Hope in Hard Times with Matthew Stephen Brown, Enneagram 3
As you begin a new week, I'd love to remind you of a concept we can truly miss in our quest for research and all the glories of nuancing personalities - hope.
When hope dies for a relationship, diagnosis, or dream, we lose a piece of ourselves, at least temporarily, as we forget we are more than just biology, psychology, and emotion.
Since the beginning of time and across every culture, humans have needed meaning-making relationships and hope too, not just cold and impersonal science.
It's how we've made sense of the world in terms of the loss, and often that spiritual lens provides peace, hope, and often invites renewal after a dark night of the soul, as well as healthy and shifts and changes toward community, too, hence why virtually every addiction recovery group incorporates faith, forgiveness, and such.
However, this work is NOT always easy, especially when we're faced with moments when a door was closed or moments when the dream did not come despite fervent hope - despite prayers - and bitterness settled in along with hopelessness or malaise.
Today on the pod, we're not leaving any rock unturned in our quest for healthy hope and spirituality, and we are joined by Matthew Stephen Brown, author and founder of Sandals Church in California. Matt is an Enneagram 3, and true to his tenacious type, he has the gift of hope for us today!
Matthew and his wife Tammy (3-6 pairing) were on the show a few years back when he shared his Enneagram book, and here today he reminds us of not just love, but faith and hope as well as essential pieces of growth and often a deep healing as well!
Matt is a realist even as he has hope - he tells stories of doing dozens of funerals at his church church during Covid, but also beautiful miracles he's seen that truly only speak of something greater that keeps us going when we remember we are indeed more than just flesh and bone but also souls with a unique story and miracle of our own - even if it's not always the miracle we choose, like his new book entails.
This is a grounded and yet hope-filled episode, much like he and Tammy's beautiful pairing (which he's very real about also!).
I hope you'll tune in here today!
Listen to today's show on Apple Podcast here!
Watch the ad-free version at YouTube!
