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.

If this conversation helps you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more men can find it.

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.