A single email during COVID turned into a paternity test, a flight to an empty LAX, and a face-to-face meeting with a 46-year-old son Rick Wertz never knew existed. That’s the kind of story that sounds impossible until you hear the details, and it opens a bigger question many men carry quietly: what do you do with the father-wound, the love deficit, and the years you can’t get back?

We sit down with Rick, the founder of Faithful Fathering, to trace the path from a childhood marked by violence, alcoholism, and untreated wartime trauma to a life rebuilt through faith, Scripture, and intentional fatherhood. He shares the moment he realized his work and travel had made him a stranger in his own home, and how that wake-up call pushed him toward accountability, spiritual discipline, and a mission to equip churches to encourage dads rather than only critique them.

Then the “COVID curveballs” hit: first, discovering and blessing an adult son who had been searching for decades, and second, learning through DNA results that he also had a half-brother and that long-held family secrets were revealed. We talk adoption reunion, genetic mirroring, forgiveness, boundaries for kids and parents in a world of social media and pornography, and why knowing the Heavenly Father changes how we handle every part of the story.

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Here is a link to Rick's website to learn more:

https://faithfulfathering.org/

Chapter Markers

• 0:00
• Welcome To Wrestling The Inner Man
• 0:34
• Valentine’s Day And The Love Deficit
• 1:33
• A Childhood Shaped By Violence
• 4:31
• Chasing Approval Through Work
• 6:52
• Faithful Fathering And A Biblical Worldview
• 9:48
• The DNA Email That Introduced A Son
• 14:43
• A Second Curveball And A Half-Brother
• 20:11
• Boundaries, Redemption, And Real Fathering
• 22:46
• Final Counsel And Closing Prayer

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Visit www.thesavagepath.com for more on David, his book The Savage Path: A Memoir of Modern Masculinity, and the Savage Path Ministries Corp.