxiety.

In this episode, I’ll talk about how anxiety and fear are different, the importance of felt safety, how we can experience anxiety and worry differently depending on our background and personality, a little of what the Bible has to say on these topics, and a few ideas for how we can derail our brains from the cycle of rumination.

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus.

Today we’re looking at the other half of the fight or flight response by considering fear and stress. What are they? What purpose do they serve? In what ways are they often misunderstood? We’ll talk about all of this and also look at some examples of where fear shows up in the Bible.

As always, we’ll begin by doing a slow down exercise and end with a benediction.

Next time, we’ll dig a little deeper by talking about anxiety and worry.

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus.

Today we’re considering an often misunderstood but necessary emotion, anger. Being a human in process means that we will experience a variety of emotions, both comfortable and uncomfortable. In the next couple of episodes, we’ll be covering some of the less comfortable emotions. In this episode, I’d like to talk about anger, what it is, the purposes it serves, and the ways that it is often misunderstood, especially in faith arenas.

Over the course of this episode, I also reference two past PRN episodes, as well as an episode of the Vox podcast. I will link to those below, in case you want to listen to any of them. May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus!

Rupture and Repair: Episode #123

Attachment and Authenticity: Episode #129

Given to Anger: Voxology podcast (The part I reference in this episode comes around the 15-25 minute mark.)

If you love birds or nature, then you are really going to enjoy today’s conversation with guest, Courtney Ellis, about her new book, Looking Up: A Birder’s Guide to Hope Through Grief. This is such a great episode about ministry, grief, mindfulness, and soul-care. It’s also sprinkled throughout with great bird facts!

Courtney is a such a fun person and she wears a lot of hats! She’s an author, a pastor, and a podcaster. If you listen to this episode and find yourself wanting to know more about Courtney, her podcast, and her book, you can visit her website: courtneybellis.com. She’s also a great follow on instagram or threads!

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus.

Today, we conclude our series on the Psalms by examining Psalms of new orientation. We’ll be looking for signs of life, of rescue, of reversal of fortune, and of thanksgiving as we meditate upon Psalms 34 together.

What is clear in all of these Psalms of new orientation is that there is a celebration of the coming of God, who now establishes new rule. So this week, on the second week of Advent as we focus our attention on peace, we can remember that the Prince of Peace himself, came to be with us. He came to take his people from a place of distance and disorientation into a new orientation of rescue, redemption, and new life.

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus.

We’re continuing our series on the Psalms and what they teach us about being a human in process. Today, we’re talking about psalms of disorientation. These are songs of darkness, of grief, of anger, of lament, and of complaint. These psalms answer the question of how we might worship and pray when our world is in disarray. Walter Brueggemann writes, “The use of these psalms of darkness may be judged by the world to be acts of unfaith and failure, but for the trusting community, their use is an act of bold faith, albeit a transformed faith.”

As we enter the first week of Advent, the candle signifies hope. We know that in Christ we don’t grieve as those who have no hope. In fact, my favorite quote about psalms of disorientation is, “Because this One has promised to be in the darkness with us, we find the darkness strangely transformed, not by the power of easy light, but by the power of relentless solidarity.”

In this episode, I referenced a previous podcast episode about Authenticity and Attachment. You can find that podcast episode here.

Information and quotes in this episode come from the book, Spirituality of the Psalms by Walter Brueggemann.

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus.

Today we continue our series on the Psalms and learning what they teach us about being a human in process. We’ll be meditating on a psalm of orientation today, Psalm 19. Psalms of orientation evoke gratitude for the blessings of creation and God’s good law. It just so happens that we’ll be reading this on the week of Thanksgiving, which is fitting!

If you missed last week’s episode, I hope you’ll go back and give it a listen as it gives a good overview of Walter Brueggemann’s ideas about Psalms of Orientation, Disorientation, and New Orientation.

May you be encouraged on your journey with Jesus.