Hole in My Heart Podcast

We’re trying something new called Laurie’s Book Club, where “she reads the book so you don’t have to.

Granted, we would love it if you read the book and “discussed” it alongside us on the pod, but if you’re anything like most of the world, you’d love to hear a summary of the book, any major nuggets, a little discussion, and call it a day.

That’s what we are starting today!

The book of focus is Jonathan Haidt’s instant NYTimes best seller, The Anxious Generation. It’s globally shaking up families, school systems, and even legislation around phones and screen times for the Gen Z—and we believe it’s shaking it in a good way.

How?

It names some of the problems for the massive anxiety and depression outbreak among Gen Z and it offers some solutions.

What are they? You’re going to have to listen in—but you don’t have to read the book.

| Highlights |

| Next Steps |

Suffering, eh? Sounds … super … fun. 

Ya know, the older we get, the more we realize just how important our theology of suffering is when we are … well, suffering.

As Kelly Kapic said in today’s episode, “You don’t realize how flimsy your theology of suffering is until you use it as a resource to live on.” 

For example, if we think suffering should be escaped, *when* we suffer we will try to outrun it. (Which is hard to do if we are enduring physical pain.)

If we think suffering should be embraced, *when* we suffer we might try to make it our identity.

Let’s get a proper theology of suffering with someone who isn’t just a theologian of suffering but someone who knows it personally: Author Kelly Kapic. Together, we talk about:

How can we suffer with high hope and high lament?

How can we deal with our chronic pain of the soul or body?

What is up with the book of Job? Is God a bully or kind?

How can we pivot our hearts to suffer well now or in the future?

| Highlights |

• “You don’t realize how flimsy your theology of suffering is until you use it as a resource to live on. It’s like trying to exist on saltine crackers, and you think, ’No, I need some real nourishment here.’” —Kelly Kapic

| QOTW |

Space or ocean? Which is better?

| Next Steps |

• Find Kelly’s book here.

When I [Laurie] met Kat, she was planning to marry her girlfriend and was considering transitioning to male.

But God was already drawing Kat to Himself, and He tapped me on the shoulder to join the process.

Hear the whole discipleship journey between us today on the podcast.

| Highlights |

• “I would be doing absolutely nothing and I would feel this conviction … This fear of ‘Am I making the right choice? Am I rejecting The One?’” —Kat LaPrairie

| QOTW | 

Mullets: Yes or no? ;)

| Next Step Resources |

Listen to Kat’s first conversation with us

Find Kat on IG here.

Find Journey Well here.

Connect to O’Neill Asset Management here.

Join the HIMH Pod FB group here.

Follow Laurie on IG (where she is the most active) here.

A new Barna study says 54% of Christians watch p*rnography. This number is only 7 percentage points behind the percent of all U.S. adults who consume it (61%).

We need help. How can we get the help we need for our addictions at a soul-deep level? Author and therapist Sam Jolman is here to assist.

Together, we discuss:

• —Is male sexuality just extra broken or what? 

| Highlights | 

• “Evil hates your sexuality. Evil hates the sexuality of your children. It does not want you to be alive and well in your sexuality; nor does it want that for your children, because our sexuality mirrors so much of our hearts as lovers and worshippers of God.” —Sam Jolman

|Next Step Resources|

• Good pictures and bad pictures: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Pictures-Bad-Porn-Proofing-Todays/dp/0997318732

Many of us grew up in the church hearing that weakness was a good thing: In our weakness, God is strong through us.

If that’s true, why does weakness feel so terrible?

Today, we talk with author, podcaster, and pastor, Eric Schumacher about “the good gift of weakness,” why many of us don’t like it, and why it is the best place to thrive as a human being.

We also discuss:

• —How did Eric’s “failing at ministry” help him to recover his life?

| Highlights | 

“Is there a place in the Kingdom for someone as weak as me?”

“This is the good news for the Christian: Jesus became weaker than we will ever be because He was dead under God’s curse, and we will never be that weak because He was.”

“Paul knew Jesus was the kind of man who would invite his disciples to see him trembling and sorrowful to the point of death in the garden of Gethsemane. Part of imitating that Savior is putting your own weakness on display for all to see.”

| Next Step Resources | 

Eric’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Gift-Weakness-Strength-Redemption/dp/0736988661

Eric’s site: https://emschumacher.com/about-eric/

Eric’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/emschumacher

Connect to O’Neill Asset Management: https://www.oneillassetmanagement.com

Join the HIMH Pod FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/himhpodcast

Follow Laurie on IG (where she is the most active):https://www.instagram.com/laurie_krieg/

Something we so appreciate about Dr. Preston Sprinkle is he doesn’t tell us what to think, he encourages us to think about what we are thinking about.

When it comes to engaging politics, we need people to help us think about politics biblically first.

If you’re like us, you’re all done with politics…yesterday. 

And yet, we cannot escape it. Is there a way to engage it without losing our minds (and faith)?

Theologian, author, podcaster, and friend of the podcast, Preston Sprinkle, is just the expert we need to help us think about politics biblically.

We discuss:

• How can we vote with a Kingdom of God mindset?

| Highlights |

• “The day after the election, your kingdom mission is exactly the same, and the power you have to fulfill that kingdom mission is exactly the same. The values you are to embody are exactly the same.”

| QOTW |

What game are you secretly good at? (You guys make us laugh!)

| Next Step Resources |

Read Preston’s ‘Exiles’ book here

Read the Bible he edited here 

Connect to O’Neill Asset Management here 

Join the HIMH Pod FB group here

Follow Laurie on IG here (where she is the most active)

If you have ever struggled to process your story (and who hasn’t??), this episode is for you.

Author, teacher, and child-of-a-one-time angry father, Lisa Jo Baker, takes us by the hand and guides us to take the tiniest look back so we can move forward into healing.

| Main Themes |

• Why do we avoid going back into our stories?

| Highlights | 

“A thought dropped into my head, ‘You need to speak about what it was like to be the child of an angry parent.’” 

“By the time I finished writing the chapter, I would feel this profound sense of, ‘Oh, He did it again!’ Jesus went back, picked apart these terrible places in my life, and brought healing.”

“If you take anything from my story, it’s this: it wasn’t me, I didn’t do it. It wasn’t my dad. He didn’t do it. It was Jesus and his grace and mercy he orchestrated the entire thing simply because I was willing to look.”

| About the Guest |

With a BA in English/prelaw from Gordon College and a JD from the University of Notre Dame Law School, Lisa-Jo has lived and worked on three continents in the human rights field and subsequently spent nearly a decade leading the online community of women called (in)courage as their editor in chief and community manager. She’s the co-host of the Out of the Ordinary podcast. Originally from South Africa, Lisa-Jo now lives just outside Washington, D.C., where she met and fell in love with her husband in the summer of ’96. Their story together spans decades, languages, countries, books, three very opinionated children, and one dog, and is written in Lisa-Jo’s latest book, It Wasn’t Roaring, It Was Weeping.

| Next Steps |

• Lisa’s book

If you’re a parent or mentor of young kids right now like we are, I am pretty sure you could marinate in fear every day of the week. 

Add the fact that it is up to us parents and mentors to teach these kids facts and wisdom about sexuality and body safety, and you can just find us in a panic attack on the floor every-other day of the week.

But what if we didn’t have to? What if we could learn how to wisely lead them in the midst of this wild world?

Today, psychologist and author Julia Sadusky helps us to do just that. Together we discuss:

• Why is avoiding conversations about bodies and sex lead to a lack of safety for our kids?

• What is the difference between sharing sexualized content with kids and talking about sexuality with kids?

• How do we non-anxiously but wisely engage body-exploration that kids naturally do?

• What are family rules and why might I consider having them? 

• What if we already feel like we failed as parents and mentors of young kids? How can we recover missed years?

| Highlights |

• “What is beautiful about parenthood is you get to be this imperfect representation to the world and to your kids of what we do when we fall short of the glory of God.” —Julia Sadusky

| QOTW |

Are you an ice or no-ice person? And what shape does it need to take? (Square, round, or perhaps Death Star shaped??)

| Do the Next Thing |

• Julia’s book, Start Talking to Your Kids About Sex 

It’s that time again: Let’s take your questions and try to respond with wisdom!

• Here are the ones we respond to today!

| Highlights |

• “Our kids do not have to be fed rage and othering in order to cultivate a heart that is both passionate for truth and grieves over sin.” —Laurie Krieg

| Do the Next Thing |

• We mention Journey Well here or here

Today, we conclude our two-part series looking at strategies to intentionally and evangelistically approach Pride Month. 

To continue the conversation, we talk with Elizabeth Delgado Black who is an evangelist and the co-founder and president of Kaleidoscope. Together, we talk about practical ways to love LGBTQ people like Jesus as well as: 

• Can we talk a little bit about language? Why use LGBTQ language at all?

| Highlights |

• “You don't have to invent something on your own. Some of the most powerful work that we do is with other organizations because they do not expect that a Christian is going to want anything to do with them.” —Elizabeth Delgado Black

| QOTW |

What is your most *you* music? (Ya’ll are too funny…)

| Do the Next Thing |

• Find out about Kaleidoscope here