S. D. Smith | Kindling Imagination for Kingdom Anticipation

Episode 26 of the podcast features an interview with S.D. (Sam) Smith. Sam is the author of The Green Ember books and is a co-founder of Story Warren, a website for parents and others dedicated to helping foster holy imagination in children.

Sam and I have a great time on this interview chatting about what it means to anticipate the kingdom of God, why the imagination is important, and some of the resources he uses to remain connected to God.

Some of What We Talk About:

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  Anticipation of the Kingdom of God
  
  
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  Living by an ethic that reflects the Kingdom of God
  
  
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  Teaching and writing books for children that reflect Christianity
  
  
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  What "Kindling imagination” and “holy imagination” mean
  
  
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  Matthew 13 - Parables about the Kingdom and the importance of story
  
  
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  How stories are powerful and shape us as people right from childhood
  
  
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  Connections to God that are present in the writing of The Green Ember and in Del Ryder and the Crystal Seed.
  
  
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  Hope and light embedded in story is vital as we have enough dark in our lives
  
  
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  Incarnational Spirituality
  
  
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  Connections through composed prayer
  
  
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  The Daily Office
  
  
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  Ritual, Routine, and Repetition as spiritual practice
  
  
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  Following Christ as our model for spiritual practice
  
  
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  Fasting and prayer
  
  
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  Ritual gives birth to creativity, excitement
  
  
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  How gloriously creative moments can come from routine practices
  
  
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  God creates extraordinary moments from the routine practices we participate in like liturgy in worship
  
  
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  Receiving God's inheritance as a life-giving gift, not a burden
  
  

Links and Resources:

• 
  S.D. Smith's Website
  
  
• The Green Ember
  
• Ember Falls
  
• Del Ryder and the Crystal Seed
  
• Story Warren
  
• Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
  
• A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie
  

 

 

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