The Altered Podcast

Denial is a spiritual disaster of the worst kind. So what do we do when we find ourselves defaulting to denial in our suffering? In this episode, Eric and Heidi cover Chapter 2 "You Promised You Were Done" from their book, Altered, and discuss what we all can do to start the process of moving beyond our denial and on toward looking more like Jesus.

Recapping chapter one of their book, Altered, Eric and Heidi talk about what it is like when God's dream for your life doesn't match the dream you have for your own. In a set up for following episodes, why does God seem to draw a big fat line through our ten-year plan? And why does He use suffering to do so?

We live in this tension of wanting to experience peace with God and peace with others, but we are afraid that being who we really are will result in us not truly being accepted or loved. So, we put on masks to dress ourselves up. Grace, though, will disarm our fear.

Are you tired of hustling around from one thing to the next; living in survival mode, juggling the calendar, kids, appointments, quarantine, all in a pandemic? Surviving is not living, it is surviving. It is struggling in hopes to live once the struggle passes. When life becomes unrelenting and has us hustling, how will you find life in the struggle? How will you find joy in the hustle?

A quick bible teaching to encourage those whose loss, frustrations, and hurts seems to continue to drag on and on. It is easy when there seems to be no end in sight to wonder what God is up to; to wonder if this thing, that is dragging on, is it actually dragging somewhere. Is there meaning?

Have you ever had thrown in your face the whole problem, if God is good why is there so much suffering, bit? Or, on a more personal level, you yourself have wonder, if God is good why am I suffering? We're going to talk about how that very question necessitates the existence of a good God.

Mental illness. Many of us don't want to go there. If I say mental health we think yoga, our trusty Headspace app, or me time. Mental illness, however, we don't really want to have anything do with. But those suffering mental illness are all around us; they're in your life even now, and one day may even be you. Most of the time we write them off as the weird and annoying people to just avoid. Jesus said, "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you." So, how can we better love those around us like Jesus; those who may come across as inconvenient and difficult to love?

How will we keep on hoping after we've suffered let down after let down, and disappointment routinely makes it so hard? How will you keep going when it seems so infinitely pointless?

Hope is one of the most powerful and meaningful things we can possess, especially when undergoing suffering of any kind. Since hope is so crucial to us who hurt, why do we often misunderstand it and lose it in difficult times? What can we do to avoid the traps that threaten our hope, while at the same time be doing the things that will strengthen our hope? This series, "In The Meantime," aims to answer these questions for you.

You may not be old, but you are aging and there is nothing you can to to stop it. When aging threatens to take so many core things about who you are, how will you be ready to persevere and not fall into bitterness and resentment?