Living in a Distracted World and Following Jesus Into a New Year

The Allender Center Podcast

The Allender Center

Health & Fitness, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, Mental Health

4.7 • 648 Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The new year can bring the hope of a fresh start… or the dread of more of the same.

In this first episode of the year, Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen name what many of us are already feeling: life feels heavy, noisy, and hard to keep up with.

They talk about the "stone in the shoe" of modern life—how distraction, overwhelm, and unresolved trauma slowly wear us down—and share practical ways to respond. That might look like stepping back from constant media, creating gentle daily rhythms of prayer, worship, and Scripture, or using journaling and writing to slow your thoughts and reconnect with what matters most.

At the heart of the conversation is a simple but challenging invitation: to stay awake to suffering without losing hope, and to let love, humility, and courage shape how we live. Reflecting on Romans 12, we're invited to resist chaos and despair and instead lean into the kind of formation that only comes from following Jesus.

This episode is about 40 minutes long. After listening, consider taking a few extra minutes (maybe even more than a few) to reflect on how you want to enter the new year: more grounded, more aware, and more spiritually centered.

As Dan says in closing, "It would be great if it's a happy new Year… but may it be one in which our lives are more formed in Jesus."

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About the Allender Center Podcast:

For over a decade, the Allender Center Podcast has offered honest, thoughtful conversations about the deep work of healing and transformation. Hosted by Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen, MDiv, this weekly podcast explores the complexities of trauma, abuse recovery, story, relationships, and spiritual formation. Through questions submitted by listeners, stories, interviews, and conversations, we engage the deep places of heartache and hope that are rarely addressed so candidly in our culture today. Join the Allender Center Podcast to uncover meaningful perspectives and support for your path to healing and growth.

At the Allender Center, we value thoughtful dialogue across a wide range of voices, stories, and lived experiences. In that spirit, our podcast features guests and hosts who may hold differing perspectives. The perspectives shared on this podcast by guests and hosts reflect their own experiences and viewpoints and do not necessarily represent the views, positions, or endorsements of the Allender Center and/or The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology.

Stream each episode, plus find transcripts, additional resources, and more at:
theallendercenter.org/podcast

To become a supporter of the Allender Center Podcast, visit:
https://theallendercenter.org/2025/11/podcast-support/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Jeanette White, executive director of the Allender Center. For over a decade,
0:12.3	the Allender Center podcast has been sharing weekly conversations about faith, story, trauma, and
0:18.1	healing, all free for anyone who needs them. But producing these episodes
0:23.0	isn't free. Every planning meeting, every hour of recording and editing, every show note,
0:29.6	it all adds up. That's why we want to invite you to become a monthly supporter of the podcast.
0:36.5	Even $5 a month helps keep the podcast going.
0:40.5	If you'd like to be a part of what we're doing with the Allender Center podcast,
0:44.6	visit allendercenter.org slash podcast and click on Become a Supporter.
0:50.6	Thank you for listening and for being part of this movement toward healing and restoration.
1:09.0	Thank you for listening to the Allender Center podcast.
1:12.2	I'm Dr. Dan Allender.
1:14.1	And I'm Rachel Clinton-Cent.
1:15.9	We're fiercely committed to providing hope and healing to a fragmented world.
1:20.3	And restoration for the heart.
1:22.6	Thank you for joining us.
1:24.0	Let's get this conversation started.
1:34.9	Thank you. Let's get this conversation started. Happy New Year, Rachel.
1:37.0	Happy New Year, Dan.
1:38.2	And to all of our friends who honor us by just being willing to sort of join us in, at times, a kind of
1:50.3	meandering reflection on the nature of life, your life, my life, and our lives together.
1:57.5	So welcome to the new year. And before we jump in, just how to the end, how do the year
2:04.2	end for you, Michael, your family? Yeah. I mean, overall, I would say just like for many people,
	...

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