The Story

My faith journey didn’t start in the hospital. Faith got everyone else through the hardest time in my life except me…or so it seemed at the time.

At the end of November 2023, while visiting family in Arizona, I ended up in the hospital due to septic shock from a burst appendix. What was supposed to be a visit turned into months in the hospital. I spent Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s there before finally being able to return home to Minnesota mid February 2024.

I was angry. Bitter. Overwhelmed.

I was focused on everything I had lost during that time — being away from home, away from my dogs, away from normal life. I wasn’t even thinking about how lucky I was to still be here.

Even though I constantly heard how much God had a hand in everything, I struggled to accept it. My wife pushed me to start going to church, which is really what got me through the doors in the first place, but I still didn’t take it seriously for a while. Everyone around me seemed like they already had everything figured out, and I felt like there wasn’t really a place for someone brand new trying to figure it all out.

So I stayed in the mindset I had always known:
“I’ll figure it out myself.”

But eventually I realized I couldn’t do it alone anymore.

The anger and bitterness had been consuming me, and at some point I had to decide whether I was going to keep feeling sorry for myself or actually take a step forward in my faith journey.

One day, while walking my dog while my wife was pregnant with our daughter, I finally admitted it. I told God I couldn’t do it alone anymore. There had been too many moments, too many people, and too many things that happened for me to believe He didn’t have a hand in it all.

That’s when I truly realized something:
God puts people in our lives to help us through trials because we were never meant to go through them alone.

Before my daughter was born, I started taking my faith more seriously and my friend Jimmy sent me Proverbs 27:17:

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

That verse instantly stuck with me because it made me realize I had never been doing this alone at all.

That’s what inspired this shirt.

Originally, I made these shirts for the people who helped carry me through the hardest season of my life. The people who showed up, checked in, prayed for me, helped my family, watched our dogs, sat in hospital rooms, and reminded me I wasn’t fighting alone.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized this message isn’t just about my story.

We all have people God places in our lives to help sharpen us, support us, and walk alongside us through difficult seasons. That’s why I wanted to make these available to others too. My hope is that when someone wears this shirt, it reminds them of the people who helped strengthen their faith journey as well — and encourages them to be that person for someone else.

To me, “Not Done Yet” is a reminder that God isn’t finished with any of us.

The unfinished tree in the design represents our faith journeys. It’s never going to be finished. We’re constantly growing, sharpening each other, and working at it every single day. The roots symbolize strength in faith — something grounded and immovable.

This shirt is a reminder that faith isn’t meant to be lived out alone. Community matters. Accountability matters. Helping each other matters.

It’s funny — we live in a time where it’s easier to connect and communicate than ever before, but sometimes we still feel farther apart because of the convenience of it all.

My hope is that this shirt reminds people to lean into community, stay rooted in faith, and help keep each other sharp.

None of us are finished yet.