The Presence Project Podcast

Aundi Kolber talks with me about attachment styles, a new view for anxiety, and looking at spiritual practices through a trauma-informed lens. What happens when spiritual practices like silence trigger you? You Try Softer.

We're headed into the holiday season, a season of feasts but also of family stress. We're all aware that joy rarely stands alone. We can be all over the  emotional map even on Christmas morning. The older I get, the more I realize we are complex, a daily mixture of pain and joy. The question is, can we invite Jesus to walk with us in our complexities. Can we sift through the fog of our internal na...

Psalm 78 confronts us with how easy it is to speak against God and ask, "Can God set a table in the wilderness?" On the hard days we struggle to remember. It's human. But, what if we kept a journal, like Ann Voskamp's 1000 gifts, and on the hard days, we perused the pages and found the goodness of God printed in our own handwriting? Or what if we used a holiday primed for this, Thanksgiving, to sp...

" Sometimes we get a glimpse of a soul and we want to take off our shoes.   Whether it's looking into the eyes of the checkout clerk surprised someone truly wants to know how she's doing or a spiritual directee who lets me see the pain underneath her socially accepted story. Like all of us, she's become adept at holding up a whole bevy of masks. Every time she walks into our chapel for direction,...

How centering prayer teaches our brains to release compulsive thoughts into the hands of God.

Hurry clamps down on creativity. Hurry makes decision-making nearly impossible. Hurry leaves us weary. Hurry divides our focus.   And usually, Hurry is driven by anxiety.  Overwork. Overfunctioning. Overscheduling. They're rarely if ever driven by joy or trust. And if we follow the train back far enough, we find they're created by fear. Fear we'll miss something. Fear we'll be rejected. Fear we're...

Can we experience God as our primary attachment figure, turning and returning towards the face of He who is always accessible, responsive, and engaged?   Frank Laubach's story reveals a man who has found this not only possible but he stands on the shore of Mindanao with an invitation in his hand.     

And this is where we intersect Practicing the Presence with Calling. Brother Lawrence prayed with his arms elbows deep in warm soapy water, doing dishes in a monastery kitchen. Brother Lawrence was less interested in his calling or vocation and more interested in following closely behind Jesus. Today, we have our own brand of static, the constant search for personal fulfillment and umpteen journal...

When we are functioning out of the orphan spirit our primary default mode is believing that love, care, and provision are scarce. Fear grips and we put on the rags of the matchstick girl wandering the streets of people pleasing, perfectionism, and performance hoping for a coin, a kind look, a handout, a crust.   But here's the truth: all this time a seat has been set at the King's table.

A story of following the light of Christ's Presence one moment after another.  So here's my question: Is it possible to intentionally place sensory reminders of the truth of God's Presence and walk from present moment to present moment using them to remind us that God is here? Whether it's a lit candle, a praise song on repeat, the liturgy of the hours at a monastery, or a cross in your pocket?

Our brains have to be rewired for perfect love.  Here's why. Many of us transfer our attachment disorders onto our relationship with God. We have received halting, crippled human love from our caregivers and we end up using that same lens with which to view God. It's the only lens for love we have!  In Brain science speak, we're literally  trying to push perfect love through the same neural pathwa...

Richard Foster says this in his mini-book which I highly recommend: Sanctuary of the Soul, "Distraction is the primary spiritual problem of our day." Maybe you agree, maybe you don't. When I look around me at Starbucks tonight, I see what he means. 90% of the people around me have their eyes glued to a device. When I look into my own soul, I agree. Distraction is the fog that can keep me from self...

"But when Mom started laying down her fears to her counselor one at a time, Delores looked her straight in the eye, "Beth, you're painting a picture of a life without God in it. Delores' words shook something in mom. Where WAS God in the picture she was painting? Over and over she was practicing the absence of God. Over and over she was painting a picture of her new location and Christ was nowhere...

Stillness feels awkward, but it can be an invitation to a deeper interior peace. To Join The Presence Project email list or find a full transcript of this podcast visit aThirstforGod.com  

Mindfulness is Christian as it leads our full embodied presence into the courts of God's presence. The present moment can be a doorway to communion.  Join the Presence Project here: https://mailchi.mp/45d1fce7d557/thepresenceproject Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/267228990621812

Today a story that captured my attention. Three ways to rebuild our trust in God. And a lectio divina on Hebrews 13:5b. Read the transcript here: http://www.athirstforgod.com/rebuilding-trust-in-god-after-an-earthquake/

Episode 9 is a vacation from The Presence Project. It's time to rest, to soak, to receive our God-given identity.

10 Minutes of Stillness is a modern, accessible version of the Sacrament of the Present Moment. In Thornton Wilder's play, Our Town, Emily who died in childbirth was given the gift of going back to spend one full day with her family. After the day is over, she sobs as she tells the stage manager, "We don't have time to look at one another. I didn't realize. So all that was going on and we never no...

" My anxiety was so debilitating I needed an on-ramp for gratitude. Anxiety had caught me by the ankles. My brain couldn't make the leap from fear to praise.   But, I could sit down beside the playground while the kids ran from slide to slide and run my fingers through the grass.  I could sit down and open my ears to the creaking of the swing as my little girl pumped her legs. I could lie back and...

The continual prayer of the heart, the ancient Jesus Prayer, gives us the opportunity to turn our deep need toward God, one repetition at a time. In this episode we root breath prayer firmly in the Christian tradition, from the gospels to the early church fathers. And in the meantime, we walk in the sandals of the blind man, learning to cry out, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me," ourselves.  ...

What happens when the Spirit invites us to meditate on scripture? Transformation. Two stories. One invitation. Join the Presence Project here: https://mailchi.mp/45d1fce7d557/thepresenceproject

How do we hold onto the hand of God through life's storms?   I share personal stories, share answers from our Presence Project Community and ask questions about how we look at suffering as Christians. Finally, I share a simple but effective form of breath prayer we can weave through our busy lives.   Join the Presence Project here: https://mailchi.mp/45d1fce7d557/thepresenceproject Discover the an...

Why attachment theory and bonding is a helpful companion on this journey and what happens to our brain when we feed it on repetition. Join the Presence Project here: https://mailchi.mp/45d1fce7d557/thepresenceproject

Why is brain science a good traveling journey on the road to rooting and establishing in God's love? Join The Presence Project here: https://mailchi.mp/45d1fce7d557/thepresenceproject Find out about The Slow Word Movement lectio divina: https://mailchi.mp/2dc9aa798d2d/revsummerjoygross

This first episode introduces the scaffolding of the Presence Project: my story, God's story, and the questions we'll be answering in each episode including: How do we learn to abide and attach to God so securely everything else flows from that place of knowing we are God's beloved. Each episode will include a simple Christian practice, designed to encourage us to rest in God's love. In this episo...