Reality LA Podcast: The Drop In

Kate and Nicole drop in to chat about familial love; living out a faith visible to your children; sibling love in families of origin and within church families; and God's tender, sweet parental love for us whether we have it together or not.

In this clip show, we return to some of our past conversations to revisit two crucial foundations for loving one another well: being vulnerable and knowing the fullness of a person's story. We revisit Chaundra Hitchens on the power of our personal stories, Dr. Crawford Loritts on generational stories, Alex Hitchens on God's story in our story, and Lindsay C and Ian Mackley on the shared stories we call friendships.

Fiona and Saz drop in to chat about love as friendship, needing people in our lives different from ourselves, desiring the best for one another, saying yes to one another, being on mission together, and complementary partnership.

Cody and Lindsay drop in to discuss ways to healthily adjust our expectations for friendship, how idealizing community actually kills it, community groups as places we welcome and love one another, how to join a Reality LA community group, and curiosity as the way into deeper friendship.

Want to join a community group? Visit reality.la/community.

Want to message Cody and Lindsay? Email [email protected].

Nathan's wife Stevie drops in to join him for a conversation with Mike about love as intimacy, reimagining romantic passion around God's word, not being afraid of our desires but submitting them to the Lord, and building meaningful, non-romantic friendships through expressing fondness and admiration.

CONTENT WARNING: While not explicit, this week's episode covers such topics as sex and pornography.

Ben Chung drops in to chat about how God created not just a functional world but a beautiful one, intimacy with God through art, and the grace of our identity resting in God and not depending on anything we create.

Reality LA elder Philip Chew drops in to discuss love as grace, the love that other loves point to, experiencing agape in the little things of life, and learning to receive love that hasn't been "earned."

The Burnells drop in to discuss love as intimacy, how it relates to friendship and brokenness, the role of prayer and communication, and some of the ways love can evolve over the course of a 45-year marriage.

Love is supremely important, but the word "love" can be extremely overused. This is where we can learn something from ancient Greek, which had four words to distinguish between different types of love: friendship, affection, intimacy, and charity. Inspired by C.S. Lewis' The Four Loves, starting next week we'll invite various people from our church family to help us explore one of the four loves. But first, Mike and Nathan take this week to introduce each kind of love and get us excited about delving deeper into each of them!

Drop In producer Heather Fischer joins Nathan this week and, in place of a full episode, they offer a few Easter reflections to encourage us to continue to rest in the confidence graced to us through the resurrection of Jesus.