If you’ve recently joined us through my novel, The Permission, welcome. Over the past few months, several hundred new readers have become part of this growing community, and I’m grateful you’re here.

Every second and fourth Wednesday, I offer a brief reflection about faith, life, writing, and the ideas that live beneath the stories we read. If you’ve begun The Permission, you’ve already encountered one of the questions that has fascinated me for years:  Why does evil exist?

The question is ancient. It appears in the story of Job, where a good man endures unimaginable loss after God permits Satan to test his faith. It’s a difficult story. One that has challenged believers and skeptics alike for centuries.

The Permission doesn’t attempt to answer that question fully. Few stories can. Instead, it explores what happens when ordinary people find themselves caught in a conflict far larger than themselves—a conflict between fear and faith, darkness and light, despair and hope.

That question—and others like it—form part of the deeper current beneath the new Cain Family Chronicles series. As the series unfolds, we’ll continue to explore themes of permission, protection, courage, sacrifice, truth, and the surprising ways God works through flawed and ordinary people.

Here in Wednesdays with Ward, you’ll occasionally find behind-the-story reflections, thoughts on faith and culture, glimpses into upcoming writing projects, and conversations about the ideas that inspire the novels.

Mostly, though, this is simply a place for reflection. A place to slow down for a few minutes in a noisy world.

Thank you for reading The Permission.

Thank you for joining me.

And thank you for allowing me a small place in your inbox every second and fourth Wednesday.

I’m glad you’re here.

— Ward

Find out what happens to Jessica in the next book of The Cain Family Chronicles – Asset Delta. Available now on Amazon.

The Kilçilar Letters, will be available in late July on Amazon.