Unhurried Living

Today, Alan shares a recent conversation with his wife and partner in Unhurried Living, Gem, and their friend Matt Fogle, about the chapter on “Resistance” in What Does Your Soul Love? The key question that frames that chapter is, “What is getting in your way?” We’re tempted that the main things that get in our way are out there somewhere. We assume that if other people were more cooperative, things would be dramatically better for us. But so often the main things that get in our own way actually arises from within us. We have old habits of getting what we want and need without much reference to God. There are still remnants of practical atheism embedded in these habits.  We really think you’re going to find this episode helpful as you continue to make your way forward on the transforming journey on which Christ has invited you.Learn more about Alan on the Unhurried Living website. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-

Today, I’m sharing a conversation I had a while back with Mark Scandrette about  his book, The Ninefold Path of Jesus. In it, he shares his experience of seeking to live more deeply and faithfully into the nine beatitudes that begin what some call Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In his book, Mark shares a beautiful vision of what it might look like if we practiced the beatitudes as a way of following Jesus more closely and faithfully.  I love how Mark casts a vision for the kind of life Jesus considers blessed. So often, the culture around us suggests that the good life is in achieving more, or acquiring more, or impressing more people. But Jesus seems to say that a life of abundant goodness is found somehow in being more like him. He lived an abundant life. His way of treating people was remarkable. He was full of love, of joy, of peace, of all the things we seek. It’s good when we let Jesus define what a good life for us would be like.  We invite you to connect with Mark on social media on Instagram and Faceboo

Your first tooth…Your first day of kindergarten…Your first car…Your first kiss…Your first home.  Life is full of firsts. We spend our lifetime taking first steps that lead to growing up and maturing into functioning adults.Along the way, our souls are taking first steps as well. The first time we heard about God. The first time we heard the name of Jesus. The first time we saw an answer to prayer. The first time we acted on His behalf, in the care of another. And, yes, the first time it all came crashing down around us.Today, I’d like to share with you three of my firsts. Turning points in my relationship with and understanding of God. Connect with Gem on Instagram and learn more about her coaching and community groups. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

“What do you really want?” It’s a deceptively simple question, but the longer we live with it the more we realize we want so many different things at so many different levels to so many different degrees. It’s actually a genius question to surface that it is that our soul actually wants. This week Alan is sinking in deeper on a chapter of his and Gem's book, What Does Your Soul Love? Eight Questions That Reveal God’s Work in You.  The chapter is on Desire and the question that lies at the heart of that chapter is, “What do you really want?”  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

When was the last time you had a leisurely conversation? Do you find yourself talking fast, and cutting people short so that you can get on with whatever you were doing? It’s not your fault, it’s in the cultural air we breathe.We may assume that others are busy and we are likely in their way. Or we think the same about ourselves: I don’t have time for this!Most people these days don’t have someone who just simply listens to them. Many are over-connected on tech gadgets and yet are starving relationally. Listening is one very practical gift we can give to our fellow travelers that may soothe their soul.  Connect with Gem in a variety of ways:InstagramFacebookUnhurried LivingReplenish Community Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Hebrews 11:1 says, “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living.”So, if you are in a place of ongoing inner healing:How might you honor and respect where you are?What does waiting look like for you in this season?What are some ways your “faith roots” can sink even deeper into God in the midst?And, if you are walking alongside someone else who is in a place of ongoing inner healing:How might you honor and respect where they are?How might Hebrews 11:1 inform how you pray for them?How might you be a listening (with a non-fixing) ear as they process their not-yet state?We invite you to connect with Gem Fadling via Instagram and Facebook, or learn more about and connect with her Replenish community. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

In this week’s episode of the Unhurried Living podcast, I’m talking with Mike MacKenzie from Marble Retreat in Colorado about the issues that lie under our issues. He’s written a book called Don’t Blow Up Your Ministry that highlights how we sometimes think that if only we could solve our tiredness or our struggles with temptation we’d be all set, when in fact there are often deeper issues that are draining us or making us more vulnerable. For example, Mike shares that a lot of us in Christian leadership have an immense amount of intellectual knowledge of spiritual disciplines, of spiritual formation, or of any number of good things for our souls. But, the challenge is that we know them but don’t act on them much. Jesus said something very interesting in the Upper Room after he’d washed his disciples’ feet. He said, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them (Jn 13:17).”  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaud

This week, the Unhurried Living Podcast begins an occasional series based on the book Gem and Alan wrote two years ago: "What Does Your Soul Love? Eight Questions That Reveal God’s Work in You".   This important book, at its heart, is a basic assumption that Gem and Alan have lived with for decades... God invites us to change over our lifetimes.   Biblical language for this change is “being transformed.”  ** God is seeking to transform our more selfish tendencies into more loving and selfless ones.  ** God is seeking to change our perspectives from despairing to hopeful, from fearful to kingdom confident, from anxious to peaceful.  ** God seeks to transform the focus of our work so that it is more rootedness in kingdom values and kingdom goals.   Change like this is good news.We invite you listen and enjoy.  Learn more about Alan and Gem and Unhurried Living.  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

One of my favorite Dallas Willard quotes is this:“The path of spiritual growth in the riches of Christ is not a passive one. Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. Effort is action. Earning is attitude. You have never seen people more active than those who have been set on fire by the grace of God.” (CHRISTIAN HERALD (U.K.) 14 APRIL 2001.)That’s good stuff, isn’t it?People often mistake an unhurried life as one of shorter to do lists and greater passivity. That is absolutely not the case. We continue to point to Jesus as our WAY of life. Jesus engaged a full and active life, but he was not hurried. Likewise, we can be outwardly active and inwardly unhurried.This gets to the idea of “effort as action” that Willard suggests. We need not earn anything. This is the grace about which Willard speaks. The wider context of this quote is grace, but I’d like to focus for a moment on the specific idea of “effort” under grace. What does that look like?Connect with Gem on Instagram or visit her at the U

Remember when devices were not omnipresent in our lives. Life before email, before text messages, before mobile phones and personal computers. It feels like a completely different era of life and hard to remember what it was like.  There is so much that our devices do to serve us. And they are wonderful when they serve, but not so wonderful when they become our masters.  Today on the Unhurried Living Podcast, we’re talking about a new book from Felicia Wu Song, "Restless Devices", helping us  identify how our devices have a way of making our lives more restless than restful.  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

If you’ve walked in snow you know the feeling of being the first to step in the untouched wonder. As we enjoyed our winter walk, we came up on a patch that felt a little unwieldy to me. So I asked Alan if he would go ahead of me and test out the path first. That’s a great wife move, right?!As I looked down at the path that Alan was creating for me with his big boots, a random thought about leadership slipped into my mind. It didn’t take me long to realize that it was the spirit sharing with me an early life lesson.Enjoy this episode of I Can Do That!Follow Gem on Instagram or learn more about her at Unhurried Living Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

In episode #2 of this podcast I introduced the posture of transformation: open, aware and willing. (Or OAW for short). Today I’d like to look at the humble way of transformation. And it’s three words you hear me say at the end of every episode: small, simple and gracious.When it comes to change, herculean moves rarely keep us on the path. Sure, we may have some audacious goals. I know I do. But how do you reach a goal? You take one step at a time. Especially if you are working on your inner growth process. Changing old patterns is a long and, at times, arduous road. That’s why we go slow and we keep it small, simple and gracious. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Today on the Unhurried Living Podcast, we’re talking about the spiritual practice of silence. We’ve heard lots of authors and spiritual writers talk about how important the practice of silence is, but a whole lot of us struggle to figure out exactly how that might work in our actual lives.   We feel too busy. Or we feel there’s too much to do to spend any significant time alone and quiet. But the practice of silence is a place where we learn how to listen well, how to be more present to God, to others and to our own actual thoughts and intentions. It’s a place where we let the swirl of thoughts and feelings that fill us to gradually settle until we can be just a little more receptive, attentive and responsive to God. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Today's Unhurried Living episode is on a theme that a lot of us work pretty hard to avoid: aging. We’d much rather talk about how to stay young than address the realities of growing older. I celebrated my sixtieth birthday this year. It was the first decade birthday that has had a lingering impact on me. Thirty, forty and fifty came and went for me, but sixty has been a year of reflection and many questions.  So today I'm chatting with Alice Fryling, spiritual director and author, on her latest book, "Aging Faithfully". I hope you find it as insightful, encouraging and hopeful as I did, no matter what decade of life you are currently in.  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Today I’m offering five simple dynamics to engage as we move into 2022. And, I know, I’ve used a corny rhyming pattern for them, but I couldn’t help myself. I’m hoping this helps you retain what I’m sharing. It’s time to…FeelGet realKneelHealMake a deal I told you it was a corny rhyme. But there is nothing corny about taking care of yourself, body, mind and soul.   Follow Gem on IG @gemfadling or learn more about her work at Unhurried Living (maybe even join her in a community or coaching group). Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Well, we’ve made it through 2021. I don’t know about you, but this year seemed to fly by compared to 2020. Time is funny, isn’t it. It’s actually moving along at the same pace all the time, and yet our perception of it shifts.   We haven’t figured out how to stop time…yet, but I’d like to offer a practice that can help you capture more meaning out of the time you have. This is a great end of the year process and it’s very simple.   A few years ago I was listening to an interview with public radio personality, Ira Glass. He was talking about the process of good storytelling. And it all came down to two words: ACTION and REFLECTION This makes sense, right? We do something and then we reflect on it. We act and then we ponder the action’s meaning. But here’s the thing…we aren’t a very reflective society and most of the time reflection falls by the wayside. Learn more about Gem  on the Unhurried Living website and follow her on Instagram.  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about a

Love is our focus as this is now the fourth week of Advent. I trust over the course of our Advent weeks together you have enjoyed sinking further into the love of God, the grace of Jesus and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Is your heart a little more ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus? Today I simply invite you to enjoy another imaginative prayer. We’re going to picture ourselves at the beach, my favorite place. And we’re going to engage the invitation to drink deeply of God’s all-encompassing love. Learn more about Gem  on the Unhurried Living website and follow her on Instagram.  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

We’re in the Advent week of joy. This is our third week of sinking into the season  by experiencing a spiritual practice together. Let’s keep ourselves grounded in our Wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father and prince of peace. On today’s episode I’ll guide you through the Carry Prayer as you bring your need for healing to Jesus.Learn more about Gem  on the Unhurried Living website and follow her on Instagram.  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

In the last chapter of An Unhurried Leader, I talked about the difference between our working for God and working with God. There is a way for us to do our work in a way that imagines God is elsewhere, assigning us work to do but mostly waiting for us to do it ourselves.   It’s a beautiful thing to realize that whatever our work, paid or freely given, we can do our work with God. We aren’t alone in the work we do. Our work is simply one more way we can live our lives in collaborative friendship with God.   That's where we are headed on this week's episode of The Unhurried Living Podcast. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

This is the second week of Advent and our focus is peace. Over the course of Advent I’m sharing one helpful spiritual practice per week to help us stay centered on the season. Today we are going to try on a practice called SLOW. SLOW stands for stop, linger, observe and wonder. You can use SLOW right there in the middle of a busy day. This idea first came to mind when I would catch myself feeling stressed but didn’t really know why. Sometimes it’s just a habit I carry. So I would stop, drop my shoulders and try to become present in the moment. SLOW emerged from my own need to choose a different way to make my way through my day. As we focus on peace this week, I do pray that SLOW will help you lower your shoulders, as again, we learn to let go and receive what the Prince of Peace offers to us.   Let’s try SLOWing together.Learn more about Gem  on the Unhurried Living website and follow her on Instagram.  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at