Show Notes: Amy Hawk — Author, Bible Teacher, and Truth-Teller

What happens when faithfulness to Jesus begins to put you at odds with the religious community that shaped you?

In this episode of Stories from Real Life, I sit down with Amy Hawk, an author, Bible teacher, and writer whose work explores the uncomfortable intersection of Christianity, politics, conscience, and spiritual courage. Amy spent roughly two decades serving in evangelical church life—teaching Bible classes, leading Bible studies, women’s ministry, prayer ministry, and adult discipleship—before a season of deep disillusionment forced her to reexamine what it means to follow Jesus when institutional religion becomes entangled with power.

Amy is the author of The Judas Effect: How Evangelicals Betrayed Jesus for Power, a deeply personal and Scripture-centered reflection on the American evangelical church, political allegiance, and the cost of choosing power over the way of Christ. The book is described as part Bible study and part personal faith journey, written out of Amy’s own crisis of faith as she wrestled with what she saw happening inside parts of the church after 2016.

She is also the author of Six Years in the Hanoi Hilton, the story of her father, U.S. Air Force pilot James Shively, who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967 and spent six years as a prisoner of war. That earlier book explored courage, survival, suffering, and hope under extreme circumstances—themes that also echo through Amy’s more recent work.

Our conversation moves beyond politics into something more personal and searching: What does Christian integrity require? How do people hold onto faith when the institutions around them disappoint them? And how can Scripture become not a weapon for winning arguments, but a guide back toward humility, compassion, truth, and courage?

In This Episode

Melvin and Amy discuss:

How Amy’s years in evangelical ministry shaped her faith and her writing.

Why she felt compelled to write The Judas Effect.

The difference between loyalty to Jesus and loyalty to a political movement.

What happens when speaking honestly costs you community.

How Scripture helped Amy process disillusionment.

The role of courage, repentance, humility, and compassion in the life of the church.

How her father’s POW story influenced her understanding of endurance and moral clarity.

Why some conversations are difficult precisely because they matter.

Irish singer, composer, storyteller, poet, teacher, and leadership guide Owen Ó Súilleabháin brings a rare blend of music, memory, spirituality, and cultural wisdom to the conversation. Raised in one of Ireland’s most respected artistic families, Owen inherited a deep relationship with song, story, poetry, and the ancient traditions of Ireland. His mother, Rev. Nóirín Ní Riain, Ph.D., is a renowned sacred singer, theologian, and spiritual director; his late father, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, was a celebrated composer, pianist, musicologist, and founder of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick.

Owen’s work lives at the intersection of art and human transformation. With a background in philosophy, Greek and Roman civilization, and Peace and Development Studies, he uses music, poetry, conversation, and Celtic spirituality to help people reconnect with creativity, presence, purpose, and the deeper currents of their own lives.

Owen has collaborated with and worked alongside major artistic figures including The Chieftains, Sinéad O’Connor, Steven Spielberg, Russell Crowe, Nigel Kennedy, David Whyte, and John O’Donohue. His current work includes leadership coaching, cultural journeys through Ireland, and creative communities rooted in Celtic spirituality, seasonal ritual, song, and story.

In this episode, Owen helps us explore what ancient songs can teach modern people about grief, belonging, listening, creativity, and the human longing to be fully alive.

Episode Summary

Nancy Deyo is a former Silicon Valley CEO, Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute Fellow, and author of the forthcoming memoir Perilous Ascent. After a medical crisis on Mount Kilimanjaro, Nancy entered a fifteen-year journey through misdiagnosis, chronic pain, opioid dependence, and identity collapse.

In this episode of Stories from Real Life, Nancy shares how the strategies that once defined her success—discipline, endurance, ambition, and pushing through—eventually had to be reexamined. Her story is not about a simple cure or a clean comeback. It is about learning to live differently when life no longer responds to effort in the same way.

This conversation explores chronic pain, medical uncertainty, high-performance culture, shame, adaptation, and the deeper meaning of resilience.

In This Episode, We Discuss

* The medical crisis Nancy experienced on Mount Kilimanjaro

* How chronic pain reshaped her identity and daily life

* The long road through misdiagnosis and medical uncertainty

* Opioid dependence in the context of chronic pain

* The emotional cost of high-performance culture

* Why “pushing through” can sometimes become harmful

* Attending graduate school while unable to sit

* Rebuilding a meaningful life without pretending everything is fixed

* Her forthcoming memoir, Perilous Ascent

* A more honest definition of resilience

Memorable Themes

One of the most powerful ideas in this conversation is that resilience does not always mean pushing harder. Sometimes resilience means recognizing limits, grieving the life that changed, and adapting with honesty rather than force.

Nancy’s story will resonate with anyone living with chronic illness, navigating burnout, facing medical uncertainty, caregiving for someone in pain, or rebuilding after a major life disruption.

About Nancy Deyo

Nancy Deyo is a former Silicon Valley CEO and Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute Fellow. Her forthcoming memoir, Perilous Ascent, reflects on a fifteen-year journey through chronic pain, misdiagnosis, opioid dependence, and personal transformation after a medical crisis on Mount Kilimanjaro.

Through her writing and speaking, Nancy offers a candid look at what it means to live inside pain, question old definitions of strength, and find a new way forward.

Connect with Nancy

Read Nancy’s Substack: Life Inside Pain with Nancy Deyo

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