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What is self-centric despair? Today's guest, Jay Kim, lead pastor of Westgate Church in Silicon Valley, is going to tell us all about it. In his newest book, "Analog Christian: Cultivating Contentment, Resilience, and Wisdom in the Digital Age," Jay writes, "Much of my loss of contentment was connected to the persistent sense of self-centric despair I felt as I continued spiraling down the vortex of comparison loops and contempt systems found within social media." In today's episode, Jay and Janell open a luminous conversation about how digital tools are forming us, or perhaps, deforming us. He helps us see that "the apps we use are actually using us. We are not so much the customers as the products. Each search and click provides valuable data to companies constantly searching for ways to effectively commodify our attention, and more slyly, our addiction."

Order Jay's book, Analog Christian, here.
Visit Jay's site: Jay Kim Thinks
Jay's Instagram: @jaykimthinks
Janell's Instagram: @janellrardon
Subscribe to Janell's newsletter for MORE resources: janellrardon.com/subscribe

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Begin Your Heartlifter's Journey:

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2. Leave a review and rate the podcast: WRITE A REVIEW
3. Make a tax-deductible donation through Heartlift International
4. Visit and subscribe to Heartlift Central on Substack. This is our new online meeting place for Heartlifters worldwide.
5. Download the 2025 Advent Guide: The Great Glimmer Hunt
6. Meet me on Instagram: @janellrardon

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Longing invites curiosity. Irish Poet, David Whyte writes this about longing, "Longing is nothing without its dangerous edge, which cuts and wounds us while setting us free, and beckons us exactly because of the human need to invite the right kind of peril." Season 12's invitation to slow down the pace of our lives has left us finally exhaling from the mad rate at which our society likes to live. In this closing conversation, Janell guides us to look deep inside our core to answer these questions: 

• What are you longing for?
• What whispers are calling you to perhaps something new? Or to take a risk?
• If you personified Longing, what would she say to you?

Meet Janell over on her Instagram to talk more about longing: @janellrardon
Subscribe to the podcast and Heartlift Central's bimonthly newsletter: SUBSCRIBE
Send Janell an email with your "longings" for upcoming podcast subjects: DEAR JANELL

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Begin Your Heartlifter's Journey:

1. Support the show: Your Donation Matters
2. Leave a review and rate the podcast: WRITE A REVIEW
3. Make a tax-deductible donation through Heartlift International
4. Visit and subscribe to Heartlift Central on Substack. This is our new online meeting place for Heartlifters worldwide.
5. Download the 2025 Advent Guide: The Great Glimmer Hunt
6. Meet me on Instagram: @janellrardon

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Longing and Waiting often walk hand-in-hand. In today's conversation, Janell and Cally Logan, author of Dear Future Husband, talk about the process of waiting for your longing. This involves a great deal of longsuffering and patience. Again, Janell asks, "What are you longing for?"

Dig into the archives and find even more resources on waiting and patience:

Visit the podcast archive: The Waiting Room
Visit the podcast archive: The Three Letters

Visit Cally's site: Cally Logan
Order Cally's book: Dear Future Husband
Follow Cally on Instagram: @callylogan
Meet Janell on Instagram: @janellrardon

Support the show

Begin Your Heartlifter's Journey:

1. Support the show: Your Donation Matters
2. Leave a review and rate the podcast: WRITE A REVIEW
3. Make a tax-deductible donation through Heartlift International
4. Visit and subscribe to Heartlift Central on Substack. This is our new online meeting place for Heartlifters worldwide.
5. Download the 2025 Advent Guide: The Great Glimmer Hunt
6. Meet me on Instagram: @janellrardon

Send us a text

This isn't a question we get asked very often, "What are you longing for?" Yet, we all have deep longings. Today's guest, Cally Logan, author of "Dear Future Husband: A Love Letter Journey While Waiting for God's Best," shares her longing for a husband and the long journey of waiting she has been traveling. While waiting, Cally, a history teacher,  invested in the lives of her students and always had an open door policy for them. As they brought their questions to her and shared their hearts, Cally listened closely. An avid journaler since kindergarten, Cally knew the power of putting your heart on paper. In Dear Future Husband, Cally navigates through the years of prayer for her future husband and lessons gained along the way.

Visit Cally's site: Cally Logan
Order Cally's book: Dear Future Husband
Follow Cally on Instagram: @callylogan
Meet Janell on Instagram: @janellrardon
Visit the podcast archive: The Waiting Room
Visit the podcast archive: The Three Letters 

Support the show

Begin Your Heartlifter's Journey:

1. Support the show: Your Donation Matters
2. Leave a review and rate the podcast: WRITE A REVIEW
3. Make a tax-deductible donation through Heartlift International
4. Visit and subscribe to Heartlift Central on Substack. This is our new online meeting place for Heartlifters worldwide.
5. Download the 2025 Advent Guide: The Great Glimmer Hunt
6. Meet me on Instagram: @janellrardon

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Grace Wabuke Klein, author of "Flourish: Finding Purpose in the Unknown and Unexpected Seasons of Life,"  knows that there is great purpose in our darkest days and seasons of waiting. Today, she talks to us about heartache, disappointment, and pain and gives encouragement and a fresh perspective on the winter seasons we all go through, as well practical steps to not just survive but to find purpose in the unknown and the unexpected. 

Grace and Janell talk through the importance of every season:

• Fall is a time of release. 
• Winter is a time of unexpected challenges and unknown futures.
• Spring is a time of new things that require us to be open to new experiences, people, ideas, and perspectives.
• Summer is a time when everything is flourishing.

Revisit these episodes for even more on several subjects inside of today's conversation:

• Healthy Detachment, The Fall Season, S8E5
• Letting God Be Enough, The Winter Season, S6E6
• The Power of a Good Rest, The Summer Season, S6E2
• The Gift of Every Day, The Spring Season, S10E1

Watch Grace, "The Return of a Lifetime"

Subscribe to Grace's Instagram: @gracewakubeklein
Subscribe to Today's Heartlift with Janell: @janellrardon

Support the show

Begin Your Heartlifter's Journey:

1. Support the show: Your Donation Matters
2. Leave a review and rate the podcast: WRITE A REVIEW
3. Make a tax-deductible donation through Heartlift International
4. Visit and subscribe to Heartlift Central on Substack. This is our new online meeting place for Heartlifters worldwide.
5. Download the 2025 Advent Guide: The Great Glimmer Hunt
6. Meet me on Instagram: @janellrardon

Send us a text

"Story is not something we should be afraid of; it is always present in our lives, weaving our experiences together and offering us a lens through which to view the world." --Jennifer L. Holberg

Stories shape us. Professor Jennifer L. Holberg, author of "Nourishing Narratives: The Power of Story to Shape Our Faith," writes, "By examining and interpreting the stories that shape us, we can determine whether they are nourishing or toxic, and intentionally rewrite our own story with God's grace and love." In this episode, Janell and Jennifer Holberg discuss the power of narratives, the importance of empathy, and the role of literature and storytelling in shaping our faith and understanding of the world.


Read more of Jennifer's work: Reformed Journal
Learn more about the Calvin Center for Faith and Writing
Order Jennifer's new book: Nourishing Narratives
Join the conversation over on Instagram: @janellrardon
Subscribe to the podcast + bimonthly newsletter: Yes! Sign me up!

Support the show

Begin Your Heartlifter's Journey:

1. Support the show: Your Donation Matters
2. Leave a review and rate the podcast: WRITE A REVIEW
3. Make a tax-deductible donation through Heartlift International
4. Visit and subscribe to Heartlift Central on Substack. This is our new online meeting place for Heartlifters worldwide.
5. Download the 2025 Advent Guide: The Great Glimmer Hunt
6. Meet me on Instagram: @janellrardon

Send us a text

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
 ―  Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

In this season of slowing down the pace of our lives, it is important to examine and rewrite our own narratives if they are toxic or limiting. This episode revolves around the power of narratives and the impact they have on shaping our identities. In her new book, "Nourishing Narratives: The Power of Story to Shape Our Faith," Jennifer L. Holberg emphasizes how childhood stories and labels can hold us back and restrict our potential. Janell and Jennifer explore the idea that while many people say, "I can't imagine," we often get stuck in certain narratives that limit us.

Read more of Jennifer's work: Reformed Journal
Learn more about the Calvin Center for Faith and Writing
Order Jennifer's new book: Nourishing Narratives
Join the conversation over on Instagram: @janellrardon
Subscribe to the podcast + bimonthly newsletter: Yes! Sign me up!

Support the show

Begin Your Heartlifter's Journey:

1. Support the show: Your Donation Matters
2. Leave a review and rate the podcast: WRITE A REVIEW
3. Make a tax-deductible donation through Heartlift International
4. Visit and subscribe to Heartlift Central on Substack. This is our new online meeting place for Heartlifters worldwide.
5. Download the 2025 Advent Guide: The Great Glimmer Hunt
6. Meet me on Instagram: @janellrardon

Send us a text

Grief comes in all shapes, sizes, and forms. At the beginning of her upcoming book, "Can You Just Sit With Me?" author Natasha Smith shares 10 brief vignettes of grief stories she has lived through in her short lifetime. She writes, "Friends, these stories represent part of my story of grief. This grief took me on a journey to understand how to process my emotions. Understanding my own emotions proved to be a huge learning curve. I battled anger, confusion, shock, and disbelief. I began to understand that grief could be expressed in these different forms."

In this bonus episode, Natasha guides us through a Biblical Model for Grief. Having this wise counsel in our emotional and mental health toolbox will serve us well when Grief knocks at our door.

Visit Natasha's site: https://imnatashasmith.com/
Listen to Part 1 of our interview: Becoming Acquainted with Grief
Take a look at this great Bible Study: A Widow's Workbook
Pre-order Natasha's new book: Can You Just Sit With Me?
Visit the ongoing Instagram Conversation: @janellrardon and @iamnatashasmith

Support the show

Begin Your Heartlifter's Journey:

1. Support the show: Your Donation Matters
2. Leave a review and rate the podcast: WRITE A REVIEW
3. Make a tax-deductible donation through Heartlift International
4. Visit and subscribe to Heartlift Central on Substack. This is our new online meeting place for Heartlifters worldwide.
5. Download the 2025 Advent Guide: The Great Glimmer Hunt
6. Meet me on Instagram: @janellrardon

Send us a text

"Grief is a strong, sometimes overwhelming emotion for people, regardless of whether their sadness stems from the loss of a loved one or from a terminal diagnosis they or someone they love have received."
-The Mayo Clinic

Sometimes we have to hit the pause button in order to process really difficult emotional states. Grief is one of those emotions that needs time to breathe. Natasha Smith, author of "Can You Just Sit With Me? Healthy Grieving for the Losses of Life" (IVP), comes to the show today to help us understand this deep emotion a little bit more. Her own life is filled with unthinkable losses and therefore, unimaginable grief. She speaks candidly about delaying her process of grieving for thirty years. As her life took her from engineer to homeschooling mom to author, Natasha finally realized it was time to face her grief.  May Natasha's story inform your story and help you move through your own difficult "ALOT" stories with greater ease.

Pre-order Natasha's new book: CAN YOU JUST SIT WITH ME?
Visit Natasha's site: Natasha Smith
Meet Natasha on IG: @iamnatashasmith
Meet Janell on IG: @janellrardon
Revisit S4E4: Strength Has Many Faces
Revisit S4E3: Writing Your Moment of Gratitude
Revisit S4E5: A Grateful Perspective
Revisit S5: Grounded in Grace: A Meditative Exercise

Let's create an event together. Invite Janell and the podcast to your LIVE event. Together, we will HEARTLIFT your group and make great things happen! Contact Janell here: www.janellrardon.com/contact

Meet Janell over on her Insta, @janellrardon, and be sure to subscribe to her biweekly newsletter, filled with additional resources: www.janellrardon.com/free-content-for-subscribers.

Support the show

Begin Your Heartlifter's Journey:

1. Support the show: Your Donation Matters
2. Leave a review and rate the podcast: WRITE A REVIEW
3. Make a tax-deductible donation through Heartlift International
4. Visit and subscribe to Heartlift Central on Substack. This is our new online meeting place for Heartlifters worldwide.
5. Download the 2025 Advent Guide: The Great Glimmer Hunt
6. Meet me on Instagram: @janellrardon

Send us a text

Summer invites us into a time of slowing down the pace a little. It gives us space to think about how we are doing.  Quaker teacher, Douglas Steere, once said, "To listen to another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service that any human being ever performs for another.” In today's bonus episode, Janell revisits her conversations with Jan Johnson on contemplative prayer and Lacy Finn Borgo on Childlike Faith and reads a short prayer from Linda Evans Shepherd.

Revisit Contemplative Prayer in Our Everyday Lives, Part 1
Revisit Contemplative Prayer in Our Everyday Lives, Part 2
Revisit Living with Childlike Faith, Part 1
Revisit Living with Childlike Faith, Part 2

Support the show

Begin Your Heartlifter's Journey:

1. Support the show: Your Donation Matters
2. Leave a review and rate the podcast: WRITE A REVIEW
3. Make a tax-deductible donation through Heartlift International
4. Visit and subscribe to Heartlift Central on Substack. This is our new online meeting place for Heartlifters worldwide.
5. Download the 2025 Advent Guide: The Great Glimmer Hunt
6. Meet me on Instagram: @janellrardon