Episode 94: You're More Than Your Mind with Dr. John Swinton

“It's not so much our story that makes us who we are. It’s God’s story who makes us who we are.” 

Identity, for so many of us, is the sum of our memories, our personality, and the ability to tell the story of who we are. So what’s left when we lose all the things that make us who we are? 

John Swinton is a disability theologian who is helping people find God in the experiences of mental illness, memory loss, and intellectual disability. This gentle genius (with a glorious Scottish accent, I might add!) hangs out in the places where memory, identity, and disability meet. Turns out, there’s much to be learned about how to live and how to love from people experiencing mental challenges.

Dr. Swinton shared more profound thoughts in our hour together than most of us will have in a decade. You don’t want to miss his insights on...

• How do you live well when your mind is atypical
• Why hope and joy are a possibility, no matter what
• Dealing with the fear of losing your memory or cognition
• Finding flexibility and humility in the Christian faith
• What we have wrong about our relationship to time

If you want to believe there’s more of us beyond our memories and our minds—or if you want to hear my attempt at a Scottish accent!—then this episode is for you.

Show Notes:

Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefullness, and Gentle Discipleship by Dr. John Swinton - https://a.co/d/fHyOjJW

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Colossians 3:3

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