The Presence Project Podcast

Before we burst into this new year armed with color-coded goal charts and shouldering the weight of a personal-reno project, let's be gentle with ourselves.  Let's sit down on the seam of the year and remember who and Whose we are.  Want to read along? Find the transcript at SummerJoyGross.com

The way a shepherd tends the bummer lambs who have been abandoned by their mothers deepen our view of our Shepherd. This is your invitation In the Presence Project, we're focusing on the character of God through the scriptures and music of Handel's Messiah this Advent. In the end of a hard year, I'm regaining my equilibrium through worship. Join me? https://mailchi.mp/athirstforgod.com/messiahadvent Music from the MIT concert choir found here:  http://hebb.mit.edu/FreeMusic/MIT_Music/Handel/

Join the 16 day Advent Journey here.   Maybe you're like me and you feel the darkness pressing in this year. This Advent I want to spend all of my time gazing on the light of Christ. Captivated. Worshipping. Together, let's become captivated by our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Handel's Messiah along with these quiet devotionals are just what we need after 2020 to bring our gaze back to our Prince of Peace.

And here's my embarrassing truth: Gratitude has always felt a little like a box to check off, more duty than delight. For years, I've checked off the box faithfully knowing it was vital for mental, spiritual, and emotional health, but honestly, it felt a bit like taking vitamins. But interactive gratitude, the first stage in Immanuel Journaling, has surprised me with its power. It's been like discovering a key I didn't know existed to enter into deeper delight with God. A key to a door to mutual delight. Did you read or watch Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett as a kid? Think discovering the key under hanging vines of low expectations and turning it in a rusty old lock that didn't appear promising but opening the door to security, the loveliest walled safety, to a profusion of beauty, to ongoing revelation. And could anything be more important than joy and delight in a time period perforated with a steady influx of grief and anxiety? Who couldn't handle more delight in 2020? 

Through the structure of Immanuel Journaling, God metabolized emotion with us so it didn't have time to metastasize into trauma. 

Our emotions are just messengers that there's something underneath that's trying to get our attention. They are an invitation to listen to the tender places of our heart. And God loves listening with us.  Summerjoygross.com patreon.com/thepresenceproject    

K. J. Ramsey and Summer Gross talk life with COVID19, grief, and the brain science of anxiety, giving practical tips for our journey back to awareness of our Prince of Peace. Finally, Summer leads us through an Ignatian style scripture practice where we can walk into the gospel story of Jesus blessing the children.   

Truth is, sometimes connecting with God in the middle of chaos and anxiety can be near impossible. Anxiety disconnects our prefrontal cortex, making it difficult for us to be rational and relational.  During times like this, the world feels off-kilter. We feel off-kilter. Today I'm going to walk us through an Ignatian scripture exercise of Mark 4:35-40 using holy imagination and the senses. Why? The senses ground our anxiety and then heighten our ability to focus.

How the story of the transfiguration of Jesus is the key to our transformation. There are two invitations when we're walking through pain: to lament + to Worship. To pour out our lament with an empathetic listener and also to lift our eyes to the throne, fix our eyes on Jesus, and find our story within his larger story.

But in spiritual matchmaking there's a different law at play, we cannot conjure up desire in our own strength. It also says that we can't formula our way to relationship. We can't perform our way to wonder and mystery. And that wisdom is not a currency to count before fellow church members nor is information the path to a deep rooted love. It can be a part of the path, learning the topography, learning the facts on the ground.   And sure, we can chase desire like a couple in marriage counseling positioning ourselves in the flow of first things, but we can't perform our way into connection. We can't tick off a to-do list and create communion.    God is not a destination or a list of truths to dominate. God is a Person.

Aundi Kolber talks with me about attachment styles, a new view for anxiety, and looking at spiritual practices through a trauma-informed lens. What happens when spiritual practices like silence trigger you? You Try Softer.

I loved reading chapter 1 of The Emmanuel Promise for you. You can watch me read it to you over at YouTube HERE. PRE-ORDER The Emmanuel Promise: Discover the Security of a Life Held by God wherever you find your books. $11.39 and free shipping at Baker Publishing's own site HERE. At this price, you can be generous with your whole book group. Pre-Order on Amazon here. Then, get your pre-order gifts HERE, including 2 private podcasts.

This episode is DAY 1 of a private 7-Day podcast devotional called "Welcome Home," a gift for anyone who pre-orders The Emmanuel Promise.  Pre-order from Baker Publishing for $11.39 and free shipping here! Pre-order from Amazon here After pre-ordering, get your gifts and join the launch team here. The Emmanuel Promise is an invitation to set down shame and recognize that your attachment story, your earliest relationship with your caregiver, may be what's obstructing your relationship with God. Your caregivers were human. Limited. Living with their own broken and imperfect story. God's love is lavish. He's . Compassionate. Perfect. But, since our neural pathways for relationships were created in those first three years, our brains have to be rewired to Perfect Love.  

The neural pathways for relationship are developed in the first three years of a person's life. This affects even our relationship with God and is at the heart of attachment theory. Therapist Maggie Rhine, the head of the Healing Care Center, tells the story of her struggle to gain a secure attachment after having multiple surgeries as an infant.  "Looking at our attachment stories is not dishonoring to our parents. So many of them did the best they could. It is not blameworthy, or shame-worthy, but it is grief-worthy and we've got to name it and bring it into the presence of God so we can heal." Maggie Rhine Order Summer's book and learn more about how your attachment story has affected your relationship with God here: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/5... or here: https://a.co/d/4g3xdRX   Find out more about the Healing Care Center where Maggie and other experts work, a place where you can do intensive work on your attachment story, here: https://www.thehealingcarecenter.org/

Attachment theory and the many obstacles to a life immersed in the Trinity's Love Honest conversation about detaching to attach in our marriages Understanding our attachment story and style in order to heal and live out of knowing you are God's beloved. The simple, but profound spiritual practices which have been a gift for Terry Experience Terry Wardle lead you into Jesus' Presence through Safe Place   Pre-order The Emmanuel Promise: Discovering the Security of a Life Held by God  with Baker for 11.49! HERE on Amazon HERE or wherever you get your books.   Check out Healing Care Ministries amazing offerings HERE   Terry Wardle has written a treasure trove of incredible books including Identity Matters and one of my favorites, Every Breath We Take, a book every Presence Project Listener will LOVE.   He also has a weekly podcast called Slingstones: Listen here.

The insecure anxious attached hope to get an "A" in Lent to try to be more worthy for God. They're afraid they have to clean themselves up before God wants to be in their presence. The insecure avoidant attached like to keep things more intellectual, reading about someone else's Lent. If they have sin in their lives, they think they have to go at it alone. The truth is that the Holy Spirit wants to be the One in charge of inviting us to new areas of increased freedom. He wants us to come to Him to become unbound. We were never meant to do this alone.  ............................................... PRE-ORDER The Emmanuel Promise: Discover the Security of a Life Held by God From Baker Publishing for $11.39 HERE From Amazon HERE Receive a mini-retreat right to your inbox based on podcast episodes by signing up HERE. I call it the Slow Weekend Starter Kit. 

Preorder THE EMMANUEL PROMISE: Discover the Security of a Life Held by God Neuroscience. Attachment theory. The stories that shape our image of God AND the spiritual practices that invite us to experience His tender love to build attachment.  Just $11.39. Arrives April 30th   Writer  Summer Gross @revsummerjoy on Instagram The Presence Project on Patreon for monthly groups and online retreats The Presence Project on Facebook http://www.summerjoygross.com   Jodi Grubbs @jodi.grubbs on Instagram Live Slowly: A Gentle Invitation to Exhale ALSO on April 30th   Julianne Clayton: @juleclayton on Instagram Listen to the Remind{h}er podcast here.   Bette Dickinson @bette_dickinson on Instagram https://www.bettedickinson.com/ https://www.bettedickinson.com/all-art   Kris Camealy: @kriscamealy on Instagram https://www.kriscamealy.com/ An illustration of her sweet mixed media makings Kris' podcast: Refine Retreat, the podcast   Maeve Gerboth: @maeve_gerboth on Instagram Explore spiritual direction with Maeve.   Books and Resources: Kate Bowler On Being with Krista Tippett: On Having a Body https://onbeing.org/programs/kate-bowler-on-being-in-a-body/ Celtic Benedictions with J. Philip Newell Jamie Winship: Fearless Living Tanner Olson: Walking a Little Slower  David Benner: Soulful Spirituality John O'Donohue: Bless the Place Between Us  Get Summer's free resource to move through tangled emotions here.  

Show Notes for Episode 66 with Alan Fadling:   Pre-order The Emmanuel Promise by Summer Gross for $11.39!!! HERE Find A Year of Slowing Down: Daily Devotions for Unhurried Living by Alan Fadling HERE Pre-order Alan Fadling's newest book, A Non Anxious Life: Experiencing the Peace of God's Presence which releases February 6th. Pre-Order here. Buy Steve Macchia's accessible book on Rule of Life: Crafting a Rule of Life HERE. Get Margaret Silf's book Inner Compass with chapters on Holy Desire HERE. Join Summer's twice-monthly retreat, Table of the Beloved to work on our Rule of Life together HERE. Get Summer's newsletter to receive mini-retreats through your inbox as well as more resources for your life as His Beloved HERE

Show Notes for Episode 66 with Alan Fadling:   Pre-order The Emmanuel Promise by Summer Gross for $11.39!!! HERE Find A Year of Slowing Down: Daily Devotions for Unhurried Living by Alan Fadling HERE Pre-order Alan Fadling's newest book, A Non Anxious Life: Experiencing the Peace of God's Presence which releases February 6th. Pre-Order here. Buy Steve Macchia's accessible book on Rule of Life: Crafting a Rule of Life HERE. Get Margaret Silf's book Inner Compass with chapters on Holy Desire HERE. Join Summer's twice-monthly retreat, Table of the Beloved to work on our Rule of Life together HERE. Get Summer's newsletter to receive mini-retreats through your inbox as well as more resources for your life as His Beloved HERE

What if we were invited to savor the holidays, the moments of delight we initiated as well as the unforeseen joys, all as gifts from our Emmanuel? For many, the holidays are full of reminders of pain and we either overschedule ourselves or numb, hoping not to pop up until after January 1st when all the painful nostalgia is over. Barb McMaster, a member of the Presence Project shares her practice of creating a delight list, the neuroscience of why it matters, and how we can experience God's joy in our joy. Episode 65 show notes: Pre-Order The Emmanuel Promise: Discovering the Security of a Life Held with God here from Baker Books. And friends, thank you. Your pre-orders are the way booksellers make decisions of what books to stock on their shelves. FREE Savoring Christmas Delight Journal: Click here to start your journey to more joy this holiday Need to know that God sees you in the middle of your heaviness this holiday? Click here for the FREE Workbook will walk you through.  Barb McMaster, who was my conversation partner this episode, and a thoughtful and articulate guide, has created a podcast here. You can join the Presence Project including the twice-monthly retreat called Table of the Beloved @ www.patreon.com/thepresenceproject