Today, my friend Mark Fields and I have a very important and vulnerable conversation about pain, something we all experience in life. We talk about the understanding, resilience, freedom, and peace on the other side of pain if we choose to do the hard and intentional work of becoming aware of it, accepting it, and healing from it.
We discuss the choice we have to heal from our childhood and adulthood pain, and to transform it into self-acceptance and love instead of transmitting it and hurting those we love.
We also dive into how to break the cycle of toxic masculinity in our family and how Mark intentionally chooses to be a parent through the lens of unconditional love.
Mark’s life mission is to remind the world that we are really family and God is much bigger than we've been told in most American Churches. He has been a part of Christian Community Development Association organizations, Latino church-plants, Black megachurches, White megachurches, Parachurch ministries as well as foreign and domestic missions organizations. He realized that there are many harmful understandings of God being communicated in the world. Many of the places people are going to encounter the peace and acceptance of God have become hallmarks of rejection, discrimination, and exile.
Mark started The Kinship Collective to be a part of reminding the world that God is good, we are good and anything that doesn’t feel or point to that image-of-God-goodness is simply missing the point. He believes when we are oriented by these truths, we can experience the world as family in ways we’ve always wanted and needed.
Mark also enjoys speaking, success coaching, and DEI consulting. He has journeyed with his partner Caryn for 15 years, and they have 3 incredible daughters.
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This episode was produced by Lucca Petrucci and mixed and mastered by Joel Yoshonis.