Episode Details

In this episode of 9-5 Exit Plan, I sit down with author, poet, and speaker Jeff Dalton for a deeply honest conversation about faith, healing, mental health, church hurt, and what it means to have a genuine relationship with Jesus.

Jeff shares his journey from depression and low self-esteem to finding Jesus as a teenager, followed by years of ministry, rejection, personal struggles, mental health challenges, financial loss, and eventually a long season of feeling disconnected from God.

But his story doesn’t end there.

After years away from church and barely talking to Jesus, Jeff returned to the Gospels and began rediscovering something he had almost forgotten: that Jesus doesn’t ask us to bring a perfect version of ourselves.

He wants the real us.

We discuss why Jeff believes you can’t heal what you don’t acknowledge, why Christians shouldn’t feel pressured to hide their emotional struggles, how church rejection can affect a person’s identity, and why honesty and vulnerability can be essential parts of spiritual growth.

Jeff also shares the story behind his book, Expressions of the Heart: Poems and Devotionals, and explains how poetry became a way to express the emotions he couldn’t always put into ordinary words.

This is a conversation for anyone who has ever felt rejected by religion, struggled with doubt or emotional pain, questioned their worth, or simply wanted a deeper and more authentic relationship with Jesus.

Connect with Jeff on : https://a.co/d/08VZox7l