Easter reminds us that death is not the end—but it does invite a deeper question: how are we living in the time we’ve been given?

In this episode of the Embracing Brokenness Podcast, Steve and Colleen explore “The Dash”—the small line between your birth date and death date that represents your entire life.

Through the story of Alfred Nobel, personal experiences with loss, and a powerful reflection sparked by the song Live Like That, they unpack what it really means to live intentionally.

You’ll discover:

Why most people drift instead of live with purpose

The difference between happiness and lasting joy

How distraction and self-focus quietly shape your life

What people actually remember about you in the end

How to choose love at the “fork in the road” moments

This isn’t about achieving more—it’s about becoming someone who reflects Christ in everyday life.

Because the dash may look small… but it holds everything.

00:00 – Welcome + Easter Monday Reflection

02:00 – The Question: What Would People Say About Your Life?

07:30 – The Dash Explained (Birth → Death → Everything Between)

10:15 – The Alfred Nobel Story (A Wake-Up Call)

13:30 – Why Most People Drift Through Life

15:00 – Meaning Doesn’t Just Happen—It’s Cultivated

18:30 – Colleen’s Turning Point (Loss, Funerals, Clarity)

22:30 – “Live Like That” – The Measuring Line for Life

26:00 – The Fork in the Road: Choosing Love or Self

29:00 – Living Surrendered vs Living in Control

32:00 – Start With Why (and Where It Falls Short)

34:30 – Happiness vs Joy

36:30 – What Living for the Dash Actually Feels Like

40:00 – It’s Not About What You Achieve

42:00 – Final Question: What Is Being Written in Your Dash?

43:30 – Closing Challenge + What’s Next

In Part 2 of our Reclamation series, Steve and Colleen Adams explore what it looks like to reclaim the parts of our story that were shaped by failure, shame, and consequences.

In this deeply personal episode, Steve shares the part of his story he rarely tells publicly — the collapse of a successful real estate business in the 1980s, federal fraud charges, and the prison sentence that followed.

For years, the weight of that chapter lingered quietly in the background of his life.

Then, decades later, God prompted him to do something unexpected.

Go back.

Together, Steve and Colleen returned to the federal prison camp where he served his sentence — not as an inmate this time, but as a man who had experienced redemption.

What happened there became a powerful moment of reclamation — a reconciling of past, present, and purpose.

This conversation explores:

How God redeems even the most painful chapters of our story

The difference between shame and redemption

Why consequences can become part of God’s restoration process

How wounds and failures can shape our calling

What it means to reclaim the life God originally intended

Reclamation isn’t about rewriting the past.

It’s about seeing how God was present in it all along.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Personal Background

02:16 The Journey of Reclamation and Writing the Book

04:12 Early Life, Success, and the Fall into Crime

07:21 Facing Charges and the Impact on Life

10:24 The Courtroom and Sentencing Experience

12:33 Returning to Prison and Reconciliation

15:54 Reflections on God's Mercy and Grace

18:39 Visiting Prison and Internal Reconciliation

22:37 The Internal Journey of Reclamation

26:17 Turning Point and Surrender to God

28:21 The Role of God's Word in Healing

29:37 God's Continuous Reclamation in Our Lives

What does it mean to reclaim the parts of yourself that trauma, shame, and pain taught you to hide?

In Part 1 of this two-part conversation on Reclamation, Steve and Colleen explore how Jesus restores what was lost through wounds, false beliefs, and spiritual fragmentation. Colleen shares deeply from her own story of abuse, abandonment, healing, and the reclaiming of the true self through Christ.

This is a conversation about more than pain from the past. It’s about the renewing work of God in the present—and the hope of restoration for the future.

Chapters:

00:00 Trauma, the true self, and the cost to our relationship with God
00:44 Welcome + introducing the Reclamation series (Embracing the Way)
01:59 War, current events, and the unseen reality of spiritual warfare
03:18 Defining reclamation: reclaiming what was lost in God, self, others, purpose
04:29 Reclaiming the Imago Dei + Joel 2:25 (“years the locusts have eaten”)
08:28 “Altar moments” + how healing unfolds over time
10:13 Fragmentation and “orphan parts” (IFS) through a Christ-centered lens
13:02 Colleen’s story: abuse, walls, and rejecting the vulnerable self
18:32 The “bitter root” memory + Jesus brings integration and healing
26:02 Why we don’t ignore the past: healing wounds without living stuck there