21: Catherine McNiel on Practices of Hope in Chaos

It’s hard to see the deeper things when life is full and busy. In this conversation with Catherine McNiel, we talk about how we can be awakened to God’s presence in creation. We’re invited to see God move in our actual, concrete reality — in the beauty and in the decay and despair.

This isn’t a garden-variety book (or conversation). She says, “if we’re not tempted by despair, I don’t think what we’re experiencing is actually hope.” Listen in to a wonderful conversation and win a free book too!

Here’s a bit about Catherine: Catherine McNiel is a writer and speaker who seeks to open eyes to God’s creative, redemptive work in each day—while caring for three kids, two jobs, and one enormous garden. She’s on the lookout for wisdom, beauty, and iced coffee. Catherine is the author of All Shall Be Well: Awakening to God's Presence in His Messy, Abundant World and Long Days of Small Things: Motherhood as a Spiritual Discipline which was an ECPA finalist for New Author.

LINKS

Buy Catherine’s book: All Shall Be Well

Buy Catherine’s book: Long Days of Small Things

Subscribe to Catherine’s newsletter

Follow Catherine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/catherinemcniel

SHARE

“It’s really important to me that it’s not just that we find God in the beauty of creation, but even in the darkness.” @catherinemcniel @aahales #findingholypodcast: https://tinyurl.com/findingholypodMcNiel

“Your book can really be a corrective for this idea that life should always be improving and going up and to the right", @aahales says of @navpress book, #allshallbewellbook on #findingholypodcast: https://tinyurl.com/findingholypodMcNiel

“Winter comes, but so does spring, so does the dawn.” We trust God through the repetition. @catherinemcniel on #allshallbewellbook on @aahales’ #findingholypodcast: https://tinyurl.com/findingholypodMcNiel

Learn how @catherinemcniel learned to live her book after writing it through darkness, sitting in a chair and what sustained her on @aahales’ #findingholypodcast: https://tinyurl.com/findingholypodMcNiel

“The suffering was not the bondage, it was the freedom.” @catherinemcniel on #findingholypodcast: https://tinyurl.com/findingholypodMcNiel

“I’m grounding theology in our real life. The truth of God is applicable wherever I happen to be right now.” @catherinemcniel #findingholypodcast https://tinyurl.com/findingholypodMcNiel

ONE SMALL STEP

Give yourself a 5-minute brainstorming session. During your time, write and think about: Where are the moments in your life where you see despair? Where do you see hope?

In another 5 minutes, offer your findings to God.

Honesty can unite the things that we say we believe about God and our experience of God. Share your list, your thoughts and this episode by tagging me at @aahales and using the hashtag, #findingholypodcast.

SHARE, SUBSCRIBE AND WIN! We’re still a new podcast. We’d LOVE it if you could subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and share with all of your people!

And we have a special surprise! One winner will win a copy of Catherine’s book, All Shall Be Well!

To enter: All have you do is: 1) subscribe, 2) email me that you subscribed at findingholypodcast@gmail.com and one lucky winner will get a free book! Giveaway ends October 31.

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