Transforming Adversity into Spiritual Growth
What does surrender actually look like when life has trained you to survive, fight, and stay in control?
In this episode of Honest Christian Conversations, I sit down with John Jarman — a Marine veteran, former football coach, and author of Broken and Redeemed — to talk about the long, often painful road that led him to spiritual freedom.
John’s story isn’t a polished testimony. It’s an honest look at what happens when anger, trauma, and self-reliance collide with the call to trust God completely. Through his journey, we wrestle with questions many believers carry quietly:
Why is surrender so hard — especially for men?
What does freedom actually require of us?
This conversation explores the role of mentorship, discipleship, forgiveness, and the kind of faith that isn’t built on strength, but on humility and obedience.
⬇️ Listen now to step into this conversation.
After listening, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Wife. Mother of five. Podcaster. Fiction Novelist
Ana is the host of the Honest Christian Conversations podcast and a prodigal saved by God’s unending grace.
She grew up in a legalistic Christian home where asking questions often felt wrong. In her early twenties, overwhelmed by confusion and hurt, she walked away from her faith. Yet even then, God’s love never stopped pursuing her. At thirty years old—and after a painful second divorce—He brought her back to himself, and she has never looked back.
As Ana returned to Christ, she began rebuilding her faith from the ground up and asked the questions she once feared to ask. Along that journey, she discovered inconsistencies, misplaced teachings, and even lies woven into the Christianity she grew up with. Instead of destroying her faith, this only deepened it. Out of that discovery, she founded Honest Christian Conversations. Ana's heart is to help others navigate the same tension she once lived with: wanting to know the real Jesus while sorting through the noise of deceptive teachings, spiritual manipulation, and “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
Everything she creates flows from gratitude for the God who rescued her, restored her, and continues to shape her into who He intended her to be.
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