Hey friend welcome to the mere Christians podcast I'm Jordan

Rayner how does the gospel influence the work of mere Christians. Those of us who aren't

pastors or religious professionals but who work as bakers, product designers, and

orderlies. That's the question we explore every week and today and

today I'm posing it to Joe Rigney.

He's a pastor and author of one of the best books I've read in the last year called

Strangely Bright.

Joe and I recently sat down to discuss five practices

for ensuring that your work doesn't become an idol.

And by the way, if you saw my recent devotional series on this, you're going to learn one new practice in today's episode. We talked about why gratitude is, quote, the on-ramp to adoration of God and

the significance of Jesus saying that he is the bread of life

and not the grain.

This is one of the best episodes we've recorded in a while.

Do not miss it.

Friends, please enjoy this conversation

with my new friend, Joe Rigney.

Joe Rigney, welcome to the mere Christians podcast.

Hey, thanks for having Jordan.

Man, I gotta say, strangely bright

is one of the best books I've read in quite some time.

It was just such a succinct, compelling, and biblical way to tackle one of the great tensions I know I felt in my own life,

and I've heard from so many of our listeners I know they've struggled with,

...