Sunburnt Souls: A Christian Mental Health Podcast cover art

Sunburnt Souls: A Christian Mental Health Podcast

Sunburnt Souls: A Christian Mental Health Podcast

By: Dave Quak
Listen for free

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Searching for real conversations about Christian mental health — faith, anxiety, depression, and emotional resilience — shared with raw honesty and biblical hope? You’ve found it.

Sunburnt Souls is a Christian mental health podcast where faith and mental health meet real life. Each episode offers faith-based coping strategies, spiritual encouragement, and raw stories of hope.

I’m Pastor Dave Quak — an Aussie pastor living with bipolar disorder — and I know what it’s like to follow Jesus through the highs, lows, and everything in between.

You’ll hear powerful stories, biblical encouragement, and practical tools for navigating anxiety, depression, burnout, and mental wellness as a follower of Christ.

Whether you’re battling darkness, searching for joy, or just trying to make sense of it all, you’re not alone. Sunburnt Souls is a safe, unfiltered space for faith-filled conversations and honest connection.


🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. 🌐 Learn more at sunburntsouls.com

© 2026 Sunburnt Souls: A Christian Mental Health Podcast
Christianity Education Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Spirituality
Episodes
  • Bible Heroes and Mental Health: Mary, Martha and Lazarus
    Jan 25 2026

    A quiet living room in Bethany, a sealed tomb, and a Savior who stops to weep before he calls a name—this is where faith and mental wellbeing meet. We invited listeners into the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus to explore how Jesus honors different personalities, different griefs, and the same deep hope. One sister serves, one sits, and both reveal something vital about how love moves and how souls rest.

    We start with the tension that many of us feel: is spiritual health found in doing or being? Martha’s hospitality and Mary’s stillness become more than a rivalry; they’re a map for ordering the inner life. We talk about what happens when service runs ahead of presence, why rest often triggers guilt for doers, and how Jesus re-centers us by inviting relationship first and action from overflow. Then we step into John 11, where Lazarus’ death exposes our hardest questions—Why didn’t God? Where was he when it broke?—and watch as Jesus meets each heart differently.

    Martha brings bold theology and aching honesty, and Jesus answers with living truth: “I am the resurrection and the life.” Mary brings tears, and Jesus answers with his own. We sit with the shock of “Jesus wept,” a line that dismantles the myth of a distant God. From there, we trace the miracle that follows, the grave clothes unwrapped by a community, and the messy aftermath—belief rising, opposition hardening, and Lazarus facing fresh danger. Hope breaks in, but the world stays cracked, which is why we explore the “now and not yet” as a framework for resilient mental health: pray boldly, grieve honestly, and keep walking.

    If you’ve carried unanswered prayers, chronic struggle, or a heart tired of the pendulum between doing and being, this conversation offers grounded comfort and practical steps. We share takeaways on practicing lament, choosing presence without shame, serving without burnout, and letting trusted people help you loosen what still binds. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review to tell us: where have you heard Jesus call you out of the dark?

    ☀️ CONNECT with Sunburnt Souls

    Discover more from Sunburnt Souls — a Christian mental health podcast sharing real stories of faith, hope, and healing at sunburntsouls.com.

    Explore our library of Christian mental health resources, including podcasts, free devotionals, and online courses designed to help you strengthen your faith, overcome anxiety and depression, and experience emotional and spiritual renewal.

    🧠 NEW ONLINE COURSE: Loving Life with Faith and Mental Health

    A 28-day, $28 journey to help you:

    • Embrace your identity in Jesus
    • Build life-giving spiritual rhythms
    • Navigate anxiety, depression, and burnout with honesty and grace

    👉 Start your 28-day journey today

    📩 JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

    Get weekly encouragement, bonus podcast clips, and faith-informed mental health resources in your inbox. 👉 Subscribe to the newsletter

    🙏 SUPPORT THE MISSION

    Help us keep producing Christian mental health podcasts and resources that bring hope to listeners around the world and breaks the stigma in the Church. 👉 ...

    Show More Show Less
    32 mins
  • Bible Heroes and Mental Health. King David
    Jan 18 2026

    What if your greatest risk isn’t suffering, but success? We dive into David’s uneven path from overlooked shepherd to celebrated king to show how formation in hidden places can hold you together when the spotlight doesn’t. This is a story about mental well-being, deep emotion, spiritual resilience, and the slow drift that happens when comfort dulls conviction.

    We start with David’s early years—ignored by family yet seen by God—and how solitude forged skill, courage, and a prayer life that could carry heavy feelings without collapsing. From lions and bears to Goliath, adversity sharpened him. Then we zoom into the complex season under Saul: playing the harp for a tormented king while dodging spears, learning humility and restraint even when power was within reach. Along the way we map the paradox: David excels with pressure and purpose, but stumbles when life is easy.

    We take an honest look at the Bathsheba fallout—how desire, access, and unchecked power produce a spiral of secrecy and harm—and why Psalm 51 remains a masterclass in repentance and restoration. Rather than sin-leveling or stone-throwing, we trace a healthier response: truth telling, lament, and a renewed heart that returns to mission.

    You’ll hear practical takeaways for modern life: building identity in the quiet, planning for success with guardrails and accountability, and using confession to break the cycle before shame buries you. David’s legacy is not perfection; it’s the courage to come back to God, again and again, until wisdom grows where wounds once lived.

    If this conversation helps you think differently about faith, feelings, and resilience, share it with a friend, hit follow, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. What guardrails will you set for your next season of success?

    ☀️ CONNECT with Sunburnt Souls

    Discover more from Sunburnt Souls — a Christian mental health podcast sharing real stories of faith, hope, and healing at sunburntsouls.com.

    Explore our library of Christian mental health resources, including podcasts, free devotionals, and online courses designed to help you strengthen your faith, overcome anxiety and depression, and experience emotional and spiritual renewal.

    🧠 NEW ONLINE COURSE: Loving Life with Faith and Mental Health

    A 28-day, $28 journey to help you:

    • Embrace your identity in Jesus
    • Build life-giving spiritual rhythms
    • Navigate anxiety, depression, and burnout with honesty and grace

    👉 Start your 28-day journey today

    📩 JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

    Get weekly encouragement, bonus podcast clips, and faith-informed mental health resources in your inbox. 👉 Subscribe to the newsletter

    🙏 SUPPORT THE MISSION

    Help us keep producing Christian mental health podcasts and resources that bring hope to listeners around the world and breaks the stigma in the Church. 👉 ...

    Show More Show Less
    29 mins
  • Bible Heroes and Mental Health. Hannah, Eli, and God's restoration
    Jan 11 2026

    The story of Hannah opens inside a storm of rivalry, shame, and unmet longing—and yet it becomes a roadmap for hope. We unpack how a woman dismissed by culture and misread by a priest found language for her pain, courage for her vow, and a song that reframed value beyond fertility, status, or success. Along the way, we wrestle with the messier threads: a husband who minimizes real depression, a priest who projects his anxieties, and a community that confuses outcomes with worth.

    What surprised us most is the tenderness woven into Eli’s broken narrative. After a harsh misread, he listens, blesses, and later helps young Samuel recognize God’s voice—a quiet second chance inside consequences he can’t reverse. That tension matters for mental health and discipleship: people can wound us and still become part of our healing; grace doesn’t erase fallout but can redirect a legacy. We also talk about spiritual parenting and the power of community mentors—the craftspeople, teachers, and safe adults who bolster a child’s faith and emotional resilience when a home is stretched thin.

    Hannah’s song stands as the episode’s heartbeat: identity rooted in God’s character, not in what we produce or what others say we lack. We challenge formulaic faith around infertility and outcomes, insisting the text is descriptive, not prescriptive, and we center the presence of God as the anchor when everything else shakes. If you’ve ever felt unseen or mislabeled in your struggle, this conversation invites you to bring your ache to the One who hears—even when words won’t come—and to watch how blessing, community, and steadfast presence can change the story.

    If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope today, and leave a review to help others find the conversation.

    ☀️ CONNECT with Sunburnt Souls

    Discover more from Sunburnt Souls — a Christian mental health podcast sharing real stories of faith, hope, and healing at sunburntsouls.com.

    Explore our library of Christian mental health resources, including podcasts, free devotionals, and online courses designed to help you strengthen your faith, overcome anxiety and depression, and experience emotional and spiritual renewal.

    🧠 NEW ONLINE COURSE: Loving Life with Faith and Mental Health

    A 28-day, $28 journey to help you:

    • Embrace your identity in Jesus
    • Build life-giving spiritual rhythms
    • Navigate anxiety, depression, and burnout with honesty and grace

    👉 Start your 28-day journey today

    📩 JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

    Get weekly encouragement, bonus podcast clips, and faith-informed mental health resources in your inbox. 👉 Subscribe to the newsletter

    🙏 SUPPORT THE MISSION

    Help us keep producing Christian mental health podcasts and resources that bring hope to listeners around the world and breaks the stigma in the Church. 👉 ...

    Show More Show Less
    31 mins
No reviews yet