The Pocket Contemplative

What are you hoping for from your spiritual life? Beyond rules for living and rich community and even spiritual power, many spiritual masters encourage us to keep our hearts eager for great adventure and wonder. Join Dave Schmelzer to explore guidance from Brother Lawrence, Tuesdays with Morrie, the Bible, and his own journey of giving this stuff a try. Mentioned on this podcast: The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown--Antarctica Tuesdays with Morrie Acts 2:17-19“‘God says,    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.Your sons and daughters will prophesy,    your young men will see visions,    your old men will dream dreams.Even on my servants, both men and women,    I will pour out my Spirit in those days,    and they will prophesy.I will show wonders in the heavens above    and signs on the earth below.”  

Jesus and Paul join contemplatives, neuroscientists and pop spirituality teachers in agreeing on one thing: your life is quite a bit better than you think it is. But sadly you, like all people, have a built in bias towards negativity. Overcoming this is the road to what Jesus called "faith." Join Dave Schmelzer for an encouraging look at the good things about to come your way. Mentioned on this podcast: "Every Praise" by Hezekiah Walker "Love Theory" by Kirk Franklin Hardwiring Happiness, by Rick Hanson Matthew 6:28-30“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”

Ryan Bauers has found Rick Hanson's book Hardwiring Happiness to be the simplest and most-powerful approach to joy he's found. Hanson has a bold idea: by choosing to notice and take in small, pleasant experiences, we can actually create new grooves in our physical brains that will build resiliency and joy and quiet the innate negative thinking that comes with being human. Christina Roberts and Dave Schmelzer join Ryan to explore this big idea.

Deep, spiritual thinkers like Francis of Assisi, Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama seem to think our growing spirituality can also help us find our way in our larger, political world--while not becoming miserable or outraged, but rather joyful, hopeful and useful. A miracle! Join Dave Schmelzer for a fascinating look at how you might bridge divides, find purpose, and be a part of something big that's only good news.Mentioned on this podcast: John Oliver's Last Week Tonight interview with the Dalai Lama A growing, multi-national online group on Wednesday evenings about these things, and a live Sunday group in Los Angeles. Learn more at [email protected] St. Francis of Asissi, by G.K. Chesterton Luke 5:12-13While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

Finding out who we actually are--and perhaps fulfilling our potential--turns out to be a more surprising challenge than we could have guessed. But the rewards that the great spiritual teachers suggest will come to us are pretty great, as we realize that God has been doing things for us behind the scenes that we've previously missed. Jumping off with insights from diverse sources like The Harvard Grant Study and the 90s Matt Damon movie Rounders, Dave Schmelzer takes us on a deep dive into the benefits of discovering our identity. Mentioned in this episode: Rounders Explore a new online small group on related themes. For more information, email [email protected] The Harvard Grant Study John Cassian The Peace Prayer of St. Francis Psalm 139:1-4, 6, 13-14, 17You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely...Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain…For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…How precious to me are your thoughts, God!  How vast is the sum of them!  

Some years back, This American Life discovered the singular work Jim Henderson was doing. Jim talks here with Christina Roberts and Dave Schmelzer about how he's an evangelist at heart, but how the most effective evangelism he discovered involves bringing together people across differences. He's written popular books and worked at churches small and massive (Jim talks about how such size discrepancies mostly reflect regional differences). But now, in our especially divisive times, his 3 Practices work along these lines draws interest from universities and elsewhere.  

Mentioned on this episode:

3 Practices

In this new, story-filled podcast focusing on an experience of Jesus that's fun, contemplative, practical and cultural, Dave Schmelzer of Blue Ocean Faith talks about how the new documentary The Biggest Little Farm makes a case for what spiritual masters have been saying for millennia. Namely, that learning to observe what looks like a threat to your happiness (rather than immediately fighting it) can offer a way into a new, connected life--in which, as a throw in, the problem at hand spins around to become a benefit.  Mentioned in this podcast:The Biggest Little Farm Explore a new online small group around these ideas (or check out a live group in Los Angeles). Contact [email protected].  Isaiah 11:1-9A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;    from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,    the Spirit of counsel and of might,    the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,    or decide by what he hears with his ears;but with righteousness he will judge the needy,    with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth...Righteousness will be his belt    and faithfulness the sash around his waist.The wolf will live with the lamb,    the leopard will lie down with the goat,the calf and the lion and the yearling together;    and a little child will lead them.The cow will feed with the bear,    their young will lie down together,    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.The infant will play near the cobra’s den,    and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.They will neither harm nor destroy    on all my holy mountain,for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord    as the waters cover the sea.

A friend recently posed a great question to Dave Schmelzer: when people take big steps forward in their spiritual life, why are they tempted to retreat to the way people thought about God in earlier eras? But maybe a step forward by definition requires a kind of retrenching. What does it mean to move into new spiritual territory while staying present to modern life? And does technology help us or hurt us--or both--as we do that? Dave, Christina Roberts and Daniel Wilson (who also reports about spiritual lessons he's taken from relocating to Moldova) discuss. 

Fran Pratt has journeyed from conservative churches in which, as a woman, she wasn't invited to lead, to becoming a worship leader to discovering the power of scripted prayer in liturgies to finding meditation to writing and distributing her own litanies. Ryan Bauers, Christina Roberts and Dave Schmelzer talk with her about the power she's found in each new form of connecting to God. 

Mentioned in Today's Podcast

• Call and Response: Litanies for Congregational Prayer by Fran Pratt