In this episode, Emily sits down with author and pastor Tom Harrigan — the very person whose sermon gave her the final push to launch this podcast. Tom shares his journey from Long Island to Kentucky and three decades of ministry, then opens up about the childhood wounds beneath it: a father who left when he was three, and years spent managing his anger, insecurity, and defensiveness instead of healing them. That journey became his first book, The Gift of Falling Down, built around a picture God gave him fifteen years ago — three concentric circles showing how our behaviors flow from our beliefs, and our beliefs from the "because" moments of our lives. Together he and Emily talk about naming the pain, the slow and holy work of real change, and the truth at the heart of it all: God meets us in the pit not with condemnation, but with grace. As Tom puts it — there's grace for the pit and hope for the climb.
The Gift of Falling Down is available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon.