God is patient. Oh, those three words, God is patient. Matt, he's not looking at you and me

with a stopwatch in his hand. Click. Okay, come on. Let's see some progress here. What are you

waiting for? It's not like that. Where would we be without the patience of God?

Ray Ortland is the president of Renewal Ministries,

a pastor to pastors at Emmanuel Church in Nashville,

and a canon theologian with the Anglican Church in North America.

And he's also the author of many books with Crossway,

including his newest

Good News at Rock Bottom, Finding God When Pain Goes Deep and Hope Seems Lost. Ray, thanks so much

for joining me again on the Crossway podcast. Thank you, Matt. It's a privilege to be with you.

So, Ray, you write in this new book that you've written, a book that, as the title suggests,

is kind of trying to meet people when they're at their lowest, when their life has taken a turn

that has maybe caught them by surprise, and they just feel like they are at their wits end.

And you write in the book that there are many ways for us in our lives to actually hit rock bottom.

I wonder if you could just start us off by telling us what that was like for you.

Have you ever hit rock bottom?

And what did that look like?

I think it's inevitable.

Sooner or later, something really bad comes and finds us.

For me, it was, it's hard to talk about it, Matt, because it remains unresolved and

it's still heartbreaking, and I don't want to embarrass anybody.

But I was among people who made promises and didn't keep their promises.

...