In this episode of the Next Step Podcast, artist Deanna Rossow and author Heidi Goehmann join Justin Rossow to talk about the text, and the art, and the "Wrapping Up Feat" faith experiment in Chapter 5: Noel from the resource Light in the Darkness: A Hymn Journal for Advent & Christmas.
After a brief introduction and an opening prayer, Deanna will read the Luke passages on page 47 of the hymn journal. After thinking through these stories of Good News and fear, Justin will read the devotion on page 48.
The featured song for this chapter is "Noel," performed by Brooke and Brendan. Once we have listen to the first two verses and heard the phrase, "Peace fall on you," in the lyrics, Justin and Deanna discuss the "Peace fall on you" illustration on page 45.
As the podcast turns to the Wrapping Up Fear Prayer Experiment that begins on page 50, Justin welcomes our second guest. Heide Goehmann from heidigoehmann.com is an author, deaconess, and licensed clinical social worker. Her forthcoming book is called Finding Hope: From Brokenness to Restoration.
Heidi and Justin talk about the kinds of emotions you might feel around the holidays, the complicated mix of comfortable and uncomfortable feelings. They talk about the Payer Experiment and the concept of acknowledging your emotions and entrusting them to Jesus.
Once we have heard from Heidi about processing our emotions, we get to hear more from the illustrator about what she was thinking when she put this prayer experiment down on paper.
You may recognize page 51 as a modified version of a Secret Code Prayer, with a slightly different focus and function. Justin mentions an article on visual prayer by Katie Helmreich as part of the inspiration for this faith experiment. Katie tells the story of her young daughter imaginatively "trapping" the monsters or bugs she sketches by circling them on her piece of pager. Visual prayer can help you do something like that with the prayer requests that seem difficult to corral.
Getting ready for Christmas and the New Year is a great time for you to make a commitment to the mission of resourcing next step discipleship. Please consider becoming a Next Step Patron today. To see different options for support, visit https://www.patreon.com/findmynextstep. Patrons make it possible.
The A Light in the Darkness CD from Brooke and Brendan is now availableon your favorite streaming services as well ason YouTube.
