How are we to remain curious about God? John Ortberg and Jackson Lane return to Formation’s debut conversation with Tyler Staton for the first installment of Footnotes, a new post-show where we get to examine John’s thoughts after each episode. 

Tyler’s sincerity in Formation episode 001 led John to examine his own life: his relationship with humor, transcendence, and even marriage. Listen for a conversation about keeping wonder alive, what marriage reveals in us, and bringing our real desires and doubts to God.

About this Footnotes Episode:

Footnotes is Formation’s post-show, where John and Jackson revisit the ideas and questions raised in the main podcast. FN001 follows How God Gets Our Attention & the Pace of Formation ft. Tyler Staton | EP001 and includes excerpts from that conversation. Tyler’s reflections provide the starting point; John and Jackson explore what stayed with them and where those ideas lead in ordinary life.

What this Conversation Explores:

• How learning can become worship, and why knowing the expected answers about God can crowd out curiosity, openness, and wonder
• What Tyler’s black bear encounter reveals about transcendence, and why John connects the loss of that sense of reality with a deeper loss of meaning
• Dallas Willard’s understanding of a word as a spiritual entity, and how language allows us to share meaning even when we struggle to name what we experience
• Why marriage exposes withdrawal, anger, and defensiveness that other relationships may not, and what John wishes he had learned sooner about serving
• The difference between surrendering to God and making ourselves appear more surrendered than we are, especially when a prayer carries disappointment or doubt
• Eleanor Stump’s concept of “willed loneliness,” and how avoiding the work of self-awareness can keep us from the connection we want with God and other people

Resources Mentioned:

• Loving God with All Your Mind — Neal Plantinga
• Mere Christianity — C.S. Lewis
• A Secular Age — Charles Taylor
• Hearing God — Dallas Willard
• Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering — Eleanor Stump

Related Episode:

How God Gets Our Attention & the Pace of Formation ft. Tyler Staton | EP001

https://www.formationpodcast.com/ep001-tyler-staton/

About Formation:

Formation is a podcast that explores the science and soul of spiritual formation. Each episode brings together the ancient wisdom of the contemplative tradition and the best of modern research. John Ortberg sits down with some of the most rigorous and honest thinkers working at the intersection of faith and human flourishing for extended, unhurried conversations about how we are being shaped.

Connect with Formation:

Website: www.formationpodcast.com

Newsletter: www.formationpodcast.com/subscribe

Socials: @formationjohn

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