The Story Behind the Story

Angela’s Life

There’s a story behind every story, and Angela’s didn’t come out of thin air. It came from someone I knew. Back in college, I had a friend who went through something deeply painful, the kind of experience that stays with a person. It was something that should have had consequences, but in her case, it didn’t. The person responsible was never held accountable, and I never even learned who he was. She carried it quietly, out of fear and shame, and what struck me over time was that she wasn’t alone. Others around her had similar experiences. Different people, similar outcomes. No real sense of justice.

What unsettled me just as much was how people responded. There was a kind of quiet acceptance, almost as if this was something people had come to expect. At times, blame was even shifted onto the victims. Comments about how someone dressed or acted were used to explain away something that should never be excused.

That never sat right with me.

Wrestling With Justice

For a while, I carried a lot of frustration and didn’t quite know what to do with it, so I wrote. Marshall became a place to process those emotions, not just anger, but the questions that came with it. Writing his story pushed me to think more deeply about things I hadn’t fully considered before. What does justice really look like? If something wrong is done and you know it happened, but it can’t be proven in a court of law, what happens then? Is it better to act outside the system, or to do nothing at all? Those questions don’t have easy answers.

It brings to mind the Trolley Problem. If you act, you may save more people, but you also become responsible for harm. If you don’t act, more people suffer, but you remain legally in the clear. It’s a strange tension. In some ways, the system can favor inaction over intervention, even when intervention might lead to a better outcome.

Over time, I’ve become more aware of how imperfect our systems can be. That perspective naturally shaped the tone of Out of the Depths. Even the cover reflects that idea. The gray tones weren’t accidental. They represent the reality that life isn’t always cleanly divided into right and wrong.

A Simpler Foundation

For a long time, I wanted morality to feel clear and structured. Good versus evil. Right versus wrong. But the more I explored those ideas, the more I realized how complex they can be. And interestingly, that complexity brought me back to something simple. The words of Jesus Christ: love God and love your neighbor. What once felt like a summary now feels more like a foundation. It feels like something that holds steady when things become unclear.

Writing this book didn’t give me all the answers, but it did give me space to wrestle with the questions, and I think that matters.

Trusting the Bigger Picture

One thing that continues to bring me peace is the reminder that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. That promise from Romans 8:28 has been something I come back to often, especially when things feel uncertain or unresolved.

You might notice that in Out of the Depths, even with all the different perspectives and moving pieces, there is still a sense that everything is leading somewhere. What feels scattered at first begins to come together. Moments that seem disconnected start to carry meaning. In the end, nothing is wasted.

I think life works in a similar way.

We only see a small part of the picture. We experience moments as they come, sometimes without understanding how they connect. But God sees the whole. What looks tangled or unclear up close can take on a completely different meaning when viewed from a wider perspective. Like a tapestry, the individual threads might not make sense on their own, but together they form something intentional.

That seems to be how God often works.

You can see it in the story of Jesus Christ. For generations, there were glimpses and promises scattered throughout scripture, each one pointing toward something greater. On their own, they may have felt incomplete. But when everything came together through His life, death, and resurrection, the bigger picture became clear.

What once seemed like separate pieces revealed a unified story.

And that gives me hope.

Even when I don’t fully understand what’s happening, even when things feel uncertain, I can trust that there is something larger being formed. Something purposeful. Something that may only make sense when seen from the right perspective.