Welcome to the John Mark Comer Teaching's Podcast by Practicing the Way.

This teaching was first given at Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon as a part of the

unhurrying with the Rule of Life series. Growing up I was a pretty happy kid. I was born and raised in the Bay Area, don't hold that against me,

but where the weather is right at that point of overlap between heaven and earth,

you know, just 78 degrees, 350 days of the year.

We moved up to Portland when I was 13 and I had my first ever experience with this new

phenomenon to me called winter.

As my friend Helgi from Iceland likes to say,

winter is a form of suffering.

And I could not agree more.

But still, my teenage years were great.

I was introverted and created, creative,

and played in some really depressing indie bands,

but overall, I was happy.

But when I was 17, the height of my homeschool or acne,

and don't ask me why those two things always go together

But you know they do I know from personal experience the doctor put me on a drug for my skin called acutane

Which was later linked to depression and suicide.

I think it had an effect, I think it had a permanent effect, that's likely not true, but on my brain

chemistry, either way around that period of time,

late high school, I began to feel a little bit sad.

But it could have just been nearing adulthood

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