Beautifully Strange Convictions

The orthodox Christian faith looks strange from the outside — and that strangeness is the point. When Christians hold tightly to core convictions, beauty and fruit and astonishing love spring forth, often through equally strange acts of sacrifice. This fall, we orient ourselves by following the well-worn path of the saints, asking what it means to walk as they walked.

What makes a person stay when everyone else is running away?

And how do we become the kind of people who can stand firm when following Christ suddenly gets costly?

Sarah Howell is joined by Brian Brown and Caroline Williams to explore the story of Sister Constance, who stayed in Memphis during the devastating 1878 yellow fever epidemic while much of the city fled. What could make someone walk toward danger when everyone else is running the other way? And what does her story have to do with the choices we make in much quieter moments?

Along the way, they uncover a surprising connection between Constance and another Christian who, years earlier and an ocean away, stood firm when his convictions made him an outsider.

Sarah, Brian, and Caroline consider how fear, attention, mentors, stories, and small choices shape us long before the moment when everything is suddenly at stake. Drawing on C. S. Lewis, Augustine, the story of Esther, and the lives of the saints, they ask what it means to keep turning toward what is good, true, and beautiful—even when the world around you is telling you to look away.

Hosts: Brian Brown, Sarah Howell, Caroline Williams

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