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

That’s what happened to me 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 US children — 7 million kids — are carrying an ADHD diagnosis as of 2022. And yet so many of their parents are still flying blind. 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 here’s what Ryan helped me understand — we’ve confused strictness with structure. And those are not the same thing. Structure doesn’t inhibit an ADHD child. Structure empowers them.

Ryan doesn’t sugarcoat. He gives you what the evidence actually shows — about emotional dysregulation, parental accommodation, learned helplessness, and the difference between rescuing your kid and equipping them.

This is one of the most enjoyable, inspiring, and detailed episodes I’ve ever produced. Maybe the best one ever.

Don’t miss it.

▶️ Watch: Build, Don’t React — Why Your ADHD Kid Needs Your Direction and Discipline with Ryan Wexelblatt

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?

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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

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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?

  ---

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.