Diverse by Design // Taja Wright

Embodied as a Woman // Savannah

This is PART TWO of my conversation with Sav!! We dive more intentionally into the concept of embodiment as a woman, specifically talking about themes of purity, femininity, and beauty. We reference prominent women in church history that help inform the way we see our bodies, and the way they are perceived by culture as well as our own personal experiences.

Becoming Embodied Believers // Savannah

Do you ever wonder how the terms "spirit" and "flesh" relate to our "physical" bodies and "spiritual" souls? Is there a correlation, if at all? Savannah is studying to get her Masters in Divinity at Lipscomb University, and passionately believes in understanding the way our physical bodies impact and effect our faith. In this episode, we talk about the danger of "disembodied" faith, one that purely exists in our rooms and in our heads, arguably preventing a fully transformed life. For all you church history nerds, we get into that quite a bit as well, discussing what we can learn from the church leaders before us. This is PART ONE of our discussion, with part two to come out next week!

Being single isn't scary // Joy Beth

We hear the language all the time: that "singleness is a gift" or to enjoy the "season of singleness" while you have it. There are too many mixed messages in American Christian culture surrounding dating and marriage, and it can seem really confusing to parse through the noise to find what is true. In this episode, Joy Beth shares how as a 40 year old woman, she continues to nurture a deep desire and calling for marriage amidst her experience growing up in the south navigating cultural expectations. This episode was deeply inspiring and encouraging for me as a single person who both hopes for marriage and also finds deep joy in singleness!

Diverse by Design // Taja Wright

This is PART TWO of my conversation with Taja, where we dive more deeply into how her mixed race upbringing has uniquely shaped the way she views herself and our culture. There is so much beauty in the diversity of God's creation, and we talk about the importance in recognizing this as we seek to love and understand each other. We chat about empathy and sympathy, how we can't always understand each other's experiences, and how the Spirit and following Jesus allows us to uniquely see each other despite our differences.

Loving Others without Pleasing Them // Taja Wright

As people who follow Jesus, we know our command is to love God and others. However, sometimes we can fall into not loving others, but pleasing them. In this pilot episode of a new mini IDENTITY series, I bring on one of my longest friends to talk about how the Lord revealed her misplaced identity through a period of forced isolation.