We are raising our families in an increasingly challenging cultural moment. And yet we know God calls us to worship and give thanks continually rather than fall into the patterns and thinking of the secular culture around us. How do we ensure our homes and classrooms have habits that form what God loves? How do we compete with the storytellers of our age who often become the loudest voices in the next generation’s heads and hearts? My guest today is a gifted artist whose new book demonstrates the power of story and the habits of daily living that awaken us to God’s power and presence during difficult times.
Jacob Hess grew up in Oregon and became a Christian at a young age. God has continued to display His faithfulness to Jacob throughout his life; a journey deeper and deeper into grace. Jacob received a Master of Divinity from Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon and moved to Seattle, Washington where he works as a minister in the local church.
Jacob’s years in school grew his passion for writing and reading, but he has always had a love for stories, whether they’re told with pen and page or the rhyth,ms and rhymes of song. He agrees with J. R. R. Tolkien when he writes, “the Pot of Soup, the Cauldron of Story, has always been boiling, and to it have continually been added new bits, dainty and undainty,” (On-Fairy-Stories, p. 45). As humans we simply cannot seem to escape a need to tell stories, a desire to reach beyond ourselves and connect to the deeper truths of who we are and what it means to live a life of meaning.,