The Rugged Path

Colby Allen was half a mile from home when the call came out, and he recognized the address before dispatch finished reading it. It belonged to a family friend, someone he had known his whole life. What Colby found when he arrived that day would change the course of his career in law enforcement, and eventually, his faith.

Colby grew up in Moore County, North Carolina, joined the Army at eighteen after a breakup left him looking fo...

He loaded a gun, brought it to his head, and heard an audible voice say one word: stop. Justin Carter, a 13-year veteran firefighter, sits down with Dan Black to talk about a broken engagement that sent him spiraling into alcohol and pill addiction, a near-fatal highway collision on the job, and the night he came within inches of ending his life.

What sets this conversation apart is what came after. For roughly two years, Justin ex...

Before the invasion of Iraq, Chris Ostberg made God a promise on a rooftop in Kuwait: if he survived, he'd go to church every Sunday. He survived. He didn't go back for 20 years.

Chris sits down with Dan Black to walk through a homeschooled childhood in small-town Massachusetts, a fast rise through the 82nd Airborne, leading a squad into Iraq at 21 years old, and a 16-year first marriage marked by heavy drinking and repeated infide...

Antwon Murchison hid a fifth of vodka and a twelve-pack a day behind four different liquor stores so no one would notice the pattern, until a DWI with both of his kids in the car finally caught up with him. Antwon sits down with Dan Black to walk through a fractured childhood in Midway, North Carolina, a Division I football career at Clemson that ended without an NFL contract, and the alcoholism that nearly cost him his marriage, h...

Army officer Nick Merritt spent years hating himself for something God and his ex-wife had already forgiven, and it took one sermon on forgiving himself to finally set him free. Nick sits down with Dan Black just 48 hours after Dan felt led to ask him, no prep, no back and forth, both men going into the conversation cold.

Nick walks through a childhood he barely remembers, including being locked in a closet for protection during ab...

His blood alcohol content was 0.46 the night an SRT team pulled him off his couch, and by every medical rule he should not have survived it. Efren Garcia spent over 23 years between the Air National Guard and the Army as a Cavalry Scout, an 82nd Airborne paratrooper, and a retired Sergeant First Class, deploying to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, to Iraq, to Afghanistan with 1st SFAB, and to Morocco. He carried himse...

He went back into the Navy to become a hospital corpsman. He didn't realize until years later that he actually went back to get saved. Phil Bivins served three separate enlistments in the United States Navy spanning Vietnam all the way to Desert Storm, and this conversation with Dan Black covers all of it.

Phil grew up an Air Force kid, moving between bases in Germany, Turkey, and Hawaii while his father fought a hidden battle with...

Jose Alvarez closed the garage door, started the car, and decided he was done. A few minutes later he heard a voice inside him say "It is done. It's done. Let it go." -- and that was the night God got his attention for good.

Jose was born in Quito, Ecuador, the oldest son in a family shaped by hard work, Catholic tradition, and a father who could light up any room. By the time Jose was nine, that father was dead -- killed in a drun...

Justin Koch spent twenty years in the Army, much of that as a Green Beret, and most of his life convinced he had his faith handled. He had been saved at thirteen. He knew the right answers. He could quote the right verses. What he could not do — and would not admit for two decades — was actually let God run his life. This episode is the story of a man who compartmentalized everything that hurt, performed everything that...

Chris Loschiavo grew up in church because his mother made sure of it. He was saved at six, baptized at twelve, and spent the next two decades doing exactly what he wanted while God kept redirecting him anyway. A coin toss made him a Quartermaster officer instead of Infantry. That sent him to Fort Bragg instead of a combat deployment. That put him on a helicopter to Kandahar as a first lieutenant doing the work of three senior offic...

Will Johnson survived LA gang territory, found Christ in Germany, and was saved from suicide by divine intervention in Oman. This Air Force veteran's journey from the violent streets of Panorama City to ministering to over 200 students as a track coach is nothing short of miraculous. Growing up where drive-bys happened multiple times per week, Will's Vietnam veteran father kept him out of gangs through presence and wisdom. A high s...

What happens when a battle-hardened Master Sergeant who survived the impossible believes he's beyond saving? Sean O'Dowd's story begins in the mountains of Afghanistan, where he should have died when two anti-tank mines threw him 50 yards through the air. Instead of gratitude, this miraculous survival led him down a dark spiral of rage, drinking, and destructive behavior, convinced he had broken all ten commandments and was unsavab...

Jason Hazelton is a retired Green Beret who left a high-paying contractor career to step into full-time ministry, discipling men and leading small groups at Grace Church in Southern Pines, North Carolina. After 22 years in the Army — including combat deployments to Afghanistan, losing teammates, and surviving close calls that should have killed him — Jason came to a breaking point where he had to surrender his pride, hi...