Looking Under The Hood

Do you have an area of life where you feel completely lost? 

I do. It’s the world of cars. I know nothing about them. That’s not true, I know some things. I know they turn on, they use gas to move, and if you change your oil once every three years you’ll be in serious trouble.

I get uncomfortable when my car is having issues. When I open up the hood of my car and peer in, I’m lost. I feel uneducated. I feel clumsy.

This is a lot like when we first peer into our inner world. When we open up our own proverbial hood and look inside ourselves. We see areas of our soul that are beat up and need some repair. We see where some cables are not connected properly and need to be addressed. We see that our battery is dying and it needs to be replaced.

Many of us live our lives like I care for my car: as long as it still functions in some sense of “normal,” I don’t need to look under the hood. We keep cruising through life even though our “Check Engine” light has been on for months now. We keep pushing our own souls forward even though the gas gauge says, “We’re on empty.”

How do we begin to fix all of this?

We fix it by going below the surface. We go under the hood of our souls and explore all that we find. But we don’t have to do this alone. We can invite trusted experts and practitioners to teach us how to explore our lives below the surface.

This year’s Pure Desire Summit will do just that. Don’t believe me? 

Here’s a list of the main sessions for next month’s Summit:

**Why Go Below The Surface?
**Nick Stumbo
Doing personal work below the surface of our life can be dangerous, messy, and complex. So why go there? In our first session, Nick will unpack how going below the surface leads us into healing and recovery. Nick will invite us into the adventure of inside out living and set us up for the rest of the conference sessions!

Bringing God’s Love To Our Deepest Parts
Jenna Riemersma
Have you ever felt like all parts of you were welcome? Not just the ones that do good things and feel happy feelings, but the parts that mess up, feel awful, and do stuff you don't like? Jenna knows the feeling. She’ll question if that’s really true. We’ll ask, “What if all parts of you really were welcome?” Jenna will help us discover how God's love welcomes our deepest, darkest parts with transformational compassion.

**The Startling Key To Lasting Transformation
**Jenna Riemersma
We tend to move against the parts of ourselves we don't like. We assume God does too. We label feelings and behaviors as "bad" or "sinful" and do our best to eradicate them. Jenna will push us to wonder, “what if the answer was to do the reverse?” Jenna’s thought-provoking session will help us move toward God and move toward these parts of us.

Grace & Truth
Keith Jenkins
In the transformation process there is a great need for both grace and truth. They need to be balanced as well as applied. This is especially true when it comes to healing from the effects of sexual brokenness. Keith will take us below the surface and unpack how grace and truth work together as we walk toward health and freedom.

**Free To Thrive: The Seven Longings
**Ben Bennett
We all experience hurts and unfulfilled God-given longings that, at times, we seek to fulfill through unhealthy behaviors and relationships. Join Ben as he explains how our struggles like anxiety, anger, porn use, and more are not random—they're signals that when answered can lead to a thriving life. Based on biblical, psychological, and sociological research, discover the Seven Longings behind your struggles that when fulfilled will lead you to a life of wholeness, purpose, and thriving.

Bold Intimacy
Ashley Jameson
What is it that makes a relationship great? Ashley will help us look practically at how we take our relationships—and marriage in particular—below the surface to places of intimacy and connection. How do we grow close as a couple or in friendship? We’ll see how learning to understand each other's family of origin, trauma story, wounds, and triggers will actually draw us closer together and make us allies and champions of one another. 

The Summit also offers breakout sessions covering topics like parenting, marriage, groups, neurochemistry, and emotional health.

So, I ask again, do you have an area of life where you feel completely lost?

The truth is: you don’t have to be lost anymore.

On September 10-11, the Pure Desire Summit will help you explore below the surface––under your hood––and give you the tools to bring layers of healing to your soul. Join us!

The views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are those of the author alone and do not reflect an official position of Pure Desire Ministries, except where expressly stated.