The end of the year is less than 2 weeks away. In this season we are busy with thoughts of gifts that we will give and perhaps of resolutions you will make. We can get so distracted with the busyness of the season and surviving the gauntlet. Can you relate? 

In today's episode we're talking about gifts and resolutions, but not just any gifts, and not the kinds of resolutions that quickly evaporate into failure. No, the gifts and resolutions we're talking about today are the kind that shape and transform our entire lives with deep fulfillment, meaning and purpose.

The family and friends that you love and are about, but if you're honest, you dread getting together with them. There's just something about how they talk and act that seems to bring out the worst in you. How do I know this about you? It's because I have those kind of people in my life, too. Everyone does. But what do we do to prepare our own hearts that may enable us to begin to see them and respond to them in new ways? If you can relate tune in and join us for a timely holiday season conversation.

Imagine you're on a flight over the Atlantic Ocean and the plane drops into a steep and sudden descent. You're breathing hard with your oxygen mask over your nose and mouth with the thick air of uncertainty and terror close in around you. In that moment...do you pray? When you are facing the insurmountable problems in life, what do you believe about God?

What can a vacation, a conversation and a burger teach us about hope? We've all fallen prey to doctored images, deceptive descriptions and false hope that promise a satisfaction and enjoyment that falls terribly short. So what is the way forward into true and lasting hope? That's where we're headed in today's episode and beyond.

Even though tears are normal human behavior, many people in our Western culture struggle when either they cry or someone around them cries. We struggle to know what to say and do in those moments.

But our tears have purpose. This episode will explore some of the benefits to us in terms of physical health and physiology, relationally and spiritually. Tears can be both healing and helpful. Tune in and join us to learn more about the benefits and purpose in tears.

Grief is something you and I want to avoid, hope to avoid, seek to avoid, and yet grief is universal. Try as we may to avoid it, we all face various seasons and circumstances that sweep us unwillingly to face the sorrow and heartache we must journey through. 

Join us today as we consider the aspects of grief which you may not have considered, specifically the sources of grief, some surprises of grief, and solutions during grief.

The past few years have been particularly contentious ones. Whatever news or media platform you frequent, the level of vitriol couldn't possibly have escaped your notice. When the divisions are so deep, the animosity so intense, what is the average person to do to dispelling darkness and hatred? Tune in to consider what your part may be in this season.

That awful feeling of isolation, disconnection, of feeling terribly alone can come whether or not we are in physical proximity to other people. We all struggle with loneliness in different ways. The causes are many, and current statistics indicate the numbers of people who struggle with loneliness has grown significantly, causing some to express loneliness as a growing public health concern. Just which demographics are the loneliness? What are the implications to physical health and social relationships? Today's episode will answer these questions and look at what's suggested what is actually helping those struggling with loneliness.

When people talk about the heart, sometimes they mean the literal organ that sits in your chest and pumps blood. But in large part Western cultures tend to relegate mentions of the heart as relating to things like feelings & emotions, sentiments & romance; or we might use heart to describe the ways someone works at doing something difficult as working with all their heart, or an athlete who plays with heart. 

But when it comes to how we live, the function of the heart is much more than how we feel or the level of grit. The reason our heart matters so much is because it actually shapes and directs our actions, choices and behaviors.  Tune in to catch some thought-provoking truths about how our heart shapes who we become.

We all want to believe that our lives and our stories matter. And yet we naturally have times of wondering if our lives are just directed by random happenings and chance. Whether you feel like a minuscule minnow or a massive blue whale, both live in the expanses of vast oceans teaming with other creatures. It can easily leave us wondering if our lives really matter in the grand scale of thousands of generations that have existed on the earth.

Questions and stories can help us do the work of processing some big questions, which is where we are headed in today's episode.