UNMASKED with Wesley Farnsworth

Ryan T. Reichert spent 23 years in the U.S. Army, served more than three years in combat, became a lieutenant colonel, and transitioned into a successful corporate career. From the outside, he looked strong. Ryan describes what was happening inside very differently: “Captain America on the outside and a burning village on the inside.” Behind the leadership, discipline, career success, and appearan...

Have you ever prayed for something so long that you started wondering if you were wasting your time? Maybe you're waiting for healing, direction, restoration, freedom, an opportunity, or a breakthrough. You've prayed. You've trusted. You've kept showing up. And still...nothing seems to change. Days become weeks. Weeks become months. Sometimes months become years. Eventually, the qu...

For 22 years, Dr. Laurette Willis was immersed in New Age spirituality. She says it began when she was seven after she and her mother were introduced to yoga. Over the years, Laurette became increasingly involved in New Age practices and eventually describes herself as having been an instructor, psychic, and channel. But underneath her spiritual search was another story. Emotional eating began aro...

Have you ever prayed for something good—something that made sense, something you genuinely believed would help you—and God still didn't give it to you? Maybe the answer wasn't no. Maybe it was not yet . And sometimes, “not yet” is harder than no because it requires us to keep trusting God without knowing how the story will turn out. In Episode 91 of UNMASKED with Wesley Farnsworth , Wesley...

Oluwole “Wole” Babatunde lost his mother when he was 7 years old. At 13, he lost his father. As the oldest of three boys, Wole suddenly found himself navigating adolescence without either parent. Home had changed. Holidays became difficult. Even basic needs such as school fees and sometimes food became things he had to trust God to provide. But somewhere in the middle of that adversity, Wole made...

Some moments divide your life into before and after . This summer, while driving home from a Celebrate Recovery conference, I found myself in the middle of a five-vehicle accident. My car was totaled. I was hurting. I was about five hours from home. And almost everything that happened next was outside of my control. Underneath all the practical questions was a much bigger one: God, where are You i...

Content Warning: This episode contains explicit language and candid discussion of pornography, sexual addiction, affairs, mental health struggles, and suicidal thoughts. Listener discretion is advised. What happens when you know what you believe about God, but your life doesn't seem to reflect it? Jason Lyle spent 13 years as a pastor. He studied theology, preached Scripture, taught internatio...

We want change now. We want the addiction gone, the anxiety quieted, the relationship repaired, the grief healed, the habit broken, and the prayer answered. And when transformation takes longer than we expected, it's easy to wonder whether something is wrong with us—or whether God is doing anything at all. In Episode 87 of UNMASKED with Wesley Farnsworth , Wesley explores why lasting change ra...

Laura Bratton began losing her sight as a teenager. By the time she graduated high school, she had no usable vision beyond light perception—and the future she had imagined for herself was gone. What followed wasn't a simple story of overcoming adversity. Laura experienced grief, panic attacks, depression, questions about her identity, and the difficult work of learning how to move forward with...

Why do we keep returning to things we already know can hurt us? In this episode of UNMASKED with Wesley Farnsworth , Wesley explores “The Red Button Effect” —the strange pull something can gain the moment it becomes forbidden, and why destructive patterns are often less about the behavior itself than the relief, escape, comfort, control, approval, or connection we believe it will provide. The red...

After more than 25 years in vocational ministry, Dustin Kleinschmidt stepped away expecting relief. Instead, the silence exposed something he hadn't fully recognized: ministry wasn't simply what he did—it had become tied to his identity, significance, and belief that he mattered. What followed was a season of anxiety, depression, difficult questions about God, and the slow work of learning...

A lot of men didn't stop feeling emotions. They learned how to hide them. “Stop crying.” “Man up.” “Shake it off.” Those messages can teach boys that strength means appearing unaffected, but suppressing emotion doesn't make it disappear. Eventually, what gets buried can surface as anger, isolation, shame, addiction, numbness, distraction, or difficulty connecting with the people around us....

After nearly 11 years in prison, Khalees White walked back into a world that had moved on without her. She had no traditional work history, had to relearn how to navigate everyday life, and faced people who still expected her to be the person she had been before incarceration. Rebuilding required more than getting out of prison. She had to decide who she was going to become. In Episode 82 of UNMAS...

Who are you when everything else falls away? When the title disappears, the applause stops, the pain loses its grip, recovery is no longer the center of your story, and nobody needs anything from you— who are you then? In the fifth and final episode of the Who Am I Really? series on UNMASKED , Wesley Farnsworth brings together the four identities explored throughout the series—trauma, performance,...

Rand Timmerman spent decades proving he could handle whatever life put in front of him. He survived combat in Vietnam, built a successful 40-plus-year legal career, raised a family, and prided himself on strength and endurance. But behind the success, alcohol had become something he couldn't defeat through determination alone. His turning point came at 7 a.m. on a stranger's doorstep, wait...

Who are you when every label falls away? Not your job, your title, your achievements, your pain, or even your recovery—who are you underneath all of it? In Episode 79 of UNMASKED , Wesley Farnsworth continues the Who Am I Really? series by exploring calling identity and why discovering your calling begins with understanding who God created you to be. Calling isn't simply a job, ministry position,...

What happens when a desire to improve yourself slowly becomes a pursuit of validation? After becoming an empty nester and suffering a mild heart attack, Mark Osborne committed to changing his life. What began as a journey toward better health soon became an unhealthy pursuit of attention, recognition, and ego—bringing him dangerously close to losing his marriage. In Episode 78 of UNMASKED , Wesley...

Recovery changes people. Healing changes people. Freedom changes people. But what happens when recovery itself becomes your identity? In Episode 77 of UNMASKED , Wesley Farnsworth continues the Who Am I Really? series by exploring recovery identity —the subtle temptation to define ourselves by what we've survived instead of who God is calling us to become. Recovery is one of God's greatest...

Content Advisory: This episode includes thoughtful discussion of childhood sexual abuse, trauma, pornography, shame, and emotional healing. While no graphic language or explicit descriptions are used, these topics may be sensitive for some listeners. Some wounds don't end when childhood does. They quietly shape how we see ourselves, how we build relationships, and whether we believe we're...

What happens when your title changes? When the work slows down? When the kids move out, the ministry role ends, or no one needs you for a while? Who are you when you stop producing? In Episode 75 of UNMASKED , Wesley Farnsworth continues the Who Am I Really? series by exploring performance identity —the subtle belief that our worth is determined by what we accomplish. While performance often looks...

Some wounds don't leave visible scars. They quietly shape how we see ourselves, how we relate to God, and whether we believe healing is still possible. In this episode of UNMASKED , Wesley Farnsworth sits down with Dr. Larry Brant —combat veteran, Navy chaplain, counselor, and author—to explore the often-overlooked topic of moral injury . While PTSD is widely recognized, moral injury reaches e...

Trauma doesn't just affect what happened to you. It can quietly reshape who you believe you are. In Episode 73 of UNMASKED , Wesley Farnsworth begins a brand-new five-part series called Who Am I Really? by exploring one of the most overlooked effects of trauma: identity. This episode looks at how pain, rejection, abandonment, criticism, and survival can become internal labels that follow us fo...

What happens when the person everyone looks to for answers is quietly falling apart? In Episode 72 of UNMASKED with Wesley Farnsworth , Steve Rotermond shares the deeply personal story of serving as a pastor while battling shame, codependency, and the emotional toll of walking through a loved one's addiction. Instead of offering easy answers, Steve opens up about childhood wounds, misplaced id...

Some prayers aren't answered the way we expect. Some pain stays longer than we hoped. In this episode, Wesley Farnsworth explores one of the hardest realities of faith: trusting God when the breakthrough hasn't come. If you've ever wondered whether God hears your prayers or questioned why your circumstances haven't changed, this conversation offers honest encouragement without easy clichés. You'll...

Why do so many people keep repeating the same destructive patterns—even when they desperately want to change? In Episode 70 of UNMASKED , Wesley Farnsworth welcomes author, speaker, and behavioral habits specialist Rose Ann Forte for a conversation that blends biblical truth with neuroscience. Together they explore how lasting transformation happens, why willpower alone isn't enough, and how G...