Hole in My Heart Podcast

Well, dear family, we have an announcement. What is it? First, let's hang out for a while, and talk about... How did that "word for the year" go for you? In light of that reality, how has the gospel been uniquely good news for you this year? What is coming next for the podcast and our ministry in 2022? We'd love for you to sit at the podcast table one more time with us. :)   //Highlights: "If you are listening and you feel this frenetic burden to go and save the world, Jesus already did that. Abide in Him, walk in Him, and He will show you how to have your doing come from your being." -Laurie Krieg “[Let’s] not just be like, ‘Well, that’s just Christianity, isn’t it? It’s suffering.’ …No, that’s not why Jesus came, so that we have to suffer and hate everything. There’s this good desire in us for this shalom and this peace. And if you want that, that’s a good desire.” -Laurie Krieg //Do the Next Thing: Want to send a note about how this podcast has affected you? Rate and review it, or email us at podcast@lauriekrieg.com. We also mention these episodes—check ‘em out! Practically Living Life in the Presence of God with Ken Boa here How to Not Give Up with Christine Caine here The First Episode of Season 5 here Join our Facebook group here! If you need a fresh look at Scripture, the CSB translation is a sponsor of the HIMH podcast! Learn more here

The ugly truth has just come out: One spouse has just confessed to unfaithfulness and the other is reeling in shock. Where do we go from here? Is there hope for a marriage in crisis? Does Jesus have something to say to this place? We are thrilled to bring back our friends Johnny and Amanda McKenna, who have been in this place and walked through—with Jesus’ help—to the other side. Give it a listen? // Highlights: “Pray the prayer that was prayed over me, which is a super scary prayer to pray…but that prayer of ‘Whatever needs to come into the light, come into the light.’ Days before my confession, I was told that that prayer was being prayed over me.” --Johnny McKenna “I ... have to trust that God’s gonna be there … when everything does come out and the pieces are ready to be put back together and God can begin His restoration work.” --Johnny McKenna // Do the Next Thing: Missed our first conversation with Johnny and Amanda? Check it out here! Looking for community with other podcast listeners? Join our Facebook group! If you need a new look at Scripture, the CSB translation is a sponsor of the HIMH podcast! Learn more about our new favorite Bible at csbible.com. We would love it if you would rate the podcast for us, on any of your favorite listening platforms!

Did you know that CS Lewis’ lifelong best friend was gay? Did you know that Francis Schaeffer was against orientation-change pursuit for gay people? Did you know that Billy Graham was a compassionate defender of gay people who fell into sexual sin? Did you know that John Stott encouraged the church to “repent of the crippling ‘homophobia’… which has coloured the attitudes toward homosexual people of too many of us, and call our fellow Christians to similar repentance”? You guys…the church wasn’t always so terrible at the LGBTQ conversation, praise God. Pastor and author Greg Johnson helped us understand this truth as he unpacked the church’s history, but he also shined light on some of the more dark shadows of our past and current state as he shared his own journey as a celibate pastor who experiences attractions to the same sex. This is not an episode to miss… // Highlight: “[John] Stott said, ‘If the Church can’t be family for gay people, if they can’t be known and loved and understood within the Church, then the Church needs to quit calling itself the family of God.’” -Greg Johnson // Do the Next Thing: Want to hear more from Greg? Go get his book! You can also check him out on Christianity Today! Looking for community with other podcast listeners? Join our Facebook group! If you need a new look at Scripture, the CSB translation is a sponsor of the HIMH podcast! Learn more about our new favorite Bible at csbible.com.  

In a world of pain, identity can be hard to find. With a diagnosis of PTSD, it can be even harder. How do we navigate knowing who we are—and equally important, who God is, in a world that assaults us with lies day in and day out? How do we do that with trauma? With cheerfulness and grace, Bonnie Gray tells her story and helps to answer these questions. Listen with us? // Highlights: “If you go through trauma and you don’t have Jesus, you’re gonna have to be a better version than what you were before…. But if we have Jesus, we say, ‘You know what, I can’t do it. And the beauty is that I don’t have to do it all. Life can be beautiful, even if it’s not perfect.’” -Bonnie Gray // Do the next thing: Want more of Bonnie? Check out her website! We love her book! Go grab it here! Enjoyed listening today? You can find Bonnie’s podcast here. Looking for community with other podcast listeners? Join our Facebook group! If you need a new look at Scripture, the CSB translation is a sponsor of the HIMH podcast! Learn more about our new favorite Bible at csbible.com.  

Emotional health is something that can feel elusive and impossible. But is it? And even if "attaining" total emotional health on this side of eternity is unlikely, what steps can we take to at least walk toward it? And why do we need to? With the wisdom and tenderness of a kind father figure, pastor and author, Pete Scazerro, helps us answer some of our questions about the pursuit of emotional health. Together we explore the above questions as well as: Why is the usual church-discipling paradigm to live burned out and overextended?  What if we say "no" to people and they get mad at us. How do we process that? Are there really two types of people in the world: the helpers and the helped? We'd love to have you join the conversation. // Highlight: “Say the United States is gonna cease to be a world power, and fall, and become this dominated country by another country. We may live through that. I mean, who knows what’s gonna happen? The point is: COVID, all the pressures, are putting pressure on our inner life. But, you see, if you can develop an inner life with God that’s robust, the Roman Empire can fall, but you’re okay. Because your happiness is not dependent on your circumstances.” -Pete Scazerro // Do the Next Thing: For resources on building a Rule of Life, click here!  And here is the logic behind it Want more of Pete? Check out his website here. You can also see his books here. Looking for community with other podcast listeners? Join our Facebook group! If you need a new look at Scripture, the CSB translation is a sponsor of the HIMH podcast! Learn more about our new favorite Bible at csbible.com. Watch this Conversation! 

Sometimes, God wants to use counseling to help us heal. Sometimes, it’s the Bible. Sometimes, it’s the powerful word from a dear friend. Sometimes, it’s prayer. Sometimes (oftentimes?), it’s all of the above. When Michelle Kyle and I (Laurie) met together for coaching, she said she felt “stuck.” I didn’t know if I could help her get unstuck, but using a prayer technique I have been engaging for 15 years, I thought I would give it a try.  What did we do?  Did she get unstuck? What was the process, and how can I engage something like that today? What cautions do Matt and I have when engaging this process? Join us for this powerful and practical conversation on listening prayer and we will dive into these answers and more. // Highlights: “I just remember praying, ‘God, you’re gonna have to do something, because I literally close my eyes and I usually see nothing.’ And so I did….And all of a sudden, I did, it happened, and I could see myself on the edge of the pier.” -Michelle Kyle “You [Laurie] had asked me, ‘Do you want to invite Jesus into that space?’ And I said, ‘Well, He’s actually already there.’” -Michelle Kyle // Do the Next Thing: Want to learn more about listening prayer? Check out Matt’s episode about it here. We talk about it in this episode, too! Looking for more resources? We’re big fans of HealingCare.org. If you need a new look at Scripture, the CSB translation is a sponsor of the HIMH podcast! Learn more about our new favorite Bible at csbible.com.

This is another episode we would pay you to listen to if we could.  Do you approach your friendships, your work, or the pain in your life more as the orphan, the stranger, or the widow?  Don’t know what that means? We didn’t either until we read “Redeeming Heartache” and then talked with the brilliant psychologist, Dr. Dan Allender, and to our new wise friend, author and therapist Cathy Loerzel. Dan and Cathy helped us understand each of these approaches to the world, and invited us to live redeemed as a priest, prophet, or king and queen.   Together we explore: What if I don’t think I’ve ever had trauma? Do I still need to do heart work? Why do I need to look back at my past? My present is hard enough. Why do I act this way in challenging situations? Join us? // Highlights: “To be able to rest and receive delight and have gratitude, you need to be able to be open to what other people can offer you.... So if you’re never in that place of being able to receive that with an open, trusting heart, then you’re always…coiled up and ready for the place that you’re gonna be harmed next. So it keeps you from being able to receive surprise and delight and play because you’re always, always, always looking around the corner.” -Cathy Loerzel “The reality is we all bear some of the effects of the Fall, and that’s what we’re calling trauma.” -Dan Allender “You can’t heal the present without going back to the past.” --Cathy Loerzel   // Do the Next Thing: Want more of these two? Go read their book, Redeeming Heartache! Check out the Allender Center, which both Dan and Cathy are a part of founding and leading! Dan is a veteran on the podcast! Here’s our first episode with him. Looking for a fresh way to read Scripture? The CSB translation is a sponsor of the HIMH podcast! Learn more about our new favorite Bible at csbible.com. Want something deeper than just the podcast? Join our Facebook group and discuss with us!

Without unnecessary clutching of our metaphorical pearls, when we look around, it does seem like there is something going on spiritually when it comes to an attack on the human body. What’s going on? Pastor and author Sam Allberry, a friend of the show and author of the new book “What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves” helps us answer this question and more. Together, we explore:  Why is our body an integral part of our true selves? How can we walk with our friends who experience gender dysphoria? Why does it seem like so many people are giving up right now when it comes to making potentially harmful choices with their bodies?  How can we address gender without using a list of “This is what it is NOT,” but “This is what it is?” Why is shame so often related to our bodies? We’d love to have you sit your embodied self down at the podcast table and join us for this needed conversation. // Highlights: “The very yearning itself is a reflection that we’re made in God’s Image…. We sense there should be more than there is, that there should be a sense of wholeness and of satisfaction and completion that seems to elude us…. But the fact that we’re foreign means that our understanding of that is incomplete and our ways forward with that feeling are very twisted and skewed as well.” -Sam Allberry // Do the Next Thing: Want more of Sam Allberry? Start here, with his book! Don’t have time for the whole book? He also has a blog! You can check it out here. He can also be found as a contributor on the Gospel Coalition! Here’s this article he wrote on the significance of the rainbow (yes, that rainbow) for all of us. Looking for a fresh way to read Scripture? The CSB translation is a sponsor of the HIMH podcast. Learn more about our new favorite Bible at csbible.com! Follow Laurie on Instagram for updates!

Desires: We all have ‘em. And sometimes they really get in our way. What are we supposed to do about this? Does Jesus care about our desires? Does He value them? As our good friend Curt Thompson points out, Jesus first question in the gospel of John is, “What do you want?” Clearly, our desires matter to God. How and why? Listen with us to find out. // Highlights: “Jesus’ assumption is that what I want is a really, really big deal.” -Curt Thompson “[When I am wounded] I don’t desire, I devour.” -Curt Thompson “…[S]till Jesus says, ‘What is it that you want?’ And I’m like, ‘What else is there to want? I’ve run out of all the options that I’ve made, that I’ve created.’ And this is when He comes with Himself and undoes us. Because—what I really want? I wanna be loved, I wanna be seen, I wanna be known, I wanna be wanted. And even though it terrifies me, I even want to be wanted by [Jesus], including the parts of me that I hate the most. And Jesus is saying, ‘I’m all in. And the parts of you that you hate the most? I’m not afraid of that, and you can’t make me leave the room.’” -Curt Thompson // Do the Next Thing: Want more of Curt? We have loads! (We’re big fans of him around here.) For the basics, check out his website, including his NEW BOOK, The Soul of Desire! To hear more from Curt on our podcast, check out these other episodes! Episode 64: Exploring Our Souls of Shame, pt. 1 Episode 65: Exploring Our Souls of Shame, pt. 2 Episode 138: Shredding Shame in a Pandemic Are you looking for a community with whom to explore more of the issues discussed on the podcast? Join the Heart of the Matter on Facebook! Looking for a great translation of the Bible? The CSB translation is a sponsor of the HIMH podcast! Learn more about our new favorite Bible at csbible.com.

How many people do you know who currently feel slightly-to-very discouraged about their faith? Do you have a sense that the Bible could be a great help, but you don’t want to come across as legalistic or dismissive of their struggles? How do you walk alongside your friends? (Or, how do you walk alongside yourself if you’re struggling with cracking the Bible?) Author, podcaster, and Bible teacher Tara Leigh Cobble is here to help. Together, we explore: How does the Bible relate to our identity? What reading program can I start today without being overwhelmed by starting today? How important is it to have someone who can walk with you? How did Tara Leigh go from, “I can’t do this any more,” to caring about the Scriptures and Jesus more than ever before? Join us? // Highlights: “I was reading Scripture with the lens to understand how do I get what I want from God, first of all?…And I was also looking [for] how can I please Him? Because, frankly, if I please Him, if I do what He wants, then He’s gonna do what I want….And my pastor friend said, ‘You’re reading it backwards. You’re reading it as thought it’s a mirror, and it’s not. It’s a lens to behold the living God.’” -Tara Leigh Cobble // Do the Next Thing: Are you looking for Bible study resources? Head over to BibleRecap.com. Want more of Tara Leigh? Check out her website here! Also—we are in love with this study from Tara Leigh! Go get it! In this episode, we mention the coaching options with Laurie, but her schedule is currently full. If you are interested in learning more, email info@lauriekrieg.com. The CSB translation is a sponsor of the HIMH podcast. Learn more about our new favorite Bible at csbible.com!