Shows
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryEnlarging the Boundaries of Our HeartsOn today's episode we explore the notion of "Toxic Empathy" that's been making the rounds in political and religious conversations these days. We begin with a story about how empathy saved Amber's family and then we explore how empathy makes us both more human and more like God who is Love.
2025-03-2217 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryBeing Brave in a New World - Intro EpHello there, Gold Digger! Welcome to Season 15 of the show dedicated to finding God's gold in every beautiful & baffling story. This season, Dr. Amber Hogan Jones will be companioning you through this new & often confusing world in which we find ourselves living in the Year of Our Lord 2025. This season is gonna hit a little different as we talk politics, world events, & hot topics. What will remain the same is that we will stay laser focused on finding God's gold in it all. The goal for Season 15 is to offer a place of encouragement, kindness, openness and h...
2025-02-2516 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryFinding the Gold in Post-Election ProcessingSeason 14 has been dedicated to exploring Christian Nationalism and the doctrine of dominionism that has become increasingly normalized in evangelical, and some Catholic, religious spaces in America. Loren and Amber spend the final episode of the season discussing how they've been spiritually formed through the process of research, reflection, and dialogue regarding the nature of power and how Christians are called to steward it. Where is God's presence and activity in a post-election world, no matter what "side" one is on?
2024-11-251h 02Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryThe Problem with Being Truly FreeWhat is the meaning of freedom? What is it's purpose? If this election cycle showed us anything, it's that these questions are not only incredibly important, but are answered quite differently by various people groups. For a Christian, what are the foundational aspects of freedom that remain no matter what side of the political spectrum on which we fall? Loren and Amber discuss these questions in light of Donald J. Trump's resounding presidential win and what it means for Christians who are increasingly divided.
2024-11-141h 15Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StorySeven Mountains, Project 2025 & Sasquatch Attacks!On this week's episode, Loren and Amber discuss the Seven Mountain Mandate, Project 2025, and the implications of these worldviews for Christianity in America. Questions we explore: Should Christians strive for influence in the "seven mountains" of human civilization. If so, why? And how? Do the "good" end goals justify "evil" means to achieve them? What do sasquatch attacks have to do with anything? What is truth and how do we live by it in a world of competing truth claims? Are we attuned to the desperation we might be feeling in these troubled times? What do we d...
2024-10-281h 04Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryCounting the CostThis week, Loren and Amber discuss the cost of following Christ, especially when one's cherished way of life might be at stake. Is it wrong to defend our rights as Americans or to fight to keep the privileges we've always enjoyed? Is it wrong to allow others to infringe on those rights and privileges? What makes us truly Christian and truly patriotic? As we dig deeper into Christian Nationalism and the Doctrine of Dominionism, we're finding some profound theological questions popping up, ones that challenge our notions of "right" and "wrong" when it comes to God, politics, a...
2024-09-1341 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryWhat is the Purpose of Power?God gave humans limited power -- over self, the earth, and one another. What is the purpose of this power? What did God have in mind for its use and what can we know about how God sees its misuse? Christian dominionism is a popular teaching, growing more popular as our nation is further polarized across a number of issues. Did God give us power so that we could extend God's power on the earth? If so, what does that look like and what does it NOT look like? Join me in conversation with Loren R...
2024-04-0435 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryThe God of PowerJoin me today in conversation with a favorite guest, Loren Romeus, as we begin Season 13. This season is all about power/authority/dominion and how it intersects with American Christianity. What is the purpose of power? How does God steward power and provide an example for us? What is with the rise of Christian dominionism teachings and how do they fit in with the teachings of Christ? These are just a few of the questions we'll be exploring together as we try to make sense of our current cultural moment. On today's episode we introduce ourselves and t...
2024-03-2833 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryPain and the PlanPhilosopher and theologian Cornel West posits that the condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak. That resonates, doesn't it? What is our suffering saying to us? What truth is it offering? Far be it from me to attempt to explain why things couldn't have been different or how a good and omniscient God works with suffering. Theologians and philosophers and farmers and housewives have been pondering these questions since the dawn of time, and I have nothing novel to offer the debate on the problem of pain. However, what I'm learning is that...
2024-03-2113 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryRavaged BeautyNow, though, I feel an invitation to look at something else, particularly those things that we never see repaired in this life, those things that stay ravaged no matter what we do. Those disproportionate, unharmonious, impaired things which bring us the exact opposite of pleasure. What am I not seeing? What errors in beauty am I making? I whisper this prayer, because “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” (John 3:16). God must see the beauty in this world to love it with this kind of ultimate passion and purpose. I recall that Christ...
2024-03-1413 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryGod and SensualityAfter decades of this self-abandonment in the name of holiness, I am disappointed with the results. I really thought that if I prayed enough, read my Bible enough, and worked on my marriage enough, I would be made healed and whole. When I survey the damage done by piling all this rock between me – all of me, including my beautiful body and my wild life force – and the Light that is Christ, I shudder. Like most folks schooled in this crazy mixture of modern, Western, Cartesian dualism and ancient Christianity, I feel disembodied. I feel separated from my sensuality, my fl...
2024-03-0715 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryWhen Boundary Maintenance FailsIt's disappointing to get to the middle of one's life and realize that so much of our First Act was spent maintaining boundaries around things that simply don't matter, isn't it? Meanwhile, we never got around to maintaining the fences meant to protect our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It's devastating to realize that we let the wolves have their way with those precious gifts, those fruits of the Holy Spirit, all too often. Let's explore the failure of boundary maintenance on today's episode
2024-02-2914 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryThe Crushing Disappointment of Middle AgeI turn 43 in a few weeks and, I must admit, I'm feeling some kinda way about life. It's widely known that middle age folk experience weirdness for about ten years between the ages of 30-ish and 50-ish. Mid-life crises have long been the go-to fodder for movies, books, songs, and TV series. Stereotypes abound – women scrambling for facial injections and men for sports cars. Everyone sadly grasping for the youth they can never recover and simultaneously dreading the downhill roll toward death that will characterize the rest of our lives. Yes, the picture America paints for mid-life is...
2024-02-2211 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryThe Bad News is Everything is ComplicatedEvery day, we are bombarded with sensory input which, if we were "awake" to all of it, would render us incapacitated in a corner somewhere. Our brains do us a big favor by quickly sorting all our experiences into neat categories so we can efficiently navigate the information-pandemonium that is human existence. And the crazy part is that we're not even aware our nifty brains are doing this at all! Unfortunately, the price we pay for this efficiency is binary bias, which is distorted thinking that reduces things on a spectrum down to two categories. Good and ba...
2024-02-1516 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryHell's Terror: How Advent Heals Our Image of GodAdvent helps to heal our blurred and bungled image of God. Suddenly, we see a God who is the exact opposite of the image that Hell Lovers have conjured. Indeed, as Charles Spurgeon so powerfully reflected on the meaning of Advent: "God with us. It is hell's terror. Satan trembles at the sound of it; his legions fly apace, the black-winged dragon of the pit quails before it. Let him come to you suddenly, and do you but whisper that word 'God with us,' back he falls, confounded and confused. Satan trembles when he hears that n...
2023-12-2213 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryThe Lowly Made Lovely: The Soul was Created to Feel Its WorthThe truest thing about God and us is that God lifts up the lowly, nourishes the hungry, adopts the orphan, and goes back to find the lost. Because God loves us, we lowly are made lovely. The greatest malady this world suffers is our inability to comprehend the worth of the human soul. This is why we hate, hurt, reject, and ignore. It's the source of our violence, our shame, and our shadowed evils. It's why we deny God and seek our own self-interest. We've lost the wonder of a God who is so steadfast...
2023-12-1514 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryGod-Bearers: The Offensive Advent InvitationLike so much else in Christianity, Advent is offensive. Perhaps we've grown numb, over the span of millennia and from the re-telling of this narrative and from the commercialization of Christmas, to the shock of incarnational theology; but, today, let's sit with Advent afresh and attend to the shattering implications. Because our paradigms must be shattered so that we can comprehend the truth, God came as a human baby through the body of a vulnerable woman. Because new wine cannot be poured into old wineskins, God devastated our cognitive categories and crossed every boundary.
2023-12-0814 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryGod Says Their Names: What Four Unlikely Women Mean for Us AllWith quaint creche Christmas scenes depicting Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus alongside shepherds, wisemen, and various farm animals, the raw and shocking hope of Advent is often reduced to sentimentality. We may quickly glance at the nativity scene on the church's front lawn while narrowly making it to our Christmas Eve candlelight service, or we may conjure the familiar picture of baby Jesus in our minds while singing Silent Night, but the warm feelings this invokes aren't in proportion to the paradigm-shattering message contained within the story of Advent. This Advent season, here on the show a...
2023-11-2915 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryGladness or Gratitude?When we experience disappointment and fail to listen to what it's speaking to us, we have a hard time getting to gratitude because we have often been equating gratitude with appreciation. Disappointment makes appreciation and gladness, or propositional gratitude, difficult to come by. However, when we do allow our disappointments to speak, we may experience authentic humility. And humility gives us brand new eyes and ears. It's key to the kind of gratitude that transforms. Doesn't that sound good this Thanksgiving? Less appreciation, and more humble and authentic gratitude? Join me on today's ep...
2023-11-2017 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryGratitude or Sunny Spin?'Tis the season for gratitude lists and happy smiles, but perhaps this year it all just feels forced. Genuine gratitude is hard to come by when we're struggling through disappointment. But what if our disenchantments are an integral part of experiencing the kind of gratitude that transforms us? Join me on today's episode as we explore the power behind cutting through false optimism to get to the gold. If you want to subscribe to my weekly newseltter, The Golden Thread, you can do it here www.amberjones.substack.com
2023-11-1413 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryWelcome to Season 12!Welcome to Season 12, Gold Digger! This holiday season, we will be exploring the connection between disappointment and gratitude, between light and shadow, and between pain and joy. Our world is experiencing tremendous upheaval and we're left wondering how to tend to our souls, and the souls of others, in times like this. That's what we'll be talking about all season long. Join me as we dig for God's gold in every beautiful, baffling story.
2023-11-1009 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryThe Golden Goodness of FriendshipSeason 11 has been filled with golden goodness, as we've considered the topic of friendship deeply and from various angles. From opposite-gender friendship to soul friendship to lifelong friendship to life-saving friendship to friendship in marriage -- we covered the gamut! Join me for the last episode of this season as we pause to soak in all this goodness and reflect on what we've learned together. See you in the fall, Gold Digger!
2023-07-3113 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryFriendship in MarriageWe hear a lot about keeping the romantic fires burning in marriage, or how to resolve conflict with your spouse, or how to speak the love language of the one you love. Rarely, though, do we hear conversations surrounding cultivating and maintaining friendship in marriage. Many people find the friendship within their marriages diminishes over time, as the cares and burdens of life and parenthood take their toll. Others realize, often years into the marriage, that they never established a firm foundation of friendship to begin with and now their spouse feels like an enemy or a t...
2023-07-2453 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryBuilding Friendships That Stand the Test of TimeSeasonal friendships are important. They provide mutual strength and encouragement for particular times and spaces of our lives. We rely on them for variety, fun, and networking. But lifelong friendships that stand the test of time are harder to come by and take a lot more work. Building these kinds of friendships requires adaptability, humility, selflessness, and creativity. Join me in conversation today with the woman I made the legal godmother of my children, the person who has been by my side through childbirths, adoptions, funerals, deathbeds, celebrations, and family reunions, Danielle Ramos. Together we discuss the s...
2023-07-1128 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryPain Points in CompanionshipTrue, soul-level friendship isn't all fun, joy, and fulfillment. Every relationship is tested at some point. When our friendships run into pain points, we arrive at a cross-roads of sorts. We can resolve to fight for the beauty and love we've experienced together, or we can avoid the pain by abandoning the relationship. When a relationship is unhealthy (or, of course, if it's abusive), walking away is the right choice. Yet, if the freindship has a foundation of love and is simply running into inevitable rough waters, we risk losing something essential by allowing temporary pain points t...
2023-07-0556 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryPlayful, Loving & Loyal: The Power of Community to Save Our LivesIn our ultra digitally-connected society, it's nevertheless common to be "ghosted" by fair-weather friends when the going gets tough. While we are constantly scrolling, clicking, and liking ourselves into believing we have rich communities, the truth is that many of us don't have a stable place to land when the worst happens in our lives. Joining me in conversation today is Dr. Lang Charters, who vulnerably shares how his playful, loving, and loyal community literally saved his life after a series of devestations threatened to take him down. What are the ingredients to creating this kind of l...
2023-06-2755 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StorySpiritual Friends: Why We Need Them & How to Cultivate ThemJohn O'Donahue famously introduced the Celtic term anam cara to the broader world in his book of wisdom thusly named. O'Donahue describes an anam cara as a soul friend, one in which we find recognition and belonging, cutting across all convention and category. These are the kinds of deep intimacies we have a hard time developing in this fast-paced world of surface-level connectivity. Spiritual friendship differs from other types of friendship, and it might just be what we need in our spiritual journey toward transformation. Today's episode is an interview with my anam cara, Jen Slongier. We talk about th...
2023-06-1947 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryOpposite Gender Friendship: Can (and should) It Be A Thing?Season 11 is all about friendship, and today's episode explores the topic of opposite-gender friendship. Can (and should) it be a thing? Christian communities sometimes erect elaborate rules, customs & courtesies around the interactions of men & women, with the idea that strict boundaries protect everyone. Is this perspective aligned with God's ideas about how men & women are intended to commune together in the Church? Join me in discussing these questions and more with my dear (opposite gender) friend, Loren Romeus. Together we explore the nature of our long-time friendship and how we navigate these issues.
2023-06-131h 04
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryIt's Been Too Long, Gold Digger! Welcome to Season 11!After a year-long break, the Gold Digger Show is back and better than ever! This episode explains where we've been and where we're going in Season 11. The newly conferred Dr. Amber Hogan Jones is your host as we explore the topic of friendship from unique angles with diverse guests and interesting perspectives. Together we'll find God's gold in every story!
2023-06-0708 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryDesperation Isn't Always a Bad ThingWhen it comes to transformation, desperation may just be the necessary ingredient missing in our efforts toward growth. Join me in conversation with Executive Director of the T & T Project, Loren Romeus, as we explore what we can learn from people who leverage having 'nothing left to lose' in their journey of inner transformation.
2022-05-3024 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryTransformation Requires BelongingWhen it comes to true and lasting inner transformation, context is critical. If we want to stay open to growth, trust and safety are necessary and those components are found in the context of belonging. Join me in transformational conversation with Loren Romeus, Executive Director of the T & T Project, a prison ministry focused on helping the incarcerated transform and transition into the healthiest and truest versions of themselves, as we discuss the role belonging plays in lasting inner change.
2022-05-2030 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryWindow of ToleranceSometimes transformation requires discipline and, other times, it requires rest. On today's episode we discuss how transformation occurs within, and helps us maintain, our 'window of tolerance,' which is the sweet-spot for healthy and wholehearted living.
2022-05-1015 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryDiscipline: That Dirty WordWhen it comes to inner transformation, self-discipline is part of the process. Yet, our cutlure overvalues the sort of punishing hustle that leads to burnout and quitting more often than lasting change. How do we strike the balance between cultivating life-giving habits and resisting the urge to equate transformation with bare-bones behavior? All that and more on today's episode!
2022-05-0218 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryWhen Absurdity and Tragedy Become Tools for TransformationIn part two of my conversation with Lang Charters, we discuss how a tragic accident which almost took his life actually led him to a fuller life beyond his imagination. How does God use absurdity and tragedy to resurrect the lives we were meant to live? Tune in for this powerful conversation.
2022-04-2127 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryPlugging Your Heart into God's HeartIf true and lasting transformation comes from God alone, how do we access it? Join me for part one of my conversation with author and yoga teacher, Lang Charters, as we discuss how he learned to plug his heart into God's heart amid painful trials and a near-death experience.
2022-04-1232 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryThe Power of Asking God Open-Ended QuestionsPsychiatrist and author Dr. Curt Thompson once dropped this bomb in his book Anatomy of the Soul: the more you try to figure God out, the further you move away from trust. In part two of our conversation on inner transformation, Jen and I discuss the incredible power of asking God open-ended questions. Could this be one of the keys to lasting change?
2022-04-0432 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StorySurgery of the HeartWe often think of transformation as something we can make happen on our own. The reality is that real and lasting transformation is a lot like a long, excruciating surgery of the heart. Join business owner and entrepreneur Jen Sloniger and I in part one of our conversation about the nature of inner transformation.
2022-03-2820 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryInner Transformation Begins With AwarenessOften we long to change, we crave inner transformation, but we never go beyond that longing. We stop short of mustering the courage to find out the nature of the necessary changes and what it would take to experience them. Welcome to our 10th episode of the Gold Digger Show in which we will explore inner transformation through contemplative exercises and insightful interviews with wise guests.
2022-03-2113 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryTransforming Gratitude into HopeWith so many legit reasons to be hopeless, this last episode of Season 9 focuses on how finding the evidence of God's work in our lives helps us tap into the "super power of hope." Let's end this season being "married to amazement," in the words of poet Mary Oliver. In finding wonder once again, we find our hope resuscitated.
2021-11-2212 minGold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryReleasing Unforgiveness Before It Becomes HateHate is a buzzword of our cultural moment; one with which most of us do all we can to avoid association. Yet, hate continues to be an issue of the human heart, no matter how enlightened we think we become as individuals and as a society? Why? Simply put, hate serves as an energizing and creative force in protecting us from harm. Unforgiveness is rooted in hate and will give birth to full-fledged hatred if harbored. Today's episode focuses on why God invites us to forgive and what we have to gain if we do.
2021-11-1613 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryHow God Delivers Us From FearWhen we find ourselves in the middle of a God-ordained, God-orchestrated -- or, at the very least a God-allowed -- circumstance that happens to also be terrifying, we rightfully ask: Dear God, what are you doing? If God truly expects us to be able to live free from fear, which the Bible clearly indicates, then what is God doing when we are in the midst of situations in which fear is the only reasonable response?
2021-11-0614 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryWhen God is Leading Us into the DesertToday we finish our conversation with writer and teacher, Lisa Cooper, who converted to Catholicism after living most of her adult life as a pastor's wife in the charismatic Word of Faith tradition. Lisa discusses how, after her faith was left in tatters from spiritual abuse, God led her into the desert to become intimate with him. We look closely at what God might be doing when we feel we have nothing left of ourselves.
2021-10-2131 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryWhen God Transplants You for Your Own GoodToday we're in conversation with writer and teacher, Lisa Cooper, who converted to Catholicism after living as a pastor's wife in the charismatic Word of Faith tradition for most of her adult life. Lisa's story is filled with pain and joy, consolation and desolation as she tells of how God showed up in the most unlikely of places and in the darkest of times.
2021-10-1631 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryConsolingThe Gold Digger Show marked a major milestone today as we celebrated 20k unique downloads! Join us for this intriguing episode as we enter into conversation with best-selling author and speaker, Katie Shugars, about her newly released book on the intersection of mental health and faith. Katie shares with us her experiences in finding God's work in the middle of the darkest moments of her life.
2021-10-0742 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StorySweating Blood in a GardenOn this episode we ask: Dear God, what are you doing when I'm enduring a profound season of suffering? We draw connections between Christ's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and our suffering when we yield our own will to God's.
2021-09-3014 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryDigging New GroundToday's episode is part two of a conversation with Loren Romeus -- writer, preacher, and Executive Director of the T & T Project. We discuss the Ravi Zacharias scandal as well as the controversial podcast chronicling Mark Driscoll's conduct as the pastor of now defunct Mars Hill in Seattle. We dig into the possibility that God is at work in these scandalous circumstances, digging new ground in the lives of His Church through the pain and discomfort of facing facts.
2021-09-2349 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryDear God, What Are You Doing: Bringing LightWhen scandal hits the Church, as it seems to do so often, it's difficult to imagine any good that can come from the pain, humiliation, and brokenness of these situations. Recently, as the Ravi Zacharias scandal made headlines and the investigative podcast "The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill" gained a large audience, we are faced again with questions of why and how and what now? Writer, Bible teacher, and Executive Director of the T & T Project, Loren Romeus, joins me for a two part interview in which we dig together for God's gold in the muck...
2021-09-1642 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryDear God, what are you doing?: TransformingAs we make our way through these strange times, and as confusion over what's right and true mounts, we find ourselves asking: Dear God, what are you doing? This season we will explore the value in uncertainty, the hope in catastrophe, and the solid foundations upon which we can stand in confusing times.
2021-09-0910 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryOur Fullest Meaning Requires the Divine AuthorThis entire season has been a reminder that there is no much we do not know, even when we think we do. We are constrained by our humanity. Our automatic brain processes, our insufficient categories, our implicit biases, our sin nature – all of these things and more work to keep us in reduced cognitive capacity even when we feel like we know so much. In order to understand our fullest meaning, we need to cooperate with the Divine Author.
2021-06-2910 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryHow We Become What We RehearseThe longer and more often we rehearse the connections and meanings we've made of things, the stronger those connections and meanings become. If those meanings are true and healthy, we have goodness that sticks. If those meanings are untrue and unhealthy, we have damage that sticks. Rehearsal is like cognitive glue and that's why it's so important to stop and consider the scripts we've been repeating to ourselves which are shaping our stories and our lives.
2021-06-2210 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryWhen We Stereotype OurselvesWe quite literally can tell ourselves a story that will become our reality because of the telling. The meaning we make of our stories determines everything. How often do we box ourselves into rigid categories? How often do we do this with God?
2021-06-1512 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAre We the Blind Leading the Blind?When we float through life trusting our automatic brain processes, we're literally unaware of how our story is taking shape. This sort of unintentional and incurious approach to ourselves and to others produces rotten fruit. When we don't understand our stories, when we have accepted false realities and even false identities, we aren't really living. We are existing and, most of the time, pretty miserably at that. What we find, usually in times of emotional crisis, is that we aren't known by anyone, not even ourselves.
2021-06-0813 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryHow We Trick Ourselves in Moral MeaningScripture makes clear that humankind, while made in God's image and capable of extraordinary goodness and genius, is also corrupted, limited, and to a large extent blind. Repeatedly, Jesus emphasized the importance of praying for eyes to see and ears to hear the truth because the bend of every one of our hearts is away from the truth and not toward it. When it comes to making moral meaning, the consequences of our blindness couldn't be more serious.
2021-06-0113 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryWhat Does It Mean?It's not an exaggeration to say that meaning making is one of the most critical acts with which we'll ever engage and that this is terrifying because we are fallible human beings with limited capacity and understanding. Also, most of us muddle through life without ever questioning the meaning we have made of our stories and how that meaning is impacting us and so we continue making meaning without giving it a thought in the world, many times to the detriment of ourselves and others. Join in this season as we explore how to revolutionize the ways we make...
2021-05-2613 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryWhen Motherhood Is Disillusioning (Part 2)Join my guest and dear friend, Tammy Jones, and I as we finish our conversation on the disillusionments of motherhood. There will be no tidy bows here, friends! We let the tension sit as we find God's gold in the realities -- beautiful and raw -- of motherhood.
2021-05-0931 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryWhen Motherhood Is DisillusioningI don't know about you, but Mother's Day comes with its complications. It's not that motherhood isn't meaningful, beautiful, and worthy of acknowledgment and celebration. The truth is, for many of us, motherhood has been far from the fairytale we'd imagined. As it turns out, we are much more imperfect than we understood and our children are no angels themselves. What happens when you realize one day that the journey you'd built up in your mind as the pinnacle of feminine purpose is actually more of a disillusioning, white-knuckle experience that has broken your heart in ways you didn't...
2021-05-0941 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryResurrection People When Jesus was resurrected, he emerged victorious over death and hell. He paid the penalty for human sin in full, once and for all time. His resurrection both vindicated and validated him as Messiah and Lord of all. Theologian N.T. Wright explains the implications for the church in that the early Christians identified themselves as a resurrection people. For them, and for us, Christ's resurrection radically altered the relationship between the Christian and the world in which we live. A resurrection people engage the world as if the Kingdom of God is already here…because it is! This me...
2021-04-0410 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryPrepare for Battle Today's episode will focus on the spiritual battle Christ faced in the days leading up to his death and on the battle we, as his people, continue to face in this world. Often, we frame our spiritual struggles in terms of US versus the evil in the WORLD or US versus our sinful FLESH. Indeed, many of our battles do take place in those realms; however, there is a third, and significant, battleground that Jesus faced and that we do as well. The uncomfortable truth is that the Bible makes clear that there is are actual evil forces, known...
2021-04-0310 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryLet it Die Today we focus on areas of our lives which we've held back from God because, honestly, they're too precious to relinquish. Pastor Tim Keller often refers to the human heart as an idol factory, by which he means that we relentlessly worship the wrong things. We misplace our allegiance, our life's work, our focus, our adoration and – ultimately – the love of our hearts, on things that make us feel secure, significant, and temporarily satisfied. Instead of giving ourselves – and our worship -- to the Lord, we hide away these idols for ourselves like kids with a secret candy stash. The tr...
2021-04-0212 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryListen UpDespite the fact that our ears work overtime in this age in which so many are competing for our attention, this over-stimulation has actually caused us to listen less versus more and to listen worse versus better. The good news is that listening is a skill that can be learned and re-learned. It can be cultivated simply through intentional practice. Lent is an invitation to quiet ourselves, put away our distracting devices, unplug from all the noise that takes up valuable real estate in our brains, and turn toward God, turn toward others and turn toward ourselves in order...
2021-03-2614 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryEmptiness: Lenten GoldThere's empty and then there's empty. One emptiness leads to death and the other leads to life. Today's episode focuses on a certain woman who emptied herself at the feet of Jesus and found that she was filled with more than she'd ever imagined. She carried the burden of her sin to him, but she carried so much more as well. She carried her worldly possessions, her pride, her reputation, her desire for approval and acceptance, her future, her past, her love, her pain. She carried whatever a human soul contains and she emptied herself of all o...
2021-03-1711 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryStep into God's RealityLent offers us a beautiful opportunity to have our own oppressed imaginations freed so that we can live in the world of God's salvation. All of the competing realities we forge for ourselves will crush us under their weight. They aren't life-giving, they have no capacity to heal or to hold or to nourish. Those realities only take, they don't give back. God is offering an exchange of reality if we are only willing to open our hearts.
2021-03-1210 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryA Test of Heart: The Gold of Lent Friend, you and I have choices to make that decide what kind of people we become. We are not unthinking, hapless beings whose destinies are predetermined and outside of our own influence. God has provided us with free will and expects us to use it for goodness and right-ness in this life. God's image implanted in us is at least partially reflected by our ability to choose, to create, and to order. We assess our sins in order to uncover and isolate the choices we're making that lead to living as our false selves in this world, verses living...
2021-03-0411 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryCongratulations to the Hungry: The Gold of LentWhen is the last time you asked yourself what you really want? Not what you should want or what you used to want or what it seems like you want; but what your heart hungers for most of all? For many of us, we stumble from one thing to the next in life, not remembering why we started down our paths and not quite sure of where we're going. We strive for goals that seemed worthy in the beginning, only to realize later that they were simply inadequate to the task of fulfilling our deepest longings. Lent...
2021-02-2710 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryMaintaining Love When You're Incompatible: Valentine's Day EpisodeRomance is great. Chocolates and flowers are sweet. However, we're living in the real world and, in the real world, true love that lasts a lifetime doesn't always come in pretty packages with neat little bows atop. Join Amber and her husband, Clayton, today as they discuss how they've navigated more than two decades of incompatible marriage and all of God's gold they've found along the way.
2021-02-1254 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Good FatherThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-2405 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Perfect ReplacementThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-2305 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Shining VictorThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-2205 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Great ConductorThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-2107 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our ConsolationThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-2005 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our RevealerThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-1907 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Unexpected InvitationThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-1805 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our IlluminatorThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-1705 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Grandest SurpriseThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-1605 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Complete FulfillmentThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-1505 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Unfailing HeroThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-1405 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Fear RelieverThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-1305 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Still Small VoiceThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-1205 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Miracle WorkerThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-1105 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Valuable TreasureThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-1005 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our True HomesThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-0905 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Truth-TellerThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-0805 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Great Story-WriterThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-0705 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Faithful GodThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-0605 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Guiding VoiceThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-0505 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Certain PromiseThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-0405 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Light in the DarknessThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-0305 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our Good NewsThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-0205 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent: Our VisionThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-12-0105 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryAdvent Journey: Our Greatest SatisfactionThe Advent season calls us to remember, reflect and rejoice because God is with us. Come along every day of Advent, as we offer a five minute episode complete with a scripture reading, contemplation and prayer to keep your heart and mind focused on the golden beauty of Christ's coming this season.
2020-11-3005 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryWhere Does Consent Fit in Marriage?Consent is often discussed in the context of dating, but rarely is it examined in the context of marriage. Adding religious elements to the mix can make the conversation even more problematic. On the last episode of this season, Clayton joins us again as we explore the intersections of faith, marriage, and consent.
2020-11-251h 02
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryCan the Faith That Hurt Us Also Save Us?What happens to your faith after the well-intentioned teachings of your church leave you disillusioned and devastated? On today's episode, Anna continues her story of recovery from sexual shame to pursuing sexual wholeness.
2020-11-2029 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryFollowing the Thread of Sexual ShameOn today's episode, we hear from Anna, a woman who did everything "right" according to Christian morality. She and her husband were married virgins, with high hopes for a future of love and happiness. Yet, her faithfulness and purity didn't save her from the agony of a divorce after only two years of marriage. Anna tells the story of how God unraveled her sexual shame, one thread at a time, even as she wandered away in pain. If you've ever wondered how God can make something beautiful out of your immense suffering, you don't want to miss...
2020-11-1641 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryGod's Book of Erotic MetaphorWhat if I told you there is a book of erotic metaphor planted in the pages of the Holy Bible? Many people don't understand the intention of the Song of Songs, much less grasp its power and beauty. On today's episode, Bible leader and Co-Founder of the Dive Collective, Erin Richer and I discuss this unnerving book and its implications for understanding the relationship between God, sex and us.
2020-11-0441 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StorySexual HarmIf you have a hard time dealing with sexual issues directly, it's a sure sign you've experienced some kind of sexual harm, according to experts. Sexual injury can occur on a physical, mental and spiritual level. It can happen inside and outside of a relationship. It can take place between two consenting adults. It comes from many places, including culture and church. On today's episode, we tackle the subject of sexual injury. What is it? What do we do about it?
2020-10-2317 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryGod, Sex & MarriageOn this episode, my husband and I discuss the sexual challenges and points of growth in our 22 year marriage. Are our churches promoting "cursed-based" thinking in Christian marriages, despite having the best intentions? How do artificial hierarchy and rigid gender roles diminish intimacy in marriage? What is the ONE thing we'd tell our younger selves about our sexuality if we could turn back time?
2020-10-1651 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryGod, Sex and UsWelcome to Season Five of the show! We're going all out in the next several episodes as we dive into what God thinks about sex and how we can live both sex-positively and God-honoring. We ask ourselves this question: What if God actually exists and cares deeply about us as sexual beings? That would change a lot, right?! Join us as we explore this topic with special guests and an abundance of curiosity and grace.
2020-10-1112 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryLiving in Exile: When God Requests Alone Time with YouIn our final episode of Season 4, we talk with my dear friend Jen -- a former Communications Director for a non-profit and active lay-minister who was forced to step off the path of familiarity into a long decade of exile when her family of nine was thrust into crisis due to her son's mental health issues. Jen speaks candidly of nearly losing her faith and all of the anger and unrest that comes from being in exile with God. If you're struggling with your own season of exile, you don't want to miss this episode.
2020-06-0535 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryLiving in Exile: Loss, Change and RenewalToday's episode is extra special because I'm interviewing my handsome husband, Chaplain Clayton Jones, about what he learned in a period of painful exile. He conceptualized his time in exile as a three-part flow: loss, change and renewal. If you're disoriented from the radical changes in the world and in your own life, you don't want to miss Clayton's wisdom and insight.
2020-05-2936 min
Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every StoryBonus Episode with MeredithThe past two episodes have featured stories of radical generosity from our guest Meredith, in which we learned laws of stewardship and gained hope from the understanding that God appreciates the work we undertake with him. Today's episode is a bonus because Meredith wraps up with some solid gold on what it means to dream with God.
2020-05-2223 min