The Rugged Path

theruggedpath
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Christianity

Faith isn't fragile - and neither are the people who live it. This podcast dives into the hard seasons, fierce battles, and defining moments that shaped the lives of everyday Christians. These are stories of grit, surrender, and victory that prove struggle doesn't break faith - it builds it.

  1. Sep 29

    Colby Allen: I Knew That Address — Police Officer Faith Testimony | The Rugged Path

    Colby Allen was half a mile from home when the call came out, and he recognized the address before dispatch finished reading it. It belonged to a family friend, someone he had known his whole life. What Colby found when he arrived that day would change the course of his career in law enforcement, and eventually, his faith. Colby grew up in Moore County, North Carolina, joined the Army at eighteen after a breakup left him looking for a fresh start, and deployed to Afghanistan with the 4th Infantry Division in 2018. After a medical discharge in 2020, he built a career in law enforcement that has spanned patrol, a SWAT team, and now criminal investigations. Along the way he has faced a violent domestic call that ended in the deaths of two people he cared about, a miscarriage, the sudden loss of a family dog that became an unexpected outlet for grief he did not know he was carrying, and years of anger and distance in his marriage that he is honest about not being proud of. Just one week before this conversation, Colby was baptized by a previous Rugged Path guest and friend, and brought his four year old daughter into the water beside him. He talks candidly about what has changed since, what is still hard, and why he believes the trials that followed his baptism are proof he is finally fighting for something worth fighting for. This episode contains language some listeners may find objectionable. We chose not to edit it out. If you or someone you love has carried the weight of law enforcement trauma, struggled in a marriage, or wondered if it is too late to come back to faith, this conversation is for you. Subscribe and leave a review to help more people find stories like this one.   CHAPTER MARKERS:   00:00 — Language Warning and Cold Open   14:13 — Growing Up in Moore County   27:15 — Joining the Army   49:06 — Deployment to Afghanistan   1:50:08 — Coming Home and Getting Married   2:03:45 — Miscarriage and Medical Discharge   2:14:41 — First Law Enforcement Job   2:39:58 — The Call That Changed Everything

  2. Sep 15

    Justin Carter: He Held a Gun to His Head and Heard "Stop" — Suicide Prevention | The Rugged Path

    He loaded a gun, brought it to his head, and heard an audible voice say one word: stop. Justin Carter, a 13-year veteran firefighter, sits down with Dan Black to talk about a broken engagement that sent him spiraling into alcohol and pill addiction, a near-fatal highway collision on the job, and the night he came within inches of ending his life. What sets this conversation apart is what came after. For roughly two years, Justin experienced severe, unexplained physical and cognitive symptoms that three separate doctors dismissed, until a specialized clinic finally diagnosed him with a Grade 2 traumatic brain injury nobody had told him about, along with critically low testosterone and stress hormones running at three times normal. Justin gets honest about considering psychedelic-assisted therapy to deal with the underlying trauma, and choosing instead to spend 90 minutes alone in prayer, surrendering everything, including 17 years of anger toward the biological father who was never really there. Today Justin is a year sober, a husband to his wife Morgan, and a new father to their daughter Collins. This episode contains an on-air content warning about strong language, which the show intentionally leaves in. Subscribe to The Rugged Path for new episodes every other week, raw faith conversations the church usually leaves out.   CHAPTERS: 0:00 — Introduction and Content Warning 1:30:27 — Growing Up in a Firefighting Family 1:39:11 — The Night He Held a Gun to His Head 1:48:49 — A Broken Engagement and the Spiral Begins 1:55:01 — A Near-Fatal Highway Collision 2:08:35 — Unexplained Symptoms and Three Dismissive Doctors 2:32:48 — Meeting Morgan and Committing to Sobriety 2:42:21 — Diagnosed with a Traumatic Brain Injury 3:00:08 — 90 Minutes of Prayer and Forgiving His Father 4:07:12 — Fatherhood, Faith, and Giving Back

  3. Sep 1

    Chris Ostberg: A Promise to God He Broke for 20 Years — Infidelity and Redemption | The Rugged Path

    Before the invasion of Iraq, Chris Ostberg made God a promise on a rooftop in Kuwait: if he survived, he'd go to church every Sunday. He survived. He didn't go back for 20 years. Chris sits down with Dan Black to walk through a homeschooled childhood in small-town Massachusetts, a fast rise through the 82nd Airborne, leading a squad into Iraq at 21 years old, and a 16-year first marriage marked by heavy drinking and repeated infidelity on his part. An affair while deployed to Jordan cost him that marriage and, after a lengthy investigation, his entire Army career, just short of retirement. Chris is remarkably candid about what that identity collapse actually felt like, and how a season roofing houses on Fort Bragg turned out to be exactly what he needed. Listeners will hear how a single Facebook message, sent the day his first marriage effectively ended, reconnected Chris with a girlfriend from twenty years earlier and set in motion the relationship, and the return to faith, that brought him to where he is today. Chris is honest throughout that even now, with a strong marriage and a baptism behind him, he still wrestles with whether he has "enough" faith, a thread that makes this one of the more candid conversations the show has had about doubt itself. Subscribe to The Rugged Path for new episodes every other week, raw faith conversations the church usually leaves out.   0:00 — Introduction 4:53 — Leading a Squad Into Iraq at 21 5:47 — A Rooftop Promise Before the Invasion of Iraq 25:08 — A Homeschooled Childhood in Massachusetts 56:13 — Enlisting in the Army at 18 1:48:04 — A 16-Year Marriage, Drinking, and Infidelity 2:38:25 — The Affair That Ended His Career 3:12:59 — Roofing Houses on Fort Bragg 3:24:36 — "I See You Still Like Jesus" 3:47:29 — Baptism, Marriage, and Still Wrestling With Doubt

  4. Aug 18

    Antwon Murchison: A DWI With His Kids in the Car — Addiction Recovery Testimony | The Rugged Path

    Antwon Murchison hid a fifth of vodka and a twelve-pack a day behind four different liquor stores so no one would notice the pattern, until a DWI with both of his kids in the car finally caught up with him. Antwon sits down with Dan Black to walk through a fractured childhood in Midway, North Carolina, a Division I football career at Clemson that ended without an NFL contract, and the alcoholism that nearly cost him his marriage, his coaching career, and his life. Antwon gets honest about the night of his arrest, the walk into 100-degree heat the next morning where he intended to die, and the letter his 96-year-old great-grandmother wrote him in rehab, telling him she had prayed for decades for someone in the family to break its cycle of alcoholism. Listeners will hear how a corrupt youth baseball coach quietly ended his athletic dreams as a teenager, how a chance newspaper article launched an unplanned coaching career, and how getting sober did not immediately save his marriage, it took years of hard, honest work afterward. Six years sober now, Antwon is the defensive coordinator at Union Pines High School, a music director at two churches, and an active mentor to others in recovery through what he calls "sprinkling salt," small, unforced acts of love and prayer rather than overwhelming people all at once. Subscribe to The Rugged Path for new episodes every other week, raw faith conversations the church usually leaves out.   0:00 — Introduction 25:26 — A Fractured Childhood in Midway, North Carolina 27:58 — A Corrupt Coach Ends His Baseball Career 1:06:43 — Getting Recruited by Clemson 2:13:37 — Football as Identity, and Losing It 2:16:32 — A Newspaper Article Launches a Coaching Career 2:46:41 — The Drinking Escalates 2:50:00 — The DWI: His Kids in the Car 2:53:15 — The Walk He Didn't Expect to Survive 2:56:20 — His Great-Grandmother's Letter, and Rebuilding His Marriage

  5. Aug 4

    Nick Merritt: I Killed That Old Man — Military PSYOP Faith Journey | The Rugged Path

    Army officer Nick Merritt spent years hating himself for something God and his ex-wife had already forgiven, and it took one sermon on forgiving himself to finally set him free. Nick sits down with Dan Black just 48 hours after Dan felt led to ask him, no prep, no back and forth, both men going into the conversation cold. Nick walks through a childhood he barely remembers, including being locked in a closet for protection during abuse, and the infidelity that ended his first marriage while he and his then-wife were stationed apart early in his military career. He gets honest about the years that followed at Fort Campbell, alone, drinking himself to sleep every night, calling himself a terrible person every single day. He talks about getting turned away by Special Forces recruiting, finding PSYOP instead, and the deployment to the Balkans that cost him his daughter's first birthday. Listeners will hear how Nick met his current wife on Facebook Dating, chose brutal honesty over another lie on their first date, and found the sermon at Grace Church that changed everything he understood about forgiveness. The episode closes with Nick standing at a real crossroads, days from leaving the PSYOP work he loves to re-qualify into an entirely new Army career built around nuclear weapons policy, still not certain if it is God's calling or simply a good opportunity. Subscribe to The Rugged Path for new episodes every other week, raw faith conversations the church usually leaves out.   Chapters: 0:00 — Introduction 10:01 — Alone at Fort Campbell: Rock Bottom 15:13 — Childhood, Abuse, and a Family Built on Faith He Didn't Own 25:11 — Sports, College, and Finding Exercise Science 33:33 — The Tough Mudder That Sent Him Into the Army 38:22 — Turned Away by Special Forces, Found by PSYOP 58:59 — Deployments, Family, and a New Calling 1:02:53 — Infidelity and the End of His First Marriage 1:08:43 — Meeting His Wife and the Freedom Cycle Sermon 2:04:29 — Closing Reflection: Who Are You Underestimating?

  6. Jul 21

    Efren Garcia: The 0.46 BAC Night That Should Have Killed Him — Addiction Recovery | The Rugged Path

    His blood alcohol content was 0.46 the night an SRT team pulled him off his couch, and by every medical rule he should not have survived it. Efren Garcia spent over 23 years between the Air National Guard and the Army as a Cavalry Scout, an 82nd Airborne paratrooper, and a retired Sergeant First Class, deploying to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, to Iraq, to Afghanistan with 1st SFAB, and to Morocco. He carried himself like a squared away soldier the entire time. Underneath it, he was fighting a war nobody could see. In this episode Efren sits down with Dan Black and tells the full story. A childhood in Chicago shaped by an abusive, alcoholic father. A forced move to Albuquerque and years running with loosely organized gangs. His first drink at eleven years old and the decades of functioning alcoholism that followed him through combat deployments, marriage, and fatherhood. He walks through the night it all caught up with him, a drunk driving accident, his wife leaving with their kids, a bottle of pills washed down with alcohol, and the drone and SRT team that found him in time. Listeners will hear exactly what it sounded like in the hospital bed where Efren finally surrendered everything to God, and what happened after: sobriety, a men's discipleship group, baptism for himself, his wife, and both of his children, and the founding of Battleground Peer Support, a nonprofit built to help veterans and first responders get help before they hit the bottom he hit. This is a hard conversation and an honest one, with no polish and no formula, just a real man walking through hell and finding faith on the other side. If you have ever felt like your worst moments disqualify you from God, this episode is for you. Subscribe to The Rugged Path wherever you listen, leave a review, and share this one with someone who needs to hear it.   CHAPTER MARKERS: 0:00 — Introduction 28:16 — Childhood in Chicago: An Abusive, Alcoholic Father 41:50 — The Move to Albuquerque and Early Chaos 57:53 — Joining the Air National Guard After 9/11 1:15:46 — Becoming a Cavalry Scout and Airborne School 1:40:49 — The Haiti Earthquake Deployment 2:06:46 — Iraq, Afghanistan, and Losing Brothers in Arms 3:45:41 — Rock Bottom: The Accident and the Suicide Attempt 3:47:30 — The Hospital, Detox, and Full Surrender to God 3:54:11 — Baptism, Family, and Battleground Peer Support

  7. Jul 7

    Phil Bivins: Saved at a Picnic Table Between 2 Wars — Vietnam Veteran Testimony | The Rugged Path

    He went back into the Navy to become a hospital corpsman. He didn't realize until years later that he actually went back to get saved. Phil Bivins served three separate enlistments in the United States Navy spanning Vietnam all the way to Desert Storm, and this conversation with Dan Black covers all of it. Phil grew up an Air Force kid, moving between bases in Germany, Turkey, and Hawaii while his father fought a hidden battle with alcoholism that nearly ended his military career. Phil enlisted in the Navy on a whim after trying on a friend's dress blues, washed out of submarine school, and volunteered for Vietnam alongside his best friend, serving out the final months of Naval Support Facility Da Nang during the base drawdown. Years later, as a corpsman, he found himself aboard the USS Nimitz during the Iran Hostage Crisis, treating the pilot who could not complete the Operation Eagle Claw rescue mission, and helping rescue Vietnamese refugees adrift at sea. But the real turning point in this episode happens at a picnic table outside a Navy chapel in 1978, when a submarine officer named Scotty Baldwin walked Phil through a gospel tract and he realized that being a good man was never going to be enough. Listeners will also hear Phil's honest account of two marriages that ended in divorce and death, the loss of his second wife to years of alcohol abuse, and the slow work of rebuilding his walk with God at Grace Church, where he still leads a men's small group today, still confessing pride the same way he did the day he got saved. This is a raw, honest conversation about what it actually looks like to keep following God decades after most testimonies stop talking. Subscribe to The Rugged Path for more real stories of faith forged in hard places.

  8. Jun 23

    Jose Alvarez: He Heard God's Voice in the Garage — Divorce Recovery Testimony | The Rugged Path

    Jose Alvarez closed the garage door, started the car, and decided he was done. A few minutes later he heard a voice inside him say "It is done. It's done. Let it go." -- and that was the night God got his attention for good. Jose was born in Quito, Ecuador, the oldest son in a family shaped by hard work, Catholic tradition, and a father who could light up any room. By the time Jose was nine, that father was dead -- killed in a drunk-driving accident he had walked into voluntarily. Jose carried that grief, and the rage underneath it, through military academies, a near-professional soccer career with Club Deportivo El Nacional, and a cross-continental immigration at age 21 with his brother, a duffel bag apiece, and roughly $600 between them. He built himself up from a $9.50/hour moving helper in New Jersey into a logistics manager working commercial jobs inside Trump Tower and the offices of Lehman Brothers. He built idols out of work, money, and the woman who became his first wife. When their marriage collapsed at Fort Bragg and the darkness that followed took him to the edge, the only thing that came was a voice -- and a friend who handed him a Bible. In this episode, Jose walks Dan through the whole arc: a brother miraculously healed of leukemia when Jose was ten, the knee injury that ended his soccer career and revealed how thin his real friendships were, two years of praying for a marriage that would not be restored, the forgiveness he had to speak out loud to a woman who told him she was not going to heaven anyway, and a prophetic dream that came true at a baptism years later. He talks about Pastor Cannon -- the godly math teacher in Fayetteville who became his first mentor -- and how digging into the Bible was never about answers for him, but about knowing who God was. He also names the next leap of faith: full-time ministry and a youth activity center built around faith, family, finance, and fitness for the next generation. This is a story about what happens when every idol gets removed at once, and God is what remains. Subscribe so you never miss a conversation like this one.     CHAPTER MARKERS: 0:00 — Introduction 7:23 — Born in Ecuador: Family, Faith, and a Father's Death 9:06 — Brother's Leukemia and the First Sign of Jesus 28:46 — Military Academy, Soccer, and a Life Built on Rage 46:40 — Immigration: One Ticket, One Duffel Bag, No Plan 1:07:17 — Building the Idols: Work, Money, and a Woman Who Became His God 1:32:24 — Fort Bragg, Infidelity, and the Collapse 1:58:58 — The Garage 2:06:49 — Conversion, Pastor Cannon, and Learning to Forgive 3:01:12 — The Dream Comes True: A Baptism and a Generation Changed

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Ratings & Reviews

5
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About

Faith isn't fragile - and neither are the people who live it. This podcast dives into the hard seasons, fierce battles, and defining moments that shaped the lives of everyday Christians. These are stories of grit, surrender, and victory that prove struggle doesn't break faith - it builds it.

Information

  • Creator
    theruggedpath
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 All rights reserved. 148782
  • Show Website
    The Rugged Path

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