Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? 53 Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”

Luke 22:52–53 NIV

The unspeakable tragedy perpetrated by one man in Las Vegas on 22,000 concertgoers from the 32nd-floor of his hotel room on October 1, 2017, left most Americans stunned and bewildered.

For those near and far, it was as if we were watching and listening to the final witness testifying to the fact that darkness is rising.

Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal describes her response to the Las Vegas shooting with a horror reflective of this rising darkness.

“And here is the horror for me of Las Vegas: I was not shattered. That shatters me. It was just another terrible story. It is not the new normal it is the new abnormal and deep down we know it’s not going to stop. There is too much instability in our country, too much rage and lovelessness, too many weapons.”

Peggy Noonan, The Culture of Death—and Disdain

Ms. Noonan describes the emotional fatigue setting in on our country. The corrosive gauntlet of negativity filling the airwaves and social media is wearing us down, filling us with fear, burdening us with anxiety, all the while eroding our ability to have conversations with our neighbors.

There is a very real danger that we will accept this “new abnormal.” This is the effect when darkness rises, it wears us down until we accept it as unstoppable, even inevitable.

The additional danger in the rising of darkness is that, while some grow weary, others become afraid. Noonan addresses this in her description of why she thinks people own so many guns.

“I think a lot of Americans have guns because they’re fearful—and for damn good reason. They fear a coming chaos, and know that when it happens it will be coming to a nation that no longer coheres. They think it’s all collapsing—our society, our culture, the baseline competence of our leadership class.

They see the cultural infrastructure giving way—illegitimacy, abused children, neglect, racial tensions, kids on opioids staring at screens—and, unlike their cultural superiors, they understand the implications.”

Peggy Noonan, The Culture of Death—and Disdain

Agree or disagree with her conclusions, what should be clear to each one of us is we are living in a time of fear-inducing chaos, a time when darkness is rising.

The city writhes in chaos; every home is locked to keep out intruders.

Isaiah 24:10 NLT

Our American culture, which was once the envy of the world seems to be coming apart. This leaves us with a decision – to either passively submit to the darkness or embrace the spirit of those timeless words penned by Dylan Thomas in his poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into The Night”:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle Into The Night”

For those of us who choose to “fight the dying of the light,” we should embrace the words of David Brooks without political partisanship, “a new culture will have to be built, new values promulgated and a new social fabric will have to be woven, one that brings the different planets back into relation with one another.”

This means the people of the light cannot grow numb to the darkness. We must embrace our responsibility to God as well as to our neighbors to bring the light.

How do we do this? Simply put, we must learn about and live the Spirituality of Jesus.

This will require each one of us to experience a spiritual awakening, and become spiritually aware and active, so our lives radiate with the hope-filled light of God and overcome the darkness.

Let’s begin by examining what it takes to experience a spiritual awakening.

Experience your spiritual awakening

9 For the fruit of the light is all that is good, right, and true. 10 Make it your aim to learn what pleases our Lord. 11 Don’t get involved with the fruitless works of darkness; instead, expose them to the light of God.

12 You see, it’s a disgrace to speak of their secrets (so don’t even talk about what they do when no one is looking). 13-14 When the light shines, it exposes even the dark and shadowy things and turns them into pure reflections of light. This is why they sing, Awake, you sleeper! Rise from your grave, And the Anointed One will shine on you.

Ephesians 5:9-14 Voice

Ephesians 5:9-14 is a roadmap to experiencing a spiritual awakening. There are three decisions we must make.

Define the conflict

Ephesians 5:7 says the “fruit of the light is all that is good, right, and true. When we are in the light we are doing what is good, right, and true.

Based on this definition of the light, its opposite or darkness would be defined as evil, wrong, and false. It is impossible to have a spiritual awakening unless we identify the forces in conflict or at war with each other, and then choose a side.

Choose a side

Ephesians 5:10-11 calls on each one of us to choose the light by making it our “aim to learn what pleases the Lord.”

The decision we are to make in choosing the side of the light is to not “get involved with the fruitless works of darkness.” Simply put, when we choose the side of the light we make every effort to resist the darkness or sin. No resistance to sin is a choice to be on the side of darkness.

There can be no spiritual awakening if we refuse to choose the side of the light, because choosing the darkness keeps us “asleep”. (Romans 13:11-14)

Start to fight

Ephesians 5:13-14 teaches us that our spiritual awakening begins when we rise from our spiritual grave, the spiritual dullness caused by unresisted and unconquered sin.

This spiritual dullness makes us slow to learn, and will eventually put us into a spiritual sleep (Hebrews 5:11-14, I Corinthians 11:30). When Ephesians 5:13-14 says, “Awake you sleeper,” it is calling on us to “rise from our graves,” something we do by exposing the darkness. This means exposing sin and dark activity in our lives, helping others expose the darkness in their lives, and together with them shining the light of God’s love.

When we let this light shine through our lives, we will drive out the destructive and debilitating darkness responsible for so much pain in so many lives.

Once you have completed your spiritual awakening, the next step is to increase your spiritual awareness, which is covered in part 3.

Until then, reflect on these questions to increase the spirituality of your thinking, and speed your awakening:

1. How do you see the darkness rising in your life and community?

2. When you examine your life, do you see yourself passively submitting to the darkness or fighting the dying of the light?

3. What specific forces of darkness and light do you see in conflict in your life?

4. How do you feel about this phrase, “No resistance to sin is a choice to be on the side of darkness.” Do you agree or disagree?

5. How would you describe your level of resistance to sin?

6. What can you do to “rise from your spiritual grave” or overcome any areas of “spiritual dullness” in your life? If you believe you are spiritually alive and well, sharp and aware, then what can you do to help those who are not?

Share The Spiritual Frontier

You can’t see the truth because you don’t know the Scriptures well and because you don’t really believe that God is powerful.

Mark 12:24 Voice

Kwai Chang Caine was the first person to make spirituality attractive to me.

He was portrayed by David Carradine in the fictional television series Kung Fu. Trained from a young age by Master Po to become a Shaolin Monk, Caine exhibited mystery and mastery. The mystery was where he gained his power, and the mastery was accessing that power.

Sad though this might be to some, Kung Fu was a more important spiritual influence on my early life than anything Christian.

Finding your burning bush

Caine lived an adventurous life, mastering the difficult and dangerous through the mystery of spirituality. This inspired me. It made me want to understand and know more.

You might say the television series Kung Fu was my “burning bush,” the sight that makes us begin to ask spiritual questions.

There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

Exodus 3:2–3 NIV

Looking back, what I find interesting is that while living in the midst of a Midwest city saturated with churches, it was the Buddhism of a Shaolin Monastery that made spirituality attractive.

There was a power I saw in Caine’s faith that I did not see in the faith of Christians. This conflicted with my observation that if there were a sacred text that was true, then it was the Bible. How could Christians have the most intellectually honest and consistent sacred text while those who believed it lacked the spirituality I saw in other religions?

These conflicting thoughts made me choose the religious designation of agnostic, a label expressing faith that there was probably something bigger than me in the universe but nothing clear, convincing, or real.

My experience and choice are not unusual, which is something that we will address later. For now, it is important for Christians to understand those who choose not to attend church often have valid spiritual and intellectual reasons.

The problem with organized religion

… having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

2 Timothy 3:5 NIV

Since becoming a Christian, I have often reflected on my journey to faith, as well as the journeys of others that are similar to mine. The question I have pondered is, “Why Christianity?” The intellectual consistency and honesty of the Bible seem to come up short in the minds of people searching for spirituality.

I always viewed Christianity as the ultimate organized religion, and I think this perspective is one shared by a great many people today. If you want to go to church, then choose Christianity, but if you want to experience the power of spirituality, then find another faith.

When reading the Bible, there is no shortage of profound spiritual mystery, interaction, and activity, so why is Christianity seen as more organized than spiritual? There are a tremendous number of spiritual people, writers, and leaders in the Christian faith, so why does it seem like people see us as more organized than spiritual?

The Bible actually addresses this question. 2 Timothy 3:5 speaks to the fact that we can practice the Christian faith without tapping into spiritual power. When we do this, Christianity becomes a humanistic pursuit—reliant on human strength and effort. It is typically well-organized, advocating morality and good deeds, but devoid of God and his power. These conditions are described in Galatians 3:1-3:

Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.

How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

Galatians 3:1–3 NLT

This passage continues to describe the result of this “humanistic Christianity.” In Galatians 3:4 (NIV84), the Bible teaches us about the painful suffering that takes place when we depend on human effort instead of the power of God.

Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

Galatians 3:4–5 NIV84

Power from God is only accessible when we are spiritual. Without it, God’s church becomes just another human organization—which is what many people hate and call “organized religion.” In this form, Christianity will only be attractive to those in attendance because those seeking God are usually looking for something spiritual, not humanistic.

How we search

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV

What I have learned from my own journey to God, as well as the stories told me by others, is that God has placed “eternity in the human heart.” He has made us sense and desire the spiritual, the unseen, and the eternal. It is in this sacred space that we find him.

This God made us in all our diversity from one original person, allowing each culture to have its own time to develop, giving each its own place to live and thrive in its distinct ways.

His purpose in all this was that people of every culture and religion would search for this ultimate God, grope for Him in the darkness, as it were, hoping to find Him. Yet, in truth, God is not far from any of us.

Acts 17:26-27 Voice

What we must remember about our own journey to God, and understand about the journey of our children and friends, is that we begin life searching for the unknown and unanswered. We feel spiritual stirrings, a curiosity about the unseen.

This is why we like movies about magic, aliens, and even horror (think Harry Potter or Stranger Things). Somehow, we innately know God is spiritual, so we look for him in the sacred space of spirituality.

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:23–24 ESV

We know there is something beyond us out there, and our soul yearns and searches for it. We sense and understand spirituality, though we don’t necessarily connect this to religion or churches.

Pew Research Center supports the idea of it being more instinctive for people to seek spirituality than church in its Religious Landscape Study. What their data shows is that “the rise in spirituality has been happening among both highly religious people and the religiously unaffiliated.” Their surveys find that “the U.S. public overall appears to be growing a bit less religious – but also somewhat more spiritual.”

In truth, the Scriptures view those in search of the spiritual as “religious” because the Bible associates faith with God first and the organization second. Unless the organization has the spirituality to seek and know God, it cannot in fact be his church.

What does this mean for Christians and churches? It means that we have to evaluate ourselves on our level of spirituality—our ability to tap into God’s presence and power. This is how the unbeliever will know God is really among us.

But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

1 Corinthians 14:24–25 NIV

Rather than focusing on activities and events as the source of attraction to those seeking God, we must learn that people first search spiritually for the experience of God, which is how they know they have found the truth. In short, it is the spiritual lives of the people, not the quality of the facility or programs, which most attracts those who search.

Asking the right questions

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you–they are full of the Spirit and life.

John 6:63 NIV

Combining my youthful experience of being attracted to the spirituality of Kwai Chang Caine with current Pew Research made me ask three questions. First, what role did media have in my view of spirituality? Second, why are Americans choosing spirituality over church affiliation? Third, why do so few associate Christianity with the mystery and mastery of spirituality?

My answers to these questions have inspired me to develop a 5-part series of posts called “The Spirituality of Jesus” because I believe the spiritual depths of the Christian faith have been misrepresented by the uninformed, diminished by misinformation, and most importantly, neglected through our unbelief.

I hope you will join me in asking these questions, finding the answers, and developing a personal spirituality that clarifies the confusion about the Christian faith—one which should be known for the deep spirituality found in Scripture, not the humanism of organized religion.

Reflect on these questions to increase the spirituality of your thinking about how you and others search for God:

1. Why do you think we need “burning bush” moments? Do you need your first one, or perhaps a new one for a new stage of life? (Exodus 3:2-3)

2. Do you see Christianity as being more about organizations or spirituality? How has this affected your view of God and the church?

3. How do you see yourself practicing “humanistic Christianity,” and how can you be more spiritual in the way you live your faith? (2 Timothy 3:5)

4. How would you define “the sacred space of spirituality,” and what do you need to do to enter this space more regularly? (John 4:23-24)

5. Identify ways in which your view of Christianity might be confused or diminished by misinformation or misrepresentations of the faith. How has this affected your faith? What can you do to refocus and refresh your view of Christianity to make it more accurate?

I’m workin’ on a world premiere
And I could see the world from here
They ask me where I’m going from here
****, anywhere long as the runway is clear

“Cheers” by Anderson .Paak

I felt these lines decades before I heard them. In these opening verses, Anderson.Paak puts words to a universal feeling: our innate desire to live an extraordinary life. Each of us has dreamed of a “world premiere,” something big we know we are meant for, no matter how far away it seems. It lights a fire inside us and makes our spirit come alive.

Absent trauma, I believe every kid begins life this way.

For me, it began with science. At five years old, dressed in a NASA flight suit, I dreamed of discovery.

I had no idea where I would go from there—but God did. He cleared the runway for me to discover what it truly meant to live an extraordinary, beautiful, and spiritually powerful life.

He is still clearing the runway for me. He is doing the same thing for you.

In today’s edition of The Chemistry Lab, we’ll learn to reignite the fire God has placed in each of us and discover what it means to live a beautiful life.

The Workshop: How we lose our fire

A place of discovery where a story sparks insight, observation, and a deeper understanding of walking with God.

God delights in concealing things; scientists delight in discovering things.

Proverbs 25:2 MSG

It was a breezy summer day in Michigan. My parents were out, and my older sister was in charge. I was in my bedroom, intellectually locked in. There, at a kitchen table turned lab bench, I launched my first experiment.

I didn’t follow the instructions. I created my own formula.

The ensuing smoke signaled to me that I’d made a discovery—but what it signaled to my parents as they pulled into the driveway was something else entirely.

They ran in, expecting disaster. What they found was me—ten years old, grinning, wide-eyed, believing that I’d just made a breakthrough.

This story from decades ago is what inspired The Chemistry Lab. Through that very literal fire in my makeshift lab, God was revealing something to me that had been previously hidden — the fire of discovery, the ability to look at life with wonder and awe.

I learned that even in mistakes and mishaps, something beautiful can be born. While my ambitions at the time were limited to science, God was laying the groundwork for me to discover what it truly would mean to live a beautiful life.

Why did I choose science over God?

Church came first, before the chemistry lab. I remember being six or seven, sitting in pews, surrounded by people doing ordinary things. I didn’t feel wonder. I didn’t hear awe. I wasn’t drawn in.

Then came science—and as you already know, it arrived with fire.

In middle school, I was deep in the world of beakers and Bunsen burners when my mom brought home a brand-new edition of The Living Bible. I devoured books—so I opened it. Genesis. Exodus. I was curious—until I hit the parts that felt repetitive, difficult, or impractical.

The Scriptures are filled with awe, but I needed help to see it. Absent the help, the wonder faded.

I went back to my lab.

Many people lose their fire for God this way.

It’s not because they hate faith. It’s because religion without wonder cannot compete with science presented with awe.

This is what we as religious people can miss about people like I used to be— atheists, agnostics, and those seeking God without attending church. They are looking for wonder. And, at our core, so are we.

The spirit of a person is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the innermost parts of his being.

Proverbs 20:27 NASB

The literal and interpretive translations of the Bible say something stunning in Proverbs 20:27—that our human spirit is the fire of God, a searching light that probes the deepest parts of who we are.

That means God designed us to burn with curiosity, to pursue meaning, and to ignite discovery.

Science taught me that there were mysteries in the world. If I developed the necessary skills and used the expansive number of tools available to me, I could discover and deploy the powers of science to solve problems, answer questions, and resolve those mysteries.

Church didn’t give me that feeling.

Why church often fails to spark wonder

They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly…

2 Timothy 3:5 NLT

Too often, Christianity is presented as behavioral religiosity—a way of acting Christian without being spiritually transformed. We read stories about people in the Bible, and we learn about what they did or didn’t do. But too often we overlook their encounters with the God of wonder—the moments that set their spirits on fire, that show us how we can experience that same God today.

We see the rules and rituals—but not the spirituality and fire.

God didn’t design us for powerless religion or cold conformity. He didn’t call us to traditionalism or routine. He designed us to break free from the humanistic limitations of behavioral religion to discover his power flowing into our lives.

The greatest hindrance to knowledge is our adjustment to conventional notions, to mental cliches. Wonder or radical amazement, the state of maladjustment to words and notions, is, therefore, a prerequisite for an authentic awareness of that which is.

Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion

Wonder isn’t optional. It’s how we wake up. It’s how we find inspiration.

It’s how we see God—not just as a concept, but as the source and spark of our internal fire.

Reigniting the fire

Have you lost your fire? Cynicism and religiosity made me lose mine, while suffering or overload might make others lose theirs. If you’ve lost your fire, Jesus is not waiting to punish you. He’s coming to revive you.

“He will not break a bent twig.

Your fire might be dimly burning, but it’s not gone. While it may be flickering, that flicker is the beginning of moving from religious to spiritual, from powerless to powerful.

Workshop this:

• Have you lost your wonder?

• Are you living religiously or spiritually?

• Does your faith spark anything in you or those around you?

The Element of “Spirit”

A new element from our Spiritual Periodic Table of the Elements that builds a life of spiritual depth and power.

Properties

• Name: Spirit

• Symbol(s): Sp (for human spirit), Sp² (human spirit joined with God’s Spirit)

• Category: Vital Elements

• Function: Awakens fire, activates flow, restores awe, reveals destiny.

“Spirit” is my first entry into our Spiritual Periodic Table. “Spirit” is where fire meets flow.

God has given us a spirit of fire burning with life. This interpretive translation from the Jubilee Bible is meant to help us connect with the emotion of Proverbs 20:27, which we read earlier:

“The spirit of man is the fire of the Lord, which searches the secrets of the inward parts.”

Our spirits aren’t passive—they burn with the intensity of fire.

This fire is meant to fill our lives with light, illuminating our lives with mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical self and soul awareness (Proverbs 20:27 NIV).

But until they’re plugged into God’s Spirit, they operate far below their potential, like a match waiting for a spark.

Spiritual flow: The God connection

Once a connection is made with God, something explosive happens: alignment.

No longer wandering, we begin to discover what a truly good and beautiful life is—not just biologically alive, but spiritually alive.

His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.

Romans 8:16 NLT

Don’t you know that He who pursues and explores the human heart intimately knows the Spirit’s mind because He pleads to God for His saints to align their lives with the will of God? [28] We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan.

Romans 8:27-28 Voice

Our human spirit is what makes us capable of experiencing the spiritual chemistry of walking with God. This is what we can call spiritual flow, when God’s Spirit joins with our spirit to unleash light, power, and fire.

This isn’t religion.
It’s spiritual chemistry.
It’s wonder.
It’s awe.

The element of the spirit is what makes us spiritual. It is more than waking up to study our Bible and pray each morning. It is our connection with God.

The component most responsible for our ability to live a beautiful life might be what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls flow:

A state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

His book summarizes decades of research on the positive characteristics of human experience, including joy, creativity, and flow—which he describes as “the process of total involvement with life.”

While many seek flow through new techniques or settings, God has provided a spiritual path to it. Flow has been available for millennia through the joining of his Spirit with ours

God formed the spirit within

“The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares…”

Zechariah 12:1 NIV

Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 NASB

“But it is a spirit that is in mankind, And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.”

Job 32:8 NASB

No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. [12] And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

1 Corinthians 2:11–12 NLT

Our spirit was formed by God. It holds our thoughts, our pain, our sin, our potential, and our dreams. But without God, it becomes crushed, disconnected, disillusioned, unfaithful, and wandering:

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18 NIV

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 17:22 NIV

The human spirit can endure a sick body, but who can bear a crushed spirit?

Proverbs 18:14 NLT

Use this week to study these scriptures, working to become aware of your spirit. Ask yourself these questions:

• What affects my spirit?

• What strengthens my spirit?

• What weakens my spirit?

Then devote yourself to staying connected to God so that your spirit remains cheerful and strong. God has laid dreams on our hearts that glorify him, and we need that enduring spirit to see them come true.

Flow = Spiritual connection

Spiritual flow comes from sustaining a continuous Spirit connection, which is what Romans 8 is all about. It is not merely theological; it is personal.

So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, ‘Abba, Father.’ [16] For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.

Romans 8:15–16 NLT

When the Spirit of God joins with our spirit, we enter the spiritual flow state.

This is freedom:

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. [18] And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:17–18 NIV

This is oneness:

But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

1 Corinthians 6:17 NASB

This is intimacy:

Or do you think that the Scripture says to no purpose, “He jealously desires the Spirit whom He has made to dwell in us”? And this is power.

James 4:5 NASB

Neglecting the spiritual aspect of life turns the Christian life into a grind instead of a beautiful flow. We cannot let this happen to ourselves or those we love because God longs to have his power flow through our lives without limit.

Creating a flow week

But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.

Galatians 5:22 TPT

One of the motivations for me and our team to create The Chemistry Lab is what I learned about Abraham Heschel from his daughter when she wrote that his goal was to make God audible. That is my goal—to not merely have insight about God and Scripture, but to experience his feelings by entering and remaining in the flow state.

… For my father, the importance of prophecy lies not only in the message, but in the role of the prophet as a witness, someone who is able to make God audible and to reveal not only God’s will, but God’s inner life. To be a prophet, he writes, is to be in fellowship with the feelings of God, to experience communion with the divine consciousness. The prophet hears God’s voice and looks at the world from God’s perspective.

Susannah Heschel, Introduction to The Prophets by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Let this be a “flow week,” a week when you experience the limitless qualities of Galatians 5:22 by embracing the element of the spirit!

As Augustine said about God:

You made us with yourself as our goal, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

Augustine, Confessions

Share The Spiritual Frontier

Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around.

Proverbs 13:12 MSG

Personal experience and daily observation have led me to a question. Why don’t we attribute the rise in despair, loneliness, anxiety, and estrangement to our inability to handle disappointment?

Unrelenting disappointment is all too familiar to me. It came early and often — adolescence delivered its share. But nothing was as unexpected as the disappointment I found in my spiritual life.

Prior to becoming a Christian, I considered myself an agnostic. My reasons for unbelief were based on the behavior of religious people, not the truth about God. After all, I had barely read the Bible.

I judged religious people the way I didn’t want them to judge me, which is what a lot of people do.

In college, all of this changed. First, I read the Bible and discovered it was the truth I had sensed was out there but couldn’t find. Second, I attended a church that described themselves as a Bible church: they focused on the Bible over religious tradition and man-focused denominationalism. This is what inspired me to read the Bible in the first place and become a Christian. But after that, disappointment came quickly.

Initially, I was disappointed in myself because of my many sins and failures after becoming a Christian. What kept me believing despite facing this was the knowledge that there were so many people around me who seemed much stronger in their faith—they gave me hope that I could get past my failures. But then I learned that they too were human; they had weaknesses and lacked spirituality just like me. This led to even more disappointment.

I soon discovered the source of my disappointment, and it was a discovery that turned my life around: my faith had been placed in the behavioral superiority of those who led me instead of the God of Scripture.

No one who trusts in you will be disappointed. But disappointment will come to those who try to deceive others. They will get nothing.

Psalm 25:3 ERV

… And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.

Romans 15:4 NLT

The Christianity of the Bible is not based on human beings, their performance, behavior, or worthiness. The Bible is not a piece of academic literature or theology, but a spiritual book whose intent is to help us know God. Through the Bible, we are being allowed to know a God whose existence strains the limits of human comprehension. This is ultimately achieved through the life of Jesus Christ, who is God taking human form.

My spiritual journey and yours is not about arrival but discovery. This discovery is how God transformed my disappointment into devotion to him rather than to human institutions or people. He saved me from my discouragement by drawing me closer to him.

The LORD is close to those who have suffered disappointment. He saves those who are discouraged.

Psalm 34:18 ERV

I write today to defeat our disappointment. Throughout our lives, disappointment (or its cousins, disillusionment and discouragement will invite us into a relationship with them. Their requirements are simple:

• Pessimism, so that we assume the worst.

• Fatalism, so that we stop making the effort.

• Cynicism, so that we see everything as unfair.

This, disappointment says, is all I require—that you give up living life with hope and accept disappointment. It’s safer and less painful that way.

We can see this battle at play in the world around us—and more recently, during the 2026 FIFA World Cup that just wrapped up this past week. After weeks of competition, Spain concluded its inspiring performance and defeated Argentina to win the title. But what will remain with me is the resonance of this long-standing phrase often used by the English about football or soccer: “It’s the hope that kills you.” It describes the extraordinary pain of anticipating victory only to experience defeat.

There are those who allow their fear of disappointment to steal their courage, and then disguise their fear with respectable names: Contentment. Humility. Being realistic. But those who have stopped hoping because hoping hurts too much are not content. They are afraid. They are broken.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18 NIV

God doesn’t want us broken. This is why we must make the choice many football or soccer fans choose: courage. Whenever disappointment seeks to kill our hope, we must remember the promise of God found in Romans 5:

And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Romans 5:5 NLT

There is not enough space here for me to map out in detail how the spiritual person responds to disappointment, but my experience overcoming it, and helping others do the same, may be instructive wherever your disappointment lies.

Help me God, as you promised, so that I may live. Do not turn my hope into disappointment.

Psalm 119:116 GW

Three answers have guided and transformed my life when faced with disappointment.

1. We must become spiritual rather than behavioral.

Increasingly, it is clear that the major key to Lincoln’s greatness is his spiritual depth.

Elton Trueblood, Abraham Lincoln: Lessons in Spiritual Leadership

My early and middle years of being a Christian were riddled with disappointments because I viewed and practiced Christianity behaviorally rather than spiritually. I lacked spiritual depth.

Behavior manages the outside. Spirituality transforms the inside. In the Bible, the apostle Paul explained the futility of behavioral Christianity to the Colossian church, explaining that rule-keeping looks wise but changes nothing:

Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Colossians 2:23 NIV

He taught again about the powerlessness of that path in 2 Timothy, describing behavioral Christians as people who “act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly” (2 Timothy 3:5).

That powerlessness is the disappointment I experienced. My faith rested on behavioral superiority—my own and other people’s—but it was frustrating and futile. Only spiritual transformation from the inside out can produce the flourishing life God promises, as Jesus said in John 6:

The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

John 6:63 NLT

2. We must become God-focused rather than man-focused.

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. [2] I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. [3] Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.

Psalm 63:1-3 NIV

I put it this way in my book, He’s Not Who You Think He Is: “Keeping God as our central focus should not be considered a one-time project or campaign, but our life’s work.” We should pursue God until we discover that his love is better than life.

The failure to pursue God in this way places us on a trajectory to become like the New Testament church at Corinth, where they discovered divisive results of attaching their faith to people instead of God. Paul challenged their distorted focus, which was evident in the quarrels he was hearing about: “One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’” (see 1 Corinthians 1:10-12).

He wrote to the Philippian church about Christians who preached out of “envy and rivalry,” driven by “selfish ambition, not sincerely” (Philippians 1:15-17). Insincere. Or, in the language of our time, inauthentic.

Twenty centuries later, the same rivalry limits the influence and impact of the church. The numbers show it. As many as 15,000 U.S. churches may close in a single year, with roughly 8% of American congregations either shutting their doors or unable to afford a full-time pastor. Forty-four percent of Americans between 18 and 29 now claim no religious affiliation. Boston University theologian Wesley Wildman estimates that nearly a quarter of those still attending houses of worship reject a supernatural worldview altogether, coming for community and routine rather than God. Wildman describes a collapse occurring across four dimensions at once—affiliation, attendance, private practice, and intensity of belief.

This is not the decline of faith. It is the decline of denominationalism—religion organized around human rather than spiritual institutions. People may still practice in private, but when they see the same political polarization dividing the pews that divides the aisles of power, they conclude, understandably, that we are simply another self-interested organization. Purifying the church of selfish ambition, competitiveness, and rivalry is not housekeeping. It is survival.

3. We must become people who understand the times.

When David’s kingdom was forming, one tribe of Israel was singled out—not for their strength, but for their discernment:

… from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do …

1 Chronicles 12:32 NIV

Understanding the times means having intellectual, emotional, social and cultural awareness. Based on these areas, I see the global population searching for answers along ten frontiers:

1. Purpose

2. Relationships

3. The inner life

4. Work and calling

5. Money

6. Technology

7. Culture

8. Family

9. Hope for the future

10. Finding the truth

That last one is the deepest, and I believe it is a search for Jesus, whether people name him or not.
These are the spiritual frontiers. And they will only be answered by men and women who understand the times and speak to them—rather than arguing internally or isolating into bubbles. Talking only to ourselves and listening only to ourselves means ignoring a world that does not care what label we wear, how we vote, or who our rivals are. They care about finding their way.

That is where I intend to spend the rest of my life. Not defending a position but walking these frontiers with anyone willing to come. Disappointment invited me to stop hoping. I have declined the invitation.

Share The Spiritual Frontier

We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!

Ephesians 2:10 TPT

Yes. I am a believer in destiny, a God-given and God-assigned purpose for every human being. The value of this destiny is not whether it leads to celebrity, wealth, or relevance, but whether it lights a fire in the heart that stirs the soul.

Too many people give up on destiny. Too many people settle. And honestly, it’s understandable. Life can be brutally painful, and that pain convinces us that it’s too dangerous or costly to keep chasing our dreams.

So why not settle?

Why not settle for pleasure over pursuing purpose? Why not settle for selfishness over nurturing the fires of our imagination and working toward something greater than ourselves? Why not settle for greed over being motivated by God?

In the book of Ezekiel, God addressed seductive voices that asked questions like these and were leading his people astray:

“…you will no longer conjure up lying visions or practice divination. For I will save My people from your seductive powers. Then you will know I am the Eternal One.”

Ezekiel 13:23 VOICE

Ezekiel warned his generation about seductive voices that offered survival instead of transformation, and it feels like we are facing the same temptation in our time.

Some days it feels like we’re building a culture that encourages resignation—settling for the life the world permits rather than striving for the life God promises. We might be discontent with what the world offers; we might even be downright angry about it. But rare is the person who believes they can change it. Instead of dreaming with faith, we become content to remain within the limits of our fear.

We don’t always call this quitting. Sometimes we call it “realism.” Sometimes we call it “maturity.” Sometimes we call it “wisdom.”

But when we trace our slow, quiet settling to its core, it’s the same thing Ezekiel confronted: giving in to the seductive voices offering us survival in place of transformation.

I am not pessimistic; I am just observing what I see around me and what I must resist daily in myself. The seductiveness of settling may be the greatest temptation I face.

These are the reflections and spiritual disturbances I’m recording today. Not to complain, but to understand, and conquer them by choosing breakthrough instead.

Yes. I believe that there is another way. Rather than succumbing to resignation and surrendering our destiny, we can live in pursuit of breakthrough.

Breakthroughs are life-altering discoveries that move us through obstacles and beyond barriers. They transform us, opening our eyes so that we can see past the limitations of humanity to the possibilities of God.

While past issues of The Chemistry Lab were lab reports, today’s edition is my field notes—spiritual data observed and recorded in real time. Last week, we discussed the brain and spiritual chemistries of getting stuck. Today, let’s discover together the areas where we have settled or resigned, which are also the very areas that have the greatest opportunities for breakthrough.

Notebooks open. Let’s see what we can learn today.

“Breakthroughs are life-altering discoveries that move us through obstacles and beyond barriers.”

Field Notes

Spiritual observations, data, and real-time reflections about faith, fear, and transformation.

“So be reasonable. Make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you two thousand horses if you think you can provide riders for them. You can’t do it? Well, then, how do you think you’re going to turn back even one raw buck private from my master’s troops? How long are you going to hold on to that figment of your imagination, these hoped-for Egyptian chariots and horses?”

2 Kings 18:23-24 MSG

There’s a seductive voice that whispers to us in times of adversity. “Be reasonable,” it says. It sounds wise, even mature. But what if being reasonable is actually a form of unspiritual surrender?

In his book On Settling, philosopher Robert E. Goodin writes to help those consumed by endless striving. But he also warns against a darker version of settling: resignation—the quiet surrender of hopes and desires, the inward acceptance of unwanted outcomes.

He calls it what it truly is: not peace, but loss—an internal grief that steals joy, masked by a smile we wear to hide our perpetual disappointment.

And we wear it so long, we forget it’s even there.

This ancient pattern shows up vividly in the passage above from the Bible. Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, sent word to Hezekiah, king of Judah, as the Assyrian army laid siege to Hezekiah’s land. Sennacherib’s commander didn’t just threaten Hezekiah with force—he appealed to “reason.” Make a deal. Be practical. Look at the facts. You can’t win. The enemy knows that getting God’s people to be “reasonable” is often more effective than direct assault.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Most Christians are too reasonable to change the world. Most people are too reasonable to change the world.

Why? Because adversity has a way of making settling seem sensible. Pain whispers to us that those dreams are not necessary for happiness, so why pursue them? Difficulty argues with us that God-given purpose is a myth pursued by the irrational, so why sacrifice our immediate comfort for it?

We trade destiny for safety, calling it wisdom.

But history tells a different story. George Bernard Shaw captured it perfectly in a quote from Maxims for Revolutionists—a quote reinterpreted in the context of leadership in Originals by Adam Grant:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw

Every major breakthrough—cultural, political, scientific, spiritual—has come from those unreasonable enough to refuse the world as given. They wouldn’t let adversity make them “reasonable.”

So in our own chemistry lab of life, what “reasonable” compromises are we making? Where have we let the world’s logic override God’s calling? What breakthrough waits on the other side of our unreasonable faith?

Becoming aware of the “reasonable” trap is the first step on the path to breakthrough. But here’s what I’ve discovered: “Being reasonable” is just the surface symptom of something deeper. Underneath our logical compromises lie the real obstacles—the veils that blind us to God’s possibilities and keep us trapped in human limitations.

These are the field notes of someone learning to resist the reasonable—because faith was never meant to be veiled.

Removing the veils that blind us to God’s possibilities

But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil [of blindness] lies over their heart; [16] but whenever a person turns [in repentance and faith] to the Lord, the veil is taken away. [17] Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [emancipation from bondage, true freedom]. [18] And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:15-18 AMP

Scripture tells us that the greatest transformations happen when the “veil of blindness” is removed—when we stop seeing through the lens of human limitation and start living by the Spirit’s vision.

Freedom from the human limits of this life is found behind the veil of humanism. Our unbelief in the possibility of breakthrough is rooted in the idea that humanity—our wisdom, our power, our talents—is all we’ve got. Anyone who believes in anything greater is branded irrational.

Scripture counters this illusion.

Humanism is the veil that obscures the possibilities of God.

It places all understanding and power within the created, blinding us to what God can do.

But when Jesus died on the cross, the veil tore. The barrier between the human and the divine was ripped open.

And [at once] the veil [of the Holy of Holies] of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; the earth shook and the rocks were split apart.

Matthew 27:51 AMP

Even W.E.B. Du Bois used the metaphor of the veil to describe how social systems dehumanized Black Americans, blocking their true potential:

Leaving, then, the world of the white man, I have stepped within the Veil, raising it that you may view faintly its deeper recesses, — the meaning of its religion, the passion of its human sorrow, and the struggle of its greater souls.

W. E. B. Du Bois. The Souls of Black Folk

This made me ask:

What are the veils that keep me from God’s dream for my life?

What has kept me stuck in the past, blind in the present, and hesitant about the future?

To live unveiled requires identifying what keeps us disconnected from the glory God wants to manifest in our lives.

Here are ten veils that I’ve identified in my field notes. Maybe some will resonate with you.

The 10 veils that prevent breakthroughs

1. Tradition

The veil of tradition is the past masquerading as wisdom. It says, “We’ve always done it this way.” It’s old ideas and old wineskins (Matthew 9:14-17).

Economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the term “creative destruction,” to refer to the way the free market grows. The market gets better and stronger when innovation sweeps away the old and makes room for something new.

In the same way, creative destruction is necessary for spiritual renewal. What old ideas or traditions are clouding your view of what’s possible in the future?

2. Dysfunction

The veil of dysfunction is the emotional baggage we carry into our faith. One area of dysfunction I recognize in my life is the “hero complex” I carry from being an adult child of an alcoholic. I try to control outcomes to prevent the pain of experiencing failure.

What dysfunctions are you carrying into your faith?

3. Assumptions

Assumptions are the personal beliefs I treat as absolute truth because they are comfortable and familiar. I rarely question these beliefs because they feel true, but such beliefs are often the ones that need questioning most.

An unquestioned assumption can become a sacred cow—a belief that is unreasonably immune to critique or opposition. If I don’t examine my assumptions, I’ll end up clinging to emotional sacred cows instead of chasing biblical truth. These sacred cows will block my vision, keeping me stuck in one way of thinking and preventing me from seeing what God is doing.

Some of my assumptions might align with what the Bible says, and some might not. In some cases, they were passed on to me from other people or institutions. However tempting it may be to question the people or institutions who shaped these beliefs, real transformation starts when I question myself—before I question others or institutions.

What beliefs do you treat as absolute truth? How willing are you to question these assumptions?

4. Ritual

This veil refers to the comfort of routine. It’s clinging to emotional and spiritual patterns not because they work, but because they’re ours. We can become so comfortable in these routines that any change to them feels like loss, even when it’s growth.

Do you cling to any rituals, even when they don’t work?

5. Opposition

The veil of opposition is the resistance we get from people around us who push back on our transformation. It comes from frozen relationships, where people don’t want us to change because our growth exposes their own stagnation. The more we listen to this opposition and resistance, the more susceptible we are to settling into our doubt and fear.

How does it affect your vision when you get opposition from people around you?

6. Pride

The veil of pride is the pursuit of validation over transformation. It’s a drive for attention, achievement, and approval that comes not from purpose, but from fear.

Pride often doesn’t show up in the form of arrogance. It’s the way we handle our fear of inadequacy. Sometimes it leads to competition. Sometimes it leads to envy. For me, it was a search for love in all the wrong places—a desire to earn admiration and attention, hoping it would feel like love.

How do you see the veil of pride in your life?

7. Disbelief

The veil of disbelief is mentally rejecting the truth of who God is. This veil grows when we are unwilling to read Scripture for ourselves, and we only know God through what others say.

When I finally began to see God for who he truly is in the Bible, I realized he isn’t punitive like I believed him to be—he’s corrective. He’s not trying to destroy who I am. He is trying to restore who I was created to be.

God is a coach. He is a parent. He is shaping me to win—not punishing me for falling short.

Every big vision feels unreachable when I view God as punitive. But when I see him as someone training me, not punishing me, breakthroughs stop feeling impossible and start feeling inevitable.

Do you have any disbelief about God that makes breakthroughs feel impossible?

8. Nostalgia

The veil of nostalgia makes us romanticize the past because we’re too weary to believe in—and work toward—a better today or tomorrow.

“Wasn’t it better back then?” becomes a kind of spiritual anesthesia. We numb ourselves with memories and rationalize our loss of faith in what God can still do. When we idolize what’s behind, we lose vision for what’s ahead.

What veils of nostalgia are making you look backward instead of forward?

9. Idolatry

Under the veil of idolatry, the world defines our worth. We are shaped by prestige, popularity, and the latest digital media platform, and we stop listening to God. Our faith shrinks to satisfy the crowd rather than growing to please God.

We might achieve some level of impact by trying to impress people, but we forfeit the far greater impact we were meant to have by pursuing God’s purpose—serving and helping people as he does.

Who or what defines your worth more—people or God?

10. Fear

Fear is the most primal and pervasive veil. It’s our fear of criticism, slander, vulnerability, failure, and even death. It’s the voice that whispers, “What if I’m not enough? What if I try—and lose everything?”

Fear is the veil that makes comfort feel like calling. It urges us to settle, to be “reasonable,” to choose survival over transformation.

Breaking through to our destiny

These veils aren’t theoretical. They’re personal. They’re emotional, psychological, and spiritual. They are the parts of me that need to die.

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. [24] Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

John 12:23-24 NIV

I am humbled by my veils, and my aim is to imitate Jesus—to die to them, and gain my freedom to fulfill my potential and destiny. What about you? I would love to know if you relate to these.

Better yet, create your own list. You’ll never chase your dreams or discover your breakthroughs if your veils convince you to settle.

What if I told you there’s hard data proving the Bible is changing lives right now — not someday, not in theory, but measurably, scientifically, today? Dr. John Plake from the American Bible Society joins me to unpack the research behind Bible engagement and mental health. Honestly, it left me smiling.

Dr. Plake leads the State of the Bible study—the longest-running research on how Americans engage with Scripture—and what he’s found is genuinely hopeful. People who are deeply engaged with the Bible show lower anxiety, lower traumatic stress, and higher hope than those who aren’t. Harvard’s Human Flourishing Study confirms it. Gen Zers, who statistically struggle the most with anxiety and depression, look completely different when they’re Scripture-engaged — like they’ve unlocked something their peers haven’t found yet.

We also dig into the real barrier holding people back: it’s not desire, it’s guidance. Millions of people want to read the Bible but don’t know where to start, what translation to pick, or how to make sense of it. Dr. Plake breaks down practical first steps—from finding the right translation to using audio and video to build a consistent habit—so we can turn curiosity into a life-giving relationship with Scripture. If you’ve ever picked up a Bible and felt lost, this episode is your on-ramp.

Who is John?

Dr. John Plake serves as the Chief Innovation Officer at the American Bible Society. Bridging the intersection of advanced social science, data analytics, and pastoral leadership, Plake provides critical clarity on rapidly shifting cultural dynamics. His research is highly relevant as sociologists and faith leaders scramble to understand a surprising post-pandemic rebound in religious curiosity among younger, secular demographics.

John’s links

• State of the Bible

• American Bible Society

• YouTube

In an emotion-phobic culture, most of us don’t know how to listen very well to emotional pain for the simple reason that we have never been taught that doing so is a good thing, or how to do it.

Miriam Greenspan, Healing Through the Dark Emotions

Writing a newsletter is difficult—not because of the writing, but because of the infinite odds of making a difference through what one writes. And be sure of this: I am writing The Spiritual Frontier to make a difference.

For decades, I have believed that politics, economics, and religion are the three most powerful forces in the world. Since the late ‘90s, I have included technology. These are my “four horsemen,” entities capable of changing the world as we know it. While the term often refers to the biblical harbingers of the apocalypse, it can also refer to catalysts of transformation. Whether my four horsemen of politics, economics, religion, and technology are of the apocalyptic variety or the enlightening kind depends almost entirely on our spirituality. Without spirituality, these four can and will cause immense pain. With spirituality, they can cause immense change for good.

My hope in writing The Spiritual Frontier is to find even a few people (or, if I am lucky, a whole generation) who believe it is the spiritual understanding and implementation of these world forces that can make them a gateway to hope rather than despair.

The spirituality of which I speak is the spirituality of Jesus. Through every article, podcast, and piece of content we create, we will make God audible through this spirituality. We may not always directly quote Scripture, but the spirituality of Jesus will be woven into everything we do. I believe this is how we channel those four horsemen into good, how we conquer the world, how we talk about and heal the pain that these forces can cause:

So the one who conquers the world is the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

1 John 5:5 NCV

Before I was seven years old, I experienced the type of pain this world can deliver. I can still remember my mom being on the phone learning of her brother’s death. It was a race-related death in the South.

Racism in the sixties, seventies, and eighties improved incrementally in the US, but those four horsemen remained more apocalyptic than enlightening. My uncle was just one of their victims. From this moment on, it became apparent to me that humanity possessed no durable answer for the despair we each face.

Much has improved in the 21st century, but despair remains a sociological sickness for which we have too few answers. This is the lostness Jesus saw and wants us to see.

Jesus went through many towns and villages. He taught in their synagogues. He preached the good news of the kingdom of God. He healed every disease and sickness. [36] Whenever crowds came to Him, He had compassion for them because they were so deeply distraught, malaised, and heart-broken. They seemed to Him like lost sheep without a shepherd.

Matthew 9:35-36 VOICE

This sickness of despair predates us all, but the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was a turning point that sharply exacerbated it. Since then, I have seen far too many people defeated by their pain. I have been tempted myself. I would never equate my ordinary struggle, or anyone’s, with the tragedy of those lost to what researchers call “deaths of despair” — suicide, overdose, and alcohol. By 2021, those deaths had climbed to nearly two hundred thousand a year in the United States. There is hope in the latest numbers — 2024 brought the first significant decline since 1999. But those numbers are considered fragile and count only the dead. They have never counted the millions still alive, whose hope is quietly stolen, day after day, by the sheer fatigue of living.

What makes living so hard? While politics, economics, religion, and technology are powerful, they cannot replace the spiritual forces our souls desperately need:

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV

Despair is born out of exchanging faith for religion, hope for economics and technology, and loving relationships for politics. These three things—faith, hope, and love—are the spirituality of God and Jesus. These spiritual forces prevent us from drowning in the sea of despair created by humanity’s self-reliance. They have the power to conquer the worldly forces of the “four horsemen” so that they serve rather than enslave humanity.

As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” [11] Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Wait for God, for I shall still praise Him, The salvation of my presence and my God.

Psalm 42:10-11 LSB

Let’s revisit Miriam Greenspan’s insights from the beginning of this newsletter:

In an emotion-phobic culture, most of us don’t know how to listen very well to emotional pain for the simple reason that we have never been taught that doing so is a good thing, or how to do it.

Can you listen well to emotional pain, in yourself or others? Do you believe that doing so is a good thing? Jesus had the courage to see and listen to pain, and in doing so, he healed and transformed it.

Some might think I am a utopian, that I believe this world can be rid of pain. I do not think the world can be rid of pain, but I do believe God has given us the power to conquer it, so that all the amazing innovations we discover can be for the flourishing rather than despair of the human race. Living this way will require courage—the courage to talk about our pain.

Though we experience every kind of pressure, we’re not crushed. At times we don’t know what to do, but quitting is not an option.

2 Corinthians 4:8 TPT

My first and most significant moment of quitting occurred at a summer basketball camp. As the camp came to a close, a one-on-one tournament between the hundred or so kids began. My confidence grew with each round as I won game after game. This was new for me; I was by no means a star.

Surprisingly, I ended up being one of the final four contestants. Every camper and coach sat courtside for these final games and watched us play. My match was first, and everything went great until I missed a shot. At that moment, I became fearful of losing. My opponent was the son of the coach whose camp I was attending. My coach was the protégé of this head coach, who was watching me. Pressure mounted.

My thoughts raced as I considered my options. I had outperformed expectations to get this far, and it would be no embarrassment to lose to a coach’s son. Even if I made it to the championship, I would likely face one of my best friends and there was no way I could beat him.

Entertaining these thoughts, I gave myself permission to quit. I eased up on defense as my opponent scored and won the game.
I often look back on this game and other moments of quitting to understand and accept this truth: quitting is an option for me. Contrastingly, 2 Corinthians 4:8 teaches that quitting is not an option for Christians.

We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out.

2 Corinthians 4:9 TPT

When knocked down, Christians are supposed to get back up. I write all of this for myself and anyone who might share my weakness, but especially for leaders. Leaders are increasingly faced with a cultural acceptance of quitting when things become hard. The Christian—at least the spiritual Christian—cannot embrace this culture of quitting.

[3] And we are also happy with the troubles we have. Why are we happy with troubles? Because we know that these troubles make us more patient. [4] And this patience is proof that we are strong. And this proof gives us hope. [5] And this hope will never disappoint us. We know this because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts through the Holy Spirit he gave us.

Romans 5:3-5 ERV

When we as Christians live life according to Scripture and rely on the power of the Spirit, we can be “happy with the troubles we have,” because those troubles make us grow to be more like Christ. They make us more spiritual and allow us to secure our destiny—the purpose for which God chose us.

[12] Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. [13] Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, [14] I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14 NIV

Some will ask whether there is ever a time to quit. My answer is there are occasions when we need to “stop doing” so we can “start doing.” This is not “giving up” but refocusing our tenacious efforts on a path more suited to pleasing God and building his kingdom.

What we are addressing is the quitting which says, “I no longer want to be uncomfortable, experience failure, have to wait, or have to work, so I am going to quit. I will find an easier way to get what I want or settle for something less because I am unwilling to endure until my character meets the opportunity when success will be possible.”

“How To Not Quit When Everyone Else Is Quitting” is about examining the cultural forces of quitting at home, work, school, or in the spiritual communities of which we are a part. Our goal is to resist the temptation to quit, choosing instead to imitate Jesus who through perseverance became the ultimate finisher!

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to completely finish His work.

John 4:34 AMP

There are three levels to conquering quitting.

First, we must address quitting among leaders because they have an outsized impact on our culture, whether it is at home, work, school, or in our spiritual communities.
Second, we need to learn how to create a culture that produces spiritual leaders who know how to finish.

Third, we need to commit ourselves to developing the eight qualities of spiritual people and leaders who don’t quit. By the time we complete our study, we will have a foundation for knowing “How Not To Quit When Everyone Else is Quitting.”

The leadership crisis of quitting

Leaders who quit when things become difficult create cultures of quitting. Every facet of life has been difficult since the pandemic began four years ago. This has caused a number of leaders to quit leading. Again, there are reasonable and even noble reasons to quit, but what we are talking about here is the choice to do what is easy because we don’t want to do anything hard.

When cultural forces encourage quitting, we need leaders willing to endure rather than quit, but this means accepting the fact that leadership can be dangerous.

To lead is to live dangerously because when leadership counts, when you lead people through difficult change, you challenge what people hold dear—their daily habits, tools, loyalties, and ways of thinking—with nothing more to offer perhaps than a possibility.

Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky, Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading

Leadership is dangerous. This is why so few want to lead. Rare is the individual who wants to accept responsibility for anyone other than themselves. What healthy individual would welcome criticism for their personality, appearance, personal failures, or life choices—including everything from parenting to purchases?

As Heifetz and Linsky point out in their book, Leadership on the Line, there are numerous ways in which forces of resistance are marshaled against the leader—especially if they seek to lead change:

Moreover, leadership often means exceeding the authority you are given to tackle the challenge at hand. People push back when you disturb the personal and institutional equilibrium they know. And people resist in all kinds of creative and unexpected ways that can get you taken out of the game: pushed aside, undermined, or eliminated.

Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky, Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading

There are hundreds, if not thousands, who will point out the problems with and foibles of leaders, and not without justification. Unfortunately, however accurate or inaccurate negative assessments of leadership might be, those who are not yet leaders are often dissuaded from leading because of the price they presume they will have to pay. These are often the young or next-generation leaders, which endangers the future of every organization.

Equally concerning is the condition of current leaders. Many of the people I have observed or known leading in public or private organizations are growing older and quitting. Worn down by responsibility and resistance, they choose a different path and begin the search for the financial means to live without having to lead.

Because of the withering effects of these leadership pressures, many noble leaders of exceptional character refuse to lead, quit leading, or—having failed in leadership—decide never to lead again. This creates a leadership crisis, which was the condition of Israel at a time of spiritual decline when social chaos and disorder reigned.

[1] See now, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: all supplies of food and all supplies of water, [2] the hero and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, [3] the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter. [4] “I will make mere youths their officials; children will rule over them.”

Isaiah 3:1-4 NIV

In the absence of spiritually competent and courageous leadership, the nation began to collapse under the guidance of unspiritual and inexperienced leaders.

[5] People will oppress each other—man against man, neighbor against neighbor. The young will rise up against the old, the nobody against the honored. [6] A man will seize one of his brothers in his father’s house, and say, “You have a cloak, you be our leader; take charge of this heap of ruins!” [7] But in that day he will cry out, “I have no remedy. I have no food or clothing in my house; do not make me the leader of the people.”

Isaiah 3:5-7 NIV

The result of this leadership crisis was the spiritual collapse of the nation. This collapse that would have been avoidable if they had developed a spiritual culture that supported spiritual leaders, rehabilitated fallen leaders, and nurtured future leaders.

[8] Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence. [9] The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.

Isaiah 3:8-9 NIV

Quitting will become our culture unless we make it possible for spiritual leaders to remain strong, recover from failure, and grow from inexperienced to experienced without faith-crushing penalties for immature mistakes. This is the only way for the world, and especially our churches, to develop leaders capable of delivering on the description of God’s servant in the book of Isaiah.

And though he faces obstacles, resistance, and great pressure, he will not crack; he will not give up until things are set right. Even the coastlands wait patiently for his instruction.

Isaiah 42:4 Voice

We can look to Moses to understand how we can create a spiritual culture capable of producing these types of leaders.

Creating a culture capable of producing spiritual leaders

[13] Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. [14] The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” [15] Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.

Exodus 14:13-15 NIV

Moses was one of the most spiritual leaders found in Scripture, but this didn’t happen overnight. In Exodus 2-13, we learn that his journey to becoming a spiritual leader was filled with as much failure as success. What saved him was a God who was willing to support, forgive, sustain, and nurture his growth.

The culmination of Moses’s spiritual growth over multiple decades is seen in Exodus 14, where his faith allowed him to stand firm against the grave threat from the Egyptians. He led all of Israel to move forward rather than quit.

And while God nurtured Moses’s growth in Exodus 2-13, he also created a culture in Israel to support the growth of multiple spiritual leaders. Here are four principles to apply at home, at work, at school, and in our spiritual communities to help us develop spiritual leaders who never quit.

1. Spiritual cultures develop rather than undermine leaders

The next day Moses took his place to judge the people. People were standing before him all day long, from morning to night. When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What’s going on here? Why are you doing all this, and all by yourself, letting everybody line up before you from morning to night?”

Exodus 18:13-14 MSG

Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, didn’t criticize Moses; he sought to understand him. He was trying to understand the thinking behind what Moses was doing. He didn’t want to replace Moses. His goal was to help Moses be effective and successful.

We can learn from this by asking ourselves what type of culture we have at home, work, school, or in our spiritual community. Do we seek to develop or undermine those who lead? Focusing on developing leaders is how our culture produces an ever-increasing number of spiritual leaders.

2. Spiritual cultures limit rather than burn out leaders

Moses’ father-in-law said, “This is no way to go about it. You’ll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can’t do this alone.

Exodus 18:17-23 MSG

The second thing Jethro did was introduce some sobriety into Moses’s life. As a leader, I often overreach in my effort to do my job. I need someone to point out that my self-reliance and pride are going to lead to burnout because I am trying to do everything on my own.

Spiritual cultures make certain that leaders have help and that they rely on it even when they don’t think they need it because they know a leader who burns out will burn others out as well.

3. Spiritual cultures focus on God, not on leaders

Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this so that God will be in this with you. Be there for the people before God, but let the matters of concern be presented to God.

Exodus 18:17-23 MSG

One of the most challenging things Jethro communicated to Moses was that if he didn’t change the way he led, God couldn’t be in this with him.

Spiritual cultures don’t focus on the leader’s style, strengths, and weaknesses, but on how God wants things done. People who create these cultures take pressure off of leaders. They remind leaders that we need a move of God not a move of men, and that acceptance of spiritual change is not about being right or wrong but making sure God is with us.

4. Spiritual cultures create spiritual leadership pipelines

Your job is to teach them the rules and instructions, to show them how to live, what to do. And then you need to keep a sharp eye out for competent men—men who fear God, men of integrity, men who are incorruptible—and appoint them as leaders over groups organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten.

Exodus 18:17-23 MSG

Finally, Jethro taught Moses that a spiritual culture is going to have multiple leaders who are spiritually competent. In fact, a spiritual culture is one where the leaders understand they are constantly working to reduce not increase their responsibilities.

The key to developing a culture with these four qualities is creating an environment of spiritual leaders who do not compete or become entangled in power struggles but make the building of the culture more important than any one person. For this to happen we can look at the detailed examples of a competent leader outlined in Exodus 18 above.

Eight qualities of spiritual people and leaders who don’t quit

… competent men—men who fear God, men of integrity, men who are incorruptible—and appoint them as leaders over groups organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten. They’ll be responsible for the everyday work of judging among the people. They’ll bring the hard cases to you, but in the routine cases they’ll be the judges. They will share your load and that will make it easier for you. If you handle the work this way, you’ll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you, and the people in their settings will flourish also.”

Exodus 18:17-23 MSG

Creating a spiritual culture requires spiritual leaders capable of working together as a team. The Scriptures call these “competent leaders,” and here are their eight qualities:

1. They fear God – Spiritual leaders are spiritually humble.

2. They have integrity – Spiritual leaders have spiritual conviction.

3. They are incorruptible – Spiritual leaders have spiritual courage.

4. They are organized – Spiritual leaders are spiritually disciplined.

5. They are responsible – Spiritual leaders have a spiritual conscience.

6. They work – Spiritual leaders embrace spiritual service.

7. They can make good judgments – Spiritual leaders practice spiritual decision-making.

8. They share the leadership load – Spiritual leaders have spiritual confidence.

Let’s look at each of these qualities in more detail to learn how we can develop them.

1. Spiritual leaders are spiritually humble

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you Except to be just, and to love [and to diligently practice] kindness (compassion), And to walk humbly with your God [setting aside any overblown sense of importance or self-righteousness]?

Micah 6:8 AMP

The first quality found in Exodus 18 describing competence is the quality that makes all the other qualities possible: the fear of God. When someone fears God, they are humble first and foremost with God, as pointed out in Micah 6:8. They set aside “any overblown sense of importance or self-righteousness.”

Spiritual cultures are destroyed by people whose selfish ambition, need for position, or need for attention becomes more important to them than pleasing God. When we are humble with God, our priorities are not based on ourselves but on what God is trying to accomplish. This quality is the key to creating families, small groups, and teams that can work together in unity regardless of role.

2. Spiritual leaders have spiritual conviction

How much longer will you sit on the fence, refusing to make a decision between the Lord and Baal? If you believe the Eternal One is the True God, then devote yourselves entirely to Him. If you believe Baal is your master, then devote yourselves entirely to him. All the people who were gathered together atop Mount Carmel were completely silent. They didn’t know what to say to this.

1 Kings 18:21 Voice

Second on the list of character qualities for the spiritual leader is integrity. This was a quality possessed by the prophet Elijah. Integrity is the ability to keep the important things important. Whether these leaders are dealing with themselves, family, close friends, or an organization they are involved with, they will hold to their biblical convictions without compromise.

3. Spiritual leaders have spiritual courage

[6] “Be strong and confident and courageous, for you will give this people as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers (ancestors) to give them. [7] Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do [everything] in accordance with the entire law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper and be successful wherever you go. [8] This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall read [and meditate on] it day and night, so that you may be careful to do [everything] in accordance with all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will be successful. [9] Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified or dismayed (intimidated), for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1:6-9 AMP

“Incorruptible” is a powerful word because it means we are not for sale. This quality requires courage, which is what Joshua needed to replace Moses as a leader. Those who are incorruptible do not give in to fear when threatened, intimidated, accused, or bribed. As a result, they can be trusted to be just and fair.

4. Spiritual leaders are spiritually disciplined

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control].

2 Timothy 1:7 AMP

The failure to be organized can undermine even the most spiritual leader, which is why spiritual leaders must be disciplined. Discipline is the ability to say “no” to ourselves, and to control our emotions, thoughts, and desires—all of which bring order to our private lives.

Fortunately, the Holy Spirit makes us disciplined, as described by 2 Timothy 1:7. The more we rely on God and listen to the Spirit’s prompting, the more disciplined we will become.

5. Spiritual leaders have a spiritual conscience

[3] I care very little, however, if I am judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. [4] My conscience is clear, but that does not vindicate me. It is the Lord who judges me.

1 Corinthians 4:3-4 BSB

One of the most stressful aspects of leadership is taking responsibility, especially for people or tasks that fall outside our role or purview. This is why spiritual leaders need a spiritual conscience, which is a moral compass made sensitive by reading and obeying God’s Word. Our conscience guides us to take the initiative to be responsible even when it isn’t our responsibility.

6. Spiritual leaders embrace spiritual service

[1] We who are strong in faith should help the weak with their weaknesses, and not please only ourselves. [2] Let each of us please our neighbors for their good, to help them be stronger in faith. [3] Even Christ did not live to please himself…

Romans 15:1-3 NCV

Spiritual leaders embrace the everyday work of leading when they have the spiritual heart to serve. In one sense, service is the most difficult quality of Jesus to imitate unless we become unselfish people, and becoming unselfish people is one of the best signs we are actually walking with and relying on God.

7. Spiritual leaders practice spiritual decision-making

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel [28] without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.

Philippians 1:27-28 NIV

The quality of “judging” in the Old Testament can be confusing, and yet Exodus 18 points out that it is one of the eight qualities of competent leaders. Those who are called to judge are being asked to make spiritual decisions. Since a significant part of leadership is decision-making, a critical quality for competent leaders is knowing how to make decisions that put God first. This results in them living lives worthy of the gospel. Knowing how to make spiritual decisions, these leaders can then teach others to think spiritually and make spiritual decisions.

8. Spiritual leaders have spiritual confidence

[22] Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. [23] If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”

Exodus 18:22-23 NIV

Spiritual leaders have the spiritual confidence to lead. Their spiritual confidence stems from a character that refuses to yield. They relieve the burden on any one leader because they possess the first seven qualities of spiritual leadership that will not let them quit.

They fear God (have spiritual humility) and have integrity (spiritual conviction). They are incorruptible (spiritually courageous), organized (spiritually disciplined), responsible (have a spiritual conscience), willing to work (embrace spiritual service), and capable of making judgments (practice spiritual decision-making). Because of their unyielding character, they are capable of sharing the leadership load.

When the culture we create is spiritual, we endow people and leaders with the eight spiritual qualities that make us unyielding and unwilling to quit. The result is a home, workplace, school, or spiritual community capable of changing the world.

Conclusion: Competence comes from God

Now the leaders were surprised and confused. They looked at Peter and John and realized they were typical peasants—uneducated, utterly ordinary fellows—with extraordinary confidence. The leaders recognized them as companions of Jesus …

Acts 4:13 Voice

“How to Not Quit When Everyone Else is Quitting” has been an opportunity for us to understand quitting and the prevalence of it in our culture. We were able to examine the leadership crisis created when leaders quit. The solutions we found were creating a culture capable of producing spiritual leaders and the eight qualities of spiritual people and leaders who don’t quit.

Throughout our study and reflection, we might feel inadequate or incapable of creating a spiritual culture or becoming spiritual leaders. This is why it is important for us to consider Acts 4:13 in the Voice translation, where we learn that the extraordinary confidence of the apostles came from being with Jesus. In short, their competence came from God and so does ours.

[4] Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. [5] It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. [6] He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 3:4-6 CSB

Now more than ever, Christians have a unique opportunity to profoundly influence society. However, to realize this potential, we must reject the prevailing culture of quitting. Instead, we need to cultivate spiritual communities dedicated to developing spiritual leaders who are skilled in transforming lives and making a global impact. May God bless our endeavor to grow and fulfill his dreams for a world in need of change.

“The stories of past courage can … teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.”

John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage

Clarity about our current times came to me while talking with my mother. At ninety-one years old, she was recalling legendary visitors to her middle and high schools: Jackie Robinson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Mary McLeod Bethune—each a person of courage.

Among her great presidents, she counts Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. FDR remade America into an international beacon of hope for freedom, and Johnson’s groundbreaking leadership secured rights long denied to African Americans.

Growing up, I remember her placing Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy in that same company. She also made me watch the footage of the Democratic National Convention when Shirley Chisholm was the first woman to run for president.

Most of these people were Democrats, because she, like many African Americans, was one. But the impact on me was not political. Their lives impressed upon me the importance of courage. From this perspective, the world of today feels so different.

Historians will give us many reasons to diminish these exemplars of courage. In the effort to tell the whole story, sensationalists have eroded our heroes—using their weaknesses, even their sins, to dismiss them as though we do not all share the same humanity. I am left to wonder if the collateral damage to our culture and collective memory is the loss of courage.

In place of the courageous, we have influencers—people who sell more often than they inspire, people who have done little, people who have never stood up for anything beyond what increases their following. And so we have become a nation of attention-seekers and voyeurs at the very moment we most need to become people of courage. Perhaps you, like me, wonder, what have we done?

The challenges of this world are many, and if we can learn anything from history, the central quality required to manage and master them is courage. Have you ever considered that our world is made worse not because today’s problems are unique, but because we as a society no longer honor courage? How much different might the world be if the conscience of humankind awakened to our need to become people of courage, fearless pioneers in uncertain times with passion and purpose to create a world better than the one we inherited?

“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

John 16:33 CSB

In John 16, Jesus empowered his disciples to face the world and all its problems with courage. He came and lived on earth, died on a cross, and rose from the dead to free us from sin and simultaneously the fears that imprison us. Then he called those who would follow him to free others by venturing into the frontiers of life to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19).

This is the greatest call to courage in the history of humankind. Eleven individuals heard it, became pioneers into the frontiers of their times and sacrificed their lives to the point of death, all with a passion to leave the world better than they found it. At a time when so many are looking for a purpose worthy of their courage, this is it.

Few people exemplify our cultural and spiritual challenge to follow Jesus into a life of courage more than two key figures in the Bible—Saul and David. Let’s take a look at the contrast between them and what it tells us.

Saul and David: Cowardice, courage, and the choice we must make

Courage is rarely rewarded when exercised. It is sometimes acknowledged, often ridiculed, and punished when it’s dangerous. This was the experience of a young man named David, one of history’s most courageous leaders, who would eventually become king of Israel.

When then-King Saul and his army were confronted with the lethality of the Philistine warrior Goliath, “they were scared and ran off” (1 Samuel 17:24). In the midst of their courage deficit and battlefield crisis, David arrived as a food delivery boy from his father for his brothers. He asked a question:

David asked some soldiers standing nearby, “What will a man get for killing this Philistine and stopping him from insulting our people? Who does that worthless Philistine think he is? He’s making fun of the army of the living God!”

1 Samuel 17:26 CEV

Eliab, David’s older brother, heard him and reacted in anger:

David’s oldest brother Eliab heard him talking with the soldiers. Eliab was angry at him and said, “What are you doing here, anyway? Who’s taking care of that little flock of sheep out in the desert? You spoiled brat! You came here just to watch the fighting, didn’t you?”

1 Samuel 17:28 CEV

As is so often the case when someone courageous steps forward, the response David got was diminishing ridicule and dismissive incredulity. His brother punished him emotionally, likely due to the disconcerting effect of sibling rivalry.

But then other soldiers acknowledged the courage that David’s brother would not:

Some soldiers overheard David talking, so they told Saul what David had said. Saul sent for David, and David came. [32] “Your Majesty,” he said, “this Philistine shouldn’t turn us into cowards. I’ll go out and fight him myself!”

1 Samuel 17:31-32 CEV

The Contemporary English Version of the Bible captures the contrast between David and Saul. Goliath surfaced David’s courage and revealed the cowardice of Saul and his army. This is what our modern-day “Goliaths” do to us. Every formidable problem in our lives and in the world will test our character and reveal what is at its core—courage or cowardice.

You and me: Will we run or will we fight?

When Goliath started forward,

David ran toward Goliath, without worrying about whether or not he had what it took to defeat this giant.

Right now, I can name three to four Goliaths in my life. How about you? The world around us counsels the pursuit of comfort, not courage: Avoid, don’t fight. Conform, don’t live with conviction. Amass followers or be silent, but under no circumstances risk being different.

If you and I want to be spiritual, to experience the conquering Spirit of Jesus, and to live like David instead of Saul, then we must choose courage. Like David, we can’t worry about our resources. We must trust what God gives us and run to the fight.

Do I dare? Do you dare? This is our spiritual frontier, and our answer tells us whether we have the courage to conquer it.

Key takeaways

• Real growth begins with self-awareness: You can’t change what you don’t first understand.

• God helps you get honest: Seeing yourself through his eyes leads to confidence and direction.

• Knowing yourself sets the stage: It’s the first step to improving how you manage stress, make decisions, and more.

As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.

Proverbs 27:19 NIV

Marriage lessons come in many forms, but this one was unique. While studying the Bible with a friend, I witnessed a life-changing moment of self-awareness. As we explored the Scriptures, a light bulb turned on in his head. He realized that his hatred was holding him back from making the decision to become a Christian. But it wasn’t just any hate—it was directed at his wife, whom he regularly wished would die.

For many, this might seem like a terrible moment, but what I learned that day is that the best things in life begin with self-awareness born out of honesty. Once he identified the hate and recognized the petty reasons behind it, he was able to let it go. This led to reconciliation with his wife, and through the power of forgiveness, they started their marriage over, lasting for many more years.

This transformation happened because of the power of Scripture. As the above verse in Proverbs 27 describes, the Bible allows us to connect our life actions with our heart condition. In other words, it helps us understand why we act the way we do. Once we are aware of our hearts, God can help us change them. Once we change our hearts, we can change our lives.

Instead of fearing self-awareness, we should embrace it because it is the beginning of the best things in life.

The power of self-awareness

Have you ever been surprised by emotions you didn’t know were there? Perhaps someone asked how you felt, and you struggled to explain it. Or maybe you’ve been in a situation where you felt nothing while everyone around you was deeply emotional. Or maybe you misread someone else’s emotions, causing pain and misunderstanding.

In all of these instances, the missing or underdeveloped skill is self-awareness. The good thing is, the more we walk with God, the more he develops self-awareness in us. When we walk with God, several things happen:

• We are known by him (1 Corinthians 8:3, Psalm 139:1-6).

• We listen to his Word, which becomes a mirror for us, cutting through the facades and masks of life to reveal who we truly are (James 1:22-25, Hebrews 4:12-13).

• The truth of God’s Word sets us free (John 8:31-32).

• This freedom from God’s Word allows us to be ourselves and to grow into God’s purpose for our lives (Romans 8:28 Voice).

The self-awareness we develop in our walk with God also deepens our prayer life, empowering us to pour out our hearts to him (Psalm 62:8). Honest prayer opens the door for God to move powerfully in our lives (James 5:16). As God gives us that power through prayer, he helps us appreciate our God-given strengths and begin to change the weaknesses of character that hold us back from our destiny.

Spiritual self-awareness is a life skill that not only deepens our relationship with God but also strengthens our relationships with others. Understanding the impact of our own joys and pain can give us deeper understanding and compassion for the burdens others carry in their hearts (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Regardless of the current level of our own self-awareness, none of us has reached the depth of Jesus, who was so spiritually perceptive that he knew people’s hearts (Matthew 9:4). That means it doesn’t matter how behind or ahead we feel we are in our own journeys to self-awareness, because we all have room to grow. The more we grow together to become like Jesus, the more our prayers and our relationships will grow in awareness, depth, and fulfillment.

Scriptures for reflection

1. Know what’s in your own heart.

Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can fully share its joy.

Proverbs 14:10 NLT

True self-awareness means being honest with ourselves about both pain and joy. Refusing to acknowledge emotions is refusing to let God heal us and bring us close to him (Matthew 13:15). When we share both joy and pain, we can experience a depth of intimacy and connection that is unreachable for the unaware.

2. Speak the truth from the heart.

The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart…

Psalm 15:2 NIV

When we are spiritually self-aware, we do not live in deception—whether that be self-deception or deception toward others. Instead, we speak truthfully about what’s in our heart, leading to a life of integrity and intimate relationships.

3. Draw out the deep things within.

The real motives come from deep within a person-as from deep waters- but a discerning person is able to draw them up and expose them.

Proverbs 20:5 Voice

Spiritual self-awareness requires discernment—the ability to dig deeper to understand why we do the things we do. Our motives, fears, and desires often lie beneath the surface, but with the help of God and spiritual friends, we can bring them to light.

4. Build a strong foundation through self-awareness.

“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? [47] I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. [48] It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built.

Luke 6:46-48 NLT

Jesus tells us that following his teachings in the Scriptures involves “digging deep.” Through his Word, God opens our hearts, reveals truths to us about who he is and who we are, and lays the foundation for who we can become.

Questions for reflection

• Have you ever experienced a moment where self-awareness changed your perspective or actions? What happened?

• Are there emotions or thoughts you’ve been avoiding? Why do you think that is?

• How can you use Scripture and prayer to develop greater self-awareness this week?

Get started on your journey

Developing self-awareness is a continual journey; we never finish growing in our understanding of ourselves or God. The more we walk in the light of God’s truth, the more we experience the best things in life: growth, healing, and purpose.

To begin or deepen your spiritual self-awareness, you may find these ideas helpful:

• Use an emotions wheel. If understanding or acknowledging what’s in your heart is difficult for you, try using an emotions wheel. Identify which emotions you feel the most on a daily basis, then write down how you tend to react when those emotions arise, and in what areas of your life they arise most. For example, if anxiety is a common emotion for you, does it come up most at work, home, or somewhere else? Do you react by lashing out, disengaging, or taking control? Share what you find in prayer and conversation with God and friends.

• Ask why (more than once). When trying to understand your behaviors or heart, dig deeper by asking yourself why a couple times. (ie. I snapped at my spouse for not doing the dishes. Why? Because it made me angry and stressed. Why? Because then I’d feel like I have to do it. Why? Because I feel hurt for not being considered.) There’s no magical number for how many times to ask, but the more you ask the more you might understand. Prayer is a good place to do this so that you don’t let your emotions or thoughts get the best of you.

• Dig deep when you read the Bible. When reading Scripture, ask yourself: what do I learn about myself? What do I learn about God and the life he wants for me? How can I follow this today to become who God is calling me to be?

Space: the final frontier.
These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.
Its five-year mission:
to explore strange new worlds,
to seek out new life and new civilizations,
to boldly go where no man has gone before.

— Star Trek: The Original Series

The Spiritual Frontier is a newsletter whose inception came from an awareness of my own fear and the resulting inclination toward stagnation instead of innovation.

The Scriptures confirmed my realization. Proverbs 28:1 contrasts the godly, who are “as bold as lions,” with the wicked, who are cowardly. Awakened by this awareness, I was forced to question the condition of my faith.

Faith brings extraordinary confidence. We see this in the first Christians in the Bible, whose source of confidence was God:

God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure … will never give up on you. Never forget that.

1 Corinthians 1:7-9 MSG

Powered by this faith, the first Christians were able to enter and conquer new frontiers such that more and more people discovered God.

Through all this upheaval, God’s message spread to new frontiers and attracted more and more people.

Acts 12:24 VOICE

I enjoy both science and spirituality, and when I reflected on the Christians in the Bible, a truth became apparent to me. The spirituality of God through Jesus Christ and science share a pioneering mindset. It’s the mindset described in the iconic Star Trek series: “to explore … to seek out … to boldly go.” No matter whether the measure was spiritual or secular, I was losing my pioneering mindset. I was becoming someone I didn’t want to be.

I needed to get back to exploring the unknown, uncertain, uncontrollable, and impossible. With a trusting faith in God, who is the ultimate source of the courage necessary to navigate every new frontier, I could walk boldly into four areas that my fear told me were off-limits:

• The unknown: I don’t know where this will lead.

• The uncertain: I don’t know how this will work.

• The uncontrollable: I don’t believe I can do it.

• The impossible: I don’t see a reason this should come true.

This is the final frontier, not space. Space is finite. The ultimate and final frontier is the spiritual activity of life.

Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.

Ecclesiastes 11:5 NLT

I have avoided and resisted entering this spiritual frontier because I am afraid. Fear of the unpredictability of life erodes my faith and produces insecurity. It causes me to run from pain, to anticipate potential suffering and hesitate because of it. Fear confines and cages my life.

Do you ever feel that way?

This is not God’s plan for our lives.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control].

2 Timothy 1:7 AMP

God wants us “to explore … to seek out … to boldly go” into the spiritual frontier. This is the spiritual space he inhabits. The spiritual frontier is where we become free to discover who we are and why we are here.

This is the freedom Maya Angelou described when she heard the caged bird sing. It’s A song of freedom familiar to those of us who feel caged by our fear of the unknown, uncertain, uncontrollable, and impossible

The caged bird sings…of things unknown but longed for still...

— Maya Angelou, “Caged Bird”

God hears our song and offers us this freedom to discover who we are and why we are here. But this is a calling, and it requires courage—the willingness to lose who we have been to become who we are meant to be. Only courage will set us free to embark on the grand adventure of life, which is the exploration of the spiritual frontier.

The question this newsletter asks, and the one I’m asking myself, is whether we will choose the stagnation of cowardice or the frontier of courage.

The frontier is waiting. Will we go?

There are places in life most of us are afraid to go.

The unknown. The unpredictable. The dreams we’ve quietly stopped believing in. The versions of ourselves we’ve glimpsed but never fully become. These are spiritual struggles. And they’re exactly where the most important growth happens.

That’s The Spiritual Frontier.

It’s not a place on a map. It’s the courageous decision to stop letting fear write the story of our lives and to start trusting that God has something extraordinary waiting on the other side of our hesitation. Proverbs 29:18 says it plainly: “Without vision, people perish.” The Spiritual Frontier exists to give us that vision back.

And it’s for everyone. Whether you’re deeply rooted in faith or just beginning to wonder if there’s something more, you belong here.

The Spiritual Frontier includes essays and podcast episodes that will go deep into faith and God—that’s the heartbeat of everything I do. But it won’t stop there. We’ll bring in researchers, psychiatrists, and business leaders. We’ll talk about developing the faith to conquer the things that are real and complex in our lives—like grief, leadership, disabilities, and more. God is the source of all wisdom and understanding, and he wants to fully equip us to be the best we can be in every area of our lives.

I’m learning as I go. I’m overcoming my own fears in real time. And I’m inviting you to come with me.

Watch the video above for my full launch message, where I share exactly what this new chapter is, where it’s headed, and what’s coming in the very first episode. (Spoiler: it might be the best one I’ve ever made.)

The frontier is waiting.

Let’s go.

The best podcasts don’t just inform you. They hold up a mirror.

That’s what happened the first time I listened to Ryan Wexelblatt, founder of ADHD Dude, licensed social worker, and one of the clearest voices on parenting I’ve ever encountered. I was ten minutes in before I started laughing at myself. Not because he was funny. Because he was right.

I knew I had to get him on the Spiritual Frontier.

Here’s the reality: 1 in 9 American children, 7 million kids, are carrying an ADHD diagnosis. Behind that number are millions of parents who love their children fiercely and were never handed a map. That’s not a failure. That’s simply where we begin.

Here’s a number that stopped me cold: 40% of parents want to be the fun parent. Only 7% want to be seen as strict. But Ryan helped me see what I’d been missing. We’ve confused strictness with structure, and they are not the same thing. Strictness controls a child. Structure sets one free. For a child with ADHD, structure isn’t a cage. It’s the scaffolding they climb to become who they’re capable of being.

Ryan doesn’t avoid the difficult. He explains and inspires. That’s his gift. He trades guesswork for what the evidence actually shows: how to read your child’s big emotions instead of fearing them, how to stop rescuing and start equipping, how to raise a child who learns they are capable rather than helpless.

This is one of the most enjoyable, inspiring, and detailed episodes I’ve ever produced. Maybe the best yet. Not because it will make you feel you’ve gotten it wrong, but because you’ll walk away believing you can get it right.

Don’t miss it.

▶️ Watch: The Empowered Parent: Raising a Child With ADHD With Hope and Direction

Who is Ryan?

Ryan Wexelblatt, LCSW, is a licensed social worker, ADHD specialist, and founder of ADHD Dude. An expert in behavior management and executive functioning, Ryan combines clinical expertise with his personal experience to help families replace daily chaos with structural discipline, resilience, and real-world independence.

Ryan’s links

• YouTube

• Podcast

• Website

… what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. [20] For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Romans 1:19-20 NIV

Romans 1:20 tells us that creation itself is enough to reveal God. God built the world not just to exist, but to explain. He wants to be known and discovered through every aspect of our lives—through nature, science, and the world as well as through our relationships, our emotions, and our souls. Every molecule in existence makes God audible, reachable, and knowable. Every biological system is a clue to who God is.

When we move through life with this understanding, we will always be in God’s classroom. We will find opportunities for spiritual discovery in places that some might think unlikely, such as the one I found while reading the fantasy book series His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. A young girl named Lyra is at the center of this story, and her conversations with other characters reveal her struggle to understand the spiritual forces at work in the world.

“Quick now, child,” he said quietly. “The powers of this world are very strong. Men and women are moved by tides much fiercer than you can imagine, and they sweep us all up into the current.”

Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass (Book One)

Like Lyra, I’ve discovered there is much I don’t know about the powers of this world. I, too, am often naïve about the fierce tides at work within men and women.

What I do know is that this world is both physical and spiritual, so understanding it and the God who made it requires a commitment to understanding at least the rudimentary foundations of science and spirituality.

Pullman pulls on this string when he describes Lyra’s need to navigate the perceived conflict between faith and science:

“But…” Lyra struggled to find the words she wanted: “but it en’t true, is it? Not true like chemistry or engineering, not that kind of true? There wasn’t really an Adam and Eve?”

Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass (Book One)

Lyra is not alone in her struggle to reconcile the seemingly disparate principles of faith and science. I have felt caught in the tension between the two, and I’m sure that many other readers have too. Continuing their conversation, Lord Asriel responds to Lyra’s confusion by clarifying that this tension between faith and science is not an argument to be solved, but an idea to be explored:

“…think of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number, like the square root of minus one: you can never see any concrete proof that it exists, but if you include it in your equations, you can calculate all manner of things that couldn’t be imagined without it.”

Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass (Book One)

As we consider this potential conflict between faith and science, we must resist the temptation to engage in argument. As always with The Chemistry Lab, my proposal is that we approach this topic with curiosity and exploration instead.

Pullman may not have intended his words for the reason I use them, but I believe his writing invites us to explore not merely faith and science, but the one word which, in my view, combines them both: spirituality.

“Incidentally, the Bible gave us the name Dust as well. At first they were called Rusakov Particles, but soon someone pointed out a curious verse toward the end of the Third Chapter of Genesis, where God’s cursing Adam for eating the fruit.” He opened the Bible again and pointed it out to Lyra. She read: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return….”

Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass (Book One)

Pullman uses the term “Dust” in his novel to describe the physical particles that form a person’s consciousness, highlighting the connection between science and faith, between the physical and the supernatural. Pullman’s writing seems to come to the same conclusion that the Bible has been revealing all along: the world we inhabit is more than science or faith alone, but their combination—spirituality!

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places.

Ephesians 6:12 AMP

By no means do I claim to understand all of this. But the questions these concepts raise challenge me to grow. What is the connection between faith and science? What is spirituality, and how does it allow us to integrate science and faith? How does it help us discover God? How does it change the way we live and see the world?

We don’t have to know the answers definitively; we merely need to keep an open mind and a learning heart. In today’s edition of The Chemistry Lab, join me as we explore the essence of spiritual chemistry, learn how to make God more discoverable in our lives, and reimagine Jesus in ways we never have before.

Notebooks open. Let’s see what we can learn today.

The Workshop

A place of discovery where a story sparks insight, observation, and a deeper understanding of walking with God.

Chemistry was the first and only course I wanted to take when I entered high school. I signed up for it as a freshman; I remember this because my older sisters reported to my mom that this wasn’t supposed to happen. “No one takes chemistry as a freshman,” they said.

While this wasn’t completely true, it was unusual. But as an incoming freshman who didn’t even know my way around a high school of 2000 students, how would I know this unspoken rule?

I’m not a genius, but I aced that class. Why? Because a passion for the subject was lit inside me. The moment I saw the high school lab equipment and listened to my teacher reveal things I didn’t know about chemistry, my heart raced, my mind was illuminated, and I knew I was going to become a chemist. For me, chemistry was the central science that connected all the others, and I wanted to possess the knowledge that I believed unlocked the secrets of life.

Despite the fact that I never became a chemist, what has always stuck with me is the understanding that chemistry connects the foundational science of physics to all the others—hence the term “central science.” In the same way, I believe spiritual chemistry, if understood, can connect the dots of what the Bible truly teaches about following Jesus and walking with God.

Defining spiritual chemistry

We are well into our Chemistry Lab journey, so it is time to define the core concept of spiritual chemistry. We are on a mission of discovery, so we can refine this definition as we go. But for now, my definition finds its genesis in this quote about making God audible from Susannah Heschel (which you may remember from an earlier edition of The Chemistry Lab):

… For my father, the importance of prophecy lies not only in the message, but in the role of the prophet as a witness, someone who is able to make God audible and to reveal not only God’s will, but inner life.

Susannah Heschel, Introduction to The Prophets by Abraham Joshua Heschel

When we combine this idea of “making God audible” with what we learned earlier in Romans 1:19-20 about how God’s creation makes him known, we come to this working definition:

Jesus is the ultimate explainer of spiritual chemistry.

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

John 1:18 NIV

Jesus is the ultimate explainer of spiritual chemistry. In his hands it becomes a discovery process that begins when we stop separating science from faith and begin to experience their unity.

As Colossians 1:15-17 teaches, God created the world through Jesus and for Jesus. The purpose of this is that Jesus might use every aspect of creation to explain and express the heart of God, so that all of humanity might know him:

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. [16] For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. [17] He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:15-17 NIV

For far too long, far too many have created a scaffolding that places science and faith in different rooms, if not different houses. But these are the actions and ideas of people, not God. He does not separate; he unifies science and faith through spirituality, and Jesus is the human expression of this unity.

What does this mean for us? Every atom, cell, and chemical; every land mass, ocean, and organism; anything and everything in our universe, including the forces of darkness and light, are all part of a creation to help us know and understand God. One might say creation is God’s communication with us.

Jesus makes sense of everything. He is the one who explains this communication and helps us understand and follow the path to our fulfillment, where we maximize our spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical potential as human beings.

God lives in Jesus like he has never lived in any other human: without hindrance. This distinction is what makes Jesus the height of spirituality, love, purpose, and power. This explains Jesus’s transformative effect on the world.

For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.

John 3:34 NIV

Jesus experienced the Spirit’s power without limit because he was undefeated by sin. Sin limits our potential, pulls us into a dark and empty life, and hinders our ability to see God move in our lives.

We can never reach Jesus’s level of transcendence on our own because we are limited by sin, but he opened the door for us to follow in his footsteps. He came to reveal the spiritual chemistry of a powerful life and make it available for everyone. He shows us what’s possible when the human spirit aligns with God’s.

For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. [22] He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone.

1 Peter 2:21-22 NLT

It is this Jesus we are to focus on, follow, and imitate. When we do, we will defy the gravitational pull of life into the emptiness and darkness that limit our potential and even destroy us.

Reimagining our view of Jesus

Many people, both secular and religious, admire Jesus’s life. He was an exceptional teacher and leader who made an exceptional impact. But Jesus wasn’t just exceptional. He was extraordinary. And he was extraordinary because he mastered and personified the powerful connection between science and faith, the natural and the supernatural.

Jesus became a priest, not by meeting the physical requirement of belonging to the tribe of Levi, but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed.

Hebrews 7:16 NLT

Jesus lived a powerful life not so that we would admire it but so that we would choose to live it ourselves. Believing in a Jesus any less extraordinary than this is a failure to grasp his true spirituality.

An exceptional (but not extraordinary) Jesus is limited by both the secular and religious insistence on compartmentalizing science and faith into separate categories (1 Corinthians 1:20-23). This thinking will prevent the exploration and discovery meant to occur when we examine the life of Jesus and the spiritual chemistry he can teach us.

Legendary scientist Max Planck warned of this type of rigid resistance and opposition toward new scientific truths:

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

Max Planck, Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers

We must not become people of God who are opponents of discovery, as described by Planck. Instead, we must be the new generation willing to reimagine Jesus and the faith he seeks to explain to us.

Weekly Experiment

A hands-on reflection and action guide designed to turn insights into growth.

Our journey to living a powerful life and discovering God in everything starts with Jesus, who delivered a message on spiritual chemistry in John 3:

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” …[5] Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. [6] Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”

John 3:3,5-6 NIV

Let’s break these verses down for a moment. Jesus tells us that to be born again, we must be born of water and Spirit. This isn’t a suggestion but a command. Some believe these verses point to baptism, which would turn what many consider to be a ritual into something much more transformative. Might it be a formula to produce the chemistry of change? Our bodies are already made up of 60-70% water—you could say this is our physical chemistry. So if Jesus is saying we must be born of both water and Spirit, then maybe this spiritual rebirth is a recalibration of our chemistry, bringing the physical and spiritual into perfect alignment. Being “born again” is the moment when our physical and spiritual dimensions finally integrate—when we stop living in fragments and start living in flow.

As we covered in the first issue of The Chemistry Lab, God made us with four primary dimensions:

• Heart (emotion)

• Mind (thought)

• Body (action/energy)

• Soul (spirit)

But few of us live in all four. Most of us operate from two or three at best. The goal of spiritual chemistry is to realign these dimensions into unity—not just to know God, but to walk in his power.

Jesus lived a powerful life. What if he experienced this power and did miracles because his spirit was perfectly aligned with God’s? What if spiritual growth isn’t just about learning more or gaining insight, but removing every barrier that hinders our ability to see God?

So for our weekly experiment, let’s ask ourselves these questions:

What is the chemistry of my life right now? Is it led by the physical or the spiritual, or are the dimensions of my life aligned and balanced?

If spiritual chemistry reveals God to us in every created thing, it will change the way we see and interact with every part of our lives. It will transform our friendships, marriages, churches, families, companies, and communities as we learn to see people the way Jesus did.

Here are a few more questions to help us reflect on and reveal our spiritual chemistry:

• How am I making choices in my life? Which of the four dimensions guides my choices more than the others?

• Am I exploring all areas of my life—the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual? What areas of my heart am I leaving unexplored?

• Which dimension dominates my relationships most? How does that affect the spiritual chemistry of those relationships?

• Are there areas of my heart that I am insecure or defensive about exploring? How do these areas reveal the need for deeper experimentation with personal transparency, spirituality, and even change?

Once we have answered these questions, let’s come up with our own experiments to act on what we learned. What experiment can you run to bring your spiritual and physical life into alignment? How will you know that this physical and spiritual alignment has happened? What will be your indicator?

As we have suggested in earlier issues of The Chemistry Lab, finding a lab partner to work with is a way to discover the answers to these questions.

The Field Notes

Key takeaways and final thoughts to carry with us into the week ahead.

Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

Hebrews 2:11 NIV

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

Romans 8:29 NIV

Hebrews 2:11 and Romans 8:29 clearly reflect a call from God to experience a relationship with him that produces the same type of spirituality with which Jesus walked this earth. In fact, 1 John 2:6 ESV says, “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” To me, this means that our walk with God ought to imitate Jesus’s, which means we should be understanding, experiencing, and inspiring the same type of spiritual chemistry Jesus taught and lived.

Here are some areas I am examining, questioning, and planning to experiment with so I can experience the spiritual chemistry of Jesus:

1. How much am I experiencing the spiritual chemistry of forgiveness?

2. Does my life manifest the spiritual chemistry of humility?

3. Do I embrace the chemistry of change and transformation in my life?

4. Do I have the resilience of someone experiencing the chemistry of destiny?

5. What is the quality of my chemistry with God when I pray?

6. How do I experience the chemistry of obedience to Scripture?

7. Am I experiencing spiritual chemistry in my marriage?

8. How effective is the spiritual chemistry of my personal leadership?

9. What is the spiritual chemistry of our small group, team, leadership team?

10. How much have I allowed God to change the chemistry of my character?

11. Am I experiencing the spiritual chemistry of creativity in my life?

12. What is my spiritual chemical reaction to mentorship and discipleship?

13. How is the organizational chemistry of my company or church? Is it spiritual?

14. How does my view and thinking about Jesus affect my capacity to experience spiritual chemistry?

God can bring incredible spiritual transformation into the life of anyone who chooses to follow and imitate Jesus. Jesus promised this, and he died to deliver it for us—something no one else in history has ever done. He is the ultimate explainer of spiritual chemistry who makes God audible through every molecule, every relationship, every emotion, thought, and person. When we reimagine Jesus in this way, he comes alive, and we experience the spiritual chemistry of a powerful and beautiful life.

Introduction

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Matthew 11:28-30 MSG

Jesus lived a spiritual life. His was not a life of selfish isolation but of social interaction, involvement, inclusion, and intimacy. Despite a life dedicated to selfless service and sacrifice, he remained resilient and never succumbed to burnout. This life of spirituality is what Jesus came to teach, understanding the human inclination to hyperfocus on behavior to the neglect of our inner lives.

But Jesus, for His part, did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all people [and understood the superficiality and fickleness of human nature], and He did not need anyone to testify concerning man [and human nature], for He Himself knew what was in man [in their hearts—in the very core of their being].

John 2:24-25 AMP

Human nature inclines toward superficiality and fickleness when our spiritual lives are neglected. This “superficiality and fickleness” of human nature is what makes the reading of Scripture, the mental work of prayer, and the introspection of spirituality so difficult. As someone once told me, “I focus on obedience because it is easier.”

Obedience of this type turns God into a rule maker instead of a relationship, leading us to focus on behavior instead of our inner life. Our Christianity becomes a grind and results in burnout. Remember, the obedience taught in Scripture is an expression of love.

Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

1 John 5:3 NLT

When we see God as a rule maker instead of a relationship, everything about following Jesus becomes burdensome. We turn the life of faith that is following Jesus from spiritual to behavioral. Following Jesus becomes a shallow and powerless religious commitment to behavioral rules instead of a deeply spiritual walk with God in which we overcome our human limits. This dilemma is not unique; it is common, as described in the book of 2 Corinthians. The Corinthians struggled with living behaviorally. They lived the limited life of rule-following instead of the limitless life of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23 TPT).

He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 3:6 NLT

Jesus calls us back from the brink of behavioral burnout in Matthew 11:28-30 when he says, “Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” His focus is cultivating a relationship “with him,” learning to live a spiritual life through this connection rather than enduring the burdensome and ill-suited life of strict behavioral adherence (John 15:1-8 Voice). This approach enables us to “live freely and lightly” and embrace our authentic selves. We can then be transformed by God’s power instead of being hindered by the frustrations of navigating life through human effort alone.

From a biblical point of view, what we will call “behavioral religiosity” depersonalizes God into a set of commandments or rules. Spirituality personalizes God by allowing Jesus to teach us who he is, how to know him, and how to walk with him.

“When we see God as a rule maker instead of a relationship, everything about following Jesus becomes burdensome.”

The spiritual person knows that the key to avoiding burnout is understanding that Jesus’s invitation is to “walk with me and work with me.” This means that our relationship with Jesus makes the walk free and light. Moving forward, our goal is to develop content that assists each of us in experiencing our relationship with Jesus in this transformative manner. This way, instead of facing burnout, we will thrive and flourish.

From behavioral religiosity to spiritual Christianity

“I began to crash spiritually. I was burning out. I began to pretend more and share my true spiritual condition less. Rather than being motivated by my relationship with God, I was energized by attention, selfish ambition, and the achievement of position. After escaping the rat race of the world, I had now turned the church into a rat race by abandoning God and worshiping people. I was losing the courage to be different.”

Russ Ewell, He’s Not Who You Think He Is (p. 65)

Writing He’s Not Who You Think He Is was my effort to share my journey from behavioral religiosity to spiritual Christianity. By no means have I arrived. Resisting my human tendency to be religious instead of spiritual is a life-long pursuit.

Fortunately for me, the team at Deep Spirituality shares my desire to beat burnout by imitating the spiritual life of Jesus. Over the last few months, we have been reflecting on our own religiosity and spirituality. We have been asking ourselves some important questions: Are we living religious or spiritual lives? Is our focus on outward behavior or the inner life? What kind of culture are we fostering: one rooted in spirituality or in behavioral religiosity? How can we become more spiritual and less religious? How can we develop content and engage with you as our audience in a deep and accessible way? How can we deliver spiritually enriching material inspired by the life and teachings of Jesus so that each of us is growing inwardly and forging ahead in our walks with God?

Our answers to those questions, developed with much prayer and countless discussions, have produced what we believe is a powerful blueprint for living spiritually. Today marks the start of our journey together, and we eagerly anticipate your insights and support. Our goal is to not only grow personally but also offer guidance to a world seeking spiritual solutions, introducing the ultimate answer found in Jesus.

The depth difference

I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground, without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.”

Luke 6:47-49 NLT

Jesus highlighted depth as the critical distinction between those who follow his teachings and those who do not. He likened the obedient to individuals who dig deep and lay a solid foundation for their lives, in contrast with the disobedient who choose the easier and more superficial route of building on the surface. “The depth difference” encapsulates this principle: the way we construct our faith journey determines whether we are simply adhering to behavioral norms and risking burnout, or truly connecting with him on a spiritual level, a path that promises growth and flourishing.

Frequently, we attribute burnout to external pressures, yet Jesus consistently directs our attention to internal contributors. Specifically, it’s our superficial engagement that precipitates the burnout or collapse of our lives.

Recognizing this, we outlined five essential steps in our blueprint that are designed to deepen our spiritual foundation. These steps guide us to firmly place the correct foot forward on our path to emulate Jesus’s walk. Based on our theme scripture translated in the Amplified version, we will focus on the deepest of deep—our souls.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation].”

Matthew 11:28 AMP

In each of the five steps, we have included two to four questions, one scripture, and one song which will serve as preparation to embark on this journey to understand and imitate the spirituality of Jesus.

🔥

Stage one

Soul on Fire

Living a life of deep discovery

Warm-up

Three questions, one scripture, and one song to prepare us for the first step of the journey.

• Am I inspired spiritually? When am I most likely to be spiritually inspired or uninspired?

• How easy or difficult is it for me to look below the surface?

• What five words best describe how I feel after reading the Bible and praying?

• Scripture: Romans 12:11 Voice

• Song: “Soul on Fire” by Third Day

They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”

Luke 24:32 NLT

Deep discovery is when reading the Scriptures sets our soul on fire. Once our soul is on fire, our prayers catch fire. We seek God passionately, expectantly, and vulnerably until we experience his presence like this psalmist:

Listen, YAHWEH, to my passionate prayer! Can’t you hear my groaning? Don’t you hear how I’m crying out to you? My King and my God, consider my every word, for I am calling out to you. At each and every sunrise you will hear my voice as I prepare my sacrifice of prayer to you. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart.

Psalm 5:1-3 TPT

The fire that falls upon our hearts is that of God’s Spirit, which when allowed to work in our lives as urged in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 GW, burns away the temptation to approach Scripture and prayer in a defensive, clinical, cold, and fearful manner. The Spirit sets us free to approach God with intimacy, knowing God and knowing ourselves like never before. This experience is one we should have every morning of every day for our entire lives.

But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord-who is the Spirit-makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 NLT

Keeping our souls on fire is the reason we must live a life of deep discovery. Here are three questions we can ask ourselves to begin or enhance our life of deep discovery.

A. How is my faith?

Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead-since he was about a hundred years old-and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Romans 4:19-21 NIV

Deep discovery begins with addressing our faith in God. Romans 4:19-21 can help us examine our lives for areas of unbelief as we ask ourselves these questions:

• Are there any areas of unbelief preventing me from being a soul on fire?

• How can I strengthen my faith to reignite the fire of the Spirit in my soul?

B. How is my inner life?

Before I confessed my sins, I kept it all inside; my dishonesty devastated my inner life, causing my life to be filled with frustration, irrepressible anguish, and misery. The pain never let up, for your hand of conviction was heavy on my heart. My strength was sapped, my inner life dried up like a spiritual drought within my soul.

Psalm 32:3-4 TPT

Deep discovery of our faith will often reveal internal turbulence in our lives. This means our inner life is affected—our emotions, thoughts, and spirit or mood. The Bible teaches that sin often creates or exacerbates this turbulence, with destructive consequences.

When our inner life is chaotic, dark, or discouraging, it will dry up. This creates a spiritual drought in our soul. The way out is to understand that sin is not a measure of our success as a Christian or person, nor should it ever be allowed to define us. Sin is simply the most destructive force at work on our inner life. It is dealt with by confession, often accompanied by transformative changes of heart and life.

Pause and reflect

• What is affecting my inner life? How much of it involves unresolved emotions or thoughts?

• Are there things affecting my spirit or mood, like suffering or difficulty?

• Have any sins made all of this more difficult? How can I start talking to people and God to heal my inner life?

C. Do I know I am forgiven?

Whenever our hearts make us feel guilty and remind us of our failures, we know that God is much greater and more merciful than our conscience, and he knows everything there is to know about us.

1 John 3:20 TPT

Addressing our faith and inner life in the process of deep discovery often reveals persistent and unhealthy feelings of guilt. These feelings of guilt will undermine our faith in God. Guilt attacks our confidence in God, joy in life, ability to be close to people, and hope for the future. Left unaddressed, guilt chokes out the fire in our souls. This is why we must remember that God is greater than our guilt. He has given us the book of 1 John to help us remember we are forgiven, and this is a tremendous book of the Bible to read when we need to resolve feelings of guilt.

Pause and reflect

• Are there any areas of guilt preventing my soul from being on fire? Have I sought forgiveness from God in prayer? Have I asked close friends to pray for me to receive healing from this guilt?

• Am I ready and willing to leave my guilt in the past by accepting God’s forgiveness so that I can live new every day and my soul can be on fire?

💡

Stage two

Soul Care

Living a life of deep reflection

Warm-up

Three questions, one scripture, and one song to prepare us for the next step of the journey.

• How do I feel about my spiritual condition?

• Do I believe there is a war against my soul affecting my spiritual condition?

• What are the most effective attacks against my soul?

• Scripture: 1 Peter 2:11 NIV

• Song: “Known” by Tauren Wells

Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Luke 5:15-16 NIV

Jesus demonstrated a human superpower available to us all—his capacity to silence the noise of distraction to care for his soul life. Imitating the spiritual life of Jesus means we need to invest in soul care, which requires taking time for deep reflection to make certain our soul is getting along well.

Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

3 John 1:2 NIV

Soul care has become increasingly challenging. We live in a time when technology offers addictive information and entertainment at our fingertips, leading many to lose both the desire and the ability to find silence and engage in deep reflection.

In this media-drenched, data-rich, channel-surfing, computer-gaming age, we have lost the art of doing nothing, of shutting out the background noise and distractions, of slowing down and simply being alone with our thoughts.

Carl Honore, In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed

Keeping the fire burning in our souls demands soul care, which is only made possible through deep reflection.

Here are three questions we can ask to assess our level of deep reflection and take steps to ensure we are investing the appropriate amount of time and effort in soul care.

A. How deeply am I allowing the Scriptures to work in my life?

For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 AMP

The deep reflection of soul care begins with reading the Bible, or the Word of God. Contrary to what some think, the Bible is not an instruction manual of rules on how to live life, nor is it a philosophical tome for providing meaning to life. It is a spiritual book that reaches into the deepest parts of our being.

God knows our complete person. He knows what lies at the core of our being—our thoughts, intentions, and what makes us tick. He has provided us with the Bible, the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, that we might know him and, in knowing him, our Creator, come to know ourselves.

Understanding ourselves at such a deep level empowers us to love, live with purpose, embrace change, and, by doing so, flourish in life.

Pause and reflect

• How much am I allowing the Bible to reveal my true thoughts and intentions?

• What has the Bible taught me about my capacity to love?

• Have I allowed the Scriptures to help me discover my purpose?

• When I read the Scriptures, am I searching for the path to the type of growth and change that will allow me to flourish spiritually?

B. What is the quality of my prayer life?

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV

Deep reflection is an essential part of our prayer life; without thought our prayers will lack the specificity that flows from faith. Mindless prayer is powerless prayer because it is disconnected from God (Matthew 6:5-8). Thoughtful prayer is powerful prayer because we are focused on God and believe he is listening.

When we pray with faith, our asking comes from the hard work of deep reflection, which is the type of deep thinking that envisions possibilities beyond the status quo rather than accepting life as unchangeable. This is what we might call “imaginative prayer,” fueled by the hard mental work described by Henri Nouwen:

Prayer therefore requires hard mental work and is quite fatiguing, especially if reflective thinking is not one of our strengths.

Henri Nouwen, The Spiritual Life

We can improve our prayer lives exponentially if we commit to the hard mental work of deep reflection. Our reflection will put specificity into our asking, which allows us to imagine the great things God can do, and then based on Ephesians 3:20-21, rely on God to answer those requests.

Pause and reflect

• Do I do the deep thinking necessary to pray imaginatively, specifically, and expectantly with the belief that God will answer in the affirmative?

• What can I do to be more thoughtful in my prayer life?

C. When did I last experience a spiritual breakthrough?

But I’m happy now, not because I made you uncomfortable, but because the distress I caused you has led you to change the way you think and act. You were distressed in a godly way, so we haven’t done you any harm. In fact, to be distressed in a godly way causes people to change the way they think and act and leads them to be saved. No one can regret that. But the distress that the world causes brings only death.

2 Corinthians 7:9-10 GW

Spiritual breakthroughs happen when we change—change our minds, change our hearts, change our lives, and because of these changes, change the world. When was the last time you experienced a spiritual breakthrough?

Christians should experience spiritual breakthroughs regularly, big and small. Change, which the Bible calls by many names, is a central part of walking with God.

Repentance is the foundational form of change in the Bible (Hebrews 6:1 AMP). 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 describes the experience as stressful but not harmful when done in a godly way. Repentance means changing spiritually, relying on Scripture and prayer with our focus on God, not what the world around us thinks of our success or failure.

The word encapsulating the entire experience is “uncomfortable.” Repentance and change produce spiritual breakthroughs which are uncomfortable because we are breaking free from the limitations of old thinking, limiting habits, and enslaving sins to become the best version of ourselves.

When we change in this way, we are transitioning from what Carol S. Dweck calls the “fixed mindset” to the “growth mindset: in her book Mindset: The Psychology of Success. Dr. Dweck defines a person with a fixed mindset as someone who believes their “qualities are carved in stone.” The person with the growth mindset believes that their basic qualities are things they can cultivate through their efforts, strategies, and help from others.

Spiritual breakthroughs are possible for everyone when God is involved. He can continually help us grow and change as we walk with him.

Pause and reflect

• How do I feel about the idea of change being a central part of my walk with God?

• Where is my faith when it comes to believing I can change? What things make me believe or doubt that I can make a spiritual breakthrough?

• Do I have a biblical or unbiblical view of repentance? How does this affect my attitude toward change?

• Am I willing to be uncomfortable to change? How can I change my mindset to see the stress of change as positive rather than negative?

🌱

Stage three

Soul Connection

Living a life of deep conviction

Warm-up

Three questions, one scripture, and one song to prepare us for the next step of the journey.

• Why is intimacy with God so important?

• How do I know if I am experiencing intimacy with God?

• Do I think religiosity or spirituality produces greater intimacy with God?

• Scripture: 1 John 2:3-6 Voice

• Song: “Losing My Religion” by Lauren Daigle

But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word.

Mark 4:17 NLT

Roots are responsible for anchoring a plant. They absorb and store the water and nutrients necessary for the plant to live. In the same way, convictions serve as spiritual roots that anchor the believer. Our convictions, like the roots of the plant in Jeremiah 17, keep us connected to the water of God’s presence and power.

But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

Jeremiah 17:7-8 NIV

When we lack the deep roots of conviction, our soul connection to God is weak. This soul connection, as described in the following Psalms, reminds us of our soul’s capacity for experiencing weariness, a deep thirst for God, and the truth that only God can refresh our weariness and quench our thirst.

My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word.

Psalm 119:28 NIV

O God, You are my God; with deepest longing I will seek You; My soul [my life, my very self] thirsts for You, my flesh longs and sighs for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Psalm 63:1 AMP

For He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with good.

Psalm 107:9 AMPC

A soul connection must be personal. We cannot live or survive off someone else’s conviction any more than one plant can survive off the roots of another. So, how do we create our own personal soul connection? How do we develop deep convictions?

Practically speaking, the roots of our soul conviction begin with faith, which Hebrews 11:1 describes as “the conviction of things not seen.” Galatians 5:6 teaches us that when our faith is healthy and strong it is continually “expressing itself through love.”

Faith comprehends God’s love through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross (John 3:16). From there we make and deepen our soul connection to God by valuing his love, then understanding his love, and finally experiencing God’s love at our most intimate level.

A. Valuing God’s love

Receiving God’s love with the faith of the Psalmist in Psalm 63:3 is joining him in proclaiming about God “your love is better than life.” Valuing God’s love is the personal conviction that nothing in life holds greater significance than his love. It marks the first decisive step toward establishing a robust soul connection.

B. Understanding God’s love

The next step in the soul connection is found in Ephesians 3:16-19 which teaches us we need to understand the width, length, height, and depth of God’s love.

How do we do this? We take the time to understand that God initiated our creation and, though rejected by us, still sent his Son to die on the cross. Through this sacrifice, he forgives all people for all time if only we will accept and respond to this love. This is the second step necessary to deepen our soul connection.

C. Experiencing God’s love

The first two steps of valuing and understanding God’s love lay the foundation of our soul connection to God. 1 John 4:18 NLT describes the third step of experiencing God’s love in this way, “If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.” Valuing and understanding God’s love remains purely intellectual until we experience it—a catalyst that ignites a life of fearless courage and a testament to a truly healthy soul connection.

Pause and reflect

• How would I describe the healthiness of my spiritual roots, personal convictions, or soul connection to God?

• What is the condition of my faith, and do I see it expressing itself in love?

• Which areas must I strengthen in order to improve my soul connection to God?

❤️

Stage four

Soul Purpose

Living a life of deep service

Warm-up

Four questions, one scripture, and one song to prepare us for the next step of the journey.

• Whom do I most want to please? List five relationships.

• How do I feel about sacrificing for and serving others?

• What do I believe God wants me to do to serve others?

• Which is a greater influence in my life—selfish ambition or service?

• Scripture: Hebrews 12:1-3 TPT

• Song: “Washed Away/Nothing but the Blood” by Michael W. Smith

Again, the devil took Him up on a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory [splendor, magnificence, and excellence] of them; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written and forever remains written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”

Matthew 4:8-10 AMP

Jesus’s “soul purpose” was to serve God. So often, we look at his behavior and miss his motivation—which was to serve God. Satan and his forces of darkness knew that Jesus was unstoppable unless he was severed from the source. They knew they had to get him to stop worshipping and serving God before he could be stopped from healing, helping, and changing lives. This is why Satan offered him every possible gift of power and glory in this world. But it didn’t work because Jesus had a soul connection to God and his unbreakable strength.

Christ first said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings. You are not pleased with animals killed and burned or with sacrifices to take away sin.” (These are all sacrifices that the law commands.) Then he said, “Here I am, God. I have come to do what you want.” So God ends that first system of sacrifices and starts his new way.

Hebrews 10:8-9 ERV

Typical thoughts of service have to do with outward behavior. In a sense, we can see service as what we do for others, and while accurate, outward service does not reflect what lies deep within the heart. This was the problem of those in the Bible who practiced behavioral religiosity instead of deep spirituality; their acts of spirituality and service were driven by impressing people not serving or pleasing God.

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

Matthew 6:1-2 NIV

Living a life of deep service begins in the heart. Our singular purpose and sole focus must be our desire to do what God wants. This is why Jesus’s foundational teaching to his followers called them to choose whom they would serve, not merely how they would serve.

Jesus said to all of his followers, “If you truly desire to be my disciple, you must disown your life completely, embrace my ‘cross’ as your own, and surrender to my ways. For if you choose self-sacrifice, giving up your lives for my glory, you will discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will lose what you try to keep. Even if you gained all the wealth and power of this world, and all the things it could offer you, yet lost your soul in the process, what good is that?”

Luke 9:23-25 TPT

Jesus knew only those who chose the life of the cross would sustain their service to God and others. Only these would surrender to his ways, giving up their pursuit of personal glory to discover true life, because following Jesus is about self-sacrifice. Choosing any other path will leave us lost and cost us our souls in the process.

This fourth step may be the most difficult in the process of developing a spiritual walk with God because the internal change we make can be seen in an observable way. When we decide to make pleasing God our “soul purpose” we begin living a life of deep service, which means we sacrifice ourselves for others. Here is a four-step process of questions to ask, along with actions to take to help us navigate this change successfully.

A. Who is my master?

“You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both.”

Matthew 6:24 MSG

Music legend Bob Dylan wrote a song during his gospel music stage called “Gotta Serve Somebody.” Jesus presents us with a choice: Will we serve God or money? Identifying whom we serve is crucial, as it is rooted in an emotional relationship based on where we derive our sense of security.

Who is your master? Our master is whomever we look to for security, confidence, comfort, and guidance in the most important decisions of our lives.

B. Who serves God?

“Up to the time of Samuel the prophet, God provided judges to lead them. But then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, out of the tribe of Benjamin. After Saul had ruled forty years, God removed him from office and put King David in his place, with this commendation: ‘I’ve searched the land and found this David, son of Jesse. He’s a man whose heart beats to my heart, a man who will do what I tell him.’”

Acts 13:20-22 MSG

We are each king of our own life. This is why studying kings can be instructive. This passage tells us of two men who served as kings in the Bible; the first was King Saul, followed by King David. Saul started out serving God, but over time he began to serve himself by focusing on being king not serving God. He was replaced by David whom God described as a man “whose heart beats to my heart, a man who will do what I tell him.”

Choosing to serve God is about wanting what God wants more than what we want. Are you willing to serve God?

C. Who serves people?

“‘For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!‘”

Matthew 25:35-40 NLT

In Matthew 25, Jesus teaches us that serving people is about who we are, not merely what we do. Those who serve are called sheep while those who refuse to serve are called goats (Matthew 25:31-33). The sheep are people who choose God as their master and are motivated by serving him, which is why they are surprised when the King compliments them. They are serving because of who they had become, because of the God who had transformed them, not to fulfill a duty or get attention or maintain appearances.

Pause and reflect

• Do I have a heart and character of deep service?

• The world is changed by Christians who have made their “soul purpose” living a life of deep service. Do I want to change the world? Am I willing to choose this life?

⚡️

Stage five

Soul Power

Living a life of deep humility

Warm-up

Four questions, one scripture, and one song to prepare us for the next step of the journey.

• Who am I likely to turn to in a time of crisis? List five relationships.

• How would I compare my trust in people to my trust in God?

• How would I compare my humility with people to my humility with God?

• When I experience weaknesses, do I share them or hide them?

• Scripture: Zechariah 4:6 NIV

• Song: “Fire” by CeCe Winans

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith [our ability to confidently trust in God and in His power].”

Luke 17:5 AMP

If you are like me, learning about the first four steps of this journey to developing a spiritual walk with God is both intimidating and overwhelming. This is exactly how the apostles felt when Jesus called them to a level of forgiveness beyond anything they had ever known. Their response was, “Increase our faith [our ability to confidently trust in God and in His power].” They recognized that their strength was too small for the journey.

If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small.

Proverbs 24:10 NLT

The journey to develop a spiritual walk with God will require faith that he is walking with us on this journey—even carrying us for much of the time. We simply need to trust him as the Scriptures encourage us to do.

I tried to relieve your fears: “Don’t be terrified of them. God, your God, is leading the way; he’s fighting for you. You saw with your own eyes what he did for you in Egypt; you saw what he did in the wilderness, how God, your God, carried you as a father carries his child, carried you the whole way until you arrived here. But now that you’re here, you won’t trust God, your God—this same God who goes ahead of you in your travels to scout out a place to pitch camp, a fire by night and a cloud by day to show you the way to go.”

Deuteronomy 1:29-33 MSG

God is the one we need to trust, but what do we need to trust he will do? We need to trust that God will give us the internal strength or soul power we need to accomplish everything he has promised and called us to do.

His divine power has given us everything we need to experience life and to reflect God’s true nature through the knowledge of the One who called us by His glory and virtue. Through these things, we have received God’s great and valuable promises, so we might escape the corruption of worldly desires and share in the divine nature.

2 Peter 1:3-4 Voice

Father, out of Your honorable and glorious riches, strengthen Your people. Fill their souls with the power of Your Spirit…

Ephesians 3:16 Voice

It is this trust in God that allows soul power to flow into and through our lives. It is a quality that requires we live a life of deep humility where we acknowledge our human limits and need for God.

Here are four steps to capturing the deep humility necessary to allow God to release the flow of his power into our souls and lives.

A. Deep humility is believing that the weaker we are, the more powerful we become.

I begged the Lord three times to take this problem away from me. But the Lord said, “My grace is all you need. Only when you are weak can everything be done completely by my power.” So I will gladly boast about my weaknesses. Then Christ’s power can stay in me. Yes, I am glad to have weaknesses if they are for Christ. I am glad to be insulted and have hard times. I am glad when I am persecuted and have problems, because it is when I am weak that I am really strong.

2 Corinthians 12:8-10 ERV

Having soul power and living a life of deep humility means we will no longer be afraid of seeing or communicating our weaknesses because we realize “the weaker we are the more powerful we become.”

B. Deep humility is believing that faith must be built on God’s power, not human wisdom.

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Corinthians 2:2-5 NIV

Having soul power and living a life of deep humility means putting an end to relying on human wisdom, charisma, status, appearance, wealth, or power as a means of getting people to believe in God. We instead rely on Scripture, prayer, and the work of God’s power in our lives to build people’s faith.

C. Deep humility is seeing our need for God to help us overcome our human limits.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours [with the same physical, mental, and spiritual limitations and shortcomings], and he prayed intensely for it not to rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its crops [as usual].

James 5:17-18 AMP

Having soul power and living a life of deep humility means no longer using our human limitations as a reason to limit our lives. God will give us the power to do anything he calls us to do in glorifying his name.

D. Deep humility is acknowledging that if Jesus had to pray for power, so do we.

But despite Jesus’ instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. [16] But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. [17] One day while Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law were sitting nearby. (It seemed that these men showed up from every village in all Galilee and Judea, as well as from Jerusalem.) And the Lord’s healing power was strongly with Jesus.

Luke 5:15-17 NLT

Having soul power and living a life of deep humility means acknowledging that if Jesus, the Son of God, needed to pray, so do we. Prayer serves as the conduit to soul power, distinctively requiring us to depend on a force beyond ourselves for the manifestation of change. This force is God, and recognizing our need for his intervention through prayer is crucial. Without this acknowledgment, we risk being ensnared by the world’s complexities and our own limitations, preventing us from transcending the mundane.

Living a life of deep humility is the fifth and final step on the journey to develop a spiritual connection with God. Our goal has been to lay out a blueprint for overcoming burnout from the powerlessness of religiosity as described in 2 Timothy:

They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

2 Timothy 3:5 NLT

📚

The Blueprint

Conclusion

Where we go from here

Jesus was the most spiritual person to ever live. He overcame this world because he understood and taught about the inadequacy of human strength even as he faced the most daunting task of his life—death on the cross.

Now maybe you’re learning: the spirit is willing, but the body is weak. Watch and pray and take care that you are not pulled down during a time of testing.

Matthew 26:41 Voice

Here in the 21st century, my eyes have been opening to see Jesus as I have never seen him. Breaking free from my assumptions, traditionalism, and powerless religiosity has allowed me to understand my own burnout. Writing He’s Not Who You Think He Is was my declaration of independence and the beginning of this spiritual journey to become more like Jesus.

There is something deeply disturbing about the discovery that what you were against is what you are becoming. This was my realization in a conversation in which I felt increasing pressure to conform to a set of religious principles more associated with the politics and power-seeking of organized religion than the spirituality and authenticity of biblical Christianity.

Russ Ewell, He’s Not Who You Think He Is (p. VII)

My hope is that you will find your way to declaring independence from whatever might be holding you back from experiencing the spirituality of Jesus, because only by living as he did can we experience the joy that Scripture describes as “sunshine in our souls.”

“If your eye is pure, there will be sunshine in your soul. But if your eye is clouded with evil thoughts and desires, you are in deep spiritual darkness. And oh, how deep that darkness can be!

Matthew 6:22-23 TLB

As we go forth, let us remember that God’s possibilities are always greater than our limitations. To experience his power, we must be willing to live a spiritual life, a life like Jesus lived that allowed him to conquer this world and show us how to conquer it as well (Romans 8:37, 1 John 5:3-5).

To God be the glory!

Ever feel stuck? Like mentally, emotionally, or spiritually stuck in something you can’t change? At times, I have been stuck without even realizing it.

I remember being stuck in selfishness—having ambition only for myself. I remember being stuck in numbness—emotionally shut down, hardened, and incapable of real connection.

When we are stuck, we need a disruption—something that breaks our negative patterns and opens our minds to a different way of thinking. This is articulated powerfully in the critically acclaimed biographical movie A Beautiful Mind:

I’ve always believed in numbers, in the equations and logics that lead to reason. But after a lifetime of such pursuits, I ask: What truly is logic? Who decides reason? My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional—and back. And I have made the most important discovery of my career, the most important discovery of my life: It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reasons can be found. I’m only here tonight because of you. You are the reason I am. You are all my reasons.

John Nash (portrayed by Russell Crowe), A Beautiful Mind (2001)

This film shows John Nash as a brilliant and successful mathematician. But when mental illness takes its toll, he gets stuck. And yet, through the support of his family and friends, he discovers what it means not just to have a beautiful mind, but live a beautiful life.

We all get stuck at some point in our lives, whether it’s mentally and emotionally, like it was for Nash, or spiritually, like it has been for me countless times.

The danger is not being stuck; the danger is staying stuck. If we stay frustrated, discouraged, and defeated for too long, we start to believe that a stuck life is all there is. Eventually, we learn to be helpless and give up.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

In today’s Chemistry Lab, we’ll learn what keeps us stuck in learned helplessness, and how God can break us out of it by setting our hearts on fire.

The Workshop

A place of discovery where a story sparks insight, observation, and a deeper understanding of walking with God.

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

Acts 17:26-27 NIV84

Coincidences are often the hand of God orchestrating our lives so that we can discover him and his purpose. These discoveries can be sparked by the times in which we live, the places we visit, and the people we meet. On one of these occasions, my path crossed with a young man who taught me a chemistry lesson.

Much like John Nash, he was brilliant. A remarkable personality. Leadership talent. A sense of humor that could change a room. A job with impact. A growing faith that made me believe he was going to change the world.

Then one day, no one could find him.

Eventually, a few friends spotted him—alone, sitting in his car, smoking—a habit he had quit when he decided to walk with God.

Suddenly, this young man who seemed like he had such a beautiful life before him became stuck in his mind. His mental state was no longer under his control; it betrayed him and undermined his spiritual life. It was heartbreaking to watch.

This experience taught me the serious importance of mental health. I learned what it means to love and serve someone, even and especially when they experience an unwelcome change to their brain chemistry. My capacity to care had to grow in ways it never had before.

We all get stuck. This young man was stuck because of his brain chemistry. I, more often than not, have been stuck because of my spiritual chemistry. Either one or both can stop us in our tracks.

Getting unstuck requires examining both our brain chemistry and our spiritual chemistry.

Notebooks open. Let’s see what we can learn today.

The Elements

A new element from our Spiritual Periodic Table of the Elements that builds a life of spiritual depth and power.

Properties

• Name: Fire

• Symbol(s): Fy

• Category: Vital Elements

• Function: Transforms our spiritual chemistry, ignites communication between God and ourselves, sparks breakthroughs in our lives.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, [29] for our “God is a consuming fire.”

Hebrews 12:28-29 NIV

Today’s element is fire — something the Scriptures say is a defining quality of God. Just as fire can change the chemistry of a substance, so God’s fire can change our spiritual chemistries. But before we learn how God’s fire can break us out of stuckness and change us from the inside out, we need to learn what keeps us stuck: learned helplessness.

Martin Seligman, the pioneering psychologist, coined the term “learned helplessness”—the state in which we stop trying because we’ve stopped believing anything will change.

I’ve found it’s one of the most common reasons people get stuck—in life, leadership, and faith.

What is learned helplessness?

In his book Learned Optimism, Martin Seligman explains that we are born helpless. But the journey of human development is about gaining personal control over time. These quotes from the early chapters of the book explain how personal control develops:

Helplessness is the state of affairs in which nothing you choose to do affects what happens to you.

The long period between infancy and our last years is a process of emerging from helplessness and gaining personal control.

Personal control means the ability to change things by one’s voluntary actions; it is the opposite of helplessness.

Martin Seligman, Learned Optimism

If all goes well in childhood, Seligman explains, we move from helplessness toward agency.

But when something breaks that progression—trauma, discouragement, chronic stress, or lack of nurture—we get stuck in a pattern of what he calls learned helplessness.

Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter.

Martin Seligman, Learned Optimism

Why do we stay stuck?

Learned helplessness doesn’t only come from what happens to us. It grows from how we explain to ourselves what happens to us.

Scripture agrees—our hearts and minds are powerful, but not always accurate in their interpretation of reality.

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Jeremiah 17:9 NIV

The human heart is deceitful. Our hearts can tell us we have failed when we haven’t. They can tell us there is no hope when there is. They can tell us that change is impossible when it is not.

The way our hearts explain events is what Seligman calls our “explanatory style”:

Explanatory style is the manner in which you habitually explain to yourself why events happen … An optimistic explanatory style stops helplessness, whereas a pessimistic explanatory style spreads it.

Martin Seligman, Learned Optimism

This, I believe, is more than a psychological pattern. Our explanatory styles have just as much to do with our spiritual chemistry as they do with our brain chemistry. We need to understand both to get the full picture. As we’ve discussed before, Jesus said the greatest commandment involves all four dimensions of life:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

Mark 12:30 CSB

Brain chemistry may address one or two dimensions. Spiritual chemistry addresses another. But combining the two leads to a powerful spiritual breakthrough. Let’s start with understanding brain chemistry.

Why our brain chemistry matters

Brain chemistry refers to the way the brain communicates with itself through chemicals such as serotonin, dopamine, and more. Our brain chemistry affects our mood and our health. Some of us face genetic or neurological challenges that make it more difficult to have an optimistic outlook. Our brain chemistry can also be shaped by a more complex mix of external factors:

• Personal choices

• Family dysfunction

• Cultural influences that mislead and misguide us

• Friendships that, though sincere, are unspiritual and emotionally unhealthy

Whatever the source of our thought patterns, we must thank God for the tools he has revealed to help us heal—especially from the brain chemistry challenges we inherit or develop over time. These resources include doctors, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, medications, and other support systems.

Tools like these are God’s wisdom revealed through science. Using them is not a sign of spiritual weakness.

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.

Proverbs 25:2 NIV

We ignore, minimize, or misuse these tools at our own peril—especially when we believe our way is wiser than God’s.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

Proverbs 16:25 AMP

These God-given tools protect us when our brain chemistry betrays us or becomes unbalanced. In the same way, our spiritual chemistry can become unbalanced when we begin to rely on ourselves instead of God. And in the same way, God gives us spiritual tools to protect us and help us grow. As we use each of these tools in tandem, we become unstuck. We experience breakthroughs.

Brain chemistry + spiritual chemistry = breakthrough

“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

John 4:24 NIV

The unity between brain and spiritual chemistry is found in this verse. To truly live a full life walking with God, we must walk both in Spirit and in truth. This truth includes the medical and scientific wisdom God has revealed to help improve our brain chemistry. It also includes humbly submitting to God’s Word, even when it corrects our way of thinking.

Walking in Spirit is where spiritual chemistry comes in. As we learned in our last edition of The Chemistry Lab, God is Spirit, and he wants our spirits to align with his.

Spiritual chemistry is something I am still working to define. It’s difficult to put into words, but we know it when we see it. Just as brain chemistry is our brain’s chemical communication, spiritual chemistry is the communication between our spirit and God’s. It’s the way we explain God to ourselves, the way our spirit translates disappointment or sin into meaning, and the way we respond to God’s influence in our lives. It’s what ignites our souls and pushes us toward our destiny.

Spiritual chemistry creates what I call FIRE within us: the Focused Intensity of Real Experience with God.

• Focused — As we walk with God in Spirit and truth, our distractions and doubts melt away.

• Intensity — As we declutter our lives, we find the energy to sustain our focus on God.

• Real — As we look intently into God’s Word, we discover the truth about him and ourselves, truths which may be very different than our heart has led us to believe. The hopeless becomes hopeful and the impossible becomes possible.

• Experience with God — As we open up the deepest parts of our hearts to God, our insights about him will turn into lived experiences that transform us from the inside out.

FIRE loosens the grip of learned helplessness. It changes the stories we tell ourselves about who God is and who we are.

The stories we tell ourselves

Psychologists attribute learned helplessness to our explanatory style—the way we explain failure and difficulty to ourselves.

In The Chemistry Lab, we expand this idea of explanatory style to something we call story style. This is the story we tell ourselves to explain God’s role and our role in our failures and difficulties. Do we think he is punishing us? Disappointed in us? Ignoring us? Do we think he will answer our prayers?

Our story style will determine the quality of our spiritual chemistry.

Four story styles

These four story styles show how our internal narratives shape whether we stay stuck—or walk in the fire of spiritual transformation.

How to identify your story style

To figure out your story style, ask yourself this question:

How did you respond the last time you…

• Failed at something important?

• Were disappointed in a relationship?

• Felt that God didn’t answer a prayer?

• Faced a setback in your faith, health, finances, or emotional life?

Did you …

We don’t stay in one story style forever, but we tend to default to one under pressure. Knowing our style helps us understand what spiritual chemistry we’re operating with—and what needs to change if we want to experience a breakthrough.

F.I.R.E. needs the right fuel

Here’s the hard truth: F.I.R.E.—Focused Intensity of Real Experience with God—won’t ignite in the wrong narrative environment.

• If we’re stuck, we won’t even try to light the match.

• If we’re numb, we might keep moving, but without connection to God’s presence.

• If we’re resilient, we’ll grow through the fire.

• And if we’re in flow, we’ll walk with God inside the fire—refined, not consumed.

Lab bench questions:

• What’s your default story style when life gets hard?

• Have you accepted a story that God never wrote for you?

• What new narrative might Jesus be inviting you into today?

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The Catalyst Corner

A historical example tied with Scripture that sparks a desire to take action.

Abraham Lincoln and the refining fires

“Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition… I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.”

Abraham Lincoln (as quoted by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Leadership in Turbulent Times)

In my view, Doris Kearns Goodwin is the premier historian of Abraham Lincoln. In her book Leadership in Turbulent Times, she describes a Lincoln who dreamed not of fame or fortune, but of being worthy. He longed to live a life that mattered.

But that ambition was tested by brutal setbacks. Two pivotal turning points defined Lincoln’s emotional and spiritual trial: the death of his first love and the collapse of cherished political initiatives. He experienced personal grief, policy failure, public criticism, financial collapse, and political obscurity.

Lincoln spiraled into what Goodwin describes as “melancholy and incapacitating depression.” Goodwin includes Lincoln’s own words from this period:

I am now the most miserable man living … Whether I shall ever be better I can not tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me.

Abraham Lincoln

This is learned helplessness in its most emotionally authentic form—just as Martin Seligman defines it:

A giving-up reaction. A quitting response. A belief that nothing you do matters.
But Lincoln didn’t quit. Instead, he found purpose in his pain. These challenges became what the Bible describes as refining fires:

The crucible is for refining silver and the smelter for gold, but the one who purifies hearts by fire is the LORD.

Proverbs 17:3 GW

Gustav Niebuhr, a distinguished journalist and academic, offered insight into this transformation in the foreword to Elton Trueblood’s Abraham Lincoln: Lessons in Spiritual Leadership:

Trueblood’s reading of Lincoln convinced him that the man who wrote the Second Inaugural Address was not the same intellectually as the one elected president in 1860. He had undergone a searing transformation—“the fiery trial,” in a phrase Lincoln used. This experiential deepening opened Lincoln to a new understanding of how God works in the world.

Gustav Niebuhr, foreword to Abraham Lincoln: Lessons in Spiritual Leadership by Elton Trueblood

This transformation, which began in the depths of his early depression, reached its full expression in the crucible of his presidency.

Rather than surrendering, Lincoln began to rewrite his inner narrative. He didn’t silence his grief. He allowed it to inform his future choices to align his life with his noble ambition.

That capacity to rewrite his inner narrative remained with him from his early life through the presidency; it is a central reason why he was able to lead the Union to victory in the Civil War.

He chose friendship.
He chose family.
He chose service.
He chose purpose.
He chose fire.

And the rest? History.

He had a transformation in story style, and that made all the difference.

The man by the pool

Now contrast this with another man, not in the 1800s but in the first century AD. We find his story in John 5.

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. [2] Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. [3-4] Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [5] One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. [6] When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

John 5:1-6 NIV

He was a man with a disability, lost in a crowd of those with disabilities. Suddenly. he was seen. Not as part of the crowd, but as an individual. Not as a person with a disability, but as a person. Then Jesus asked him a question about his spiritual rather than physical condition: “Do you want to get well?”

When I first read this passage, I questioned the questioner. Maybe you did the same. Perhaps those listening in the crowd did, too. Why is Jesus asking a man who had suffered for 38 years if he wants to get well? Of course he does!

But we are wrong. The man’s answer is not yes.

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

John 5:7 NIV

Instead of saying what he wanted, he explained why he hadn’t gotten it. Instead of believing, he had become an expert in why he couldn’t be healed.

He had lost hope. He had lost faith. He had learned helplessness.

He believed healing required reaching the pool. And because he couldn’t reach it, he assumed even God couldn’t help him any other way. I’ve been there—explaining instead of believing. Maybe you have too. We often sound like the man at the pool:

• We are people-focused. (“I have no one …”)

• We are problem-focused. (“Someone always gets there first…”)

• We are time-focused.(“It’s been a long time…”)

Just like Lincoln, this man had a story style—but his kept him stuck. And then, Jesus interrupted the inner narrative.

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

John 5:8 NIV

And just like that:

At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

John 5:9 NIV

Jesus freed him—spiritually and physically. Then, after a tense confrontation with the religious leaders, Jesus circled back with a final word of truth:

“See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

John 5:14 NIV

With these words, Jesus made clear that it’s sin—our spiritual condition, not our physical condition—that ultimately limits what God can do in our lives.

Regardless of our brain chemistry or personal history, our spiritual chemistry matters. It determines how we respond when Jesus shows up. It determines whether we stay stuck…or pick up our mats and walk.

What happened to this man wasn’t a motivational speech. It wasn’t a psychological assessment. It was a spiritual transformation.

It was the Focused Intensity of a Real Experience with God.

This interaction was focused; Jesus cleared away the man’s clutter of people, problems, and time to address his true spiritual condition. It was intense; Jesus came with power and strength that changed the man’s life. It was real; Jesus asked deeper questions that got to the true heart of the man, rather than staying on the surface.. It was a firsthand experience with God; Jesus had a conversation with him that led to real and lasting change, not intellectual insights..

This interaction with Jesus—the fire that ignites our spiritual chemistry—is exactly what we need when our story style gets stuck.

The Breakthrough Files

Personal stories of transformation—both mine and yours—highlighting moments of spiritual breakthrough.

My conversations with many of you have convinced me of this: We all face the challenge of negative soundtracks running in our minds. These pessimistic story styles tell us that we are worthless, incapable, failures. We should give up, they say, because nothing we dream will ever come true.

They tell us that God is out to punish us, that he thinks we are inadequate, that he might forgive our sins but he won’t forget our failures.

There is a breakthrough to be had from our collective agreement about this narrative challenge, and it connects seamlessly with the idea of learned helplessness and addressing our story style.

I believe that our story style manifests from the language of our hearts.

As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.

Proverbs 27:19 NIV

The heart can be damaged by the things we store in it — whether that be negative narratives about who we are or the sinful choices we make. When the heart gets damaged, it distorts our story. We need to protect our stories, which means we must protect our hearts from allowing anything to take up residence in them that can undermine God’s story.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Proverbs 4:23 NIV

Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.

Proverbs 4:23 CSB

When our hearts are protected, they can thrive. Faith can grow inside them, writing a story of bold belief rather than discouraging defeat.

Then Jesus said to her, “Daughter, because you dared to believe, your faith has healed you. Go with peace in your heart, and be free from your suffering!”

Mark 5:34 TPT

This week, the word that keeps echoing in my heart is risk. How easy it is to say we live by faith—yet take no risks. This woman in Mark 5 lived a daring life, undoubtedly overflowing from a daring heart. Hers was not a life of risk-averse discouragement. Yet everywhere I turn, fear and unbelief conspire to make me risk-averse. And every day, they work to loosen my grip on the dreams God has laid on my heart.

Have you noticed this in your own life?

One of our readers, John, captured this tension beautifully in his response to last week’s Chemistry Lab on the powerful effect of spiritual flow.

John pointed to the unforgettable exchange in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, when Susan learns what kind of king Aslan is:

“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion—the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh!” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.” “That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.” “Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy. “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

How tempting is it to want a God who is safe? A God we can control.
A predictable life.

But Christ is not timid or tame—and walking with him will never be safe.

My takeaway is this: whether we consider ourselves agnostic, atheist, spiritual, or a lifelong believer, the adventure for which we truly long is the one offered by Jesus. It’s living dangerously. Not recklessly—but courageously. Boldly. As a dreamer. Risking the comfortable for the transformational. The less we choose to give in to the fearful story styles of our hearts, the more we see and experience the bold and dangerous dreams of God.

So, let’s take a look at how we can reinvent our story styles.

Weekly Experiment

A hands-on reflection and action guide designed to turn insights into growth.

This week’s experiment comes from Chemistry Lab team member Alexis Colvin Allen, an ADHD coach with a background in psychology. She’s created a lab exercise to help us break through stuck story styles and take real, measurable action.

This experiment is meant to be done with a friend, whom we will call our “lab partner.” Together, we can help each other experience the F.I.R.E. and ignite a life of bold belief.

He touched their eyes and said, “Become what you believe.”

Matthew 9:29 MSG

Jesus could do the impossible, and his power was unlocked by the faith of people who believed this. He knew something that psychology is now starting to understand—we become what we believe.

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s amazing ability to grow and adapt in response to life experiences. Our brains are flexible, shaped by habits, thoughts, and yes, beliefs, that form mental “routes” called neural pathways. Think of these like trails in a park — the more you use a pathway, the easier it becomes to follow, solidifying particular thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors.

Just as we can learn to think negatively and feel stuck, we also have the power to train our minds to think both optimistically and faithfully and keep going. This takes actively training our brains to think differently, and deliberately choosing to fix our thoughts on something else instead. Yes, we become what we believe. But we can also choose what we believe.

Why am I so overwrought? Why am I so disturbed? Why can’t I just hope in God? Despite all my emotions, I will believe and praise the One who saves me and is my life.

Psalm 42:5 Voice

In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.

Psalm 18:29 NLT

Despite our emotions, negative thoughts, or even past experiences, we can choose to believe in God’s ability to do the impossible. With this unshaken faith, God can help us scale any wall, overcome any flaw, and get through any circumstance. We are never helpless with God, as long as we believe we’re not.

Let’s get started on training our brain and heart to believe in what God can do.

1. Identify negative thought patterns in your story style

Before we move forward, we need to recognize where we currently have unbelief and learned helplessness in our story style. Together with your lab partner, write down your answers to these questions, along with any other negative thoughts you may have:

Questions

• In what areas have I given up?

• What have I stopped praying about or trying to change?

• In what areas of my life do I assume I will fail?

• The last time I failed or made a mistake, what were the thoughts and feelings that dominated my mind? What felt out of my control?

• The last time I went through a difficult circumstance, what were the thoughts and feelings that dominated my mind? What felt out of my control?

2. Identify your strengths

Make a list of your top 5-10 strengths. If you’d like, you can take something like the free VIA Character Strengths Survey to help you identify what these are. Together, give examples of how you see each other’s strengths and how they might be used to tackle challenges you’re facing.

Extra credit homework

• Make yourself or your lab partner a personalized Bible study highlighting a few of your/their strengths, what they can do, and how God uses them for good.

3. Make a “Shifting Mindset” chart

To change your pathways from routes of unbelief to ones of belief, take out a notebook or computer and work together to make this chart. Write down the challenge you are currently facing, along with the negative thought pattern or doubt that has dominated your mind. Then write down a way to approach the challenge with faith. Add scriptures to identify how God sees the situation you’re in. We’ve provided an example chart you can use as a guide:

4. Start small, but start now

Now that we have done a lot of work to start changing our mindsets, it’s time for action. Pick ONE of the items in “the challenge” column to tackle. Discuss and write down your answers to these questions:

Questions

• Why is this what I want to work on?

• What makes it important?

• What is my end goal with this challenge?

• How can I break this goal into smaller chunks? What needs to happen first? (Use tools like goblin.tools to help with breaking tasks down if you get stuck).

5. Come up with a game plan for when obstacles arise

Discuss together what roadblocks might show up as you tackle this challenge, and especially what might tempt you to give up. Help each other create a game plan for how you will keep up faith and not give into unbelief or negative thought patterns. You can say “If _ happens, I will _.” Below are just a few ideas you can include in your game plan, but you can come up with your own:

• Stop yourself in the middle of negative thoughts and say: “This is actually an opportunity to…”

• Pick one or two of your top five strengths that you can use to tackle that obstacle.

• Switch negative “what if” thoughts to positive ones. For example, every time you ask, “What if this doesn’t work out?” respond to that thought with, “What if God does a miracle with this?”

• Pull out your chart and pick a scripture to repeat to yourself.

• Call a friend and ask them to help you talk through and reframe your thoughts.

6. Celebrate small wins together (make it a game!)

Throughout the week, tally/keep track of every time you choose one of the tools from your game plan to combat your unbelief and negative thought patterns. No matter how small, write down what went well.

At the end of the week, meet with your lab partner to discuss what you tallied. What went well? How could you use your strengths and tools to tackle what didn’t go well?

Protip

If you want to make it fun, try to get to 100 wins as fast as you can. Once both you and your partner get to 100 wins, reward yourselves with a treat or fun activity. This is not a competition — the goal is for both of you to discover and celebrate wins together.

The Field Notes

Key takeaways and final thoughts to carry with us into the week ahead.

The Pharisees went directly from the synagogue to consult with the supporters of Herod, the Romans’ puppet ruler, about how they could get rid of this dangerous dreamer.

Mark 3:6 Voice

That phrase—dangerous dreamer—has stayed with me. It’s how the religious elites saw Jesus: threatening, disruptive, dangerously liberating, all because he opened the way for ordinary people to get unstuck and walk with God.

That’s what we’re trying to do here in The Chemistry Lab—reignite faith in a world that feels increasingly paralyzed.

Next week, I’ll share my “Lazarus Experiment”, in which I’ve identified five forms of learned helplessness.

But for now, please keep supporting us so we can stop living safe, risk-free lives as we build The Chemistry Lab. Keep responding with your thoughts and discoveries.

Let’s live by faith. Let’s become what we believe.

The Research Shelf

Curated books, articles, and media to deepen your spiritual discovery.

1. Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman. Investing some time into studying Mr. Seligman’s ideas will help us discover that learned helplessness affects more of us than we might think.

2. Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Years ago, I met and spoke with Doris Kearns Goodwin for a good length of time because of a scheduling mishap with her book signing. Anything she writes, I will read. This book distills the primary figures she has written about for decades. I highly recommend this for anyone in leadership or seeking to become a leader. The truth is, a lot of us (myself included) become leaders but are not prepared for aspects of leadership that will try the human soul. This book will prepare you and inspire you to take the journey.

3. Originals by Adam Grant. This book provides a foundation for learning to become who you were meant to be instead of what you think everyone wants you to be.

4. The “Fire” playlist. Listen to “Fire” by CeCe Winans, “Dream On” by Ben Rector, and “Breakthrough” by Aloe Blacc while contemplating the freedom of living by faith and dreaming dangerously.

Finally, the world welcomed a new Pope, and while I am not Catholic, I think his perspective on the world and what it needs is worth noting. We will end on his quote until next week.

“There are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure,” Pope Leo said. “These are contexts where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied. Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed. A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society.”

I moved to the Bay Area with my family in 1993. Everyone told us the same thing: “Live in Marin.”

Marin, Berkeley, and San Francisco—those cities formed the heart of the Bay Area, we were told. Silicon Valley? That was something else entirely. An afterthought.

But for me, it was the only place that mattered.

I’d spent years in Washington, D.C. using technology as a force multiplier. Computers, digital tools, and early productivity software made me exponentially more effective at everything. Microsoft was my operating system. I studied Bill Gates obsessively; I even visited Microsoft years later just to see how he organized his workspace, trying to understand how a leader thinks through technology.

Then I discovered the Macintosh.

Steve Jobs wasn’t at Apple at the time—John Sculley was the CEO. I read Sculley’s book Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple to understand the company, but even from his perspective, one thing was obvious:

Steve Jobs was the one who changed everything.

So while my wife looked at houses in Marin, I asked two friends to show me Silicon Valley. Walking around Stanford inspired me. Apple felt ordinary—until I reached the Research and Development department, saw the locked doors, and realized: this is where the wizards work.

That’s when I called my wife and told her that she had to see Silicon Valley. She came, she saw, and we agreed: if we’re moving to the Bay Area, we’re living here.

Something was happening in Silicon Valley in 1993 that the rest of the world couldn’t see yet.

And as I studied Jobs—the reckless upstart who became the most influential CEO of the 21st century—I realized what made him different wasn’t just engineering genius.

It was his evangelistic mindset.

What Jobs understood (that the church forgot)

Steve Jobs was neither a pastor nor a theologian. But from what he did at Apple, we know that he understood evangelism better than almost anyone alive:

• Evangelism begins with vision. You see what others can’t see yet.

• Evangelism requires conviction. You bet everything on it.

• Evangelism is storytelling. You translate complexity into wonder.

• Evangelism creates culture, not customers. You build identity that transcends sales.

• Evangelism serves people. You ask David Brooks’ question from The Road to Character: not “What do I want from the world?” but “What does the world need from me?”

Jobs never evangelized to convert people to his beliefs.

He evangelized to change the world.

That’s why, even while battling cancer, he walked onstage March 2, 2011, and said this:

It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. We believe that it is technology married with the humanities that yields us the results that make our hearts sing.

Steve Jobs, Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender & Rick Tetzeli, pp. 402–403

That sentence explains everything:

Why Apple mattered.
Why Jobs mattered.
Why Silicon Valley still shapes the world.

This wasn’t innovation. This was ancient wisdom.

The Apostle Paul stood before King Agrippa two thousand years ago with an evangelistic mindset and said the exact same thing—not about technology and humanities, but about vision and obedience:

“So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven.”

Acts 26:19 NIV

Paul was one of the most effective human beings in the spreading of the gospel. Through him, God communicated a vision that changed the world in his day and continues to inspire us now.

Paul understood what Jobs rediscovered: evangelism is loyalty to a vision that changes everything.

Jobs didn’t invent this mindset. He recovered it. He built it into the fabric of Silicon Valley.

And that’s why AI is dominating the cultural conversation while God is losing ground.

The real reason we talk more about AI than God

Victor Hugo once wrote:

“There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.”

People today aren’t obsessed with AI just because it’s powerful technology.

They’re obsessed because Silicon Valley knows how to evangelize.

AI feels like the future because someone preached it that way.

Meanwhile, the church—once the most powerful evangelistic force on earth—is closing an estimated 15,000 buildings while AI opens doors, expands curiosity, democratizes access, shapes imagination.

Let’s be honest: People aren’t uninterested in God. We just stopped evangelizing him.

The data proves it:

• Spiritual openness is rising.

• Bible sales are climbing.

• Gen Z hungers for meaning.

The failure isn’t appetite. It’s evangelism.

Jesus saw this two thousand years ago:

Jesus went through many towns and villages. He taught in their synagogues. He preached the good news of the kingdom of God. He healed every disease and sickness. Whenever crowds came to Him, He had compassion for them because they were so deeply distraught, malaised, and heart-broken. They seemed to Him like lost sheep without a shepherd. Jesus understood what an awesome task was before Him, so He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send more workers into His harvest field.’”

Matthew 9:35-38 VOICE

The harvest is plentiful. The workers are few. People are distraught, malaised, and heart-broken—and we’re wondering why they don’t come to church.

Churches talk to insiders. Silicon Valley talks to the world.
Churches defend. Silicon Valley proclaims.
Churches explain religion. Silicon Valley casts vision.

The world always follows vision, not explanation.

What this means

AI’s rise isn’t a threat to God.

It’s a reminder to the church.

It proves what happens when a community learns to cast vision, ignite conviction, tell stories, build culture, and meet human needs.

This is evangelism in its purest form.

Jobs didn’t show us how to build computers. He showed us how to communicate ideas that shape the human future.

Which brings us here:

The greatest idea the world has ever known—Jesus—has been pushed to the margins not because it’s weak, but because we stopped evangelizing it with the power, clarity, and conviction it deserves.

We’re not calling the world back to church attendance.

We’re calling it back to a vision—the vision of God for a world changed by the life of Christ, where every human being can live a beautiful life.

from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do—200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command…

1 Chronicles 12:32 NIV

Fear of failure is not something that often hinders me, but this new endeavor has me nervous for two reasons. First, this is a robust newsletter, full of enough content to last you all week. In our fast-paced era of social media, AI, and dwindling attention spans, I recognize that an in-depth newsletter exploring spiritual questions does not necessarily fit the trends of the times.

This connects to my second reason: we live in an overwhelming, confusing, and disillusioning age. My fear is that many people don’t want to think deeply about the times we live in and would prefer to live a superficial life.

But 1 Chronicles 12 gives me a hopeful biblical perspective: regardless of what times we live in, there are always those who are willing to understand. Those people who are eager to explore, learn, and spiritually discover are those who reject superficiality and become leaders for change. Those people are who this newsletter is for.

My hope is that The Chemistry Lab will encourage, inspire, and connect people who value spirituality, allowing us to grow together into a force for good that can change the world.

The diagnosis

The Chemistry Lab is an innovative effort to create a space where spiritual people can encourage each other to keep a spirit of deep discovery in superficial times.

I realize that some may take issue with my diagnosis of superficiality, pointing instead to problems that are easier to see as the reason for unrest in the world. While this diagnosis may be unwelcome, it’s nothing new. Jesus recognized the danger of superficiality in his own time—and identified it not as a cultural anomaly but as part of human nature:

But Jesus, for His part, did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all people [and understood the superficiality and fickleness of human nature], [25] and He did not need anyone to testify concerning man [and human nature], for He Himself knew what was in man [in their hearts—in the very core of their being].

John 2:24-25 AMP

Jesus communicated the truth about the human condition, which is that our natural instinct is to choose superficiality over depth, self-reliance over relying on God, and humanism over spirituality. This should open our eyes to the significance of our daily choice to either follow our natural human instinct or to follow Jesus.

For those who choose to follow Jesus, the challenge is to navigate life in the same way he did by resisting the seduction of conforming to a superficial culture:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2 NIV

Much of what’s going wrong in our culture—whether in politics, religion, or relationships—can be traced to how superficiality has displaced spirituality.

Increasingly, the times in which we live are politically polarized, economically aggrieved, religiously disinterested, institutionally distrusting, and socially angry. From a biblical point of view, these problems are not new; they exist whenever God is replaced with the shallow solutions of this world.

For us to choose spirituality, we must learn from Jesus and resist the temptation to reduce life to the wisdom of a tweet or the opinion of an influencer. We must resist the urge to live by emotional reactions without reflection and human judgment absent the Word of God.

Real life, the life God has invited us to discover, is not superficial. It is multi-dimensional, deeply spiritual, and whole.

The call to depth

If we are to fight the pervasive culture of superficiality, we must discover what it means to live a whole, real life.

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” [29] “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. [30] Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”

Mark 12:28-30 NIV

Jesus called us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength—four dimensions that make up a whole life. Our culture often addresses one, two, or maybe three of these. Our mental well-being might be recognized as important, along with our physical strength and health. Sometimes, but less often, our emotional needs are acknowledged and explored. But the soul is nearly always neglected. We need all four to live a full and whole life, so the result of neglecting even one is superficiality: a life without fullness of depth, meaning, or purpose.

At this point in our discussion, the temptation might be to get overwhelmed, thinking that taking care of all four dimensions of life is too difficult or complex. Some might say Christianity needs to be made simpler, not more complicated.

I agree that simplicity is important; the Bible makes it clear that the message of Jesus is both a powerful and a simple one (1 Corinthians 1:17 ESV). However, we must be careful not to resist depth in the name of “simplicity.” Real simplicity distills truth; superficiality discards it.

Have you read the Gospels lately? Jesus’s teachings may be concise, but they’re layered, unsettling, and transformational. Yes, Jesus was simple. But he was never superficial.

In The Chemistry Lab, we will work together to experiment and discover what it truly means to live like Jesus, so let’s see this as an exciting rather than an overwhelming task. This call to depth is not one of perfection, but of discovery.

The two forces of our time

As we embark on a journey toward a whole life, we must address two forces that are meant to overcome our human limits: technology and spirituality. In our world today, we focus and depend far more on technology than spirituality.

While technology enhances our human abilities, only spirituality transforms us. It connects all four dimensions of our humanity together into a whole person capable of thriving emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and physically. Rather than merely existing on one, two, or at best three dimensions of life, we can rely on God and experience life on all four. This is the full life Jesus promises.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

John 10:10 NIV

If we feel this is too complex, then we should remember the words of Albert Einstein, which appropriately captured the heart of simplicity in his 1933 Herbert Spencer Lecture:

“It is the grand object of all theory to make these irreducible elements as simple and as few in number as possible, without having to renounce the adequate representation of any empirical content whatever.”

You may know it as the paraphrased version:

“Everything should be made as simple as possible—but not simpler.”

That’s the problem with superficiality: it tries to make life simpler than it is. That’s how we end up relying solely on technology while discarding spirituality. And when that happens, we settle for something less than the life that is possible; we lose meaning, depth, and even hope.

What’s at stake

Here’s where the urgency comes in. In a recent column for The New York Times, Ross Douthat warned of the possibility of essential aspects of life becoming extinct in our technological age:

Every great technological change has a destructive shadow, whose depths swallow ways of life the new order renders obsolete. But the age of digital revolution — the time of the internet and the smartphone and the incipient era of artificial intelligence — threatens an especially comprehensive cull. It’s forcing the human race into what evolutionary biologists call a “bottleneck” — a period of rapid pressure that threatens cultures, customs and peoples with extinction…

In this environment, survival will depend on intentionality and intensity…Languages will disappear, churches will perish, political ideas will evanesce… except among people who are deliberate and self-conscious and a little bit fanatical about ensuring that the things they love are carried forward…

[This is] an appeal for intentionality against drift, for purpose against passivity—and ultimately for life itself against extinction.

Ross Douthat, ”An Age of Extinction Is Coming. Here’s How to Survive”

I encourage you to read Mr. Douthat’s article in its entirety because it is a prescient warning not to be deceived about this unique moment in history. Unless those of us who see the value of spirituality pursue and spread its worth, the world we have known will grow worse, not better, because much of what makes life worth living can grow extinct.

This isn’t pessimism—it’s a wakeup call. We need spiritual people in every walk of life. We need people who live full lives, people who are willing to explore the depths of the heart, mind, strength, and especially the soul.

Because if we don’t? Let the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. serve as a sobering warning to us all:

“Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: ‘Too late.’”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Welcome to the Lab

That’s why I’m launching The Chemistry Lab.

It’s not just a newsletter. It’s a return to the spirit of discovery that I first found as a ten-year-old boy with a kitchen table, a chemistry set, and a dream.

Each issue is an experiment in walking with God. Each section is designed to spark spiritual curiosity.

And you? You are my lab partners. Together, we will live out the spirit of discovery in Proverbs 25:2, as translated in Eugene Peterson’s paraphrased version of the Bible:

“God delights in concealing things; scientists delight in discovering things.”

Proverbs 25:2 MSG

I’ll be sharing with you things I’m working on and exploring, and I’m asking you to join me in this endeavor. Our hypotheses might not always be right; sometimes they might be wrong. Other times, we will discover something totally new. This journey together will be unknown and uncharted, but it will be worth every moment.

The leap

“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” [24] Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Mark 9:23-24 NIV

Philosopher Søren Kierkegaard described the decision to believe in God as a leap—a deep, spiritual commitment beyond the reach of reason. This is what I am asking of you.

As I already mentioned, this is not going to be a superficial treatment of Christianity, but a deep pursuit of what it means to embrace the spirituality of Jesus.

Join The Chemistry Lab

This is your invitation.

Subscribe. Share. Forward this to someone who wants to change the world—or someone who you think will be interested in spirituality.

Because The Chemistry Lab is open. And God is waiting to be discovered.

Memories stirred inspiration in me while I traveled to visit and support my 91-year-old mother this past November. As the plane descended, I could see my old neighborhoods below. And suddenly, as if I were watching a movie, I saw myself too—eight years old, walking to the bus stop near our home.

That bus stop was where I imagined the future.

Looking back, I’m surprised by how hopeful and optimistic my childhood imaginings were. I grew up in the shadow of the turbulent 1960s and the “malaise” era of the 1970s, a time Jimmy Carter famously described in a 1979 address to the nation. By any reasonable measure, it was not an era that made hope easy. And yet, I believed—without fully understanding why—that life and the world were going to get better, not worse.

When Ronald Reagan later came along, I was too young to think in terms of policy. What I registered from his message was something more human: hope. I had a sense that optimism was permissible again; it was not foolish or naïve to believe that the future could be better. This mattered to me not because I held a political disposition, but because I was searching for ideas that suggested my life—and our nation’s shared future—had promise and possibility.

That distinction matters. What I’m making here is not a political argument, but a philosophical one: ideas matter.

Richard Weaver captured this plainly in his book Ideas Have Consequences. Long before him, Victor Hugo observed that armies can be resisted—but ideas cannot. And still earlier, French writer Émile Souvestre said, “There is something more powerful than strength, than courage, than genius itself: it is the idea whose time has come.” Different thinkers, same insight.

History is ultimately not shaped by inventions, power, leaders, or culture. Those are expressions, not origins. What shapes the future—quietly, persistently, and often invisibly—are ideas.

And when ideas are hollow, so is the world they create.

I was struck recently by a line from the late writer, editor, and commentator Norman Podhoretz, spoken decades ago but uncannily relevant now:

Ideas, in my judgment, are the moving forces of history. I’m the opposite of a Marxist. I don’t think “It’s the economy, stupid,” that drives history, I think it’s ideas in the heads of men …

Norman Podhoretz

I had been reading Podhoretz after his recent death—not because I agree with him on everything, but because understanding how ideas spread, harden, and mobilize people matters if we want to understand how the world changes. Those who create enduring influence are leaders who understand the power of ideas: Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr., Hannah Arendt. Different eras, different contexts, but each figure became a catalyst for a different world—in most cases, a better one.

Many of these figures are expressions of what John F. Kennedy called the “New Frontier.” The New Frontier wasn’t a policy platform first—it was an idea. An appeal to imagination, sacrifice, and shared purpose.

His brother Robert Kennedy put words to what that kind of change really looks like. Speaking to students in South Africa in 1966, at the height of apartheid, he said this:

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Robert F. Kennedy, “Day of Affirmation” speech

That wasn’t sentiment. It was history spoken in advance.

Today, we live in a world more connected than any generation before us. Screens give us unprecedented power to spread ideas. And yet those same screens often dilute truth into misinformation, outrage, and emotional manipulation—because the dominant incentive is not wisdom or formation, but attention and profit. Advertisers are the customers. We are the pool in which they fish.

This isn’t a technology problem at its core. It’s a meaning problem.

When money becomes the organizing principle of life—not as a tool, but as an identity—it hollows out individuals and cultures alike. It becomes easier to dehumanize, polarize, justify cruelty, and retreat into tribes. Not because people are evil, but because they are unformed.

And yet, despite all this, the desire remains. We don’t want to live this way. We want to be the ripple. We want lives that matter. We want communities where we can sit next to one another—at churches and schools, in neighborhoods and stadiums—and remember that we share something deeper than our economic, political, or even religious positions.

History suggests that kind of unity has only emerged in rare moments. And in every case, it has involved a deep commitment to something higher than the self. For me, that “something” has always been Jesus—not as a slogan or symbol, but as a person whose walk with God made him unusually free, courageous, and generative.

Jesus went through many towns and villages. He taught in their synagogues. He preached the good news of the kingdom of God. He healed every disease and sickness. [36] Whenever crowds came to Him, He had compassion for them because they were so deeply distraught, malaised, and heart-broken. They seemed to Him like lost sheep without a shepherd. [37] Jesus understood what an awesome task was before Him, so He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. [38] Ask the Lord of the harvest to send more workers into His harvest field.”

Matthew 9:35-38 Voice

Jesus is and remains the only one who can produce this type of world. He alone possessed, proclaimed, and passed on the most transformative idea in history. He formed people who outlived him, outlasted empires, and changed the world one relationship at a time.

Through all this upheaval, God’s message spread to new frontiers and attracted more and more people.

Acts 12:24 Voice

That is the vision I’m calling The Spiritual Frontier—and it’s what this newsletter is becoming.

Ambitious? Yes.
Unfashionable? Often.
Impossible? History says otherwise.

It has happened.
It can happen.
And it will happen—if enough of us refuse to be blinded by our lostness and choose instead to become ripples of hope.

Keep your eye on your inbox over the next several weeks as we launch The Spiritual Frontier. Let’s discover and spread the ideas that can change the world.