Faith (Episode 2 - Archive)Faith (Episode 2 - Archive)
Relational Recovery
A candid conversation about faith, doubt and trust, framed through grief, everyday beauty and the Good Samaritan story. Wes Thompson and Austin Hill reflect on how rare acts of kindness and rebalanced trust can support recovery and relationships.
5:36•6 Jul 2026
Faith, Doubt and Life in the Ditch: A Honest Look at Trust in Recovery
Episode Overview
- Pain and grief can be signs that something beautiful and meaningful once existed, rather than proof that faith is pointless.
- Moments of everyday beauty, like love and friendship, stand alongside suffering and can support a sense of faith and hope.
- The Good Samaritan story highlights how feeling abandoned can damage trust, yet unexpected kindness can restore it.
- Acts of simple, honest kindness may be rare, but they can keep faith alive even when most people seem to walk past.
- Recovery may involve rebalancing trust, shifting from over-reliance on oneself or others to a more appropriate mix of both.
“Because I have faith in something beautiful, every time something nasty or sad happens doesn’t call into question the beauty of what I have faith in.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation from Relational Recovery takes that question head-on by talking about faith, doubt and the messy reality of life. The chat between host Wes Thompson and co-host Austin Hill focuses on how faith in God, other people and ourselves can feel shaky, especially when life looks unfair or painful.
They acknowledge how easy it is to look at "all the crap that's happening in the world" and use it as proof that there's no God or no goodness at all. But they also point to everyday moments of beauty — "the birth of children, falling in love, being a parent, making a new friend" — as evidence that meaning and goodness exist, even when life hurts.
Austin reflects on grief as proof that something mattered: "The fact that we grieve the loss of something means that we thought that the relationship was so important that it hurts us when they're gone." That pain is a sign that something beautiful was there, and that something beautiful could happen again. The episode uses the story of the Good Samaritan to talk about feeling abandoned and losing faith in others.
Wes and Austin remind you that in that story, "you're the one in the ditch" watching people with power walk past. Yet it's the unlikely helper — the person who "shouldn't be doing the kind thing" — who steps in and changes everything. Those rare moments of simple kindness are what keep their faith going.
They close by raising a practical question: what happens when you realise you’ve put too much faith in yourself and not enough in others, or the other way round? For anyone wrestling with trust, recovery and belief, this episode offers an honest space to think about what you’re placing your faith in and how that might need to shift. Where are you putting your trust today?
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