I don’t think anyone plans to find God quite like this: sitting in a bar at the beach while the rain pounds the roof overhead, Bible open, asking the question that seems to come around every so often: How in the world did my life get here? It’s an odd picture when I stop to look at it from the outside. The bartender is drying glasses with the kind of practiced rhythm that only comes from doing the same thing a thousand times. A couple in the corner laughs over frozen drinks.

I’ve spent the last year trying to answer a question that I don’t think has an answer. What do you do when your father is both? Both the man who raised you… And the man who shattered your family. My dad is in prison for sexually abusing my son. There is no way to write that sentence without feeling the weight of it. It is the kind of truth that divides your life into a before and an after. Nothing looks quite the same once you’ve spoken it aloud. When people hear that, they o

I used to think the wilderness was something to survive. Now I think it's something that forms you. Trauma has a way of exposing every version of faith that depends on circumstances. It strips away certainty. It dismantles the illusion that if you're faithful enough, kind enough, or pray hard enough, life will spare you. Eventually, all that's left is the question no one wants to answer: Who will you become because of what happened to you? For a long time, I thought healing m

The dark offers it's own kind of gift -a fractured alleluia, teaching us that growth often happens not in brilliance, but in the quiet, painful spaces we wish weren't there. Last Christmas, my dad was already in jail. But this Christmas is different. Last year held uncertainty- waiting, hoping, bracing. This year carries something more final. A conviction. A sentence. A name placed beside what he did. There is a new kind of brokenness in that. Not louder- quieter. Heavier. Th

I used to think holidays were simple. You cooked the meal, gathered the people you loved, shared gratitude, passed the pie, maybe took a family picture if you were feeling ambitious. But life has a way of shattering “simple.” Yesterday, I held Thanksgiving in a place I never expected to be: somewhere between love and grief, between harm and attachment, between what should have been and what actually was — and trying to find God in the middle of it. My dad is incarcerated for

It’s been a month since I watched my dad be sentenced to prison for abusing my son. One month. And the truth is, it’s both longer and...

When parents face the tough task of explaining traumatic experiences to a child, the emotional weight can become overwhelming. Children...

Life often challenges our understanding of hope and reality. These struggles can leave us stuck in a confusing space—a place theologians...

As the calendar moved closer to the new year, I found myself taking time to reflect on our experiences over the past twelve months. While...

One of the hardest things about where I’m at right now is the complicated emotions that I face on any given day and the array of thoughts...

There was a time, not long ago, when I believed everything could be fixed if the "right" person was in the White House. I thought that...

Right now, I feel like I’m stepping into a dark maze with no exit in sight. My father did this unfathomable thing, and it hits me hard...

This trauma has shaken my foundations, leaving me feeling lost and alone at times, and challenging everything I thought I once knew and...

In the intricate tapestry of life, moments of pain can grip even the most resilient hearts. For me, this pain came from the unfathomable...

Family relationships can weave a tapestry of love, trust, and shared history that can shape our lives in profound ways. But what happens...

The Power of Pain and the Beauty of Brokenness Pain possesses a remarkable ability to clarify the mind. It crashes over us like a...

Life has a remarkable way of surprising us, doesn’t it? Just when we think we’ve found our footing, it can throw curveballs that leave us...

Overview of the First Month After Learning About the Abuse Balancing the roles of mom, wife, daughter, and active member of society while...

Introduction As a child, my dad was my knight in shining armor—always there for me, no matter what. In a household where my mother was...