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Undone

por Undone Podcast

Superación personal Espiritualidad

Temporada 1

Ronny Silva: When Life Closes Doors, God Opens Others

Raised by a single father in Peru during a period of terrorism, economic hardship, and uncertainty, Ronnie experienced difficult circumstances from a young age. Yet even as a teenager who was drinking, fighting, and surrounded by friends involved with drugs, he can now look back and see God's hand preserving him. One unforgettable moment, when he and his brother were waiting for their father to earn enough money for food, left a lasting impression of God's provision: two warm rotisserie chickens mysteriously appeared beside them at a bus stop. After moving to the United States, Ronnie unexpectedly found himself recruited to play college football, eventually becoming a starter and receiving opportunities that could have led to a professional career. But a devastating boating accident just before his senior season ended his football career and changed the direction of his life. Through the accident, his recovery, and the care of his wife and family, Ronnie came to see Christ in a deeper and more personal way. What followed were more unexpected turns. Doors repeatedly closed on his plans to become a police officer, eventually leading Ronnie and his family to eight years of missionary work in Peru. Years later, after returning to the United States, another door opened, and Ronnie finally entered law enforcement. Today, he serves as a school resource officer, where his previous experiences working with children, serving in Peru, and walking through hardship have all become part of how he serves others. Throughout the conversation, Ronnie reflects on suffering, evangelism, hospitality, family, doubt, depression, and the importance of trusting God when we cannot understand what He is doing. His testimony is ultimately a reminder that the difficult and unexpected moments of our lives are not necessarily wasted. As Ronnie puts it, “God does not do things by chance.” Even when we cannot see what God is doing, He is faithful to use our circumstances, our suffering, our disappointments, and even our closed doors for His purposes. This is a conversation about providence, perseverance, and the evidence of God's grace woven throughout an ordinary, imperfect life.

Tom Jacobs: A Story of Second Chances and The Double Life He Couldn't Hide

Tom grew up in a deeply religious Catholic family and eventually entered the Jesuit path with hopes of becoming a priest. But beneath the appearance of having his life together, Tom was carrying wounds from his childhood, struggling with his identity, and learning to navigate relationships, faith, and a growing desire to help others through counseling. His journey would take him through a marriage that ended painfully, divorce, family struggles, and a season of questioning where God was leading him. Along the way, he experienced a profound personal encounter with the assurance of salvation and eventually sensed God's call to become a Christian counselor. Years later, after finding healing, remarrying, and becoming part of a Christian community, Tom faced another profound challenge: the loss of his infant daughter, and later, a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. Rather than finding easy answers to the question of "Why?", Tom learned to trust God in the midst of circumstances he could not explain. In our conversation, Tom talks openly about the masks we wear, the ways pain can shape our lives, the importance of Christian community, and what it means to continue trusting God when life doesn't make sense. Ultimately, Tom's story is one of grace, healing, perseverance, and second chances, and a reminder that God can continue to work through our lives even after we have failed, been wounded, or found ourselves facing circumstances we never expected.

Dave Smeltzer: Trading in My Passport to Heaven for a Relationship with Christ

Dave grew up poor in a small Indiana town, raised by a single mom who never had time to take him to church. So neighborhood pastors did. That pattern followed him for decades. He went to church because it was Sunday, because his wife went, because that's what you did. Even after a tour in Vietnam and years of sitting in the pew, faith stayed something he'd checked off a list rather than something real. The real shift didn't come from a sermon. It came during one of the loneliest stretches of his life, when a new job left him isolated and targeted by people who wanted him gone. And then, out of nowhere, a call from a complete stranger let him know that he wasn't alone after all. This episode traces his entire faith journey: a childhood spent chasing approval, a career built on self-doubt and cold calls, a string of churches that never quite fit, and the moment when everything finally clicked. If you've ever wondered whether going through the motions and actually believing something are the same thing, this one's for you.

Marian's quicksand, and the hand that keeps pulling her out

Marian grew up the daughter of a research chemist and a stay-at-home mom in 1950s Michigan, sharp, driven, and set on a path in math and physics. She married a football coach, had five kids, and said yes to Christ young; but life didn't unfold the way she expected. Her husband's zeal curdled into deception, a self-declared prophet, a cult of three families, a farm in the Ozarks, complete with hiding places for an end that never came. Twenty-two years of marriage, isolation, and spiritual abuse followed, along with a night in the woods when she nearly ended it all. She's still working out why Christ never let her go, through a decades-long separation, the loss of her daughter and grandson, and a faith walk she describes not as one dramatic rescue but as daily, sometimes hourly, surrender. This episode goes to places most conversions don't. Marian doesn't offer a tidy resolution, she offers the truth that some people are saved not once, but over and over, every single day. Content note: This episode includes discussion of spiritual and emotional abuse, suicide, and the loss of a child. Listener discretion advised.

Rich Sullivan: A Faith That Finally Made Sense

Rich Sullivan was raised Catholic on Chicago's west side, taught to kneel, be quiet and discouraged from opening a Bible. He walked away from church for years - turned off, as he puts it, by hypocrisy he couldn't square with what he was being told to believe. But God wasn't finished with him. Following a miscarriage scare that brought him to his knees, he found his way back to church. What followed wasn't a clean turnaround but a slow, deliberate work: a mentor named Kent Adams, a well-worn copy of "Mere Christianity," and a heart God kept softening year after year until the hypocrisy that once drove Rich away no longer had power over him. After nearly five decades in the same church, working through the type of pain that sends most people looking for the exit, Rich now watches his grandkids sing worship songs from the same stage his kids grew up on. He's got some blunt, hard-won advice for the next generation about marriage, forgiveness, and what it actually costs to stay somewhere for the long haul. Three generations deep in one church, and still not done serving.

Bob Dryden: A Life of Faith, Ninety Years in the Making

At 90 years old, Bob Dryden has walked with the Lord longer than most of us have been alive - and he's not finished yet. In this episode, we sit down with a man who's been a fixture at Sawyer Highlands Church for generations: a mentor to pastors, a spiritual grandfather to the congregation, and someone whose steady faith has quietly shaped the people around him. Bob talks candidly about aging, watching his body break down, and choosing gratitude over complaint. He reflects on 38 years in one job (in a world where a little over three years is now the average), the weight of raising a family in faith, and the moments he wishes he'd done differently. He shares hard-won wisdom on staying rooted in Scripture, what makes a pastor worth listening to, and how he wants to be remembered. It's an honest, unhurried conversation about a life fully lived - humbling, funny at times, and a good reminder that faith isn't about having it all figured out. It's about staying faithful to the end.

Laurie's Story: Running From the One Who Never Left

Episode Summary Some people walk away from faith because it was never tested. Laurie walked away because it was tested too early, and too hard. In this first episode of UNDONE, Laurie takes us into the parts of her story most people keep locked away - childhood abuse that planted a deep, understandable distrust of God, and years lost to drugs and alcohol as she tried to outrun questions she couldn't answer and pain she couldn't name. She had every reason to stay cynical. Plenty of people would have. Instead, through the patience of friends who stayed close and the counsel of people who spoke into her life at the right moments, Laurie found her way to something she never expected: a surrendered life, and a faith that isn't naive about suffering but has somehow made peace with it. This isn't a tidy redemption story. It's a real one. Wherever you land on the spectrum of belief - devout, doubtful, done with religion altogether - Laurie's story is a case against giving up on the possibility that things can still turn. In This Episode How childhood trauma shapes (and distorts) our earliest ideas of God The long, winding road through addiction — and what it was really running from What it looked like when the right people showed up at the right time The difference between "getting fixed" and actually surrendering Learn more about Undone To learn more about Undone, support our work, or share your story, visit us at undonepod.com.

What is Undone?

Every podcast has an origin story. Here's ours... Pastors carry deeply guarded stories of the people they serve; stories that are shared in confidence - in hospital rooms and kitchen tables and parking lot conversations that stretch past midnight. Stories of people at the end of themselves, finding something they didn't expect. Stories of faith found late, doubt carried long, and grace arriving in the last place anyone thought to look. For years, Mike Bettig - co-host of Undone - walked away from those conversations renewed. Filled. Reminded of why any of his work matters. And then one day, a question formed that he couldn't shake: What if people could be a fly on the wall for this? Not a sermon. Not a testimony service. Just the real conversation - the one that happens when someone finally feels safe enough to tell the truth about their life. The before and the after. The struggle and the surrender. The doubt that still creeps in and the faith that gets chosen again anyway. That question is the seed that has become this podcast. In this trailer episode, hosts Mike and Brendon sit down to explain everything. Where this idea came from and why it wouldn't let go. Who they are - a pastor renewed by these stories for years, and a reluctant seeker encountering them for the first time. What each episode will look like. And why they named it what they named it. If you've ever wished you could sit in the room for the kind of conversation that changes people - you're about to get that chance.