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Welcome to The Tension is Real Podcast. A podcast dedicated to real discussion about the TENSION that exists between Life and Faith and how to embrace it so we can live with purpose and freedom.
Today’s Topic – The Tension in Parenting Styles
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I stated in an earlier blog post that there are NO stupid questions. I found one.
There is a tension that people (churched people) often feel when trying to decide whether something is “spiritual or secular”. Let me just start off this blog with the bottom line of my opinion. This question is stupid! There’s a MUCH better way to view our lives! This tension doesn’t have to exist!
For those that have no idea what I’m talking about – the main idea is that there are things in this life that matter to God, but other things that are more physical (or less spiritual) and these don’t matter to God all that much.
This means that prayer, going to church, reading your bible, sharing your faith, teaching the bible to your family, and listening to Christian music in the car is all that matters to God. Which in turn says that God only cares about 10% of what you do in any given week. That work, socializing, social media, eating, and everything else you do 90% of your weeks matters to God little or is not honoring to him at all.
I was raised in a church culture that believed rock and roll was “secular.” Didn’t God CREATE music? It was modeled that working full time in ministry was more honorable to God than other jobs. Are some jobs less honorable to God than others? (Maybe only a few that border on facilitating of immoral acts) Is engaging on social media something that is NEUTRAL to God – it doesn’t really HONOR Him so it’s “secular”.
Continue reading “Secular or Spiritual? This Question is Stupid!”
Welcome to The Tension is Real Podcast. A podcast dedicated to real discussion about the TENSION that exists between Life and Faith and how to embrace it so we can live with purpose and freedom.
Today’s Topic – The Tension of Your Yes and Nos
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2. RATE and REVIEW the Podcast in iTunes to help us promote MattDawson.TV.
3. Listen to Podcast on this page.
4. Download MP3
I LOVE shopping for TVs. The newest “4K Ultra HD Awesome Sauce TV” in the showroom get’s my heart pounding and I can see my life being better with it in my living room. This is going to solve ALL my problems… right here!
Of course, it won’t solve all my problems. The good feelings of “wow” wear off quickly with me and gadgets pretty quickly – within just a couple of weeks, the TV would just be another thing in my house that I enjoy, but no nearly as much as I thought I would.
This happens to me all the time. Not always when I’m shopping for stuff – but in other areas of life too.
Haven’t you ever heard something and thought it was the answer to all your questions… only to try and reflect on it later and it really didn’t answer all of your questions, as a matter of fact it answered none of them. It was SO INSPIRATIONAL in the moment… but failed to hold that same power after a short period of time.
Welcome to The Tension is Real Podcast. A podcast dedicated to real discussion about the TENSION that exists between Life and Faith and how to embrace it so we can live with purpose and freedom.
Today’s Topic – The Messy Middle (Grace vs Law)
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2. RATE and REVIEW the Podcast in iTunes to help us promote MattDawson.TV.
3. Listen to Podcast on this page.
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As a child, memorizing scripture was a part of my upbringing. Even if you didn’t go to church or believe the stuff that church was saying, memorizing small verses was simply a part of the generation I was raised in.
One verse I memorized when in high school would become a verse I would never forget.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
The last part of it is very inspiring to me. I LOVE to see myself as someone of POWER (“You can DO IT”), LOVE – #lovewins, and Self-Discipline – “set your course and don’t stop until you get there”.
I could give a motivational talk on those 3 things and tour the country winning over crowd after crowd with a message of POWER, LOVE, and SELF-DISCIPLINE. Everyone I know wants these things and wants them to be TRUE of their lives.
However, most of us don’t function with these three things active in our daily lives because we always seem to be fighting an underlying “spirit” of fear.
Welcome to The Tension is Real Podcast. A podcast dedicated to real discussion about the TENSION that exists between Life and Faith and how to embrace it so we can live with purpose and freedom.
Today’s Topic – The Tension of a House Divided
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2. RATE and REVIEW the Podcast in iTunes to help us promote MattDawson.TV.
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Okay, I know what you’re thinking… “Seriously, a chick movie…” “WAIT, a Christian chick movie!!!”.
YES!
I won’t recommend many things like this, but occasionally I will notice a movie or a book that I think needs a shout out. Please note, this movie is not a chart topper, it won’t win any awards, and there’s plenty of Christian velveeta at times – but it is a FANTASTIC picture of TENSION in one woman’s life that simply is too good to ignored.
Many of us live what I would call “normal” lives. There’s nothing super exciting about them. We work, we take care of our homes, we have friends, we have family that’s messed up, and we don’t have any “major” problems… this should cause us to be fairly content with life.
However, even in those quiet times, many of us go through seasons of wondering, purposelessness, and searching for “something” that will resolve the TENSION we still feel in our hearts. The questions that nag us “Am I doing this right?, Is there more?, What if I’m on the wrong path?”
I am a strong proponent of asking those questions. Even taking steps to test the boundaries of what is around you to see if they are real or just ones we’ve placed on ourselves. I’m NEVER a proponent of huge, reactionary, impulsive acts of desperation (buy a corvette, leave your spouse, sell everything and move to Zimbabwe). This leads to nothing but personal heartache and usually family devastation in the wake of your decisions.
However, this movie portrays the perfect (albeit exaggerated) “Night Out” in which 3 moms simply looking for a night out of the routine get caught up in an adventure that reveals many of those questions that are longing to be answered and tensions resolved.
It’s a typical modern movie, the wives/moms are OCD and the husbands/dads are useless when it comes to the kids and how to help their wives. I’m not a huge fan of this constant agenda to portray women as neurotic freaks and men as idiots, but that’s hollywoods MO right now – so I live with it in movies.
Sean Astin (RUDY!) does a great job in this movie and Sarah Drew also delivers a convincing wife/mom filled with a TENSION that simply cannot be resolved.
Conclusion – “Mom’s Night Out” is a great illustration, a fun movie night in, and if you’re paying attention – you will see the incredible POWER in the TENSION that simply cannot be resolved in our lives. It starts out in the movie as the THING that must be solved in order to have happiness and peace, but ends with understanding that this TENSION (these questions of life) when redirected give purpose and meaning to our lives and actions.
So go ahead, watch it. Let me know if you agree.
Available in DVD and Amazon Instant Video.
Welcome to The Tension is Real Podcast. A podcast dedicated to real discussion about the TENSION that exists between Life and Faith and how to embrace it so we can live with purpose and freedom.
Today’s Topic – The Tension of a Comparison Culture
1. Subscribe in iTunes (Search “The Tension is Real” or plug in this URL – http://mattdawsontv.libsyn.com/rss).
2. RATE and REVIEW the Podcast in iTunes to help us promote MattDawson.TV.
3. Listen to Podcast on this page.
4. Download MP3