Restless Sanctuary — A Healing Confrontation

Albert Bogle December 18, 2025 0 0

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Our Restless Sanctuary Podcast will be taking a break over Christmas with our next episode coming in January next year.

In the meantime Albert reflects on what we have explored through the podcast so far and the striking conclusion he and James have come to about the nature of God. 

Do you ever feel a nagging sense of restlessness? An unease you sometimes wake up with in the morning? You know that something is wrong, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. Perhaps it’s because we live in a world in constant motion: politically, economically, culturally. We’re in an age of disruptors. This upheaval leaves many of us searching, perhaps even longing, for a place of sanctuary; a place to belong and a map to navigate the unprecedented challenges we face.

I have been reflecting on this with James Cathcart in our new Restless Sanctuary Podcast, and we have come to a striking conclusion: maybe the deepest yearning we feel isn’t a flaw. Perhaps it’s an echo of something divine. Could we be uncovering a deep restlessness in God’s heart that mirrors our own? A tireless love that searches for each one of us? In the face of one another, especially in the face of need, we glimpse God. And in God, we glimpse our own human yearning for wholeness.

The Bleakness of Home

I have often thought about how bleak or empty our living rooms can feel this time of year. They look all dressed up with tinsel and baubles, but underneath that festive veneer, there can be a lingering atmosphere that simply says, “No one is really living here.”

We all know this feeling. It’s the hidden hurt of a broken relationship, the space missing at the family table, the internal noise that makes us keep busy trying to create the right atmosphere when nothing inside feels right at all. Around the world, there are people once loved who can't be named — alive but treated as if they were dead — yet their absence makes them terribly present in every conversation.

If you are on the outside looking in, if you feel the chill of estrangement, I want to say this: there is a place for you.

Sanctuary Through the Storm: The Healing Confrontation

James and I believe that Jesus offers respite for our restless souls, but not simply in the sense of a final resting place. He offers a Restless Sanctuary — a temporary, makeshift shelter that equips us to turn around and go back out into the world we are called to love.

Drawing on thinkers like Emil Brunner, we see this sanctuary not merely as a place of safety, but as a place of engagement with the holy presence of God. It is a healing confrontation. Here, sheltered through the storm, we are faced with our own brokenness: the self-centredness, arrogance, and selfishness that often justify our estrangement from others. This sanctuary is not a permission slip to hide; it's a mirror that shows us our own need for change. Our ship logo illustrates this: a shelter moving forward through the storm, its passengers being transformed by the journey itself.

We can’t change the past, but we can make decisions today that change our future. And the key to making those changes — the key to bringing the peace we all long for — is forgiveness.

That is easier said than done, I know. But if we spent more energy rekindling relationships, imagine what warm and inviting places our inner lives — and yes, our living rooms — could become.

The Cost of Reconciliation

We often reflect on the Christmas carol, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” and its profound message that God and sinners can be reconciled. If that is true, surely sinners and sinners can also be reconciled to each other?

I take inspiration from the story of Nelson Mandela and the change of heart that occurred between him and his captors. It reminds me that things do not have to remain the way they are. Yet the cost is great, and the confrontation with our own role in the brokenness is essential. Without acknowledgement of wrong and repentance — starting with our own — there can be no true reconciliation.

It is God at work in hearts that can turn a prisoner like Mandela and a prison warden like James Gregory into friends. God is the great cosmic peacemaker, able to do what none of us can do alone: change mindsets and perspectives. But it starts with our first, painful step of honest self-assessment in the light of the Holy.

Our Shared Exploration

This is precisely the ground James and I are exploring in our new conversation series.

In each episode of Restless Sanctuary, we share what it's like to be restless Christians, wrestling honestly with the Bible, spirituality, and the challenge of living out our faith today. We ask hard questions about meaning, disruption, and where we find that restless love in the real world—even in the uncomfortable reality of confronting our own brokenness. We invite you to join us in this ongoing exploration.

You can find the series on the Sanctuary First feed on our website, app and all major podcast platforms, with new episodes released every fortnight.

Listen to Episode One: What happens when we start with belonging? Part one of our look at the Parable of the man with two sons.

Listen to Episode Two: Scallywags and sharks? about the call to adventure, Rembrandt, scallywags, sharks, a sheep called Alan and the second part of our deep dive on the parable of the man with two sons.

Listen to Episode Three: Are we collecting wood or are we longing for the sea? Where we discuss our Advent theme ‘Room at the table’ and the life-changing, world-changing implications of God’s invitation to each of us.

Listen to Episode Four: So what is Communion? Where we ask: So what is Communion? Why do we do it? And how can it shape how we see the world? On the way they discuss cheering from the terraces, Tunnocks Teacakes, and banana molecules!

Find us and join us on the journey: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, The Sanctuary First App.

Albert Bogle