Shemaiah Gonzalez is back! This time she joins us to unpack her beautiful new book, Undaunted Joy: The Revolutionary Act of Cultivating Delight. My friends, if you need the perfect book to be your nightstand right-be-for-bed companion, this is it. In this collection of short essays, Shemaiah unpacks the small ways uncovering, accepting, and welcoming joy can change our lives.The opposite of toxic positivity, she argues for slowing down, being present, and experiencing our lives rather than rushing through them. You’ll meet delight in surprising places like the laundry room, with surprising companions like capybaras, and amidst surprising companions like sorrow.Join us for this conversation about cultivating delight. Plus: what is Shemaiah’s least favorite bird? The answer may surprise you! Get full access to Keep Looking Up at courtneyellis.substack.com/subscribe
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98: Hope Within Crisis
Have you ever had a crisis of faith? I can point to several points in my life—my mid-teens, my early 20s, and my late 30s—when serious doubts crept in. It can be a fearful and unsettling time, and even more so if we feel alone.Authors Catherine McNiel and Jason Hague are no strangers to this type of crisis. Catherine faced her first at the tender age of twelve when the church her father pastored kicked her family to the curb. Jason’s biggest came to him in mid-life when a beloved friend died unexpectedly. In both seasons, they found themselves reeling, aching, confused, and lost.But this isn’t the whole story. Jason shares the journey of his oldest son’s autism (where is God when our prayers seem to go unanswered?). And Catherine unpacks how a crisis of this kind can be incredibly painful, with no silver lining… and yet still create space for a deeper faith on the other side.Join us for a special episode about hope (and penguins, loons, and Red-winged Blackbirds!) as we dig into Mid-Faith Crisis: Finding a Path Through Doubt, Disillusionment, and Dead Ends. It’s a gentle, truthful book that takes an unflinching look at crisis, pain, and the presence of God. Get full access to Keep Looking Up at courtneyellis.substack.com/subscribe
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97: The Hope of Conservation (Wayne Klockner)
I’m a big fan of the ABA. No, not the American Bar Association. Not Applied Behavioral Analysis either. (Though I’m sure they’re both great.)I’m a fan of the American Birding Association! The ABA does truly fantastic work on behalf of birds, wild spaces, and birders everywhere. From its young birder initiatives (start ‘em young!) to its bird of the year to its magazine to its podcast… I could go on and on. But I don’t have to, because today we have the ABA’s director, Wayne Klockner, with us to talk about the ABA, his life’s work in conservation, and why he can’t ever choose a favorite bird. Get full access to Keep Looking Up at courtneyellis.substack.com/subscribe
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96: Refugia Faith with Deb Rienstra
Deb Rienstra is a professor of English at Calvin University. Her beautiful book, Refugia Faith, takes us deep into both an aching planet and the goodness of God. Friends, I couldn’t put this one down.From despair to preparation, alienation to kinship, and indifference to attention, Deb’s masterful weaving of theology, literature, ecology, and a love for creation makes this book sing.Join us for a conversation about birds and hope, about how the church calendar can help remind us of our creatureliness before God, and about the ways both lament and gratitude can tether us to one another. Get full access to Keep Looking Up at courtneyellis.substack.com/subscribe
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95: Unpacking Church Camp
One of our greatest tools in understanding ourselves and the world is the concept of both/and. When we can hold two ideas or feelings in tension, we discover whole worlds of understanding and goodness.Author, speaker, and Episcopal-priest-in-training Cara Meredith has been fascinated with this concept for years. After dabbling in some essays about it, she landed on a both/and topic that really spoke to her soul: church camp.Today we celebrate her new book, Church Camp: Bad Skits, Cry Night, and How White Evangelicalism Betrayed a Generation, hot off the presses from Broadleaf. We talk about the good, the bad, the ugly, and how we might all be a little bit more faithful to the both/and in our lives.Plus: a little detour about penguins. Get full access to Keep Looking Up at courtneyellis.substack.com/subscribe
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