The Dr. Josh Axe Show - Why Your Soul Is Starving & How to Nourish It | John Eldredge

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

Are you feeling constantly stressed, overwhelmed, or disconnected from a deeper, more meaningful life? You’re not alone. The modern world—filled with endless digital distractions, relentless busyn...ess, and artificial inputs—is quietly starving our souls. But what if there was a way to reclaim your peace, restore your energy, and truly hear God again? In this episode of The Dr. Josh Axe Show, best-selling author and counselor John Eldredge joins Dr. Axe to reveal why so many people today feel burnt out, anxious, and spiritually numb—and what to do about it. Together, they explore how our phones, screens, and overstimulated lives are rewiring our brains, blocking our ability to heal, and keeping us from experiencing the presence of God. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: The shocking impact of screen time on your mental, physical, and spiritual health Why the modern world is designed to keep you constantly distracted and disconnected How digital addiction is shaping your brain and making you more anxious The one simple habit that can transform your relationship with God in just one minute a day Why nature is critical for your health—and how to reintroduce it into your daily life The #1 reason people struggle to heal (and why it has nothing to do with genetics) Two life-changing rules to create sacred space and regain control over your time If you’ve ever felt like something is missing—like your soul is starving for real connection, peace, and purpose—this conversation is for you. Tune in to discover simple, powerful steps to break free from digital overload, reclaim your health, and experience God in a deeper way than ever before. #health #stress #spiritualhealth #draxe ------  Want more of The Dr. Josh Axe Show? Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Follow Dr. Josh Axe Instagram Twitter Facebook TikTok Website Follow John Eldredge Instagram Facebook YouTube Website ------  Staying healthy in today's world is an upstream battle. Subscribe to Wellness Weekly, your 5-minute dose of sound health advice to help you grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. Every Wednesday, you'll get:  Holistic health news & life-hacks from a biblical world view Powerful free resources including classes, Q&As, and guides from Dr. Axe The latest episodes of The Dr. Josh Axe Show Submit your questions via voice memo to be featured on the show → speakpipe.com/drjoshaxe  ------  Links:  Tune in to John’s Wild at Heart Podcast → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wild-at-heart/id260843816  ------  Ads:  Even if your bloodwork looks "normal," your symptoms could point to Cell Danger Response (CDR). Discover how to break free from CDR and unlock your full potential at https://beyondbloodwork.com/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 If you feel like you're always stressed out, burnt out, overwhelmed, or disconnected from living a deeper and more meaningful life, we're going to have a conversation today. The average person checks their phone almost 100 times a day. Just one hour of screen time decreases happiness and increases anxiety. We need guidance into this. It's not your fault. You're having a hard time hearing God. It's not your fault. You're having a hard time.
Starting point is 00:00:23 You've been making room for God. You're a disciple of the internet. It was baked into you from childhood. But this isn't something you did wrong. It's something that was done to all of us. We're not asking people to abandon their technology. We're inviting people to create some sacred space, create a little bit of breathing room.
Starting point is 00:00:41 I mean, a one minute pause. There's one thing I've pinpointed of being the biggest reason why somebody won't heal. And it's not poor genetics or it's not that something was stacked against them in some way. It tends to be that... What if I told you that your phone is slowly rewiring your brain, making you more anxious, more exhausted, and even more sick.
Starting point is 00:01:01 And I've dug into a lot of studies on this in terms of how sick our phones and screen time and this artificial light. Basically spending a lot of time indoors with technology is making us. In fact, studies are showing that we're spending over five hours a day, at least staring at screens. And for a younger generation, it can be as much as 10 hours a day. And this is really draining what I believe is our mental, physical, in spiritual health. Well, today I'm bringing on an expert. And actually somebody I've got to say that I've
Starting point is 00:01:31 admired for a long time. It's John Eldridge. He is a bestselling author, a counselor, and he is going to dive into with us how these constant digital distractions can really take away our best life. And if you feel like you're always stressed out, burnt out, overwhelmed, or disconnected from living a deeper and more meaningful life, we're going to have a conversation today about how to do that. John, welcome the show. Oh, Josh. I'm really honored to be here. I love what you do, by the way, because I have been a health and wellness guy for decades. Like I ever since 1979, when I was a manager in a health food store, I love this world, and I love the intersection
Starting point is 00:02:17 of body and body wellness with soul and spirit, mind, heart. So I love the integration that you're trying to bring to people. Well done, pal. Thanks so much. It means a lot, especially coming from you. You know, J.R. Tolkien says, the praise of the praiseworthy is above our reward. So I'm, I'm rewarded by that. Your book, Wowed at Heart, changed my life. I read it in college. And so for anybody listening, if you've ever read Wowed at Heart or Captivating or any of the books that John's been a part of, they've just, you know, they've been transformation on. I think that you have a way of getting to the heart of things. And that's one of the things I've tried to do as I've studied cellular medicine and functional medicine is trying to get to the actual root of the problem. And I think you did such a good
Starting point is 00:02:59 job of that, again, especially in those books. And I know you've got some other books I've read. One was about community. It was an incredible book here recently that I read. But when you look at today, I think it's something like the average person checks their phone almost 100 times a day. I mean, we're constantly on our phones. What are the side effects of that? Why do you think so many people have become so obsessed with their digital devices today? Oh gosh, because it gives us a sense of security. We've literally been like disciples into the idea of get to the bottom, get to the late. What's new?
Starting point is 00:03:36 You know, what are people saying? What's the latest research? And we have this deep conviction now that if we're not in the know, you know, we're missing out. And so you got to check it, got to check it, got to check it. It's become a place of security. I think for many people, it's also their place of. connection to be fair. This is the way that they check in on their parents, check in on their friends, you know, watch a few reels, you know, scroll through Instagram, you know. So it feels like
Starting point is 00:04:06 connection. It feels like community, right? There's reasons that we go to it. I feel like I'm having an affair with my phone. Like I literally have to like break the relationship. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, it's so true. You know, one of the things I was, I'm writing a book now and one of the things I'm getting into in the book is around things that are artificial. You know, today we have all these artificial inputs. And so everything from artificial light to artificial food dyes to food that's not real. I mean, there's a lot of things that are, you know, and even something like I know probably you've discussed and talked about with your line of work is pornography.
Starting point is 00:04:45 Like a lot of these things, they're not real. And so we have so many things that are like, or like we just talked about, a lot of relationships. People might say, well, I've got a thousand friends on Facebook. Is that a real relationship? So it seems like a lot of people are substituting the real thing with something that's artificial. And I think that's leading to people feeling less, you know, less significant, less, you know, like they're living less of a meaningful life. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Not to mention your health, okay, because Americans are infamous for getting sick when we go overseas. Because we have lived in such a sterilized environment.
Starting point is 00:05:26 Folks, you can actually make your environment too artificial, too sterile. And all the data is in. You're going to write about this. You've talked about it. The probiotics episode you did. Children need to play in the dirt to develop healthy immune systems. Right? And so if you're not out there digging your hands in the dirt,
Starting point is 00:05:50 and it used to be, well, you helped on the farm. or you worked in the garden or, you know, just you and your pals were out, you know, playing, you know, sandlot softball or something like that. But we have pulled kids completely out of nature. And now we're paying the consequences, a number of the things being, right, compromised immune systems and all these autoimmune disorders. We literally like over-parented in the sense of tried to make it too clean. And kids need to get dirty. And so do it. adults. Yeah, it's so true. You know, one thing I was going to tell you, and this is something I love about your teaching, is that, you know, we're all being disciples by something.
Starting point is 00:06:33 You know, and especially as kids, they're so sensitive, I'll tell you that there are shows that I don't know that I would consider a bad show. I'll give you an example of this. Like, our daughter a few times is watch the show Peppa Pig, okay? And I started noticing she just started doing what these characters were doing. And it wasn't the worst. It was nothing like terribly amoral, but it was just a level of disrespect to their parents. And so I'm like, my daughter watching the show on TV is in a way being disciplined by this cartoon character in her life. And so I think that there's a lot of, you know, another thing I hear a lot of times, John, people will come up to me and they'll say, I want a mentor. And I think people realize
Starting point is 00:07:13 that they want someone in their life to mentor them. But I think today people are being mentored or disciples and they don't even know it. And by probably something that they, if they, they really thought about it, wouldn't want to be disciples by. And I know that's something you actually cover in your book. I'd love for you to share more on that. This is going to blow people's minds. We are all, every last one of us, disciples of the internet. I don't mean primarily who you listen to, what you look up, you know, the shows you follow,
Starting point is 00:07:42 the YouTube channels you watch, the podcast you listen to. No, no, no. I mean the process. Okay, everybody does this all day long. He was the proper temperature to bake a potato. Hey, what's the latest thing on vitamin B12? Are there neurotoxic levels? Hey, I got to figure out, I've got a lower back problem. What's the, we go look it up. We do this all day long. And what we don't realize is that after a couple decades of this, it has baked into us a way of operating in the world where, for one thing, we are so impatient because you Google something, you get three million results. in less than a second. It's taught the soul impatience.
Starting point is 00:08:28 It's also taught us a very kind of suspicious, kind of critical way of, yeah, but somebody said something different yesterday. So what's the truth now? Hey, what's the latest research on that? Well, actually, I heard, you know, Dr. Josh said that that's not true. And this constant contradiction of fact has made us all, like, It's like a gambling addiction, Josh. Like we are trying to get to the bottom of the truth.
Starting point is 00:08:56 What's the latest thing? But it gets overturned tomorrow or next week, right? And so we're suspicious and we're cynical and we're anxious to get to the bottom of things. And I would just tell you, you know, your spiritual forebearers of ages past would have been horrified. Yeah. Wow. This way of living. And the effect that it's having on anxiety, depression.
Starting point is 00:09:22 and really just the care of the soul. John, I bet there are very few people that realize that this is even being done to them. And I'm talking about very few people. I mean, it's definitely less than 10%. I mean, it's a very, very minute number. And I want to share something. I have a virtual clinic that I run and I see patients through. And, you know, with many patients, we just see these, you know,
Starting point is 00:09:47 incredible results and healings in their body. but when I run into a tough case where they're not seeing results as quickly as we should, there's one thing I've pinpointed of being the biggest reason why somebody won't heal. And it's not poor genetics or it's not that something was stacked against them in some way. It tends to be that they're obsessing about their condition too much and thinking about it too much. I mean, it's a single biggest thing, especially with issues like fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue or a number of issues. And this is something, this goes back to more Eastern medicine and Chinese medicine, but they believed that if you're obsessing and thinking about something, it actually hurts your digestive system.
Starting point is 00:10:26 It's very hard. So think about if somebody worries a lot, I'll say, oh, my stomach feels like it's tied in knots. It actually makes you physically ill what you're talking about. Yes. Yes. Okay. So one of the things we released, and this was such a beautiful thing that I think God was behind it. Right before the pandemic rolled through in 2020, we released an app.
Starting point is 00:10:47 It's a very simple app. It's called the one minute pause because we were realizing people do not even know how to stop during the day and let it all go. Okay, we call it benevolent attachment. You just let it all go. The email you regret sending, the phone call you're late on returning, you've got to get to carpool, you let it go. And teaching people, see, these are the old saints. This is contemplative prayer.
Starting point is 00:11:17 But we don't call it back. We just say, learn to pause a couple times a day. Now, here's the fascinating thing. This will be very encouraging to you. So it's the one minute pot. We're literally teaching people to get still for 60 seconds. Okay. And the letters start pouring in.
Starting point is 00:11:34 The input, people are like, you saved my life. I was going to literally take my life. You guys have changed me, you know, that da-da-da-ha. Happiness. Parents are using it with kids. Teachers are using it in classrooms. My team tells me, John, we need a five minute pause and we need a 10 minute pause.
Starting point is 00:11:52 And I said, guys, I cannot convince people to pause for 60 seconds. There is no way people are going to use a 10 minute pause. It has become the second highest use pause on the app. Because as people enjoy the opposite of what we were describing, I'm no longer obsessing about my condition. I'm no longer, right? I'm just learning to let it go. A couple times a day, you can help.
Starting point is 00:12:18 your soul do this. As people get into that, they're like, oh, oh, give me more of that. Like, that makes me feel really good. And so now they're using like, we have a three and a five and a 10. We've got these other programs on there. But isn't that a wonderful, hopeful thing? People want this kind of mentoring. Show me how to let it go. Show me how to detach. Yeah, well, you know, I think that people do realize there's something wrong. I think people are yearning for more meaning, more significance, more happiness. There's a study, this is out of the National Institutes of Health, and they found that if you're spending one hour, just one hour of screen time decreases happiness and increases anxiety. This is both in adults and children. And so just the more time
Starting point is 00:13:04 we spend on devices, the less happy we are. And I think if people were fully aware of this, that maybe things would change. I think, I don't think that most people are aware of that. Or it's just such an addiction that it's almost like you just immediately just get, and it's so part of everyone's life now. So you just get sucked back in so easily. But I love the one minute pause idea. So when somebody pauses for a minute, it's just stillness. It's not thinking. Like, and I bet once somebody does one minute, that can lead to the two minutes and the five and the ten. Exactly. Yeah, that's exactly right. And we encourage people get outside. Nature, heals, nature heal. It heals the body. It heals the soul. And, you know, so like what happens with
Starting point is 00:13:52 the pause is all your cortisol starts going down. Right. And you feel peaceful. Well, people like that. I want to feel peaceful. Yeah. Right. Okay. Same thing with walking outside, 20 minute walk outside does the exact same thing for you. It is it brings down all the endredaline and cortisol and stuff and all the other wonderful things it does, like sunshine. and vitamin D and that sort of thing. But here's how crazy it is, Josh. So my daily walking the dogs, I got two golden retrievers, and this is literally part of my spiritual practice,
Starting point is 00:14:27 is walk the dogs, okay, because I don't take my phone. Yeah. All right, it's a half an hour walk. I am now trying to figure out how to make it shorter because this is what I mean about being a disciple of the Internet. It's literally baked into us that if something is taking, more than a few minutes, we got to get on with things.
Starting point is 00:14:49 And I'm out there walking the dogs, doing something I enjoy, trying to figure out how to make it go faster so I can get back indoors and get on my screens again. This is the madness, right? Yeah. So I'm choosing.
Starting point is 00:15:05 You make these choices. I'm going to give people two really lovely choices. Do not take your phone to bed. You don't need to take your phone. phone to bed by an alarm clock people they're cheap you know get them down at target or walmart do not take your phone to bed you should not be scrolling and and and you know looking and chatting and reels and stuff you shouldn't be doing that before bedtime you're not going to sleep well for one thing but it also you've got to create some sacred space where your soul gets to be human again okay simple don't
Starting point is 00:15:39 take your phone to bed other thing do not pick your phone up first thing in the morning so when I walk out in the kitchen, I have put my, I've plugged my phone in the night before to charge it, but I've turned it face down. So that when I walk out in the kitchen in the morning, all I'm going to do is be human. I'm going to make a cup of coffee. I'm going to look out the window. I'm going to say my prayers. Because as soon as you pick up your phone, folks, you are in the matrix. Here's the May Day text you didn't answer. Here's the, oh, phone call from my, my doctor. what's that about, you know, and you're gone. You're already down the river. You can do those two things, everybody. Don't take your phone to bed. Don't check it first thing in the morning. Give yourself 15 minutes
Starting point is 00:16:27 before you pick it up. That's so good. It's so good. You know, I think when I remember studying some neuroscience years ago and looking at the things that you remember most or the things that most impact your subconscious. And it's the things right before bed and right when you wake up in the morning that tend to have some of the biggest impacts. Yes, I read that as well. And it scared the bejeepers out of me because I started thinking, whoa, what am I looking at right before I go to bed?
Starting point is 00:16:55 And it was images of the world news. It was the heartache in Gaza. It was the wildfires in Australia. It was not happy stuff, right? So you can make these simple choices. We're not asking people to abandon their technology. we're inviting people to create some sacred space, create a little bit of breathing room. I mean, a one minute pause.
Starting point is 00:17:21 Come on, folks. You can do that. And what's the name of that app, John? It's literally called the one minute pause. And if you look it up in the app store, it's free. It'll say it's by Ransomed Heart Ministries, John Eldridge. We're now called Wild at Heart. It was just a name change.
Starting point is 00:17:38 But yeah, it's called pause. and you can iPhone, Android, and it's lovely. That's so great. It's so great. You know, I, you know, one of the things that I taught it, I did an episode on sleep here not too long ago, and I talked about how, now this is something I've noticed personally. Now, there's a lot of science behind it, but the single greatest thing somebody can do to sleep better is spend more time outside.
Starting point is 00:18:05 And the single worst thing they can do that's going to disrupt their sleep is, screen time at night. And so there's no doubt that, you know, the health benefits of, and we have a, we're in a nation that's really deprived of sleep. If you go back to the early 1900s, people are getting closer to nine to ten hours of sleep a night. It's a whole hour and a half less now, on average that people are getting to sleep. And that alone for healing and, and just, you know, being able to think more clearly. Yes. And a number of things is dramatic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Okay. So, you were born in a garden.
Starting point is 00:18:43 You were created to live in the garden of Eden. All right? And your destiny is to live in a garden again. Eden returns. Okay. In the meantime, what are we thinking? Like literally, every creature on Earth has a habitat in which it thrives. So you can't put, you know, whales in the desert and you can't put, you know, desert creatures into rainforest environments, right? Everybody's got the habitat in which they live. So to human beings. And in a highly technological, technological, highly sterile, fast-paced world is not the habitat that your soul and body were created for. So we can take some steps without
Starting point is 00:19:37 you know, radical, radical life change. You can take some steps to change that. You can get outside every day. Children spend four minutes a day outside, four minutes and four hours a day on screens. Wow. Wow. That's not good, folks. You got to get your kids outside, right? Get outside, collect sticks, pick up pine cones, throw snowballs, you know, get on a bike. Like, you can do this everybody. The thing that we're suggesting are not hard. Yeah. You know what's so interesting, John? I know if you're a health and enthusiast like I am,
Starting point is 00:20:16 there's a whole movement called biohacking. And within this community, almost all of the therapies are nature-based therapies that you get benefit from because you're missing out on the real thing. Now, the real thing is always better. But the same goes for supplement. goes with almost anything in the hell space. So if you think about like red light beds,
Starting point is 00:20:41 it's, those are similar rays as the sun. Now, the sun's even better, but you're missing that. If you think about PEMF, it stands for pulse, electromagnetic frequency, this therapy,
Starting point is 00:20:51 like these mats, that's because you're not spending enough time barefoot on the earth, right? There's like sound music now, that music playing, it's like, well, all the sounds are of rain and waterfalls and,
Starting point is 00:21:02 you know, the forest, you know? So almost every one of these therapies are just, hey, we're trying to take harness nature and use that because you're missing out on it so badly. But people would heal even more if they just ate real organic food from nutrient dense soil, spend more time in sunshine, spent more time in nature, we're barefoot, you know. And so it really, you know, like, they're much more in touch with this, I think, in some of these eastern countries. Like, I know Japan in particular, they have people do something
Starting point is 00:21:33 on forest bathing as a form of therapy and healing, especially for anxiety. And so it's that, you know, these are definitely things that, you know, they can benefit people, but they're still not, not as powerful as the real thing. Right. Yes. And again, folks, we're not saying you've got to get outside now for half of your day. I know that's not available. You got to go to work. You got to pick up your kids. I get that. But you can make some choices. You can, you can take the dog for a walk. You can go for a walk yourself. You can get on your bike. You can get outside, right? You can take your shoes off and stand in the grass and do a little grounding. You can do that. Like, guys, come on. This is two minutes, five minutes. Yeah. John, I'm curious your thoughts on that. Well, I did a couple things. I want to ask you
Starting point is 00:22:18 about COVID. I'm going to ask you about that about second, though. But, but, you know, I think for a lot of people that they are so sucked into, because it is such an addiction. And of course, by the way, I don't, I'm not, I'm, and I know John's not either, like, not being hypocritical here, because I'm as guilty as anybody is getting sucked into my phone. Yeah, yeah, say, hey, you know, my, my hand, you know, our hands are high here. So, so, so that can happen. I found for myself, the best way to fix that is actually schedule time in my schedule to say, I will take a 20 minute walk in the morning and right after lunch.
Starting point is 00:22:53 And like, I just, I have to schedule it. Because if not, I just, it just have, or it has to become a very hard habit that I'm very conscious of because if it's not a habit and it's not part of my schedule, then somehow I still end up on the technology. Yes. Yes. Your lifestyle is built on your habits. So whatever it is you choose to do, don't make big resolutions you can't sustain. It has to be sustainable or it won't become a habit. But once it becomes a habit, then it's really going to start paying the dividends, right? So I have to think, John, don't take your phone to bed at night. Well, now it's a habit.
Starting point is 00:23:33 I just don't do that. I have an alarm clock. Yeah. Yeah. And the habit now is part of my lifestyle, and my lifestyle is much healthier. Okay. So choose things, folks, that are sustainable over time for you. You know yourself.
Starting point is 00:23:48 You're like, oh, I'll never be able to, you know, whatever it is, go for a two-mile hike each day. That's okay. That's okay. Go around the block. Yeah. Start where you can. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:59 Yeah, that's so good. You know, I saw a major, major shift in people actually getting outdoors more, more. And let me say this. There's sort of two groups, but there are a lot of people where COVID caused them to go and buy more land, remodel their house, get chickens, make sourdough bread. I mean, start, you know, becoming more. Why do you think COVID had that effect on people? Yeah. So it was two things. First off, the cost of COVID on the human soul. And when we say COVID, we mean the whole pandemic. We mean the quarantine's lockdowns. All of that, right? Schools on, schools off. You're working at home. It was all of that. And then the politics of it, right? Highly anxiety, anxiety and depression went through the roof. So did all chemical addictions, alcohol, tobacco, all that went through the roof. during that. But what people discovered was, I now need, I am forced to get better. I'm going crazy.
Starting point is 00:25:10 You know, it's Calvin fever and all that. So what can I do to get better? I think it was a, it was an acceleration of the awful that is our daily. It was like a condensed dose of it that cause people to say, I can't do this. I can't live like this anymore. And I'm with you. It's amazing. Like trailheads, you couldn't find parking and you know, go to your favorite park and everybody's out playing Frisbee. Like I had to find new places to walk because there were 30 cars, you know, in the parking lot. So that's all good. That's okay. But, you know, let's get outside. I think that there's also some. something that's very mental health spiritual about this.
Starting point is 00:25:57 Are you tired of doctors dismissing your symptoms or worse, even making you feel crazy? Even if your blood work comes back normal, it doesn't mean your health is where it should be. Think of your blood like a delivery truck, carrying nutrients and hormones, but the real payoff happens when your cells open the package and use what's inside. If your cells are stuck in what's called cell danger response, triggered by stress, toxins, or infections, they go into protective mode. In this state, cells close off and don't properly take in or utilize the hormones or nutrients they need from the bloodstream.
Starting point is 00:26:34 Now, this makes the blood work often appear normal, so doctors often miss the deeper issue, leaving you feeling tired, gaining weight, experiencing mood swings, and dealing with other symptoms while other cells remain in a state of limbo. Visit beyondbloodwork.com to learn how you can start changing this in as little as 30 days? Your soul was actually never meant to know the news of the world. There's been a number of interesting studies done on this and there was Robin Dunbar, British sociologists, anthropologists. Human beings were meant to live in small, organic communities of about 150 people. And they've even done this on church sizes, kind of like
Starting point is 00:27:15 the ideal church size is about 200 people. And part of the reason for that is you're just literally not supposed to know about the tragedy that's taking place right now in the Congo. You're not supposed, we think that to be a responsible human being, this is one of the internet disciple lies. We've all just been taught this. I'm not shaming anyone. We've just been mentored into this way of living. We think that to be a responsible human being, you need to know what's happening in Ukraine. You need to know what Trump does. You need to, you know, all of it. You need to know about the heartache that's taking place in the African Civil Wars right now or in Somalia. Folks, that's a lie.
Starting point is 00:28:01 Your brain was literally not created for omniscience. You're not meant to know the tragedy of the world. And so learning to reduce your news intake, if you want to reduce anxiety in your children, make their world smaller. Make their world small. They should not be tuned into everything. Because the heartache of it, the human soul takes on the heartache as if it were its own. Here's a mind-blowing piece.
Starting point is 00:28:37 And do you see how you and I have to keep citing the latest research to make our point? You know, that is what happens to Internet disciples. Like you can't even convince somebody of something unless you cite this. So 9-11, the Twin Towers are hit. Tragedy in New York. They did a study afterwards on PTSD, which showed that people who watched it happening live on their televisions experienced the same level of PTSD as people who were there on the streets in New York.
Starting point is 00:29:12 Folks, your soul is not meant to take in the tragedy of the world. Your soul is actually a very small, lovely, finite thing. And so I check the news in the morning. I just check the headlines, three minutes maybe. I mean, there's something big's going on. I need to know that. And then I get off the news. Get off the news, man.
Starting point is 00:29:35 Like, shrink your world back down to a human size. You're not being irresponsible. You're being humble. John, can I tell you that the most stressed I think I've ever been was it was the last election cycle four years ago and just keeping up with it for. for three or four months. And I realized myself, and the thing is,
Starting point is 00:29:56 I was probably on it a lot less than a lot of people. I'm talking about maybe 30 minutes a day, but it was just a new thing I added in that I was paying attention to. And I realized, like, I'm very anxious. Like, this is the most anxious I've ever been in my life for anything.
Starting point is 00:30:10 And it was very stressful. And I'm like, after I'm like, you know what, I just, I can't watch the news anymore for this reason, for the most part. And, you know, it makes me what you're saying,
Starting point is 00:30:19 and listen, I bet somebody could take what you just share here. As I saw this recently, I think we see this a lot in politics today, but this idea of, you know, do we save, go save the world, or do we go and focus on our family? You know, and I love the words, you know, Mother Teresa, what, what she said, you know, she said, if you want to change the world, go home and love your family. I mean, it's such a powerful thought and statement. I think also, if you look at the life of Jesus, it's a very, you know, like, he wasn't going out trying to save the Gentiles. Like, he was really focused on Israel. He was really focused on his
Starting point is 00:30:52 people focused on 12 disciples. So, so I, and I love what you said there. I think there's a level of when we find ourselves doing that, a lack of humility, you know, a source of a sense of pride that, hey, I need to go and, you know, do some of the things God's supposed to do. And so, yeah, I mean, that's, it's a, it's a powerful thought. It's a powerful thought. And yeah, you know, I went to a small Christian school. And we have, it's a powerful thought. And, um, yeah, you know, I went to a small Christian school. and we had about like 32. I remember I had like 32, 33 kids in my class. And there was something about that,
Starting point is 00:31:29 like we were really connected into our church, really connected into this small Christian school that was in through eighth grade. And I think about the least anxious time of my life and the time where it's like, man, I just have such deep relationships. Actually, I have friends from junior high that I, two of my best friends still
Starting point is 00:31:45 because we just, we would watch Tommy Boy and, you know, and dumb and dumber pretty much on repeat. over and over and over again and had such a wonderful, just the time of our lives doing it. But all that being said, when I think about the time of my life, and again, I was a kid and whatnot, but I still think there was something to just that, it was just such a small, tight-knit community.
Starting point is 00:32:05 Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Have you noticed almost all children love to build forts? Right? They push some chairs together, they get a blanket, use the couch cushions. Okay, this is universal. This is actually all over the world.
Starting point is 00:32:22 And it was a phenomenon that began to intrigue, you know, the mental health community. Because what children intuit is that they need a place to go feel safe. To get into those little forts, you're shutting down stimulus. Okay? You're shutting down the news, so to speak, all the drama of the outside world. And you have a little place where it's quiet and it feels like your little safe spot. It's really, really good for mental health. Well, this is what prayer is meant to do for the human soul.
Starting point is 00:32:57 Is that you come into a quiet place. It could be your car. You know, you turn the engine off, but before you run into work or run into your house, you take a moment in your car and you pray. God wants to be a place of refuge and comfort and solace to your body and your soul. soul. And so that idea of building forts, I grab that, man. I love that in the morning. Before I even turn on a lot of lights, I'll just light a candle and I'll have my coffee and I'll say my prayers. And it's my little fort. It's my little quiet space, right? No news from the world yet.
Starting point is 00:33:40 Yeah. No email. You need this everybody. Your soul is designed to have a little sanctuary every day. and prayer and communion with Christ was meant to be that. Wow. It's reminded me of, you know, in the book of Daniel and in other places throughout scripture, they reference, you know, having a prayer closet. You know, it's like, why do you need a closet, right? It's like, you got a whole house. Maybe you're the only person living in there.
Starting point is 00:34:06 Why, you know, why do you need a prayer closet? But it's, you know, I'm sure it's for this very same reason. Exactly. Yeah. Because the soul needs help, everybody. You've got to be gentle with your soul. you've got to shepherd it into these spaces. The soul needs help shutting out stimulus and tuning into the inner life.
Starting point is 00:34:28 I mean, just to ask, how is your soul today? How is your heart? Okay. Well, if you'll create little quiet, I call them sacred spaces, right? And for some people, it's literally before they get out of bed. You're still tucked in, right? And it's quiet in the house for a minute. well good say your prayers right there right because I'm thinking about the contrast of you know you you're
Starting point is 00:34:53 inside and you're having this intimate time with God and you're having you're in your prayer closet you're in your car you're in your you're in the safe space and the in the just the power and the healing that takes place in there and there's a sense of sort of that security and safety and comfort sort of that maslow's hierarchy that's at the very bottom right you've got to feel that safe and security and then there's also this element the other element that's missing that you've talked about. And again, this is what captivated me about Wild at Heart. Like, it was one of the most stirring books I'd ever read, maybe ever at the time in my life. And there's another book I was reading recently. I don't know if you've read Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Starting point is 00:35:30 Man in Search of God, but it's a great book. Basically, the book's about the, like, living in a state of on wonder. And so what Wild at Heart made me think of is sort of then you get out and sort of like, you're looking at like the ocean or the mountains or it's sort of like everything is big and how that's sort of almost the opposite of Maslow's hierarchy, which is the safety and security. You're at this sort of like divine sort of, you know, what's the word sort of just just yeah, almost the opposite in a way and just thinking about like I'm small, I'm here, I'm safe, I'm secure. God is big. Wow, this is crazy and amazing. and breathtaking, you know, and so sort of being able to how to get both of those. Yeah, yeah, that's so good. Yeah, because we're made for the intimate and the epic. We're made for both, the intimate and the epic. And so the night sky, the horizon, thunderstorms, waterfalls, all of it, a forest. For one thing, folks, beauty heals the soul. beauty heals the soul and you're going to prefer the real to the artificial okay so that looking at
Starting point is 00:36:47 pictures is good i like nature shows but it's a lot better to get out in it right beauty heals the soul and so you take you take your walk in the woods or to the park or yeah if you can get to the ocean you know when the thunderstorms are going you listen to it you watch the lightning it's good for the soul. It really is. It nourishes the soul. That's so good. See, this is a fascinating thing, Josh. So why do we bring flowers when people are hurting or they've lost someone or they're sick, right? It's, I don't know what to say, here's some beauty. I know you're feeling bad. Here's some beauty. Right? Intuitively, we know it works. And it's almost always natural. beauty, right? We bring real flowers, not fake ones, right? Because it has the power to nourish the soul. It reminds us
Starting point is 00:37:47 of the goodness of God. Beauty reminds you of the goodness of God. You know, one of the other things, too, and you'd mention this, there's an element of, I think you said the word here, like, it's natural. Like, I think about the nicest homes, the ones that you're like, well, one, they're probably the most expensive, but also they're the most comfortable. They're just the best as homes that are made of like stone and marble and wood and all those real things versus stucco or whatever it might be, right? I mean, there's something there. I mean, I saw this thing and I want to say it was, it was a psychologist and he was talking about modern architecture versus architecture from, you know, the time of Michelangelo, the Renaissance and some of the, you know, the Renaissance
Starting point is 00:38:33 and some of those, and basically how even our architecture today is depressing. It's like gray, stone, cold, in color. It's just flat. It has no character versus you think about the Sistine Chapel or the temple that Solomon, but whatever it is of it being, or just even Roman architecture, just being sort of like, you know, unaw and uninspiring in today. So there are just, there's so many things today that, aren't beautiful and that are fake and not the real thing.
Starting point is 00:39:07 And so I think the more, and of course, this is so much of what I teach it, you know, is like start just eating real food. I mean, my actually first sort of tagline I had was just eat real food when I was in my clinic because there were so many different conditions,
Starting point is 00:39:22 so many questions about things. And I just found, listen, if you just, and I would teach people when they go in the grocery store, just shop on the outside. It's where the vegetables are. It's where the meat is.
Starting point is 00:39:31 It's where the eggs are. Just don't. go in the middle, you know? Yep. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's really good. Because, okay, so the interaction with the real as you're making that dinner, you're chopping garlic, right? You're getting all of it, right? You're getting the texture, the fragrance, the experience of it is really, really good for the soul as well. You are engaging the real, right? And it's going to be nature. You know, It's the onion. It's the, you know, beautiful salmon that you're about to grill, right?
Starting point is 00:40:09 You're engaging the real, again, as opposed to the artificial. That's so good. It's so good. I wanted to ask you about your daily practices, some of the things you do. And I'd love to just kind of also hear just the practical. So I think most of us are living in this state you've talked about where on our phones. And the studies are mind-blowing. I mean, literally, I want to say that a lot of people are on devices almost 10 hours a day. And I know that's a fact for Gen Z. It's almost 10 hours a day.
Starting point is 00:40:45 I mean, it's crazy. And so when you think about how addicted we are today, what are some of the solutions proactively that people can do? And then how do you live this out also in your own life? That's so good. Well, okay. That's really fair. because this is how discipleship used to work. You would go find a sage, right? Or a desert father or mother. You'd go find a saint and you'd hang out with him. Okay.
Starting point is 00:41:14 You were talking about Jesus' plan for changing the world. It didn't start with big crowds, right? It's like change a few people who change a few people, who change a few people, and pretty soon, you know, you've changed a world. Okay, so what do I do? Let's start with, I go to bed at a reasonable time. time. I go to bed by 9 p.m. Oftentimes 8 p.m. I'm looking to get adequate sleep. And I actually don't set an alarm. I said I have an alarm in there. I do, but it's just so I can have a clock in there.
Starting point is 00:41:48 I don't set an alarm. I'm going to let my body sleep as long as it needs to sleep. Okay. So, but before we go to bed, those of us who ranch life and that sort of thing work in the horse world, there's an adage the condition you put the horse away in is the condition you'll find him in when you go back. So if you put your soul away, all flurried and flustered and that sort of thing, you're not going to be great in the morning. Okay. All right. So what do we do?
Starting point is 00:42:19 We turn off technology. And the last hour of our evening, so 7 to 8 p.m., it's a cup of tea, it's reading, it's conversation. we're not watching things. Stace and I play cards. We love doing that together. Go to bed. I wake up early because now my body is rested. I'm ready to go.
Starting point is 00:42:44 So I wake up early in the morning. And like I said, I'll walk out in the morning. I don't pick up my phone. It's best I can. And we're trying, folks. Josh and I are not perfect at this. We're trying. Sometimes I do.
Starting point is 00:42:58 But I, for me, my morning prayer time is very, very important. I'll actually start one of the God's greatest gifts to the world with noise canceling headphones. That's your little cubby. That's your little fort. That's your little sacred space. Put my headphones on. I listen to some worship music that's quiet, not rock and roll.
Starting point is 00:43:23 I listen to audio scripture. Listen to someone else reading the Psalms to me. That's a lovely thing. and then I'll say my prayers. Okay. So what does that look like? Well, now I'm going to have a healthy breakfast. You know, I love AG1, so I'll do that.
Starting point is 00:43:38 I'll do some green shakes, you know, have some blueberries, that kind of thing. I eat well. I care about what I put in my body. I try not to over-stimulate my body with caffeine sugar, you know, and then sedate it in the evening with alcohol. I don't like that. So going to my day, I got to go to work. So, you know, get in the car. I listen to the five-minute news, those little news summaries that like CNN and NPR and other, you know, channels have.
Starting point is 00:44:08 Just listen to a little bit of news and then turn it off. And now here's the key thing. This is really fun. So in our offices at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. every day, monastery bells ring out. It's just a recording. We don't have bells. And everybody in the office knows we're pausing for 60 seconds. Because by 10 in the morning, you are spun up, right?
Starting point is 00:44:32 You are already anxious and buzzing and kind of thing. I stop. I let it go. Okay? At noon, I walk out of the building and I just walk around outside. I take my lunch break to get outside, even if it's cold, you know, in Colorado, I walk around, give myself the outdoors. And one of the things I love to do outdoors is I touch things. If there's a puddle, touch it, right?
Starting point is 00:45:01 Tree bark, touch it. Pick up rocks, break eucalyptus leaves and smell the fragrance, break juniper branches, smell the, right? Like I engage my soul in the real world. Wow. Okay. And it looks like this on and through, on and through the day. But that gives you an idea of like, I'm caring for my body and soul with simple, sacred rhythms.
Starting point is 00:45:24 I'm going to give one last thing that everybody can do. So here's the temptation. When you and I are done with this interview, I'm going to be kind of amped, right? Because like this is exciting. We're talking about things that matter to us. The temptation is go straight to the next thing. So we'll just pick up the phone. We'll get on another Zoom call.
Starting point is 00:45:44 We just go to the next thing, next thing, next thing, next thing, next thing, next thing, next thing. You can't do that to the soul. The soul needs transitional moments from one thing to the next. And so instead of doing that, I'm going to go make a cup of tea. I'm going to check the ball for the dogs. I'm going to take a few minutes of transition between one event and the next one. Those little transitional moments are sacred, man.
Starting point is 00:46:11 They are life-saving. That's so good. There's a physician. I think he's a physician. He wrote a book called Margin. And it's, you know, it's that. Oh, yeah, Dr. Richard Swenson. That's brilliant.
Starting point is 00:46:25 Yes. Yeah, that was a great book. You know, he really, yeah, he got to. into like you can't you know the sickness as it's causing of especially mentally of just you know every moment of every second of every day of just you know having something from here to the moment you just you know you pass out at night and I think there's so much power there you know one of the things that I um I've been so excited about recently John I'd love to hear your thoughts on this is this sort of spiritual awakening that's happened coming out of COVID you know I did an episode recently
Starting point is 00:46:58 and maybe some of it was a little controversial, just talking about how I generally am happy that, trying to think how to say this, that COVID happened the way it happened because so many people woke up and realized that I've been lied to. And I think that caused a lot of the people that are more maybe self-aware
Starting point is 00:47:20 and maybe more truth seekers to find God and to discover truth. Like Russell Brand, I think is a good example of this. I mean, he's a person who now has just confessed his faith in Christ, is, you know, I mean, really radically, radically changed his life because he's a person that did want to find the truth and this exposed a lot of things. And, you know, and so I think that one of the things that maybe a lot of people don't know how to do, and I was really blessed to have parents like this, John, that really taught me
Starting point is 00:47:52 that spirituality is not about rituals for. It's about relationship first, but using rituals in order to have a greater relationship. And so for me, it's like, you know, if Chelsea and I do a date night a week, it's like, well, I'm not worshiping the date and I'm or I'm not obsessed with a date night. I'm obsessed and love my wife, right? And so, but the ritual, whether it's communion or something else is, you know, it's a great way to draw closer if you also, if you know, no, the number one goal is relationship. And in all of your books, you do such a good job of, I think, getting into, here's what this looks like, or here's how to truly start to build a relationship with God and do something meaningful.
Starting point is 00:48:42 Because, again, I think there's an element sometimes when people think about spirituality, it's like, well, I need to meditate. Or I need to pray or I need to, like, it's sort of like, I need to because it's this thing that I have to do, if not I'm an immoral or a bad person. and I want to be more moral versus, no, I want this deep meaningful relationship. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on that in terms of, hey, what's part of what's causing this spiritual awakening and a lot of people today? And also, how do we draw closer to God? Wow, huge questions. I think you're right.
Starting point is 00:49:17 I think reality is a brutal teacher. Right. Reality is what you hit when you're wrong. Okay. So we hit reality in a lot of ways through the pandemic and just found this is not sustainable. I don't want to live like that. I don't think I trust these folks anymore. I need a reality your body starts breaking down or your mental health issues. It's a wake up call, right? You go, why am I so anxious? Why do I have gut issues. Go, right. Yeah, reality is what you hit when you're wrong.
Starting point is 00:49:58 You can't live like that. Okay. Well, the same thing is true of God. The human soul cannot live without God. When Jesus says things like, I'm the vine, you're the branch, he's describing an actual exchange of life. He says, I want to nourish you. I want to sustain you.
Starting point is 00:50:21 I want to be your source of hope. and security, right, through an actual union. Life doesn't work without that. I don't care who you are, how successful you are. And what's interesting is the people who make a lot of money find this out sooner than others, right? Because you kind of get everything you want, you buy the stuff and you go, I'm not happier. Right. Okay.
Starting point is 00:50:45 We are in the midst of a great spiritual revival in the world. Now, it's exploding in places like Africa and South America. It's starting to finally happen in the West with guys like Russell Brand and other. Even Joe Rogan has moved from being a total atheist to being like acknowledging, well, I think there's something to this Christianity thing. He's not fully there yet. Pray for him. But the human soul is created for a rich intimacy with God.
Starting point is 00:51:15 And what people, what will help you in that direction is God will meet you. in the things that you love. So you go, oh, I love, I love cycling. Great. As you're cycling, enjoy the presence of God because he gave it to you and he's right there with you. I love music. Good. He's right there. He gave you the gift. He gave you the ear. Now you acknowledge his presence in it. He'll meet you in the things you love rather than, oh, you need to become an aesthetic or now you need to become a monk. No, no, no, no, no, no. He'll meet you right now, right where you are. And the other thing that's an epiphany for people is the doorway is the heart. The mind is a lovely instrument, but the heart is where the action is.
Starting point is 00:52:04 When you fall in love with somebody, it's not because you thought it through. Right. Your heart is in it, right? When you're having a gas on vacation, it's not because your reason has figured it out. It's because your heart's alive. You're like, this is so much fun. Okay. The heart is where the action is.
Starting point is 00:52:24 You want to cultivate a heart to heart with God. So bring your heart to the process. And if right now what your heart says is, I'm hurting, great, that's what you bring. Okay. God, I'm hurting. I need your help. I'm anxious. I need your help, right?
Starting point is 00:52:47 Bring your heart straight into the conversation. Yeah, one of the things that I think because I'm, you know, I'm an achiever, I'm wired to be a busy person. You know, one of the things that I really have to do when I pray is not remember not to just make a lot of requests. It's to also listen. It's like I'm talking, I'm talking, I'm talking in prayer. And I was even thinking about this last night. So we, we're every night, we get around our dinner table. We do family dinner. I got a one-year-old and four-year-old daughter. And so our four-year-old will pray. but I was actually thinking about this afterwards. I thought, you know, as we're teaching my daughter Arwin to pray,
Starting point is 00:53:26 I thought, well, one of the things that I would love to do is also, you know, part of prayer is listening, right? And my wife does such a great job with us with her, so she actually started doing this a little bit. I was like, we need to do this more just in terms of. And I think today when people hear prayer, I do think the first thing they think of is say stuff to God versus be able to sit there in this stillness
Starting point is 00:53:45 and listen to that conscious consciousness of God, you know, that still small voice that, you know, the Bible describes and be able to hear what's he saying. And today it feels like it's harder to do that than ever before because of there's so much noise. Yes. And to your point, getting out of the noise, spending time and pausing, putting on the noise canceling headphones, these are things that to be able to actually listen, you know? Yes. Yes. Yes. And folks, let me tell you that the first things that you're going to to hear are going to be things like, I love you. You're okay. We're going to do this together. The first things you hear is you listen and let God speak during your prayer time will be words
Starting point is 00:54:34 of assurance. He's not going to scold you. He's not going to give you a whole bunch of hard things to go do. He's immensely kind. So don't be afraid of the listening part. You get quiet. You listen, you just say, Father, what are you saying today? Jesus, what are you saying? A lot of times, all he says to me is, I'm with you. I'm like, okay, good. I need you with me. That's powerful. That's so good. It's so good. Well, yeah, it's been exciting to see. And yeah, you mentioned Joe Rogan. I think Jordan Peterson is somebody that we've seen, you know, continue to move over the past several years. I think Jim Carrey, I mean, there's been a lot of people I've seen that have sort of experienced this awakening. And I think that, you know, part of it is people, as you mentioned,
Starting point is 00:55:25 it's like, I think I heard a pastor say this once or some of this degree. It's like, you know, when you hit rock bottom, the only place you can look is up, you know, and who's up there, you know, so it's this sort of, so I think COVID, to your point, cause some people losing their businesses or, you know, or just being inside all the time and not being, you know, just, you know, cause them to to seek God more to seek truth. And so that's been, that's been encouraging. You know, I want to mention for everybody here that you have a new book out. It's called Experience Jesus, really. And I think for a lot of people, this is what we kind of discussed before. I think that a lot of times it's, it's, you know, Jesus might feel far off or, again, or people might be thinking about religion or not Jesus at all. And it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
Starting point is 00:56:17 It's stale and it's not, it's artificial. It's not the real thing. And so talk to me a little bit about some of these principles or some of the ideas or thoughts in the book you wrote and experienced Jesus really. Well, just like I was saying, you know, in ages past, you would have gone and found someone who knew God. And you would have hung out with them and say, teach me how to experience what you experience. We need guidance into this.
Starting point is 00:56:49 It's not your fault. You're having a hard time hearing God. It's not your fault. You're having a hard time even making room for God. You're a disciple of the internet. It was baked into you from childhood. Like, this isn't something you did wrong. It's something that was done to all of us.
Starting point is 00:57:04 It's just what it means to live in the modern moment with chaos and all of that. That's okay. There are some practices you can take up like the one minute pause. If I give you anything to do today, download the app, It's free. And just learn to pause because it's what it is. It's not just silence. There's beautiful music.
Starting point is 00:57:24 There's guided prayer. It's very simple. It's very lovely. That will help. Okay. And then the practices we've been talking about, you do need to create a little bit of space for this. And it might be last thing in the evening. It might be your lunchtime.
Starting point is 00:57:40 It might be first thing in the morning. A little bit of space. The Carmelite Friar, Brother Lawrence, wrote a book called Practicing. the presence of God. I like the idea of practicing. Okay? You can go, I'm going to give this a try until I kind of get the hang of it, right? That's what you do when you practice.
Starting point is 00:57:59 I'm going to give it a try until I get the hang of it. And so you're going to create some of that 20 minutes in the morning or in the evening on your lunch break. And you're going to practice sitting with the presence of God. You just say, I love you. I love you, Father. Thank you for your goodness to me. thank you for this cup of coffee. Thank you for this new day.
Starting point is 00:58:22 What are you saying? You just linger. You just learn to linger. And you might read a Psalm or a proverb. You might listen to something, but it's not primarily content-based, right? It's what you were saying. It's relationship-based.
Starting point is 00:58:40 And as you practice communing with the God who is right here with you, you get better at it. like riding a bike or playing tennis. And then you're like, oh, wow, I'm really tuned in. So what should we do? Is it time to sell the house? And he'll guide you, right?
Starting point is 00:58:57 In all your questions of life, he'll guide you. That's so good. You know, John, one thing I'm curious about this just sort of popped into my head is that, you know, I think that some of the church today maybe has gotten away from the discipleship. I think there's a lot more lectures. There's a lot more programs. But maybe there's not as much of that sort of one-on-on-discibly. I haven't think back. So, again, I was so blessed to grow up in the Christian home I did
Starting point is 00:59:29 and to have parents who kind of put me in these things. And so I felt like I don't know that most churches have Sunday school anymore. But like I went. And I felt like that was a much smaller group of people. my age that I was sort of, and then I went on Wednesday night. Like, I was actually in a discipleship groups all through for a long time. And my, any success that I've had, um, has been due to being disciples or mentored. I mean, it's just, it's been, you know, like, like, I actually went to business school.
Starting point is 01:00:00 I actually went and got a doctorate in medicine. You know, I learned some stuff here. But I learned way more from the doctors I was shadowing. Way more. It's not even close. Yep. So, you know, I think for what's your advice to people who need to be disciples and, like they know, I want to be disciple, I want to be mentored.
Starting point is 01:00:22 How do you go and find a mentor or find somebody that you can latch on to? Obviously, there's an element of doing it online to a degree. So there's some benefit there. But also, like we've talked about, nothing is like the real, you know, I'm trying to think, wasn't there old commercial, nothing like the real thing, baby? Anyways, I can't remember what that was. Absolutely. But, yeah.
Starting point is 01:00:43 Yeah. Okay. So let's just remind everybody, the why is really big. So there's knowledge about things and there's knowledge of things. You know, you know about the rings of Saturn, but you ain't never been there. Okay. You know about the South Pole. Very few of you have been there.
Starting point is 01:01:06 You don't have knowledge of it, experiential knowledge. So as you're thinking about, who do I want to listen to? It's not primarily their brilliance. Do they know God? Are they experiencing a genuine life with God that they're telling you about? Or are they just giving you the tips and the principles and the latest thing and that kind of thing? That's a big difference. You want to be disciples by people who actually know God.
Starting point is 01:01:39 Okay. Some of those people you may have to find in books and in podcasts. That's okay. That's okay. I mean, some of my greatest mentors have been C.S. Lewis, right? George McDonald and the Christian mystics like Jean Gallo and St. John of the Cross. But you do want to try and find some folks that you can walk with in real life that know God. So as you visit a church, as you're kind of taking things in, what you're looking for is, do these people sound like they actually know God? Or do they know about God? They're kind of reporting facts on the rings of Saturn, you know, versus, oh, they've been to Saturn. Like that way, they know God. And I want to be with people like that. So just to distinguish the difference there, because what you're after is the deep experiential knowledge of God.
Starting point is 01:02:37 And it's this principle that Jesus taught, right, by their fruit, you will recognize them. And it's not by their great lecture or their charisma or their, you know, savviness. It's their, yeah, it's through their fruit. And I think, you know, this is true with homeless. It can be true with marriage. You want to have a great marriage? Who is somebody that truly has a great marriage? Not on the outside, but when you get around them and you really see that affection and that care
Starting point is 01:03:01 and that support and that spurring on, you know. So that's great advice. That's a great differentiation between the two to find the real thing. Yeah. And obviously, that's why I wrote a book called Experience Jesus, period, really, period. Because we haven't been mentored into the kind of rich, rich experiential life that many of our spiritual forefathers and mothers knew. And so I'm using some of their stories and their lives and my life and Stacey's, my wife, to invite people in.
Starting point is 01:03:38 Well, if you need a mentor, I'd love to be one of those voices in your life. Let me take you into the experience of it rather than just more content. Yeah, I love it. Well, John, I have so many just life-changing takeaways for myself. I know one is, you know, searching out the real thing and spending more time in the real thing. spending time in nature, less time on devices, and then to pausing. You know, I think, again, just doing it for one minute, it leads to other things as well. One minute's transformational, but then it will lead to more transformation.
Starting point is 01:04:14 It's like, you know, it's such a great, you know, it's like when I go at the gym, if I don't want to go, what I'll tell myself is, listen, you don't have to have a hard workout today. Just go walk in the treadmill for five minutes. Yeah. Walk five more. Okay. And by the end, you know, I got my hour in or 45 minutes or whatever.
Starting point is 01:04:31 I'm trying to do. So I think the idea around pausing and spending time in nature and in building a deep intimate relationship with Christ really experiencing him, not just the facts, but an actual relationship. And so now I want to encourage everybody to check out John's app. If they just go on the app store and look up pause. Yes. They'll pop pop up. Yep. Yeah. And then his book, Experience Jesus really. If you want to experience life transformation in a true, the most deeply meaningful relationship of your life, check out the book. Experience Jesus, really, it's in bookstores nationwide. You can also go to Amazon.com. It's a great thing to check out. And I can recommend anymore just John, so many of his books. And again, these have been books that have actually changed my life. And I think for
Starting point is 01:05:21 all of you listening, if you're in this point in your life where you're saying, I want to break through, I want to experience something that's divine and real and powerful and improve my happiness and improve my health. This is such a great book to check out, experience Jesus, really. And John, I wanted to say it was a true honor today. Again, I probably read your book when I was, it was definitely in college, but it would probably between 2000 and 2004 sometime in there. But it was just, man, such a great empowering book.
Starting point is 01:05:55 So thanks so much for our. for all the work you do. Thank you, Josh. That's really kind. I'm cheering what you're doing too, because I think the intersection of body and soul and spirit is really important. I really do. Awesome. Well, thanks again. Well, everybody want to say thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Action. Remember, every week we're diving deep into the science and the principles behind how you can grow and heal in body, mind, and spirit. And big thank you to John Eldridge today for his wisdom. Hey, if you're watching on YouTube, hey, let us know. What is your biggest takeaway from something John shared with you today?
Starting point is 01:06:30 And what's maybe an action step? Something that you're going to do from what you've learned today. And also I want to just say, thank you all of you for sharing this episode who are on mission with me and with John. We want to help people live their best lives. And so thank you for all of you for sharing this. Thank you all your subscribers out there for being on mission as well. I'm praying for the best for you.
Starting point is 01:06:49 And I'll see you on the next episode.

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