What if your feelings were never the enemy of your faith?

In this episode of Return to Heart, we explore how neuroscience, Scripture, and lived human experience all point to the same truth: God designed us to feel first, not last. From John Calvin to modern brain science, from attachment theory to Scripture, this conversation reveals how healing, transformation, and spiritual maturity happen through vulnerability—not around it.

We discuss:

1. Why the Bible has never been contradicted by archaeology or neuroscience
2. How the brain is wired for protection and connection
3. Why feelings lead us to God rather than away from Him
4. How trauma lives in the body and how healing actually works
5. Why faith that bypasses the heart eventually collapses

This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, finish this episode first—then go back to episode 12.

What if the way many of us were taught to grow spiritually actually cost us intimacy with God?

In this episode of Return To Heart, Jeff and Phil explore a story that shaped decades of faith, discipleship, and emotional disconnection—beginning in a Yale dorm room in 1980 and unfolding into a powerful conversation about facts, feelings, faith, and how God actually designed us.

Through vivid metaphors—the chalkboard, the train, the chair, and even a man riding an elephant—this conversation challenges the idea that spiritual maturity means suppressing emotion. Instead, it invites listeners into a fuller, relational faith where truth about God and truth about ourselves belong together.

This episode is for anyone who:

1. Knows the “right answers” but still feels distant from God
2. Was taught that emotions are dangerous or unspiritual
3. Feels spiritually mature yet relationally disconnected
4. Wants a faith that includes their whole heart

This is not about abandoning truth.

It’s about learning how truth actually transforms.

Most of us have spent a lifetime becoming right-leg dominant — relying on intellect, morality, and sheer willpower to survive life. But, the parts of us designed for intimacy, connection, and vulnerability? Those got left behind.

In this episode of Return to Heart, we unpack one of the most transformative metaphors we’ve ever used:

👉 The right leg and the left leg.

Drawing from tens of thousands of hours working with men and women, we walk through why so many of us feel spiritually “stuck” even though we know the right things and work hard to do them. We also introduce Emotions Unveiled, a discipleship tool designed to reawaken the parts of your heart God built for connection.

✨ In this episode:

• Why intellect, morality, and hard work aren’t enough

• The meaning of being “right-leg dominant”

• Rediscovering the “left leg” — the emotional, relational side of life

• How Scripture gives emotional language for healing

• Why emotional maturity fuels spiritual maturity

• The structure and purpose of Emotions Unveiled

• Stories of transformation through emotional discipleship