2 Corinthians 4:16–18 + Heart of Vines by Lisa Brenninkmeyer and Katie Brenninkmeyer

How do we keep growing when following Jesus has become familiar? How do we remain faithful when life doesn’t turn out the way we expected?

In this six-episode series of the Be Still podcast, Still Becoming: Six Conversations about Spiritual Maturity, Lisa explores the ways God may be asking us to keep growing—not simply so we can follow Jesus faithfully for most of our lives, but so we can finish well.

Because life can test our faith in ways we never anticipated. When our hearts break, our stories take unexpected turns, and God doesn’t give us the answers we want, what happens to our faith? Through Scripture, great books, and honest reflection, Lisa explores what it means to grow in faith, embrace spiritual maturity, and remain faithful to Jesus through every season of life.

What does it mean to grow older with grace in a culture that keeps telling us to resist aging at all costs?

In this episode, Lisa reflects on St. Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:16: “Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day.” Through a conversation with her daughter about body image and a story from Heart of Vines, she considers what our bodies are actually for—and how knowing their purpose can change the way we experience aging.

Perhaps growing older with grace isn’t about giving up on caring for ourselves. Perhaps it’s about shifting our attention from preservation to transformation—measuring our lives less by what time is taking away and more by the fruit God is still inviting us to bear.

In this episode, Lisa explores:

• The pressure women feel to resist the natural signs of aging
• What 2 Corinthians 4 teaches us about the outer self and the inner self
• The difference between preservation and transformation
• How our understanding of the purpose of our bodies shapes the way we experience aging
• What a conversation about body image revealed about the messages we pass on to younger women
• The wisdom, perspective, freedom, and fruitfulness that can come with age
• Why some kinds of fruit can only grow with time
• How to ask not simply, “How am I aging?” but “What am I becoming as I age?”

Journaling Questions

1. What am I becoming as I age? Am I becoming more peaceful or more anxious? More generous or more self-protective? More interested in other people or more preoccupied with myself? Am I quicker to forgive? Slower to judge? More willing to listen? Less concerned with being noticed? 
2. Do the people closest to me experience more of the fruit of the Spirit in me than they did ten years ago? What fruit can I bear in this season of my life that I could not have borne when I was younger?

Key Scripture
2 Corinthians 4:16–18. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Show Mentions
Lisa Brenninkmeyer, Abriendo tu corazón. This translated Spanish version of our most popular Bible study, Opening Your Heart, is now available in our shop. 

Lisa Brenninkmeyer, Viviendo en el amor del Padre. This translated Spanish version of our popular Bible study, Living in the Father's Love, is now available in our shop. 

Lisa Brenninkmeyer and Katie Brenninkmeyer, Heart of Vines: An Invitation to Escape the Life that is Slowly Killing You.

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