In our increasingly fast-paced world, many of us are struggling to keep up, maintain our health, and find time and energy to connect well with one another. And though we often feel that we cannot sustain the ongoing pressures of modern life, we’re not sure how to break free.
In this week’s episode of the EvoFaith Podcast, we explore how the power of the pause can lead us into slow living—a more sustainable quality of life that nourishes our health and empowers us to show up fully, authentically and courageously in our lives and relationships.
To sign up for our free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith Website.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
To download our free Master Your World PDF click here.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to master your outer world by mastering your inner world on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
So often we get so caught up in the chaos of life, the expectations of those around us, and the need to belong that we stop listening and hearing ourselves. And the result is often that we lose ourselves.
But if we can embrace the power of the pause in our lives, we can reconnect with ourselves, get to know ourselves better, and start to hear the voice within us that leads us into our fullest, most authentic, and most courageous lives.
This week the EvoFaith Podcast invites you to pause and listen to yourself. You’ll be so glad you did!
To sign up for our free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith Website.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
To download our free Master Your World PDF click here.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to master your outer world by mastering your inner world on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
Do you ever find yourself reacting to some event or situation or person in a way that feels out of your control? Do you ever get caught in a domino run effect, where one little thing sets off a chain reaction that carries you along—usually with less-than-great results?
Our lives can all too easily become defined by how we bounce between reactions to things that happen to us. But if we want to live more fully, authentically, and courageously, we need to learn to stop the dominoes in our lives and pause. And then we can choose our response from within, rather than be controlled by forces from without.
In this podcast, we explore how the power of the pause can help us to stop the dominoes and master the world within us so that we can master the world around us.
To sign up for our free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith Website.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
To download our free Master Your World PDF click here.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to master your outer world by mastering your inner world on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
Almost every spiritual tradition has some form of pause built into its spiritual practice. Whether it’s meditation, or some kind of preparation ritual, or just a moment of stillness, spirituality teaches us to pause regularly and intentionally throughout our lives in order to live more fully, mindfully, authentically, and vibrantly. And there is tremendous power in this pause when it becomes an integral part of our lives.
This week, in the EvoFaith Podcast, we explore the power of the pause and why it’s such an important part of any healthy and authentic spiritual practice.
To download the free Master Your World PDF click here.
To sign up for our free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith Website.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to master your outer world by mastering your inner world on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
Ultimately, if spirituality is just something we talk about and not something we do—or something we are—then it is a waste of time and energy.
But as we have seen, authentic and healthy spirituality is not about words, ideas, and concepts. It is about doing and becoming. It is about how we work, intentionally and practically, to become our best selves living our best lives.
And that’s why we all need an authentic and healthy spirituality in 2023. When we are intentional about our spiritual lives, we learn to connect more deeply with ourselves, others, the world, and God. And we become increasingly able to master our outer world through mastering our inner world. Because when we change our inner world, then everything changes in our outer world even if nothing changes.
To download the free Master Your World PDF click here.
To sign up for our free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith Website.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
We talk about spirituality all the time. But we seldom define what we mean by the term. What IS spirituality to you? Why does it matter that we know what it is? And what makes our spirituality healthy?
In this episode of the EvoFaith podcast, we explore what spirituality is, and what we can do to nurture a healthy and authentic spirituality.
To sign up for our free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith Website.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
There are a lot of things in the world that present themselves as spirituality that really aren’t. And these things can become frustrating and painful detours on our spiritual journey. It’s so important to recognise what we’re really seeking for on our spiritual quest—and what we’re not looking for.
In this episode of the EvoFaith podcast, we explore what spirituality is NOT and why it's important to identify things that draw us away from the deep and rich life we seek.
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith Website.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
In a few days, we enter a new year. While most of us will want 2023 to be different from the last few years, the unfortunate reality is that, for many of us, the year ahead will be “the same procedure as every year, James” (quoting from Dinner for One).
But it doesn’t have to be this way. In this episode of the EvoFaith Podcast, we explore the one significant shift that can empower us to master the future that lies ahead of us in 2023, no matter what that future may be. And that shift is to move beyond living as just a Functioning Self and to embrace our Higher Selves so that we can master our inner world. Because when your inner world changes, everything changes in your outer world even if nothing changes.
I also want to let you know that we’ll be taking a break next week, so there won’t be a new podcast or meditation. But it’s only for one week and then we’ll be back.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for some inspiration for the New Year, I encourage you to check out some of our past posts. Even though they were written for previous New Years, they’re still just as relevant now.
Five Ways to Feel More Alive Right Now
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith blog.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
In a few days, we celebrate Christmas again. Generally, our festivities are focussed on an unusual event that happened in the ancient past. Yes, it has meaning for us and, traditionally, guarantees the possibility of salvation and eternal life for humanity. But the problem with this version of Christmas is that it has little value or impact on our lives here and now. And that is a tragedy.
In this episode of the EvoFaith Podcast, we explore the central message of the Christmas story—that God is incarnated in humanity, including each one of us. And we are invited to experience ourselves as incarnations of the divine, which has the power to change how we show up in the world and how we treat one another. Because when you change your inner world—to recognise yourself as a divine incarnation—everything changes in your outer world even if nothing changes.
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith blog.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
At the heart of the Christmas story is a love that is often overlooked—that between Mary and Joseph. This ordinary and extraordinary love story has much to teach us about living in love. And it reveals how learning to love, fully and courageously, can significantly change our world. Because when you change your inner world, everything changes in your outer world when if nothing changes.
Of course, the truth is that we never really master love. Rather, we are mastered by it. This podcast explores why it’s a good idea to give ourselves over to love and how we can do that in our daily lives and relationships. Because when we change our inner world, everything changes in our outer world even if nothing changes.
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith blog.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
There is so much in our world that robs us of joy. But, if we care to look, there are so many more things that can bring us joy. Our capacity to notice and experience joy is not dependent on what is happening around us. It is dependent on what is happening within us. And the good news is that we have control over that.
In the EvoFaith Podcast this week, we’re talking about joy and how we can make the choice to live in joy even when our world is less than joyful. Because when we change our inner world, everything changes in our outer world even if nothing changes.
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith blog.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
We all long for peace but it can be frustratingly elusive, partly because peace is far more than just the absence of conflict. True and lasting peace stills the turmoil within us and leads us to a deep sense of well-being regardless of what may be happening around us. And true peace can also help us to deal more creatively and compassionately with the turbulence and hostility in the world around us. But the first step to finding this peace is to begin within before we even think about bringing peace into our world. Because when we change our inner world, everything changes in our outer world even if nothing changes.
In this second Advent episode of the EvoFaith podcast, we examine what peace really is and how we can access peace even when our world is anything but peaceful.
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith blog.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
How do we find calm in this crazy world?
We can’t do it without hope. As foolish as hope may seem, the alternative—despair—won’t help us. Hope motivates, empowers, heals, and stills us. When we can find even just one reason to cling to hope, it can change everything. Because when you change your inner world, everything changes in your outer world even when nothing changes.
In this first Advent episode of the EvoFaith Podcast, we take a closer look at hope. And I share the key reasons why I am not ready to give up on hope.
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith blog.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
The Church is generally thought of as an organisation that exists to help the world. But in the last few years it has become clear that is certainly not always the case. While there has been much good that has come out of the Church, many of the ways in which the Church has sought to serve people over the centuries has been not really been helpful at all. There is often a narcissistic streak in the Church’s message and mission and the Gospel, as many of us have been taught it, is not really good news!
So what does it mean to be a community that truly serves others, without the narcissism, judgment, and self-righteousness? And how can we each make a contribution to the world without taking on the baggage that can come with being part of a church?
This podcast explores the Church and its role of serving the world. And it invites us to participate in making the world more compassionate, connected and whole, regardless of whether we are part of a church or not.
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith blog.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
Every week, people go to churches—some for the first time—hoping to find a community where they can find belonging, meaning, purpose, and care. And every week, people walk away from Church—sometimes permanently—disappointed that the community they sought was nowhere to be found.
One of the qualities we expect of Church is that it should be a community. And yet most churches seem to have traded community for congregation and belonging for doctrinal purity. The quest for growth and influence in the world has shifted our focus away from community building and toward the ABCs of Church: attendances, buildings, and cash. And our world is poorer for it.
But Church is not the only option when it comes to finding community. This episode of the EvoFaith Podcast explores alternatives to Church and how can build for ourselves the community we seek.
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith blog.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
For centuries, Christianity, Church and Christ have been almost synonymous. For many people even today, the idea that it could be possible to follow Jesus without being a member of the Christian religion and going to Church regularly is unthinkable. And yet, more and more people are doing exactly that.
At the heart of the Church’s life is worship. For many Christians attending worship services is the defining act of their faith. And, since we are often told that worship is a lifestyle, many believers make praying, singing or listening to worship songs, and listening to sermons a significant part of their daily lives. But I wonder whether this is what Jesus had in mind when he called his first followers and formed the small community that would eventually grow into the Church as we know it today. Personally, I doubt it very much.
In this podcast, I explore what happens when what we call Church doesn’t actually fulfil what the Scriptures say it should be, especially with regard to the act of worship. And I suggest that there may be gatherings and practices that are not usually recognised as Church or worship that may be much closer to what Jesus taught.
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith blog.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
How open do you feel the Bible is? Do you believe that everything God needs to say to human beings is contained in the pages of the Bible and no other divine revelation or communication is needed? Do you feel that nothing can or should be added to or taken away from the Bible? Is the Bible essentially closed and fixed and complete as it is? And is it the only thing you need to inform and equip your spirituality and life?
Or do you see the Bible as more open? Do you believe that God has continued to speak through the centuries after the Bible was written, compiled, and put into the canon? Do you place the Bible in conversations with other sources of wisdom and truth?
How you view and read the Bible will define the impact it has on your life. For some, the Bible is a closed book and so it protects, restricts, and directs us in how we should think, act, and believe. For me, however, the Bible is an open book that acts like a diving board to launch us into the depths of life, wonder, and joy.
This week the podcast explores what it could mean to read the Bible as an open book and as a diving board from which to dive into the mystery and beauty of life, God and the Cosmos. So what are you waiting for? Why not take a deep dive into freedom and joy as we bring our brief reflection on the Bible to a close?
Find Enter The Bible here.
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith blog.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
There are many ways to read the Bible, but one of the most helpful, from a Christian perspective, is to keep the life and message of Jesus at the centre. This gives the Bible a metaphorical ‘hourglass’ shape with the Old Testament pointing toward Christ and the New Testament flowing out of Christ.
This episode of the EvoFaith Podcast explores what it means to read the Bible as an hourglass in this way, and how an ‘hourglass reading’ of Scripture can be part of an evolutionary approach to the Bible and to Christian spirituality.
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith blog.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
For most of us, the Bible is a book, a singular thing that we think of as unified and complete—like any other book we know. But when we actually read the Bible, we discover that it doesn’t have the unity and completeness that we might imagine. I’ve even been told by some people that reading the Bible all the way through has caused them to experience a crisis of faith.
It’s unfortunate that many of us were never told that the Bible is a library of books. It was written by many different authors over thousands of years, from different perspectives, in different circumstances, and with different understandings of God, humanity, and the world. There are many different genres of literature in the Bible and there are many different ways of readings it. Recognising these truths can make all the difference to how we experience Scripture and how it impacts our lives.
In this episode of the EvoFaith Podcast, we explore what it means that the Bible is a library, rather than a single book. And we investigate how treating the Bible as the library it is can be an integral part of an evolutionary approach to the Scriptures.
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith blog.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
Have you ever considered that the Bible evolved? It didn’t fall from heaven in the form which we now know. It had a long and complex history, passing through many hands and being influenced by many minds and circumstances. And this evolution is an integral part of its richness.
Because of its history, the Bible offers us a map of human history and of the human quest for authentic spirituality. It is not the only map—it is one among many. But it is a valuable map of the terrain that we must all navigate in our own personal spiritual journeys. And it speaks into pretty much every facet of our human experience, even though our world is now so different from that of the biblical writers.
This podcast explores the long and complicated journey that the Bible took to get to us in its present form. And it invites us to allow the evolving Bible to inspire and nurture our own evolution into our most sacred selves.
To sign up for the free weekly EvoFaith emails go to EvoFaith.com.
You can find the transcript of this episode on the EvoFaith blog.
You can access this podcast in video format on our YouTube channel.
And you can find more content and resources to help you to show up fully, authentically, and courageously on the EvoFaith website.
Music: https://purple-planet.com
