From opioid crisis to renewal: Compass 171

What does it really look like to find spiritual vitality and hope in the hardest of places? Rev. Jabe Largen opens up about his journey through addiction, tragedy, and healing in the heart of Appalachia.

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Rev. Jabe Largen and host Ryan Dunn explored how radical honesty and vulnerability can transform not just our personal faith but entire communities. Jabe’s story is a testament to the hope and grace that can shine through our darkest moments—and a reminder that being real and authentic is the key to meaningful connection and growth.

About our guest:
Rev. Jabe Largen is the Senior Pastor of Pinehurst United Methodist Church in Pinehurst, NC, where he has served since 2021. He is ordained in the United Methodist tradition as an Elder and a native of Pulaski, VA. Jabeis the author of the memoir "They Call Me Jabe" published near the end of 2025.

Episode Notes:

In this episode:
[00:00] Welcome to Compass
[02:49] How goes it with your soul?
[04:38] The pushback of vulnerability
[07:14] The pain of revisiting past trauma
[13:46] Finding faithful community in the midst of addiction
[17:20] What is "theodicy"?
[24:49] When to run from certainty
[28:38] Learning to pray at Narcotics Anonymous
[33:22] 12 step programs and the path of discipleship
[36:41] Out of a year of loss, what are you finding hopeful?
[41:30] End credits

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This episode posted on January 7, 2026


Episode Transcript:

Ryan Dunn [00:00:00]:
What does it look like to find spirituality in the hardest of places? Well, we have an inspiring conversation with the Reverend Jabe Largen coming up. Welcome to Compass Finding Spirituality in the Everyday. I'm Ryan Dunn, your host and fellow traveler on the spiritual journey. This episode delivers a remarkable story regarding addiction, tragedy, traffic, transformation and renewed hope. I chatted with Reverend Jabe Largen, who opens up about his experiences growing up amidst the opioid crisis in Appalachia, wrestling with loss and the power of grace that emerged not really in spite of, but often through pain and vulnerability. We have lots of conversations around faith exploration and curiosity and investing in personal faith practices here on the Compass Podcast. So as if this kind of content is meaningful for you, then go ahead and hit the subscribe button on your podcast listening platform.

Ryan Dunn [00:01:05]:
If you've already done that, then I invite you to take the next step and help someone else discover Compass by leaving a rating and or review of the podcast on your podcast app that really helps new people discover our conversations here. Some things for you to discover in this particular episode include the role of honesty and vulnerability in spiritual growth, how faith communities can respond with radical love, and wrestling with the the big question, the why of suffering, and this thing that we have called the Odyssey. So if you're into that, stay tuned for this inspiring conversation with Reverend Jabe Largen. A bit about Jabe. He's the senior pastor of Pinehurst United Methodist church in Pinehurst, North Carolina. He served there since 2021. He's an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. He's originally a native of Pulaski, Virginia.

Ryan Dunn [00:02:04]:
And Jabe is the author of they Call Me Jabe which was published towards the end of 2025. Let's get to the conversation with Reverend Jargin. Oh, and one more thing. I just wanted to add a quick note about the audio quality of the interview. My microphone was way out of line and clipping a little bit, so so I hope it's not too distracting. The good news is Jabe does most of the talking and his audio level sounds fine. So if you can bear with it just a little bit when I'm doing a little speaking and when I get excited, then this should be a wonderful interview. Thanks so much and we'll talk to you soon.

Ryan Dunn [00:02:40]:
Jabe, thanks for taking the time to join us and sharing some of your story with us. How goes it with your soul over there in Pinehurst, North Carolina?

Jabe Largen [00:02:49]:
Things are good, Ryan. It's, you know, a surreal thing right now going through this experience of leading the church while Also talking about the story of my life and in written form, but the whole process has actually been good for my soul. So I'm. I'm feeling kind of spiritually renewed right now as a result of. Yeah. Putting this memoir on paper. And. And then also, you know, church life is very life giving, which is a tremendous blessing.

Jabe Largen [00:03:27]:
I don't at any time take for granted the fact that I'm surrounded by a healthy community of faith that's not only vibrant in their ministry, but also very much in tune with my needs and looking out for me and caring for me, especially during this time in which, you know, know, I wrote something that kind of was soul bearing. Yeah.

Ryan Dunn [00:03:58]:
Well, I want to talk. Start our conversation really, in. In gauging some of the reaction to burying yourself in this way. You and I have known each other for a number of years, but I've only known you as Reverend J. Bligen. Right. And while you had revealed a little bit of your history and that there was a history of addiction there and certainly some heart ache with that, I was not aware of the level of that until I really read your memoir here. And I'm wondering if now that you've kind of released all these stories into the world, I mean, there's a fear that comes with that.

Ryan Dunn [00:04:38]:
Certainly, as you have revealed parts of yourself earlier, you've had, for example, a supervisor who kind of said, well, I don't know, Jay, but this may not work out the best for you. Has the reception from the faith community around you and your congregation been. Been warm? Have some people pulled back? Has there been some pushback?

Jabe Largen [00:05:01]:
No pushback at all. It's actually kind of overwhelming. The love and support that I've been showered with, my whole family's been showered with, you know, Amber, my wife, and. And the kids. I mean, it's just been tremendous, especially from the church family. But, I mean, it's. It's kind of a unique situation, Ryan, in that, like, folks like you, who I've known, like my congregation and so many other people since we moved to North Carolina and entered into ministry, like, they knew some of it, like you said, but they didn't know the depths. So then they read the book, and they can't believe it.

Jabe Largen [00:05:41]:
And then there are those who I grew up with and those who knew me as I was growing up, who read the book and see me now, and they can't believe it. You have two. Two polar opposites here of disbelief. I can't believe you did that, and I can't believe you're doing this, but the church has been tremendous. We had a book event recently where we just had a conversation kind of like this. And then at the end, I signed some copies and stuff, and just the outpouring of love and support, it was moving for me to feel that love. I think that in terms of United Methodist ministry, it goes to show that vulnerability and honesty from the pastor really might not be all that bad of a thing. Maybe it should be embraced more.

Jabe Largen [00:06:53]:
Maybe we should be more open. And if congregations aren't open and receptive to embracing the vulnerability of their leader, then they need to perhaps take time to look in their own mirror. But, yeah, in my experience, it's been phenomenal. It's exceeded expectations.

Ryan Dunn [00:07:14]:
Was it therapeutic for you to revisit some of this stuff?

Jabe Largen [00:07:20]:
Yeah, it was very therapeutic. Not in the moment. In the moment, it was painful and fearful for the reason that we just talked about. I was very afraid that in telling my truth, I would not be embraced or received. I did fear that the reaction would be much different than what it actually is. But the biggest burden was in the actual writing of it. I'm not a good journaler, so I've never journaled for any extended period of time. And so the writing of the book was a process like that, except I'm doing it all at once and over and over and over again.

Jabe Largen [00:08:11]:
So, you know, I write some very hard things that have happened in life, and then, you know, I move on to the next very hard thing that happens in life and so on and so forth until it comes time to edit it. Then when I edited it, I relive it again. And then, you know, about 48 to 72 hours later, I feel. I feel really good because, you know, I've got this off of my soul, right? And then it's time to edit again. And then some other feeling comes up that's probably unexpected or some other memory comes up that's unexpected, and then it's the whole process again. But now that it's all done, yes, extremely therapeutic. I've had people use the word cathartic. This must be cathartic for you.

Jabe Largen [00:09:20]:
And I think that's a good way to describe it now. But the process itself was. Was. Was wrenching to put it the best way I know how.

Ryan Dunn [00:09:30]:
Yeah, well, I don't want to necessarily rehash the events that you detail well within the book of, you know, why this might be therapeutic. And in talking about, well, your addiction and revealing all that for people who want those gory details, like they can Read. But can you give us maybe, like a synoptic narrative, the elevator speech, so to speak, of what happens throughout your memoir here?

Jabe Largen [00:09:59]:
Yeah, I think there are a couple strings that run throughout it. One is death and then hope. And with that death string, I mean, you have the addiction side of things. You have tragedy. You have a lot of things that are associated with death on that death string that runs throughout. But then you have the hope string that runs throughout. And grace is very much a big part of the hope piece as well. Or maybe it's vice versa.

Jabe Largen [00:10:34]:
Hope is part of the Grace piece. I mean, you can take it either way. But I grew up in Appalachia in a community that was once thriving, but quickly deteriorated in terms of its economy, its quality of life. Drug addiction was rampant in our community. Accessibility to narcotics was high. And that was always the case throughout my childhood. But then when OxyContin dropped, you know, in the late 90s, early 2000s, we were ground zero for that, as was so many other communities in Appalachia. And so that really brought me to a bottom there in terms of addiction, which, you know, I started using drugs in general at the age of 13.

Jabe Largen [00:11:30]:
Elevator speech, you know, Grace. Grace that I didn't know existed, nor did I see it coming. Grace intervened, and a conversion happened. Then a calling happened. And then after that, old demons reappear. And those old demons reappear when that old foe named Death, who I'd been dealing with since my teens, that shows up in, you know, untimely ways as an unexpected guest, keeps knocking on the door because of my calling, you know, and just my. Also wrestling with that, as someone now in ministry who has been very successful in ministry, I would. I would use that word, successful.

Jabe Largen [00:12:31]:
Fruitful. And then also dealing with the loss of my father toward the end is another thing that happened as I was finishing the book. Actually, I'd finished. In my view, I was finished. And then he passed away right before my deadline, so I had to rewrite. And so the last couple chapters are very much what we would call an elegy. I think the whole thing's an elegy to piggyback off of some other dude who wrote a.

Ryan Dunn [00:13:05]:
A book, Appalachian elegy, so to speak.

Jabe Largen [00:13:09]:
Okay. Yeah, but, I mean, I actually lived there, but never mind. So, yeah, it very much is like that. It's. It's analogy. It's. It's part lament, part preaching, part wandering and wondering, and, you know, it's a little bit of all that. But ultimately, you know, hope in the Face of death and enough grace to sustain at least one life.

Ryan Dunn [00:13:46]:
We talked about finding grace revealed even in the midst of debt. Yeah, there was an instance in your book in which you're talking about a child, your child that had died basically during pregnancy or just after being born. And at that time, you could not recognize that there could be a God that would allow something like this to happen. Like, if stuff like this happens, there, there can't be an all good God or a God in general. And yet you started going to church. It felt like not too long after that, was there something that impelled or give you the impulse to. To make that kind of turn? Was it social pressure that brought you into the church or what was happening there?

Jabe Largen [00:14:37]:
It was family pressure because Miriam died in, in 2002. August 22, 2002. I got clean from, from OxyContin and the other narcotics in July of 05. And so there was, you know, it was almost three total years before I started going to church.

Ryan Dunn [00:15:01]:
Okay.

Jabe Largen [00:15:02]:
And, you know, being clean is what led me to, you know, I would say a journey of spiritual discovery. And my wife Amber had started going to church with my, my mama Large and my dad's mom and dad too. And yeah, they pretty much just drugged me. They were like, you're going. So I reluctantly went. And, you know, as, as grace often does, unexpected things start to happen as a result of being drug. And yeah, perceptions started to change in terms of whether or not there is a God and whether or not that God is good. But yeah, I didn't see in 02 how there could be a God that is good when babies are stillborn, especially when there was an attempt to get clean for that pregnancy.

Jabe Largen [00:16:18]:
And so it's like, hey, finally doing the right thing now, you know, our baby's dead. Like, in a weighted view of the world of, you know, balancing out good and bad, now we're adding more to the good plate, but the bad plate's still here. You know, where's the positive effect for the calls? Right. And it took a little while after going to church to even begin to comprehend the notion of grace and the question of theodicy. So it took a while, but I was just desperate enough and that void inside of me was just great enough that I was willing to keep showing up and to keep doing things like praying that some, some change and transformation was, was able to happen.

Ryan Dunn [00:17:20]:
What would Reverend Large and now say to somebody who's walking through the similar shoes of Jay Bargen back in 2002? Like, you talked, you mentioned theodicy. And maybe you can describe what that is for us. Like, how do you. How do you communicate that within your own congregation?

Jabe Largen [00:17:40]:
Yeah, look, I. I think that because, look, in seminary, Ryan, when they said, you can write a paper about whatever you want to write, I was writing about theodicy, that being the question of how can there be evil in the world if God is good? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does tragedy happen? During that time, I was introduced to a sermon by William Sloane Coffin, a great preacher of the 20th century. Actually, I think it was Dr. Rick Lisher who introduced me to the sermon. And Dr. Lisher actually endorsed my book, which was kind of cool for me because he's one of my preaching and teaching heroes. But in the sermon, it's a sermon that Sloane Coffin preached after the death of his own son Alex. And so Alex drives off the road into the Boston harbor and dies.

Jabe Largen [00:18:45]:
And so then Dr. Coffin has all this tremendous grief because his son's met an untimely death, which is obviously something I'm very familiar with in my experience. And so that sermon's preaching to me, right? And there's this lady who shows up at Coffin's home, and she brings food, like good church people do when there's death. As she comes into the home with the food, she says, I just don't understand the will of God, implying that God did this, that God willed Alex to drive into the Boston Harbor. And Sloane Coffin went off. He went off, as we would say where I grew up. He went ballistic. You know, he.

Jabe Largen [00:19:33]:
I. He said. I say, you don't understand the will of God, lady. And so in my practice ever since, you know, reading that and running my own experiences through that, that same type of. Of theological thought. Yeah, I say, you don't understand the will of God, because how can you fully understand the will of God? How can you say that this is the will of God? It's not God's will, most likely that our baby died. I can't look at the whole of scripture and say that that's God's will, but at the same time, I can't say with certainty that it's not. And so what I try to do pastorally, in congregational care and also in teaching, is to just to try to emphasize the beauty that can be present in suffering, knowing that we can't say with certainty one way or another, what's God's will in the midst of tragedy, knowing that that beauty is not always easy to see, and then also just pointing back to the cross as a great example of beauty and suffering.

Jabe Largen [00:20:59]:
Because I mean, if, if we as people who confess that we believe that Christ was crucified, dead and buried, if we truly believe that, then that that proclamation, that profession of faith should influence how we view our, our own encounters with, with death and tragedy and injustice and oppression and all these other things that haunt us in our living and that mess with our peace. You know, I've been in a lot of rooms where people are dying or people die, you know, and in other settings as a first responder in ministry, which I was for five years, I've been at a lot of accident scenes where family members show up heartbroken because of just something as, you know, unexpected and unpredictable as, you know, an ice patch in the road or something like that. And you know, we have this tendency to want to try to explain it away, you know, oh God, God needed them more than, than you do.

Ryan Dunn [00:22:20]:
We needed another angel.

Jabe Largen [00:22:22]:
Yeah, there was an ice patch in the road. But that doesn't mean that God's absent in the situation. That doesn't mean that there's a lack of beauty to behold. It's just to where do we look to behold it? And for me that's a communal thing to figure out. And that's why the church is so important, because the church is. The church has the ability to help be eyes that see for those who are having a hard time seeing because of what they're experiencing. So yeah, those are the types of things I promote. And yeah, the community being the, the reminder, the reminder that, you know, God's love is sovereign and bad things happen and if God intervened in every situation, then we'd be in heaven and we're constantly reminded that we're not.

Ryan Dunn [00:23:27]:
Faith entails this tension with certainty in, in some degree where I think when it comes to theodicy, you know, we tend to, to lean into, well, oh, this happens for a reason because it gives us comfort and certainty. But you seem to push against a certain kind of certainty to a degree. And actually I want to read you something here. James, throw me a book. I don't know if that's a full pot. I like read back to the author part of their book. But just for the sake of our listener, I think that they need to hear it. And then I ask you to address Canada.

Jabe Largen [00:24:04]:
No, I really appreciate it and I'm not reading it again. So this is even.

Ryan Dunn [00:24:08]:
This is it. All right, well, here's what you said in case you need didn't know in this grace filled existence who really deserves what and when? Why? And why is it that when what is deserved is levied, the levying is inconsistent from one reckoning or blessing to the next among us mortals? If anyone claims to know the answer to any of the above, undoubtedly I will without shame, run away from them as fast as I can. I'd encourage you to do the same. Why? Why run from such certainty? What makes you so uncomfortable with that?

Jabe Largen [00:24:49]:
I'm really satisfied with how that sounded. Right. If they do like an audiobook, I might want you to read it. Oh, w.

Ryan Dunn [00:25:01]:
Those sermon moments when you're like, oh, man, it was so powerful when you said this and you're like, I said what?

Jabe Largen [00:25:07]:
Yeah. No. So, yeah, I think that I am pushing back against certainty always. And look, there. There are few things to which I am certain. And those things that fall into the realm of why or how. I'm not going down the road of certainty because why and how are, as we would say, above my pay grade. And it's not for me to do that.

Jabe Largen [00:25:51]:
It's more imperative for me to lean into the mystery than it is to try to seek out all the answers. Now, we do have to have some idea of what may be. And a lot of times we have to have some idea of what may be so that we can be a hope that is faithful and what we believe to be at least close to true. So much as we can say what is true. But how and why? I mean, look, if again, we take serious the things that we confess about our faith, how and why is really hard to say with certainty. And in terms of deserving, you know, in terms of deserving, because if I get what I deserve. We're not talking right now, you know, causes most likely death, but possibly also jail, prison, mental institution. I mean, there.

Jabe Largen [00:26:55]:
In terms of deserving, based off of how society views who's worthy of what, then there's no way. I live in Pinehurst, North Carolina, and lead a phenomenal church and, you know, have my own house and drive my own car. And so it goes back to that Sloan Coffin example too, I think, and the lady bringing in the food and I just don't understand the will of God. Like, she was certain that this was God's will. That was harmful and misguided too, no matter how well intentioned. So, yeah, I don't run much these days, and I would actually probably be more prone to push back as opposed to run from them. You know, if need be, then I would run because I just don't trust anybody who's that sure of anything when it comes to matters of life and death and what's deserved and what's not, that's. I, When I, When I read the gospel, when I read Paul, when I read scripture in general, I, I don't see how you can ever be that certain of anything other than the fact that, you know, the whole of scripture points to a God who will go to any links to find what is lost until it is found.

Ryan Dunn [00:28:38]:
Yeah, so often that that finding occurs within community. You've talked a little bit about how church community was part of your, your spiritual awakening, but also the, the community around recovery seems to have been a profound influence on your spiritual awakening as well. You noted that you learned to pray within Narcotics Anonymous. And I'm wondering, was there a time when you remembered, like your prayers becoming something genuine? Like a lot of us, even before we are quote, unquote, believers will pray out of a necessity. Right. Sort of the idea that there's no atheists and foxholes. Right. So there are probably some moments when you were in the, in the junk and, and you were muttering some prayers there.

Ryan Dunn [00:29:34]:
But do you remember a time in which it became something more for you than just maybe the, the pleading to get out of a situation and then it was something a little bit more heartfelt?

Jabe Largen [00:29:45]:
Yeah, absolutely. So we call those prayers prayers of desperation. Yeah, you know, prayers of desperation because desperation will push you to the point of prayer. But yeah, my prayers really start to become more genuine the more I got clean and the more I prayed. And also my prayers became more genuine when I stopped talking so much. Howard Thurman, who I absolutely love. I love Thurman. Going to teach a class on him at church in the spring.

Jabe Largen [00:30:25]:
He basically frames meditation as listening for the sound of the genuine. Listening for the sound of the genuine. And my early prayers were so much me asking, asking, asking, asking. And it wasn't until I stopped asking and just learned to just sit and to be, to just be that the sound of the genuine started to come through. And all that happened, you know, in my first year getting clean. And like I point out in the book, church really didn't teach me that. Narcotics Anonymous taught me that. And I've often said that if you take the principles of 12 step recovery and take them out into the world or even within the church, it could be a transformative thing.

Jabe Largen [00:31:26]:
Because, I mean, you do focus on actually praying and meditating and trying to improve yourself, listing out your character defects, like, tell me all the things that are wrong about you and tell me all the things that you feel done that have caused harm to others, and then go make amends to them all. And then every night, make an inventory of yourself and what you did during that day and then determine, do you need to make any amends? Like, if we take that out into the world, we could really see some change. But the problem then is that people like me would no longer be able to identify because everybody would be in that boat and a lot of us addicts and alcoholics would be, would be dying still that currently were not because of the principles. But eventually another thing that happened was as I continued to practice prayer, meditation and those spiritual principles, eventually the discipleship, church type of things, and the 12 step recovery type of things, they kind of became wed together. And that's really when, you know, I started to grow spiritually. And that's when I really started hearing God calling me was when church entered the equation. You know, up until that point, yeah, I was growing spiritually, but I was still lacking something. And then as that work started to happen alongside the other work, then, you know, there was a different type of wholeness.

Ryan Dunn [00:33:22]:
It's been a while since I've researched this, but I believe that in their creation, the 12 steps from alcoholics Anonymous, which I'm assuming have also been carried over into Narcotics Anonymous. Yeah, basically it was developed as a pathway of discipleship. So that, and I, I'm curious, like, do you see that within, like, does your, your church journey of discipleship, for example, mirror the 12 steps in any way?

Jabe Largen [00:33:53]:
It needs two more probably, but I think, you know, in terms of intention, yes. In terms of practice, I think it could perhaps be utilized or emphasized more. But yeah, you're right, it's very much so. You can go back centuries within Christian history and you can see it's the same model. It's the same model and it's the same model that earlier alcoholic groups used prior to the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous. It's, you know, it's about discovery and confession is very Christian thing. Right. So, yeah, it's.

Jabe Largen [00:34:40]:
You can go back. Like I framed the book in terms of Augustine's Confessions. I don't know if you noticed that, but it's very much like a hillbilly version of Augustine's Confessions. And playing a part of Augustine is Jabe, which is really weird. He and I don't have much in common other than we had a lot to confess. You know, he's a little, he's a little brighter than me, but yeah. So, I mean, if you go back to Augustine and Confessions. It's kind of that model.

Jabe Largen [00:35:14]:
It's like, yeah, I need to confess this and my spirit is awake now and I'm praising God for it. And you know what? I probably need to confess a little bit more. And, you know, it's. It's. That's discipleship, you know. Yeah. And it's 12 steps, too. So.

Jabe Largen [00:35:37]:
Yeah, I appreciate you asking the question because I think if we, those of us especially who have experience in both worlds, if we take serious the work of disciple making, we can learn a lot from those principles while understanding that those principles were formed by principles that already existed within the community of Christian faith.

Ryan Dunn [00:36:06]:
Well, to kind of shift gears a little bit, we're recording this towards the end of 2025. It's been a year, and you write about it in the book that certainly this has been a year with some hard losses for you. Not to negate that, but just that there's so much hope lifted up within your book itself. And this idea that God always kind of pursues us in hope, that grace is ever present. I'm wondering, like, what has you hopeful for moving into the next year of 2026? What are you looking forward to either in life or ministry?

Jabe Largen [00:36:41]:
One thing that's happened as a result of the book coming out that I didn't see coming was the amount of love and support shown to me by the congregation and by other people who I've known. And then I knew that people would also want to, like, share openly and vulnerably with me, both of it. But the depths at which people are willing to go now is really, really beautiful. And the other thing about that is that that shows that through my vulnerability and my bearing my soul in a way that was confessional in nature, I haven't lost any integrity and leadership. I've actually gained some because people are now willing to go to depths that they weren't going to before. Gives me great hope for humanity and the church that we can be real with one another, you know, because let's face it, just like so many people in the book and just like so many people you've known and the billions and billions of breathed this air before us, there will become there, there will be a day when our breath gives out, we reach the end of our words, and that's it, right? So why not be real in the interim? Why not use the breath and the words to just be genuine, to be your authentic self? What do we have to lose? Anything that perhaps we fear that we have to lose? Is it really that important. So what the book has reminded me is that real is okay. And I think people have a deep longing for a shared realness.

Jabe Largen [00:38:44]:
So I've got some hope for that. And I wish I could take credit and say, oh, man, I did this great thing and wrote this book. Now people want to be real and I want to be real and all this and all that. But no, I mean real is real because God is really real. You know, Gregory of Nyssa used that. Phrase to describe God. The really real, really real. The God that we cannot understand but we know to be really real.

Jabe Largen [00:39:17]:
You know, we have a deep longing for that and God so really real that God became flesh and dwelt among us. Our God is incarnational. That's real. So why not be real in. In response to that? It's, it's certainly Ron made me, having told some of the hard truths that I tell toward the end of the book about my own flaws, even in ministry and fruitful ministry. It has led to, you know, the last, you know, six plus months being some of the best six plus months that I've had in terms of how I feel about myself and how I view the world. And yeah, that's. That's not on.

Jabe Largen [00:40:10]:
That's not on accident.

Ryan Dunn [00:40:12]:
Well, Jabe, thanks so much for taking the time. It's really good to reconnect with you and, and thanks for sharing your story so openly. And I hope that people can kind of take a sense of boldness in moving forward to, to be a little bit more vulnerable in themselves, too. And, you know, and I do want to note just especially for people in ministry, that there can be a temptation to not be vulnerable. And so hopefully in sharing your story and even what's happened after, we can all take some courage and in moving forward with that, which is a little bit more humility and vulnerability. So thank you for that.

Jabe Largen [00:40:56]:
Thanks, Ryan. You're on my. One of my favorite folks that I've, I've come to know in ministry. I love your spirit. And yeah, I know that it's risky to, to share openly if you are in ministry and certainly having strong relationships that are already founded, that helps. I wouldn't go in on day one and say, let me, let me tell you everything that's wrong with me. A little bit at a time. You're gonna be okay.

Ryan Dunn [00:41:30]:
Thanks so much for joining us on the Compass podcast. Spirituality, Everything. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to check, check out our website. You're going to find episode notes there. Today's episode all of our other episodes.

Jabe Largen [00:41:49]:
Plus.

Ryan Dunn [00:41:54]:
Big thank you as always to the team that you.

Jabe Largen [00:42:01]:
Haven't already.

Ryan Dunn [00:42:01]:
Again, a reminder to take a moment to subscribe to radio podcast the best ways to help others find. Thanks again for sticking with us through this episode. See you again real soon.

Ryan Dunn [00:42:16]:
Peace.

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