Feeling like an outsider at church can come from very different places. Scott Sauls brings together C. S. Lewis’s uneasy experience of worship and Hannah’s painful encounter with a priest who misread her grief, asking what each story can teach us. Rooted in Ephesians 2, this episode considers loneliness, church hurt, the need for trustworthy community, and the belonging Jesus has secured for his people even when God’s house does not yet feel like home.

You apologized. They forgave you. But when you are alone, the memory still returns. Scott Sauls considers why receiving forgiveness can be so difficult, and how the mercy of Christ meets us without minimizing the harm we have caused. Through 1 John 3 and the wisdom of historic Christian prayers and confessions, this episode explores lingering regret, responsible efforts to make amends, and the help of another believer who can remind us of what God has said when our own hearts condemn us.

What do we need when the explanations people offer only make our pain harder to carry? Scott Sauls reflects on Kate Bowler’s experience of cancer and the prayers of Psalms 13 and 23, considering how sorrow and trust can belong in the same prayer. For anyone waiting on frightening news or walking beside someone who is, this episode explores the comfort of Christ’s presence, the freedom to lament, and the quiet care we can offer when we cannot explain or fix what hurts.

Why does someone else’s success have the power to make us dissatisfied with our own lives? Comparison promises that we will finally feel secure when we have what someone else has—or move a little further ahead. But the finish line never stops moving.

In this episode, Scott Sauls explores why comparison and envy steal our joy, what Psalm 73 teaches us about finding our true “portion” in God, and how the gospel frees us to enjoy the life we have actually been given.

Drawing from C.S. Lewis, Bertrand Russell, and his book The Mercy King, Scott considers a simple but liberating truth: Someone else having more does not mean that you have less.

This is Part 4 of a 12-part series exploring themes from The Mercy King. Follow the Scott Sauls podcast for weekly Christian reflections on faith, identity, spiritual growth, and life with Jesus.

Most of us reach for the phone before our feet hit the floor, hoping something on the screen will tell us we matter. That reflex points at something older than technology.

In part 3 of this 12-part series on The Mercy King, Scott Sauls looks at what Scripture actually means by idolatry, and why it has almost nothing to do with statues. An idol usually isn't a bad thing. It's a good thing we start asking to carry weight it was never built to carry. Money is a good gift until we ask it for peace. Recognition is a good gift until we need it to tell us who we are.

The episode moves through David Foster Wallace's "This Is Water," Tolstoy's judge Ivan Ilyich, who succeeded by every standard his world recognized and found on his deathbed that something had gone wrong at the center of it, Tennessee Williams on the catastrophe of success, God's promise in Ezekiel 36 to remove a heart of stone and give a heart of flesh, and C.S. Lewis on aiming at heaven.

Idols demand our sacrifices. Jesus became the sacrifice. Idols keep score. Jesus meets our failure with mercy. The grip doesn't break because we get strong enough to break it. It breaks when we start believing we're already loved, already secure, already home.

What does true success look like in the kingdom of God? Scott Sauls explores how Jesus challenges our culture’s pursuit of status, control, power, and recognition—and offers a radically different vision of greatness.

The world tells us that success means climbing higher, defeating our rivals, and making a name for ourselves. Jesus shows us another way: humility, sacrifice, service, and love. His victory was not achieved by crushing his enemies, but by giving himself for them.

In this episode, discover why humility is not weakness, how servant leadership redefines strength, and why lasting purpose is often found in the places the world overlooks. If you are wrestling with ambition, identity, leadership, or the desire for a meaningful life, the way of Jesus offers a better path.

Follow the Scott Sauls podcast for weekly Christian reflections on faith, culture, spiritual growth, and life with Jesus.

Feeling far from God?

In this first episode of a twelve-part series based on The Mercy King, Scott Sauls explores Psalm 23:6 and the God whose goodness and mercy never stop pursuing us. Faith begins not with our search for God, but with God’s search for us.

Can you have real joy if you're carrying something that may never get better on this side of heaven?

Fanny Crosby was blind from infancy. She lived with that limitation for more than ninety years, yet became one of the most prolific hymn writers in Christian history, writing more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs, including “Blessed Assurance” and “To God Be the Glory.”

Her joy was not denial. Her blindness was real. But Crosby learned to interpret her suffering through two greater realities: the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In this episode, Scott Sauls explores why the cross gives us confidence in God’s love even when circumstances seem to suggest otherwise, why the resurrection means our suffering is temporary rather than ultimate, and how Christian hope becomes “an anchor for the soul” when prayers remain unanswered and circumstances don’t change.

The Christian claim isn’t that pain is pretend. It’s that pain isn’t final.

Whatever will not be fixed on this side of heaven does not get the last word. And whatever we offer to God in the meantime—our faithfulness, work, love, prayers, and perseverance—is never wasted.

Scripture: Ephesians 3:18–19; Colossians 1:20; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8:18; Hebrews 6:19–20

Christian suffering, joy in suffering, Christian hope, unanswered prayer, suffering and faith, Fanny Crosby, Blessed Assurance, chronic illness, grief and loss, resurrection, resurrection hope, cross of Christ, faith in hard times, hope in hard times, Romans 8, Hebrews 6, Jesus, Christianity, Scott Sauls