A practice that has meant a lot to me over the years has been praying scripture very personally. In the past, I was sometimes guilty of reading scripture at arm’s length. By that, I mean that I would study what certain words meant in original languages, I would read what others thought about the scriptures in commentaries, and I would talk about the scriptures as true and good. But I wouldn’t take them in. I wouldn’t see them intersecting with my actual life as I found it at...

 In his book, "The Sacred Enneagram", Chris Heuertz states, “Real transformation takes place when we pair the self-awareness that the Enneagram stimulates with the silence of contemplative practice. Then our unique path to spiritual growth emerges, and we will never be the same.”

I could not be more thrilled to have Chris Heuertz as my guest today. What he is bringing to the Enneagram conversation is crucial. In his own unique way, he shares the integration of the practices...

In Holy Week, we remember Maundy Thursday and an upper room where Jesus shares a meal with his friends and shows his love by washing their feet. On Good Friday, we remember the suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross. On Easter, we celebrate a risen Savior. But on Holy Saturday, we have a tomb. And the tomb at this point in the story isn’t yet empty.

Holy Saturday is the silence between the “It is finished” of Good Friday and the “He is Risen” of Easter...

Little known fact: I have a one-inch scar on my left wrist. One day, as a youngster enjoying a warm summer day, I followed my friend out the front door. I tried catching the half glass and half screen door with my hands before it hit me in the face.

Unfortunately, my hand broke the glass and went straight through that portion of the door. It was a miracle that I only have one scar. And the cut was in just the right shape and size that it didn’t hit any major vessels.

I hadn’t...

Ps 71:5

For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord,
my confidence since my youth.

I found confidence in God a little over forty years ago. I was seventeen then. I’m fifty-eight today. Since my teens, my confidence in God has grown. What was a set of beliefs that made sense has increasingly become a Person in whom I live and move and have my very existence. I’m so very grateful!

Has this growth in confidence always been a nice steady, upward-trending line? Is it for anyone? I...

Much of our lives are lived by habits. Some of them are bad ones and tend to be life-draining. Some of them are good and help us really live. In today’s episode, Alan will share a recent conversation with Justin Whitmel Earley, author of the recently-released InterVarsity Press book, The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction.

A rule of life provides a structure of practices that enable us to live and work rooted in the life of God’s kingdom. It helps us enter...

I have been living in my home for about 20 years, and, I am embarrassed to say, I have been disgruntled with it for most of that time. My complaints have been many. It has always felt too small. The style is that of a lifeless 70s tract home. When we first moved in, it had white walls and gray carpet. Boring. I disliked the walls, the carpet, the finishes, everything. There was no charm and no personality.

At times, I will sit on the deck outside of our upstairs master bedroom....

What is your heart’s image of God? Do you imagine God distant or near, skimping or lavish, aloof or intimate?

I read these lines from the psalms recently and they helped shape my imagination of the God who is always with me:

They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from your river of delights.
9 For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
Psalm 36:8-9

“They” is simply all people who seek God. God is at home with abundance. We are...

I enter today’s conversation with great anticipation. I’ve recently read Mindful Silence by Phileena Heuertz and cannot wait for you all to learn from her. She’s such a wealth of wisdom and heart.

In addition to Mindful Silence, Phileena is the author of Pilgrimage of a Soul and a founding partner of Gravity, a Center for Contemplative Activism. For nearly twenty years she and her husband, Chris, codirected an international nonprofit. As a spiritual director, yoga...

Over the course of the last year and a half, as we’ve been writing What Does Your Soul Love?, we have set aside times to get away to focus on the writing. Thanks to generous friends with homes near Duck Creek, UT and Avila Beach, CA, these getaways were fruitful times of thinking and composing. We were really able to sink down into the work and focus.

After our second writing getaway I began to ask the question, “Why can’t I focus like this at home (in my home...