Fiction That Forms Us: Stories that Inspire Us and Practices that Help Us Change

How can welcoming the parts of us that aren’t like Jesus help us become more Christlike? Isn’t this a paradox? Find out on this episode, where author Helena Sorensen and host Kristy Lahoda discuss how to welcome what is part of us in the current moment and allow it to teach us. Join them as they discuss how Pennsylvania detective Mare Sheehan, in the HBO series Mare of Easttown written by Brad Ingelsby, learned to do this rather than bury it as she had done, allowing it to set up permanent residence.

Is there anything we can learn from a video game? What about a book about a video game? Find out on this episode, where Meshach Kanyion, Senior Pastor at Church of the Savior United Methodist Church, and host Kristy Lahoda discuss how Wade Watts in the book Ready Player One by Ernest Cline learned that getting to know someone beyond the surface is helpful for understanding the world through their eyes.

What can sitting in silence, solitude, and stillness teach us, and what does our body have to do with spiritual formation? Learn more on this episode, where Dr. Mimi Dixon, Renovaré Institute teacher and retired Presbyterian Pastor, and host Kristy Lahoda discuss how to remain calm and pay attention like Maisie Dobbs, in the book Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear, in the midst of life’s storms so that we can follow Jesus as he runs toward people in pain in order to be present to them with him.

What if our gifting and faith tradition are at odds? Learn more on this episode, where Amy Baik Lee, member artist of The Anselm Society and a founding member of The Cultivating Project, and host Kristy Lahoda discuss how Asher Lev, in the novel My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, stayed true to both his art and his faith and sought a third way, a way fraught with anguish but filled with truth born from love.

What do silver candle sticks, flowers, and a bishop named Welcome have to do with spiritual formation? Find out on this episode, where Renovaré President, Ted Harro, joins host Kristy Lahoda as they discuss how Monseigneur Bienvenu, from Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, became a virtuous man who spread gentle goodness wherever he went.