Threads of Redemption: Stories of Empathy and Resilience from Ken Abraham & Susan Binkley

Ken Abraham: Bad stuff can happen to anybody, we all go through some bad times. We all make mistakes. But one of the best things that has helped me in my prayer life is to look at that person: Okay, I don’t know why they made that decision. Actually, I don’t even know what to do about that situation. But Lord, I want to care about that person. I want to love that person. I want to be there for that person.
Threads of Redemption: Stories of Empathy and Resilience from Ken Abraham & Susan Binkley – Episode #445
Narrator: Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. This week, we’re joined by Ken Abraham, a master storyteller known for his ability to capture the hearts and stories of some of the world’s most notable figures, including Buzz Aldrin, Chuck Norris, Stephen Curtis Chapman, Payne Stewart, and many others. His latest book, No Address, highlights a deep empathy and commitment to honor the stories of those dealing with homelessness, and reminds us of the power of understanding in every person’s story—whether they are in the spotlight of fame, or in the streets of our cities.
Next, we’ll hear from Susan Binkley, the founder and president of Blue Monarch, a long-term residential recovery program. For nearly two decades, Susan has dedicated her life to helping women and their children break cycles of addiction, abuse, and trauma. Susan shares her remarkable journey from an unexpected dream that guided her steps to the profound impact her organization has had on many lives.
Let’s begin with Ken’s story.
Ken Abraham: My name is Ken Abraham, and I am known professionally as a collaborator. In the old days, they used to call us ghostwriters. I’ve been privileged to work on more than 108 books. I collaborate with high profile newsmakers and celebrities, and I’ve worked with all sorts of people, such as Buzz Aldrin, who walked on the moon, Neil Clark Warren, who started a little company called eHarmony, Chuck Norris, Bob Dole, and Bill Gaither, not only get into their mind, but into their heart and try to get their heart on paper. And I’ve been doing that for a long, long time.
Writing the Stories of Those Who Have Changed the World
I started out by writing my own books years ago, and I wrote about nine or ten books under my own name. And then I discovered that I really enjoyed telling other people’s stories even more than my own. So that’s where I began writing. I’ve been really privileged. God has given me the opportunity to work with some people who have touched the world. A lot of folks don’t know my name and that’s okay. I get a chance to work with people who have a worldwide audience many times, and I get to help them put their message into paper and into books.
I’ll spend maybe six months, sometimes even as much as a year with that person. And you get to know a person pretty well when you work together that long. And for me and for what I do, you’ve got to be a little bit of a friend. You’ve got to be a little bit of a pastor. You have to be a little bit of a counselor, sometimes a little bit of a psychologist, and sometimes a bit of a psychiatrist.
I’ve gotten to work with a lot of people whose stories are really difficult to tell. For example, I worked with Lisa Beamer, whose husband was Todd Beamer on Flight 93 on 9/11. Lisa didn’t want to write a book. She didn’t want to be a nationally known figure, but she knew that the world was interested in that story. There were people that wanted to know that story. What was that like? And so getting together with her right after 9/11, you almost feel like you’re taking a knife over wounds that have not even yet had a chance to congeal. And that’s what I was doing with Lisa right after right after 9/11. And we wrote this book called Let’s Roll.
And I’ve done that with some other people as well, like Payne Stewart’s wife, Tracey Stewart. Payne Stewart was an incredible golfer and they had a plane crash in North Dakota. A jet dropped out of the sky from about 40,000 feet at about 600 miles an hour. It was just totally obliterated. And it was my job to sit with Tracey and to tell the story of Payne Stewart, but also to tell the story of what Christ had done in their lives in the last couple of years in their marriage and in their family. So what I have discovered when it comes to empathy is you’ve got to keep yourself out of the way.
Most of the people I work with, a lot of their story is already known. Randy Travis was another story that needed a great deal of empathy, because when Randy and I were working together, Randy had suffered a stroke and he couldn’t talk. And I literally had to go and find the story and bring it back to him and share details of Randy’s life with him to make sure that they were correct. But God is still using him to have an influence.
No Address: A Novel About Homelessness
No Address is a book I never thought I would do, to be honest about it. It is a book about homelessness. There were some people that were doing a documentary and they came through Nashville and they said, “Would you just meet with us? Let us tell you what we want to do with this project and see if you’re interested.” They were traveling across the country and doing a bus tour, visiting homelessness camps, places where drug addiction and alcohol and lots of other pretty nasty things are going on.
The idea of No Address is that people who are homeless don’t have an address. They can’t get a driver’s license. You know, I live in Nashville, Tennessee, and we have homeless folks here on our streets, just like most major cities do around the country. And I’ll drive by sometimes and I’ll say, “Somebody ought to do something about this. This is not right. Somebody ought to do something about this.” And it was almost like the Lord spoke to me saying, “Ken, you be somebody.”
What can I do? I can’t throw millions of dollars at this problem, and that probably wouldn’t solve it anyhow. But I’m a writer, and so I wanted to write a story that would raise awareness of what the people who are on the streets are dealing with.
About 70% of the people who are living in homeless situations in America today are suffering some sort of mental illness. And it may be because of drugs, it may be because of alcohol addiction or some other sort of addiction, or it may be a broken relationship, divorce, or bankruptcy or some other kind of thing, where their family is so at odds with each other that they wind up on the street. And I think that’s where the church and we as Christians really have an answer that is such a real benefit to people not only living in homeless situations, but to our whole society. We can help people find hope.
“The church and we as Christians really have an answer that is such a benefit to people not only living in homeless situations, but to our whole society. We can help people find hope.” – Ken Abraham
The True Definition of Empathy
The true definition of empathy, to me, is a little different than what we usually hear. We usually hear empathy is walking a mile in another person’s shoes, that sort of thing. But for me it’s taking yourself out of the picture. It’s that coming to a place where I’m not worried about what I think or what I want, it’s how can I help this person be the best that God wants them to be?
I literally sometimes work with people for a year at a time and spend a lot of time with them in their homes, on the road, in their offices and airplanes and every place else. So being with them and learning what really touches their lives, what causes them to respond positively or negatively—but more than that, it’s keeping myself out of the way. I’ll talk to young writers sometimes and they say, “How can I do what you want to do?” I said, “Well, all you have to do is die to yourself.” Just like the Apostle Paul said, “I’ve been crucified with Christ and the life I live now. I live by faith and the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. [Galatians 2:20]” That’s all you have to do, really. And they’ll smile and they’ll sometimes say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.” But it’s the truth. Empathy has a lot more [to do with] keeping myself out of the way so that I’m available to be whatever the Lord needs me to be for that other person, and helping them to accomplish whatever He wants to do in and through their lives.
I think prayer looks a lot different when we allow it to be covered with empathy. For one thing, we lose that sense of self-righteousness. I’ve been a Christian ever since I was about seventeen or eighteen years of age, so I’ve learned a few things along the way. I feel like I’m still in kindergarten with God, but one of the things I’ve learned is that bad stuff can happen to anybody and we all go through some bad times. We all make mistakes. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God [Romans 3:23]. You know, if God wanted to cast me out, He could have. He could have pitched me out of the Kingdom of God a long time ago. I’ve given Him a lot of reasons to do that.
But one of the best things that has helped me in my prayer life is to look at that person and say, “Okay, I don’t know why they made that decision. Actually, I don’t even know what to do about that situation. But Lord, I want to care about that person. I want to love that person. I want to be there for that person. I don’t need to try to give them the answers.” Sometimes that’s our first inclination, saying, “Well, here’s what the Scripture says, here’s what you need to do.” Sometimes that’s important to offer to somebody, and we know that. But a lot of times we’re dealing with people that they know what the Scripture says and they know that they’re messing up. They know that they’ve allowed themselves to get into a mess. They don’t need somebody to preach to them. They just need somebody to care, somebody to love them. And for me, that changes my whole prayer language, the emphasis on my prayer time about that person or that situation. Because now I’m not trying to give them the solution. I’m just saying, “God, this is a person made in your image. They have your imprint all over them. They have dignity. They have worth. They have value. God, how can I be a person who can encourage them and help them up rather than pouring more condemnation on them?” Empathy makes an incredible difference in our prayer lives.
“Empathy makes an incredible difference in our prayer lives.” – Ken Abraham
I’ve known Jesus Calling for years and years. Devotionals like that have impacted my life more than any others. Just these little, little snippets of information about the Bible, about our walk with God, how we can do better, how we can look to Him for our answers… these devotional insights that Sarah Young has put together in the Jesus Calling stories, they just build our faith and encourage us to take that step that we want to take today.
Jesus Listens, July 21st:
My living Lord,
I know I’ll continue to make mistakes in this life—because I’m only human. You’ve shown me that thinking I should live an error-free life is a symptom of pride.
My failures can actually be a source of blessing—humbling me and giving me empathy for other people in their weaknesses. Also, failure vividly highlights my dependence on You.
I’m grateful that You are able to bring beauty out of the morass of my mistakes. My part is to trust You and watch to see what You will do.
In Your marvelous Name, Jesus,
Amen
Narrator: To learn more about Ken Abraham, be sure to check out his new book, No Address, at your favorite retailer. And be sure to check out the No Address movie, releasing February 28th.
Jesus Listens

If your days feel overwhelming, or life has you anxious and stressed, you can find peace and hope with Jesus Listens. Written by bestselling author Sarah Young, Jesus Listens contains 365 heartfelt prayers based on scripture. Whether it serves as your only prayer for the day or simply to jumpstart your own prayers, Jesus Listens empowers you to connect daily with God. It’s such a blessing to know that Jesus hears every one of our prayers.
Gift Jesus Listens to anyone struggling to feel God’s presence, or use it to establish your own consistent prayer practice. Let Sarah’s words and her Bible verse references enrich your life and your relationship with God. To learn

Our next guest is Susan Binkley, the founder of Blue Monarch, a residential recovery program that seeks to help mothers who are struggling with addiction to find healing and to restore their lives. Susan shares about the powerful dream that led her to a very unlikely reality, and how she gets to be a part of seeing God work in powerful ways that change the course of people’s lives.
Susan Binkley: My name is Susan Binkley. I’m the founder and president of Blue Monarch, which is a long-term residential recovery program for women and their children. And we’re located on a really beautiful 100-acre farm in middle Tennessee, but we serve families outside of Tennessee as well.
An Unlikely Dream to a Remarkable Reality
In 1995, I had this incredible, really powerful dream. In this dream, I was required to sit at a really large table and a thick book was placed in front of me. And I was required to read that book from cover to cover. And I remember even thinking, Oh, this looks like a lot of work. But I knew in the moment, even in the dream, that it was important. So I read the book from cover to cover and the book described in great detail how you would put something like Blue Monarch together. It described how you would help women recover from abuse and addiction and help women and children just kind of recover from trauma and all kinds of life circumstances. And it even described how the women would be employed by producing a product.

And so when I woke up the next morning, I made jokes about how I had clearly intercepted someone else’s dream because it had nothing to do with my life. I was an artist at the time, I’d sold my work at a gallery in Nashville for a number of years. And I ran a horse farm. I just really thought it was for someone else.
Then a couple of years later, my husband and my daughter and I moved to where we live now. And it was pretty remarkable because when we drove through a small town right outside of where we purchased some property, I saw a high school building. And I remembered seeing that building in my dream.
I just really didn’t know what to make of it. But six months later, the high school moved to a brand new building which left that one vacant. So that’s when I started getting kind of nervous. I thought, Oh, geez, what could that mean? And so at that point, I started calling people all over the country to tell them about my dream and that they could do it in that building right there. And no one cared anything about it.
When You Don’t Sign Up to Be a Missionary
I grew up in the church and even as a child, I made a decision that I was going to avoid making eye contact with God. And I thought it was a pretty good plan because I thought, Well, if I do the right things, I can still find myself in heaven one day. But I’m going to avoid making eye contact because once God notices you, He’ll send you to Africa as a missionary. And I just thought, I do not want to do that. And so I had made up my mind that serving God was not on my list.
“I had made up my mind that serving God was not on my list.” – Susan Binkley
There was a specific day when I realized that God was asking me to do exactly what was in my dream. And I just thought, You have to be making a mistake. Honestly, I was convinced that He had gone down the line of a whole lot of names and a lot of people had turned Him down. And that was a bad sign. If He finally got around to me, that was not going to be good. And I just could not imagine that He was asking me to do the plan that was in my dream.
I was completely overwhelmed. And so I spent three days in what I would describe as the belly of the fish, because I literally cried about it for three days. I thought, Lord, please, I don’t know anything about this. Surely, surely you’re not asking me to do this. And it was something that my seventeen year old daughter said to me at the time that was a real game changer. Because she said, “Mommy, you can say no, and God won’t love you any less than if you say yes.” And honestly, when she said that, I just thought, How could I say no to a God like that?
I did not have any experience in recovery or addiction. And I think that because of that, God was able to just start with a completely blank slate. And I didn’t go into this with any preconceived notions about what recovery should look like.
Blue Monarch Finds a Home
Because the high school building was in my dream, I was convinced that it must be where it’s supposed to be located. So I started going to city council meetings for four months, thinking that they would love my idea and want to serve the community by putting something like that there. And they would say, “Why would we want to put those women and children in there when something better might come along?” And it broke my heart because I thought, How could anything better come along? I mean, what in the world would that be?
In the meantime, I had opened up a bakery and a coffee shop nearby. And so I went across the street to get the mail for my business. And in the post office box was a card. And I noticed right away that it had come all the way from California. When I opened it up, it said, “You don’t know me, but my daughter is a student near your business and she told me what you’re trying to do. I want you to use this money in any way you can to get started.” And she had put $1,000 cash in that card. In that moment, I thought, Good grief, maybe this really does have a life of its own. Maybe I shouldn’t give up. If I can’t have the high school building, maybe I just need to have an open mind and look for something else.
I eventually found this incredible bed and breakfast. And it was on fifty acres and it was in the middle of the country. It was an incredible piece of property. The people who owned it were moving out of the country, so they wanted to sell it completely furnished. It had all the beds and the linens and the pots and pans. I mean, it had everything that we could possibly want or need. So I sat down with the owners and I said, “Okay, I need to be honest with you and tell you what I have in mind.” And so I told them the whole story about the dream and the woman got really tearful. And she said, “We always knew that God asked us to build this place for someone else to use one day. We’re just glad that you finally showed up.”
The property was a million dollars. I thought, What in the world do I do about that? I didn’t have anyone really backing me. And so that’s where that building in my dream actually played a big part, because when I was looking at that building, I met this really generous man from Atlanta. And so I ended up telling him and his wife my story of what I was trying to do. And even though I was basically just a perfect stranger with nothing but a big old ambitious plan on paper, they offered to borrow the million dollars themselves and just have us make the note payments. And so that’s what we did, and that’s how we were able to get started in 2003. Since then, we have served almost a thousand women and children.
The Women and Children of Blue Monarch

When I think back on the very beginning of Blue Monarch, when I really had no idea what I was getting into, the very first woman that came here ended up being our first graduate, and I remember her saying to me, “If I had not come to Blue Monarch, I think I would be dead by now.” Since then, seeing all the hundreds of women and their children that we have served, I believe that is so true for hundreds of them. I realized finally that we were literally in the business of saving lives.
“I realized finally that we were literally in the business of saving lives.” – Susan Binkley
The typical woman who comes to us is someone who has struggled with abuse and addiction. A lot of what we see is generational abuse and addiction. In fact, a lot of the women we serve were taught to use drugs by a parent or grandparent, usually between the ages of eleven and thirteen. A lot of them have ended up in jail because of their drug use and addiction. When that happens, a lot of times they lose custody of their children. And so a big part of what we do is help women who are in that situation become healthier parents and get reunited with their children. And so at this point, over 360 children have been reunited with their mothers who had lost custody.
I finally realized that if we didn’t help women learn how to parent their children sober, which is sometimes for the very first time, then that was the biggest trigger for relapse. A lot of the children that we serve, they have higher than average behavioral issues because of everything that they’ve been through. I mean, they have every right to be angry. So not only do you have a single mom, but she has a child that’s really difficult to manage. She’s never parented without using drugs as a way to cope with the stress. She probably grew up in a home where she never observed healthy parenting. So how in the world do we expect that mom to stay clean?
When we realized what a huge piece of the recovery journey that was for the moms that we serve, then we really started focusing more on how to teach them to parent in a healthy way. We really started focusing more on our children and developed a really rich children’s program to focus on their recovery as much as we do the moms. And so that’s one of the things that kind of sets us apart in the recovery community.
When we finally see the mom and child settle into their appropriate roles, it’s so obvious because then we’ll see that child jump off the school bus and go climb a tree or play with a ball or run out in the field or do things that are more like play for a child, instead of coming into my office and being worried about a drippy faucet. So it’s an incredible shift to watch happen.

We have an onsite business where we make granola, and it provides an income for the women who are in our program, and then it also teaches them really valuable job skills because the women in the program completely run that entire business. It helps them build a healthy resume because so many of the women that we serve have felony charges and it’s difficult to get a job, so we’re able to vouch for them that they’re a solid employee and that you really should invest in that employee. It’s a great product, but my word, it’s got so many other hidden blessings packed into that bag.
Flying Solo From the Grip of Addiction
Probably one of my favorite stories is about Lauren. She had been in fifteen years of addiction. And I will never forget her sitting in my office, just a complete mess. She was a puddle of mess. She really worked on her relationship with her children. She just really was a rock star in our program.
And one of the things that I do is teach work ethics, which is a ten-week course that I put together, and they take it right before they graduate. That’s where we really try to figure out what you have a passion for so you’re not just walking out and just getting some job that you’re going to be bored with and then you’ll be tempted to use drugs again.
She was sitting outside my office one day before class, and she said, “I’m just so concerned. I can’t think of what I want to do.” I started thinking, You know, for someone like that, she needs something that’s going to be so exciting to keep her engaged. And I started thinking about the world of aviation. I had a pilot friend come and meet with her, and she finally said, “You know what? I think I want to be a pilot.”
The pilot that came to meet with her was so taken by her story that he offered to pay for her to get her license and let her use his private plane to do it. She worked so hard. Of course, she had to jump through a million extra hoops to prove that her history of addiction would not stand in the way of her being a good pilot. And she conquered that. And she’s now a pilot, but she’s also our case manager at Blue Monarch.
I think one of the highlights of my life was the first time that she flew over the Blue Monarch property solo, and I went running out there and could see her flying over this property. And every woman and child here ran out into the yard, and you could see on their faces how inspired and motivated they were that someone just like them had been able to not only overcome addiction, but also do something as spectacular as becoming a pilot. And so now she’s also on our staff, and she not only inspires the women who come here and their children, but she’s a reminder to everyone on our staff as to why we do what we do and why we’re here.
God’s Paying Attention to the Details of Our Lives
Looking back, it was really pretty incredible how God pieced this whole journey together like a big puzzle. And now that I’ve been doing this for almost twenty-two years, I can look back and see how every single piece played an important part. I feel like I have a front row seat at the greatest show on earth, and I get to see God work in powerful ways that literally take my breath away.
“Looking back, it was really pretty incredible how God pieced this whole journey together like a big puzzle. And now that I’ve been doing this for almost twenty-two years, I can look back and see how every single piece played an important part. I feel like I have a front row seat at the greatest show on earth, and I get to see God work in powerful ways that literally take my breath away.” – Susan Binkley
I love Jesus Calling, and one of the things that I have noticed here at Blue Monarch is that it has played a real important role in the spiritual lives of the women that we serve. It’s not unusual to see those books sitting around all over the place, but it’s even more exciting to see them completely worn out. I feel like it puts God’s Word into people’s hands in a way that they may otherwise never find it.
Once you are willing to take the step and develop that personal relationship with Him, the blessings will be so unexpected that you’ll get to know Him so much better because you’ll realize that He’s paying attention and that He’s absolutely in the details.

Narrator: To learn more about Susan’s organization, please visit www.bluemonarch.com, and be sure to check out her book, From My Front Row Seat: A Collection of Stories from My Time Working Alongside Women in Recovery.
If you’d like to hear more stories about living from a place of empathy, check out our blog post by Lauren Casper at www.jesuscalling.com.
Next week: NFL Chaplains

Next time on the Jesus Calling Podcast, we’ll hear from the NFL chaplains for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. The pair share how they’ve helped navigate their players through the highs and lows of a notoriously tough industry, and how faith has helped forge a brotherhood that never wavers in the face of wins or losses.
Johnny: We’re coming from a place of victory. And so how we live our life when it comes to winning and losing, it’s not about chasing it. It’s about the substance, the identity, our victory should be in Jesus Christ.