Before we start the episode, I want to give a brief content note. This conversation walks through the loss of a child, chronic pain, a serious car accident, financial hardship, and some honest conversation around suffering. There is a lot of wisdom and hope in this episode, but there are some difficult moments. Please take care of yourself as you listen. INTRO: What makes a good father? Is it how much he provides? How often he is home? How well he teaches? How much he plays? How strong he is when everything around him feels weak? For a lot of us, fatherhood is built around what we can do. We can work. We can fix. We can wrestle with our kids on the bed. We can drive them to practice, sit in the crowd, cheer them on, and remind them that dad is there. We can be the one who sacrifices first. The one who takes the hit. The one who does the work. But what happens when you can’t? What happens when your body breaks? When the strength you used to depend on is no longer there? When pain becomes the unwelcome guest in your life? What happens when the version of fatherhood you wanted to give your children is stripped away from you, and you’re left wondering what next? Are you still a good father when all you have left to give is love? Maybe that is the question. Because maybe fatherhood was never only about what we could do. Maybe it was always about how deeply we could love. Hi, my name is Ryan Guerra, and this is A Father’s Voice. Today I talk with Jerry Wagnon. Jerry, like many of these interviews this season, is someone I met over the last year and a half. In particular, I met Jerry at my local gym only about a month ago. I was trying to figure out who needed to be part of this season, and there was Jerry, sitting in the sauna, talking to another man about his story, his pain, and what he had walked through to get to where he is today. I didn’t know him at all at the time. But I knew there was something there. Jerry is 64 years old. He is a father of five, a husband of nearly 40 years, and a man who carries the kind of wisdom that only comes from living through both deep love and deep pain. In truth, this conversation went much longer than what you’ll hear today. There were moments that felt less like an interview and more like sitting across from someone further down the road, listening to the stories that shaped him. And to be honest, the conversation felt special. Not because Jerry is perfect, and has everything figured out. But because there is something meaningful about listening to a man who has lived through seasons I have not yet reached, and hearing him look back with honesty, gratitude, grief, and hope. In this conversation, we talk about his father, a man who modeled love, apology, and sacrifice in a way that shaped Jerry’s entire view of fatherhood. We talk about the moment Jerry decided that one day he wanted to be a dad so he also model that love to others. We talk about how holding his first daughter changed the way he understood the love of God. We talk about the loss of his son Daniel, and the grief that comes with losing a child. We talk about a car accident that changed his life, years of chronic pain, losing the ability to work, losing the home they had built, and the way his suffering forced him to reframe almost everything. And through all of this, we talk about love. Not perfect love. Not easy love. Not even the love that makes you happy. But the kind of love that remains. The kind of love that says, even if I am hurting, even if I am limited, even if I cannot be who I once was, I still want my wife and my children to know they are well loved. This conversation challenged me. And encouraged me. And honestly, it reminded me that sometimes the best thing a younger father can do is simply sit down, listen, and learn from someone further down the road. I am thankful Jerry trusted me with this conversation. And so with that, I am honored to present to you my conversation with Jerry Wagnon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
