Life is a mysterious gift—a gift meant to be given for the sake of others.

While our individualistic and speed-driven culture urges us to prioritize our own needs and desires, serving others can offer us not only a profound sense of freedom but also a heart more attuned to noticing God every day. By lifting our gaze from ourselves, we recognize that walking slowly with God includes an invitation to live at the countercultural pace of his love.

As we conclude the second season of The Digital Examen, Jay Y. Kim reflects on our journey of learning to notice God together. Kim draws inspiration from the Romantic painting "The Wanderer above the Sea Fog," by Caspar David Friedrich, which helps us see beyond our immediate self-interests and embrace the ambiguities of life with God. Kim also illustrates the joy of living in service to others and intimacy with God. Finally, Kim invites us to go patiently with God by saturating ourselves in Scripture, making a regular practice of prayer, and inviting a local Christian community to accompany us along the way. In due time, these everyday practices will help attune us in heart, soul, mind, and strength to more readily experience God’s voice and presence, forming us into people who are more alive to him in all of life. 

As we offer our attention to the needs of others and daily spiritual rhythms, we can grow to notice God in all of the mundane and majestic moments of our everyday lives. Tune in to learn more.

This episode highlights the following themes:

• Experiencing freedom by casting our anxieties on God
• Noticing God through humility and service
• Trusting God to complete his work in you in due time

Links from the episode:

• Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor, and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life. 

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Disclaimer: The comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and/or the guests featured on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Modern technology has become more than just a neutral tool—it has become a “superpower,” making the sensation of skill and semblance of progress almost effortless.

Personalized algorithms allow us to shed the seeming inconveniences of effort, connection, and patience that engage our human personhood.

In a landscape of automation and customization, how can we experience personal connection, satisfying discipline, and sincere growth in our everyday walk with God?

Join Jay Y. Kim as he welcomes Andy Crouch, renowned author, thought leader, and partner for theology and culture at Praxis. Crouch has written several influential books on faithful Christian living, including Culture Making, The Tech-Wise Family, Playing God, Strong and Weak, and, most recently, The Life We’re Looking For. 

In their conversation, Kim and Crouch explore the unique ways in which modern, “personalized” technologies are malforming our loves, desires, and sense of personhood. They discuss the unprecedented “superpower” that technology grants us to experience the illusion of power without the burden of effort. They draw a strong connection between our ever-shortening attention spans and our common struggle to experience God’s presence meaningfully every day. Our growing absence of personal discipline, coupled with waning relational connection, is informing a covert belief that following Jesus should be easy and require little day-to-day effort. Crouch challenges the way modern worship music often focuses on effortless spiritual experiences, which fails to speak to corporate realities and the full range of human experiences. Informed by Scripture and Christian history, Kim and Crouch encourage us to embrace God’s grace by committing to simple, time-tested spiritual practices that will open us up to the activity and presence of God over time.

Modern technologies seek to malform our sense of personhood through ease and convenience, yet the Christian life of noticing and experiencing God requires practice, focus, and intentionality.

Tune in to heed God’s call to a harder, better life sustained by grace.

This episode highlights the following themes:

• The illusion of effortless power in the digital age
• The distinction between personal and personalization
• The power of intentional, spiritual practices

Links from the episode:

• Learn more about Andy Crouch
• Read Andy Crouch's recent book, The Life We're Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World
• Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor, and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life. 

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Disclaimer: The comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and/or the guests featured on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above. 

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Politics not only include who and what you vote for. It reveals how you see yourself, other people, and God. 

Our imaginations have been malformed by fear-inducing stories and unchecked allegiances, revealing not only our positions on a given issue but our deepest loves and loyalties. While it may seem that joining the “culture war” or withdrawing are our only political options, God offers another way.

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim welcomes Kaitlyn Schiess, author, speaker, and perpetual theology student. She is the author of The Liturgy of Politics and The Ballot and the Bible, and her writing has been featured in Christianity Today, The New York Times, Relevant, and elsewhere. Schiess is a co-host and Senior Editor of the Holy Post podcast, and the host of Curiously, Kaitlyn. She has a ThM in systematic theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and is currently a doctoral student in theology at Duke Divinity School.

Kim and Schiess explore the revealing intersections of spiritual formation and politics, challenging us to prayerfully reflect on the allegiances shaping us. They discuss our need for an imagination that is reformed by the story of Scripture, rather than fear. They also contrast the empty promises of political figures with God's faithfulness to keep his abundantly better promises. In highlighting spiritual practices to help ground us in our local communities, they discuss the freedom and clarity we experience when we are secure in our identity in Christ and belonging with his people. When we know who we are, where we belong, and what story we believe, differences become less of a threat and more of an opportunity for curiosity, conversation, and connection.

Tune in for a refreshing opportunity to reflect on your political imagination with God. 

This episode highlights the following themes:

• Aligning our political loyalties with Scripture
• Prioritizing embodied presence with community
• Practicing spiritual disciplines to learn faithful politics

Links from this episode:

• Learn more about Kaitlyn Schiess
• Read Kaitlyn Schiess’ books, The Liturgy of Politics and The Ballot and the Bible
• Hear more from Kaitlyn Schiess on The Disrupters
• Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor, and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life. 

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Disclaimer: The comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and/or the guests featured on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above. 

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Many of us default to suppressing our emotions. Yet, even our most challenging emotions reveal our beliefs about ourselves, others, and God.

Instead of avoiding our complex emotions, how can we faithfully engage them and learn to rewire our responses to them with God as our guide?

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim welcomes Dr. Kevin Chapman (PhD, A-CBT, HSPP), a licensed clinical psychologist and founder of the Kentucky Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders. Dr. Chapman is the author of Mastering Our Emotions, founder of Sound Mind Ministries, and host of The Sound Mind Show on YouTube. His expert wisdom has been featured on TLC, The Today Show, and other major platforms.

Throughout their conversation, Dr. Chapman breaks down the three components of emotions—thoughts, physical feelings, and behaviors—and how they influence each other. He introduces practical tools like the Emotional SEAL framework, Practice In His Presence (PIP), and breathing techniques to aid us in being present with our emotions. Their discussion also explores how emotional avoidance reinforces distorted beliefs about God and poses greater mental health risks. By instead pondering and parsing our emotions with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can experience wholeness and transformation through God’s loving presence. 

With God’s company and comfort, we can reprogram our perception of our emotions and how we respond to them.

Tune in to learn how to engage your emotions with honesty, curiosity, and hope to more accurately see God for the loving Father he is.

This episode highlights the following themes:

• Understanding the triad of emotions: thoughts, physical feelings, and behaviors 
• The importance of being present with our emotions rather than avoiding them 
• How the Holy Spirit helps us navigate our emotional experiences

Links from this episode: 

• Learn more about Dr. Kevin Chapman
• The Sound Mind Show on YouTube 
• Dr. Kevin Chapman's book Mastering Our Emotions
• Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor, and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life. 

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Disclaimer: The comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and/or the guests featured on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In seasons of poignant grief and loss, we all ask a version of the question, “How long, O Lord?”

Though Scripture tells us that God draws uniquely near to the hurting, experiencing hope amid our pain often feels impossible. How can we sit with God in our suffering, and experience his loving presence even as we lament? 

Join host Jay Y. Kim as he welcomes Natasha Smith, a grief advocate, speaker, and author of Can You Just Sit with Me? and Black Woman Grief. Smith brings her expertise as a Certified Grief Educator and lived experience to guide others in finding healing and company in loss.

In this conversation, Kim and Smith discuss how personal, communal, and societal grief often reveal our truest selves—our tendencies, character, and intrinsic need for God. She also gently encourages us to heed God’s invitation to lament with him in seasons of heartache. As we process devastating loss, God can reimage, reveal, and restore us through our grief, shouldering our raw emotions and shepherding our eventual healing. Smith also reminds us that Jesus is the “suffering Savior” who understands our pain, as well as the one who endured death to bring about the reality of resurrection. 

Tune in to learn how the presence of God can provide reprieve and relief in the midst of upending grief.

This episode highlights the following themes:

• Being honest with God about our heavy emotions
• Finding hope and supernatural peace amid loss 
• Experiencing Jesus as our suffering Savior

Links from this episode: 

• Know more about Natasha Smith
• Read Natasha Smith’s book, Black Woman Grief
• Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor, and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life. 

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Disclaimer: The comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and/or the guests featured on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Parenthood—and life—rarely unfolds the way we expect.

Whether we are raising children or not, we all experience complexity, messiness, and insecurity in our relationship with ourselves, others, and God. Though for parents, the exhaustion of sleepless nights, the weight of providing for a family, and the loneliness of navigating “mom culture” come as unique challenges. 

With these challenges bringing us to the end of ourselves, we all feel the temptation to hide our true selves, struggles, and insecurities. Simultaneously, it can be challenging to find a welcoming community to share our raw struggles with.

How can we cultivate honest and vulnerable friendships that will receive our whole selves and hardships with nonjudgmental company, encouragement, and prayer? And how does God desire to meet us in these pain points?

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim sits down with Kathy Tuan-MacLean (PhD, Northwestern), spiritual director, mother of three, and co-author of the Bible study Moms at the Well. As the national faculty ministry director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, she draws from over three decades of experience in guiding students and faculty in spiritual formation.

Together, they explore the isolating challenges of motherhood, the judgment that often pervades “mom culture,” and the silent weight of shame many women carry alone. Tuan-MacLean encourages us to locate the everyday “wells” of community and creative spiritual practices that open us up to experience God personally and alongside others. They also discuss simple practices, like breath prayers and silence, that can help us take “little sips” from God’s living water.

If you feel exhausted, unseen, or stretched beyond your limits, this conversation will help you notice and believe that God hears you, sees you, and desires to meet you right where you are.

This episode highlights the following themes:

• The paradox of strength becoming a barrier to experiencing God's grace
• Experiencing God uniquely in motherhood and marriage
• The importance of intentional community in spiritual sustainability

Links from this episode: 

• Learn more about Kathy Tuan-MacLean
• Read Kath Tuan-MacLean’s Bible study, Moms at the Well
• Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor, and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life. 

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Disclaimer: The comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and/or the guests featured on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Our desires reveal who we are becoming.

Yet, we are able to satiate our longings more easily and quickly than ever before in human history.

Our hearts decay in the wake of desire overwhelm, consumerism trains us to be ever-craving, and we are often incapacitated to trust God for the richness he can supply. Amid our allergy to waiting, how do we steward our desires well?

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim converses with former pastor, Dr. A.J. Swoboda (Ph.D., Birmingham). Swoboda is an associate professor of Bible and Theology at Bushnell University and leader for the Doctor of Ministry Program on Spiritual Formation and Soul Care at Friends University. He is also a podcast host and author of several books, including The Gift of Thorns, After Doubt, and the award-winning Subversive Sabbath.

Kim and Swoboda invite us to take an honest inventory of our often competing desires, especially those we feel unwilling to wait for. Reflecting on the biblical narrative, they uncover God’s loving design of waiting as a uniquely human experience—one that makes space to combat self-sufficiency and instead engage in curious reflection with God. By beginning with confession and dependence on the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit, we can find a “Sabbath for our desires” at the cross. 

While the devil tempts us to short-circuit our longing by indulging our impulses, God teaches us to temper our desires with healthy pause, humility, and prayerful consideration.

Tune in to learn how God desires to cultivate spiritual depth in your life through the good gift of waiting. 

This episode highlights the following themes:

• The concept of life as a "gymnasium of desires" and its biblical roots
• The impact of instant gratification and the the gift of waiting 
• Surrendering desires to God for true rest and freedom

Links from this episode: 

• Read more about A.J. Swoboda and his work
• Check out A.J Swoboda’s book, The Gift of Thorns
• Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor, and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life. 

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Disclaimer: The comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and/or the guests featured on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Can we really trust God with our wounds?

Fear and shame can lead us to mishandle and hide our brokenness and insecurities from God and others. Yet, as we attempt to protect ourselves, these fractures hinder our ability to perceive and receive God’s loving presence. 

How can we instead believe in our belovedness and embrace our vulnerabilities as an opportunity to experience God’s delight in us?

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim speaks with Michael John Cusick, CEO and founder of Restoring the Soul, a Denver-based intensive counseling ministry. Cusick, a licensed professional counselor, spiritual director, and author of Sacred Attachment, explores the profound connections between attachment theory, spiritual wounds, and our relationship with God. 

This conversation challenges us to steward our vulnerabilities with self-compassion, honesty, and hope—while reckoning with God’s gentle desire to meet us precisely in our needs and limitations. Cusick shares practical steps to connect with God through our imagination, helping us more fully trust that God sees us, soothes us, keeps us safe, and offers us security.

Tune in to learn how to move from spiritual exhaustion to sacred attachment, finding rest in the healing balm of God's unchanging love. 

This episode highlights the following themes:

• The impact of attachment needs and theory on spiritual growth
• The role of vulnerability in deepening our relationship with God
• Practical steps to experience God’s loving presence

Links from this episode:

• Get to know more about Michael John Cusick
• Read Cusick’s book, Sacred Attachment
• Read the transcript here 

 God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life. 

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Disclaimer: The comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and/or the guests featured on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In a culture that prizes living on the verge of burnout, God invites us to embrace our human limitations and recover delight.

While performative spirituality distracts us from God’s true purposes for our lives, partnering with God in a regular practice of Sabbath can help renew our hearts to perceive his voice, counter the pressures of our productivity-driven culture, and reinvigorate the meaning of our work. 

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim speaks with Ruth Haley Barton (Doctor of Divinity, Northern Seminary), founding president of the Transforming Center, a spiritual formation ministry to pastors and Christian leaders. As a spiritual director and retreat leader, Barton has authored several books and resources on the spiritual life, including Invitation to Retreat and Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest. 

In this conversation, Kim and Barton reflect on God’s vision for Sabbath as an opportunity to cease from work, rest, worship, and delight in God and his good gifts. Through recounting their personal histories with burnout, they emphasize that regular rhythms of pause and rest foster our trust in God and awareness of his presence in our everyday life. 

Tune in for practical wisdom on forming intentional rhythms of rest.

This episode highlights the following themes:

• Resisting external pressures to instead heed God’s voice
• The freedom found in embracing human limitations
• The biblical vision of Sabbath as a renewing act of trust in God

Links from this episode:

• Read Barton’s books, Invitation to Retreat and Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest
• Check out more of Ruth Haley Barton’s books here
• Read the transcript here 

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life.

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Disclaimer: The comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and/or the guests featured on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

The everpresent pressures of social media, and even ministry needs, can warp the way in which we process our personal encounters with God.

We face the temptation to treat our relationship with God as a means to an end, whether that end be fresh content or much-needed wisdom. How can we reorient to connect with God simply to experience him? 

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim is joined by Glenn Packiam, worship songwriter and lead pastor of Rockharbor Church in Costa Mesa, California. Packiam is also the author of several books on church ministry, worship, and everyday faith, including The Intentional Year and What's a Christian Anyway?

Together, Kim and Packiam offer approachable spiritual rhythms to help us notice God everyday: practicing silence and solitude, praying the Psalms, and cultivating community. By affirming that God desires our joy and attention, Packiam explores how we can encounter God and receive his wisdom, not out of function, but out of love. 

Tune in to consider how offering small moments of stillness to God can renew your intimacy with him. 

This episode highlights the following themes:

• The importance of silence and solitude in developing spiritual awareness and connection with God
• The danger of functionalizing intimacy with God for ministry/content creation purposes
• The value of intentionally structuring relationships and finding life-giving connections

Links from this episode:

• Learn more about Glenn Packiam
• Know the latest on Glenn’s forthcoming book, What’s a Christian Anyway?
• Learn more about Arthur Brooks’ book, From Strength to Strength
• Learn more about Derek Thompson’s book, On Work
• Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life. 

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

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