About Confronting Normal.

Today’s episode is a gentle reminder to remember that not everyone around you is experiencing the Christmas season the same way you are. Be kind. Be compassionate. Be gracious. Create space whenever and wherever space might be needed, because you just never know how meaningful and needed your small act of kindness may be. It’s through and with this awareness that our greatest Christmas opportunities present themselves — that WE can become the spirit of Christmas by offering hope, peace, love, joy and light to an otherwise worrisome, fearful and grieving season.

In classic Confronting Normal style, there is little in the way of answers with this episode. But there is a distinct takeaway around the idea that the way of Jesus is indeed a lot more than a set of beliefs, and that as much as ever before we need to think critically and not just consume all that comes at us. Today we sit down with long-time friends of the podcast, Matt Rigby and Alex Marriott, to discuss, well, everything. To note: this episode covers a lot of ground, from Kayne West, Bono, Billy Graham and Relevant Magazine, to Rob Bell, Mars Hill, and seemingly everything else in between—ha! You really don’t want to miss this gem of an episode. 

In this episode Cindy and Renae have a candid conversation about their upbringing in church, their shifting beliefs, and how living out intentional faith requires some serious reprogramming to see: people are not projects, relationships are not agendas, loving others cannot be motivated by fear, and trust can not be about control.

Today’s episode is a conversation about what it means to think critically about how we’re going to engage life's tensions and how we’re going to participate in being the light amidst the dark. Perhaps instead of sanitizing what's uncomfortable to deal with, what we need to do instead, is have grace and space to walk through what’s hard, messy and ugly.

As Christians, traditionally there are two options when approaching the 31st, you can either head to church or turn off your lights. But what if there was another way? What if we viewed Halloween, instead, as an opportunity to turn on our lights, open our doors (and hearts) and meaningfully connect with our neighbours?   

Today’s church/faith/Christian structure takes the shape of—and places high importance on—the Sunday morning gathering. We all know it and we all get it. But in today’s episode and conversation, Cindy and Renae ask some honest questions about why the Christian faith has to come packaged as one standard structure? What if there are so many more ways to experience and enjoy God than simply sitting in a pew?

In today’s episode, Cindy and Renae discuss their summers, the journeys they’ve been on and the lessons they’ve learned that have brought surprising new insights about God, themselves and their lives.

It may not be comfortable to do so, but by examining your life, you empower your faith to grow and reveal itself in unexpected ways. And you might just fantastically discover the thing that’s been bothering you all this time is actually something so much more. Today’s episode is a simple conversation about the possibilities that just might be on the other side of self-examination.

Religious vulnerability is a very real thing. The cost of being honest about your questions and doubts is high, but the cost of suppressing them is likely even higher. If we can't find a safe place within church to be honest with our doubts and to wrestle with them then where do we go? If we could find more safe places to talk about these things and to be honest about these things perhaps we would see fewer people leaving church.

The need for security runs deep in our culture. It’s a natural human response to be on a quest for answers in order to find a sure sense of certainty for today’s chaotic times. But today’s episode challenges each of us to lean into areas of not knowing, to confront the systems that hold us back, and to redefine what wealth should really mean. Because experiencing the deepest of deep is healthy.