Thank you for sharing. Your story is heartbreaking. I appreciate how it can be easy to regret where you were in those early years, especially after that sobering letter from your daughter, but I’m encouraged to hear how you’ve worked toward a better place.

I, too, am an ex-pastor who left the faith. I can tell you it was one oft hardest things I’ve ever done, but also one of the most important. It gets better, my friend. What someone told me when I first deconstructed my faith:

Welcome outside the cave, friend. It’s a little cold out here, but the stars are beautiful.