Praise and Confused

About Praise and Confused

Have you ever really wondered what the bible says about topics like depression, anxiety, prayer and social media? Well so do we. You can listen to the regular pastors who preach on "masculinity" or whom have made their personal politics into their own religion, or you can listen to us as we attempt to help answer those questions using what scripture actually says.

Publisher

Stephen and Nick

Category

religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Apr 2025

Latest episode

17 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

49 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 Oct 2026

   "Life Is Like a Box of Chocolates."

   "You never know what you’re gonna get." Forrest Gump Somehow it’s always the praline. This week, Stephen and Nick get into Ecclesiastes 7–9, mortality, grief, nostalgia, and the question of how to enjoy life when nothing is guaranteed. They also take a few important detours: orange chocolate is apparently an offense against nature, old cars were better, and turning on the heater should not feel like a high-stakes gamble. Underneath the jokes, it’s an honest conversation about faith when life gets hard. What do you do with loss, unanswered prayers, and the things you can’t control? And how do you remember that life is a gift while also admitting that, sometimes, it really is a lot? Come for the chocolate opinions. Stay for the existential dread, and a reminder to enjoy the good things while they’re here.

2. 

   25 Sept 2026

   "The things you own end up owning you"

   Tyler Durden Fight Club What happens when the things we work for, buy, and chase start controlling us instead of making us happy? This conversation gets into envy, overwork, loneliness, money, relationships, and the exhausting feeling that peace is always one purchase, one promotion, or one life change away. Stephen talks honestly about burnout, financial pressure, repairs, work, and trying to keep everything together. Nick brings his own perspective on isolation, marriage, divorce, and the painful realization that no relationship, job, or possession can save you. Together they ask some uncomfortable questions: Why do we keep chasing more when more never seems to be enough? Why does success so often come with stress instead of peace? Why does having people around matter so much? And what does Ecclesiastes have to say about enjoying what we have before it starts owning us? This episode is honest, funny in places, and pretty uncomfortable in others. No easy answers. Just Stephen and Nick wrestling with what it means to live in a world that constantly tells us to want more, while Scripture keeps reminding us that more is not the same thing as better.

3. 

   18 Sept 2026

   Everyone I know, Goes Away in the End

   Stephen and Nick finally get to Ecclesiastes. Eventually. First there's a recording glitch, a handful of music tangents, an argument about Christian bands, a detour into church names, and some well-earned complaining about country music. Scenic route guaranteed. The episode title borrows a line from Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt," and it fits. Ecclesiastes 1-6 is one of the most honest, least comfortable books in the Bible, and Stephen and Nick spend this episode sitting in that discomfort instead of rushing past it. This isn't a book that pretends life is beautiful and simple. It's about repetition, frustration, work, money, pleasure, aging, church culture, disappointment, and every strategy people use to feel secure in a world that keeps taking things back. They get into why wisdom sometimes brings more sorrow instead of less, how nostalgia quietly becomes an idol, and why the good things in life are gifts, not guarantees. The conversation gets personal too: church decline, burnout, midlife uncertainty, money stress, broken houses, plans that didn't work out, and that unsettling feeling that God might be closing a door instead of opening one. Also covered: Why Ecclesiastes feels depressing, and why that's actually freeing What "vanity of vanities" really means (hint: closer to vapor or mist than "meaningless") How money, success, pleasure, knowledge, nostalgia, and church tradition all try to become idols Why it's okay to admit life is hard instead of forcing a smile What "a time for everything" means when your current season feels awful How wisdom doesn't necessarily make things easier, but it exposes what's hollow How to enjoy good things without turning them into gods It's a serious conversation about a serious book, but Stephen and Nick still find room for Christian metal, online church, introverts, expensive houses, bad country music, and the general absurdity of being alive. Ecclesiastes doesn't hand you easy answers. Neither do they. What you get instead is a more honest way to look at life, one that doesn't require pretending everything's fine. Sometimes faith looks like gratitude. Sometimes it looks like complaining, lamenting, eating something good, and admitting you have no idea what God is doing. Ecclesiastes leaves room for all of it. So does this episode.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings