Hello and welcome to the John Mark Coma Teachings Podcast. My name is Yinka Dawson and I'm your host.

Each week we feature teachings by John Mark or other voices in the formation space, and it's great to have you with us.

We're continuing to revisit foundational ideas in the Practice and the Way Vision series.

This week we're focusing on the elements involved in the Practice and the Way vision series.

This week we're focusing on the elements involved in how we change,

beginning with two key pieces, teaching and practice.

Teaching according to John Mark helps our minds come into alignment with Jesus' vision of the good life,

whereas practice helps us ingrain that vision into our hearts. Here's John Mark.

Please turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark chapter 1.

And then we'll get there in just a couple of minutes.

I was at Powell's a few days ago for my weekly book run, and I was

struck again by the explosion in self-help literature over the last, I don't know, two decades

or so. Here's a few titles just off like the shelf, right when you walk in the door.

Designing your life, how to build a well-lived

and joyful life. Beautiful you, a daily guide to radical self-acceptance. Super better, the

power of living gamefully. And then here's my personal favorite. The universe has your back.

Transform fear to faith. It's always nice to know that the universe has my back.

I just feel so much better now.

You know, it's funny for all the talk about secularization in the West,

and in particular in a city like Portland,

I feel like we're more religious than ever before.

But instead of church, it looks like a yoga studio.

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