Hole in My Heart Podcast

Episode 87: How to Do Battle with Anxiety with Rebekah Lyons

How many of us have fought (and do fight) with heart-pumping, air-constricting anxiety?
How can we practically do battle with it? Bestselling author and popular speaker, Rebekah Lyons, helps us put on our boxing gloves to practically combat it.
 
//: Highlights:
"We don't know freedom until we know bondage. So let's acknowledge we are so hungry for God's rescue, and let's ask Him to do a mighty work." --Rebekah Lyons
"I questioned, 'Am I a fraud?' I thought there was a healing that happened, and I was loud about it. And yet I found myself in a place of frailty and desperation again." --Rebekah Lyons
 
//: Do the Next Thing:
Find Rebekah's book and more at: https://rebekahlyons.com
Connect with Laurie on IG.
Find More. 

Episode 86: Before We Jump to Activism

There is intense pain in the world and in our hearts--based on national or personal tragedy.
We may be quick to jump to anger, to text someone, to Twitter, to do something. These actions may not be wrong, but they can be wrong-hearted if we skip an important step: going to the Father with lament that leads to forgiveness and eventual love for our enemies.
It feels impossible--really, truly loving our enemies--but as believers we are called to do the impossible with the One who empowers us.
But how in the world can we do this lament that leads to forgiveness that leads to genuine love for our enemies?
We get as practical as we can in this episode, breaking down how we lament in real life, and even give you a bonus episode where Matt leads us like a midwife to birth these laments today. :)
 
//: Highlights:
"I picture the cross of Christ, but I don't put the person ... on the cross ... He deserves it. So do I." --Laurie Krieg
"If there is anything that you could get out of this, yes, lament and understand what it is. But, understand that the God we go to is a God who wants all of us. Not just the joy, not just the sad, not just the stoic, not just the put-together, and not just the broken. All of it." --Matt Krieg
 
//: Do the Next Thing:
Find the full episode notes and a lot here on the podcast episode page here.

BONUS: Safe Place Prayer with Matt

Therapist Matt leads us through a way we can pray that helps us envision the God who Sees Us and prepares us to lament.

BONUS: Jack Haveman’s Story on Moody Radio

When Laurie was a guest on Moody Radio, the station manager, Jack Haveman, was prompted to share this deeply personal and powerful story of God's breakthrough.

Episode 85: Our Favorites and Yours

Friends? This podcast thing we do began as an act of obedience to God's prompting two years ago.
We. Had. No. Idea. How. Much. it would bless us and others. No clue.
Listening back to clips together got us feeling all the podcast feels again: Mostly, we felt the desire to fall on our faces and worship God who is knitting together this gorgeous thing called the Body of Christ.
God is on the move, dear siblings in Christ. God is moving in and through the Church, and He wants to move even more through those whose hearts are fully submitted to Him (2 Chronicles 16:9). ​
Tune in with us as we reflect on the last season, and some of our favorite moments and yours:
Episode 53: Saying "Yes" with Tom and Dana Mollhagen
Episode 49: The Awkward Middle with David Bennett
Episode 57: The "Whys" Behind Pornography Addiction with Jay Stringer ​
Episode 64: Exploring Our Souls of Shame Part 1 and Part 2 with Curt Thompson
Episode 80: Fill These Hearts with Christopher West
Episode 74: The Need to Be Seen with Jeff Maness and John Wilson
Episode 83: Sexuality and Shame with Dan Allender
Episode 81: Living an Authentic Life with Ann Voskamp ​
 
//: Do the Next Thing:
That HIMH Podcast group? Check it out here!
This episode.
 
//: Question of the Week for AUGUST:
How has this podcast impacted you? What guest ideas do you have for us for season three? Or themes we should pursue?
Email podcast@himhministries.com to answer!

Episode 84: Leading a Church in a Time of Sexual Questioning

A recent survey says that 90 percent of clergy believe it is their responsibility to speak on important social issues, but the top two issues they feel unequipped to speak on are LGBT+ and same-sex marriage.
We need help.
Thankfully, there are pastors like Bruce B. Miller who are willing to lead us as we lead others.
In addition to walking us through beginning steps we can take as a church to better engage conversations around sexuality and LGBT+, we explore questions such as:
​What if the staff/elders/deacons aren't united? Can we be on different pages theologically?
Do we have to do a sermon series? (How in the world do we do that?)
What if people leave?
This is another important equipping conversation to help us lead with grace and truth. (Click the links below for practical next step resources.)
 
//: Highlights:
"To not preach on [sexuality] is to not give people leadership in an area where people have tremendous questions ... You either lead people in confusion or you give people wise guidance as a pastor." --Bruce Miller
"We need to start with ourselves and face ... the fact that I am also a sexual sinner. Because every adult past puberty is a sexual sinner." --Bruce B. Miller
"It's our bad theology of sex and our bad theology of singleness that undermines the vibrancy of our message to LGBT+ people." --Bruce Miller
"If you're not offending people on both sides, you're probably not doing it right." --Bruce Miller
//:Do the Next Thing:
Find More. 
//: Question of the Week for Next Week:
It's our last episode of Season 2! How are you doing on your word for the 2019 year? Or your resolution? Where you at?
 

Episode 83: Sexuality and Shame with Dan Allender

One in two women and one in four men have encountered sexual trauma. The enemy's attempts to shred humanity through sexuality is pervasive, but those of us who have encountered sexual assault are not hopeless.
Author and teacher, Dr. Dan Allender, guides us through this hope-filled terrain utilizing decades of experience and research in the field of sexual trauma. He unpacks answers to questions like:
Why is shame linked to sexuality, and why is contempt often linked to shame?
Why and how do repressed memories resurface?
How can we engage painful past memories without pushing "eject" on our lives?
How can we respond in healthy ways to triggers? ​
Additionally, we explore some of Dan's gospel story out of a life of drug dealing and elicit behavior (as a response to his own pain), and invite him to kindly poke fun at Matt throughout the entire episode.
 
//: Highlights:
"The return on investment for the kingdom of darkness is profound in regard to abuse. [It] disintegrates some level of our faith, our ability to trust, our ability to dream and hope, and certainly our ability to give delight and pleasure to one another." --Dan Allender
​"When we use truth to deny truth ... we are doing what evil does when it quotes Scripture." --Dan Allender
"​I've seen it literally thousands of times: People who enter the truth and allow their hearts to receive kindness ... that's the context for the Spirit of God to bring about remarkable change." --Dan Allender
 
//: Do the Next Thing:
Find More. 
//: Question of the Week for Next Week:
What was your first car and what does it tell us about your personality?

Episode 82: How to Lament with Mark Vroegop

Lament. We've talked about it. We love it. Let's dig deeper than we ever have into it on this episode.
If we don't lament, what kind of people will we be?
Is there a line of honesty with God we shouldn't cross?
​How do we really do it?
​Pastor and author, Mark Vroegop, guides us through these questions and more with wisdom that can only come from someone who has suffered much, and has found his way out of the darkness by singing the minor key tune of lament.
Hear his story and practical care for our souls during today's conversation.
 
//: Highlights:
"People who know how to lament are comfortable with saying less or nothing. They intuitively have a heart that is oriented toward empathy. They don't panic when their friend says something that is edgy or a little scary." --Mark Vroegop
"Lament is not just crying. Lament is talking to God about what causes the crying." --Mark Vroegop
"One out of every three songs in the official songbook of God's people--songs that had music and were sung--reflect this sort of minor key [lament] tune. We are not only unfamiliar with lament, but our churches are generally lament-light." --Mark Vroegop
 
//: Question of the Week for Next Week:
What is something God has been teaching you lately and through what media? (Devotional, book, life experience, podcast, your version of suffering in this season...)
//: Do the Next Thing:
Find More. 

Episode 81: Living an Authentic Life with Ann Voskamp

She has a huge platform: Hundreds of thousands of followers, millions of books sold, and many Christians are at least familiar with the name "Ann Voskamp." And yet when Ann writes, speaks, and engages social media, she does not hide behind the numbers. She writes grittily, authentically, and with boldness.
How is this possible? How can someone with such a great impact on the world maintain such a humble, vulnerable, and others-focused life?
We explore these questions as we engage Ann on living an authentic life. We talk the cost, the gifts, and the practical how-tos. (And of course, because we are the HIMH Podcast, we make time to take a trip to Goofball Island where we finally learn her real Enneagram number.)
You're welcome to join us.
 
//: Highlights:
​"I honestly don't think there should be platforms for writers. Jesus didn't have a platform. He had an altar where he came, he laid down his life, and he died for his friends. Writing is about a place to be brutally honest, have no reputation, and to pray that out of your death there can be people's resurrections." --Ann Voskamp
"We either have the mentality of [God as], 'Oh dear, I've messed up, Dad is going to kill me,' or 'Oh, dear, I've messed up, I need to call Dad.' ... David doesn't run from God, he runs to God, and he trusts that when we want a do-over Jesus covers us with un-erasable grace." --Ann Voskamp ​
"We are called to a table-like theology where we not only break bread around the table, but we break open our hearts around the table." --Ann Voskamp
 
//: Question of the Week for Next Week:
What is a funny-ridiculous tradition your culture has? (Perhaps like how Laurie's Dutch family celebrates Tulip Time this time of year in Holland, MI. They dress up in old-timey Dutch clothes and painful wooden shoes and klompen dance.) What does your culture do that is silly like this?
 
//: Do the Next Thing:
Find More. 

Bonus Episode: Book Announcement!!!

Matt and Laurie are doing an impossible thing (writing a book together?!) about their "impossible" marriage.
Hear a little bit more about the start of their adventure!