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What does it mean to be a warrior for Christ in today's world? Not just someone who wears a uniform or carries a weapon, but someone divinely commissioned to contend for righteousness in their family, church, and community.

The fight within – our internal battlefield – demands attention before we can effectively engage in external spiritual warfare. Justin and Jennifer Shalow tackle this profound truth as they explore how God consistently calls the wounded, hesitant, and overlooked to become His warriors. Moses questioned his voice, Gideon doubted his worth, David wasn't even invited to his anointing, and Peter denied Christ at His darkest hour. Yet each became mighty warriors not because they were flawless, but because they were willing.

Your wounds don't disqualify you – they're the very pathway God uses to forge your calling. This conversation dives deep into psychological and theological truths about identity formation, emotional regulation, and the critical balance of being both the lion and the lamb. The Shalows unpack the concept of "empathy on a dimmer switch" – knowing when to connect deeply with others' pain while maintaining clear boundaries against sin.

Perhaps most powerfully, this episode dismantles the notion that warriorism is exclusively masculine. Women aren't called to fragility but to fight alongside men with equal fervor though different expressions. Together, they form an unstoppable alliance against darkness – not competing for power but complementing each other's strengths.

Are you living under the weight of perceived disqualification? Have past wounds convinced you that you're unworthy of God's calling? This message will liberate you to embrace your warrior identity. The enemy doesn't fear perfect Christians – he fears healed ones who have allowed God to transform their pain into purpose.

Ready to armor up and engage with intentionality? Tune in to discover how healing isn't weakness – it's spiritual warfare.

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What happens when a warrior awakens but has no mission? They become dangerous not just to themselves, but to everyone around them. In this compelling second installment of our Warriorism series, Chaplain Justin Schalow reveals why commissioning is the critical next step after awakening.

The modern world has sold us a dangerous lie: that comfort should be our highest pursuit. But comfort is the enemy of productivity, and warriors must get comfortable being uncomfortable. Drawing from military land navigation principles, Justin explains how cultural and personal drift can take us hundreds of meters off course when we fail to regularly check our spiritual azimuth against God's commissioned purpose for our lives.

This episode cuts through cultural distortions of both masculinity and femininity. For men, culture reduces manhood to athletic prowess, sexual conquest, or financial achievement. For women, femininity becomes merely about appearance and consumption. Both miss the original Genesis blueprint where all believers are called to "cultivate and protect" as commissioned warriors in their sphere of influence.

The most compelling section explores how military creeds mirror spiritual truths. "I will always place the mission first" teaches purpose over comfort. "I will never accept defeat" instills faith over fear. These aren't just motivational phrases but battlefield convictions....the strength you fall back on when facing adversity. From King David to Joshua to Jesus himself, we see that true warriorism balances fierce courage with tender hearts.

Science confirms what scripture has always taught—our identity isn't formed in emotional mountaintop experiences but through consistent repetition. Our brains don't care what we intend to do; they fall back on what we've trained them to do.

Ready to move beyond just being awakened to being commissioned? Join us as we explore the cost and calling of the warrior's path...not for personal glory, but for kingdom impact that echoes through generations.

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Chaplain Justin Schalow introduces his forthcoming book "Warriorism," which addresses the crisis of biblical manhood and calls men to embody both the lion (strength/danger) and the lamb (restraint/discipline).

• Many men lack father figures or clear blueprints for biblical manhood
• Current men's studies often offer shallow principles rather than substantive tools
• The unawakened warrior is physically present but mentally absent in life's battles
• Biblical manhood requires integrating ferocity with restraint, like Jesus embodied
• Passivity isn't peace—it's a liability that allows spiritual enemies to gain ground
• Modern culture encourages men to be either harmless lambs or reckless lions
• True shepherds stand between their flock and danger, laying down their lives
• Men need to identify areas where their warrior is asleep and take immediate action
• Future episodes will explore how to develop a personal creed and kill passivity

Head over to revivewellco.com, click on the TheoPsych Project tab to share your story, ask questions, or connect with us directly.

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Have you ever wondered why intimacy feels so terrifying sometimes? Why you push away the very people you want close? The Garden of Eden wasn't just about a piece of fruit, it was humanity's first attachment trauma.

When Adam and Eve hid from God, they weren't just breaking a rule; they were experiencing the first spiritual rupture. Their perception of safety shattered, shame flooded their nervous systems, and they covered themselves with fig leaves—just as we still do today with perfectionism, busyness, sarcasm, or religious performance.

This episode dives deep into how attachment theory illuminates our spiritual wounds. Before sin, Eden represented perfect secure attachment: complete nakedness without shame or self-protection. But that fracture continues to echo through humanity in our four attachment styles—secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized.....affecting not just our human relationships but our ability to trust God.

Through biblical examples like Peter's desperate need for approval, Jonah's avoidance of intimacy, and Judas's self-sabotage, we discover that these aren't just psychological concepts but theological realities etched into Scripture long before modern psychology named them. When God called "Where are you?" in the garden, He wasn't asking for coordinates; He was naming the brokenness and pursuing restoration.

Healing begins not with trying harder but with returning—allowing yourself to be fully seen by the God who never stopped walking toward you. Your attachment style isn't a life sentence; it's a doorway to understanding. The human body remembers trauma, but the cross rewrites the story.

Ready to understand why you connect the way you do? Join us as we explore how Eden's trauma still shapes us, and how Christ offers not just salvation but secure attachment.

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Forgiveness sounds beautiful in theory, but feels like warfare in practice. When betrayal shatters your world, the journey toward healing isn't the clean, linear process we're often sold. Instead, it's messy, cyclical, and demands more than just a spiritual decision.

This raw, honest exploration dives deep into what forgiveness truly requires after betrayal trauma. Drawing from personal experience and professional expertise, I break down the dangerous half-truths about forgiveness that keep us stuck in shame when our bodies don't immediately align with our spiritual choices. The truth? Your nervous system doesn't automatically detox just because you've made the decision to forgive. 

Neuroscience confirms what many trauma survivors intuitively know - trauma memories bypass rational processing, residing in the amygdala where they trigger physical responses long after we've cognitively chosen forgiveness. This isn't spiritual failure; it's biology. Real healing happens when we stop pretending we're "over it" and start integrating our minds, bodies, and spirits through honest engagement with our pain.

I share the critical distinction between forgiveness (which is vertical, between you and God) and reconciliation (which is horizontal and requires genuine repentance). You can release someone from your inner court without inviting them back into your inner life. For those whose offenders never apologized, this distinction brings powerful freedom.

Whether you're walking through betrayal trauma yourself or supporting someone who is, this episode offers a framework for forgiveness that honors both God's commands and your body's need for safety. Healing isn't a straight line, but a rhythm of surrender, integration, and persistence that transforms us from the inside out.

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What happens when war follows you home? When the training that kept you alive in combat becomes the very thing destroying your marriage? Justin and Jen's story peels back the layers of military trauma, revealing the raw aftermath of Justin's deployment to Iraq—where suicide bombers, mass casualties, and daily firefights rewired his brain for a battle that wouldn't end when he returned home.

"Your body comes home long before your mind does," Justin explains, capturing the essence of PTSD that military families understand all too well. His nervous system remained locked in Ramadi long after his boots touched American soil. Hypervigilance, emotional numbness, and rage replaced the connection and intimacy their marriage once knew. The drinking escalated. Walls in their home bore witness to outbursts. Eventually, an affair and divorce papers threatened to end everything.

But what makes this story different isn't the brokenness—it's what happened in the space between destruction and redemption. Jen doesn't portray herself as a saint with perfect, peaceful responses. Instead, she reveals her angry, tear-soaked prayers for vengeance and justice. Yet in that painful separation, God worked in ways neither could have anticipated.

"I was praying for a hit job on my husband," Jen admits, "while God was redeeming his soul." This raw confession leafs us to how healing often begins not when our circumstances change, but when we surrender our demand to control the outcome. For anyone walking through trauma, addiction, betrayal, or the slow erosion of connection—this conversation offers hope without glossing over reality.

The redemption they experienced wasn't instantaneous or perfect, but it was real. Their story reminds us that God meets us in our messiness, not despite it—and sometimes the greatest transformations happen when we stop trying to fix our pain and simply allow God to meet us there.

Subscribe and share this episode with someone fighting a silent battle. You're not alone, and neither are they.

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In this powerful first installment, Justin and Jennifer open the door to the early chapters of their story—the ones written long before betrayal, breakdown, or breakthrough.

They take listeners back to their childhoods, where broken frameworks of love, safety, and self-worth were quietly forming. From emotionally unpredictable homes to early trauma that shaped their view of God and relationships, Part 1 lays the psychological and spiritual groundwork for everything that came later.

Jennifer unpacks the weight of early attachment wounds and the silent grief they carried into adulthood in Part 1. Justin shares the cost of military service and how unaddressed combat trauma and PTSD began to fracture his identity in Part 2. 

Together, they explore how early pain affects emotional regulation, intimacy, faith, and marriage—and how the lies we internalize in survival mode can sabotage everything we try to build in peace.

This isn’t just a story of pain—it’s a call to name what shaped you, so you can begin to heal it.

Topics: Childhood trauma, military PTSD, attachment theory, marriage strain, emotional dysregulation, identity confusion
Themes: Wounded faith, survival vs. surrender, early roots of redemption

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What happens when war follows you home—and into your marriage? In this raw and redemptive episode of Theo-Psych, Jennifer and Justin share their personal story of surviving infidelity, combat trauma, and soul-deep grief. As a Christian counselor and Army chaplain, they take you inside the real spiritual and psychological warfare that tore their marriage apart—and the grace that rebuilt it.

This episode isn’t theory. It’s testimony. It’s for anyone walking through the devastation of an affair, carrying the weight of PTSD, or struggling to reconcile faith with trauma.

You’ll hear about:

• The emotional aftermath of war and deployment
• How PTSD affected their identity, intimacy, and communication
• The impact of betrayal, shame, and deep grief
• What forgiveness actually looked like in real time
• How Jesus met them in the wreckage and began a new work

If you've ever asked, “Can we come back from this?”—this episode was made for you.

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Welcome to Theo-Psych, where theology and psychology come together in the pursuit of healing, truth, and transformation. This isn't just another podcast; it's a movement hosted by a theologian and a traumatologist. We boldly explore the raw and often hidden aspects of the human soul: trauma, identity, survival, spirituality, codependency, moral injury, religious abuse, attachment, and everything in between. 

We believe Jesus is not only the redeemer of our souls but also the restorer of our minds. From the battlefield to the therapy room, from broken homes to shattered altars, we are uniting biblical wisdom with psychologically grounded evidence to address fragmentation and walk the path of redemption. You'll hear real stories, tough questions, unfiltered truths, and, most importantly, hope. It's a person—and His name is Jesus.

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We’re here to walk with you—mind, soul, and spirit.