03/08/2026
W.A.R.R. - Wrestling Authentically thru Religious Residue is a section of Rooted & Risen Within (currently h on Substack) for people who care deeply about living a life of Truth, Love & Freedom and are in a season of questioning and examining their faith walk with honesty and depth.
I’ve spent about 20 years of my faith walk within Christianity and about 15 years within the Hebrew community, including Hebrew Israelite and Hebrew Roots spaces. These have been sincere, committed years where I have grown in understanding, truth, relationships and in leadership as a teacher and prophetic voice. I have had many beautiful, life-changing experiences.
But I also have been able to observe dynamics that were not so beautiful. Dynamics that were dysfunctional and often unintentionally destructive.
I witnessed a tension between the fruit of love, freedom, humility, and transformation that life in Christ points toward, and the anger, fear, unhealed trauma, self-righteousness, control, and spiritual pride that often surfaced within large portions of the faith community.
Not everywhere. Not everyone.
But enough for it to be deeply concerning, and eventually - unacceptable.
It forced me to be honest about how that fruit was affecting me.
Eventually, my wrestling went even deeper than those religious containers.
I found myself disillusioned not only with systems, but with my relationship with the Most High. I experienced disappointment, silence, unmet expectations, and confusion. I reached a point where I had to ask whether I was encountering the True God, who I have known as YHWH (Yahuah or Yahweh) or only the limits of how I had been taught to understand God through inherited frameworks and narrow interpretations of the biblical narrative.
That season was deeply painful.
I questioned the faith.
I questioned Scripture.
I questioned the concept of God.
Not from rebellion, but in an honest wrestling for understanding and freedom.
What I eventually realized was this: much of what pushed me to that breaking point wasn’t necessarily God, but the religious mindsets, rigidity, and unexamined assumptions about God that affected how truth, relationship, and freedom could be understood or lived.
That realization saved me and changed how I walk.
This space exists for people who find themselves in those places of wrestling for freedom and truth.
W.A.R.R. — Wrestling Authentically thru Religious Residue is a space for honest deconstruction and reconstruction toward a healthier faith.
We’re not here to bash Christianity or the Hebrew faith, or to swap one religious system for another. We’re here to evaluate fruit honestly, identify religious residue, and renew the mind where fear, control, and rigidity still live.
My aim is to grow forward beyond rigid interpretations and inherited limitations into the truth that restores clarity, freedom, and wholeness. Into deeper love, deeper oneness with our Creator, ourselves, and each other.
I won’t tell you what to believe. I won’t force doctrinal conclusions. And I won’t debate. My role is to help us think better, see better, and live better, even when faith is hard.
At the heart of it all is one conviction: The Creator is beyond religion. Beyond denominations, labels, and theological categories. Source is Love and Truth, and Source is leading us toward freedom and wholeness, not deeper bo***ge to systems.
Here you’ll find candid moments from my journey, early previews of future writings, and honest engagement with relevant topics. Most written posts are absolve to free subscribers. Audio, video, live Q&As, and deeper community conversation will live in the paid subscriber space where we can explore nuance honestly and safely.
If you’re questioning religion but still desire to connect with the Creator (or even if you have doubts about that) you’re welcome here!
Rooted in truth.
Risen in love.
Free within.
~Yarah Arukah Shalom
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