The Digital Examen

Discovering Joy in Season Three: The Paradox of Joy and Grief with Jay Y. Kim

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 08:00:15 +0000

We rarely experience pure, unfettered joy. More often, we live with a layered emotional experience—where opposite emotions overlap and muddle together.

Yet, even in these moments, God is with us and understands us.

In this season finale of The Digital Examen, Jay Y. Kim gently guides listeners to embrace the journey of faith as marked by paradox, longing, and the unexpected possibility of joy, even amid life’s greatest disappointments.

Drawing from the life of Teresa of Avila and the ancient story of Abraham and Sarah, Kim explores why our laughter amid disbelief, tears amid relief, and energy amid great love all mark the emotional complexities of being human—and how God is present in it all. This episode is an invitation to trust that one day your laughter of disbelief can be transformed into the laughter of joy.

Stay tuned this August for a special miniseries exploring the five movements of the Prayer of Examen—invitation, gratitude, reflection, confession, and looking forward—with guests like Ann Voskamp, Faith Eury Cho, Ken Shigematsu, and others.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Why joy and grief often go hand-in-hand
How paradox shapes authentic faith
Permission to feel and express real emotions with God

Links from this episode:

Read the transcript here

Preorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen

Slowing down in a culture of speed isn’t easy. Noticing in an age of distraction might be even harder. But walking intentionally with God happens at the pace of peace, leading us to that which often feels elusive: joy and delight. In this season of The Digital Examen podcast, host Jay Y. Kim joins an array of writers, educators, artists, and theologians to explore the many gifts God offers just beneath the surface of our frenzied lives, often hidden in plain view. Together, we’ll discover that a life marked by joy and delight is available to any and all who would slow down and notice.

SPECIAL OFFER | Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPEXAMEN40 for 40% off and free shipping on any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

Credits:

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Assistant Producer: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Disclaimer: The comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and/or the guests featured on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Discovering Joy and Healing Through Vulnerability with Will Chung

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 08:00:01 +0000

Ministry burnout is real—for pastors, leaders, parents, and volunteers. But beneath our exhaustion, God is inviting us to slow down and experience soul-level renewal by simply being honest in his presence.

In this episode of The Digital Examen, host Jay Y. Kim sits down with pastor Will Chung, whose own journey through severe burnout, breakdown, and renewal led to the founding of Beloved Church in Southern California. Together, they trace Chung’s reckoning with the pressures of ministry, the pain of spiritual weariness, and the temptation to embrace opportunities that outrun the soul. Chung shares about the pivotal moments that shattered his illusions, brought him to tears, and opened his heart to God’s true invitation: to not just serve him, but to stay close to him. Together with Kim, he explores why honest vulnerability is essential for lifelong faithfulness, how solitude and hiddenness restore our souls, and why God cares more about our hearts and character than any of the work we might do for him.

Tune in to learn how God doesn’t just desire our repentance, but our healing and wholeness.

This episode highlights the following themes:

What true spiritual healing looks like
Why vulnerability and authentic friendships matter for leaders
Small shifts that help us choose a life with God, not just for God

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Will Chung
Learn more about Beloved Church
Read Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero
Read the transcript here

Preorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen

SPECIAL OFFER | Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPEXAMEN40 for 40% off and free shipping on any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

Credits:

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Assistant Producer: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Discovering Joy by Praying All of Life with W. David O. Taylor & Phaedra Jean Taylor

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 08:00:28 +0000

Sometimes sacred gifts arrive quietly—in the scent of broth simmering in the kitchen or in the gentle light cascading across a painting.

These small moments hold invitations for us to connect with God. But are our hearts prepared and open to do so?

In this episode of The Digital Examen, host Jay Y. Kim welcomes theologian W. David O. Taylor and visual artist Phaedra Jean Taylor for a moving conversation about embracing God’s interest and presence in our everyday life. Together, they share how prayers, paintings, and simple moments invite us to slow down, embrace a softened heart toward God, and receive the hidden graces we often overlook.

Drawing from their book Prayers for the Pilgrimage and the visual landscapes Phaedra creates, the Taylors reflect on the trust we foster amid struggle, how art and imagination cultivate hope, and how we can truly be met by God both in joy and sorrow. They wrestle with how to bring our full lives—our soup-making, our grumpy moods, our diaper-changing, our illnesses—into honest prayer. They also uncover Jesus’ subversive way of modeling joy amid suffering and offer creative ways to nurture an "undramatic attunement" to God's presence as we move through the world.

Tune in to learn how to experience Jesus and joy afresh today through vulnerability and praying through all of life’s emotions and experiences with God.

This episode highlights the following themes:

How God meets us in pain, pleasure, and the ordinary moments of life
How prayer and art invite vulnerability, honesty, and healing
Practices for slowing down, noticing, and finding God everywhere

Links from this episode:

Learn more about W. David O. Taylor
Learn more about Phaedra Jean Taylor and her art
Read Prayers for the Pilgrimage by W. David O. Taylor, with paintings by Phaedra Jean Taylor
Read the transcript here

Preorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen

SPECIAL OFFER | Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPEXAMEN40 for 40% off and free shipping on any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

Credits:

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Assistant Producer: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Discovering Joy with our Imagination with Malcolm Guite

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 08:00:33 +0000

How can we engage our imagination to perceive the ordinary imbued with the extraordinary?

All of reality is aflame with God’s loving presence, glimmering with meaning, beauty, and wisdom beneath the surface of our everyday.

In this episode of The Digital Examen, Jay Y. Kim welcomes author, poet, priest, and musician Dr. Malcolm Guite. Widely recognized as one of today’s greatest Christian poets, Guite shares how our imagination is not a creative extra, but a truth-telling faculty that helps us apprehend meaning in a world saturated with data yet hungry for substance.

Seamlessly connecting insights from Shakespeare and Seamus Heaney to John’s gospel and the life of Moses, Guite illustrates how poetry and story help us discover that reality shimmers with divine presence. By engaging our imagination with God, Guite notes that we can perceive “reality [as] itself numinous, translucent with glimmerings of the supernatural.” Together, Kim and Guite explore how imagination makes biblical truth come alive, how metaphors and parables reveal vivid wisdom, and why community is essential for nurturing and expanding the Christian imagination.

Listen and be inspired to see your life, faith, and surroundings in a new light—and the world as the handiwork of the greatest poet, God.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Why imagination is crucial for perceiving meaning, not just information
How metaphor and poetry bring spiritual truths down to earth
The role of community in expanding and renewing Christian imagination

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Dr. Malcolm Guite
Read Dr. Malcolm Guite’s books, Mariner, Sounding the Seasons and Faith, Hope and Poetry
Read "Digging" by Seamus Heaney
Read the transcript here

Preorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen

SPECIAL OFFER | Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPEXAMEN40 for 40% off and free shipping on any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

Credits:

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Assistant Producer: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Discovering Joy by Savoring Childhood with Grace Pouch

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 08:00:24 +0000

Our often hurried pace of life not only affects us as adults, but also our kids.

How can we create rhythms of rest, play, and delight to help our kids savor their childhood years—even as we learn rich spiritual lessons from them as adults?

In this episode of The Digital Examen, Jay Y. Kim welcomes Grace Pouch, educator, content manager for Renovaré, and author of Savoring Childhood. Together, they talk honestly about the frenzied pace of modern life—how it impacts young people, families, and the adults we become—and propose gentler rhythms centered on trust, presence, and joy.

Pouch shares her own journey as a parent and teacher, reflecting on how savoring the moments of childhood, lingering with familiar stories and practices, and embracing Sabbath rest can help children and adults recover a sense of identity and connection with God and one another. They discuss why nurturing play, creativity, and even boredom are essential in a world obsessed with productivity and achievement.

If you sense that life has become too rushed and wonder how to recapture joy, trust, and deep spiritual formation for yourself or the children in your life, this episode is for you.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The importance of savoring childhood
Spiritual formation is a slow work
Sabbath as a space for trust and rest

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Grace Pouch
Read Grace Pouch’s book, Savoring Childhood
Discover Renovaré and resources for spiritual renewal
Read the transcript here

Preorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen

SPECIAL OFFER | Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPEXAMEN40 for 40% off and free shipping on any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

Credits:

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Assistant Producer: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Discovering Joy in Each Season of Life with Ronald Rolheiser

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 08:00:00 +0000

With the infinite knit into our very being, our brief life cannot bring us ultimate joy and satisfaction.

And yet, as we long for eternity, we can find meaning and peace by resting in God, serving others, and cultivating a mellow heart.

In this episode of The Digital Examen, Jay Y. Kim welcomes Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, acclaimed Roman Catholic priest and author, whose spiritual trilogy offers wisdom for following Jesus in our youth, mid-life, and final years: The Holy Longing, Sacred Fire, and Insane for the Light. Drawing from decades of pastoral experience, Fr. Rolheiser explores the cultural obsession with staying young, the challenge of aging well, and the deep joy that comes from surrender and gratitude.

Together, Kim and Fr. Rolheiser reflect on the power of everyday rituals, our modern misunderstanding of happiness, and how true spiritual maturity is cultivated by serving others with an open heart. Through this, they explore how tending a forgiving and thankful spirit is how we can be subversive instruments of joy in the world.

Tune in to discover how to follow Jesus in each of life’s unique seasons, wrestle with our longings, and find true rest in God’s presence.

This episode highlights the following themes:

How restless longing shapes all stages of life and can only find rest in God
How delight, mellow-heartedness, and forgiveness connect to true meaning and maturity
Simple practices for channeling desire, sustaining love, and finding God in ordinary moments

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Fr. Ronald Rolheiser
Explore Fr. Rolheiser’s trilogy: The Holy Longing, Sacred Fire, and Insane for the Light
Read the transcript here

Preorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen

SPECIAL OFFER | Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPEXAMEN40 for 40% off and free shipping on any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

Credits:

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Assistant Producer: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Discovering Joy When Life Feels Empty with Isaac Serrano

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 08:00:53 +0000

In seasons when life feels meaningless, how can we perceive purpose, hope, and even joy?

Amid our deeply materialistic culture, the purpose of life can seem to simply be the elimination of pain and inconvenience. Yet the answer to our deepest aches lies in the joy of serving others, the wisdom of our ancestors, and the worthiness of Jesus.

In this episode of The Digital Examen, host Jay Y. Kim sits down with Isaac Serrano, lead pastor at South Valley Community Church in Gilroy, California and author of When Life Feels Empty. He also serves on the leadership team of the ReGeneration Project and is an adjunct professor teaching theology and ministry at Western Seminary. Together, Kim and Serrano draw from ancient Christian wisdom and their experiences as pastors in Silicon Valley to discuss how discerning our telos, embracing connection with others, and locating ourselves with God’s story are essential to experiencing joy in our digital age. Serrano shares why the antidote to pain and suffering isn’t positive thinking or attempting to escape pain, but embracing endurance, selflessness, and age-old practices like communal singing, thanksgiving, and prayer.

If you long to experience tangible meaning in your everyday, this episode offers hope, clarity, and practical next steps toward a life filled with purpose and deep joy.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The search for meaning in an age of emptiness
How timeless practices can help us recalibrate our lives toward joy, meaning, and connection with God and others
Endurance and faith in the midst of suffering

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Isaac Serrano
Read Isaac Serrano’s book, When Life Feels Empty
Read the transcript here

Preorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits:

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPEXAMEN40 for 40% off and free shipping on any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Assistant Producer: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Discovering Joy by Pressing Pause with Karynthia Glasper Phillips

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 08:00:06 +0000

Many of us are trapped in a default state of hurry, leaving little space for self-care, spiritual depth, or true rest. The cost is palpable: frayed nerves, drained energy, and fractured relationships—with ourselves, others, and God.

In this episode of The Digital Examen, Jay Y. Kim welcomes Karynthia Glasper Phillips, physician assistant, minister, and author of Press Pause: Making Time for God in an Overscheduled Life. Drawing from her 20+ years in family medicine and ministry, Glasper Phillips shares why our culture’s pace taxes mind, body, and soul—and she offers clear ways to notice the early symptoms of burnout: scuttle sickness, fast fever, and frenzy sickness. Her story—shaped by personal health trials and insights from working with patients—reveals both the lie of self-sufficiency and the healing power of sacred pauses in God’s presence.

Together, Kim and Glasper Phillips discuss recognizing the hurried heart, finding God at work in quiet moments, and learning the rhythms of rest that reawaken joy, creativity, and meaningful connection. You’ll find practical ways to start your day with intention and embrace the wholeness that comes from being present with God, with yourself, and with others.

If you’re weary, stretched thin, or on the verge of burnout, tune in for an opportunity to pause in God’s loving presence and experience his restorative rejuvenation.

This episode highlights the following themes:

How hurry syndrome erodes our health, relationships, and spiritual life
The power of Sabbath and practical strategies for true rest
Why self-care and spiritual wholeness matter for loving others well

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Karynthia Glasper Phillips
Preorder Karynthia Glasper Phillips’s book, Press Pause: Making Time for God in an Overscheduled Life
Read the transcript here

Preorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen

SPECIAL OFFER | Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPEXAMEN40 for 40% off and free shipping on any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

Credits:

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Assistant Producer: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Discovering Joy through Honest Prayer and Music with Jon Guerra

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 08:00:06 +0000

How do we move beyond performative spirituality and instead bring our whole selves to God in prayer—including our boredom, sorrow, and joy?

It can be hard to believe that the entire spectrum of human experience and emotion is welcome in God’s presence. Music, beauty, and art can help us.

In this episode of The Digital Examen, Jay Y. Kim welcomes singer-songwriter Jon Guerra, known for his deeply honest and beautiful devotional music. Guerra opens up about his journey from writing congregational worship songs to creating what he calls "Monday morning prayer music," offering language and space for the full range of our human experiences with God—not just the triumphant. Kim and Guerra reflect on the power of music and art to help us process truth, perceive the invisible, and uncover the delight that can only be experienced alongside grief. Guerra shares practical wisdom for cultivating our inner life with God, the importance of silence and lament, and how all of art ultimately moves towards prayer.

Tune in to discover how prayer is both the antidote for performative living and an invitation to a more spacious, grounded, and joyful faith.

This episode highlights the following themes:

How prayer forms the core of a healthy spiritual life
The ways beauty and music connect us to God and each other
The freedom found in acknowledging our raw emotions with God

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Jon Guerra and his music
Read the transcript here

Preorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen

SPECIAL OFFER | Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPEXAMEN40 for 40% off and free shipping on any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

Credits:

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Assistant Producer: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Discovering Joy in the Patterns of Scripture with Hakeem Bradley

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 08:00:08 +0000

Reading the Bible can sometimes feel like a chore or duty. But when we slow down, we notice the text carries an invitation to join a story that’s vibrant, creative, and deeply personal.

In this episode of The Digital Examen, Jay Y. Kim welcomes biblical scholar and founder of Sacred Patterns, Hakeem Bradley, whose unconventional journey to faith and research expertise invites us to see the Bible afresh. Bradley holds a Master’s in Theological and Biblical Studies from Western Seminary and is currently a PhD candidate in New Testament Studies at Ridley College in Melbourne. He has served communities across the United States and Canada through preaching, teaching, and research.

Alongside Kim, Bradley reveals that our delight in Scripture grows as we slow down and are attentive to its patterns, which reveal key themes, practical wisdom, and God’s heart. He speaks about how the Scriptures reflect not only historical accounts, but also our own family heritage and an ongoing story that we are invited to partake in today. Bradley also emphasizes the importance of reading the Bible slowly, as well as his heart to equip children and families to see Scripture as their own living story. Together, they uncover that true joy is found in God’s presence, where we are seen by God in all of our sorrow, grief, and brokenness.

Listen in for inspiration to slow down, delight in Scripture’s sacred patterns, and reimagine your place in God’s story.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Why repetition and patterns shape our spiritual formation
How scripture becomes a living family history, not just an ancient text
How deep biblical joy is possible even amid intense suffering

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Hakeem Bradley and Sacred Patterns
Read the transcript here

Preorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen

SPECIAL OFFER | Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPEXAMEN40 for 40% off and free shipping on any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

Credits:

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Assistant Producer: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Discovering Hidden Joy on Our Average Days with Tish Harrison Warren

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 08:00:49 +0000

For many of us, the possibility of joy can feel intimidating or unattainable. Sometimes elusive and hard to pin down, we wonder if joy is simply a feeling or if it could involve our emotions in any substantial way.

In this episode of The Digital Examen, Jay Y. Kim welcomes Anglican priest and author Tish Harrison Warren, whose books Liturgy of the Ordinary and Prayer in the Night have resonated with thousands searching for meaning in the everyday journey of faith.

Together, they probe our cultural inability to sustain our attention to both God and life itself. Warren talks candidly about what happens to our souls when our capacity to contemplate is lost, how we can overanalyze moments of revival, and how we are often not very effective at talking about biblical joy. By confronting our fear of encountering God in the intimate setting of the mundane, they affirm that God desires to meet with and speak to us on any given Wednesday. As they share stories of family life and honest reflections on burnout, they uncover that true joy is both deeply spiritual and rooted in our human experiences.

Tune into this conversation for an invitation to discover God’s sacramental joy even on your most ordinary days.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Why “ordinary” days are sacred
Joy as a gift, practice, and a muscle
Honest hope when everything feels like it’s falling apart

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Tish Harrison Warren
Read Liturgy of the Ordinary and Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren
Check out Tish Harrison Warren’s upcoming book: What Grows in Weary Lands
Read the transcript here

Preorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen

SPECIAL OFFER | Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPEXAMEN40 for 40% off and free shipping on any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

Credits:

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Assistant Producer: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Discovering the Gift of Abundant Joy

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 08:00:07 +0000

What do we do when the “spark” of life fades?

The sorrows and fleeting pleasures of life can leave each of us despairing, burnt out, and unfulfilled. Yet even here, God offers us an alternative: real joy.

In this season’s opening episode of The Digital Examen, host Jay Y. Kim unpacks what Scripture really teaches about "joy." As Kim explains, the pursuit of pleasure in our modern age is like running endlessly on a treadmill—you never truly arrive. Yet, the entire Bible testifies to the joy God offers: a lasting inner steadiness built upon the goodness of God. Together, we’ll find that Jesus himself embraced a life of both palpable grief and abundant joy.

If you long to live a life marked by grounded delight, join us as we look to the most joyful being in the universe: God. You'll be encouraged that joy is not just possible, but readily available to you as a gift from God.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The difference between fleeting pleasures and lasting joy
Deep joy is rooted in the presence and goodness of God
How true joy prevails even amid suffering and struggle

Links from this episode:

Read the transcript here
Learn more about The Digital Examen
Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim
Preorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim
Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen
Download a Guide to The Examen

Credits:

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPEXAMEN40 for 40% off and free shipping on any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Assistant Producer: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Season 3 Trailer: Discovering Joy at God’s Pace

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 08:00:41 +0000

Slowing down in a culture of speed isn’t easy. Noticing in an age of distraction might be even harder. And experiencing joy amid the pressure to produce can feel impossible.

But walking intentionally with God happens at the pace of peace, leading us to that which often feels elusive: joy and delight.

In season three of The Digital Examen podcast, host Jay Y. Kim joins an array of writers, educators, artists, and theologians—including Malcolm Guite, David Taylor, Jon Guerra, Tish Harrison Warren, and many others—to explore the many gifts God offers just beneath the surface of our frenzied lives, often hidden in plain view.

Season three of The Digital Examen launches Wednesday, January 28, 2026. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, or tune in on the IVP YouTube channel.

Together, we’ll discover that a life marked by joy and delight is available to any and all who would slow down and notice.

Links from this episode:

Read the transcript here
Learn more about The Digital Examen
Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim
Preorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim
Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen
Download a Guide to The Examen

The world is full of noise. Many are exhausted by the cacophony and chaos of the modern, digital age, where peace is scarce and self-reflection is infrequent. In The Digital Examen, a podcast from IVP, author and pastor Jay Y. Kim converses with a variety of leaders, pastors, and scholars who are working to reorient their lives in the direction of listening, tuning their hearts and minds to hear the voice of God in all of its clarity, kindness, and strength.

Credits:

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPEXAMEN40 for 40% off and free shipping on any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Assistant Producer: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Noticing God in Season Two: Going Slowly with God and Others with Jay Y. Kim

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 07:00:00 +0000

Life is a mysterious gift—a gift meant to be given for the sake of others.

While our individualistic and speed-driven culture urges us to prioritize our own needs and desires, serving others can offer us not only a profound sense of freedom but also a heart more attuned to noticing God every day. By lifting our gaze from ourselves, we recognize that walking slowly with God includes an invitation to live at the countercultural pace of his love.

As we conclude the second season of The Digital Examen, Jay Y. Kim reflects on our journey of learning to notice God together. Kim draws inspiration from the Romantic painting "The Wanderer above the Sea Fog," by Caspar David Friedrich, which helps us see beyond our immediate self-interests and embrace the ambiguities of life with God. Kim also illustrates the joy of living in service to others and intimacy with God. Finally, Kim invites us to go patiently with God by saturating ourselves in Scripture, making a regular practice of prayer, and inviting a local Christian community to accompany us along the way. In due time, these everyday practices will help attune us in heart, soul, mind, and strength to more readily experience God’s voice and presence, forming us into people who are more alive to him in all of life.

As we offer our attention to the needs of others and daily spiritual rhythms, we can grow to notice God in all of the mundane and majestic moments of our everyday lives. Tune in to learn more.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Experiencing freedom by casting our anxieties on God
Noticing God through humility and service
Trusting God to complete his work in you in due time

Links from the episode:

Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor, and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life.

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Noticing God with Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength with Andy Crouch

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Modern technology has become more than just a neutral tool—it has become a “superpower,” making the sensation of skill and semblance of progress almost effortless.

Personalized algorithms allow us to shed the seeming inconveniences of effort, connection, and patience that engage our human personhood.

In a landscape of automation and customization, how can we experience personal connection, satisfying discipline, and sincere growth in our everyday walk with God?

Join Jay Y. Kim as he welcomes Andy Crouch, renowned author, thought leader, and partner for theology and culture at Praxis. Crouch has written several influential books on faithful Christian living, including Culture Making, The Tech-Wise Family, Playing God, Strong and Weak, and, most recently, The Life We’re Looking For.

In their conversation, Kim and Crouch explore the unique ways in which modern, “personalized” technologies are malforming our loves, desires, and sense of personhood. They discuss the unprecedented “superpower” that technology grants us to experience the illusion of power without the burden of effort. They draw a strong connection between our ever-shortening attention spans and our common struggle to experience God’s presence meaningfully every day. Our growing absence of personal discipline, coupled with waning relational connection, is informing a covert belief that following Jesus should be easy and require little day-to-day effort. Crouch challenges the way modern worship music often focuses on effortless spiritual experiences, which fails to speak to corporate realities and the full range of human experiences. Informed by Scripture and Christian history, Kim and Crouch encourage us to embrace God’s grace by committing to simple, time-tested spiritual practices that will open us up to the activity and presence of God over time.

Modern technologies seek to malform our sense of personhood through ease and convenience, yet the Christian life of noticing and experiencing God requires practice, focus, and intentionality.

Tune in to heed God’s call to a harder, better life sustained by grace.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The illusion of effortless power in the digital age
The distinction between personal and personalization
The power of intentional, spiritual practices

Links from the episode:

Learn more about Andy Crouch
Read Andy Crouch's recent book, The Life We're Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Noticing God with Our Political Imagination with Kaitlyn Schiess

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Politics not only include who and what you vote for. It reveals how you see yourself, other people, and God.

Our imaginations have been malformed by fear-inducing stories and unchecked allegiances, revealing not only our positions on a given issue but our deepest loves and loyalties. While it may seem that joining the “culture war” or withdrawing are our only political options, God offers another way.

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim welcomes Kaitlyn Schiess, author, speaker, and perpetual theology student. She is the author of The Liturgy of Politics and The Ballot and the Bible, and her writing has been featured in Christianity Today, The New York Times, Relevant, and elsewhere. Schiess is a co-host and Senior Editor of the Holy Post podcast, and the host of Curiously, Kaitlyn. She has a ThM in systematic theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and is currently a doctoral student in theology at Duke Divinity School.

Kim and Schiess explore the revealing intersections of spiritual formation and politics, challenging us to prayerfully reflect on the allegiances shaping us. They discuss our need for an imagination that is reformed by the story of Scripture, rather than fear. They also contrast the empty promises of political figures with God's faithfulness to keep his abundantly better promises. In highlighting spiritual practices to help ground us in our local communities, they discuss the freedom and clarity we experience when we are secure in our identity in Christ and belonging with his people. When we know who we are, where we belong, and what story we believe, differences become less of a threat and more of an opportunity for curiosity, conversation, and connection.

Tune in for a refreshing opportunity to reflect on your political imagination with God.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Aligning our political loyalties with Scripture
Prioritizing embodied presence with community
Practicing spiritual disciplines to learn faithful politics

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Kaitlyn Schiess
Read Kaitlyn Schiess’ books, The Liturgy of Politics and The Ballot and the Bible
Hear more from Kaitlyn Schiess on The Disrupters
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Noticing God in All of Our Emotions with Dr. Kevin Chapman

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Many of us default to suppressing our emotions. Yet, even our most challenging emotions reveal our beliefs about ourselves, others, and God.

Instead of avoiding our complex emotions, how can we faithfully engage them and learn to rewire our responses to them with God as our guide?

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim welcomes Dr. Kevin Chapman (PhD, A-CBT, HSPP), a licensed clinical psychologist and founder of the Kentucky Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders. Dr. Chapman is the author of Mastering Our Emotions, founder of Sound Mind Ministries, and host of The Sound Mind Show on YouTube. His expert wisdom has been featured on TLC, The Today Show, and other major platforms.

Throughout their conversation, Dr. Chapman breaks down the three components of emotions—thoughts, physical feelings, and behaviors—and how they influence each other. He introduces practical tools like the Emotional SEAL framework, Practice In His Presence (PIP), and breathing techniques to aid us in being present with our emotions. Their discussion also explores how emotional avoidance reinforces distorted beliefs about God and poses greater mental health risks. By instead pondering and parsing our emotions with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can experience wholeness and transformation through God’s loving presence.

With God’s company and comfort, we can reprogram our perception of our emotions and how we respond to them.

Tune in to learn how to engage your emotions with honesty, curiosity, and hope to more accurately see God for the loving Father he is.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Understanding the triad of emotions: thoughts, physical feelings, and behaviors
The importance of being present with our emotions rather than avoiding them
How the Holy Spirit helps us navigate our emotional experiences

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Dr. Kevin Chapman
The Sound Mind Show on YouTube
Dr. Kevin Chapman's book Mastering Our Emotions
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Noticing God in Our Grief with Natasha Smith

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 08:00:00 +0000

In seasons of poignant grief and loss, we all ask a version of the question, “How long, O Lord?”

Though Scripture tells us that God draws uniquely near to the hurting, experiencing hope amid our pain often feels impossible. How can we sit with God in our suffering, and experience his loving presence even as we lament?

Join host Jay Y. Kim as he welcomes Natasha Smith, a grief advocate, speaker, and author of Can You Just Sit with Me? and Black Woman Grief. Smith brings her expertise as a Certified Grief Educator and lived experience to guide others in finding healing and company in loss.

In this conversation, Kim and Smith discuss how personal, communal, and societal grief often reveal our truest selves—our tendencies, character, and intrinsic need for God. She also gently encourages us to heed God’s invitation to lament with him in seasons of heartache. As we process devastating loss, God can reimage, reveal, and restore us through our grief, shouldering our raw emotions and shepherding our eventual healing. Smith also reminds us that Jesus is the “suffering Savior” who understands our pain, as well as the one who endured death to bring about the reality of resurrection.

Tune in to learn how the presence of God can provide reprieve and relief in the midst of upending grief.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Being honest with God about our heavy emotions
Finding hope and supernatural peace amid loss
Experiencing Jesus as our suffering Savior

Links from this episode:

Know more about Natasha Smith
Read Natasha Smith’s book, Black Woman Grief
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Noticing God at the Well of Community with Kathy Tuan-MacLean

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Parenthood—and life—rarely unfolds the way we expect.

Whether we are raising children or not, we all experience complexity, messiness, and insecurity in our relationship with ourselves, others, and God. Though for parents, the exhaustion of sleepless nights, the weight of providing for a family, and the loneliness of navigating “mom culture” come as unique challenges.

With these challenges bringing us to the end of ourselves, we all feel the temptation to hide our true selves, struggles, and insecurities. Simultaneously, it can be challenging to find a welcoming community to share our raw struggles with.

How can we cultivate honest and vulnerable friendships that will receive our whole selves and hardships with nonjudgmental company, encouragement, and prayer? And how does God desire to meet us in these pain points?

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim sits down with Kathy Tuan-MacLean (PhD, Northwestern), spiritual director, mother of three, and co-author of the Bible study Moms at the Well. As the national faculty ministry director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, she draws from over three decades of experience in guiding students and faculty in spiritual formation.

Together, they explore the isolating challenges of motherhood, the judgment that often pervades “mom culture,” and the silent weight of shame many women carry alone. Tuan-MacLean encourages us to locate the everyday “wells” of community and creative spiritual practices that open us up to experience God personally and alongside others. They also discuss simple practices, like breath prayers and silence, that can help us take “little sips” from God’s living water.

If you feel exhausted, unseen, or stretched beyond your limits, this conversation will help you notice and believe that God hears you, sees you, and desires to meet you right where you are.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The paradox of strength becoming a barrier to experiencing God's grace
Experiencing God uniquely in motherhood and marriage
The importance of intentional community in spiritual sustainability

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Kathy Tuan-MacLean
Read Kath Tuan-MacLean’s Bible study, Moms at the Well
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Noticing God Within Our Longing with A.J. Swoboda

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Our desires reveal who we are becoming.

Yet, we are able to satiate our longings more easily and quickly than ever before in human history.

Our hearts decay in the wake of desire overwhelm, consumerism trains us to be ever-craving, and we are often incapacitated to trust God for the richness he can supply. Amid our allergy to waiting, how do we steward our desires well?

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim converses with former pastor, Dr. A.J. Swoboda (Ph.D., Birmingham). Swoboda is an associate professor of Bible and Theology at Bushnell University and leader for the Doctor of Ministry Program on Spiritual Formation and Soul Care at Friends University. He is also a podcast host and author of several books, including The Gift of Thorns, After Doubt, and the award-winning Subversive Sabbath.

Kim and Swoboda invite us to take an honest inventory of our often competing desires, especially those we feel unwilling to wait for. Reflecting on the biblical narrative, they uncover God’s loving design of waiting as a uniquely human experience—one that makes space to combat self-sufficiency and instead engage in curious reflection with God. By beginning with confession and dependence on the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit, we can find a “Sabbath for our desires” at the cross.

While the devil tempts us to short-circuit our longing by indulging our impulses, God teaches us to temper our desires with healthy pause, humility, and prayerful consideration.

Tune in to learn how God desires to cultivate spiritual depth in your life through the good gift of waiting.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The concept of life as a "gymnasium of desires" and its biblical roots
The impact of instant gratification and the the gift of waiting
Surrendering desires to God for true rest and freedom

Links from this episode:

Read more about A.J. Swoboda and his work
Check out A.J Swoboda’s book, The Gift of Thorns
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Noticing God Bind Our Spiritual Wounds with Michael John Cusick

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Can we really trust God with our wounds?

Fear and shame can lead us to mishandle and hide our brokenness and insecurities from God and others. Yet, as we attempt to protect ourselves, these fractures hinder our ability to perceive and receive God’s loving presence.

How can we instead believe in our belovedness and embrace our vulnerabilities as an opportunity to experience God’s delight in us?

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim speaks with Michael John Cusick, CEO and founder of Restoring the Soul, a Denver-based intensive counseling ministry. Cusick, a licensed professional counselor, spiritual director, and author of Sacred Attachment, explores the profound connections between attachment theory, spiritual wounds, and our relationship with God.

This conversation challenges us to steward our vulnerabilities with self-compassion, honesty, and hope—while reckoning with God’s gentle desire to meet us precisely in our needs and limitations. Cusick shares practical steps to connect with God through our imagination, helping us more fully trust that God sees us, soothes us, keeps us safe, and offers us security.

Tune in to learn how to move from spiritual exhaustion to sacred attachment, finding rest in the healing balm of God's unchanging love.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The impact of attachment needs and theory on spiritual growth
The role of vulnerability in deepening our relationship with God
Practical steps to experience God’s loving presence

Links from this episode:

Get to know more about Michael John Cusick
Read Cusick’s book, Sacred Attachment
Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life.

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Noticing God in Our Work and Rest with Ruth Haley Barton

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 08:00:00 +0000

In a culture that prizes living on the verge of burnout, God invites us to embrace our human limitations and recover delight.

While performative spirituality distracts us from God’s true purposes for our lives, partnering with God in a regular practice of Sabbath can help renew our hearts to perceive his voice, counter the pressures of our productivity-driven culture, and reinvigorate the meaning of our work.

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim speaks with Ruth Haley Barton (Doctor of Divinity, Northern Seminary), founding president of the Transforming Center, a spiritual formation ministry to pastors and Christian leaders. As a spiritual director and retreat leader, Barton has authored several books and resources on the spiritual life, including Invitation to Retreat and Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest.

In this conversation, Kim and Barton reflect on God’s vision for Sabbath as an opportunity to cease from work, rest, worship, and delight in God and his good gifts. Through recounting their personal histories with burnout, they emphasize that regular rhythms of pause and rest foster our trust in God and awareness of his presence in our everyday life.

Tune in for practical wisdom on forming intentional rhythms of rest.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Resisting external pressures to instead heed God’s voice
The freedom found in embracing human limitations
The biblical vision of Sabbath as a renewing act of trust in God

Links from this episode:

Read Barton’s books, Invitation to Retreat and Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest
Check out more of Ruth Haley Barton’s books here
Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life.

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Noticing God in the Silence of “Unproductive” Moments with Glenn Packiam

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 08:00:00 +0000

The everpresent pressures of social media, and even ministry needs, can warp the way in which we process our personal encounters with God.

We face the temptation to treat our relationship with God as a means to an end, whether that end be fresh content or much-needed wisdom. How can we reorient to connect with God simply to experience him?

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim is joined by Glenn Packiam, worship songwriter and lead pastor of Rockharbor Church in Costa Mesa, California. Packiam is also the author of several books on church ministry, worship, and everyday faith, including The Intentional Year and What's a Christian Anyway?

Together, Kim and Packiam offer approachable spiritual rhythms to help us notice God everyday: practicing silence and solitude, praying the Psalms, and cultivating community. By affirming that God desires our joy and attention, Packiam explores how we can encounter God and receive his wisdom, not out of function, but out of love.

Tune in to consider how offering small moments of stillness to God can renew your intimacy with him.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The importance of silence and solitude in developing spiritual awareness and connection with God
The danger of functionalizing intimacy with God for ministry/content creation purposes
The value of intentionally structuring relationships and finding life-giving connections

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Glenn Packiam
Know the latest on Glenn’s forthcoming book, What’s a Christian Anyway?
Learn more about Arthur Brooks’ book, From Strength to Strength
Learn more about Derek Thompson’s book, On Work
Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life.

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Noticing God to Find Our Voice with Ashlee Eiland

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 08:00:00 +0000

We live in a culture marked not only by hurry, but also antagonism and individualism.

It’s easy for our voice to feel either drowned out by the noise, or unworthy of adding to it. How do we discern our unique voice amid distractions and effectively speak goodness into a world in need?

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim sits down with Ashlee Eiland, thought leader, Bible teacher, and author of Say Good, to explore how discerning our voice in a content-cluttered world begins with pausing to notice God’s voice and patient presence with us all along. Together, they discuss the emotional realities of, and clarity found in, practicing self-interrogation, cultivating slowness, and making space to encounter God everyday.

Our words are innately powerful, even the words “I don’t know.” Tune in to learn how God’s grace and presence can empower you to be actively engaged in a world of reactive headlines and information overwhelm.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The four-pillar framework for discernment: Passion, Accountability, Influence, and Relationship
Practical strategies to resist reactivity and engage thoughtfully
Recognizing God’s patient presence in the midst of life’s chaos

Links from this episode:

Read Say Good by Ashlee Eiland
Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life.

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

00:00 - Introduction

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Noticing the Father Amid Our Fear

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 08:00:00 +0000

For many of us, the steady hum of worry feels ever present and hurry has become our default.

Life circumstances and uncertainties, our own anxiety-bent thoughts, and the constant overwhelm of our news feeds have created a perfect storm for fear to distract us from God’s loving presence.

As we begin season 2 of The Digital Examen, host Jay Y. Kim sets the tone for the journey ahead—thoughtful conversations with leaders and luminaries on God’s nearness in every aspect of life.

In this first episode, Kim reflects on his personal journey of parenthood to illustrate the steady closeness and safety God offers his children. Though anxiety and hurry can so easily narrate our lives, God’s presence offers a profound alternative formation. Kim shares how life lived with God is the antidote for fear, and he invites us to notice and receive God’s fatherly love and grounding presence in our everyday.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Reframing worry by recognizing God’s nearness
Practical ways to meet with God through the Prayer of Examen
Biblical insights into God’s love and presence

Links from this episode:

Read the transcript here
Read The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life.

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Season 2 Trailer: Noticing God in Our Everyday

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 04:00:00 +0000

God is present; do we notice him?

As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God.

In season 2 of The Digital Examen podcast, guests like Ruth Haley Barton, Ashlee Eiland, Glenn Packiam, Steve Cuss, Andy Crouch, and others join host Jay Y. Kim to affirm that God is always present and speaking. Through their stories and insights, we will be encouraged to pause and notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life.

Tune in to episode 1 on January 8, 2025!

This episode highlights the following themes:

Embracing rest and intentionality in a hurried world
Recognizing God’s presence in both the ordinary and extraordinary
Learning from thought leaders on developing slowing spiritual rhythms

Links from this episode:

Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Introducing 'Meditations from The Digital Examen'

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 19:30:00 +0000

As we anticipate season two of The Digital Examen releasing this January, many of us are still exhausted by the cacophony and chaos of the modern digital age, where peace is scarce and self-examination is infrequent.

In Meditations from The Digital Examen, a new podcast from IVP, host Jay Y. Kim recalls reflective questions inspired by his conversations with a variety of leaders, pastors, and scholars throughout season one. Through slow yet focused meditative moments, Jay helps listeners pause and tune their hearts and minds to hear the voice of God in all its clarity, kindness, and strength.

In this first meditation, Jay revisits his conversation with John Mark Comer, who discussed the importance of intentionally examining our rule of life—the daily habits, priorities, and practices that form who we are. Jay invites us to prayerfully consider the current state of our own rule of life and contemplate any changes God may be leading us to make in order to more fully orient our lives around Jesus.

Subscribe to Meditations from The Digital Examen, and stay tuned for season two of The Digital Examen coming in January 2025!

Links from this episode:

Listen to the original conversation, Examining Your Rule of Life with John Mark Comer
Watch the original conversation on YouTube
Read this episode’s transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Episode Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Examining Season One: Contemplating All of Reality with God with Jay Y. Kim

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 16:00:00 +0000

An examined life is a thoughtful life. Yet, it is not a life where we merely think of God. Instead, we are called to consider all of reality alongside God.

In this season's finale, Jay Y. Kim concludes with a sincere word of gratitude to the engaged listeners and insightful guests who've made this journey enlivening and reorienting. With a pastoral tone, Kim invites us to fix our thoughts on the God who continually thinks lovingly of us.

He reminds us that the mind of Christ is available to us, as God invites us to notice and enjoy his presence with us here and now.

We pray this season offers you a clearer vision of an examined life that is stilled on God and meaningful steps towards living at the pace of peace.

Download a reflective guide to The Examen.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The power of living with our thoughts fixed on God
Finding moments of quiet in a fast-paced world
Inviting God into every aspect of our lives

Link from this episode:

Read Renovated by Jim Wilder
Read the transcript here

The world is full of noise. Many are exhausted by the cacophony and chaos of the modern, digital age, where peace is scarce and self-reflection is infrequent. In “The Digital Examen”, a new podcast from IVP, author and pastor Jay Y. Kim converses with a variety of leaders, pastors, and scholars who are working to reorient their lives in the direction of listening, tuning their hearts and minds to hear the voice of God in all of its clarity, kindness, and strength.

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Producers: Helen Lee, Travis Albritton, and Andrew Bronson

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Allie Noble

✅ Production Assistants: Christine Pelliccio and Isis Toldson

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Examining the Freedom of Being in God's Presence with Kristel Acevedo

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Why is it so hard to make space to hear God’s comforting, loving voice in a world filled with daily pressures and burdens? How do we release ourselves from a spirituality based on “doing” the right things and instead focus on being in God’s presence? It is as we grow to love God’s voice which can fill us with his good gifts of encouragement, reassurance, peace, and hope that we can withstand and resist the cultural pressures around us.

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim is joined by Kristel Acevedo, spiritual formation director at Transformation Church in South Carolina and co-author of the teen devotional 3 Big Questions That Shape Your Future. Through thoughtful conversation with Kim, Acevedo encourages us to invite God into our often overly-hurried days, embrace all of life as an act of worship, and make time to simply “be” with Jesus.

Drawing from her experience as a youth leader, Acevedo comments on the unique strengths and challenges of teens today and extols Gen Z’s pursuit of sincerity and communal health, traits that can be a model for Christians of all ages.

Listen in to learn how to pause, notice, and surrender to God’s active work in our lives, experience the easy burden Jesus promises, and grow into being full participants in his missional call.

Download a reflective guide to The Examen.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Spiritual formation in teenagers amid a culture of distractions
Living a lifestyle of worship and obedience to scripture
The impact of cultural and political idolatry on spiritual formation

Links from this episode:

Get to know more about Kristel Acevedo
Read 3 Big Questions That Shape Your Future by Kara Powell, Kristel Acevedo and Brad M Griffin
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Producers: Helen Lee, Travis Albritton, and Andrew Bronson

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Allie Noble

✅ Production Assistants: Christine Pelliccio and Isis Toldson

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Examining the Bible as a Lens to See Our Lives with Tim Mackie

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 04:00:00 +0000

More often than not, we approach reading Scripture as a simple means to an end, or a task on our spiritual checklist, instead of as a living text and lens through which to see our lives. How can we become people who meditate on God’s Word day and night out of both habit and delight?

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim converses with scholar and co-founder of the Bible Project, Dr. Tim Mackie. Together, they explore how immersing ourselves in the communal, family story of Scripture can help us perceive God’s voice. Mackie also shares his pastoral background and personal journey of learning about and loving God’s word, revealing recent experiences that have fundamentally changed his understanding of what it means to be with God in the here and now.

This conversation invites us to approach the Bible not as a mere intellectual exercise, but as a slow, generative way to encounter God, be formed by his truth, and reshape how we view ourselves, others, and the world around us. Tune in to this thought-provoking episode to unearth delight and wonder in your reading and study of God’s word.

Download a reflective guide to The Examen.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus
Engaging with Scripture as meditation literature
The personal and communal impact of biblical meditation

Links from this episode:

Get to know more about Dr. Tim Mackie
Subscribe to Dr. Mackie’s YouTube Channel
Learn more about Bible Project
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Producers: Helen Lee, Travis Albritton, and Andrew Bronson

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Allie Noble

✅ Production Assistants: Christine Pelliccio and Isis Toldson

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Examining the Challenge of Discipling Kids in a Digital Age with Sarah Cowan Johnson

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 04:00:00 +0000

The foundations for a lifelong faith begin not in children’s ministry or church programs, but with parents. In a world that pushes us to be distracted, disengaged, and anxious, how can we instead disciple our children from a place of peace, attentiveness, and responsiveness to the Holy Spirit’s work in our family?

In this episode, Jay Y. Kim is joined by Sarah Cowan Johnson, a ministry trainer, consultant, coach, and author of Teach Your Children Well. Together they explore effective strategies for everyday family discipleship and discuss how parents can be expectant and aware of God’s presence and ongoing work in their children. Drawing on her extensive ministry experience, Johnson emphasizes the importance of parents leading the way in their children’s spiritual formation through attentiveness, countercultural choices, and intentionality in the ordinary moments of family life.

Kim and Johnson also dissect social media’s harmful effects on the wellbeing of youth and encourage parents to create age-appropriate opportunities for their children to learn the spiritual skill of discernment.

Tune in to glean wisdom and approachable practices for raising your children well in an overly-hectic and technology-driven world.

Download a reflective guide to The Examen.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The role of discernment in managing technology's impact on child development
Integrating spiritual practices into everyday routines through 'habit stacking'
Redefining parental success through the lens of eternal values rather than societal pressures

Links from this episode:

Get to know more about Sarah Cowan Johnson
Order Johnson’s book, Teach Your Children Well
Follow Sarah Cowan Johnson on Instagram
Read The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch
Visit Dr. Jean Twenge’s website
Visit Jonathan Haidt’s website
Watch Soul Searching: A Movie About Teenagers and God, directed by Richard Eaton & Michael Eaton, and co-directed by Christian Smith
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Producers: Helen Lee, Travis Albritton, and Andrew Bronson

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Allie Noble

✅ Production Assistants: Christine Pelliccio and Isis Toldson

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Examining God’s Radical Availability with Rich Villodas

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Christians may believe, intellectually and theologically, that God is ever-present. But is our lived experience one that recognizes and relies on God’s radical availability? On any given day, at any given moment, how much do any of us recognize the nearness and wellspring of God’s love, grace, and mercy?

In this episode, host Jay Kim converses with Rich Villodas, lead pastor of New Life Fellowship and an influential voice in spiritual formation. Together, they explore insights from Villodas's discipleship journey and his vision for a life of peace that draws deeply from God’s presence and loving attentiveness.

With insights from his latest book, Good and Beautiful and Kind, Villodas challenges us to meet God’s grace with personal effort to encounter him, whether daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, and provides practical guidance from his own spiritual rhythms.

Tune in to learn everyday practices that can help your interior life flourish and increase your awareness of God’s presence, available to you at every moment.

Download a reflective guide to The Examen.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The multi-layered nature of sin as a failure to love, beyond mere rule-breaking
The balance between grace and effort in experiencing God’s presence
Practical ways to live in sacrificial love, rooted in the example of Jesus

Links from this episode:

Get to know more about Rich Villodas
Order Villodas’ book, Good and Beautiful and Kind
Read Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero
Check out New Life Fellowship
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Producers: Helen Lee, Travis Albritton, and Andrew Bronson

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Allie Noble

✅ Production Assistants: Christine Pelliccio and Isis Toldson

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Examining Embodied Peace Through Christian Mindfulness with Regina Trammel

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 04:00:00 +0000

How can we avoid burnout, live in peace, and grow in greater awareness of God’s presence with us?

In a world that vies for our attention with relentless distractions, practicing Christian mindfulness may offer a way of resistance and renewal.

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim welcomes Dr. Regina Trammel, a licensed therapist, respected academic, and the author of The Counselor's Guide to Christian Mindfulness. As a second-generation Chinese-American, Dr. Trammel draws from familial and cultural practices, her clinical experience, and her Christian faith to present an enriching understanding of Christian mindfulness.

Together, Kim and Dr. Trammel explore the profound connection between trust, peace, and presence, as well as the essential way in which the body, soul, and mind are integratively united and in need of God’s rejuvenative care.

Tune in to learn transformative practices that have the power to form us into people characterized by peace.

Download a reflective guide to The Examen.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Christian mindfulness as a transformative practice
The battle against the digital age's distractions
Peace as a state of being versus a fleeting emotion

Links from this episode:

Get to know more about Regina Trammel
Follow Regina on Instagram
Read The Counselor's Guide to Christian Mindfulness by Regina Trammel
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Producers: Helen Lee, Travis Albritton, and Andrew Bronson

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Allie Noble

✅ Production Assistants: Christine Pelliccio and Isis Toldson

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Examining a Performance-Driven Way of Life with John Ortberg

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Do you feel like the only ways to cultivate your life with God are through spiritual disciplines such as Bible study and prayer? What if you could arrange your entire life in a way that empowers you to encounter God in all things?

In this episode, Jay Y. Kim is joined by bestselling author and speaker John Ortberg. Through wrestling with the limitations of his own faith upbringing, Ortberg has learned to instead hunger for real and accessible transformation that is Christ-shaped and all-encompassing.

Together they envision and reflect on a way of life that goes beyond mere religious activities and devotional efforts. Ortberg also exposes the common struggle of seeking after performance in spiritual growth and offers us practical steps toward a better way—one of trust and surrender to God’s timing and wisdom.

This rich dialogue also spotlights the "Become New" content series crafted by Ortberg, which focuses on cultivating the whole-life discipleship so many of us desire.

If you often feel discouraged about your spiritual life or find it difficult to hear God’s voice, Kim and Ortberg offer hopeful ideas for everyday engagement with God as our home.

Download a reflective guide to The Examen.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Practical ways to abide with God amidst daily pressures
The challenge of spiritual transformation beyond religious activities
Redefining “success” in our spiritual journeys to resist performance culture

Links from this episode:

Get to know more about John Ortberg
Subscribe to Become New to receive daily emails and devotional content
Read The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard
Read Soul Keeping by John Ortberg
Read Eternity Is Now in Session by John Ortberg
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Producers: Helen Lee, Travis Albritton, and Andrew Bronson

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Allie Noble

✅ Production Assistants: Christine Pelliccio and Isis Toldson

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Examining How Self-Forgetfulness Can Save Us with Felicia Wu Song

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Our devices demand so much from us on a daily basis, prompting us into a life of perpetual performance whether we recognize it or not. And as a result of the tumultuous sea of notifications and alerts that constantly require our mental space and publicly-appropriate responses, we can find ourselves sorely disconnected from ourselves, from others, and from God.

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim welcomes the wisdom of Dr. Felicia Wu Song, the author of Restless Devices and a cultural sociologist. Together they delve into the ways that social media and other digital platforms push us toward both a self-centeredness as well as an outsized concern for how others might view us. In contrast, Dr. Song encourages us to implement practices in our lives that help us pursue and experience the benefits of healthy self-forgetfulness.

Tune in to learn the importance of creating spaces of stillness, cultivating self-awareness, and carving out opportunities to allow God's gentle voice to care for us.

Download a reflective guide to The Examen.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The effects of performative digital identities on mental well-being
Strategies for creating tech-free spaces for inward reflection and connection with God
The necessity of being truly present with ourselves and others in a digitally-distracted age

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Felicia Wu Song
Read Restless Devices by Felicia Wu Song
Visit Dr. Song’s website
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Producers: Helen Lee, Travis Albritton, and Andrew Bronson

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Allie Noble

✅ Production Assistants: Christine Pelliccio and Isis Toldson

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Examining Tribalism and Digital Discipleship with Patrick Miller

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 04:00:00 +0000

For better or for worse, the Internet is influencing us. The question is, how are we curating that formation and actively shaping instead of being shaped by the online world?

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim discusses the digital age's challenges and opportunities for discipleship with Patrick Miller, a pastor, cultural commentator, and host of the popular news commentary podcast Truth Over Tribe.

Drawing from his own digital expertise, Miller comments on the ways in which social media can warp our perception of our own competency, confuse the context of our content, and cause us to succumb to misinformed disagreements. Together, they envision a digital presence that instead can be marked by flourishing, integrity, and confession.

By encouraging sober-minded engagement with social media, Kim and Miller hope to equip and inspire you to navigate the digital landscape with love, humility, and a heart tuned to God's mission.

Download a reflective guide to The Examen.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Addressing the realities of being discipled by the internet
Utilizing digital platforms for spiritual good
The impact of tribalism

Links from this episode:

Follow Patrick K. Miller on X
Subscribe to the Truth Over Tribe podcast
Read Truth Over Tribe by Patrick Miller
Subscribe to Endeavor weekly newsletter
Read Culture Care by Makoto Fujimura
Read “Why Your Church Should Start a Parish Podcast” by Patrick Miller
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Producers: Helen Lee, Travis Albritton, and Andrew Bronson

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Allie Noble

✅ Production Assistants: Christine Pelliccio and Isis Toldson

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Examining Vocation and True Rest with Carmen Imes

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 04:00:00 +0000

What kind of work has God called us to do, and how can we do this work without overdoing it? As we live and move in a culture that tilts toward workaholism, we need a renewed vision for God-oriented vocation and true rest.

This week on The Digital Examen, host Jay Y. Kim welcomes Dr. Carmen Imes, associate professor of Old Testament at Biola University. She offers paradigm-shifting insights on what it truly means to be human by redefining vocation as a whole-life endeavor and reforming our often lackadaisical understandings of rest.

Through this conversation, Imes invites us to view our vocations as a shared stewardship of the world as God’s image-bearers, joining in his steadfast work of maintaining order and beauty in our own communities.

Tune in to reflect on a life of purposeful contribution to human flourishing that is grounded in God’s loving collaboration with us.

Download a reflective guide to The Examen.

This episode highlights the following themes:

A biblical understanding of work, vocation, and identity
The physical and spiritual significance of practicing Sabbath
Disentangling self-worth from professional achievements

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Dr. Carmen Imes
Read Being God’s Image by Dr. Imes
Enroll in Dr. Imes’s free course on Exodus from the BibleProject
Check out Dr. Imes's YouTube Channel
Read Dr. Imes’s blog posts
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Resources

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Producers: Helen Lee, Travis Albritton, and Andrew Bronson

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Allie Noble

✅ Production Assistants: Christine Pelliccio and Isis Toldson

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Examining Your Rule of Life with John Mark Comer

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 14:46:03 +0000

What is your rule of life?

Each and every person is following some sort of rule, whether consciously or unconsciously. In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim converses with esteemed teacher and author John Mark Comer to unpack this concept and to pursue what it means to follow a generative rule of life in our hurried, modern context.

Kim and Comer also discuss Comer’s recent book "Practicing the Way," in which he issues a timely call to reorient our lives around the person and teachings of Jesus. Together, they also offer profound reflections on the ways in which offering undivided attention is the highest form of demonstrating love to others. Finally, Comer challenges listeners to pursue curiosities and doubts alongside our community as opposed to traveling on our spiritual pathways alone.

This is a fascinating episode that explores the nonlinear journey of spiritual formation in a busy and distracted age, the weight of holistic listening, and the essential work of pursuing love and focus in our everyday lives and communities.

Download a reflective guide to The Examen.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The transformative power of intentional spiritual disciplines in the digital era
The concept of a 'rule of life' and its significance for personal growth
Understanding attention as a form of love and its critical role in the digital age

Links from this episode:

Get to know more about John Mark Comer
Check out Practicing the Way's Free Resources
Read The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, Live No Lies, and Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer
Read Renovated by Jim Wilder
Read the transcript here

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Resources

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Producers: Helen Lee, Travis Albritton, and Andrew Bronson

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Allie Noble

✅ Production Assistants: Christine Pelliccio and Isis Toldson

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Examining Our Ability to Listen in a Hyperactive World with Jay Y. Kim

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 04:00:00 +0000

How do the distractions and noise of the digital age affect our ability to truly perceive and listen to the voice of God?

In this episode, host Jay Y. Kim invites us into the heart of thoughtful listening through reflection, slowing down, and storytelling.

Kim introduces readers to the ancient Christian practice that inspired this show: The Examen. As you move through the five key movements of contemplative prayer in this exercise, you will be able to thoughtfully examine your days with God.

Download a reflective guide outlining The Examen.

Through powerful storytelling drawn from his own personal experience, Kim underscores the human need and desire to listen, as well as the implied need for quiet. In an age of speed and hurry, Kim offers both a sound rationale as well as tools to begin the journey of sincere listening and to pursue a more peaceful pace of life.

This episode highlights the following themes:

The necessity of listening throughout all of life
Pursuing a pace of peace in a chaotic world
An introduction to The Examen prayer practice
The significance of patient attention and quiet reflection in the spiritual journey

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Resources

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim
Read How to Hear God by Pete Greig
Read The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
Learn more about Frederick William Faber
Read The Listening Life by Adam McHugh
Read the transcript here

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Producers: Helen Lee, Travis Albritton, and Andrew Bronson

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Allie Noble

✅ Production Assistants: Christine Pelliccio and Isis Toldson

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

As an Amazon Affiliate, this channel earns commissions from qualifying purchases when you use the links above.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Introducing The Digital Examen Podcast

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 17:29:30 +0000

Welcome to The Digital Examen Podcast!

Amid the noise and busyness of the digital age, it can feel impossible to hear God’s voice. Even though we can trust that God is always speaking, we struggle to foster the quiet needed to tune our ears, hearts, and minds in to his speech.

On The Digital Examen podcast, author and pastor Jay Y. Kim invites us on a journey, to truly listen and be present with God. By reckoning with the spiritual, mental, and physical effects of living in a digitally-saturated culture, Kim explores an alternative way of being in the world that is thoughtful, peaceful, and marked by presence.

Along this journey, Kim is joined by contemporary sages and scholars who offer holistic wisdom, daily practices, and personal research on living faithfully in an age of distraction.

Reflect and reorient through listening to Kim’s conversations with authors and teachers like John Mark Comer, Sarah Cowan Johnson, Rich Villodas, John Ortberg, Patrick Miller, and Kristel Acevedo.

Listeners will also learn from sociologist Felicia Wu Song, BibleProject co-founder Tim Mackie, therapist Regina Trammel, and biblical scholar Carmen Imes.

Join Kim and his conversation partners as they curate a space to pause, listen, and reflect with God.

Tune in to the first episode on January 10, 2024.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Jay Y. Kim’s expertise at the intersection of spiritual formation and digital media
The goal of The Digital Examen podcast
Preview of topics and guests for the season

The world is full of noise. Many are exhausted by the cacophony and chaos of the modern, digital age, where peace is scarce and self-reflection is infrequent. In The Digital Examen, a new podcast from IVP, author and pastor Jay Y. Kim converses with a variety of leaders, pastors, and scholars who are working to reorient their lives in the direction of listening, tuning their hearts and minds to hear the voice of God in all of its clarity, kindness, and strength.

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Producers: Helen Lee, Travis Albritton, and Andrew Bronson

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Manager: Allie Noble

✅ Production Assistants: Christine Pelliccio and Isis Toldson

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands