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You probably know someone who can map out the entire timeline of the Rapture but couldn't tell you the name of a struggling neighbor two pews over. Last episode, we took that apart as a system. This episode, I show you what it looks like from inside a normal life.

I tell you about a boy I went to school with who died in gym class, and about the youth group whose name literally meant "Regarding Everyone As Loved." I take you into the stadiums and dark mazes of 1990s and 2000s youth evangelism culture, Acquire the Fire, Teen Mania, Hellstop, and what actually happened to the organization behind them. And I tell you, for the first time anywhere, about losing my grandfather, nearly losing my father, and a summer that hollowed me out in ways I didn't have words for yet.

This is the episode where the theology gets personal. Where a faith built entirely around departure meets an actual hospital room, an actual empty chair, an actual homesick kid a hundred miles from anyone who knew his name.

Contains discussion of death, grief, and mature themes.

Read the essays this series is built on at From the Wilderness on Substack. If this episode meant something to you, check out Sean Williams Designs, faith-based apparel built around the Armor of God and St. Michael, at https://seanwilliamsdesigns.com. Firs time listeners use code "WILDERNESS" at checkout for 20%.