No Mere Mortals

This episode is here to announce that nourishment for deep and satisfying marriage does not need to be complicated. Are there simple decisions you can make about life and the way you are going to do it that make sure that not just good but extraordinary life will be shared with the one you love. We believe the answer to that is, yes, and we hope that this conversation stirs you to see the remarkable drama of what it is to be married, fulfilled in the real days of ordinary lives deeply-connected. And please linger and listen, even if you are not (or are not yet) married. The grace-saturated and life-connecting principles and patterns here are potentially transforming in every relationship of life. * * * Please subscribe to the No Mere Mortals podcast at your podcast app or follow at Spotify. NMM Blog—https://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com/blog-2/2021/4/18/twenty-easy-ways-to-raise-a-pharisee-number-5 Website—http://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com Instagram—https://www.instagram.com/donshorey/

Don and Lisa eagerly share their hearts and hopes for life-long, intoxicating romance—doing their very best to offer encouragement, ideas, and vision to nurture satisfying and joyful marriage, whether you are enlarging the good of a happy relationship, hungry for help to restore what is broken, or eagerly entering or anticipating the rich gift of all of this in a marriage that is just getting started or coming soon. We hope you linger and listen even if you are not (or are not yet) married. The grace-saturated and common-sensical principles and practices here are potentially transforming in every relationship of life. Please subscribe to the No Mere Mortals podcast at Your podcast app or follow at Spotify. NMM Blog—https://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com/blog-2/2021/4/11/twenty-easy-ways-to-raise-a-pharisee-number-4 Website—http://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com Instagram—https://www.instagram.com/donshorey/

In this episode, Kristen and I explore the extraordinary implications of the miracle-world that our Maker made for us and the life-changing impact of realizing that place and body and senses and the small spaces of all of life are deeply holy and eternally real. They are the setting of our entire journey and they, with us, will be glorified into our endless future home. If you enjoy this conversation, please subscribe here at No Mere Mortals and over at Good Things Run Wild and share it and other favorite episodes with those you love! Kristen: Please subscribe to Good Things Run Wild at your podcast app or follow at Spotify. Instagram—https://www.instagram.com/imkristen_/ Don: Please subscribe to the No Mere Mortals podcast at Your podcast app or follow at Spotify. Blog—https://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com/blog-2 Instagram—https://www.instagram.com/donshorey/

In this episode of No Mere Mortals, Don and Lisa happily explore delight-based family life and relationships. We hope you linger and listen even if you are not (or are not yet) a parent. The grace-saturated vision here is potentially transforming in every relationship of life. We trust you will be refreshed and encouraged, by what we are calling: The Connection, Correction, Conversation Sequence of happy and hopeful parenting. https://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com/blog-2/2021/3/27/twenty-easy-ways-to-raise-a-pharisee-number-3 http://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey/ Please subscribe to the No Mere Mortals podcast at Your podcast app or follow at Spotify.

In this episode, Don and Lisa discuss the fundamental and inescapable connection of desire and treasure to all that every single person loves, pays attention to, and actively pursues in life. This is universally true and it changes everything. It is a visional “How our deepest desires shape us” episode, that lets you in on one of our central, foundational principles here at No Mere Mortals, Enjoying Grace Story Co., and our Maker's Hollow community. We offer it directly to fortify your hope for growth in life *and* as a heart basis for soon-coming episodes on grace-base and delight-motivated growth in our lives and the lives of those we care for. Next week: The Celebration, Connection, Correction, Conversation Sequence—as it relates to training children and to relationships in all of life. And later in April: Growing by Grace (On Purpose)—a vision for change and transformation in life.   https://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com/blog-2/2021/3/19/twenty-easy-ways-to-raise-a-pharisee-number-2 http://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey/ Please subscribe to the No Mere Mortals podcast at Your podcast app or follow at Spotify.

This is our first Question and Answer episode! Thank you for sending along such fun and thoughtful questions! This episode just scratches the surface of the variety of inquiries sent, as Lisa and I share thoughts and stories about 3 of the biggest pieces of our life and journey: “The Sudden Joyous Turn” (How did you meet?) “The Portable Home” (Where have you lived along the journey of your lives?) “The Strong Protection of Deep Affection & Connection” (You have mentioned deep trials in your lives, how did you care for the hearts of your children through those seasons?).  Don't forget to track along at our new No Mere Mortals blog (linked below) with 2-3 posts each month, related to the main themes of our podcast season. Follow along or go catch up on the series “Twenty Easy Ways to Raise a Pharisee: Tilting Our (and Our Kids') Hearts toward Grace, Joy & Freedom." http://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com https://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com/blog-2 https://www.instagram.com/donshorey/

Don and Kristen discuss the extraordinary gift, reality, necessity, and benefits of Rest. Rest is a creational command, a Biblical pattern, a Gospel gift, and a centerpiece of understanding all of grace for this life and the life to come. And it's just lovely, refreshing, releasing, and magnifying of all the best things in life. http://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com https://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com/blog-2 https://www.instagram.com/donshorey/ https://www.instagram.com/imkristen_/  

Don and Lisa talk about the heart and life implications of fully understanding that God wants to be good to us more than he wants us to do good for Him. This episode is a companion with this week's post at the No Mere Mortals blog: Thirty Easy Ways to Raise a Pharisee — Number 1 — Tell them that God wants them to be good instead of that God wants to be good to them. http://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com https://www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com/blog-2 https://www.instagram.com/donshorey/      

Many of you have heard me say that the C.S. Lewis essay “Weight of Glory” is the best thing ever to be composed in the English language. Ha! Well, that, of course, is open to vigorous debate by others; and I myself would—I am sure—argue profusely with myself, when fresh off of an encounter with any number of other treasured writings (especially profound, imaginative stories). It is, however, indisputable in my mind that “Weight of Glory” is on a very short list of the richest of gathered words, of the sort which have the happy capability to re-mold a worldview and, therefore. to re-envision a life. www.enjoyinggracestoryco.com www.welcometomakershollow.com www.Instagram.com/donshorey Weight of Glory—General Listening Outline 1. The superiority of love to unselfishness and the virtue of wanting all the good that God gives 2. The staggeringly bold promises of reward in the Gospel and why it is wonderful and not mercenary to desire it 3. Heaven as the natural outcome of who we were made to be and the fulfillment of all we crave 4. Heaven as “glory” through our union with Christ 5. Glory as the experience of God’s full approval and undisguised pleasure 6. Glory as the experience of being united with Beauty, receiving it into ourselves, and becoming part of it 7. Immortality as a cause to regard our fellow-man with great weight and significance 8. Immortality and faithful relationship with others — We have never met an “ordinary person” or a “mere mortal”

We are talking about grace, because the Most High God, the Goodly-wise, the Maker of Heaven and Earth loved us before the earth was made. For all eternity He lived as a Father in extravagant joy with His Son, bound together in the love of His Spirit. He needed nothing - not even us. But He wanted us. He wanted to be known for His grace more than anything else, so there was an Incarnation and a Substitution and a Sacrifice and a Resurrection and an Ascension and there will be a breathtaking Celebration; and now all who are known by Him (and therefore love His Son) are His own sons and daughters. No eye has ever seen or ear has ever heard or dreamer ever imagined what He has prepared for us. The gospel and grace of God seems to be being talked about more frequently than any time in recent history; but the common teaching and practice of Christian life and maturity seem more morbidly introspective, sin-managing, and self-preoccupied—more graceless—than ever. But God doesn’t just save us by grace alone, he grows us by grace alone - by giving us new hearts and treasures and joys and hopes and glimpses of His own wonderful self. He calls us to work at it - yes - by hungrily pursuing truth and by learning to love the best things and by wanting richer (and more permanent) things and by longing to see and know and enjoy Him more and more dearly and deeply. www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com www.WelcometoMakersHollow.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals    

Jesus wins and we are his. My purpose this week is straightforward and plain. I am here to give you hearty and substantial encouragement. I am confronted with this need every day and everywhere I look. If I find you full of comfort and peace :) ...I apologize...be patient for the rest of us, who feel the uncertainty and grief of living in deeply troubled and unsettling times. Why do I presume that I can give you rock-solid and immovable comfort? Two reasons for starters... www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com www.WelcometoMakersHollow.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals  

This episode is the highlights from an evening of Caleb Morris and Bill Baxter joining Kristen and me for an unscripted and ranging conversation on music and song. We discuss the extraordinary gift from God that music is and we share our own stories of how song has been woven through and shaping to our lives—especially Caleb and Bill who have occupied much of their lives making and treasuring song and offering it into the lives of others. We talk about the wonder of song, the miracle of musical instruments, and the life-transforming effect of true, personal, generational singing…especially in harmony. www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com www.WelcometoMakersHollow.com http://www.instagram.com/donshorey http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals  

This week has been filled with rest and family-gathered refreshment, so that we paused our Maker’s Hollow Conversation episodes for this one week. Episode 5 of these summer conversations entitled "On Song," will come to you next Monday, August 3rd and the final episode of the album, “On Grace,” will come two weeks later on August 17th. This brief interruption into our quiet week is intended to draw you into next Monday’s conversation. Where multiple of our Maker’s Hollow family will discuss music and song, singing and instruments, memories and worship, celebration and history. www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com www.WelcometoMakersHollow.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals  

This episode is a conversation with Greta Eskridge, the author of “Adventuring Together: How to Create Connections and Make Lasting Memories with Your Kids.” Greta is a second-generation homeschooling mom who has written and spoken extensively about family life and deeply connected, joy-rooted parenting. She is a leading voice and presence in the Wild and Free community of homeschooling moms. I know that our listeners here at No Mere Mortals represent the full range of educational choices for your kids, but i hope that when Greta and I talk for a few minutes toward the beginning of this conversation about the gratitude that we both feel for the homeschooling legacies we were given, that the heart of it is refreshing to you all, as each of us seek to connect with and know our children along the fast-moving path of life. In the conversation we discuss Greta's book on adventure and connection, the joys of parenting teenagers, the importance of constant dialogue, and the necessity of leading our children toward the best things—not just away from bad things. https://www.thomasnelson.com/p/adventuring-together/#about http://www.instagram.com/maandpamodern ---------- www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com www.WelcometoMakersHollow.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals

Homes are frequently (even if regretfully) brushed to the side of vocational, financial, or personal aspirations. We stake a claim that the governing principle, which is to direct all else in life, is to be that which would most prosper the affections and fruits of home (or our closest relationships). We discuss: what makes home grow and become a matrix for everything, how home guides life vision, the opportunities of home industry, as well as, food, the “home-schooling” heart, adventure, mission, generosity, and more. www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com www.WelcometoMakersHollow.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals

We explore the paradigm shifting implications of the Biblical doctrine of treasure—offering a profoundly different understanding of spiritual hope and personal growth, than is most commonly assumed and experienced by Christians. The final 10 minutes are a "bonus" application of the treasure principle of Jesus to growing hopeful, joy-based parenting. All of this is especially central to our vision of life at Maker's Hollow. www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com www.WelcometoMakersHollow.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals

The first half introduces our deep convictions about God’s joy, His identity as family, and His delight in being portrayed by the family life of his people. In the second half, Kristen and I let loose in a high speed, high altitude flyover of the events of the last century and a half that have redefined the biggest things in life; and we seek to offer the beginnings of a happy, if unconventional path toward family joy. www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com www.WelcometoMakersHollow.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals

What is the core calling of being a father? How do dads — and moms — talking and teaming up and telling stories and treasuring laughter give kids life itself? This is a small introduction to the chief goal of parenting and fatherhood, with a bit of the story of my own heritage woven through and a special word of hope at the end, for those struggling to find hope as parents. www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com www.WelcometoMakersHollow.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals

A Mind Awake—From Wonder to “I was wondering...”. We are called to a life of deep faith and clear-headed reason—marked by the best and most honest questions. But our questions have often been stifled and those who represent our faith often disappoint us. How do we keep our heads clear and our feet on a good path through it all? This conversation explores the relationship of faith and reason (and the frequent and tragic Christian surrender of reason) and considers a journey of faith—full of questions, wrestling with doubts, and learning to think honestly and skillfully. We also honor a Maker’s Hollow hero: Thomas, the apostle to skeptics and curious souls everywhere.    www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com www.WelcometoMakersHollow.com www.instagram.com/donshorey www.patreon.com/nomeremortals  

No Mere Mortals—Episode 10: Rest.   The obstacles to us living in our Lord’s rest are many and they are lined up like hurdles at an Olympic sprint. Today we reflect upon the gift of and command to—Rest.  We track through the history of rest, rooted in the example of God Himself, central to his calling to His Old Testament people ,and defining to the offer and promise of the Gospel in Jesus. Do you more often feel harried than at rest? Does it seem like you still always need to “measure up” to something or someone? How do we embrace rest and see its comforting, joyful, transforming work in our lives—especially when we live in view of the sickness, pain, grief, injustice, and uncertainty that comes at us everyday from this broken and bruised world. Listen in.   www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com www.WelcometoMakersHollow.com https://www.instagram.com/do Shorey/ http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals  

In this first Maker's Hollow Conversations episode, Kristen Morris and I explore story, beauty, creativity, everyday work and rest, and the transformative power and joy of Wonder—being captivated with things bigger than us. God is magnified and known in the profound wonder that overtakes us when we see Him and His works. The image of God in us reflects and imitates our Maker (in an expression of worship and holiness) when we tell story, express beauty, and co-create good things alongside our Author, Artist, and Creator. Books recommended in this episode: Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker Madelieine L'Engle, Walking on Water ————————— www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com www.WelcometoMakersHollow.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey/ http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals  

This is a very special episode. It is a crossover, conversation episode with Kristen Morris at Good Things Run Wild. Today’s Good Things Run Wild episode and this one form a full conversation, as well as an introduction to and a preview of our first Six-Conversation album of Maker’s Hollow Conversations, beginning next Monday, June 1!   As you will be able to tell at the beginning of this episode, this is Part 2 of a crossover pair of episodes that is entitled “Story” in Our Lives. As Part 2, it is carrying on a conversation between Don and Kristen—begun in Part 1 over on Good Things Run Wild.    In Part 1—Kristen and Don talk about how story—written and spoken—has shaped Don’s life and vision from childhood to the present.    In Part 2—right here where you are—the two of them talk about how story and the nature of true story-making has been a defining part of Kristen’s hope throughout her journey through Caleb’s cancer and a string of other challenges that have come their way.   www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com https://www.instagram.com/do Shorey/ http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals

First editions, Pipe organs, and Library basements that make you sing loudly. This episode is a change of pace—I am just telling you a couple or three stories, with the irresistible suggestion of a take-away point or two. I would like to do this far more often, tell stories, that is, but the wonder-filled child in me too often loses the debate with the sensible teacher and adult in me. Beauty. How much does it matter? What is its role in the rich and God-satisfied life?   www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com https://www.instagram.com/do Shorey/ http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals  

In my experience, a great many (maybe even a majority) of Christians live in fear or at least in uncertainty of whether good things will come or continue for them and if God and others will keep liking them...depending upon, of course, how well they perform for God (and other Christians) from day to day.  Who is God? Does He want us to make Him happy? Does He want to make us happy? In this episode we consider the implications of some extraordinary words of God, for how we view His heart toward us and the activity of our everyday lives. http://www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals  

There are too many uncertain days and long dark nights in quarantine.  As Calvin said (Calvin and Hobbes, not the historic theologian): "I think night time is dark so you can imagine your fears with less distraction."  I see it across social media and in loved ones and tugging at my own soul—the dark places, the hard nights, the battering ram of life in the shadowlands—they all seem darker in isolation, with little fellowship or sunlight or community laughter or free adventure or baseball.  Depression is real—dark nights of the soul are the familiar experience of many. Is there grace to find gladness in the midst of grief? http://www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals  

The reality and hope of Heaven, a gloriously remade New Earth, is a promise that runs throughout the Scriptures. It is not wishful thinking or a cop out, but a real and glorious place that redefines our present life and offers us the vision and strength to richly live life now, even in the midst of disappointment, pain, or great trial. The best is yet to come!   www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com https://www.instagram.com/do Shorey/ http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals

The immortality of the human soul—both ours and others—changes everything. This reality stands in stark contrast to our secular age and the religion of "right now" offering us a life of significance and purpose as we pursue the happiness and holiness of our Maker, who made us in His image and took on our image to restore His image in us. Here is new vision of the enchantment and transforming value of every small thing in everyday life. www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey/ http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals    

These are unsettling and threatening times. And while many have sought to reduce God to a comfortable, convenient size; we celebrate the God who is with us: good, happy, fierce, unrivaled, and devoted to doing us great good! www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com https://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals https://www.instagram.com/donshorey/

We welcome you to the conversation! This introduction invites you to pursue all that is good, true, or beautiful together with us and let it shape our lives, our families, our creativity, our work, our play, and everything! This episode also offers a vision for this podcast and our partner podcast “Good Things Run Wild” with Kristen Morris. Together we will launch a conversational podcast: “Maker’s Hollow Conversations“ on June 1! www.EnjoyingGraceStoryCo.com https://www.instagram.com/donshorey/ http://www.patreon.com/nomeremortals