Inspired Human Podcast

Season 3, episode 6: "Technology is Forming You and Failing to Transform You."Your phone is not a tool. It is not neutral.Your phone is a cash-cow device designed to get you to pick it up, use it, never put it down, and in the process, make other people lots and lots of money.Friends, we are being formed by an algorithm, created by neuroscientists and computer programmers in California, on full display across all major social media platforms. Our eyes and our minds get pulled into video after video, feed upon feed, all based on what other people perceive we want to look at or consume.We are being formed...or perhaps, de-formed.The You Do You Era is marked by rampant use of electronic devices: Phones, tablets, computers, watches, and more. Our behaviors have become daily liturgies. Rather than organizing ourselves around time in service to God-in-the-world, most everything we do is orchestrated around or deeply influenced by inputs from our smart devices. In this episode, we pull heavily from James K.A. Smith and Andy Crouch (The Tech Wise Family). We unashamedly encourage you to be weird, to adopt odd practices and thick boundaries around technology. Why? Because you and your kids are being formed by these practices....or, perhaps, de-formed! The question to consider is "What image am I being formed into?" /////////Throughout this season, we want to remove the cultural scales from our eyes using insight from:Alan Noble (You are Not your Own)Andrew Root (Ministry in the Secular Age series)Alan Ehrenberg (Diagnosing the History of Depression in the Contemporary Age) Charles Taylor (A Secular Age)Andy Crouch (The Tech-Wise Family)Leonard Sax (The Collapse of Parenting)All of Jean Twenge's (SDSU) recent interviews / articles / and her booksJames K.A. Smith's books and articlesN.T. Wright (The Day the Revolution Began among others)Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue) The New and Old Testaments... plus other works that we sprinkle throughout. [The views presented are those of the speaker or author and do not necessarily represent the views of DoD or its components.] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit inspiredhuman.substack.com

Season 3, episode 4: "The World has Lost its Enchantment."Key to the You Do You Era's self-focused ideas for what it means to be a human is this: The world is disenchanted; everything has a natural explanation; God is cool and all, but he can't be involved in the world and in our lives because it sounds dumb to say it out loud. How do we talk about God in light of scientific discoveries? Did God heal my loved one from cancer, or was it the oncologist? How should I think about words like "sacred" and "spiritual"?Why does my church gather in a multi purpose room instead of a sanctuary?My friends, even Christians struggle with this topic. And that's OK, because we are swimming in the same You Do You Era cultural waters as everyone else!We'll give you the spoiler alert up front on this episode: The world is enchanted. God is active. God works to achieve God's good, right, and just purposes for the world through human beings. God animates you and draws close to you through ordinary things: Bread and wine (communion), water (baptism), the prayers of the Church, acts of loving kindness, fasting, feasting, and (yes, this one is important) even through pain and trials of life. Sometimes, we can explain these things. Other times, we cannot. Either way, the world is enchanted and God is present. /////////Throughout this season, we want to remove the cultural scales from our eyes using insight from:Alan Noble (You are Not your Own)Andrew Root (Ministry in the Secular Age series)Alan Ehrenberg (Diagnosing the History of Depression in the Contemporary Age) Charles Taylor (A Secular Age)Andy Crouch (The Tech-Wise Family)Leonard Sax (The Collapse of Parenting)All of Jean Twenge's (SDSU) recent interviews / articles / and her booksJames K.A. Smith's books and articlesN.T. Wright (The Day the Revolution Began among others)Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue) The New and Old Testaments... plus other works that we sprinkle throughout. [The views presented are those of the speaker or author and do not necessarily represent the views of DoD or its components.] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit inspiredhuman.substack.com

Season 3, episode 2: "Seeing Yourself in God's Story...not the other way around."Friends: To be fully human is to be authentic to yourself and your inner voice above all others...That's the mantra of the You Do You Era. But, this way of being human overpromises (that you'll be happy and whole!), and it under delivers (we end up unfulfilled).One way we attempt to break free from the You Do You Era's hold on our lives is by seeing ourselves as characters in God's story of redemption, not the other way around.We often see God as a key member of our story. This is not strong enough in the You Do You Era. It still keeps me at the center of the world: My vision, my thoughts, my goals, my feelings, my identity. We need a stronger vision for being a whole and complete human, one that helps us to see ourselves as key players in God's story (not our story), empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring about God's good, right, and just purposes for the world./////////Throughout this season, we want to remove the cultural scales from our eyes using insight from:Alan Noble (You are Not your Own)Andrew Root (Ministry in the Secular Age series)Alan Ehrenberg (Diagnosing the History of Depression in the Contemporary Age) Charles Taylor (A Secular Age)Andy Crouch (The Tech-Wise Family)Leonard Sax (The Collapse of Parenting)All of Jean Twenge's (SDSU) recent interviews / articles / and her booksJames K.A. Smith's books and articlesN.T. Wright (The Day the Revolution Began among others)Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue) The New and Old Testaments... plus other works that we sprinkle throughout. [The views presented are those of the speaker or author and do not necessarily represent the views of DoD or its components.] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit inspiredhuman.substack.com

Nick and Dairus team up to talk about "When Things in Life Just Don't Work out." - When you move the chess pieces of your life the right way, but you still don't get the job or assignment or position.- When you marry the right person and have a great family, but you still find yourself lonely and tired and wondering if life is supposed to feel this way.- When you find out that the ancient church had a way of describing this phase of your identity-formation: The Desert Way. In the desert, when comfort and assumptions are stripped away, God opens our eyes. To what, exactly? Good question. Perhaps, in the desert moments of our lives, we learn to see God. Or, perhaps, we learn to see the world for what it is (broken) and are invited to join God in renewing it and restoring it through the love of God... starting with ourselves. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit inspiredhuman.substack.com

Dairus sits down with John Garland, pastor in San Antonio, TX.John has spent his entire career in ministry serving in places with extreme poverty and suffering, notably along the southern border.They talk about:- Suffering as a pit.- The Gospel as a path.- Using the Psalms in your prayers.- The difference between trauma management and stress management. - Why and how Christianity has transformed instruments of trauma in redemptive ways. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit inspiredhuman.substack.com

Dairus sits down with 3x CrossFit Games athlete, former Army Officer, former West Point collegiate wrestler, and all-round INCREDIBLE human being, Chandler Smith.We chat about set backs...how they surprise us, and how an active reflective practice combined with a trustworthy circle of like-minded friends is the pathway through the pain.Did we mention how much we love Chandler Smith yet? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit inspiredhuman.substack.com

“Behind every act of valor, there is love.” Dairus talks with award winning documentary producer Justin Roberts. While serving in Afghanistan as an Army Chaplain in the 101st Airborne Division’s “NO SLACK” battalion, Justin armed his Soldiers with Go Pro cameras. He wanted to capture their experiences.But the war was far more intense than he imagined it would be.And their experiences needed to be shared and processed and seen.The result: An award winning film called No Greater Love. No Greater Love layers real war footage with interviews with Soldiers and Gold Star Family Members. Roberts’ battalion, NO SLACK, came home with over 200 Purple Hearts. “The only way that you can really come back from war is with love. And it has to come from friends, it has to come from family members, neighbors, and the people you were fighting for, and it has to come from each other. That is the only way we can fully come home.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit inspiredhuman.substack.com