Gold Digger Show: Finding God's Gold in Every Story

For the next several episodes we will explore how to "establish a center of spiritual resistance," as Karl Barth implored the Protestant Christians in Germany to do in 1933. I believe the first step is to commit to being resolute truth tellers in a time and culture where truth is often obscured, ignored, or denied.  Why did the German Christians renegotiate their theology to accommodate the lies of the Third Reich? The answer isn't as simple as we might imagine. Join us as we explore the parallels between the mindsets of the German Christians and Christian Nationalists today. 

On today's episode we explore the age-old traps that the German Christians of the Third Reich fell into -- traps to which we've all succumbed at some point or another. The benefit of looking backward and listening deeply to those who've made devastating errors in judgment is that we can learn how to navigate our own journeys with wisdom, discernment, and most importantly love. As much as we'd like to turn off the bad news of the day and pretend we aren't living in extraordinarily challenging times, we don't have that luxury. These times are here, and God has seen fit to call us into being within them. May we steward these lives we've been given to the best of our abilities! And that kind of stewardship begins with listening, attuning to truth, and course correcting with all the wisdom and knowledge we've gained through that process. 

On today's episode we cover a lot of ground! Luther's two-shephere theology, "order of creation" doctrine, and the German Christian abuses of speculative theology in the name of Christ. Then we explore Ignatius of Loyola's "Ignation Contemplation" also known as "imaginative prayer." What does this practice have to offer us today? At the end of the episode we practice this form of prayer together. 

On 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. 

Today's episode introduces two seemingly opposite topics that actually have surprising overlap -- Ignatian spirituality and the beliefs of the German Christian movement. Both topics hold much wisdom and challenge for us here in the Year of our Lord 2025. We begin with the Welcoming Prayer by Father Thomas Keating and discuss the Ignatian Examen alongside the mindset of the German Christians in 1933. What might God be speaking to us today through our own consolations and desolations?

Today's episode is a reading from a recent newsletter I sent out to subscribers of my Substack. It deals with the scapegoating of the trans community that's been on the rise since the election cycle began and offers a prescription for what ails us -- powerful mothering love.  If you'd like to subscribe to my Substack and receive newsletters from me a few times per month, the link is below.  https://amberhjones.substack.com/

Hello 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 humility in a world that seems bent on going the other way.  We're so glad you're here!

Season 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?

What 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. 

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 do with that desperation?  Join us as we continue digging for God's gold amid the chaos and uncertainty of this American election cycle.   

On this week's episode Loren recounts the story of a deep conversation he had with a person who leans toward Christian Nationalism (without labeling their beliefs as such). Together we explore the importance of learning to deeply listen to those whose beliefs are different from our own, and the surprises we may find as we try on someone else's lens for a bit.  As we work our way through this controversial and divisive election season, on the heels of wars (and rumors of wars), as many in our country still reel from a series of natural disasters, and conspiracy theories are being heard from the highest offices in the land down to our very own humble social media feeds, this conversation is a reminder of the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual (mal)formation that happens to us when we consume a steady diet of calamity and fear. We actually become less resilient and adaptable to change, and we tend to cling to whoever or whatever promises to make our fear subside. This tendency is in all humans, regardless of circumstance, background, or political beliefs.  Today we explore how we might find God's gold in the midst of all of this. 

A few weeks ago, former President Donald Trump made the assertion, from the Presidential debate stage, that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating citizens' pets. This was his  attempt to underscore the need for immigration reform by using debunked conspiracy theories to incite fear. He received this pet-eating information from "people" who he did not name and, though the story was revealed to be completely unfounded and false, his running mate J.D. Vance continued promulgating the rumor after the debate. Since that time, Springfield has experienced bomb threats and school closures due to racist conspiracy theories surrounding the Haitians in the area (the vast majority of which are there legally). Several Haitian migrants have filed suit against Trump and Vance.  Just this week, Republican Representative from Louisiana, Clay Higgins, provided this rant on X: "Lol. These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters...but damned if they don't feel sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP. All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th." This week, my conversation partner, Loren Romeus (who is Haitian) will help me unpack the power narratives beneath these sound bytes, interviews, memes, and tweets. We'll explore why our power narratives matter and what's at stake when we embrace or excuse lies. Join us as we continue to dig for God's gold in the baffling story of American politics. 

This 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, and love of country. 

Welcome to Season 14 of the show in which recurring favorite, Loren Romeus, and I take another -- more informed, more loving, and fairer -- stab at the exploration of Christian nationalism and the doctrine of dominionism which is enjoying a resurgence in America.  On today's episode, we define our terms and explain why we think this is a conversation worth having again. Our relationship to power, safety, and control informs how we see the world, God, and ourselves. And the way we see all of that informs the way we show up and how we influence. Join us as we dig a little deeper for the gold in this election cycle story. 

What happens when we use our power and authority to honor others, especially those on the margins? What is possible when we serve the "we" instead of the "I?" Join me in conversation today with Loren Romeus as we discuss stories in which we've been called to steward our power for the sake of those who have less power. 

It stands to reason that Christians would want to model their leadership styles/stewardship of power after the example of Jesus. Yet, the One who taught us to wash feet, to use our power in service of others, to sacrifice the "I" for the sake of the "we" is often disregarded in churches, Christian homes and communities.  Why do Christians resist the example of Christ? What can we learn from God's own stewardship of power?  Join me in conversation today with Loren Romeus as we explore these questions and more. 

We all agree that servant leadership is the kind of leadership style that values the goodness and well being of all people within an organization. It's the goal, the aspiration, and the gold standard of leadership styles.  Yet, we rarely see it sustained. We most often default to styles of leadership which are not in service of all. Why is this? What is it about servant leadership that is so difficult for us to sustain in the real world?  Join me in conversation with Loren Romeus as we explore these questions and more. 

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 Romeus as we explore these questions and more. 

Join 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 tell the story of what sparked this conversation in the first place. 

Philosopher 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, if we can risk allowing our suffering to speak, we just might discover how pain can be helpful to the plan of our individual and collective lives.

Now, 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, resurrected from the dead, carries the scars of love on his body too. He came to us and offered Himself in death. The pinnacles of injustice and beauty crashed into one another with such cataclysmic force that they killed Him. And He chooses to wear the evidence of this on His body, ravaged beauty as a signpost for Love.

After 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 fleshiness and, consequently, part of myself. When it comes to knowing and loving my sensuality, I am soul sick, all ‘trembling teeth and bloody hands.'  

It'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

I 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 quite bleak, even if it is sometimes comical. But we don't often get below the clichés to deal with what's beneath this bleak picture, at least not as a collective people. We may do personal work, like finally beginning therapy or carving out space for a new hobby. We may even embrace physical aging and discipline ourselves to learn new things. These are all common aging practices we celebrate in our overly individualistic culture. Yet what we emphatically resist doing, as a society, is naming the elephant in the room. The word we seem afraid to speak out loud, but which also keeps us up at night, is the one thing we like to avoid recognizing together – disappointment. No one talks aloud about the crushing disappointment of mid-life.

Every 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 bad. Right and wrong. Or, if we want to take an example from the Bible, clean and unclean. I could go on, but you get it. We take concepts that are nuanced, complex, and multi-layered and we reduce them down so that we don't have to do the heavy lifting of gathering all the information, listening to all sides, synthesizing opposing ideas, and formulating a comprehensive opinion. Join me on today's episode as we explore the value of complexifying everything. 

Advent 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 name, ‘God with us.'” Incredible imagery, and in stark contrast with the men quoted above. Advent is hell's terror. The Gospel of Christ is hell's terror. And no matter your viewpoint on hell, the meaning of these words echo with power.   The image of God our forebears have handed down to us may, in significant ways, be broken, untrue, and harmful. The Hell Lovers on Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter may be loud, terrifying, and even confusing. But if we open our hands, eyes, ears, and hearts to receive the image of God we inherit through Advent, the confusion begins to evaporate like so much mist.  

The 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 in love toward us that God comes to us, in us, and through us to heal us all and restore us to our rightful places in the Divine Dance of love. Today, in the holiness and beauty of Advent, I invite you to pray with me that God renew our minds to the stunning implications of the worth of our souls and what God's plan for communing and indwelling means for us all. Who could you be if your life was firmly rooted in the soil of this kind of fertile love? Who could we be, all of us together, if we flowed in the freedom that comes from the Incarnation; that is, being fully seen, fully known, and comprehensively loved?

Like 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. Because God wants Creation to birth God into the world in every conceivable way, in every single moment, in all possible circumstances, and in every particular soul, God has deemed us theotokos too. Because God is faithful to us, and to everything God has created ex amore, or out of love, this baffling salvation has come to us through the mysteries of a woman, a manger, a cross, and a tomb. Join me today in conversation about the offense of Advent and what it means for us all. 

With 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 and at my Substack, The Golden Thread, we'll be taking a different approach by exploring some of the darker themes that are often overlooked in our pre-packaged Christmastime lessons. Today our conversation partners will be an unlikely group of women who the gospel writer Matthew included in the genealogy of Jesus. Their names are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba (the wife of Uriah), and their placement in the genealogical account of Jesus' descent is unusual because they are all women of questionable repute. Biblical scholars, theologians, and everyday Bible readers have scratched their heads over why exactly Matthew would include women at all (which was not customary), much less four of “questionable repute,” in this genealogy which is supposed to be a matter of pride and critical importance in establishing Jesus's title as “King of Israel?” Consider the dark and twisted nature of these women's stories, which we will not gloss over today in our search for what's real in this Advent story. Join me in conversation with these four women today.  Subscribe to my substack at https://amberhjones.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web&r=2d2xps

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 episode to dig around for the gold that can be found in seasons of disappointment.  Subscribe to my Substack, The Golden Thread, where I'm writing a little deeper about this journey.  www.amberhjones.substack.com

'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

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. 

Season 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!

We 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 threat.  Join me in conversation with my husband of twenty-five years, Clayton Jones, as we discuss why marriage is often lacking in friendship and where to begin rebuilding friendship with your spouse. 

Seasonal 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 secrets to our lifelong friendship, and how we've grown closer each year despite living far apart and having completely opposite personalities. Perhaps the gold God has been trying to give you in friendship is hidden in the most unexpected person. 

True, 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 to overshadow the good.  Join me in conversation with my dear friend, Dr. Tiffanie Wilson, as we discuss the joys and challenges of companionship, and how moving thorugh our own pain points led to a deeper, and truer, friendship for us both.  You can find Dr. Wilson online at https://tiffaniewilson.com/

In 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 life-giving, sustainable and sustaining community? What is essential to strengthening and maintaining the kinds of connections that help us give and receive life-saving help?  We explore those questions and more on today's episode.  To find Dr. Lang Charters online, visit his website https://www.lightlovelang.com/ or find him on socials @lightlovelang

John 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 the special nature of our friendship, how we developed our relationship, and how we cultivate it. 

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. 

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!

When 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. 

When 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. 

Sometimes 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. 

When 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!

In 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. 

If 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. 

Psychiatrist 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? 

We 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. 

Often 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. 

With 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. 

Hate 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.