March 12, 2026 • 28 mins
This week, we’re joined by beloved television host, actress, songwriter, and author Kathie Lee Gifford. Kathie Lee shares her deeply personal faith journey, emphasizing that she is not a “churchy person” but a “relationship person.” She advocates for understanding the Scriptures deeply, going beyond surface-level readings, and ultimately seeking to bring Jews and Christians together in the love story of God.
Later in the episode, we’ll hear from Dr. Julia Garcia, also known as Dr. J., who joins us to dismantle the myth that hope is an elusive personality trait. Drawing from years of clinical practice and her own raw, lived experience—including overcoming addiction, failed businesses, and seasons of deep uncertainty—Dr. J offers a powerful, practical pathway back to hope, even when the darkness feels permanent.
Links, Products, and Resources Mentioned:
Past interview: Tauren Wells
Upcoming interview: Nathan Davis Jr.
Interview Quotes:
“When Jesus says. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant,’ He didn’t say ‘perfect servant.’ He said ‘good.’ ‘Your heart was good. Your heart was in the right place. You walked with Me and were faithful to the little things, faithful to proclaim Me.’” - Kathie Lee Gifford
“I would never take a role that required anything that dishonored the Lord. The Lord gives us a conscience for a reason.” - Kathie Lee Gifford
“I follow Him, and I’m going to use every opportunity that comes my way to proclaim Him, because people are hurting. People are broken. People are desperate. People are hungry, not just for food. They’re hungry for life itself. They’re hungry for the truth. The only thing that has been constant in my life that never changes is my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” - Kathie Lee Gifford
“Our life should be a prayer constantly.” - Kathie Lee Gifford
“I think religion puts us in chains, and Jesus came to get us out of the chains. It’s all about relationship, not religion, and I think we’ve really lost touch with that in Western Christianity.” - Kathie Lee Gifford
“I’ve always had to go back to different habits at different times to make sure that I don’t associate how I feel with who I am.” - Dr. Julia Garcia
“Hope is not a personality trait. People can fee
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Life audio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Walk through the season of Lent with an intentional focus
on your savior and prepare for the joy and victory
of his resurrection With Jesus Listens for Lent and Easter.
This book offers seasonally themed devotions from Sarah Young's New
York Times bestseller Jesus Listens. Inside you'll find prayers, reflections,
and Bible verses based on Jesus life and sacrifice, plus
(00:33):
stunning Spring and Easter illustrations, making this a holiday treasure
to cherish for years to come. Find Jesus Listens for
Lent and Easter today at your favorite retailer.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I think religion puts Us in chains, and Jesus came
to get us out of the chains. It's all about relationship,
not religion, and I think we've really lost touch with
that in Western Christianity.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. This week, we're joined
by beloved television host, actress, songwriter, an author, Kathy Lee Gifford.
Kathie Lee shares her deeply personal faith journey, emphasizing that
she is not a churchy person, but a relationship person.
She advocates for understanding the scriptures deeply, going beyond surface
level readings and ultimately seeking to bring Jews and Christians
(01:22):
together in the love story of God. Later in the episode,
we'll hear from doctor Julia Garcia, also known as Doctor J,
who joins us to dismantle the myth that hope is
an elusive personality traite. Drawing from years of clinical practice
and her own raw lived experience, including overcoming addiction, failed businesses,
and seasons of deep uncertainty, Doctor j offers a powerful
(01:43):
practical pathway back to hope even when the darkness feels permanent.
Let's begin with Kathy Lee's story.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
My name is Kathy Lee Gifford, and I have felt
for many, many years that if I wake up in
the morning and I have a pulse, that means I
still have a purpose, and I don't know what that
purpose is for to be that unfolds as the day
goes on. Well, I never dreamed at all that at
(02:14):
this time in my life that I would be talking
the way I am talking. I talk about Jesus with anybody.
I sing my songs about Jesus. I write songs about Jesus.
I write songs about everything, and I've been blessed to
do it. So It's one of the gifts that God
gave me, and that has guided me my whole life,
knowing that why I'm here. I never wanted to be
(02:35):
a star. I never dreamed I could be a star.
I don't even like the word stars. Stars are what
I look up at that God created. You know, the
media machine creates human stars. And we're not meant to
be worshiped in either of the stars above us. They're
all part of God's creation. And so I, as a
(02:56):
young child, had an understanding that I was made in
the image of God. We didn't grow up in a
religious family. My father was Jewish, my mom was a Shixa,
a beautiful gen tell A woman. But I grew up
with a great respect for God, the creator of all things.
Most of my family came to know the Lord through
Billy's ministry. I was a kid, twelve years old or
(03:17):
something like that, and I got to know Billy and
he said, Kathy, you're going to have a huge career
in the entertainment field. I said, I am. I mean,
I hadn't done hardly anything then, and he said, but
stay true to the calling on your life, Kathy, which
is God loves you. Remember the songs.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
You just says, I am without one. Please, you know,
do you do have to clean up your act? Just
come to him, give your life to him, and watch
him make something beautiful out of it. She said, Just
keep telling people that, Kathy.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
I've always been incredibly grateful that I came to a
personal relationship with Jesus early in my life and didn't
have a whole lot of religious baggage with me. It
was all about hearing that voice. I heard him say
very clearly to me in a movie theater. That's where
the Lord met me. Why because I wanted to be
an actress. I was an actress. He met me right
(04:13):
where my desires and my dreams were, and he said, Kathy,
I love you, and if you follow me, I will
make something beautiful out of your life. I will make
something beautiful. And I believed him, and I went running
down that aisle to give my life a fishery to Jesus.
But in my heart, he already.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Had my heart long before that.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
When Jesus says, well done, my good and faithful serpent,
he didn't say perfect servant. He said good. Your heart
was good. Your heart was in the right place. She
walked with me and faithful to the little things, faithful
to proclaim me. People always say to you were so
bold on television, And I said, why wouldn't I be?
(04:54):
God put me there to be bold. He didn't put
me there to be a big star and make a
ton of money, have my star on them. I mean,
all of that has happened, but it wasn't because that
was the purpose for my life. The greatest surrender is
that first moment where we surrender to His lordship. That's
(05:17):
called salvation. Right, we receive this amazing gift of grace
of salvation. But what we don't study enough in the
West is the gift of sanctification that comes afterwards. That's
the hard part. When the Holy Spirit renews our hearts
and our minds in Christ Jesus, that's the hard part.
That's when it's a surrender every single day. I would
(05:37):
never take a rule that required anything that dishonored the Lord.
The Lord gives us a conscience for a reason. I
follow him, and I'm going to use every opportunity that
comes my way to proclaim him. Because people are hurting,
people are broken, people are desperate. People are hungry, not
(06:00):
just for food, they're hungry for life itself. They're hungry
for truth, tired of being lied to all their lives,
and it happens every day, all day long in their lives.
And I get that me too. I'm sick of it.
But the only thing that has been constant in my
life that never changes is my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
(06:23):
So I'm very much a kind of person wants life
to unfold authentically. I like organization. I despise chaos, but
I also don't want to manipulate life. So I guess
I enter into a new day, which starts very very
early for me and always has. Usually one or two
(06:43):
o'clock in the morning is when I do wake up,
and the first thing I do is have a conversation
with the Lord, and usually it starts with praise.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
I love to say the scripture. Let the morning bring
me word of your unfailing love, for I put my
trust in you. Show me the way that I should
go for unto you, I lift up my hope, and
then I do a bl Bless the Lord, oh my
soul and all that is within me.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Bless your holy name.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
And then I do show me your ways, Lord, and
teach me your past and guide me in your truth,
and I give it to him. Basically, I can't do
anything without him. I love the scripture and acts that
says you know in Him we live and move and
have our being. I'm not a churchy person at all.
I'm a relationship person. And the word for a church
(07:31):
in the Greek is ecclesia, and it doesn't mean a building.
It means a movement. It means a gathering of people
and the gathering of the Holy Spirit. And that's how
I start my day, and it's hopefully it's the way
I live my day. It's an attitude of prayer. Our
life should be a prayer constantly, even if it's just
(07:54):
a thank you Jesus for that, just like Sarah Young's
Jesus calling and everything else that's come from her magnificent
ministry is all based on Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and
the Father's and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity. I was
honored to meet her before she passed away. She moved
back here in Tennessee for the last part of her
life after battling limes disease for years and years. We
(08:17):
had the same publisher, and I said, yah, I meet
her she means a lot to me. Her books have
meant a great deal to me, and I did. I
went and had lunch with her one day, and we
spent the day together.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
And I'll never forget it.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
And Sarah would be the first one to tell you,
she said, it's not about my faithfulness to him all
these years. It's about his faithfulness to me and anybody
that truly walks with God. We know the difference, you know.
I have tried to be a faithful follower of Jesus,
but I have failed. I have failed many times. I'll
fail to day in one way or another. I'll be
angry at somebody that's not driving fast enough, or I'll
(08:49):
be short with somebody, or I'll be irritable. I will fail.
I'm not perfect, and one day I will be. One day,
we all will be perfect when we're with our Savior,
who was perfection himself.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
To learn more about Kathie Lee at Kathy Lee Gifford
dot com and be sure to check out her new
books Nero and Paul and Herod and Mary at your
favorite retailer. Stay tuned at doctor Julia Garcia's story. After
a brief message looking for a source of daily encouragement
and peace. The Jesus Calling App brings you closer to
(09:25):
God with daily devotionals right on your phone. Explore features
like personalized daily devotionals and soothing audio readings. You can
bookmark your favorite passages, set reminders for your devotional time,
and even share inspirational messages with loved ones. Now, the
Jesus Calling App brings even more comfort and connection with
the introduction of Spanish devotions from author Sarah Young. Whether
(09:47):
you start your day with a quiet moment of reflection
or use it to end your evening in gratitude, the
Jesus Calling App offers comfort, guidance, and a deeper connection
to God at your fingertips. Get started today for free.
The Jesus Calling App is available in both the Apple
and Google Play stores. Our next guest is doctor Julia Garcia.
(10:12):
Drawing from years of clinical work and lived experience, she
shares how hope is not a personality trait or a
constant feeling, but something we can practice through simple, intentional habits.
She helps people name their pain, interrupt harmful thought patterns,
and begin discovering what it looks like to find hope again,
even when it feels out of Reach.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
My name is doctor Julia Garcia Newroth, but I'm also
known as doctor j In. My work started at a
really young age. I was actually still a teenager when
I was positioned to work with people in some of
the most difficult challenges that they were going through in life.
I have struggled for years personally and professionally learning about
(10:58):
the concept of hope and the habits of hope started
to form personally for me when I started that habit
of reflection and really facing myself, and then it started
to build professionally. I could see how it was shaping
my world professionally and educationally and personally and spiritually. I
(11:20):
was finally getting to a place where I wasn't running
and I was reflecting, and it was really really powerful
for me on my journey. I had to do that
in order to build a life I believed in. But
I couldn't build from a place where I didn't have
real roots. I didn't know what was below the surface.
I couldn't build nothing was stable, so I had to
(11:42):
rebuild my life. From a young age, I was running
from so many things that I was running towards, things
like drugs and alcohol. I was suspended in undergrad. I
was forced in to rehab before I was even old
enough to drink. I had not only been suspended from undergrad,
(12:04):
I dropped out of grad school not once, not twice,
but three times. There was a period where I was
a single mother. I had started businesses, failed businesses. There
were so many times in my life where there were
seasons of stress and uncertainty. And I've always had to
go back to different habits at different times to make
sure that I don't associate how I feel with who
(12:27):
I am. I have to make sure that I have
these habits in place so that I can keep building
who I am and the life that I believe in,
that I can keep having faith, because without hope, I
can't even reach out for faith. I have to have
that first, and it doesn't always have to be this
huge thing. I didn't come into the church and come
(12:54):
to know God and Jesus until I was in my twenties,
and I remember one of the first gifts people would
give me when they heard, Oh, she's going to church.
Oh this is crazy? Is this like this is really happening?
And they are so much disbelief within my friend group
and my family and a lot of people would gift
me the Jesus Calling Book. I have so many copies
(13:17):
because people would gift it to me, and it took
me a little bit to actually open it because I
was still so nervous. And I always felt like faith
is for certain types of people, not someone like me,
not someone who has done so many terrible things and
failed and had seen some of the traumas I had, Like,
(13:38):
that's for other people. Faith is not for someone like me.
That's maybe for that girl next doors type that sounds
a certain way, who has raised a certain way. But
maybe I've had purple hair before, not someone like me, right,
And so I would always count myself out, like maybe
I can't even read that. But it was such a
powerful thing when I was brave enough to do it,
(13:58):
and it helped to start shaping myself in a way
of building these emotional patterns to con instantly come back
to that reflection and gratitude. What it really boils down
to is how we feel about hope. And with hope,
it's like you know when you have it, and you
can feel it when you don't. And I think a
lot of people struggle to really maintain hope and to
(14:22):
hold on to it for a lot of different reasons,
but I'm going to just break it down into a couple.
One is people, if you're like me, you associate hopeful
people with happy people. And if you feel like you're
not in a happy place, or maybe you're not generally
some happy person that you perceive someone else to be
by the way that they project themselves or the way
(14:44):
that they are, if you don't think you are happy,
then you might think that hope is not for you.
But it's not a personality trait. Hope is not a
personality trait. So I'm going to debunk that right now
for you. And another thing is people can feel like
they need to have a lot, a huge amount of
hope and they don't really wreck. Is that it really
(15:07):
just takes that mustard seed, a tiny, tiny, tiny little
piece of hope is enough to carry you through. And
so when we debunk those first two things right off
the bat, we're turning these hope blocks, these things that
can get in the way of us having hope and
saying I'm going to switch the perspective and they're going
to help me build hope, not be barriers. The habits
(15:36):
of hope are not meant to be super complex things
that you can't apply and practice daily. They're meant to
be simple things that start in our mind, that start
with how we feel. Because our feelings often will find
that they dictate what we do or don't do, the
decisions we make, the relationships we have or build or
grow or don't push away. Our feelings navigate so much
(15:59):
of our life. So what we have to go back
to is those feelings. And that's what the habits of
hope are about. They're an emotional framework to help us
with those perspective shifts, so we can interrupt harmful thought patterns.
And we get into what I call a cycle of silence,
where we struggle and we hold it in and we
don't say anything because of many reasons. You know, we
(16:21):
live in an era unlike any other in history, and
most of the time we don't know what's real anymore.
We do not know what is real, and we're going
to have to really really navigate this new world in
such an intentional way moving forward, and it is getting
harder and more challenging and difficult for people to have
(16:42):
depth and meaning in their relationships. And I see this
all over the place. It could be a sixth grader,
it could be an educator, it could be a parent,
or a suit in a business room. People are struggling
with human connection. It's pretty obvious we're spending a lot
of time behind screens. We're going to have to get
(17:05):
a lot stronger in our ability to emotionally risk so
that we can deepen our relationships, not just with other people,
but in our faith and with ourselves. We're going to
have to get out of surface level screen situations and
we're going to have to take that risk. And there
is always going to be a cost. But what I
(17:26):
say is the cost of going through life feeling disconnected
will lead us to despair, and despair as that hopelessness
whole that is really hard to get out of. We
have to meet it with that risk taking to have
more meaning and connection than the Top three reasons people
struggle and don't say anything are I don't want to
(17:49):
be a burden. I don't want to worry anyone, and
I don't think anyone cares. And the other one is
I don't want to look weak. And when we think
about that, when those feelings of I don't want to
burden anyone, I don't want to look weak and being
judged and all of that. That is what's keeping us
silent about our struggles. What we have to do is
(18:11):
interrupt it with a perspective shift, and that has to
tie into what we value, our identity, what is true,
so it can go from I can't to I am
an overcomer or I have anxiety to I also am
creative and thoughtful, and reminding ourselves to the holistic part
(18:31):
of who we are, that we're not just one thing,
We're not just one part of ourselves. And it's continuing
to just reshape and encourage us to build and widen
our perspective on ourselves so that we can know that
our circumstance, our feelings, they're going to come and they're
going to go, but who we are we can keep
going back to that when we interrupt our thought patterns.
(18:53):
And the powerful crazy part of all of this is
there's a science to it, and we can actually reshape
the neuropathways in our mind. We can reshape our thought
patterns like constantly interrup them and building these little tiny
practices of hope, these emotional practices where we remind ourselves
not I can't I am an overcomer. I am not
(19:15):
good enough, I am loved enough, I am worthy enough.
I'm always enough, and that is enough. Enough is enough,
That is enough. And our emotional thought patterns that continue
to help us reshape those neuropathways so that we can
navigate back to hope and not allow ourselves to feel
like when we feel hopeless, that's going to be the
hole we stay in forever. Because I'm not saying you're
(19:37):
not gonna feel hopeless. There are many times throughout the
week I still feel hopeless. And I wrote the book
Five Habits about it is not about always having hope.
It is about having a process to navigate back to it.
So if I do get in that dark space, I'm
not staying there for ten years. I'm not staying there
for ten months. Maybe it'll be ten minutes, but I'm
gonna navigate back out of it. I'm going to identify
(19:59):
what would support look like and feel like for me.
Right now, I'm gonna tell myself why am I staying silent?
Am I afraid of someone judging me? And I'm going
to start practicing these habits and interrupting the temptation to
struggle in silence let's hear from some people in their
(20:20):
own words and their own handwriting that have identified things
that will help them in what they're struggling with, because
I think it's just a beautiful reminder that these people also,
at the beginning of what they share, things they struggled with,
and by the end of it, they shared things they
were hopeful for. So this person says, I am hopeful
for my kids that I will be their support. I
(20:44):
am hopeful for healing, peace and joy, said another person.
This person shares, I am hopeful because I'm still fighting.
This person shares, I hope that the person comes along
someday soon to let me know that it'll be okay, okay.
These sometimes make me emotional, even though I've read them
before and I received these on a regular basis. They're
(21:06):
just so powerful because I feel like I'm in it
with them when they write this, and I feel so
honored that they share it. Because why I have these
in my hand, these handwritten things that people share all
over the world, from Wisconsin to New York to California,
all over the place, is because I give a prompt
that says, if you want to let go of what
you were struggling with and invite hope in and that's
(21:29):
why I have them in my hands now and can
share them with you. I'll read one more. It says,
I am hopeful for change and new beginnings. This person
said I needed someone to talk to and help me
make a plan. So they identified they needed someone else,
that maybe they didn't want to do it on their
own anymore even if they could, and that the action
between them would be a plan. This person shared, I
(21:54):
need a guide to tell me I could do it
and show me the steps. So again it's a reminder
of how powerful our words are and having that support
system for some of you and for my I always
need that support system to verbally remind me of things
that I forget often. I'm going to share one more
with you. This person shared, I needed to know it
(22:15):
wasn't my fault, and that just really leads us to
forgiveness and accepting that forgiveness is the habit of receiving.
Being able to accept forgiveness is so powerful, and it
starts with us believing it and forgiving ourselves before we
can forgive anyone else. So the more we learn language
(22:38):
around identifying what support would look like or feel like
the more we can get in the emotional habit of
receiving that support, But it starts with us identifying what
it is, who it is, and what we need from
those people are support pillars so that we can receive hope.
(23:02):
It really helped me having my own process of habits
of things that make me stay grounded and connected. And
one of the biggest things is for me, it's writing.
I write my way through my feelings. I wrestle with
my faith. It is not always like a positive place
in my mind. When I'm talking to Jesus, I am wrestling.
(23:23):
I am like, what is happening? Why do I feel
like this? Why is this going on in the world?
Why did that person do this? Should I believe? Should
I follow? Should I? And there's just so many tensions
I face constantly. And one of my daily things that
ground me and connect me is writing. It is my
way of worship. I used to run to feel connected
to God, but after children and injuries, sports injuries, I
(23:46):
don't run like I used to. So writing for me
is my way back to my faith. It is my
way back to God, is my way I can lay
it all out, doesn't have to sound nice and pretty.
I don't have to pease anyone. I could just be honest,
and that has helped me heal. Being honest has helped
me heal because you can't have hope without honesty. I
just want to encourage anyone listening right now that you're
(24:09):
not a bad person. Because maybe you're not happy right now,
or you're hurting. It's okay to be in that place.
It's okay to feel hopeless even It's not about being
right or being wrong. It's about how can we keep
aligning who we are with what we believe. So if
we're struggling, keep aligning to the things that are true
and the things that are real. Keep coming back to
(24:32):
that place that aligns you with God's call on your life.
Even if the external things around you don't make sense
and it feels chaotic inside, just keep coming back, keep
aligning back to the voice that you know is real
and true. Keep aligning because we're not always going to
feel a certain way, but we can come back. You
(24:52):
can come back and you are not alone. If we
can just take a moment to receive the truth that
we are not alone, that we are enough, then that
is a building place for us to help navigate out
of that feeling of feeling stuck or overwhelmed. It's to
replace these feelings with truth, with identity statements reminding us
(25:17):
who we are. We are not alone, and we are
made perfect in His image. I would love to close
out with an excerpt of a prayer from Sarah Young's
prayer devotional Jesus Listens, Jesus Listens, March fourteenth. Glorious Lord,
you have been showing me that hope is like a
(25:38):
golden chord connecting me to Heaven. This cord helps me
hold my head up high even when multiple trials are
buffeting me. I know that you never leave my side
and you never let go of my hand. But without
the cord of hope, my head sometimes slumps and my
feet start to drag. As I journey uphill with you,
(26:01):
hope lifts my perspective from my weary feet to the
glory this view, which I can see from the high road.
Thank you, Lord, that you are always with me and
the road we're traveling together is ultimately the highway to Heaven.
When I contemplate this glorious destination, I stop worrying about
(26:23):
the roughness or smoothness of the road ahead. Please train
me to hold in my heart a dual focus, your
continual presence and the hope of heaven in your wonderful name,
Jesus Almen.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
To learn more about doctor Julia Garcia, visit doctor Julia
Garcia dot com and be sure to check out her
new book, The Five Habits of Hope. Stories and strategies
to help you find your way at your favorite retailer.
If you'd like to hear more stories about using our
gifts to share our faith, check out our interview with
Toran Wells. Next time on the Jesus Calling podcast, we'll
(27:08):
hear from actor, singer and songwriter Nathan Davis Junior, who
shares about how God met him in a dark season
of despair.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
I was dealing with depression, suicide, I was able to
lose my.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
House, dealing with greed.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
My mom just came out of the hospital.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
It was so much going on in my life, but
all I could think about was waking up in the
morning and praying to God and walk away him on
my walks, and just his presence just felt so calming.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
I just felt so.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Loved, validated and just reassured, and I just felt like
there was a reason for me to be alive.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Thanks for listening to the Jesus Calling Stories of Faith
podcast on the Life Audio Network. Every week, we'll bring
you stories from people who share their journeys of faith
and how prayer and a relationship with God transformed their lives.
Be sure to follow us on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or
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(28:06):
so others can be inspired weekly by these stories of faith. Finally,
you can find encouragement resources and more on the Jesus
Calling website at Jesuscalling dot com
Life audio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Walk through the season of Lent with an intentional focus
on your savior and prepare for the joy and victory
of his resurrection With Jesus Listens for Lent and Easter.
This book offers seasonally themed devotions from Sarah Young's New
York Times bestseller Jesus Listens. Inside you'll find prayers, reflections,
and Bible verses based on Jesus life and sacrifice, plus
(00:33):
stunning Spring and Easter illustrations, making this a holiday treasure
to cherish for years to come. Find Jesus Listens for
Lent and Easter today at your favorite retailer.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I think religion puts Us in chains, and Jesus came
to get us out of the chains. It's all about relationship,
not religion, and I think we've really lost touch with
that in Western Christianity.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. This week, we're joined
by beloved television host, actress, songwriter, an author, Kathy Lee Gifford.
Kathie Lee shares her deeply personal faith journey, emphasizing that
she is not a churchy person, but a relationship person.
She advocates for understanding the scriptures deeply, going beyond surface
level readings and ultimately seeking to bring Jews and Christians
(01:22):
together in the love story of God. Later in the episode,
we'll hear from doctor Julia Garcia, also known as Doctor J,
who joins us to dismantle the myth that hope is
an elusive personality traite. Drawing from years of clinical practice
and her own raw lived experience, including overcoming addiction, failed businesses,
and seasons of deep uncertainty, Doctor j offers a powerful
(01:43):
practical pathway back to hope even when the darkness feels permanent.
Let's begin with Kathy Lee's story.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
My name is Kathy Lee Gifford, and I have felt
for many, many years that if I wake up in
the morning and I have a pulse, that means I
still have a purpose, and I don't know what that
purpose is for to be that unfolds as the day
goes on. Well, I never dreamed at all that at
(02:14):
this time in my life that I would be talking
the way I am talking. I talk about Jesus with anybody.
I sing my songs about Jesus. I write songs about Jesus.
I write songs about everything, and I've been blessed to
do it. So It's one of the gifts that God
gave me, and that has guided me my whole life,
knowing that why I'm here. I never wanted to be
(02:35):
a star. I never dreamed I could be a star.
I don't even like the word stars. Stars are what
I look up at that God created. You know, the
media machine creates human stars. And we're not meant to
be worshiped in either of the stars above us. They're
all part of God's creation. And so I, as a
(02:56):
young child, had an understanding that I was made in
the image of God. We didn't grow up in a
religious family. My father was Jewish, my mom was a Shixa,
a beautiful gen tell A woman. But I grew up
with a great respect for God, the creator of all things.
Most of my family came to know the Lord through
Billy's ministry. I was a kid, twelve years old or
(03:17):
something like that, and I got to know Billy and
he said, Kathy, you're going to have a huge career
in the entertainment field. I said, I am. I mean,
I hadn't done hardly anything then, and he said, but
stay true to the calling on your life, Kathy, which
is God loves you. Remember the songs.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
You just says, I am without one. Please, you know,
do you do have to clean up your act? Just
come to him, give your life to him, and watch
him make something beautiful out of it. She said, Just
keep telling people that, Kathy.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
I've always been incredibly grateful that I came to a
personal relationship with Jesus early in my life and didn't
have a whole lot of religious baggage with me. It
was all about hearing that voice. I heard him say
very clearly to me in a movie theater. That's where
the Lord met me. Why because I wanted to be
an actress. I was an actress. He met me right
(04:13):
where my desires and my dreams were, and he said, Kathy,
I love you, and if you follow me, I will
make something beautiful out of your life. I will make
something beautiful. And I believed him, and I went running
down that aisle to give my life a fishery to Jesus.
But in my heart, he already.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Had my heart long before that.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
When Jesus says, well done, my good and faithful serpent,
he didn't say perfect servant. He said good. Your heart
was good. Your heart was in the right place. She
walked with me and faithful to the little things, faithful
to proclaim me. People always say to you were so
bold on television, And I said, why wouldn't I be?
(04:54):
God put me there to be bold. He didn't put
me there to be a big star and make a
ton of money, have my star on them. I mean,
all of that has happened, but it wasn't because that
was the purpose for my life. The greatest surrender is
that first moment where we surrender to His lordship. That's
(05:17):
called salvation. Right, we receive this amazing gift of grace
of salvation. But what we don't study enough in the
West is the gift of sanctification that comes afterwards. That's
the hard part. When the Holy Spirit renews our hearts
and our minds in Christ Jesus, that's the hard part.
That's when it's a surrender every single day. I would
(05:37):
never take a rule that required anything that dishonored the Lord.
The Lord gives us a conscience for a reason. I
follow him, and I'm going to use every opportunity that
comes my way to proclaim him. Because people are hurting,
people are broken, people are desperate. People are hungry, not
(06:00):
just for food, they're hungry for life itself. They're hungry
for truth, tired of being lied to all their lives,
and it happens every day, all day long in their lives.
And I get that me too. I'm sick of it.
But the only thing that has been constant in my
life that never changes is my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
(06:23):
So I'm very much a kind of person wants life
to unfold authentically. I like organization. I despise chaos, but
I also don't want to manipulate life. So I guess
I enter into a new day, which starts very very
early for me and always has. Usually one or two
(06:43):
o'clock in the morning is when I do wake up,
and the first thing I do is have a conversation
with the Lord, and usually it starts with praise.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
I love to say the scripture. Let the morning bring
me word of your unfailing love, for I put my
trust in you. Show me the way that I should
go for unto you, I lift up my hope, and
then I do a bl Bless the Lord, oh my
soul and all that is within me.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Bless your holy name.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
And then I do show me your ways, Lord, and
teach me your past and guide me in your truth,
and I give it to him. Basically, I can't do
anything without him. I love the scripture and acts that
says you know in Him we live and move and
have our being. I'm not a churchy person at all.
I'm a relationship person. And the word for a church
(07:31):
in the Greek is ecclesia, and it doesn't mean a building.
It means a movement. It means a gathering of people
and the gathering of the Holy Spirit. And that's how
I start my day, and it's hopefully it's the way
I live my day. It's an attitude of prayer. Our
life should be a prayer constantly, even if it's just
(07:54):
a thank you Jesus for that, just like Sarah Young's
Jesus calling and everything else that's come from her magnificent
ministry is all based on Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and
the Father's and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity. I was
honored to meet her before she passed away. She moved
back here in Tennessee for the last part of her
life after battling limes disease for years and years. We
(08:17):
had the same publisher, and I said, yah, I meet
her she means a lot to me. Her books have
meant a great deal to me, and I did. I
went and had lunch with her one day, and we
spent the day together.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
And I'll never forget it.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
And Sarah would be the first one to tell you,
she said, it's not about my faithfulness to him all
these years. It's about his faithfulness to me and anybody
that truly walks with God. We know the difference, you know.
I have tried to be a faithful follower of Jesus,
but I have failed. I have failed many times. I'll
fail to day in one way or another. I'll be
angry at somebody that's not driving fast enough, or I'll
(08:49):
be short with somebody, or I'll be irritable. I will fail.
I'm not perfect, and one day I will be. One day,
we all will be perfect when we're with our Savior,
who was perfection himself.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
To learn more about Kathie Lee at Kathy Lee Gifford
dot com and be sure to check out her new
books Nero and Paul and Herod and Mary at your
favorite retailer. Stay tuned at doctor Julia Garcia's story. After
a brief message looking for a source of daily encouragement
and peace. The Jesus Calling App brings you closer to
(09:25):
God with daily devotionals right on your phone. Explore features
like personalized daily devotionals and soothing audio readings. You can
bookmark your favorite passages, set reminders for your devotional time,
and even share inspirational messages with loved ones. Now, the
Jesus Calling App brings even more comfort and connection with
the introduction of Spanish devotions from author Sarah Young. Whether
(09:47):
you start your day with a quiet moment of reflection
or use it to end your evening in gratitude, the
Jesus Calling App offers comfort, guidance, and a deeper connection
to God at your fingertips. Get started today for free.
The Jesus Calling App is available in both the Apple
and Google Play stores. Our next guest is doctor Julia Garcia.
(10:12):
Drawing from years of clinical work and lived experience, she
shares how hope is not a personality trait or a
constant feeling, but something we can practice through simple, intentional habits.
She helps people name their pain, interrupt harmful thought patterns,
and begin discovering what it looks like to find hope again,
even when it feels out of Reach.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
My name is doctor Julia Garcia Newroth, but I'm also
known as doctor j In. My work started at a
really young age. I was actually still a teenager when
I was positioned to work with people in some of
the most difficult challenges that they were going through in life.
I have struggled for years personally and professionally learning about
(10:58):
the concept of hope and the habits of hope started
to form personally for me when I started that habit
of reflection and really facing myself, and then it started
to build professionally. I could see how it was shaping
my world professionally and educationally and personally and spiritually. I
(11:20):
was finally getting to a place where I wasn't running
and I was reflecting, and it was really really powerful
for me on my journey. I had to do that
in order to build a life I believed in. But
I couldn't build from a place where I didn't have
real roots. I didn't know what was below the surface.
I couldn't build nothing was stable, so I had to
(11:42):
rebuild my life. From a young age, I was running
from so many things that I was running towards, things
like drugs and alcohol. I was suspended in undergrad. I
was forced in to rehab before I was even old
enough to drink. I had not only been suspended from undergrad,
(12:04):
I dropped out of grad school not once, not twice,
but three times. There was a period where I was
a single mother. I had started businesses, failed businesses. There
were so many times in my life where there were
seasons of stress and uncertainty. And I've always had to
go back to different habits at different times to make
sure that I don't associate how I feel with who
(12:27):
I am. I have to make sure that I have
these habits in place so that I can keep building
who I am and the life that I believe in,
that I can keep having faith, because without hope, I
can't even reach out for faith. I have to have
that first, and it doesn't always have to be this
huge thing. I didn't come into the church and come
(12:54):
to know God and Jesus until I was in my twenties,
and I remember one of the first gifts people would
give me when they heard, Oh, she's going to church.
Oh this is crazy? Is this like this is really happening?
And they are so much disbelief within my friend group
and my family and a lot of people would gift
me the Jesus Calling Book. I have so many copies
(13:17):
because people would gift it to me, and it took
me a little bit to actually open it because I
was still so nervous. And I always felt like faith
is for certain types of people, not someone like me,
not someone who has done so many terrible things and
failed and had seen some of the traumas I had, Like,
(13:38):
that's for other people. Faith is not for someone like me.
That's maybe for that girl next doors type that sounds
a certain way, who has raised a certain way. But
maybe I've had purple hair before, not someone like me, right,
And so I would always count myself out, like maybe
I can't even read that. But it was such a
powerful thing when I was brave enough to do it,
(13:58):
and it helped to start shaping myself in a way
of building these emotional patterns to con instantly come back
to that reflection and gratitude. What it really boils down
to is how we feel about hope. And with hope,
it's like you know when you have it, and you
can feel it when you don't. And I think a
lot of people struggle to really maintain hope and to
(14:22):
hold on to it for a lot of different reasons,
but I'm going to just break it down into a couple.
One is people, if you're like me, you associate hopeful
people with happy people. And if you feel like you're
not in a happy place, or maybe you're not generally
some happy person that you perceive someone else to be
by the way that they project themselves or the way
(14:44):
that they are, if you don't think you are happy,
then you might think that hope is not for you.
But it's not a personality trait. Hope is not a
personality trait. So I'm going to debunk that right now
for you. And another thing is people can feel like
they need to have a lot, a huge amount of
hope and they don't really wreck. Is that it really
(15:07):
just takes that mustard seed, a tiny, tiny, tiny little
piece of hope is enough to carry you through. And
so when we debunk those first two things right off
the bat, we're turning these hope blocks, these things that
can get in the way of us having hope and
saying I'm going to switch the perspective and they're going
to help me build hope, not be barriers. The habits
(15:36):
of hope are not meant to be super complex things
that you can't apply and practice daily. They're meant to
be simple things that start in our mind, that start
with how we feel. Because our feelings often will find
that they dictate what we do or don't do, the
decisions we make, the relationships we have or build or
grow or don't push away. Our feelings navigate so much
(15:59):
of our life. So what we have to go back
to is those feelings. And that's what the habits of
hope are about. They're an emotional framework to help us
with those perspective shifts, so we can interrupt harmful thought patterns.
And we get into what I call a cycle of silence,
where we struggle and we hold it in and we
don't say anything because of many reasons. You know, we
(16:21):
live in an era unlike any other in history, and
most of the time we don't know what's real anymore.
We do not know what is real, and we're going
to have to really really navigate this new world in
such an intentional way moving forward, and it is getting
harder and more challenging and difficult for people to have
(16:42):
depth and meaning in their relationships. And I see this
all over the place. It could be a sixth grader,
it could be an educator, it could be a parent,
or a suit in a business room. People are struggling
with human connection. It's pretty obvious we're spending a lot
of time behind screens. We're going to have to get
(17:05):
a lot stronger in our ability to emotionally risk so
that we can deepen our relationships, not just with other people,
but in our faith and with ourselves. We're going to
have to get out of surface level screen situations and
we're going to have to take that risk. And there
is always going to be a cost. But what I
(17:26):
say is the cost of going through life feeling disconnected
will lead us to despair, and despair as that hopelessness
whole that is really hard to get out of. We
have to meet it with that risk taking to have
more meaning and connection than the Top three reasons people
struggle and don't say anything are I don't want to
(17:49):
be a burden. I don't want to worry anyone, and
I don't think anyone cares. And the other one is
I don't want to look weak. And when we think
about that, when those feelings of I don't want to
burden anyone, I don't want to look weak and being
judged and all of that. That is what's keeping us
silent about our struggles. What we have to do is
(18:11):
interrupt it with a perspective shift, and that has to
tie into what we value, our identity, what is true,
so it can go from I can't to I am
an overcomer or I have anxiety to I also am
creative and thoughtful, and reminding ourselves to the holistic part
(18:31):
of who we are, that we're not just one thing,
We're not just one part of ourselves. And it's continuing
to just reshape and encourage us to build and widen
our perspective on ourselves so that we can know that
our circumstance, our feelings, they're going to come and they're
going to go, but who we are we can keep
going back to that when we interrupt our thought patterns.
(18:53):
And the powerful crazy part of all of this is
there's a science to it, and we can actually reshape
the neuropathways in our mind. We can reshape our thought
patterns like constantly interrup them and building these little tiny
practices of hope, these emotional practices where we remind ourselves
not I can't I am an overcomer. I am not
(19:15):
good enough, I am loved enough, I am worthy enough.
I'm always enough, and that is enough. Enough is enough,
That is enough. And our emotional thought patterns that continue
to help us reshape those neuropathways so that we can
navigate back to hope and not allow ourselves to feel
like when we feel hopeless, that's going to be the
hole we stay in forever. Because I'm not saying you're
(19:37):
not gonna feel hopeless. There are many times throughout the
week I still feel hopeless. And I wrote the book
Five Habits about it is not about always having hope.
It is about having a process to navigate back to it.
So if I do get in that dark space, I'm
not staying there for ten years. I'm not staying there
for ten months. Maybe it'll be ten minutes, but I'm
gonna navigate back out of it. I'm going to identify
(19:59):
what would support look like and feel like for me.
Right now, I'm gonna tell myself why am I staying silent?
Am I afraid of someone judging me? And I'm going
to start practicing these habits and interrupting the temptation to
struggle in silence let's hear from some people in their
(20:20):
own words and their own handwriting that have identified things
that will help them in what they're struggling with, because
I think it's just a beautiful reminder that these people also,
at the beginning of what they share, things they struggled with,
and by the end of it, they shared things they
were hopeful for. So this person says, I am hopeful
for my kids that I will be their support. I
(20:44):
am hopeful for healing, peace and joy, said another person.
This person shares, I am hopeful because I'm still fighting.
This person shares, I hope that the person comes along
someday soon to let me know that it'll be okay, okay.
These sometimes make me emotional, even though I've read them
before and I received these on a regular basis. They're
(21:06):
just so powerful because I feel like I'm in it
with them when they write this, and I feel so
honored that they share it. Because why I have these
in my hand, these handwritten things that people share all
over the world, from Wisconsin to New York to California,
all over the place, is because I give a prompt
that says, if you want to let go of what
you were struggling with and invite hope in and that's
(21:29):
why I have them in my hands now and can
share them with you. I'll read one more. It says,
I am hopeful for change and new beginnings. This person
said I needed someone to talk to and help me
make a plan. So they identified they needed someone else,
that maybe they didn't want to do it on their
own anymore even if they could, and that the action
between them would be a plan. This person shared, I
(21:54):
need a guide to tell me I could do it
and show me the steps. So again it's a reminder
of how powerful our words are and having that support
system for some of you and for my I always
need that support system to verbally remind me of things
that I forget often. I'm going to share one more
with you. This person shared, I needed to know it
(22:15):
wasn't my fault, and that just really leads us to
forgiveness and accepting that forgiveness is the habit of receiving.
Being able to accept forgiveness is so powerful, and it
starts with us believing it and forgiving ourselves before we
can forgive anyone else. So the more we learn language
(22:38):
around identifying what support would look like or feel like
the more we can get in the emotional habit of
receiving that support, But it starts with us identifying what
it is, who it is, and what we need from
those people are support pillars so that we can receive hope.
(23:02):
It really helped me having my own process of habits
of things that make me stay grounded and connected. And
one of the biggest things is for me, it's writing.
I write my way through my feelings. I wrestle with
my faith. It is not always like a positive place
in my mind. When I'm talking to Jesus, I am wrestling.
(23:23):
I am like, what is happening? Why do I feel
like this? Why is this going on in the world?
Why did that person do this? Should I believe? Should
I follow? Should I? And there's just so many tensions
I face constantly. And one of my daily things that
ground me and connect me is writing. It is my
way of worship. I used to run to feel connected
to God, but after children and injuries, sports injuries, I
(23:46):
don't run like I used to. So writing for me
is my way back to my faith. It is my
way back to God, is my way I can lay
it all out, doesn't have to sound nice and pretty.
I don't have to pease anyone. I could just be honest,
and that has helped me heal. Being honest has helped
me heal because you can't have hope without honesty. I
just want to encourage anyone listening right now that you're
(24:09):
not a bad person. Because maybe you're not happy right now,
or you're hurting. It's okay to be in that place.
It's okay to feel hopeless even It's not about being
right or being wrong. It's about how can we keep
aligning who we are with what we believe. So if
we're struggling, keep aligning to the things that are true
and the things that are real. Keep coming back to
(24:32):
that place that aligns you with God's call on your life.
Even if the external things around you don't make sense
and it feels chaotic inside, just keep coming back, keep
aligning back to the voice that you know is real
and true. Keep aligning because we're not always going to
feel a certain way, but we can come back. You
(24:52):
can come back and you are not alone. If we
can just take a moment to receive the truth that
we are not alone, that we are enough, then that
is a building place for us to help navigate out
of that feeling of feeling stuck or overwhelmed. It's to
replace these feelings with truth, with identity statements reminding us
(25:17):
who we are. We are not alone, and we are
made perfect in His image. I would love to close
out with an excerpt of a prayer from Sarah Young's
prayer devotional Jesus Listens, Jesus Listens, March fourteenth. Glorious Lord,
you have been showing me that hope is like a
(25:38):
golden chord connecting me to Heaven. This cord helps me
hold my head up high even when multiple trials are
buffeting me. I know that you never leave my side
and you never let go of my hand. But without
the cord of hope, my head sometimes slumps and my
feet start to drag. As I journey uphill with you,
(26:01):
hope lifts my perspective from my weary feet to the
glory this view, which I can see from the high road.
Thank you, Lord, that you are always with me and
the road we're traveling together is ultimately the highway to Heaven.
When I contemplate this glorious destination, I stop worrying about
(26:23):
the roughness or smoothness of the road ahead. Please train
me to hold in my heart a dual focus, your
continual presence and the hope of heaven in your wonderful name,
Jesus Almen.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
To learn more about doctor Julia Garcia, visit doctor Julia
Garcia dot com and be sure to check out her
new book, The Five Habits of Hope. Stories and strategies
to help you find your way at your favorite retailer.
If you'd like to hear more stories about using our
gifts to share our faith, check out our interview with
Toran Wells. Next time on the Jesus Calling podcast, we'll
(27:08):
hear from actor, singer and songwriter Nathan Davis Junior, who
shares about how God met him in a dark season
of despair.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
I was dealing with depression, suicide, I was able to
lose my.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
House, dealing with greed.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
My mom just came out of the hospital.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
It was so much going on in my life, but
all I could think about was waking up in the
morning and praying to God and walk away him on
my walks, and just his presence just felt so calming.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
I just felt so.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Loved, validated and just reassured, and I just felt like
there was a reason for me to be alive.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Thanks for listening to the Jesus Calling Stories of Faith
podcast on the Life Audio Network. Every week, we'll bring
you stories from people who share their journeys of faith
and how prayer and a relationship with God transformed their lives.
Be sure to follow us on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or
wherever you listen to podcasts, and leave us a review
(28:06):
so others can be inspired weekly by these stories of faith. Finally,
you can find encouragement resources and more on the Jesus
Calling website at Jesuscalling dot com
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