The Presence Project Podcast Summer Gross

K. J. Ramsey and Summer Gross talk life with COVID19, grief, and the brain science of anxiety, giving practical tips for our journey back to awareness of our Prince of Peace.

Finally, Summer leads us through an Ignatian style scripture practice where we can walk into the gospel of Jesus blessing the children. 

Truth is, sometimes connecting with God in the middle of chaos and anxiety can be near impossible. Anxiety disconnects our prefrontal cortex, making it difficult for us to be rational and relational.  During times like this, the world feels off-kilter. We feel off-kilter.

Today I’m going to walk us through an Ignatian scripture exercise of Mark 4:35-40 using holy imagination and the senses. Why? The senses ground our anxiety and then heighten our ability to focus.

How the story of the transfiguration of Jesus is the key to our transformation.

There are two invitations when we’re walking through pain: to lament + to Worship. To pour out our lament with an empathetic listener and also to lift our eyes to the throne, fix our eyes on Jesus, and find our story within his larger story.

in spiritual matchmaking there’s a different law at play, we cannot conjure up desire in our own strength.
Sure, we can chase love of scripture by positioning ourselves in the flow of first things, but we can’t perform our way into connection. We can’t tick off a to-do list and create communion. God is not a destination or a list of truths to dominate. God is a Person.

Aundi Kolber talks with me about attachment styles, a new view for anxiety, and looking at spiritual practices through a trauma-informed lens. What happens when spiritual practices like silence trigger you? You Try Softer.

We can be all over the  emotional map even on Christmas morning. The older I get, the more I realize we are complex, a daily mixture of pain and joy. The question is, can we invite Jesus to walk with us in our complexities. Can we sift through the fog of our internal narratives and find Him in the nativity? There is often so much joy to be found but we can be run over by stress, to do lists, and triggers, and we miss it all. But here’s the question: Can we stay awake to the Presence of Jesus?