Fearless by Eric Blehm

wasn’t like we got out specific things from the closet that had been put away. It was a disaster. I was just sitting there in this place thinking,
What in the world is going on in Adam’s life that he could live here?
”
    Over the following four months, Ryan went out and found Adam a half-dozen times and took him back in. Adam continually suffered severe mood swings ranging from excitement about living and what he would do after conquering drugs to depression and a “Why bother?” attitude. Ryan talked with him for hours, sometimes through the night, and a recurring topic was the philosophical “problem of evil.”
    “Adam had a hard time wrapping his head and heart around it,” says Ryan. “How could a fair, just, and loving God allow so much evil and suffering in the world?” Thiswas a question Ryan had also struggled with, eventually arriving at the conclusion that there could be both evil and a loving God. While some use the existence of evil to discount the existence of God, he believed the opposite—that evil was an unfortunate but necessary element in God’s world.
    “That’s where faith comes into play,” Adam said to him, “and I’m having a hard time with that.” They would go in circles, with Ryan contending that you can have strong faith and still have questions.
    On August 12, 1996, Ryan called Janice and Larry after spending three days searching for Adam around Hot Springs. This time Adam had disappeared with David’s car and thousands of dollars’ worth of camping gear, stereo equipment, CDs, two checkbooks, and a Smith & Wesson .38 Special handgun that had belonged to the Whiteds’ grandfather. Janice and Larry agreed that Ryan and David should call the police. When they resisted, Janice told them that Adam needed to hit rock bottom. “That is the only way he’s going to come back up,” she said. “It’s either that, or he’s going to end up dead or somebody’s going to get hurt or killed.”
    Praying that they were doing the right thing, Ryan and David filed a formal complaint against Adam. One discussion Ryan had had with Adam brought him a measure of peace with the decision: they had talked about “how beautiful grace is and how God’s grace can redeem so much darkness and what was so ugly can be made beautiful,” says Ryan.
    Two days later, Janice and Larry received a phone call from a friend who had spotted Adam in David’s car at the same house on Morphew Road where Adam had been on New Year’s Eve. Immediately, Janice called the Garland County Sheriff’s Department and advised a deputy of the active warrant for Adam’s arrest, refusing to hang up until the officer agreed to send a car to his current location.
    “We’ll meet you there,” she told him. “We’re leaving right now.”
    The Browns parked down the street from the two-story house shortly after noon. Following the plan they’d formulated on the way over, Janice walked around the house to cover the back door while Larry knocked on the front door. A few seconds later the back door swung open and Adam nearly ran into Janice. “Don’t run, Adam,” she said, reaching for his wrist.
    When Larry came hustling around the side of the house, Janice was holdingAdam’s hand. “I got him,” she said as Larry put his hand on Adam’s shoulder. The two of them flanked their son as they walked to the front of the house and stood facing the street.
    “Adam,” said Larry, “there’s a warrant for your arrest. We’ve called the sheriff. It’s time for you to face what you’ve done.”
    Sadness washed over Adam’s face, and he squirmed some when a sheriff’s car pulled up and a deputy approached them, but his parents held him tight.
    “Adam Brown?” the deputy asked.
    “Yes sir,” was Adam’s subdued response.
    “Put your shirt on, son.”
    Adam pulled the sweaty, dirty shirt over his slouched shoulders. After being placed under arrest and handcuffed, he was led to the cruiser.
    When the deputy slammed