The man pictured here is named Bob, he is a friend of mine. This picture was taken in a courtroom where he and his sister looked on as the trial proceeded against the man who murdered Bob's mother.
It is hard to imagine anything in life much greater in horror than to hear the blood chilling news that he and his sister had to endure. I worked with him at Teen Challenge where he supervised, disciplined, counseled and befriended adult men seeking freedom from addiction. His expertise in working with the men kept me in a constant state of admiration. His ability to control and demand compliance from even the most vicious of men, while loving them and gaining their respect was a gifting that could only come from God. When I read the first few lines of the following quote, I immediately thought of him.

 "David's life and history, as written for us in those Psalms of his, I consider to be the truest emblem ever given of a man's moral progress and warfare here below. 

All earnest souls will ever discern in it the faithful struggle of an earnest human soul towards what is good and best. A struggle often baffled, sorely baffled, at times down into an entire wreck; yet a struggle never ended; ever with tears, repentance, true unconquerable purpose, begun anew. Poor human nature! Is not a man's walking in truth always that: 'a succession of falls'? Man can do no other. In this wild element of Life, he has to struggle onwards; now fallen, deep abased; and ever with tears, repentance, with bleeding heart, he has to rise again, struggle again still onwards. That his struggle be a faithful unconquerable one: that is the question of questions." Thomas Carlyle.