Greatly Disappointed:
a memoir of inherited faith
For those who grew up certain, but aren't anymore
“Vulnerably and beautifully written, Greatly Disappointed speaks easily to people on parallel paths within other forms of Christian fundamentalism. The book consistently returns to a wise, sage reeading of both the stories and the tradition. More confessional than prescriptive, internally modeling the values it puts forth. It will be a gift for so many people.”
- Jonathan Martin, author of How to Survive a Shipwreck
The Heart Behind the Journey
I didn’t write this book on purpose.
I found myself in a crisis of faith; not faith in God, but faith in my ability to satisfy It.
I started journaling. I collected my thoughts about my worldview. I collected my questions and my perceived inconsistencies. I researched and developed those thoughts and questions. I footnoted. I saved each of them in a cloud drive and continued my life.
When another question branched from an old one, I opened the file and added more.
I plugged in personal anecdotes and history of where the belief came from, what it gave me, what it took. I wrote about what I learned and what I lost.
I did this for ten years.
I thought I might arrange these pages into a small set of essays, not an exposé of Adventism, not a manifesto of doubt, but a quiet exploration of how certainty can wound an anxious mind that believes fully and sincerely. They weren’t for public consumption. I would leave them for my children to understand why I hadn’t raised them to be what I was raised to be when they were old enough to understand the complexity.
This past year I realized I’d accidentally written a memoir.
Greatly Disappointed: a memoir of inherited faith.
From the Pages of Greatly Disappointed
“There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention.”
“I asked God to give up on me, and in a way, God asked me to do the same.”
I didn’t miss Grace. I just never rested in any comfort that I was ‘them that...’”
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Beyond the Altar
A former Seventh-Day Adventist’s podcast about spiritual detours, honest doubt, and the unexpected clarity that comes from questioning everything you thought was true.
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