And Sons

How does the trained professional survive hard times? By simplifying. It is the dominant strategy of the mature through the ages: double down on first principles. But those skills don't just magically appear in the moment of need. We learn by doing. Only then can we rely on past training and muscle memory. Hard times reveal the areas where we've grown soft and need to return to basics. Who could you become if you saw this season as real-life training rather than simply waiting for life to go back to how it was?

We live in unprecedented times where scarcity and fear strike in the middle of the day and the dead of night. Yet God promises to provide and sustain us. How can we hold to the belief that God is good when circumstances shout otherwise? Hebrew scholars (and self-proclaimed nerds) Scott and Mandy unpack how Psalm 91 is our rescue once we realize what the invitation to take shelter under the shadow of the most high God really means.

When hard times hit the fan, how shaky is your foundation? The pull is often to gain control...or at least more information. But doing so causes us to miss the deeper initiation. With God, we are fundamentally safe even when nothing in our world is safe. That's because true hope never rests in things being better than they are - but in God's nature and his promise to ultimately make all things right.

What did God mean when he meant Sabbath? Most of us have no clue. Culture and tradition have made it boring and burdensome. So we shrug and settle for a nap or a beer. But something's been lost. What if God's original intent was for it to be a day of delight rather than simply a time to re-charge for Monday? Discover how to reclaim the Sabbath as a time of feasting, savoring, celebrating, and remembering what matters most.

How do you avoid losing hope? For better or worse, it's an everyday question. Answer? It may mean doing the hard thing, which is adoring God in the middle of the mess. Problem is, you can't adore a God you don't know or allow to know you. We sat down with Sara Hagerty to talk about her counterintuitive book, Adore. It's about what happens when we expose our interior life go God, create an evidence list with the attributes of God, and allow the landscape of our minds to be reclaimed by what's true. Adore is the place where the grit of your day collides with the beauty of God's presence.

Where to start? Brad Beck has flown T-38s, worked at NASA, traveled the world, been an ER doc, and that’s only half the story. And even so, he’s still great to work with. We sat down for a conversation about calling. How do you walk it out, one step at a time? How do you transition through what seem to be distinct careers? How do you get through grueling seasons? And how to you hold on to the epic once you’ve flown training fighter jets? Turns out, it all comes down to a life with God, and concrete experiences of God that shape your vision. This is a conversation for every young man who’s in the middle of it all.

It is, unfortunately, a common experience: you enter a room, and everyone else seems to belong there. But not you - you're the outsider. And then comes the impulse to get out, check out, hide. In this episode, Blaine and Sam sit down with Allen Arnold, a regular voice on the Ransomed Heart podcast, to unpack the urge to hide: where does it come from, how do you get to its root in your story, and what do you do to engage anyway. From generational norms to the silence of Adam, distrusting people to the reliability of Jesus, this is a podcast on how to take hold of God's interpretation of your story. And then you can relate through it.

144 | Everyone Else Has it Easier, Right? by And Sons

What do we do when, not if, we face criticism? Often the critique has truth in it, but the internal messages that go along with it aren't the most accurate. Our culture has become a dehumanizing and critical one, but even when the criticism is nothing more than a difficult conversation, there are ways we can learn to navigate well.

An elegant tool, from a more civilized time. Wait, that's not right. A simple tool, for a cluttered time? Better. Pursuing joy and life can feel like uphill and difficult choices in every direction. But what if joy isn't as far away as we think?

Dreams (and we mean aspirations) are difficult. They are, on the one hand, a way God tells you about your future. They are, on the other, vulnerable, sabotaged, and often unrealized. In this episode, Sam and Blaine unpack dreams. What does it mean to share part of God’s heart for creation? What does it mean to see an unrealized potential in the world no one else sees? Because dreaming is, in fact, meant to show God’s heart to the world. But, because we live in this story and not another, dreams are usually intertwined with deep pain. Sam and Blaine explore dream-care as soul-care, whole-heartedness, and the loving act that is making your dreams available to God.

I mean, who needs a description for an episode like this? Ok ok. Blaine and Sam are joined by Susie, Sam's wife, this week to talk about marriage and the longing that has surfaced lately. It's a conversation in-process, without an answer, that we hope you may benefit from in the ways it may apply to, or reveal things in, your life.

FRAMING THE SEASON 1. What are you doing, Jesus, in me in this season? 2. What’s the theme of this season? 3. What do I need to know about my role in your larger mission for this season? 4. What prophetic words, images, or instructions do you want to call to mind to frame this season? 5. What are you doing in my (area of concern: work, marriage, house search, job search, etc) in particular? UNDERSTANDING THE OPPOSITION 1. What warfare is set against me in this season? What strategies is the enemy employing in an attempt to undermine your work, Jesus? 2. Who’s in charge (the ranking foul spirit)? 3. What is set against my marriage (or area of concern from above), in particular? 4. What in my flesh is vulnerable, or in the way of what you’d like to do? 5. What in the World is particularly opposed to your work in this season? TAKING HOLD OF THE PROVISION 1. What is your provision in this season? What is it in you, Jesus, and in your kingdom and work, that overwhelms and envelops the opposition as I take hold of it? 2. Provision for the warfare? 3. Provision for the opposition of my flesh? 4. Provision for the opposition of the world? 5. What personal instructions to you have for me to help my alignment with you in this season? 6. Anything else?

Referenced in the show: Space, Time, and Incarnation Thomas F. Torrance Deus Caritas Est by Pope Benedict Fill These Hearts by Christopher West For Sigmund Freud, nephew Edward Bernays, and marketing, PR! - A Social History of Spin by Stewart Ewan Nephesh by the Bible Project Ruach by the Bible Project

Merry Christmas from And Sons by And Sons