Tatum Green and Annie F. Downs describe the heartbreaking loss of Tatum’s 2nd child, TJ, who only lived for 56 days. In addition to navigating her own grief, Tatum also had to help her 2-year-old son Sam deal with the loss of his baby brother. A powerful program about trusting God and finding joy even in devastating grief.

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If nothing is evil, then murder, racism, abuse, and everything else is good! 

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What Would You Say?: Are Science and Religion Compatible?

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There are few things more painful than hearing God say no. Especially when we’re pleading—not for riches or success—but for healing. For hope. For our child.

We fast. We pray. We believe. We speak life over the situation. And still, the miracle doesn’t come… at least not the one we hoped for.

In this special Best Of archive episode from two years ago, we revisit a deeply moving conversation that is just as relevant today as the day it aired. This story is evergreen, because the struggle to understand God’s will in seasons of sorrow is one we all face—especially as parents.

My guest, Andy Howard, knows that struggle intimately. When his firstborn daughter, Payton, received a devastating diagnosis at Dallas Children’s Hospital, Andy’s world collapsed. The weight of that moment spiraled into a four-year battle with depression. But God didn’t leave him there.

In this first installment of our two-part conversation, Andy shares how God met him in the most unexpected and intimate ways in his darkest valley. You’ll hear:

• How Andy and his wife navigated a life-altering diagnosis

• The gut-wrenching process of accepting an answer from God that wasn’t what they prayed for

• The tender message God spoke to Andy in the midst of the heartbreak

• Why suffering doesn’t mean God has abandoned us—and how beauty can truly rise from brokenness

Next week, we’ll hear Part 2, where Andy shares the redemptive turn in his story, how Payton is doing today, and how we as the Church can come alongside special needs families with compassion and strength.

This episode will speak to the places in your heart that still carry questions. It’s a sacred story you don’t want to miss.

Let’s Stay Connected!
To see video clips from this conversation, as well as powerful quotes and encouragement for your parenting journey, connect with me on Instagram and Facebook.
For updates on each new podcast episode and free resources like:

• Scripture songs

• Bible verses to pray over prodigal children

• A topical index of Scriptures for prayer

...be sure to subscribe to my website.

About Andy Ho

Jonathan Teubner, Charity After Augustine: Solidarity, Conflict, and the Practices of Charity in the Latin West (Oxford UP, 2025)

Through a unique blend of the personal and historiographical, Charity after Augustine is an exploration of why the Augustinian tradition’s attempts to build solidarity or social cohesion in the societies of the Latin West have ended in disaster just as often as they have brought about justice. The conceit at the heart of the book is that the concrete practices of love or charity—almsgiving, works of mercy, good works—can tell us much about how religious leaders attempted to bind and hold communities together while also, in fits and starts with some startling reversions, attempting to expand the community and incorporate others. The first part probes the ways Augustine’s understanding of love is put into practice and how this understanding informs a tradition of political action inspired by Christian concepts of love and enacted through practices of charity. In a second, more expansive part, the book turns to the ways in which the Benedictine tradition as illustrated by Gregory the Great and Bernard of Clairvaux receives this vision, invigorates it with new visions of care and leadership, and puts it into practice in radically different contexts from those of Augustine’s age. At the heart of Charity after Augustine is an attempt to find a non-idealized vision of love that can inform thick, meaningful relations within a community that are not diluted by the inclusion of others

New Books in Late Antiquity is Presented by Ancient Jew Review

Jonathan D. Teubner is a Research Associate at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard. This book is something of a sequel to his first, Prayer after Augustine: A Study in the Development of the Latin Tradition.

Michael Motia teaches in the classics and religious studies department at UMass Boston

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Dr. John Townsend offers practical ideas for how to tank up on relational nutrients in your relationships and how to contribute to the lives of others for emotional and spiritual health. He describes the types of people who are needed on your “life team” to help you grow – and others who need to be held at arm’s length, as you seek balance in your relationships with friends and colleagues.

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