Aura Farming vs. Spiritual Formation, Hiddenness Over Hype, Slowness Instead of Spectacular + Childlike Dependence
The Intentional Parents Podcast
Intentional
4.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, we explore the growing “aura farming” movement — the cultural pressure to project effortlessness, curate our image, and step into our “main-character era.” While the world urges us to amplify our greatness, Jesus invites us into something entirely different.
We look at Jesus’ call to become like children in Matthew 18:1–5, a posture marked by humility, dependence, and openness. Aura farming pushes us to present ourselves in a certain light, but spiritual formation pulls us into honesty, groundedness, and a truer way of being. Drawing from Henri Nouwen’s reflections on the Church’s long struggle with relevance, power, and success, we examine the deeper tension between cultural curation and kingdom transformation.
From there, we walk through five practices that help move us from aura farming to the way of Jesus. We choose hiddenness over hype, leaning into quiet righteousness rather than performing for others. We pursue honesty and vulnerability, acknowledging that beauty and pain often coexist. We embrace slowness instead of the spectacular, allowing our souls to catch up with our schedules. We cultivate childlike dependence by asking for what we need rather than proving we can manage everything on our own. And we trade curation for authentic presence, resisting the urge to hustle for attention and choosing instead to simply be where we are.
As we navigate new seasons — in which the old ways of striving may no longer work — we return to Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28 (MSG): “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.”
Scripture Mentioned: Matthew 18:1-5, Matthew 6 + Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey friends, before we dive in, my new book, Soing a Hidden Seed, Daily Prayers for Your Child's Spiritual Growth is out now available on IntentionalParendes.org exclusively. So go check that out. Christmas is coming. What a great Christmas present to get your family praying. And don't miss our upcoming retreats. The intentional fatherhood retreat February 19 through 21, 2026, in Costa Mesa, California,, the Intentional Fatherhood Retreat, February 19 through 21, |
| 0:21.1 | 2026 in Coast of Mesa, California, and the intentional motherhood retreat. We announced this April |
| 0:27.7 | 23rd through 25th, 2026 in Franklin, Tennessee. Please come out and know that early bird |
| 0:33.8 | pricing is on both of those events, check that out these retreats are spaces to |
| 0:38.1 | pause breathe and invest in your spiritual formation as a parent so learn more get your tickets now at |
| 0:44.4 | intentional parents.org and let's get into this week's episode you're listening to the intentional parents |
| 0:53.8 | podcast brought to by by Intentional. |
| 0:56.8 | Intentional is all about spiritual formation in the family. |
| 1:00.6 | We desire to bring biblical hope and practical hope. |
| 1:04.1 | Enjoy this week's conversation. |
| 1:49.1 | Welcome back to the Int parents podcast, the aura farming movement. What is it? Why does it matter? How do we move from aura farming to the way of Jesus? If you're a parent in your live, this is stuff you need to know. We're going to talk about that in a second. To everyone who's rated, subscribed, left a comment. I have to tell you, it has been such a gift that you have. Please just pause for 10 seconds. Would you just even rate? That's the very simple thing to do. But even rate, subscribe, leaving a comment, it helps so much with the content. So thank you for everyone's done that. Also, we have some exclusive releases on YouTube, maybe a little interview that you did with this little guy, little guy, your brother, John Mark. Jamc, John Mark Homer, live at our motherhood |
| 1:55.4 | retreat. We had him come out. Fun surprise, by the way, we literally told no one then he was going to be there. |
| 2:02.5 | And he was really gracious to come and spend the morning with us and had a great just live |
| 2:08.0 | conversation with you and your brother. |
| 2:10.7 | Anyway, it was just a really fun time. |
| 2:12.5 | That whole episode is only exclusively on YouTube. |
| 2:15.2 | So please go over there, subscribe. |
| 2:17.0 | But just to let you know, that conversation was really funny, very fun. |
| 2:21.6 | And we surprised everyone. |
| 2:22.9 | No one knew he was there. |
| 2:24.0 | And I love that little guy. |
| 2:26.2 | So he's older than me and physically taller, but he just holds a nice tender place in my heart. |
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