Unhurried Living | Helping Christians Rest Deeper & Lead Better

A few years ago I read Thomas Kelly’s A Testament of Devotion. He put into eloquent prose a dynamic that I had experienced, but had not yet found words to describe. There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings. . . . In a deeply religious culture people know that the deep level of prayer and of divine attendance is the most important thing in the world. It is at this deep level that the real business of life is determined. . . . Between the two levels is fruitful interplay, but ever the accent must be upon the deeper level, where the soul ever dwells in the presence of the Holy One. Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1941), 9.  ______________________________________________________Follow Gem on Instagram and grab a copy of her new book Hold That Thought. You can also join her in the Replenish Community. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

I’ve been a reader of the New Testament for forty-five years now. I’m still grateful for the wisdom and life guidance I find in those pages. Checking my current favorite NIV Bible, I realize that the New Testament takes up 225 pages. That’s about the length of many of the books I talk with authors about on this podcast. What I mean to say is that it isn’t as big as I sometimes imagine.And I realize is that I can easily get into habits, even ruts, when it comes to how I understand what I’m reading in these pages. That’s why I’m glad to share my recent conversation with Dr. Scot McKnight about his recent translation of the New Testament called The Second Testament. In reading through familiar passages in it, I found myself challenged and awakened to the New Testament in quite a helpful way. I think you’ll find what he shares about this translation to be very life-giving.Right after my conversation with Scot, my wife, Gem, and I have a brief conversation about our experience of The Second Testament. Be sure to stay with the episode for those thoughts. Scot McKnight serves as Julius R. Mantey Chair of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. He is the author of many books, including Reading Romans Backwards, Pastor Paul, The King Jesus Gospel, and commentaries on James, Galatians, and 1 Peter. He is also the coeditor of the Story of God commentary series and general editor of the forthcoming second edition of the Dictionary of Paul and His Letters. _________________________________________________________Connect with Alan on LinkedIn or learn more about Unhurried Living programs on their website.  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Transition. How do you feel when you hear this word?For some, transitions are welcome because it’s a movement from one place to another.For others, transitions are unwelcome for the same reason. Change can be disconcerting.But whatever you feel about transitions, that’s where we’re headed today in our conversation. ______________________________________________________Follow Gem on Instagram and grab a copy of her new book Hold That Thought. You can also join her in the Replenish Community. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

They say that authors often write books that they themselves need. That has certainly been true when it comes to what I’ve written about Jesus’s rhythms of work and rest. I have a deep-seated efficiency and productivity engine inside me.  While this has often served me well in my work, it has also gotten in the way when it comes to entering into God’s gift of rest for me. It still feels like a discipline to stop producing and to simply embrace rest. When I do, I experience the grace and kindness of God. But it’s still often a challenge. Today I am talking about the counterfeits of true rest when it comes to our work and our relationship with God._________________________________________________________Connect with Alan on LinkedIn or learn more about Unhurried Living programs on their website.  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Today we're talking about being a mentoring presence, or wise woman, in the lives of others. This really is an encouragement to any woman listening to think of herself as a wise woman in the life of another.The actress, Julia Louis Dreyfus, has a new podcast called “Wiser Than Me.” She is 62 and she interviews women who are older than her. She asks questions so that she can glean life wisdom from other women’s life experiences. So our question today is this: how am I living my life so that, over time, I can become a wise woman. And how am I offering myself to others in this way…all along the way. ______________________________________________________Follow Gem on Instagram and grab a copy of her new book Hold That Thought. You can also join her in the Replenish Community. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

I have long been a great appreciator of the writings of Eugene Peterson. I realized recently that one of my first introductions to the idea of an unhurried life was from his book The Contemplative Pastor. I still have my 1989 hardcover edition of that book. It it, he has a chapter in which he invited pastors like me to become an “unbusy pastor.” I’m grateful for a full shelf of his books that have taught and mentored me over the decades.  But recently, InterVarsity Press released an expanded edition of one of his early books titled Traveling Light: Galatians and the Free Life in Christ. I couldn’t believe there was a Peterson book I’d failed to find and read. It’s a beautiful exposition of Paul’s letter to the church at Galatia on the theme of Christian freedom.  And today, I have the joy of interviewing Eugene Peterson’s son, Eric, who is also a pastor and was willing to talk about this re-released title.  Eric E. Peterson, a native of Maryland, is now a Northwest transplant, having lived in Washington State for the last thirty years. He is a village pastor of the Presbyterian church he founded in 1997. His first book, Wade in the Water, represents a pastoral perspective on the power of baptism to lead people more deeply into a sacred way of life. Peterson has a home in the woods just north of Spokane where he lives with his wife, Elizabeth and three children.   Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

My first book, An Unhurried Life, which was published over ten years ago, had this as it’s subtitle: “Following Jesus' Rhythms of Work and Rest.” Knowing what I know now about our great cultural struggle to rest well, I might have changed that to: “Following Jesus’ Rhythms of Rest and Work. It’s not that rest is more important than work. It’s that real rest is so neglected these days.  And many of us are feeling our need for real rest more today than perhaps we ever have. Getting better sleep, setting aside a day a week not measured by productivity or accomplishment, even guarding some weeks each year to really rest is something most of us still struggle to do.  Today, I’ll share seven reasons we don’t rest well. They aren’t theoretical for me. They are reasons I’ve struggled with entering into the gift of rest that God has always been offering me. I hope some of these will ring true to you as well, and just might help you move through some of these resistances, misbeliefs and challenges to a place of deeper rest of body and soul with God.  _________________________________________________________Connect with Alan on LinkedIn or learn more about Unhurried Living programs on their website.  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Are you now, or have you recently been, in a difficult situation? Most of us have at least one circumstance in our lives, at any given point, that isn’t going the way we had hoped. Today I’m sharing a personal story of climbing a mountain at high elevation. Together, we’ll look at it literally and metaphorically.______________________________________________________Follow Gem on Instagram and grab a copy of her new book Hold That Thought. You can also join her in the Replenish Community. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

It’s been nearly 45 years ago that I attended a jazz concert sponsored by a Sacramento area church. I was invited to it by my boss, Jim. I had been working for him for a year or two at the Magic Tunnel Car Wash. It was at that concert that Jim’s life, shaped as it was by his love for Jesus, came to make sense to me. When someone asked me why I’d come forward at the end of the concert, my answer was simply, “I want what Jim has.”  It was that simple focus on Jesus in Jim’s life and in that little community that drew me into a new way of living and, eventually, into the vocational focus of my life. And refocusing on Jesus along my journey has been what has renewed me, even revived me, when my life began to feel heavy, or wayward, or empty.  All of this is why I’m so happy to be talking with Todd Hunter, my bishop and my friend, about his new book What Jesus Intended: Finding True Faith in the Rubble of Bad Religion. Doesn’t that title speak to where so many of us find ourselves these days?  The Rt. Rev. Dr. Todd Hunter is the founder of The Center for Formation, Justice and Peace. He is past president of Alpha USA, former national director for the Association of Vineyard Churches, and retired founding pastor of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Costa Mesa, CA. He is the author of many books, including Christianity Beyond Belief: Following Jesus for the Sake of Others, Giving Church Another Chance,  Our Character at Work and Deep Peace. He writes a weekly newsletter, The Gospel of the Kingdom, that you can find on Substack. Todd also happens to be my bishop and my friend.  _________________________________________________________Connect with Alan on LinkedIn or learn more about Unhurried Living programs on their website.  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

The theme of today’s episode has been fermenting in my thinking and in my rhythm of life for a while now. In fact, I’ll be sharing four episodes this season about rest. Today, I’m going to share some ideas about how exactly might we cultivate a good rest ethic. It’s something with which we’re much less familiar as a culture than a good “work ethic,” but it’s just as important. _________________________________________________________Connect with Alan on LinkedIn or learn more about Unhurried Living programs on their website.  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.