Freely & Lightly Podcast: Recent Episodes
Freely & Lightly
Being open to receive God’s love for us is often a learning process. Equally challenging is learning to love God, as well as our neighbor. Mark and David are joined by Tom Ashbrook, an author, spiritual director and, spiritual formation missionary with Imago Christi. In this rich and encouraging conversation, Tom shares his story of being changed by the love of God in deep and meaningful ways.
How would your approach to life change if you went from simply believing that God loves you to knowing he loves you? In this conversation, Mark and David discuss the challenge of truly knowing God’s love - rather than just holding it as a belief. They share about some of their experiences in learning to rest in God’s love and offer a helpful practice for learning to know God’s love in a meaningful way.
Responding to the Lord’s invitation or trusting God in our daily life can be very challenging. Mark and David talk with Kathy Pyrc, a Spiritual Formation Missionary with Imago Christi, as she shares her experiences of trusting God in places of pain, creating space for the Lord in everyday life, and living a life transformed by the love and presence of God.
Understanding God’s love can be difficult because the notion of what passes for love often falls short. Mark and David address many misconceptions about love presented and accepted in our culture, contrasting them against the reality of God’s perfect love. This episode begins to explore what is means to love others “because he first loved us” and learning to receive God’s love in our own lives.
Sabbath is important - but what does that look like practically? In this final episode on rest, Mark and David discuss what do on your Sabbath. They each share their experiences of learning to find what Sabbath looks like for each of them and offer helpful suggestions for how to examine your own activities to find what the Lord’s invitation may be for you personally in experiencing this practice in your day to day life.
We all know that rest is important for our physical well-being, yet it is a more complex than that. Our culture of “busyness” and “usefulness” can create resistance within us to embrace rest as a spiritual practice. Mark and David discuss the “why” behind rest - why it matters and is important to practice, and explore how God designed creation to need rest, and the gift Sabbath is intended to be.
Although rest may be viewed merely as sleep or inactivity, it is much more than that. Rest is an invitation from the Lord, a form of worship, and a space to simply be with God. Mark and David continue their discussion on the top of rest, exploring the complexities and gifts of the practice, and address some of the baggage and struggles that people have around the practice of rest.
After examining what rest is NOT in the last episode, Mark and David continue their conversation this week by looking at what rest IS, asking the question: What does real rest actually look like? They provide framework for assessing whether or not an activity is restful, and offer questions to ask as you seek to find rest in your own life.
In order to implement a Sabbath rhythm in your life, you must begin with rest. Modeled by God, rest is an integral spiritual practice. Mark and David discuss what rest is - as well as misconceptions about rest in our culture. They also address the challenges that accompany the practice of rest, in order to find practical ways to cross the hurdles that accompany this important practice.
The twists and turns of life can challenge our faith. Mark and David talk with Amy Fletcher, who shares how she has encountered God’s love for her throughout her life and circumstances. Her experience of trusting in the character of God in the midst of darkness is encouraging and full of hope. She also shares how the practice of gratitude has shaped her.
Beginning a new practice is difficult and feels like hard work, while engaging a familiar practice can feel effortless. Mark and David share their experiences of the many ways practice can feel - from bumpy starts to experiencing ease and joy over time. Find encouragement for wherever you are in your experience of spiritual practices - and however practice feels to you right now.
Spiritual disciplines - training exercises for life in the Kingdom of God - are essential for the follower of Jesus. But why is practicing so hard? This episode dives into the ways our perceptions or expectations can detract from the benefit of engaging in spiritual practices in our lives. Join Mark and David as they offer helpful encouragement for learning to embrace beginning to practice.
This episode continues last week’s conversation about the difficulty of hearing from God and keeping company with Jesus in a cultural landscape of distraction, as well as the challenges that accompany the practice of silence. Join Mark and David as they share their personal experiences with the practice, as well as offer helpful encouragement for beginning to practice to silence.
Keeping company with Jesus and hearing from God can be difficult because of the “noise” and distraction readily found in daily life, or the challenge of not knowing where to begin. Yet the practice of silence can be equally difficult and very uncomfortable. Join Mark and David as they share their experiences of learning to practice silence, and offer practical encouragement for how to begin to incorporate this practice into your life.
Our perceptions of solitude can create many obstacles to practicing it. Maybe being alone feels like punishment, or removing daily “noise” seems scary. Perhaps it is an inviting practice, but finding time for it feels impossible. How can this spiritual practice be experienced as a gift? Join Mark and David for this conversation about learning to make space to pull away from others for the express purpose of being alone with God.
The rhythms in creation and life can help us know God in deeper ways. Mark and David talk with Stephanie Jenkins, co-creator of Field Guides for the Way, who shares her experience of meeting God through her weekly wanders, as well as the power of soul friends in her life.
Reading the Bible produces transformation and real change in your life. By learning to spend time with scripture in an unhurried way, you can make space for the Lord’s leading in that interaction. Mark and David share their experiences with Bible meditation and unpack the importance of quality over quantity in approaching scripture.
Because “all Scripture is God-breathed” there is great value in spending time with it. Join Mark and David as they share about some of their experiences of learning to spend time meditating on Scripture, and talk about what Biblical meditation is and how to incorporate it into your daily life with Jesus.
Perhaps you know a lot about the Bible or have studied it. Has your experience been one of duty? Or perhaps an exercise in gaining knowledge? In this episode, Mark and David talk about their early experiences of scripture that were more perfunctory, and explore the experience of Scripture as part of conversation with God, as well as God’s invitation to know him more through spending time in scripture.
Prayer is essential for living in the company of God. Do you desire to be closer to God, but don’t know how? How do you practice the presence of God in daily life and learn to recognize God’s presence? Mark and David explore what a relational approach to prayer looks like in everyday life.
Many people experience prayer as something to do - it can feel stiff and be seen merely as a box to check. But what if prayer could be more about being in the company of God rather than doing something for him? This episode explores different experiences of prayer, and seeing prayer shift from being mechanical to relational - a space to be with God and hear his voice.
Explore the many ways of communing with God through art, nature, and creativity. Mark and David talk with Kristen Kludt, creator of Field Guides for the Way, who shares her experiences of hearing God’s voice through creation and creative practices.
Jesus invites us to go deeper in our relationship with him. Our habits and practices can help us move in that direction. Mark and David talk about the life-long process of practicing your faith, which will ultimately take you deeper in relationship with Jesus, as well as the value of practicing imperfectly rather than not practicing at all.
“The church is like a swimming pool in which all the noise comes from the shallow end. But most of the wisdom is to be found in the deep end…” - W.H. Vanstone
Discover more about God’s pace for living and working, and going deeper with Jesus.
If you’ve reached a place in your relationship with God where you’re asking, “Is this all there is?” You’re not alone. There is more. Jesus invites us into a deeper life with God. Discover more about God’s pace for living and working, and going deeper with Jesus. This all begins with relationship with God as the foundation, that can then flow into spiritual community and then being a faithful presence in the world.
We all want the ministry of Jesus, but we must live the life of Jesus first. Explore how authentic community and ministry are an overflow from relationship with God first.
Hosts Mark and David discuss Matthew 11:28-30 and what it means to live freely and lightly. They tell their stories of learning to float on the unforced rhythms of grace.
Preview Freely and Lightly, a podcast dedicated to helping the followers of Jesus discover and grow in the abundant life Jesus said we could have. Weekly conversations explore keeping company with Jesus, and learning the unforced rhythms of God's grace. Premieres April 5th.