Deep Water Labs

Mindfulness has become mainstream — in workplaces, schools, counseling offices, apps, leadership training, and conversations about anxiety, burnout, attention, and emotional health. And honestly, I understand why. People are exhausted. Distracted. Overwhelmed. Hungry for stillness. Hungry for an interior life. But Christian spiritual formation asks a deeper question. Mindfulness often says, "Becom...

For years, I had faith, prayer, Scripture, church experience, and a sincere desire to follow God. But I did not have a clear category for spiritual formation. I needed it desperately. I just did not know what it was called. In this episode, I reflect on the moment I began to see spiritual formation not as an optional topic for unusually serious Christians, but as a central part of the life of fait...

What happens when God allows loss, or a closed door to become part of our spiritual formation? In this episode, we look at the life and writings of François Fénelon, a 17th-century French archbishop, spiritual writer, and teacher whose life brought him close to power — and then into public correction, loss of influence, and surrender. Fénelon's story raises a painful but necessary question: Do we...

Girolamo Savonarola is one of the most fascinating and unsettling figures of Renaissance Florence. He was a Dominican friar, a fiery preacher, a moral reformer, and eventually one of the most controversial religious voices of his age. He preached against corruption, luxury, vanity, and spiritual compromise in a city famous for beauty, art, wealth, and political intrigue. But Savonarola's story rai...

What are we really signing up for when we tell God, "Your will be done"? In this episode of the Deep Water Labs podcast, Jason Owens reflects on the life of Madame Guyon, a French Christian mystic from the 1600s whose deep surrender to God was followed not by ease, comfort, and quick blessing—but by loss, suffering, spiritual dryness, and a long season of desolation. Drawing from Deeper Experience...

In Part 3 of the podcast, I go deeper into the process of making sense of life when things do not unfold the way you expected. In the previous episode, I talked about disappointment and disillusionment — what happens when calling, faith, work, and hope seem to collide with painful reality. In this episode, I explore what comes next: the deeper work of formation. How do we interpret the story we ar...

What do you do when you believed God was leading you — and then the story collapses? In this episode, Jason continues the Deep Water Labs origin story: the sense of calling, the risk of saying yes, the pain of watching things fall apart, and the long confusion that followed. This is not a tidy success story from the mountaintop. It is a reflection from the middle — about disappointment, silence, f...

A third kind of calling story—what happens when you follow God's lead, take the leap, and still fall flat. Honest reflections on faith, desire, and the confusion that follows when obedience doesn't produce the outcome you expected.

Nothing went catastrophically wrong—but enough went sideways to force a deeper question: What am I actually building? In this episode, Jason reflects on what happens when you plan carefully, show up sincerely, and life still doesn't follow the script. This isn't about quick fixes or inspirational spin. It's about making sense of disappointment, identity, and direction when the "sure thing" you tru...