Terrible Beauty: A Story of Calling, Breaking, and the Unmaking that Made Me

Terrible Beauty is a memoir that explores the paradox of life’s most challenging moments—how the painful, uncertain, and messy experiences can lead to transformation and grace. Centered around the author’s journey of planting a church, it is an honest and poetic account of risking everything to follow a calling while confronting the weight of failure, fear, and self-doubt.

The story begins with a medical crisis in the author’s family, where the fledgling church community rallies around them, revealing the profound beauty of shared suffering and mutual care. Through humor, vulnerability, and theological insight, Terrible Beauty challenges readers to embrace the “terrible beauty” of stepping into the unknown, where faith is forged not by success but by learning to trust God in the midst of uncertainty.

At its heart, Terrible Beauty is a meditation on grace, growth, and the power of community, inviting readers to move through fear and failure into deeper love—for God, for others, and for themselves.