BETWEEN by Matt Mattson
The BETWEEN Podcast
Bonus Episode: "To Be Human Is to Feel It All.
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Bonus Episode: "To Be Human Is to Feel It All.

[Read the content of this episode below]

When Paul wrote about being "DEEP-SPIRITED FRIENDS," well, I’m not exactly sure what he meant. But he might have been hinting at our longing for the full colors of our soul to be seen. He might have been encouraging us to feel all of the humanness that the people around us are feeling. Alongside them. Even if only for a while.

This BONUS episode of The BETWEEN Podcast features host Matt Mattsonsharing a story about a friend who helped him understand the technicolor potential that lies inside each of us. And the fine, fuzzy line between emotions and our spirit.


To be human is to feel it all.

To live in the swirling brilliance and the searing pain of it all.

To scratch our dryness in front of each other and to cry waterfalls of tears with no regard for who might be in the splash zone of our intensity.

We are not meant to be muted. We are not meant for grey. We require the release of the full levy.

I had a very important friend for little more than a decade of my life. Our relationship has evolved and changed since then, as relationships do... which is something I've learned only through the pain of living it... But she and I were very close friends. We were emotional confidants. We genuinely cared about each other, and each other's family, and each other's past, and each other's future.

She was one of the most potent teachers in my life about the full palette of human emotion. Our conversations were sacred for many reasons, but the most transformational reason, for me, is that she was a colorful explosion of humanness.

And her colorfulness, her willingness to be fully emotional and brilliantly real — and her ability to bring that out in me — sometimes taught me about the greyness infecting so many people out there in the periphery.

We are not meant for grey. We are bursting with technicolor potential.

Part of the reason I love doing this podcast and helping to lead this entire BETWEEN initiative is the fascinating conversations it has opened up for me. When people ask me what I do now, I love to answer with, "I facilitate sacred conversations about faith and human connection with people all over the globe." How cool is that? You can imagine the types of conversations that opens up...

I immediately get to dive into the deep zone with folks. I can say, "Do you mind sharing with me a little about your spiritual life?" ...and just like that, I'm digging deeper with them than 95% of the people they spend most of their life with...

People have these colorful, dynamic, churning souls inside them... and their color is often muted by the blotted doldrums of daily life. Muted by the politeness of nobody ever asking to see their beauty. Muted by the busyness of everyone else in their life who never bothered to ask what was churning inside.

The line between emotion and spirit is a soft, fine, and fuzzy one. I've come to believe that when we can't be fully emotional we can't be fully spiritual. The similarities between a good cry and a baptism font are plentiful. The parallels between a confession booth and, well... an apology... are obvious. I've come to believe that any good meal of any stand-in for bread and wine... if that meal is consecrated in presence and attention and care and love... it is communion. It is the most communion-y communion I can think of.

I think of my friend anytime I drink a certain type of Cabernet from California... The Sterling vineyard... She and I were on a work trip together once in DC, and we ate at a steakhouse because we were having a pretty good year in our business and we figured what the heck... We had a great meal. We shared a bottle of that Sterling Cab. And I'll be honest, I don't remember what we talked about but that table was glistening with friendship that night. I'll bet if she hears this episode she'll remember that bottle of wine... not just because it was really good... but because it was a flowing, flourishing, friendship-filled dinner that was holy and real and lasting.

I have plenty of friends who have taken on new roles in my life over time. We used to be so incredibly close... and now we're just not. I suppose I could linger in a pool of shame and guilt about those relationships, but I don't choose to do that at all. I prefer to take the lessons they taught me about being human. The insights they gave me about what really matters in this life. And to honor those divine gifts that they shared when they shared their humanity with me.

To be human is to feel it all.

To live in the swirling brilliance and the searing pain of it all.

We are technicolor beings with shining brights and, if we're honest, we have desperately dark hues that need to come out every once in a while too.

To be human is to feel it all, and it is a sacred act to feel it all alongside someone else. Even if only for a while.

Discussion about this podcast

BETWEEN by Matt Mattson
The BETWEEN Podcast
A sacred conversation about sacred conversations. The BETWEEN Podcast lives at the intersection of YOUR FAITH and your daily moments of HUMAN CONNECTION.
Hi there. I'm Matt Mattson and I've spent my whole life obsessed with human connection. To tell you the truth, I believe it's spiritual. I think it's divine. I think the fastest and most efficient way to connect with what I understand as "God" is through conversations and interactions with others.
THE SPACE BETWEEN US IS SACRED.
No matter what you believe (or if you believe), you are welcome here.
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