This Good Word With Steve Wiens

Episode 185 | Getting Misunderstood and Moving On

On today's episode, I talked about getting misunderstood - then and moving on. We can't get everybody to see what we are trying to do or understand what we really meant. You can waste a lot of emotional energy trying to answer questions you just can't answer anyway. I told a few stories from John's gospel about how Jesus refused to answer certain questions and just moved on. You can, too. Enjoy. 

Episode 184 | I Came to South Texas with Edward Vidaurre

Episode 183 | Women Rise Up with Katey Zeh

I got to know Katey Zeh when our mutual friend Erin Lane introduced us, and I’m so glad she did. Katey has experience working as an advocate for women and girls who are being trafficked, which has greatly informed how she reads the bible. The result is her brand new book, Women Rise Up: Sacred Stories for Today’s Revolution. Katey speaks the truth of the abuse, oppression, and erasure women have endured in the stories told in the Scriptures, much of which is still happening in the world today.

Click here to enjoy the episode.

Connect with Katey:

• Katey’s Website
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Katey’s Podcast: Kindreds (with Ashley Peterson)

“I don’t know anyone who more seamlessly marries her scriptural imagination with an activist sensibility than Katey Zeh. She is a reliable, skilled, and (thanks to be God) altogether human teacher who is not afraid to trouble the waters of some of our most beloved (and forgotten) readings of biblical women – and their enduring witness in our modern lives. If you are looking for an easy bake women’s book study, you won’t find it here. But if you dare to go where few have willingly gone into this study of what it means to be a female follower of God, you will come out the other side just as Zeh hoped: more resilient, more compassionate, and better able to rise up in the face of injustices near and far. I recommend this book to any girl beginning to wonder what relevancy the biblical stories have in her life – and any pastor, counselor, parent, or mentor who cares enough to walk into the complexity with her.” – Erin S. Lane, Author of Lessons in Belonging.

Episode 182 | Mu

This is a rebroadcast of an oldie but a goodie - I think you might agree that it has aged well in the last two years. 

Have you ever experienced that awkward moment when someone asks you a question, and you know they want an either/or response, but you just can't go there? Have you ever wanted to demand a better, more expansive question, one that respects the nature of your answer, and the fact that their small question can't contain the truth of your nuanced answer? Well, well, well. You need to get to know Mu.

Enjoy!

Links: Music kindly provided by Sisters of Murphy (songs: 17 and Green Over Red (Radio Edit). Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. And - I meant to mention this but forgot: Listen to this fabulous interview with Krista Tippet and Padraig O Tuama to hear more about Mu. 

Episode 181 | Disagreement

On this episode, I talked about how to know when to voice that disagreement, and how to know when to keep silent. I posed five questions you can ask yourself to decide whether or not it's worth it to have that disagreement. Enjoy! 

Episode 180 | More Than You Can Handle with Nate Pyle

My friend Nate Pyle is a great writer and also a compassionate pastor, who knows about pain and loss firsthand. Professional uncertainty, the intense impact of mental illness, and the struggle to build a family after infertility and a lost pregnancy have left Nate with more questions than answers. One answer he has come to, however, is that God regularly gives people more than they can handle, regardless of the well-known cliche that says otherwise. 

In Nate's book, More Than You Can Handle: When Life's Overwhelming Pain Meets God's Overcoming Grace, he shares his own story, the stories of others, and a fresh look at the life of Jesus, in order to help people deal with life's inevitable pain. 

Enjoy! 

Music on this episode: Julie's Song by Joel Hanson

Episode 179 | Glorious Weakness with Alia Joy

Alia Joy is the author of Glorious Weakness: Discovering God in All We Lack. She writes poignantly about her life with bipolar disorder as well as grief, faith, marriage, poverty, race, embodiment, and keeping fluent in the language of hope. She lives in Central Oregon with her husband, her tiny Asian mother, her three kids, a dog, a bunny, and a bunch of chickens. 

Make sure to connect with Alia on her blog, on Twitter, or on Instagram. 

Enjoy! 

Episode 178 | Jon Sweeney

When Jon Sweeney and Mark Burrows were reading Daniel Ladinsky's gorgeous translations of Hafiz, they had an idea: What if we translated the work of Meister Eckhart into poetry? The result is one of my favorite new resources: Meister Eckhart's Book of the Heart. If you like Rumi and Hafiz, you are going to love this little book. 

Meister Eckhart was a thirteenth-century priest, mystic, and nearly a heretic. A wide range of current spiritual teachers and mystics, including Richard Rohr, Eckhart Tolle, and Rudolph Steiner, credit Eckhart as being an important influence on their work. In addition, Eckhart's work has influenced 20th century American Buddhism and the Theosophical tradition. In our time, as many of us are hungry to experience God through mystery, paradox, and an embrace of the unknown, Meister Eckhart is a good guide.  

Enjoy. 

 

Episode 177 | Instagram Fail

Mary and I worked really hard to create an epic Harry Potter birthday party for one of our boys, and it was coming together in such an awesome way that I shared in on Instagram. And it WAS an epic party, in all the good ways, UNTIL it was a complete and utter disaster. Ha! Instagram fail. 

What does it look like to choose to courageously show up face-to-face with your weakness, your limits, your concerns, your half baked ideas and your ambivalence when it's so tempting to only reveal your curated self? In this episode, I talk about all of that. 

Oh, and if you'd like to see those Instagram pics, go here. 

Enjoy. 

Episode 176 | Regulation

Homeostasis is the ability your body has to regulate temperature, produce or reduce glucose, eliminate toxins, fight infection, and many other things - without you even thinking about it. 

What if you had a way to regulate your emotional state of being? Instead of getting swept away in anger, or fear, or shame, what if you could notice those feelings without judging them, allowing yourself to feel them fully, but then separate your self from your feelings so you don't get swept away? 

In today's episode, I talk about cultivating the ability to have feelings rather than allowing your feelings to have you. Enjoy!