Loving Others without Pleasing Them // Taja Wright

This is PART TWO of my conversation with Sav!! We dive more intentionally into the concept of embodiment as a woman, specifically talking about themes of purity, femininity, and beauty. We reference prominent women in church history that help inform the way we see our bodies, and the way they are perceived by culture as well as our own personal experiences.

Do you ever wonder how the terms "spirit" and "flesh" relate to our "physical" bodies and "spiritual" souls? Is there a correlation, if at all? Savannah is studying to get her Masters in Divinity at Lipscomb University, and passionately believes in understanding the way our physical bodies impact and effect our faith. In this episode, we talk about the danger of "disembodied" faith, one that purely exists in our rooms and in our heads, arguably preventing a fully transformed life. For all you church history nerds, we get into that quite a bit as well, discussing what we can learn from the church leaders before us. This is PART ONE of our discussion, with part two to come out next week!

We hear the language all the time: that "singleness is a gift" or to enjoy the "season of singleness" while you have it. There are too many mixed messages in American Christian culture surrounding dating and marriage, and it can seem really confusing to parse through the noise to find what is true.In this episode, Joy Beth shares how as a 40 year old woman, she continues to nurture a deep desire and calling for marriage amidst her experience growing up in the south navigating cultural expectations. This episode was deeply inspiring and encouraging for me as a single person who both hopes for marriage and also finds deep joy in singleness!

This is PART TWO of my conversation with Taja, where we dive more deeply into how her mixed race upbringing has uniquely shaped the way she views herself and our culture. There is so much beauty in the diversity of God's creation, and we talk about the importance in recognizing this as we seek to love and understand each other. We chat about empathy and sympathy, how we can't always understand each other's experiences, and how the Spirit and following Jesus allows us to uniquely see each other despite our differences.

As people who follow Jesus, we know our command is to love God and others. However, sometimes we can fall into not loving others, but pleasing them. In this pilot episode of a new mini IDENTITY series, I bring on one of my longest friends to talk about how the Lord revealed her misplaced identity through a period of forced isolation. 

In this continued conversation from last week's "Wilderness: Of People," Marina and I discuss ways the feeling of home and physical spaces intersect, and ways they don't. Last year we recorded and episode about this (my most listened to episode of 2024!!) and now, Marina has some adjustments to make to these thoughts of heaven and home, given her recent experience living in NYC.

"Wilderness" can be a popular word in Christian culture to describe a lonely or hard time, but what does it actually mean, and what are its biblical roots? In this short series I dive into the complexities of wilderness and how we experience it today, though we might not be physically traversing the desert. My friend Marina recently moved to New York City, where she has been re-learning how to follow Jesus when community suddenly changes. We talk about how lonely it can feel when the people around you inevitably shift and change, how that is both a beautiful and stretching part of life, and the intimacy with Jesus found in that wilderness, an isolation from people.

Do you feel unsure of what your next step might look like? Is it hard to muster up trust that Jesus is actually leading you on the "right" path? In the final episode of this series, I read a visual narrative about following Jesus in the wilderness. This story holds a lot of meaning in my own life, and is a gift to have written and be able share with you all. My prayer is that helps you understand and know Jesus as your rabbi, and trust that he is leading you along paths of righteousness, for His name's sake.

This year the act of giving feels weighty. If you feel unsure how to balance consumerism and expectation with gift-giving this season, join me in questioning how we can live this out well as believers. In this episode I explore the dynamics of giving and receiving in the context of the kingdom. I talk about why I give, where I believe the act of giving comes from, and how we can mimic the way the Father gives.

This year I wasn't able to go home for Thanksgiving, and it got me thinking about the way we all long for our heavenly home. My tangible loneliness sparked vision for the spiritual reality we are living in until we are reunited with Jesus in heaven. In this episode, I talk about how feeling homesick for our earthly and/or spiritual families draws us closer to the heart of Jesus.