Broken to Beloved Podcast 088: Carrying the Weight of Hope with Heaviness with Shannan Martin
In this episode, neighbor and author Shannan Martin shares her “counterweights” practice—how we move forward by carrying life’s heaviness with equal measures of rest, joy, and community. Together, we explore how to navigate the burdens we carry and the importance of community, grief, and hope.
Shannan shares why we often can’t set our burdens down (and how privilege shapes who can), how grief is a counterweight to loss, and how naming both our weights and counterweights becomes a path to healing. From jailhouse church to backyard gardens, she shows how neighbors, embodied practices, and hope as a renewable resource keep us upright in a complicated and lopsided world.
You’ll hear:
- How grief functions as a healing counterweight to loss
- Simple counterweights that aren’t just self care or spiritual bypassing
- How being a neighbor can help and serve the vulnerable in your community
- Why curiosity over certainty can be a counterweight in a changing faith—and how to rebuild belonging
Guest Spotlight ✨
Shannan Martin is the bestselling author of several books, including Start with Hello, The Ministry of Ordinary Places, and the popular Substack The Soup. Shannan is a wannabe gardener, a news geek, a fighter for justice, and a thrift store stalker. She and her family live as grateful neighbors in Goshen, Indiana, where Shannan is on staff at the local community kitchen.
Links & Resources 🔗
Website | Instagram | Substack
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