Restore The Glory Podcast

This week, Jake and Bob are joined by Jason Evert, a Catholic speaker, author, and expert on the Theology of the Body. Together they explore the history of gender theory, how contraception shifted culture, and why it's important to root our identity in God. They also discuss how wounds and unmet needs are often tied to the experience of gender dysphoria and how our culture avoids addressing the source of suffering.

Key Points:

• The term gender has only recently entered into our vocabulary
• Wounds, past traumas, and unmet needs for belonging, love, and safety are often the root cause for someone experiencing gender dysphoria
• Many European countries and leading medical institutions are now rethinking their gender-affirmative protocols after evidence showed these interventions often failed to resolve underlying distress and caused harm
• Rather than addressing the source of suffering, our culture has told us our bodies are the problem
• The different gender labels within society today offer an identity and community to those feeling rejected or isolated
• Our identity is as beloved children of God and shouldn't be reduced to how we feel or our social affiliations
• The truth can become a weapon if we don't first listen in love and acknowledge the experience of suffering

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This week, Jake and Bob discuss identity: why it matters, how it is formed, and its role in the healing process. We live in a fallen world with an enemy who spreads lies that can send us down paths far from the truth of who we are. Through questions like "Who am I?", "Whose am I?", and "Do I belong?" Jake and Bob explore how to reclaim our God-given identity and rest in the freedom of living in that truth.

Key Points:

• Finding your identity in Christ and living out of that truth is part of the healing process
• We begin the search for our identity in childhood and continue to deepen it (whether in truth or lies) throughout life
• Because we live in a fallen world, our identity can easily be influenced by the lies we believe about ourselves, others, and the world around us
• Healing is more than the relief from pain. Maturing in our God-given identity is actually a form of healing
• We become what we believe we are. We come to know ourselves and learn to love ourselves as we learn who we are in God
• There is value and healing to be found in the journey of finding our identity in God

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This week, Jake and Bob explore how inner healing is rooted within the tradition of the Catholic Church. Drawing from the Catechism, they discuss the three expressions of prayer—vocal, meditative, and contemplative—and how each form is incorporated within the inner healing process. Far from being a psychological exercise, inner healing comes from a deeply relational encounter with Jesus and restores the whole person so we might live in deeper communion with Him.

Key Points:

• Inner healing prayer is deeply rooted in the Church's tradition
• The Catechism identifies three key expressions of prayer: vocal, meditation, and contemplative. These are all at the heart of the inner healing process
• Healing comes from an encounter with Jesus and is not a result of a mere completion of steps
• When we pray, we need to engage our hearts instead of simply repeating words
• God is always present when we pray, even when we cannot hear His voice
• Inner healing often requires us to patiently cooperate with God's timing. He knows more about the mysteries and vulnerabilities of our hearts than we do

Catechism Paragraphs Mentioned in the Episode:

This week, Jake and Bob welcome Dr. Shane Owens to explore how desire, the heart, and theology work together for our good, through the lens of St. Augustine's Confessions. Dr. Owens breaks down St. Augustine's healing journey and how by understanding the desires motivating our actions, we are led into deeper communion with God. They also discuss how memories shape our view of reality, why we distrust a good God, and what the Scriptures teach us about our identity.

Key Points:

• Our desires ultimately point us towards God
• Sin is a result of misdirecting our desires towards something that is not God. It is an attempt to counterfeit the beautiful
• Memory is dynamic, not static, and returning to our heart to examine our memories plays an important role in forming our identity and facilitating healing.
• St. Augustine's willingness to be vulnerable in his "Confessions" is a model for vulnerability and understanding our desires.
• Scripture helps us recognize true beauty and reveals our true identity
• There will always be a tension between our desires and satisfying those desires. Healing and maturation occurs when we listen to our desires but wait for true fulfillment in God rather than settling for counterfeits.

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This week, Jake and Bob begin a two part series on desire and how it relates to sin. They discuss how sin arises from a desire for good and how our woundedness shapes these patterns of sin. Rather than suppressing our desires, Jake and Bob reflect on the goodness of desire and the importance of rightly ordering it through prayer. Through personal stories and movie references, they end by walking you through practical ways to identify the holy desires beneath your struggles.

Key Points:

• Behind every disordered desire is a holy desire, an unmet need, an unhealed wound, and a hidden pattern of sin.
• Sin arises from a desire for the good
• Every time we experiencing longing, we are experiencing a desire for God
• To stop patterns of sin, we must first recognize the underlying desire
• Self reliance is the false belief that the satisfaction of our deepest desires is completely up to us.
• Desire is an essential element of the Christian life.
• God desires our wholehearted devotion and places desire on our hearts so we seek and love Him
• Movies, music, and stories can reveal and awaken our deepest desires. They show us what moves our hearts and what we deeply long for.

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