richard ellis talks

You grew up in church. You learned the songs. You learned what to say when someone asks how you're doing. You learned how to look like a person who has it figured out. And underneath all of it, you never actually met him. You just got really good at the performance.

This sermon is about the cost of that. Richard talks openly about being raised by a pastor father who taught him to fear God in the wrong way, and what it took to discover the difference between religion and the actual relationship. He names the people who quietly leave because they can't keep faking it, and the people who stay and slowly die inside while looking like they're fine.

If church taught you the form but never the substance, this one is worth your time.