I continue to thank you for your kind words and enthusiastic response to my new book, No Matter What: 90 Devotions for Experiencing Unexpected Joy in Tough Times. Maybe you know someone who could use some encouragement with a sense of humor. If so, I’d love it if you’d share the book with them. You can find it on Amazon or wherever books are sold.
In other exciting news: I absolutely love being invited into your ears through this podcast; and now I’m excited to tell you about something BIG that’s on the horizon! For the next 6 months, I’ll be sharing some of your favorite podcast episodes from the past five years—so many good ones!—so I can be concentrate on getting in front of your eyeballs!
I am so looking forward to speaking joy into the lives of teachers, counselors, health care workers, incarcerated individuals, churches, businesses, support groups, nonprofits and many more folks about finding joy no matter what. The need for joy in this ol’ world is universal, and I’m so excited to offer this hope up close and in person.
So! If you are aware of or are a member of any group who could use this kind of encouragement, please email me at jill@jillbaughan.com, and we’ll chat.
In the meantime, so we can stay in touch: In addition to offering up those favorite podcast episodes, I’ll be showing up on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, where I’ll be telling stories and sharing lighthearted and serious encouragement. And I’ll keep you posted on the latest in this new adventure!
Thank you for continuing to give me the honor of speaking joy into your earbuds, and know that I’m stepping aside so I can re-emerge with more to give you in more ways.
There is so much to worry about these days, so much to steal our joy by filling our minds with stress and distress: the war in Ukraine, mass shootings that never seem to stop, natural disasters, crises among faith leaders, inflation.
And because we are so media-saturated, we know so much the minute it happens and the gruesome details of what’s happening and where it’s happening and keeps happening.
Watching the news makes us feel despair; in fact, I’ve been known to avoid the news altogether.
If you ever feel like this, and it bothers you to feel like this, and you feel like feeling like this is stealing your joy, but you feel guilty for having to shut it all out of your mind and heart, author and preacher Nadia Bolz Weber has some comforting words for you.
If you can’t take in anymore, she says, there’s a reason.
It’s all too much.
In this episode you’ll find three discernment questions to ask yourself when you’re feeling this way. If you’re high on anxiety because of all the things your one heart cannot hold, listen in and find hope!
NOTES:
“Compassion Fatigue.” Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/compassion-fatigue
Hatmaker, Jen. FaceBook post, September 6, 2019. https://www.facebook.com/jenhatmaker/photos/a.217119135053756/2329231783842470/?type=3
Weber, Nadia Bolz. “If You Can’t Take In Any More, There’s a Reason.” The Corners, August 17, 2021. https://thecorners.substack.com/p/if-you-cant-take-in-anymore-theres?s=r
