Unlock the secrets to a healthier mind and spirit with Master Naturalist Aaron Lynham, author of "Rooted in Wonder." Find out how simple interactions with nature can significantly enhance your well-being and how trees act as nature's very own air purifiers. We'll reflect on the comforting words of Matthew 6:25-27, reminding us of God's meticulous care for creation and how it can put our worries to rest. This episode perfectly blends scientific findings and spiritual insights, offering practical advice on using nature to rejuvenate your mind and soul.
Find out more about Eryn's book, podcast, and Nature Club: ROOTED IN WONDER
Listen to Part 1 of Janell and Eryn's conversation: PART 1
Begin Your Heartlifter's Journey:
Unlock the secrets to a healthier mind and spirit with Master Naturalist Aaron Lynham, author of "Rooted in Wonder." Find out how simple interactions with nature can significantly enhance your well-being and how trees act as nature's very own air purifiers. We'll reflect on the comforting words of Matthew 6:25-27, reminding us of God's meticulous care for creation and how it can put our worries to rest. This episode perfectly blends scientific findings and spiritual insights, offering practical advice on using nature to rejuvenate your mind and soul.
Find out more about Eryn's book, podcast, and Nature Club: ROOTED IN WONDER
Listen to Part 1 of Janell and Eryn's conversation: PART 1
Begin Your Heartlifter's Journey:
This episode is sponsored in full by Heart Lift International, a 501 3C dedicated to making home and family the safest, most secure place to be. To learn more about Heart Lift International or to make a donation, just visit JanelleRairdoncom slash HeartLift dash International. Any donation is welcome and it's tax deductible. Thank you for helping this podcast fulfill its purpose and extend its reach. And remember all donations are tax deductible. And remember all donations are tax deductible. Hello and welcome to today's Heart Lift with Janelle.
Speaker 1:This is part two of my inspiring conversation with master naturalist Aaron Lynham, author of Rooted in Wonder. Author of Rooted in Wonder oh how Erin has invited each one of us to tap into the child within and to return to living with more wonder, more awe, and inviting us to spend more time in nature. As the host of Nat Theo, a podcast dedicated to bringing together the natural world with the study of theology, it's a kid's podcast but in no way, shape or form, are adults not going to receive so much. I know that I have. It is on my top tier list of podcasts for this summer and for a sabbatical that I am trying so much to move into in this season of my life, I think one of the most exciting things that Aaron brought to us was that perhaps Jesus's favorite bird was the house sparrow, and she taught us that to feed one little house sparrow chick, from hatching to fledging, mama and Papa Sparrow had to collect 3,000 to 4,000 insects a day. That's over 200 trips a day back and forth to find the food for little sparrow, and that's just one little sparrow. So if they had a little nest full of sparrows, wow, they had quite a job every day to do. Wow, they had quite a job every day to do. Aaron invited me to spend some time meditating on Matthew 6, 25 and 27, a very familiar passage perhaps to many of you.
Speaker 1:Here is the bottom line Do not worry about your life. Don't worry about what you will eat or what you will drink. Don't worry about how you will eat or what you will drink. Don't worry about how you clothe your body. Living is about more than merely eating, and the body is about more than dressing up. Look at the birds in the sky. They do not store food for winter, they don't plant gardens, they do not sow or reap, and yet they are always fed, because your heavenly Father feeds them, and you are even more precious to them than a beautiful bird. If he looks after them, of course he will look after you. Oh, that phrase. Of course he will look after you. Grab that cup of something delicious and your journal and a pen, because Erin is bringing to us even more principles on how to make our lives happier, more peaceful and more meaningful. Let's welcome Erin back to the show.
Speaker 1:One of the things that you do encourage in Rooted in Wonder is to grow your healthy mindset outdoors, and we're all about mindsets here. Of course, that's all. Most of the work that I do is to help someone grow a healthy mindset, but until this point I'll be 13 years. In my private practice here. I haven't really gone to a nature initiative, but I am right now because I need it in my own life. I need a lot of healing and God is bringing the nature back to me, which is so fun because I've always loved it. What is that all about? How might we begin to do that at any age? How do I grow a healthy mindset outdoors?
Speaker 2:to do that at any age. How do I grow a healthy mindset outdoors? I love talking about this because it's a very clear example of where science and scripture complement one another. They always do. God wrote science, god created nature. Of course, they're always going to complement each other, but we see it very clearly in this area of mindset because we see all these scientific studies coming out of the mental health benefits of being out in nature. Most people, when they go out into a wilderness area or a beautiful place, will have a spiritual connection, whether they would call it that or not. There is this sense of something profound and beyond us, and so that's where we run into the issues in Romans talking about worshiping creation rather than create Torah. But this it was originally meant as this incredible resource that God has for us. Like God always tells us in scriptures that we read about renewing our minds, we read about, think about everything that's true and lovely and good and honorable. So God wants us to renew our minds, and then he gives us creation to help us do that.
Speaker 2:And I love that when you walk, so if you've ever walked into the woods, and you take a deep breath and it's so different than if you were to take a deep breath in the city and like here. We can sense that because I can drive 30 minutes west and be in the wilderness. I can drive 30, well, 40. I can drive just a bit south and be like in downtown Denver.
Speaker 1:And so I know these very different areas around me Right.
Speaker 2:But the reason that breathing in the woods is different is because trees are a natural filter. God created them that on the underside of their leaves or in pine trees, under their pine needles, they have these little holes or slits and they inhale and the air around them and they hold in the carbon and they exhale clean oxygen, and so the air in a forest is very clean. In fact, we couldn't breathe on earth if we didn't have trees. And so you look at what God says about renew your minds and then you look at nature and how he designed it to bring our thoughts, reign them in from everything, from from all the distractions in society and all the things that we just torment us in our own heads. All of that he says go, walk in the woods.
Speaker 1:Go forest bathe. We've been talking about forest bathing. Here.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly Just go experience the mental health benefits of all of these resources that he's given us in creation.
Speaker 1:And I read before we started. I want to read this quote again, though Let me pull it up real quick. You have it at the beginning of chapter seven. Richard Lou is that how you say his name? L-o-u-v. Given a chance, a child will bring the confusion of the world to the woods. Wash it in the creek, turn it over to see what lives on the unseen side of that confusion. Wow, yes, that's why I liked my brick my my cement patio. Exactly, exactly that. Had this? Those words resonated because I thought I must have brought the confusion of my inner home to the outside of my home, and probably just on. I don't even know. I know I was, yeah, and I've seen this child, with my, with my kids.
Speaker 2:They a few years ago I think it was during the pandemic, and just things were hard. Like that was hard enough, but during that time the biggest wildfire in Colorado's written history was burning a few miles from our home. So for three months this fire burned and there were days we couldn't even go outside and so, like all the restrictions in society, and then we couldn't even go in our yard or go hike. And on one of the days it was clearer when we could go out. My son, he said, mom, we need to go on a hike to sort our thoughts. Oh my, I thought it was so profound and I've thought about that so many times.
Speaker 2:When I show up at a trailhead with the weight of the world on my shoulders and you know my mind is just so busy with all these other things. Back at home, back with work, whatever it is and it takes me longer than my kids I usually have to be out in the woods and hiking for a good hour or two before I feel lighter and I can think clearer and I can sort my thoughts. My kids are much better at it. They'll show up and they're like okay, we are here to play and they're reawakening that in me, showing me. When you have all that stuff going on in your head, go out into the woods.
Speaker 1:Yes, and here in Virginia we would be. I'm grateful we have mountains and we have ocean. So for so many years, I mean decades, the outer banks of North Carolina have been my source of refuge just the negative ions that come from the water and that but there has just been this wooing of like the forest and forest yes, it's fascinating. I love that. He said let's go, we got to go sort our thoughts. Yeah, yeah, does it get easier for you, or is it always a practice? Uh, let's say, maybe you've noticed it doesn't take me quite one or two hours anymore, like any practice, any spiritual rhythm. I'm just curious.
Speaker 1:That's just a curious question.
Speaker 2:It is a practice. I don't feel like it gets easier, except that I learned some things. Like it's easier if I go to a place I haven't been before because then there's also the thrill of exploration, and so it becomes.
Speaker 2:If it's a trail that we always go to, it might Ho hum easier, like it's still beautiful, but it's easier for me to keep thinking about everything else and to not allow myself to just have my thoughts drawn to the creator and so going somewhere new, but it definitely. It's always a practice. I think about jesus's invitation come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and that is a practice, like the. I'm working on my third book right now and it's a book on biblical rest as we see it in scripture and creation.
Speaker 2:And one thing. Well, this has been such a lesson God has had for me in looking at scripture and creation, because rest is a theme all throughout scripture and when we look at creation, at nature, god designed rhythms of rest in everything to thrive through rest. And that's one thing that I saw, like when you talk about sorting our thoughts, going to the woods being a practice we are practicing, coming back to the restful presence of God, it's always going to be hard because it's counter-cultural, and so staying in that practice and I think that's the thing when you notice that your mind is just racing, racing, racing and the anxiety is rising, recognizing I need to practice right now, I need to practice. I need to go on a walk in nature and practice this.
Speaker 1:Until it actually. Here's where I'm at see if this resonates or if I'm on the wrong. Here's where I'm at see if this resonates or if I'm on the wrong path. I'll use our nature metaphor. That was good. Oh, my goodness, janelle, janelle, hold on, I got all excited about that. I think at 64 I am in this transition again. I've had three significant transitional vocational transition periods in my life. That it's not a practice he wants. He actually wants it to be my life and I have a feeling that he's inviting all of us who are following him for that now to be our way of life. Yes, because I will do it. I'll sabbatical it or I'll have a rest time, but I'm not. I have not embodied living from rest. Are you looking at that in your biblical exploration of this idea? I would think you are. I just Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Because what we see is like God didn't just hint at rest, or like mentioned it a few times in scripture, rest was hinted at during creation, when he created the pattern. And I love the pattern because, when you look at it, god created for six days and then rested. So he worked, then rested, but that day of rest was Adam's first full day. So Adam started with rest and then worked. So God works and rests. But we must start from rest. That has to be our starting point. That is what everything else flows from.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so God hinted at rest during creation. He initiated it in the wilderness with the Israelites in the exodus 16, where there's the first mention of sabbath rest, and then he fulfilled it at Calvary, where we are invited into eternal rest. So there is this full, these roots of rest spreading throughout scripture, and then when we look at creation and see all these rhythms of rest, okay, if it's that important to God, then it is vital, it is vital to us, and that's what I've come to see is that rest is not just a suggestion and it's not just important, it is absolutely vital if we are to live the abundant life that Christ has for us.
Speaker 1:Yes, and to me it's a call to obedience, to that, If I get all theological about it, discipline, obedience, those words don't fly around too much anymore, but they sure did back in my days, my early days of training in the scripture, you know, and to me it's an obedience, it's you better. If not, then it's one of those conditional clauses. If you don't get it this time, there will be graver consequences Each time. For me there's been graver consequences physically because I just haven't gotten it, because, like you said, it's countercultural. It's just countercultural to not be productive, and yet rest is the seedbed of productivity, it's the soil, it is. So, yes, oh, my goodness. So, growing that healthy mindset, you're inviting us, as I have been for the last few weeks, if not more than that, here on the episodes Get outside, Explore.
Speaker 1:You may not live in the Rockies, you may live in the middle of New York City, but there are places you can go everywhere on the planet. I know whether it's even a front porch. I can go on my back porch and find ladybugs crawling around on my plants, you know, and find four leaf clovers. If I dig down and look, it's just an exhale. It's just putting your feet, your hands, your presence, your being, where you can receive from the trees that are absorbing the carbon and giving us fresh oxygen. Yes, very, very powerful. So you invite us, in Rooted in Wonder as well, to become a wonder conservationist. What a word. I love this Wonder conservationist. What is that and how can we apply that into our daily lives today?
Speaker 2:So I did not coin the term natural theology, but I did coin the term wonder conservationist. Maybe that's why it's so hard, such a tongue twister. But this idea of conservation is protecting nature, conserving, preserving, and it's it's a secular term as well. People talk about conservation and taking care of wildlife and habitats. That's what a lot of my training as a master naturalist was. But I got to thinking yes, it is so important to protect the natural world. God calls us to that in the stewardship mandate when he put Adam in the garden to tend and keep it.
Speaker 2:I think as important is conserving and preserving the wonder within the next generation and within ourselves, because we take care of what we are familiar with. We're going to take care of the birds when we know their names. We're going to take care of the habitats when we understand how they work together. And God places that within us, like we were talking about earlier. This is a natural curiosity that God puts within us in childhood. For many of of us, myself included, over time that tarnishes it does, and so to allow him to reawaken that within us and for me, the idea of conservation, because it can really just take a different tone in the secular world. To them, it's Sure To someone who doesn't believe in God, this is all they get, and so they're coming at it.
Speaker 2:Many of them are with this panic or fear, or or really good intentions, but this whole idea of, oh, we need to take care of earth because it's all we get, but we know, as believers, it's not all we get. Conservation and taking care of what God has made is one, an act of obedience, but two, as I teach on my podcast, everything that we see in nature. This is all evidence for the creator. So we should not hasten its destruction even though we know because of the curse it's bent on decay. No, we are called to take care of it as long as we can, so we can use all these materials, just like Jesus did, to point others to him, to show them the evidence that we have in nature for a creator. Many, many, even secular scientists are having a hard time getting around this evidence. The closer we look, the more technology develops, the more that we see. Even Darwin saw it, because in his autobiography.
Speaker 2:He wrote that even looking at the details of nature, he was compelled to see a quote first cause. That's correct. He said he deserved to be called a theist.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, I know.
Speaker 1:This is all evidence I am learning as I talked to you before we got started. Darwin was a taboo word back in the day, and early I guess, just when I was homeschooling my kids. You know it just was. You just didn't do it. It was creationism period.
Speaker 1:Love that you're here and I love that you are helping us become intellectually faith, have an intellectual faith, and I definitely wanted to ask you about that. That was one of the questions I had of how keen you are on developing an intellectual faith in your own children and helping them question narratives. I mean narratives. I mean, aaron, we need you. Like I'm a grandma now, I need you. This is not funny like I seriously am educating myself so that I can now educate my grandchildren and not have a fear base in my life, so that I can actually help them, because I mean it's. We have to. We have to have it. We have to be able to have a, an in-season answer and response to have really good conversations with others. So what are you implementing with your own children and how might we be able to borrow that implementation from you? We be able to borrow that implementation from you.
Speaker 2:Well, this whole concept of intellectual faith, like the scriptures, tells us to love God with all of our heart and mind and soul, and I think, I think we don't focus as much on the mind, not at all.
Speaker 2:So how do we love God with our mind?
Speaker 2:Of course we turn our thoughts to him, but also we equip ourselves, we allow him to equip us with knowledge.
Speaker 2:To exactly that, have an answer in season.
Speaker 2:And so, with my kids, I want to focus so much on scripture as primary, like we talked about, that's his primary revelation to us but shoring up their faith with the evidence that we have in history and in science and in archeology, giving them all of that additional evidence so that when someone comes up to them and they're having a conversation and the person says, oh, don't just tell me, because the Bible says so, I don't believe in the Bible.
Speaker 2:Or if my kids are having trouble believing in the validity of the Bible, to give them this extra evidence and resources to pull from. And so, looking at the history, like I so relate to your story of just not even learning about Darwin because for so long there was this fear mindset and that's how Satan stole science, was the scientific revolution, and he made science just go away from God and so much of it was fear to where Christian parents were like, oh, science is bad or we can't talk about science or they just don't know how to talk about science because they're so afraid their child will fall prey to these evolutionary ideas or whatnot.
Speaker 2:We want our children to know the stories. The scientific progress is a story of Satan stealing something and God redeeming it, and God pointing people to himself through the natural world. So going with them into these stories, having these conversations, pressing that narrative, like when my kids hear evolutionary ideas we always talk about well, this is a theory, this is an idea, this is something like not letting the narrative sway them into thinking this is fact.
Speaker 2:Just because it says so, say well, no, this is a theory and let's press into that. What do you think about this over here, starting those conversations and going with them into them?
Speaker 1:into them. Erin, I think what we are really hearing is to have a holy curiosity. Your invitation to us is about wonder, and I think curiosity holds wonder's hand. You write in Rooted in Wonder. You write in Rooted in Wonder who follow Jesus Christ's teaching and become as little children.
Speaker 1:We often think of the faith of a child as an ingrained, intuitive faith, undiluted and undefiled by our life experiences and doubt. A child is quick to trust, but that can leave us with this tension. Is this blind faith? Yet childlike faith is not childish. Childish is a silliness and immaturity that ideally we grow out of.
Speaker 1:Childlike, on the other hand, extracts the beauty and wonder from how a child views the world. Childlike, on the other hand, extracts the beauty and wonder from how a child views the world. Childlike, on the other hand, extracts the beauty and wonder from how a child views the world. It is not jaded by life's disappointments and defeats. It is not naive but rather pure, untarnished, optimistic, fresh. A childlike faith is closer to its source, more in tune with the maker, surrounded by the wonders of creation. You can revive your own childlike faith while simultaneously preserving it in your children. That is what you're saying and inviting us into. Is that holy wonder who holds hands with curiosity. I'm just so grateful to you. So then, a wonder conservationist. Did I say it right? You did. That was great, thank you, I love that. I'm always learning. It's just returning to awe, returning to wonder, returning to curiosity.
Speaker 2:Exactly and feeding that natural curiosity With my children. When I see they're curious about something in nature, we feel that they were super into geology a few years ago and rocks and minerals. They still are.
Speaker 2:But when it all started we got them all these different rock books from the library and we bought some and we would take them to rock shops and we would take them to places that we knew they could dig and keep rocks and they have a whole traveling museum now that they have displayed at the farmer's market and at the library and in different neighborhoods. We live in Fueling that, and so I want the same for myself that when I am curious about something, whether it's a bird or how something works in nature or a plant, allowing myself, giving myself permission to chase that down. So a lot of my podcast episodes just come from stuff that I wanted to learn about and was super curious about. And that's how you become a wonder conservationist You're protecting that wonder so that Satan can't squelch it, so that we will continue this pursuit of the creator through what he has made.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because wonder and all has been proven, been proven to be the greatest healer of all. Just taking a moment to let a butterfly take your breath away or I don't know, it does it to me every day, every day. The first peony on the bush, you know, yes, just stop and smell the roses, just really allowing yourself that joy. Oh, what a feast Heartlifters Erin has brought to us. I know I can't get her message out of my mind and I hope it is bringing you life like it is bringing me. She continues writing in Rooted in Wonder, in the chapter on curiosity.
Speaker 1:Why does the kingdom of God belong to children? Because in Luke 18, 15 through 17,. Luke writes now, they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him saying let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not inherit it. What does that mean?
Speaker 1:Why does the kingdom of God belong to children? Perhaps because their faith rests not on naivety but on wonder. They see the evidence of God in creation. They stand beneath a rainbow, before a waterfall or beside a bird's nest, and they know God is real. In Matthew 18, 3 and 4, jesus' words affirm the importance of childlike faith. Truly, I say to you, unless you turn there's that turn meaning metanoia unless you make a complete turn in your life and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Of heaven, aaron writes if we as adults forfeit curiosity, we lose a critical element of faith. We stop looking for and eventually stop seeing the evidence for God all around us. Further, we quit asking questions, we become vulnerable to false philosophies and ideas and we're less equipped to help our children and I'll add grandchildren think critically and come to their own conclusions, guided by God's word. We must remain curious about creation and what it tells us about God. Well, if that isn't a charge, if that isn't a challenge, I don't really know what one would be.
Speaker 1:So here, at the end of part two, I'm I am just challenging myself and inviting you along to the challenge to perhaps take this next upcoming week and return to my childlike faith, to turn and become like a child, looking for evidence of God in all that surrounds me. I think that sounds like a treasure hunt. It sounds like something that makes me want to get out of bed. It sounds like something that will boost my mental and emotional health. It will help shift any depression or melancholy that I might be feeling and I am now preaching to myself, and I am now preaching to myself but I think this will bring a shift in your day-to-day life and even perhaps shift it from mundane into marvelous and miraculous once again, to return to that childlike state of wonder and walk alongside curiosity and awe. I want to know what you find in your own nature treasure hunt, please tell me. Meet me on Instagram at Janelle Rairdon. But, most importantly, drum roll, big drum roll.
Speaker 1:Here we are now fully an online community at Heart Lift Central on Substack. This past weekend was moving weekend, so I hope you made the move with me. If you have been a subscriber to my email newsletter, which has previously been on a platform called MailChimp, and oh, I thank you for, oh, years, years of support on that platform, meeting me there every Monday or Wednesday podcast information, inspiring, heartlifting messages coming your way. But we have moved officially and we are now over at Heart Lift Central. So please take a moment right now.
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Speaker 1:This week's will be some concluding thoughts that Erin left with me as to why she is making the shift in writing this new book on the nature of rest. It strikes deep in my heart. I think that it's going to be a beautiful message for your heart as well, because we are in a state of life that seems to just keep giving us a lot of overwhelm. So I'll meet you there, and I thank you in advance for becoming a paid subscriber and being a part of an online community that is committed to you know, a healthy sense of self, healthy healthy, healthy behavior patterns and very, very healthy communication skills, so that we can stand in the center of our spheres of influence as heart lifters, bringing light and love to everyone in that sphere. Until next time.