FRESH Official Podcast

Have you ever found yourself comparing your life's journey to that of others? You invariably come up short, right? They seem to have things so much better than you do. "Why do I have such a cruddy life?" I have a friend who sold his business for mega-bucks; the sort of money that you and I can scarcely imagine. And while he's in the process of giving most of his wealth away, he'll never face the k...

When adversity strikes, even when we find ourselves moderately inconvenienced or uncomfortable, our immediate response is "Get me out of here!" It's only natural, isn't it? And yet inevitably, there's no alternative but to travel through those tough times rather than to be delivered from them. What tough times have you been through in your life? What tough times are you going through right now? Do...

In this age of social media, where outrageous views and falsehoods are posted millions of times each day, it's easy to imagine that we have to show up to every argument we've been invited to. And yet, often, silence is by far the wisest choice. In 1962, when U.S. surveillance discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, tensions spiked. President Kennedy's military advisors urged an immediate strik...

So much these days is available instantly. Ask your favourite AI tool the most incredibly complex question, and the answer pops up in seconds. So the idea of slogging away at something for days, months, even years, is increasingly foreign to our mindset. A farmer doesn't see results overnight. It starts with small, faithful habits—ploughing the soil, sowing seeds, checking moisture, rotating crops...

Contentment is something that we all want, but all too often it proves elusive. Can I ask you, in your life right now are you contented or, like an addict, do you find yourself constantly looking for the next hit? Kaji Naozumi was a little-known Japanese Christian samurai during the Tokugawa shogunate—a time when Christianity was brutally persecuted. After converting through Jesuit missionaries, h...

I don't know about you but I hate making mistakes because, when you've fallen flat on your face for all to see, getting over the embarrassment and the pain to start again is tough. S hould I even bother? English botanist and photographer Anna Atkins initially failed to gain recognition in scientific circles dominated by men. As a woman, her early attempts to publish botanical illustrations were ov...

I wonder, do you ever stand back to consider the things you've been thinking about? What occupies your thought-life? What do you ruminate over … and how does that shape the life that you lead? Ludwig II was king of Bavaria in the mid-19 th century.  He was actually quite a brilliant individual with the world at his feet. But he was obsessed with fantasy and haunted by self-doubt. His increasingly...

If you're one of those people who consistently plugs away at doing good, progress can seem excruciatingly slow. It's as though nothing's happening, until all of a sudden you look back to discover how far you've really come.  For a young mother immersed in nappy rash, teething and tantrums, time passes slowly. But on the day her child graduates from college, she can look back at the amazing journey...

Some people love to stay in their comfort zone, while others yearn for adventure and the many benefits that come when you step out of that zone into uncertainty. I've never been particularly fond of exercise, and yet I know, particularly as I age, that it's incredibly good for me. So, each morning I'm faced with a choice – do I remain in my nice, warm, soft, cosy bed or do I get up and hit the roa...

Truth: You can't keep running on empty. Yet so many are trying to do just that. It's no way to live your life. We need physical and emotional rest and, whether we realise it or not, spiritual restoration. So, question: Are you running on empty? In 1867, John Muir was physically and emotionally drained. After an accident that temporarily blinded him, he was shaken, lost, and unsure of his future. D...

There's no stronger bridge that we can build into someone's life than the one called "empathy". When we listen, when we feel what they're feeling, be they right or wrong, they feel seen, they feel heard, they feel understood. It's like letting oxygen into the room. Finally, they can breathe. Václav Havel was a Czech writer, dissident, and statesman who became a symbol of peaceful resistance agains...

When someone treats you badly, as people do, how do you feel toward them? Angry, bitter, vengeful? Sure, you know that you're far better forgiving them … but that ain't easy. Elizabeth Elliot was a missionary, author, and speaker who inspired millions. In 1956, her husband Jim was speared to death by the very tribe in Ecuador that he was trying to reach with the Gospel. Most would've turned away i...

So, today's one of those days when I'm going to get in your face with a tough question (you're welcome!).  Here it is: how do you treat strangers? If you see someone you don't know who's in need, are you the sort of person to step up and help, or do you cross to the other side of the road to avoid them? Showing kindness or hospitality to a friend is great. And I'm sure that when you do that, they...

Generosity is such a wonderful thing, isn't it? When someone's generous toward us, be it with their time, talents or treasures, we feel incredibly valued, incredibly blessed. Yet in truth, most people's default position is to hoard what they have, keeping it all to themselves. Just recently, in my conversations with some incredibly generous people,  I've been struck by that truth as they've recoun...

I think you'd agree that perseverance is a tremendous quality for someone to have. If you think of your favourite movie, the plot almost certainly involves a hero persevering against impossible odds to win the day. And yet perseverance is a muscle that we hope we never to have to exercise, because we only need it when we're faced with adversity. In 19th-century England, George Müller cared for ove...

Have you noticed how slowly time seems to pass when you're suffering? The rest of the universe is still ticking along as usual, but your little patch is running in slow motion – extreme slow motion. And in that place, patience wears thin very quickly. Can't we just get on with this? Can't we just get through this, to the other side? Dutch watchmaker, Corrie ten Boom, helped Jews escape the Nazis d...

Almost by definition, hope is most beneficial when things today appear hopeless, wouldn't you agree? The problem is, though, that when the going's tough, that sense of hope inevitably seems to elude us.   Romanian pastor Richard Wurmbrand was arrested in 1948 and imprisoned for fourteen years under the brutal Communist regime. He was tortured, kept in solitary confinement for three years in an und...

There's nothing better than the joy, the energy, the zeal that comes from taking on something that's right in your wheelhouse; something that lets you exercise your unique gifts and abilities for the benefit of others. Of course, zeal is a double-edged sword. Focused on the wrong thing, it's terribly destructive. But focused on the right thing – something that fits with your abilities and does goo...

When it comes to work, whatever that means in your context, there are two equally destructive extremes. At one end is the workaholic, prepared to sacrifice health and family on the altar of success. At the other lies the sloth, that lazy individual who'll do the least amount possible. In 16th-century Japan, two samurai brothers served a local lord. Motoharu trained daily, studied strategy, and led...

The word "honour", the ideal that it embodies, is one that we intuitively know is right; we know it's good to honour one another. The problem is, it's also hard. And so, we often forego honour for the sake of expediency in the fast-moving world in which we live. Author Dale Carnegie was raised in a Christian home on a farm in Missouri in the late 1800s. He was deeply influenced by his parents' val...

In an incredible universe of an estimated two trillion galaxies, each with an average of a hundred billion stars and two hundred billion planets, what, in your opinion, is the most powerful force of all? The answer, without any shadow of a doubt, would have to be … love. The Big Bang Theory says that the universe began as a single, infinitely dense point around 13.8 billion years ago. It suddenly...

Each day, in so many different ways, we have a profound choice to make: either to do good or not. It's a tough one. How much easier would it be to take the low road rather than the high one; to go with selfishness, anger, dishonesty, revenge, rather than a genuine love for others and a desire to do good? In the 17 th century, Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba (present-day Angola) ruled during a b...

Don't you absolutely hate it when those with power perpetrate evil? It's so wrong! The innocent are hurt because evil has crept out of powerful hearts into the lives of little people – the poor, the needy. And this isn't just something hypothetical. It's happening right now, right under our noses. So the temptation for us, for you, for me, is to hate those powerful people, rather than hating the e...

Sadly, some of the people we'll meet along the way, even some who we've allowed into our inner circle, will turn out to be fakes. It hurts most when it's someone whose love for us turns out not to be all that it should have been. Have you ever experienced that? Man, it hurts! In 1651, toward the end of the English Civil War, a Puritan woman, Dame Alice Lisle, secretly sheltered two fugitives—enemi...

Question: Do you believe everything you read on social media? Answer: Of course not! But why is it then that so many people descend into the wormholes of conspiracy theories, simply because they've stumbled across something that fed their own prejudices? How often has someone been hung out to dry in the court of public opinion, only for us to discover, when the facts eventually came to light, that...