Today's Heartlift with Janell

Send us a text Love is God's language. On a plane ride home, I watched a charming Netflix movie, "Love at First Sight," and was gripped by the last line, "We all have a choice to love every day." We all have a choice to love every day. Yet, so many in our world make a choice to hate every day. Just turn on the news. In this "birthday episode" of my podcast, I ret...

Send us a text The Enneagram is one of the primary tools of my private practice. I've never found another personality typing system that gets to the "motive of our heart" like the Enneagram. It isn't the Bible or even the "gospel of personalities," but it is a useful tool that helps us build stronger relationships. In Part 2, Spiritual Director, Marilyn Vancil, author...

Send us a text "The Enneagram is a tool God can use to aid us in the spiritual process of self-examination, leading to greater self-knowledge and confession on the way to spiritual transformation" ( Self to Lose, Self to Find: Using the Enneagram to Uncover Your True, God-Gifted Self) . Spiritual Director Marilyn Vancil is with us today to talk about her new book, "Beyond the Enneag...

Send us a text "Growing in our relational knowledge of how to connect and love requires a lot of practice. And it requires deliberate practice. We need to focus on specific outcomes that stretch us beyond our current relational knowledge and spiritual maturity level. We need to rely on methods taught in Scripture and developed by spiritual masters further down the road" (Todd W. Hall, Th...

Send us a text In his newest book, "Analog Christian: Cultivating Contentment, Resilience, and Wisdom in the Digital Age," author and pastor Jay Kim, writes, "One of the most effective ways of lulling us in is to situate us in a never-ending loop of comparison, which eventually breeds contempt, before finally devolving into unprecedented levels of self-centric despair. This often le...

Send us a text What is self-centric despair? Today's guest, Jay Kim, lead pastor of Westgate Church in Silicon Valley, is going to tell us all about it. In his newest book, "Analog Christian: Cultivating Contentment, Resilience, and Wisdom in the Digital Age," Jay writes, "Much of my loss of contentment was connected to the persistent sense of self-centric despair I felt as I c...

Send us a text Longing invites curiosity. Irish Poet, David Whyte writes this about longing, "Longing is nothing without its dangerous edge, which cuts and wounds us while setting us free, and beckons us exactly because of the human need to invite the right kind of peril." Season 12's invitation to slow down the pace of our lives has left us finally exhaling from the mad rate at whi...

Send us a text Longing and Waiting often walk hand-in-hand. In today's conversation, Janell and Cally Logan, author of Dear Future Husband , talk about the process of waiting for your longing. This involves a great deal of longsuffering and patience. Again, Janell asks, "What are you longing for?" Dig into the archives and find even more resources on waiting and patience: Visit the...

Send us a text This isn't a question we get asked very often, "What are you longing for?" Yet, we all have deep longings. Today's guest, Cally Logan , author of "Dear Future Husband: A Love Letter Journey While Waiting for God's Best," shares her longing for a husband and the long journey of waiting she has been traveling. While waiting, Cally, a history teacher,...

Send us a text Grace Wabuke Klein , author of "Flourish: Finding Purpose in the Unknown and Unexpected Seasons of Life, "  knows that there is great purpose in our darkest days and seasons of waiting. Today, she talks to us about heartache, disappointment, and pain and gives encouragement and a fresh perspective on the winter seasons we all go through, as well practical steps to not just...

Send us a text "Story is not something we should be afraid of; it is always present in our lives, weaving our experiences together and offering us a lens through which to view the world." --Jennifer L. Holberg Stories shape us. Professor Jennifer L. Holberg, author of "Nourishing Narratives: The Power of Story to Shape Our Faith," writes, "By examining and interpreting the...

Send us a text “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”  ―  Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings In this season of slowing down the pace of our lives, it is important to examine and rewrite our own narratives if they are toxic or limiting. This episode revolves around the power of narratives and the impact they have on shaping our identities. In her new book, &...

Send us a text Grief comes in all shapes, sizes, and forms. At the beginning of her upcoming book, "Can You Just Sit With Me?" author Natasha Smith shares 10 brief vignettes of grief stories she has lived through in her short lifetime. She writes, "Friends, these stories represent part of my story of grief. This grief took me on a journey to understand how to process my emotions. Un...

Send us a text "Grief is a strong, sometimes overwhelming emotion for people, regardless of whether their sadness stems from the loss of a loved one or from a terminal diagnosis they or someone they love have received." -The Mayo Clinic Sometimes we have to hit the pause button in order to process really difficult emotional states. Grief is one of those emotions that needs time to breath...

Send us a text Summer invites us into a time of slowing down the pace a little. It gives us space to think about how we are doing.  Quaker teacher, Douglas Steere, once said, "To listen to another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service that any human being ever performs for another.” In today's bonus episode, Janell revisits her conversatio...

Send us a text It's hard to talk about "becoming a forgiving person," without laying a strong foundation of "becoming a praying person."  To help us lay a strong foundation for the power of prayer in our lives, author Linda Evans Shepherd joins us today. Linda has authored over 30 books on prayer and humbly shares how God shaped her as "a prayer investigator... a pray...

Send us a text The wise Frederick Buechner once said, "Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back--in many ways, it is a feast fit for a king....

Send us a text  In Today's Heartlift with Janell, the episode features guest, Tina Yeager , author of "Upcycled: Crafted for a Purpose, and discusses the concept of upcycling, where God transforms our brokenness into something beautiful and purposeful. Janell and Tina talk about their own past struggles and how God sees them through difficult times. The episode focuses on the idea that p...

Send us a text On this episode of Today's Heartlift with Janell, I am joined by special guest Melissa L. Johnson, author of "Soul Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless." In this bonus session, Melissa and I discuss our personal experiences with prayer and how it can shift our mindset toward a more compassionate God. Janell also shares her struggles w...

Send us a text On this episode of Today's Heartlift with Janell, I am joined by special guest Melissa L. Johnson, author of "Soul Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless." In this bonus session, Melissa and I discuss our personal experiences with prayer and how it can shift our mindset toward a more compassionate God. Janell also shares her struggles w...

Send us a text In this little bonus episode, Janell and Jennifer Dukes Lee, author of "Stuff I'd Only Tell God," have a little question and answer time, using writing prompts from Jennifer's book. Even if you are not a fan of writing stuff down, Janell and Jennifer show how you can use this guided journal as a conversation starter with trusted friends and family members. Journa...

Send us a text WELCOME TO SEASON 12 Heartlifters! We are starting our "Summer of Slowing Down," and entering into many conversations about new rhythms, a slower pace of living, and contemplative practices that help us find our way to greater peace of mind and quality of life. To help us get our journaling jam on we have Jennifer Dukes Lee, author of "Stuff I'd Only Tell God: A...

Send us a text In Part Two of the conversation with author Nijay Gupta, Janell and Nijay discuss women in the early church, highlighting influential figures like Lydia and Junia. Nijay encourages listeners to follow the breadcrumbs of their faith to find their own ways to serve God's kingdom. Nijay says, "One of the ways that our eyes get in the way of our gifts and our calling is by loo...

Send us a text Dr. Nijay K. Gupta, author of "Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church, leads us into a riveting, remarkable, heart-stopping conversation about the women in the Bible, particularly in the New Testament, who were actively and mightily involved in ministry, at the frontier of the gospel mission, and as respected leaders. It is time for women to r...

Send us a text In this special Sunday Edition, Janell shares "the state of the heart" of the podcast. Season 11's, "Let's Be Remarkable Tour," closes with two very special episodes with Nijay Gupta, author of "Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church." Looking forward, Season 12 brings "A Contemplative Summer," wher...