Unhurried Living | Helping Christians Rest Deeper & Lead Better

“What is most real to you?” There are a lot of ways that the idea of “truth” is talked about these days. There are those who view truth primarily as a philosophical or doctrinal category to be understood and perhaps defended. There are those who talk about “my truth” as a way of describing their personal perspectives or views.     This week on Unhurried Living Podcast, Alan talks with friends and...

God is saying that even if a mother were to forget her children (which she won’t), God will never forget us. God is doubling down on how much he wants us to know that he will never withhold his love for us. God’s compassion is sure and you will not be forgotten.   This is important for us to hold onto as we continue to make our way through our lives. Life is difficult enough, let alone the last co...

The pace of grace, that’s the key theme in today’s episode of Unhurried Living Podcast. One of my mentors was fond of saying that just as truly as we are saved by grace, so we live by grace, serve by grace and lead by grace. Grace is not merely a doorway through which I enter into the life of the kingdom. Grace is the pathway on which I walk every step of my life.     Grace is not some kingdom com...

If you are in deep pain and are waiting in the process, Holy Saturday is the day on the church calendar when you are deeply, lovingly acknowledged. Waiting is real. The loss is real. The disciples did not know about the resurrection to come the next day. They only knew their grief and loss. We are here and now. We know how the story continues. Resurrection did come. But today we will sit in the un...

“Where are you hiding?”     Our habit of hiding goes back to the beginning of creation. Eve eats forbidden fruit. Adam joins her. They become self-conscious, perhaps even self-focused. And so when they sense God drawing near, instead of drawing near like they’ve always done before, they hide.     We do the same thing. We imagine that it is better to hide our messes from God rather than to bring th...

I wonder if you, like me, had a small handful of childhood dreams. It might time to reflect back on them. See if you can uncover your heart’s desire inside a child’s wish. You may just find your next steps in the hands of your inner child. Tucked within may be keys to how you might want to express yourself even now.   Here’s your “I Can Do That!” for this week:    Take a few minutes this week to r...

Today I'm chatting with Curt Thompson, MD about his latest book The Soul of Desire . I found so many intersections with what Gem and I have been learning in our journey towards wholeness and vitality in our life in God. In this book, Curt talks about the place of desire in our lives, how desire can sometimes get hijacked, but how desire can be a holy motive and energy that moves us toward the beau...

Today, Alan shares a recent conversation with his wife and partner in Unhurried Living, Gem , and their friend Matt Fogle , about the chapter on “Resistance” in What Does Your Soul Love ? The key question that frames that chapter is, “What is getting in your way?”  We’re tempted that the main things that get in our way are out there somewhere. We assume that if other people were more cooperative,...

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by your life? Do you ever feel like you’re under a pile and there is no way to dig out? At this point, these are silly questions because we’ve been under a lot of strain the last couple of years. Many people feel pushed beyond their limits. I’ve noticed that my own negative thoughts and expectations can add another layer of weight when things aren’t going well. I burde...

Your first tooth… Your first day of kindergarten… Your first car… Your first kiss… Your first home.    Life is full of firsts. We spend our lifetime taking first steps that lead to growing up and maturing into functioning adults. Along the way, our souls are taking first steps as well. The first time we heard about God. The first time we heard the name of Jesus. The first time we saw an answer to...

Today, I’m sharing a conversation I had a while back with Mark Scandrette about  his book, The Ninefold Path of Jesus .  In it, he shares his experience of seeking to live more deeply and faithfully into the nine beatitudes that begin what some call Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In his book, Mark shares a beautiful vision of what it might look like if we practiced the beatitudes as a way of followin...

When was the last time you had a leisurely conversation? Do you find yourself talking fast, and cutting people short so that you can get on with whatever you were doing? It’s not your fault, it’s in the cultural air we breathe. We may assume that others are busy and we are likely in their way. Or we think the same about ourselves: I don’t have time for this! Most people these days don’t have someo...

“What do you really want?”  It’s a deceptively simple question, but the longer we live with it the more we realize we want so many different things at so many different levels to so many different degrees. It’s actually a genius question to surface that it is that our soul actually wants.  This week Alan is sinking in deeper on a chapter of his and Gem 's book, What Does Your Soul Love? Eight Ques...

Hebrews 11:1 says, “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living.” So, if you are in a place of ongoing inner healing: How might you honor and respect where you are? What does waiting look like for you in this season? What are some ways your “faith roots” can sink even deeper into God in the midst? And...

In this week’s episode of the Unhurried Living podcast, I’m talking with Mike MacKenzie from Marble Retreat in Colorado about the issues that lie under our issues. He’s written a book called Don’t Blow Up Your Ministry that highlights how we sometimes think that if only we could solve our tiredness or our struggles with temptation we’d be all set, when in fact there are often deeper issues that ar...

One of my favorite Dallas Willard quotes is this: “The path of spiritual growth in the riches of Christ is not a passive one. Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. Effort is action. Earning is attitude. You have never seen people more active than those who have been set on fire by the grace of God.” (CHRISTIAN HERALD (U.K.) 14 APRIL 2001.) That’s good stuff, isn’t it? People of...

This week, the Unhurried Living Podcast begins an occasional series based on the book Gem and Alan wrote two years ago: " What Does Your Soul Love? Eight Questions That Reveal God’s Work in You ".     This important book, at its heart, is a basic assumption that Gem and Alan have lived with for decades... God invites us to change over our lifetimes.   Biblical language for this change is “being tr...

If you’ve walked in snow you know the feeling of being the first to step in the untouched wonder. As we enjoyed our winter walk, we came up on a patch that felt a little unwieldy to me. So I asked Alan if he would go ahead of me and test out the path first. That’s a great wife move, right?! As I looked down at the path that Alan was creating for me with his big boots, a random thought about leader...

Remember when devices were not omnipresent in our lives. Life before email, before text messages, before mobile phones and personal computers. It feels like a completely different era of life and hard to remember what it was like.    There is so much that our devices do to serve us. And they are wonderful when they serve, but not so wonderful when they become our masters.    Today on the Unhurried...

Today on the Unhurried Living Podcast, we’re talking about the spiritual practice of silence. We’ve heard lots of authors and spiritual writers talk about how important the practice of silence is, but a whole lot of us struggle to figure out exactly how that might work in our actual lives.     We feel too busy. Or we feel there’s too much to do to spend any significant time alone and quiet. But th...

In episode #2 of this podcast I introduced the posture of transformation : open, aware and willing. (Or OAW for short). Today I’d like to look at the humble way of transformation . And it’s three words you hear me say at the end of every episode: small, simple and gracious. When it comes to change, herculean moves rarely keep us on the path. Sure, we may have some audacious goals. I know I do. But...

Today I’m offering five simple dynamics to engage as we move into 2022. And, I know, I’ve used a corny rhyming pattern for them, but I couldn’t help myself. I’m hoping this helps you retain what I’m sharing.   It’s time to… Feel Get real Kneel Heal Make a deal   I told you it was a corny rhyme. But there is nothing corny about taking care of yourself, body, mind and soul.     Follow Gem on IG @gem...

Today's Unhurried Living episode is on a theme that a lot of us work pretty hard to avoid: aging. We’d much rather talk about how to stay young than address the realities of growing older. I celebrated my sixtieth birthday this year. It was the first decade birthday that has had a lingering impact on me. Thirty, forty and fifty came and went for me, but sixty has been a year of reflection and many...

Well, we’ve made it through 2021. I don’t know about you, but this year seemed to fly by compared to 2020. Time is funny, isn’t it. It’s actually moving along at the same pace all the time, and yet our perception of it shifts.     We haven’t figured out how to stop time…yet, but I’d like to offer a practice that can help you capture more meaning out of the time you have. This is a great end of the...

Love is our focus as this is now the fourth week of Advent. I trust over the course of our Advent weeks together you have enjoyed sinking further into the love of God, the grace of Jesus and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Is your heart a little more ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus?   Today I simply invite you to enjoy another imaginative prayer. We’re going to picture ourselves at the be...