Welcome to The Things that Matter Most, the show where we talk about things everyone is passionate about, but that matter much more than sports or politics.

We’re your hosts, and each week we bring you a different spiritual perspective or current topic of interest, but our purpose is always the same: to ask questions about our basic beliefs and see how they line up with solid evidence and the reality we all experience. Whether our guest is a humanist or a Hindu, whether our topic is a new movie or an age-old dilemma, we hope our conversation gives you confidence that what you believe is true.

Rick Davis & Lael Arrington

Lael Arrington

Featured Books and Websites

Please click the photo to purchase the book.

A Faith and Culture Devotional By: Kelley Monroe Kullberg and Lael Arrington About the Book: Host Lael Arrington joins her co-author, Finding God at Harvard author Kelly Monroe Kullberg to talk about their new book, A Faith and Culture Devotional: Daily Readings in Art, Science, and Life, out just in time for Christmas. In this college education in a devotional. Kelly and Lael take you on a guided tour through many of the paintings, laboratories, rock arenas, great books, mass movements and private lives that have shaped the ways in which we think and live. Over *70 imminent scientists and artists, professors and authors have contributed short daily readings about significant ideas, people and events--all written to explore the connections between head and heart, intellectual disciplines and faith. *(Contributors include Dallas Willard, Randy Alcorn, Churck Colson, RC Sproul, Scot McKnight, John Eldredge, Frances Collins, Michael Behe and many more.) To read sample devotionals or purchase click here: http://www.zondervan.com/Cultures/en-US/Product/ProductDetail.htm?ProdID=com.zondervan.9780310283560&QueryStringSite=Zondervan

 

	Reasonable Faith By: William Lane Craig Christian Truth and Apologetics About the Author: William Lane Craig (PhD, University of Birmingham, England; DTheol, University of Munich, Germany) is research professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California
	Why Mike's Not a Christian By: Ben Young with Sarah Fuselier Honest Questions about Evolution, Relativism, Hypocrisy, and Moreore Can most believers give a rational explanation for their faith? Have most skeptics ever heard convincing answers to their arguments? Author Ben Young creates an intriguing and insightful dialogue between a skeptic, Mike, and a Christian friend working through Mike's questions with thoughtful, biblical answers. Along the way, readers will discover responses to the most common reasons people say they are not a Christian— It's true for you, but not for me, All Christians are hypocrites, Evolution is true, The Bible is full of myths, All paths lead to God, not just one.  Open-minded skeptics looking for answers or Christians looking for a way to articulate their beliefs more effectively will want this on hand.
	Nothing: Something To Believe In By: Nica Lalli What is it like to grow up in a house with no religion? What kind of experiences does someone have when one is not a believer and yet comes into constant contact with religion? How can a person find out what they are when they focus primarily on what they are not? These are the questions raised in the memoir Nothing. With humor, wit, and poignant insight, Nica Lalli recounts her mishaps and misadventures with religion from early childhood into her adult years. As a questioning child, unsure of her idea of God, then a teenager feeling like an outsider, and finally an adult mother confronted by her husband's born-again Christian family and questions from her own children, Nica vividly describes her struggle to find out what kind of "something" she really is. In the end, the author finds that "nothing" is a philosophy to be embraced rather than feared. Nothing is an appealing, sensitively written story that offers hope, humor, and reason to millions of similar Americans who feel alienated in an ever more religiously polarized nation.
	A New Kind of Normal By: Carol Kent Hope Filled Choices When Life Turns Upside-Down Carol Kent has lived every parent's nightmare. After her only son was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Carol's life took a permanent detour. She and her husband, Gene, have been adjusting ever since, moving to Florida to be near the prison, starting a new ministry for prison inmates and their families, and sharing the faithfulness of God with anyone who will listen. A New Kind of Normal begins with the story of that horrible night when Carol and Gene learned their son had been arrested, but it doesn't end there. In fact, Carol knows what it means to live with an unthinkable circumstance that will never change-and to still make hope-filled choices. Through the eight chapters in this book, Carol will use their own story, the story of Mary mother of Jesus, and stories of women who have experienced their own "new normal" to share how God has led them to choose life, gratitude, vulnerability, involvement, forgiveness, trust, and action.
	What's Good About Felling Bad???? By: Gary Habermas and John C. Thomas Finding the Blessing in the Midst of Life's Difficulties   When you are tightly clenched in the grip of suffering, hearing that God has a purpose and a plan may feel like adding salt to a raw wound. How can you be sure that there is a greater good to be gained? In What's Good about Feeling Bad?, John Thomas and Gary Habermas thoughtfully explore the impact of pain on our lives, explain fifteen spiritual benefits to suffering and offer scriptural and practical advice to help you walk with God through even the hardest of times. If you are hurting--or know someone who is--this book is the road map you need to make it through your pain and emerge a stronger, wiser, and more complete person than ever before.
	Do It Anyway: By: Kent Keith Finding Personal Meaning and Deep Happiness by Living the Paradoxical Commandments People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered: Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives: Do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies: Succeed anyway.... — from the Paradoxical Commandments Dr. Kent Keith published the Paradoxical Commandments as part of a book he wrote for student leaders in the 1960s when he was an undergraduate at Harvard. These maxims for finding meaning in the face of adversity took on a life of their own, making their way into countless speeches, advice columns, books, institutions, and homes around the world. They were even found on the wall of Mother Teresa’s children’s home in Calcutta. They became the basis of Keith’s bestselling book Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments. Do It Anyway expands on the vision behind the Paradoxical Commandments. It includes forty stories of people who live the commandments each day and gives you the examples, tools, and encouragement to find personal meaning and deep happiness, no matter who you are or what your circumstances, even when times are tough.
	He Loves Me, He Love Me NotNot By: Trish Ryan A Memoir of Finding Faith, Hope, and Happily Ever After Trish Ryan was the quintessential successful thirty-something woman -- she had a career as an attorney, a nice car, and a succession of men clamoring for her affection. But despite all her accomplishments, the things by which she defined her life continually left her disappointed, especially when it came to dating. Like the heroines of chick-lit novels and Sex and the City, she couldn't escape her bad luck with men: men who cheated, who left her, who made her a lesser version of herself. After years of trying everything out there to make love work -- new age philosophy, feminist empowerment, myriads of self-help programs -- she finally, hesitantly, decided to give God a try. This is Ryan's story of how her search for the right guy turned into the search for the right God, and (spoiler alert!) how she ended up with the happily-ever-after ending.

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You’ll meet Rick and Lael on the Your Hosts page and find out more about The Things that Matter Most on The Show page, including exciting upcoming topics and guests.

Click here to listen to previous shows and see pictures of favorite guests.

If you’re part of the Read More About It crowd you can find recommended books on the Favorites page and an expanded discussion of why we believe what we believe on the Evidences page.