CrossCurrent Podcasts

New live series: Writing Wins, every Tuesday at 11am Eastern (9 Mountain) on the Kingdom Writers YouTube channel through December 8. Each week CJ and I share one simple win to help you finish your book when life is busy, and the replays are waiting if you miss one.

Watch the Writing Wins playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCv2_QZJjAHg

Shelley nearly returned a fountain pen to Amazon because it would not write. One flush of the ink later, it worked fine.

That is the question for your manuscript and your marketing both. Before you discard the thing, is there one intervention you have not tried yet? Maybe the book is not wrong, just the chapter you are stuck in. Maybe the strategy is not wrong, just untested and untweaked.

She also shares what happened to Broken Crayons Still Color, which started as a 12 week study and became a 6 week one. Twelve chapters got cut. Save what you cut. You never know what it turns into later.

While writing her book The Surprising Secrets of Highly Happy Marriages, Shaunti Feldhahn did a massive research study involving thousands of married couples. Her follow-up interviews with hundreds of couples who had the happiest marriages revealed some simple attitudes and actions that can help your marriage today!

Get "The Surprising Secrets of Highly Happy Marriages" free with your gift.

Simple Habits for Marital Happiness -- Build a happy marriage with this free video series! You'll learn four foundational "fall in love" habits, how to overcome marital complacency, how-to’s for connecting through the day, and more.

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Do you have a story or comment on how Focus on the Family impacted you or your family? Leave a message for Jim Daly!

If you enjoyed listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, please give us your feedback.

AI can answer a question, but because it's not a person, it can't answer people.

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Register for our event at Colorado Christian University at colsoncenter.org/colorado.

Have you ever felt like you had to “just accept” whatever life throws your way—even while your heart was breaking inside? Maybe someone told you it’s unfaithful to question God, or maybe you’ve wondered if it’s even allowed to be honest about your hurt and confusion. Here’s the truth: almost every believer will face moments when trusting God feels like a wrestling match.

This week on CHRISTIAN PARENT/CRAZY WORLD, we’re tackling the question no one wants to say out loud, but secretly we all wrestle with: 

Is it wrong to wrestle with God—or is it where the deepest faith is forged?

In a culture that prizes tidy answers and smooth faith, Christian parents are invited into the messier reality: honest struggle with God may be the most faithful response to life’s hardest moments.

For this conversation, host Catherine welcomes her two closest friends—licensed Christian counselor Dr. Erin Barry and certified trauma coach Susan Frost—for a raw, unscripted conversation about wrestling with God through pain, disappointment, and unanswered prayers. Drawing from years of theological dialog, personal loss, and journeys through suffering, they invite listeners to pull up a chair and experience what true biblical wrestling looks like in real life.

Meet the Guests

• Dr. Erin Barry is a licensed clinical Christian counselor with decades of experience walking with individuals and families through seasons of pain, loss, and transformation. Together with her husband, she has devoted her life to ministry in marriage, worship, and family discipleship.

• Susan Frost is a certified trauma-informed life coach, deeply involved in hands-on ministry and mentoring with her husband. She’s helped individuals and couples process grief, trauma, and confusing seasons through godly wisdom—and is a trusted friend in the trenches.

Highlights from This Episode

• The Permission to Wrestle:

  • Catherine opens up about the tension many Christians feel—faith says “trust God’s sovereignty,” but scripture shows us heroes who bring anguish, confusion, and raw complaints to God (00:41).

  • Biblical foundation: Jacob literally wrestles with God and is changed forever, marked both by his limp and by a deeper relationship (16:46, 18:12).

• Pain Is Not a Faith Failure:

  • Erin unpacks how genuine suffering alters us—those who have wrestled with God often walk with humility, vulnerability, and new spiritual authority (18:12).

  • Susan challenges the myth that “God’s going to do what He wants, no matter what.” Instead, God invites us into hard questions, purposeful struggle, and partnership in pursuit of His blessings (21:11).

• What Real Support Looks Like:

  • The trio addresses how to choose safe “inner circle” people—and why it’s vital to avoid those who try to fix, minimize, or judge faith in the midst of pain.

  • Erin notes different people offer distinct support—some handle logistics, others shoulder emotional weight. Both matter (32:30).

  • Why most of us want to “tidy up” suffering, even for others—and why letting friends sit in the pain is a profound act of love (36:33).

• When the Small Things Break Us:

  • Catherine shares a vulnerable story: after seasons spent praying for healing and witnessing loss, it was a friend’s lost cats—the seemingly “small” tragedy—that finally broke her down (41:24).

  • The group examines why sometimes, it’s the little heartbreaks that trigger our deepest questions a

What if the security, peace, and purpose you've been searching for don't come from your circumstances, accomplishments, or the approval of others? Heather Holleman explores what it means to be chosen by God and how that truth can transform the way you face hardship, build relationships, and live out your calling. Discover the freedom that comes from knowing you are God's treasured possession.

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Heather Holleman Audio Collection -- Dive deeper with Heather Holleman through this free collection of Focus on the Family with Jim Daly episodes. Explore practical, faith-filled insights on understanding your purpose, strengthening your identity in Christ, investing in the next generation, and more.

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Do you have a story or comment on how Focus on the Family impacted you or your family? Leave a message for Jim Daly!

If you enjoyed listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, please give us your feedback.

Congrats, Ernie Johnson. And thanks for the great example.

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Partner with thousands of others in supporting The Colson Center by visiting colsoncenter.org/cornerstone.

Halloween and a mid-term election are ahead. A change in rules for organ donations has many rethinking their involvement. And what to do about falling marriage rates.

Segment 1 – Halloween and Elections

• NPR story on changes in donor rules

• Voting and the Lesser of Two Evils

Segment 2 – Organ Donations and Falling Marriage Rates

• NPR story on organ donor rule changes