Hey friends, it's Amber, and I'm about to get myself into good trouble again.

Fresh off surgery and recovery (praise God for answered prayers!), I've been wrestling with something I can't shake: What does real advocacy actually look like when it costs you something? Martin Luther King Jr. said the biggest obstacle to justice wasn't the hardcore opposition, but people who agreed in spirit but wouldn't pay the cost of action. And man, that convicted me.

Here's what I keep coming back to: Jesus didn't just have a soft heart. He had a soft heart with a backbone. He touched lepers when it was illegal. He defended the woman everyone wanted to stone. He put His body, His reputation, His life on the line—not for the righteous, but for the outcast.

In this episode, we're diving into what it means to keep a tender heart in a world trying to harden us. When people say "do your research," maybe what we really need is a heart search—going deeper to find where we might be waning in compassion.

I'm calling all of us (myself included) to uncomfortable discipleship. Because a soft heart without a backbone is just sentimentality. And a backbone without a soft heart is just cruelty.

Fair warning: Both sides might get mad at you for caring about the "wrong" people. But Jesus calls us to pay that price.

Let's get into some good trouble together.

Amber Weigand-Buckley is an award-winning author, podcaster as well as editor and art director for Leading Hearts magazine. She is also co-host of Coffee Chat with Amber & Lisa. Be on the lookout for her May 2026 release #sisterhoodoftheshortyellowpencils: Mental Health Mayhem, One Sticky Note at a Time. Follow her @barefacedgirl on socials for more.