About this episode

Dr. Carol and Tish Harrison Warren discuss finding hope and spiritual growth during difficult seasons when God feels distant.

Have you ever experienced a season where God felt distant, your prayers felt unanswered, or your faith seemed harder than it used to be? What if those moments are not signs that something is wrong, but invitations into a deeper kind of transformation? In this episode, Dr. Carol talks with author Tish Harrison Warren about the unexpected spiritual growth that can happen in seasons of uncertainty, weariness, and longing. Tish shares from her own journey of feeling distant from God and discovering that the way God meets us often changes as we mature. She reflects on how these seasons revealed her desire for control rather than surrender—and how learning to trust God's presence brought greater freedom, joy, and deeper relationships, including with her teenage daughter. Together, they explore the ancient Christian understanding of "desert seasons" and why spiritual dryness has long been recognized as a place of profound formation. Drawing from the wisdom of the desert fathers and mothers, Tish explains why these seasons should not automatically be viewed as failures or evidence that we have done something wrong. Instead, they can become sacred spaces where God reshapes our desires…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Carol Peters-Tanksley

Guest: Tish Harrison Warren

Topics covered

• spiritual growth
• faith
• transformation
• uncertainty
• trust in God
• desert seasons

Keywords

• God feels distant
• spiritual dryness
• faith transformation
• trust
• Christian resilience
• desert fathers

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: What Grows in Weary Lands: On Christian Resilience

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