Jul 22, 2026 · 46 min · 10 segments
What if your deepest longings are pointing you toward God rather than away from Him? In this episode, Curt and Pepper explore how beauty awakens our souls, stirs hope, and reminds us of the goodness…
Pepper SweeneyHost
So as human beings, we need three basic things to survive, right? We need food, water, and shelter.
Pretty basic, but we need much more than that, right? And so today, I think we're going to talk about not just what we need to survive, but what we need to thrive.
And one of the things that you and I have talked about in the past and you've taught me is just how important beauty and longing are.
And as we are recording this today, we're still in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And I'm finding in my life that especially beauty is something that's really helping me get through.
Early on in this, when we were all quarantined real strictly and I was... handedly having trouble.
And one of the things that really helped me, and you encouraged me in this, is I would go out and walk every day.
Most mornings, my wife being with me, Nell, and just being out in nature and being really thoughtful about what I'm paying attention to and really looking and seeking out that beauty.
I know of a couple of conversations that you and I had about your excursions into beauty.
And I'd love for our listeners to hear in a minute a little bit about one of those, you know, one or two of those experiences that you had.
What strikes me, I really appreciated your reflection on this difference that we sometimes think about is what we need to survive versus what we need to flourish, what we need to do more than just that, but to thrive.
And I think what's so interesting is how, especially with COVID-19, it becomes easy for us to think, oh my gosh, I just have to do those three basic things.
And I think as it turns out, one of the ways that beauty surprises us is that when we allow ourselves, as we like to say here, when we allow ourselves to put ourselves in the path of oncoming beauty, we discover after a while, that it's actually just as necessary for our long-term survival as it is for flourishing.
And we don't often think of it in those terms because we are people who, over the last actually several hundred years, have kind of separated beauty out into these spaces where, for instance, if we want to see beautiful things, we either go to nature out someplace in the wild.
So as human beings, we need three basic things to survive, right? We need food, water, and shelter.
Pretty basic, but we need much more than that, right? And so today, I think we're going to talk about not just what we need to survive, but what we need to thrive.
And one of the things that you and I have talked about in the past and you've taught me is just how important beauty and longing are.
And as we are recording this today, we're still in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And I'm finding in my life that especially beauty is something that's really helping me get through.
Early on in this, when we were all quarantined real strictly and I was... handedly having trouble.
And one of the things that really helped me, and you encouraged me in this, is I would go out and walk every day.
Most mornings, my wife being with me, Nell, and just being out in nature and being really thoughtful about what I'm paying attention to and really looking and seeking out that beauty.
I know of a couple of conversations that you and I had about your excursions into beauty.
And I'd love for our listeners to hear in a minute a little bit about one of those, you know, one or two of those experiences that you had.
What strikes me, I really appreciated your reflection on this difference that we sometimes think about is what we need to survive versus what we need to flourish, what we need to do more than just that, but to thrive.
And I think what's so interesting is how, especially with COVID-19, it becomes easy for us to think, oh my gosh, I just have to do those three basic things.
And I think as it turns out, one of the ways that beauty surprises us is that when we allow ourselves, as we like to say here, when we allow ourselves to put ourselves in the path of oncoming beauty, we discover after a while, that it's actually just as necessary for our long-term survival as it is for flourishing.
And we don't often think of it in those terms because we are people who, over the last actually several hundred years, have kind of separated beauty out into these spaces where, for instance, if we want to see beautiful things, we either go to nature out someplace in the wild.
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