There’s a kind of waiting that comes after loss. After addiction. After relapse. After ruining what you once had. This episode of the Words of Encouragement Podcast is for the person who feels disqualified — not because life happened, but because of choices they made. Drugs. Alcohol. Running. Numbing. And now you’re sober, clearer… but still asking: God, will You still use me? This devotional speaks to rebuilding faith after self-inflicted loss, trusting God’s timing when you’re starting...

This is a topic I have been inspired to write about for some time now, but I have struggled to orient my thoughts and express it in words. The topic is challenging because if you have not had a direct experience, it seems that no number of words, or ways of explaining it, will give it any meaning or credibility. Conversely, if you have had any type of direct experience, it is likely that you will connect with my meaning in the first three words. The light of Spirit, or the light of...

It is the six-year anniversary of the most difficult, traumatic, and painful days of my life. I lost my humanity and became a monster that did monstrous things. I completely lost myself in what I can only describe as an episode of mental annihilation. Only in hindsight, with a long and winding road behind me, does it seem that I had to lose myself to find my Self.    Maybe you have too?  Or maybe someone was lost from you?    I lost so much more than myself in those days. But much like my...