Podcasts + Posts

In this talk we build on the previous two, so you may want to roll back to the discussion on PTSD ( https://www.Jenkins.tv/blog/wholeness ) or even the intro to emotions in general ( https://www.Jenkins.tv/blog/baggage ) if you haven’t yet listened to those.

Here, I discuss Moral Injury- a close counterpart to PTSD that often looks like it and manifests symptoms in similar ways. However, despite that cliche that if it “looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck… then it’s a duck,” when it comes to PTSD and Moral Injury, the two are different.

Turns out, if you treat someone for PTSD yet they have Moral Injury, the treatment plan won’t work. It will be ineffective.

Just like this- if you treat someone for a broken leg but they really have a broken arm, your treatment will also be ineffective.

We’ve got to address the actual issue, the goal (again) being to walk in total wholeness.

In this talk I cover four main ideas that...

In this talk we take last week’s release a step further (review here: https://www.Jenkins.tv/blog/baggage). I pulled the content from this talk from some info I planned to teach to a live audience re: emotional wholeness…

Emotional Health = part of total health

We’re all multi-faceted people, having various parts to us.

1. Physical
2. Spiritual
3. Intellectual
4. Social / relational
5. Emotional

We readily identify with the first four- but maybe not the fifth.

And, we generally OWN and notice the OBVIOUS issue in any area with the exception of emotional issues.

(I spoke more about this in this talk, https://www.jenkins.tv/blog/checklist, where I actually begin with the same point.)

Turns out, though, that you’re only as strong as the weakest link.

Look at it this way: a 20-link chain with 19 links can carry 1,500 pounds and one link that can hold only 15 pounds will never lift more than 15 pounds. Regardless of how powerful the other 19 are, they’re held...

In this talk, I fire the podcast back up- after a long hiatus- and talk about a project I’ve been involved with for the past year +++). A few months ago, we released the book Warrior Hope, which I wrote with the Executive Director of Crosswinds Foundation- a nonprofit that’s been involved in the PSTD + Moral Injury space for 7 years and counting.

Last week we launched a group based on the book- a group currently being hosted at Hoover Tactical on Monday evenings, 6:30pm- 7:30pm.

Here are the main talking points from this podcast.

#1- Perception CAN be reality.

I’ve heard the phrase “perception is reality” a bunch of times. You probably have, too.

But, as correct as that statement sounds, it’s not accurate. Perception MIGHT be reality, but it might not be. Perception might just be the way you view things.

Let me explain…

You may have seen the cartoon online.

From one person’s perspective the number on the ground is clearly a 6. From...

Emotional Wholeness involves recognizing your emotions, reading what they say before you react, and then responding to the world around you in a healthy + intentional way. 

In this video we discuss three important ideas about emotional health… and then we end with the three-point emotional wholeness checklist. 

I'll start with the three main ideas and then provide you with the checklist...

1. Emotional health is a vital component of total health.

Emotional health is a vital component of total health- yet it’s one that we often overlook (or don’t even own in ourselves). We may be unaware of emotional issues.

Peter Scazzero (Emotionally Healthy Spirituality) observes that many Christians walk through life with an under-developed emotional center. He reminds us, first of all, that we are multifaceted people- each of us having various components: 

• Physical
• Spiritual
• Intellectual
• Social / relational 
• Emotional

Most of us readily...

Over the past few months I’ve pondered 1 John 4:18 over and over. Here are two translations-  

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (ESV).

“Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment has not reached love’s perfection” (Passion). 

I want to highlight three things from the verse above:

• Perfect love
• Casts out fear
• Fear = not yet perfected in love

Perfect love

The word used in this passage doesn’t infer we’ll always love each other without flaws, rather it suggests we will love each other maturely. The Greek word for “perfect” here is the same world used for “complete.” Paul uses the same word in Colossians 1 when he says that he endeavors to...

Waiting, though hard, creates sacred space where great things happen. Waiting can be a time when God does something to you so He can then do something through you. 

Yes it’s a period when- many times- we wonder if God even sees us. Many times, even, we want to blame Him for what’s happening while we wait…

If we’re going to blame God every time something bad happens, we also have to credit Him every time something good occurs.  This act of maintaining a divine balance sheet, a “God” scorecard, is an odd game to play. Eventually, you learn that there aren’t many tidy answers. You let go of the need to understand everything, and you simply let grace do its great work…

Over the past few months it hit me: rest is part of the rhythm of life. In the same way that good music depends on the times when the instruments are NOT being played (think about it- if there are no “rests” the you simply have noise), so also does life depend on the times when we’re off. 

This is a principle that goes all the way back to Creation…

We think of our days as daylight and then nighttime. But, in the Creation story we read this refrain over and over- that there was “evening” and then “morning.” In other words, days originally began with night time, not daytime… they began with rest, not activity. 

This is why Jesus was pulled from the Cross before sundown. The Sabbath began as soon as the sun dropped. That was the sign of a new day… the rest.

Here’s where it gets interesting in the Creation story…

Adam was created on the 6th day- at the end of the day. By the time he’s scooped...

The Bible tells us, “God is _________.”

Yeah, you can complete that sentence. Everyone can. 

“God is love” (1 John 4:8).

We’re so familiar with the phrase that we forget love is both a commitment of unconditional covenant and it is an emotion. God, committed to us, is emotional, too. 

Throughout the New Testament we read truths like- 

• Jesus was distressed with the Pharisees (Mark 3:5)/
• Jesus was moved with compassion (Mark 6:34).
• Jesus was full of joy through the Hoy Spirit (Luke 10:21).
• Jesus was sorrowful and troubled (Matthew 26:37-38).
• Jesus lingers even now, because the Lord is patient (2 Peter 3:9).

In God (Jesus is God) we see the full range of emotions- even the ones we typically consider to be “bad” or “taboo” ones- expressed in a healthy way.

There aren’t bad emotions. Again, notice Jesus Himself experiencing the “bad” ones- 

• Jesus wept multiple times throughout His ministry,...

Earlier this year, we ventured to Cancun. One morning, I put on my running shoes, bounded out the door of the resort, and plugged myself into an audiobook. During that Cancun trip I enjoyed a long, easy 10-mile run around the neighborhood where our resort was located. I

I listened to Peter Scazzero’s book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, a book I read a year earlier during my depressed season of 2017. I felt I needed to review the contents. I had no idea how useful his insights would prove to me personally

Scazzero observes that many Christians walk through life with an under-developed emotional center. He reminds us, first of all, that we are multifaceted people- each of us having various components: 

• Physical
• Spiritual
• Intellectual
• Social / relational 
• Emotional

Most of us readily identify with four of these areas. However, Scazzero confesses what a many of us could likely say about ourselves: “I had been taught the way to approach life was through...

The Bible communicates something astounding about Jesus: the One in whom was “life” was deeply acquainted with sorrow and grief (Isaiah 53:3). I’ve had my share of pain; you have, too. Somehow, when we connect with others who’ve been where we are, something resonates and hope is delivered…

In fact, rabbis believed that when a story of redemption was told, the telling of the story carried the same power that was present in the original event which the story references. You’ve seen this happen before…

• It’s why you hear about a healing miracle and faith rises…
• It’s why you hear of a restored marriage and you gain confidence that the same could be true for you…
• It’s why you hear the story of someone’s financial breakthrough, and you suddenly sense that something more is possible for you, too…

Here’s the deal. As powerful as it is when we hear that others have been where we are- and that...