Last fall, I had the incredible opportunity to be the keynote speaker at the Merchab Institute’s final symposium. My topic was the Non-Anxious Presence. For those unaware, I have written about the Non-Anxious Presence before. While I had been practicing this presence for years, it wasn’t until preparing for the symposium that my language finally caught up to my experience.
When I came across the Non-Anxious Presence by Edwin Friedman, it was to combat my pervasive anxiety, and I was re-implementing it in my life to pass on the tools of a Non-Anxious Presence to my children. If you read the research pioneered by Dr. Jean Twenge, you quickly ascertain that anxiety might be our children’s chief problem. It certainly is one of my generation’s.
Anyway, my language caught up re-reading Friedman’s Failure of Nerve. Rather than seeking to stamp out the negative - anxiety - I shifted to the positive of adventure. Early and often in that book, Friedman's argument isn’t about overcoming anxiety but cultivating the spirit of adventure.
Starting this week in February. I get to adapt the symposium to a class meant for my church on Wednesday night. If you are worried about anxiety in yourself, your children, or the culture at large, perhaps you need to be a part of cultivating a spirit of adventure. If you are interested in cultivating a spirit of adventure in your life, subscribe because that is the type and thrust of content I want to bring into the world.
I could focus on problems and solutions, or I could focus on outrage or management of anxiety, or… we could go on an adventure. That last one sounds most exciting to me. So in 2024, Faithful Fatherhood is going on an adventure.
Here are some upcoming topics. Let me know what adventures you want to take as those topics come out. How can I help you reframe your struggles from problems into adventures to be taken?
Topics (in no particular order)
Notes on the Non-Anxious Presence
Self-Differentiation in Fatherhood
Learning to Create Beauty
The 3, 3’s of my fatherhood
Should dads be the stay-at-home parents in our modern context?
What does your “God/god” do with you rather than for you, and are you missing out?
Reflections on my faith and church life
Laws, Rules, and Justice.