Today we are thrilled to share an excerpt from Stephanie Tait’s book, “The View From Rock Bottom,” available now. You can also watch her video interview with Rise executive director, Holly Stallcup, at the bottom of the excerpt.

A few years ago, at the recommendation of a couple people who are much smarter than I, I spent Lent reading Fleming Rutledge's The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ.

It’s dense stuff, but I pushed through it because I love Rutledge’s insistence that we cannot talk about the resurrection without talking about the crucifixion.

Our world is in complete disarray right now: war, trauma, child imprisonment, sickness, loss—all easily exacerbated by the constant hum of the news cycle available at our fingertips.

I turn 30 in a week. A few days before, I am supposed to organize my thoughts and say something wise to a group of twenty-year-olds about what the next decade holds for them.

Crap shoot. Whiplash. Roll of the dice. Circus. Polar opposite of what you imagine and want.