Win Today: Your Roadmap to Wholeness

Something shifts in the middle of life that you were not warned about. The fervor you once had—the fire, the sense that God was close, and the faith was vivid—has gone flat. And the question underneath your silence, the one you are ashamed to admit, is not "What happened to my faith?" It is "What is wrong with me?" Nothing is wrong with you. But something is forming inside you, whether you know it or not. Whether it becomes maturity or bitterness depends on decisions you are probably not aware you are making right now. Father Ronald Rolheiser—Missionary Oblate priest, theologian, and author of Insane for the Light and Sacred Fire—returns for a third conversation that opens the map most of us are missing. He walks through the three phases of a maturing Christian life, explains why wilderness seasons are not a malfunction but a form of purification, and addresses why the grief you keep deferring is the precise bridge to everything the second half of life is supposed to be. Underneath all of it is the one question midlife forces everyone to answer: whether you are still operating out of the pleasure principle, asking what is in it for you, or whether you have begun the long work of moving from achievement to fruitfulness. If you are in the flat middle stretch of life, this conversation will name exactly where you are. What comes after the naming is up to you. The Lord is not asking you to feel more. He is asking you to be honest, to grieve faithfully, and to hold with both hands whatever commitments He has already placed in yours. Guest Bio Father Ronald Rolheiser is a Missionary Oblate priest, theologian, and the author of Insane for the Light and Sacred Fire—among nearly twenty books exploring what it means to mature in a life with God. His weekly column on spirituality reaches readers in more than seventy countries. This is his third conversation on Win Today. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

You already know something is off. The output is there. You're showing up, doing the work, performing at a level other people can see. But underneath all of it, there's a strain you can't quite name — a low-grade exhaustion that has nothing to do with how many hours you slept and everything to do with why you're doing what you're doing. You are working for your identity instead of from it. And no amount of productivity is going to fix a motivation problem. Pentatonix's Kevin Olusola and Donovan Dee Donnell join me today for a riveting conversation. Kevin Olusola, Grammy-winning beatboxer and member of Pentatonix, and Donovan Dee Donnell, life coach, counselor, and co-author of Designed to Succeed, join me for one of the most theologically loaded conversations this show has ever had. Kevin names something with startling precision: he gave up the ghost — not as resignation, but as full surrender to the Father at the Hollywood Bowl in 2022, performing before thousands without needing their applause because his being was finally more secure than his doing. Donovan unpacks the mechanics of fear with the clarity of someone who has lived in both the wreckage and the rebuild, walking us through what he and Kevin call the verify-purify-occupy framework, the three-move sequence for dismantling fear's claim before it ever gains a foothold. Together, they trace a thread that runs from identity through core values, through alignment and its guardrails, to the question every person of purpose will eventually have to answer: What are you willing to die for? This is not a conversation about success. It is a conversation about what happens when your motivation is finally honest enough to be sanctified. It will ask you to do something you have probably been postponing — to go to God with the actual thing, not the acceptable version of it, and let Him work with what is true. Guest Bios Kevin Olusola is a three-time Grammy Award-winning musician and beatboxer best known as a member of Pentatonix, the a cappella group that has amassed nearly five billion streams on YouTube. A Yale University graduate who came within a semester of a pre-med track, Kevin traded the expectations of his immigrant Nigerian-Grenadian family for a music career built on the unconventional combination of classical cello and beatboxing — and paid for that leap in ways that eventually led him to something more costly than a career pivot: a genuine reckoning with why he was performing at all. He is also the founder of Imagine Faith Talk, where his platform merges high-performance principles with a Pentecostal-Charismatic faith, and the author of a solo musical project, Dawn of a Misfit. Donovan Dee Donnell is a life coach, former counselor, and co-author of Designed to Succeed. A self-described introvert with an extrovert's calling, Donovan brings both the rigor of professional coaching and the honesty of someone who has navigated some dark places — including years as a stripper and a long reckoning with what it costs to build a life that isn't afraid of criticism. He is a founding collaborator on the Imagine Faith Talk platform alongside Kevin Olusola, and his coaching work centers on helping people identify the guardrails that protect alignment and do the internal work necessary to keep their motivation honest. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

You've been filling your days to the brim and calling it faithfulness. Every hour accounted for. Every margin eliminated. You pull it all off, too, and you reach the end of the day unable to say why it felt empty. The people you love most were technically present, but you couldn't really see them. You measured the day by what got done, not by who got loved. And underneath the productivity, if you're honest, there was a quieter engine running — the fear that if you slowed down, you'd have to sit with something you're not ready to face. Tyler Staton, lead pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, author of Praying Like Monks Living Like Fools, The Familiar Stranger, and his newest book After Amen, joins me for what I believe is one of the most theologically precise and personally confronting conversations this show has produced. Tyler has walked through a stage-four cancer diagnosis and come through it with a startling clarity about what the soul actually needs. In this conversation we cover the holiness of unfinished things, how to distinguish Spirit-led submission from fear-driven people-pleasing, what it means to absorb the wrongs of another without becoming a doormat, why approval addiction and genuine love cannot coexist in the same moment, and what Jesus's own relationship to human limits reveals about how we were designed to live. What Tyler says about the Kingdom of God is worth stopping on. The Kingdom only comes in the present, he argues, and when you're living in your head, toward the next thing, you cannot participate in it. This isn't a productivity hack. It's a diagnosis of a spiritual condition most of us have normalized. The hurry we've made peace with is the very thing severing us from the people we love, the voice of the Spirit we say we want, and the joy we keep expecting to find somewhere ahead. What you'll find in this conversation is not comfort. You'll find a mirror. Tyler names the lie that high-achievers and approval-seekers share in common: that more urgency and more effort will eventually produce the love and belonging we're chasing, and he tells you exactly why that trade will cost you your soul. This conversation will ask something of you. The question is whether you're ready to slow down enough to hear it. Guest Bio Tyler Staton is the lead pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, and the national director of 24-7 Prayer USA. He is the author of Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, The Familiar Stranger — a book about encountering the Holy Spirit as a living Person — and his newest release, After Amen: 50 Days of Poetry and Prayer, written in the aftermath of a stage-four cancer diagnosis and the particular clarity that kind of wilderness produces. Tyler lives in Portland with his wife Kirsten, and their three sons. His work sits at the intersection of contemplative prayer, Spirit-led formation, and the kind of pastoral honesty that refuses to separate theological depth from ordinary daily life. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

You have more knowledge than you've ever had, and somehow you're more tired. More guarded. More prone to walk into a room and see everything wrong with it before you see anything right. You used to believe things would get better. Now you believe you've simply seen enough to know they probably won't. You call it wisdom. But it might be something else entirely. Carey Nieuwhof joins me for a conversation I've been looking forward to for years, and he opens up in a way I did not expect. At 61, in the wake of 29 simultaneous external stressors, a rare blood disorder that nearly took his life, aging parents, the death of a father-in-law, and the loss of the physical sanctuary that had been his refuge, Carey is navigating what grief actually looks like for a leader who spent two decades not grieving anything. The phrase that has stayed with me since this conversation is one his mentor gave him 25 years ago: ministry is a series of ungrieved losses. We cover what that means in practice, why cynicism is not a character flaw but a predictable outcome of accumulated knowledge without adequate grief, how the shift from fluid to crystallized intelligence changes what leadership should ask of you in your 40s and beyond, and what Carey and his wife Toni are actually doing, not just saying, to finish well. There is something here that will not comfort you the way you're hoping to be comforted. Carey is too honest for that, and this episode is too important for that. If you have been running at a pace that leaves no room to feel your losses, this conversation is going to cost you something. Sit with it. Let it do its work. Guest Bio Carey Nieuwhof is a former attorney and pastor who leads one of the most listened-to leadership podcasts in the Christian space, with more than 800 episodes and over 36 million downloads. He is the author of several books, including the bestselling At Your Best, and the founder of the Art of Leadership Academy, a growing community of more than 20,000 leaders. He spent over a decade as a lead pastor north of Toronto before stepping away to focus on helping leaders at scale. He has studied burnout, cynicism, moral failure, and the patterns that separate leaders who finish well from those who don't. He brings to this conversation more than two decades of pattern recognition built at the intersection of personal suffering and serious study. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

You can feel it, even if you have never named it. The tightness around not having enough, not being enough, not doing enough. The reflex to protect what you have before someone takes it. The way your relationships quietly become negotiations, your faith quietly becomes performance, and your inner life quietly becomes a war zone — all while you are calling it prudence, discernment, stewardship, responsibility. You have been living from a worldview. And you probably have no idea which one it is. Jamie Winship returns to Win Today, and this conversation cuts deeper than most Jamie is the founder of Identity Exchange and author of the new book The War of Worldviews, and for decades, he has brought peaceful, identity-rooted solutions into some of the most dangerous conflict zones on earth. What he has learned in war-torn regions, maximum-security prisons, and international diplomacy is this: every conflict, without exception, is a worldview problem before it is a behavior problem. There are only two worldviews. The separation worldview, which is built on scarcity, runs on fear, and always ends in self-protection and self-promotion. And the connection worldview, which is grounded in abundance, operates from love and produces self-emptying, other-focused transformation. We also dig into why identity alone isn't enough if the worldview carrying it is toxic, the staggering difference between influence and production, what Moses was actually warning Israel about through the story of Joseph, and why Daniel's refusal to bow to the empire changed three dynasties while Joseph's compliance led to his own people's bondage. If you have been calling your fear something else — and there is a good chance you have — this conversation is going to name it. You will have to decide what to do with what you hear. That decision will shape everything else. Guest Bio Jamie Winship is the co-founder of Identity Exchange and Identity Impact, training and consulting agencies that have helped leaders across professional sports, government, law enforcement, business, and international diplomacy discover their true identity and operate from it under pressure. After a distinguished career in law enforcement in the Washington DC metro area, Jamie earned a master's in English and spent years working in some of the world's most dangerous conflict zones — Indonesia, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, and Israel — developing his Identity Method, a process of identity transformation that resolves inner conflict and opens new levels of creativity and resilience. He is the author of Living Fearless and the new book The War of Worldviews. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Sexual addiction is often treated as a behavior problem. Stop the behavior. Remove the temptation. Try harder next time. But what if the behavior is not the real issue? What if the patterns that bring shame, secrecy, and self-sabotage are actually revealing something deeper about the story you carry? This week on Win Today, therapist and researcher Jay Stringer joins me to unpack the anatomy of sexual addiction and unwanted sexual behavior. Drawing from research involving more than 3,800 men and women, Jay explains why these patterns are rarely random and how the unresolved parts of our past often shape them. We talk about why shame keeps people trapped in destructive cycles, why curiosity is often the first step toward healing, and why grief has the surprising power to reshape what we desire. Sexual struggles are not simply moral failures to suppress. They can become a roadmap that leads us toward the healing we have avoided. If you are stuck in patterns you cannot explain, if shame has kept you silent, or if you've tried to manage the behavior without understanding the story behind it, this episode will help you see why real freedom begins with honesty. Guest Bio Jay Stringer is a licensed therapist, minister, and researcher who helps men and women understand and outgrow unwanted sexual behaviors. He is the author of the award-winning book Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing, based on a multiyear research study involving more than 3,800 men and women exploring the roots of sexual addiction and compulsive sexual behavior. Jay is also the creator of the Sexual Behavior Self-Assessment and The Journey Course, a five-month program designed to help individuals identify and transform the deeper drivers behind destructive patterns. He holds an MDiv and a master's degree in counseling psychology from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology and completed post-graduate training under Dr. Dan Allender while serving as a Senior Fellow at The Allender Center. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

There are ways Christians escape that don't look like rebellion. They look like busyness. Performance. Endless content. Religious activity. We stay "engaged," but we are quietly numb. And over time, that numbness settles into the body as anxiety, irritability, and bitterness we don't know how to name. This week on Win Today, Stephen McWhirter joins me to discuss the socially acceptable ways believers avoid reality and why those patterns keep us stuck. Stephen's story is raw. He grew up in a violent home, ran hard from God through addiction and self-destruction, and encountered the presence of the Lord in a moment that changed everything. We explore how trauma and rebellion can coexist with spiritual language, how bitterness lodges itself in the body, and what it means to become a resting place for chaos rather than a reactor to it. This episode isn't about shame. It's about sobriety. If you've been medicating pain with distraction, ministry, content, or noise, this conversation will help you confront what you've been avoiding and rediscover what it means to be radically restored. Guest Bio Stephen McWhirter is a singer, songwriter, and worship leader known for his powerful testimony of transformation and his passion for helping others encounter the presence of God. After growing up in a tumultuous home and spending years in addiction and rebellion, Stephen experienced a radical encounter with Christ that reshaped his life and calling. He now leads worship and shares his story nationally, pointing people toward healing, identity, and freedom in Jesus. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

We live in a moment where difficulty is quickly labeled as damage and discomfort is often treated as pathology. While trauma is real and serious, not every hard moment is trauma—and confusing the two can quietly undermine resilience, clarity, and growth. When every struggle is interpreted as injury, we lose the ability to endure, discern, and respond wisely. This week on Win Today, Dr. Lee Warren returns to continue our Self-Brain Surgery conversation. We talk about what it actually means to take a thought captive, why anxiety spirals feel uncontrollable even when they're not, and how automatic thinking patterns quietly shape the brain. Dr. Warren also challenges common scientific blind spots that ignore meaning, responsibility, and agency in the healing process. This episode helps you separate pain from pathology, suffering from trauma, and awareness from action—so you can move from mental reactivity to intentional renewal. Guest Bio Dr. W. Lee Warren is a practicing neurosurgeon, author, and speaker known for integrating neuroscience, faith, and personal experience to help people heal from trauma and transform their lives. A survivor of profound personal loss, he has spent decades studying how thoughts shape the brain and how intentional mental practices can lead to lasting emotional and spiritual renewal. He is the author of multiple books, including The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.