Episode Details

Have you ever felt like you had to “just accept” whatever life throws your way—even while your heart was breaking inside? Maybe someone told you it’s unfaithful to question God, or maybe you’ve wondered if it’s even allowed to be honest about your hurt and confusion. Here’s the truth: almost every believer will face moments when trusting God feels like a wrestling match.

This week on CHRISTIAN PARENT/CRAZY WORLD, we’re tackling the question no one wants to say out loud, but secretly we all wrestle with: 

Is it wrong to wrestle with God—or is it where the deepest faith is forged?

In a culture that prizes tidy answers and smooth faith, Christian parents are invited into the messier reality: honest struggle with God may be the most faithful response to life’s hardest moments.

For this conversation, host Catherine welcomes her two closest friends—licensed Christian counselor Dr. Erin Barry and certified trauma coach Susan Frost—for a raw, unscripted conversation about wrestling with God through pain, disappointment, and unanswered prayers. Drawing from years of theological dialog, personal loss, and journeys through suffering, they invite listeners to pull up a chair and experience what true biblical wrestling looks like in real life.

Meet the Guests

• Dr. Erin Barry is a licensed clinical Christian counselor with decades of experience walking with individuals and families through seasons of pain, loss, and transformation. Together with her husband, she has devoted her life to ministry in marriage, worship, and family discipleship.

• Susan Frost is a certified trauma-informed life coach, deeply involved in hands-on ministry and mentoring with her husband. She’s helped individuals and couples process grief, trauma, and confusing seasons through godly wisdom—and is a trusted friend in the trenches.

Highlights from This Episode

• The Permission to Wrestle:

  • Catherine opens up about the tension many Christians feel—faith says “trust God’s sovereignty,” but scripture shows us heroes who bring anguish, confusion, and raw complaints to God (00:41).

  • Biblical foundation: Jacob literally wrestles with God and is changed forever, marked both by his limp and by a deeper relationship (16:46, 18:12).

• Pain Is Not a Faith Failure:

  • Erin unpacks how genuine suffering alters us—those who have wrestled with God often walk with humility, vulnerability, and new spiritual authority (18:12).

  • Susan challenges the myth that “God’s going to do what He wants, no matter what.” Instead, God invites us into hard questions, purposeful struggle, and partnership in pursuit of His blessings (21:11).

• What Real Support Looks Like:

  • The trio addresses how to choose safe “inner circle” people—and why it’s vital to avoid those who try to fix, minimize, or judge faith in the midst of pain.

  • Erin notes different people offer distinct support—some handle logistics, others shoulder emotional weight. Both matter (32:30).

  • Why most of us want to “tidy up” suffering, even for others—and why letting friends sit in the pain is a profound act of love (36:33).

• When the Small Things Break Us:

  • Catherine shares a vulnerable story: after seasons spent praying for healing and witnessing loss, it was a friend’s lost cats—the seemingly “small” tragedy—that finally broke her down (41:24).

  • The group examines why sometimes, it’s the little heartbreaks that trigger our deepest questions a