John R. Claypool was a pastor, preacher, author, and theologian. He was initially ordained as a Southern Baptist and pastored for thirty years in that denomination. He became an Episcopal priest in 1986 and served as rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama, until his retirement in 2000. Though he died in 2005, his words continue to provide hope and comfort.

"Job, who also struggled with God and found him, emerged twice the person he had been. And so can we. Though our journey will be uniquely our own when the time comes, and come it will if we love at all, Claypool has left tracks. Furthermore, he has not erased those places where he faltered. They are honest tracks."—The Texas Churchman