Week 1, Doctor Phil, Episode 339, Act One

Welcome to This American Bible Study, empowering you to interact spiritually with the challenging, heart-warming, and inspiring real stories, captured on the popular radio show and podcast This American Life. This exercise is structured as a group activity for small groups in churches, but could be used between friends or spouses, or even individually. Enjoy! 
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/339/break-up

Listen to Act One, Dr Phil, 29 min:


Breakups are not just related to dating and romance. We seek closure, and we come to terms with loss and change, in many areas of life – friendships, childhood, college experiences, a favorite place, a job, a way we have seen ourselves, and innocence.


1.     What “ending” has been the hardest for you to face in life so far?

2.     What have you learned about love by way of your break-ups or losses?

3.     Can you identify ways you have grown as a result of losses in the way Phil Collins expressed?

4.     How do you typically process endings and beginnings?

5.     Are you facing an ending or a beginning right now? How so?

6.     What surprised you most about this episode and what the participants expressed?

7.     Is there a famous person you would reach out to in order to help you process a painful part of your life?

8.     What song would you want to write if you could?

9.     How have you interacted with God in prayer or through scripture to process “endings” or losses?

10.  The Apostle Paul writes to the Philippians with that sense of looking back and seeing what he has learned and experience through hard times and losses. Reflect on Philippians 4:11 - 14. What does this passage mean to you in terms of personal losses and the assurance we have in Christ and in one another?

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