An encounter with her changed his future. An encounter with God changed him.

People don’t set out to fail. Sometimes failure happens spectacularly with plenty of notorious attention. Other times, it comes quietly, almost with a sigh of relief. When my wife asked me for a divorce hours after my father’s funeral, only the timing was a surprise. I believed the failure of my marriage from beginning to end, along with heartache it caused, especially to my father, was unredeemable.

I was wrong.

My father was one of the finest men I ever knew. He left me a great example and a cherished legacy, one I couldn’t run from, no matter how ashamed I was to face it.

Every step I took brought more trouble, though. In those months after my father died, my uncle Nolan helped me discover I needed to make peace with a lot more than Phil Shannon’s memory. So I did what any prodigal would do.

I decided to go home.

Deciding to go is one thing. Getting there is another matter.