How to Reframe an Angry Year: A Conversation with Mark Labberton
For the Good of the Public | The Morning FivePlay episode
Show notes
This is a special episode of For the Good of the Public, cross-posted with "Conversing with Mark Labberton."
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conversing-with-mark-labberton/id1161564408
Can joy be anything but denial in a rage-filled public life? Michael Wear joins Mark Labberton to reframe politics through the kingdom logic of hope, agency, and practices of silence and solitude. As 2025 closes amid political discord, we might all ask whether joy can be real in public life—without denial, escapism, or contempt.
"… Joy is a pervasive and constant sense of wellbeing."
In this conversation, Michael Wear and Mark Labberton reflect on joy, hope, responsibility, and agency amid a reaction-driven politics. Together they discuss the realism of Advent; the limits of our control; how kingdom imagination reframes anger; hope beyond outcomes, dignity under threat, and practices (including silence and solitude) that restore clarity.
About Michael Wear
Michael Wear is the Founder, President, and CEO of the Center for Christianity and Public Life, a nonpartisan nonprofit that contends for the credibility of Christian resources in public life, for the public good. He has served for more than a decade as a trusted advisor to civic and religious leaders on faith and public life, including as a presidential campaign and White House staffer. He is the author of The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life and Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America. Learn more and follow at https://www.michaelwear.com.
Helpful Links and Resources
Michael Wear, The Spirit of Our Politics https://www.zondervan.com/9780310367239/the-spirit-of-our-politics/
Michael Wear, Reclaiming Hope https://www.thomasnelson.com/9780718082338/reclaiming-hope/
Center for Christianity and Public Life https://www.ccpubliclife.org/
A National Call to Silence and Solitude https://www.silenceandsolitude.org/
Dallas Willard: "Personal Soul Care" https://dwillard.org/resources/articles/personal-soul-care
Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited https://www.beacon.org/Jesus-and-the-Disinherited-P1781.aspx
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