Excited jitters about the possibilities. Pit in your stomach about the fears. A glorious uncertainty about the future that elicits equal parts anxiety and joy. It’s graduation season! But these feelings aren’t just for the recent grads - we all experience seasons of change and questions of calling that require a little guidance and encouragement - no matter our age. If you’re trying to navigate what you want to be when you grow up or where God is calling you, this is an episode for you. Willow shares stories of young adults living inspiring lives that will move you to be who you are called to be and to start on that journey right now. 

Scott Erickson (who you heard from in episode 29) also joined us at our Spring 2019 conference, Out of Hiding. His message to women there revolved around how social media has been causing intense depression and comparison in our culture and how to battle the temptation to give in to envy by awakening to the voice of God in your life. We’re releasing this audio by popular demand, and we can’t wait for women who missed the conference to have the opportunity to hear from Scott and women who heard him the first time to re-live the wisdom, humor, and profound truth in Scott’s message about freedom from comparison.

We’re excited to have a Collide community member on the podcast today to share her personal story of the road to adoption and her deep longing for motherhood. Katy Sooter’s real, personal, and heart-wrenching story will drive you to consider what it means to hope, how to shut down the voice of fear, and what it looks like to search for authentic joy in the journey of waiting.

Today on the podcast we're sharing a message by Mariah McCleary from our spring Collide conference that made us reflect and consider just as much as it made us laugh out loud. Mariah is a gifted speaker whose voice draws listeners closer to Jesus as well as disarms us with her top notch sense of humor. Her work with Young Life for the last 18 years has brought her around the globe experiencing the brokenness of people and the redemption of Christ in a way that will compel you to believe God has great things for you and great things to do through you.

We all have two voices that live inside of us - one of fear and one of faith. This is audio of a skit that was performed at one of our conferences that personifies those voices and inspires the listener to remember that God sees her through every season, including the painful ones.

Today on the podcast we're sharing a message by Emily Jamieson from our winter Collide conference that was just too good to keep to ourselves! Emily is an incredible leader in the Younglife space, as an academic coach, and in her own family and ministry involvement. We were so blessed to be joined by her and are excited to share her poignant message about hearing God's voice.

We were honored to welcome Sarah Murphy Kangas, who is an organizational psychologist, consultant, and food blogger extraordinaire over at “In Praise of Leftovers,” which is an award-winning blog that celebrates being mindful, intentional, and celebratory in the everyday, in and out of the kitchen. Sarah specializes in organizational trauma and healing, Enneagram training, mediation and conflict management, and leadership coaching. In this episode, Sarah shares her wisdom on topics of finding our true essence, taking initiative in our own mental health, and coming home to ourselves.

Have you ever heard about an injustice and thought, I have to do something about this? That's exactly what happened for our inspiring guest, Kelly Welk, who saw a need and didn’t just stand by and hope someone else did something but leaned into her specific gifts and abilities to create incredible impact. She is the founder of Freedom Dinners, which takes the power and community that happens around a table, and utilizes it for the freedom of others. Her work has expanded into Ciderpress Lane, which includes a Fair Trade shop, online community, and more - all to contribute more to Rescue:Freedom in order to liberate people from human trafficking. Tune in as Kelly shares how creating spaces and giving herself permission to put value on her everyday life is being leveraged to bring freedom to women near and far.

This week’s guest is the vibrantly talented and deeply thoughtful Scott Erickson, who is an artist, speaker, author, and thought-leader amongst christians and creatives. We were fortunate enough to have Scott as a guest at our recent event, and he joined us again on the podcast to continue the conversation on what it means to him to leverage his life for greater purpose and impact.

In this episode, Scott speaks to the idea that comparison is the antithesis of contribution. He encourages listeners to pay attention to our desires and follow God on our own unique pathway of purpose, even if it means letting go of what we thought was our dream in pursuit of something deeper and truer to who we were made to be.

So often we can get caught up in questioning our calling, and miss the opportunities to begin making moves on it. This episode will help you be inspired to lean into your biggest dreams and passions, even if it seems like there are insurmountable obstacles.

Our guest Julie Burleson is a pastor with Christ the King Church in Bellingham, WA. She was called into ministry at a young age and had to struggle with what that meant for her having grown up in a denomination of the Christian faith that didn’t believe women could work full time in ministry.

In this episode, Julie talks about the experience of doubting her gifting and the importance of mentoring and uplifting the women. Tune on in and let us know what you think by rating and reviewing or engaging on instagram at @we.collide.