Faith & Feelings Taylor Joy Murray

So many of us have experienced a before and after. 

A "before” you knew that life was fragile…and an “after.” When you can’t go back. You can’t un-know. You are changed. In some ways, grief will always be accompanying us. Where is God in this? And what do we do when, like David expresses over and over again in the Psalms, we feel a sense of divine abandonment or betrayal? 

In this episode, my friend Jessica joins me to share about her recent miscarriage journey. Although she shares about the loss of a child, she speaks to the emotional undercurrent of loss in a way that I think will deeply resonate with many different experiences of sorrow. What Jessica does so beautifully is put words and phrases to the devastation of loss in a way that feels anchoring, truthful, and sacred. I hope you’ll listen in.


Get Faith & Feeling's weekly resource email
 Watch this episode on YouTube
Grab a copy of my book Stop Saying I'm Fine
Connect with me on my website 
Find me on Instagram @__taylorjoy__ 

Sometimes suffering lasts…and where is God in this? How do we find joy, hope, and love when life becomes undone? These are two questions that I’ve sat with over the last few months. In this episode, I set some groundwork for our next series “When Life Doesn’t Make Sense” and give you a glimpse of some of the guests I’ll be hosting on the podcast over the next several weeks.

In many of our Christian contexts, we’ve internalized a belief that we demonstrate holiness by demonstrating happiness. I share some raw and honest reflections on my story as I trace the threads of this belief throughout my own life up to this point. However, as I’ve taken a deeper look at the life of Jesus, I'm learning that emotions are not the opposite to faithfulness. They can actually be a compass, leading us to a God who is present, even in suffering.


Get Faith & Feeling's weekly resource email
 Watch this episode on YouTube
Grab a copy of my book Stop Saying I'm Fine
Connect with me on my website 
Find me on Instagram @__taylorjoy__ 

There’s a myth that is easy to buy into: that obedience to God will equal an easy life. In our modern context, many of us have absorbed an understanding of faith that requires life to work out…but what happens when it doesn’t? In this next podcast series called “When Life Doesn’t Make Sense,” I’ll be hosting conversations with wise, deeply authentic, and kind people about their stories of pain and sorrow, and what they’ve learned about hope, lament, joy, and courage when life falls apart. My hope is that these conversations offer words and phrases that capture the emotions of your heart and give voice to your pain. Conversations that I pray will encourage and sustain you for the days and weeks to come.


Get Faith & Feeling's weekly resourcing email
 Watch this episode on YouTube
Grab a copy of my book Stop Saying I'm Fine
Connect with me on my website 
Find me on Instagram @__taylorjoy__ 

What does it mean to love someone who has hurt you? In today’s episode I’m joined by my friend Ashley Volk, who received her certificate in narrative-focused trauma care from the Allender Center. In her experience over the last few years in facilitating Story Work groups, she has identified 7 important questions to consider when engaging with someone who has hurt you. We unpack each of these questions together and explore how love can take many different forms: from having a hard conversation, to putting up a firm boundary, to no longer engaging in the relationship. All of these options could be the right option when grounded in a prayerful discernment and Holy Spirit-driven love. 

LINKS + RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE:


Get Faith & Feeling's weekly resourcing email
The Allender Center
Bold Love by Dan Allender & Tremper Longman
The Place We Find Ourselves: Episode 93 with Adam Young
 Watch this episode on YouTube
Grab a copy of my book Stop Saying I'm Fine
Connect with me on my website 
Find me on Instagram @__taylorjoy__  

To wrap up our first series on the podcast, I’m giving you the microphone to ask me your questions. I love hearing your voices whenever I can, and I think this will be a lot of fun. I’ll do my best to offer some solid and thoughtful responses, if not answers. 

LINKS + RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE:


Get Faith & Feeling's weekly resourcing email
Open Path Collective
16 Weeks to Finding Stillness Course
Why Am I Like This? by Kobe Campbell
Hold That Thought by Gem Fadling
Anxiety Grounding Technique YouTube Video
 Watch this episode on YouTube
Grab a copy of my book Stop Saying I'm Fine
Connect with me on my website 
Find me on Instagram @__taylorjoy__ 

The experience of anxiety is often coupled with a felt-sense that withdrawing and hiding is our safest option. It can have a crippling effect, reshaping the way that we engage in relationships and even the way that we inhabit our bodies. Of course, the goal is to move through our anxiety into a calmer, more regulated state. But do you know that there is an incredibly wise & kind part to your anxiety? Anxiety is often like a blinking light on the dashboard of your heart, alerting you of places inside of you that are hurting or not yet healed...and in doing so, invites you be loved here. In this episode, I explain why the antidote for anxiety is not a solution, but connection, and why healing often begins with the brave and risky act of being known.


Get Faith & Feeling's weekly resourcing email
 Watch this episode on YouTube
Grab a copy of my book Stop Saying I'm Fine
Connect with me on my website 
Find me on Instagram @__taylorjoy__