Julie Berry grew up Catholic in Argentina — baptized, first communion, church every Saturday. Then a priest told her, at age 10, that missing Mass because her parents wouldn’t drive her was ‘a capital sin.’ That moment cracked something open. In this episode of Big G Talks, Julie walks through her entire faith journey: the hypocrisy she witnessed in church as a kid, two decades spent exploring yoga, Buddhism, and Deepak Chopra’s teachings, the sudden loss of her father that left her feeling furthest from God, and the answered prayers that kept bringing her back. We talk about what she loves and struggles with in scripture, why she doesn’t attend church today, and how she’s built a daily relationship with God entirely on her own terms.

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro — meet Julie Berry
0:46 Growing up Catholic in Argentina
1:54 The line her mom drew: birth control and Opus Dei
3:53 ‘That’s a capital sin’ — confession at age 10
6:09 Witnessing hypocrisy in church
7:47 Walking away from Catholicism — yoga, Buddhism, and a God without guilt
11:02 Teaching spirituality and the start of manifestation
14:04 Discovering Deepak Chopra’s yoga school
16:51 Divorce, loneliness, and a friend’s kindness
18:03 Trying church again in Colorado — too crowded
22:31 Her most distant moment: her father’s death
27:31 Her closest moment: moving to Denver for herself
28:33 Her daily relationship with God today
32:16 The book that changed her life at age 13
34:43 Defining God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit
40:19 Two stories of answered prayer
44:01 What she loves — and struggles with — in scripture
46:22 Why she doesn’t go to church now
49:53 Is there such a thing as a sin-free day?
52:28 Finding purpose through teaching
54:58 Closing thoughts and where to find Julie

If this conversation resonated, subscribe for more honest faith stories on Big G Talks — and let us know in the comments: when have you felt furthest from God, and what brought you back?

Ever prayed for something and gotten total silence back? In this episode of Big G Talks, I get honest about the prayers of mine that never got answered — and the ones that did. We cover why treating faith like a transactional relationship with God is a trap, the difference between selfish prayers and prayers to be helpful, why scripture never actually promises all your prayers will be answered, and a personal story about a prayer that got answered in a way I didn't expect.

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro — Episode 5: Unanswered Prayers
0:26 Point 0: Faith isn't transactional
1:14 Confession: testing God with prayers
2:31 Point 1: The types of unanswered prayers
3:13 1a — Selfish prayers vs. prayers to help others
8:18 1b — Wrong direction, right silence
10:13 1c — Chasing results vs. the journey
12:15 Point 2: Scripture never promises every prayer gets answered
15:23 Point 3: Get curious, not discouraged
16:32 Point 4: The prayer that got answered (a serial-dating confession)
19:56 A theory on which prayers get answered

If this episode helped you think differently about prayer, subscribe for more honest conversations about faith — and drop a comment with a prayer of yours that wasn't answered the way you expected.

Episode 4: Why loving Jesus is hard for me.

This one's less structured than usual — I sat down to write out why loving Jesus feels so difficult for me personally, and it turned into a waterfall of reasons. So instead of saving the big realization for the end like I planned, I moved it up front. This might end up being part one of a series.

What I get into:
- Why I'm a perfectionist and a control freak about faith, and how that makes we want a "right answer" for what loving Jesus even looks like
- Why obeying Jesus's teachings — especially loving my neighbor — feels so awkward in real life (yes, there's a bit about literally knocking on my neighbor's door to say "I love you")
- Why Jesus can feel like he's stuck 2000 years in the past, and why it's easier to feel love from a friend who says "I love you, man" today than from Scripture written centuries ago
- Why I think I'm just bad at love in general — awkward expressing it, afraid of giving too much, and putting "love" on a pedestal I don't feel like I can reach
- The fear that if I tell Jesus I love him, it's somehow fake or transactional — like I'm just trying to get something out of it
- Wrestling with "faith without works is dead" vs. the idea that the sacrifice on the cross already covers it — and landing on the idea that maybe love is just having faith that the sacrifice actually happened

This is Big G Talks: real people, real faith, told honestly — including when it's genuinely hard.

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