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Episode 360- Confronting Systemic Racism to Bring Healing and Restoration with Latasha Morrison

How do we bring forth a heart of redemption in the broken systems of this world? What is our responsibility as believers when it comes to healing the racial divide and systemic injustices?

Latasha Morrison is passionate about helping Christians be at the forefront of racial healing. As an author, speaker, and founder of Be the Bridge, an equipping organization that helps individuals and groups in taking steps towards racial reconciliation, Lastasha has taught people what it means to confront the ways in which we as a culture and as a people have harmed others because of their race. Her work has brought both awareness and actionable ways for people to reach across racial lines and heal together. Her latest book, Brown Faces, White Spaces: Confronting Systemic Racism to Bring Healing and Restoration, looks at the ways in which our systems hold deeply entrenched beliefs that need to be rooted out so that there can be justice and fairness for all.

In this conversation, Aubrey talks with Latasha about why it is so important to have a heart of reconciliation as believers, the way racism within systems continues to impact people to this day, and how our hope must remain in God and not people.

If you've ever wondered if we can truly experience racial healing and reconciliation, this episode will encourage you that it is possible and that we each have a role and responsibility to step into this conversation with compassion, empathy, and a heart bent towards healing the racial division that exists.

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Episode 359- Reconnecting and Recovering the Lost Art of Being Human with Carlos Whittaker

How do we hear God's voice in a world full of noise? What impact do our screens have on our mental health?

Carlos Whittaker has made a career out of connecting with people through a device. An author, podcaster, and a leader of a social media community known as the Instafamilia, Carlos has used the power of connection for doing incredible things. And yet, he found himself in a place where the constant connectivity to his phone left him disconnected to what matters most.

Carlos decided to embark on an incredible journey in which he would go screen free for 7 weeks and spend time with those who lived without the same incessant attachment as those in the modern world. Carlos lived with and learned from Amish Farmers and Monks and began to see the freedom that was on the other side of disconnecting in order to reconnect. He wrote about his journey in his book called Reconnected: How 7 Screen Free Weeks With Monks and Amish Farmers Helped Me Recover the Lost Art of Being Human.

In this episode, Davey and Carlos talk about the impact our screens are having on our mental health, why silence and solitude are so important for our spiritual connection to God, and how to hear God's voice in our pain.

If you've noticed that you are more connected than ever and yet are left feeling completely disconnected from the parts of yourself and your relationships that make you human, this episode will invite you to discover how to stay present and connected to the very moments that make up your life.

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Episode 347- Tired of Being Tired with Jess Connolly

How do we experience true rest in a culture that demands striving and encourages fatigue? What does it even look like to live from a place of rest instead of burnout and exhaustion like most people around us do?

For author, pastor, speaker, and mom of four, Jess Connolly, these were the questions she had to wrestle with in the face of all the demands coming at her from her various roles. When life hit a fever pitch and she seemed to reach a breaking point in every way, she knew that she needed more than some sort of watered down self-care answer. She needed to find a way to truly live from a place of trust in the goodness of God to provide and carry her through the noise and speed of life around her. It was through her own journey of figuring out how to deal with the soul-deep exhaustion that she decided to take others along in her latest book, Tired of Being Tired: Receive God’s Realistic Rest for Your Soul-Deep Exhaustion.

In this episode, Aubrey and Jess talk about how difficult it is to find rest in our modern culture, the different ways fatigue can show up, and how to lead in our pain and grief.

If you are tired of being tired--mentally, physically and spiritually--this conversation will show you that you don't need the world's false versions of rest, but you need an encounter with the one who offers you true rest in the depths of your being.

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Episode 339- Nothing is Wasted Book: More to the Story with Mack Brock

How can music help us heal? What role does worship play in our most difficult seasons?

Songwriter, worship leader and singer Mack Brock has written countless songs that have helped people connect with God. But there is one song that became a rally cry for Davey Blackburn after losing his wife, Amanda and their unborn child in a home invasion. It was the song Nothing is Wasted by Elevation Worship. Mack was one of the songwriters and the singer on the release of that song. Mack could never have known that the words he penned years ago, would become a glimmer of hope to Davey in his darkest moment and a living reminder on which he would later build a ministry.

In this full circle conversation, Davey and Mack talk about the impact of the song Nothing is Wasted had on Davey personally, how God can use worship and music in our healing and why it is so important to take small steps of faith into a bigger, unforeseen purpose.

If you've ever been impacted by a song in your journey towards healing, this episode will teach you that God will use even the music that we hear to speak to us in our pain and remind us that nothing is wasted.

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Episode 333- The Narrow Path with Rich Villodas

What does God invite us into in our pain? How do we learn to bring our honest emotions and thoughts to God?

Pastor and author Rich Villodas has learned and taught others the importance of choosing honesty through lament when it comes to engaging with feelings of grief, anxiety and every other emotion that is a part of the human condition. As he has pastored in one of the most diverse parts of the country, he has walked with many individuals through their own stories of pain from their families of origin, loss, and disappointment and has led them towards the invitation from God to confess and name what they are feeling while leaning into the practice of lament.

In his latest book, The Narrow Way: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls, Rich teaches how the Sermon on the Mount is an invitation to a countercultural way of living that will lead to peace, love, and fulfillment in a generation where anxiety, depression, and polarizing politics seem to lead the way.

In this episode, Aubrey and Rich talk about why vulnerability and inner work are so important for both leaders and lay people alike, how we can begin to address our pain, and the difference between good and bad self-awareness.

If you have found yourself running from the reality of your pain, this conversation will encourage you to take the brave step of facing what you're feeling and allow God to meet you in the truth of where you are.

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