“The most dangerous moment for faith is not when we're being persecuted for it, but when we're being praised for it."
- Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture

Following God has never been a straight line. We live in the tension between calling and confusion, between faith and failure, between the people God has called us to be and the people we actually are by Tuesday afternoon. The book of Judges captures this tension with unflinching honesty, showing us what faithfulness looks like when everything around us—and sometimes everything within us—feels like it's falling apart.

Set during Israel's most turbulent period, when "everyone did what was right in their own eyes" (Judges 21:25b), these stories don't offer us sanitized heroes to admire from a distance. Instead, they give us mirrors to recognize ourselves—people who love God and mess up. Spectacularly. Through Deborah, Gideon, and Micah we see stories about people who don’t have it all figured out. They're stories about people learning to follow God in real time. Their lives remind us that spiritual maturity isn't about eliminating complexity but about learning to navigate it with increasing faithfulness.

We want to explore what authentic discipleship looks like when life refuses to cooperate. Perhaps, the most honest prayer isn't "Help me out of here" but "Help me right now, right here in the middle of this mess."