I love this quote!

Jesus was the first to explain that God is "Our Father."

All other religions failed to understand this important truth.
All the world's religions have many good and important values, but all failed to see God is our Father and His love is parental, without that understanding we are left without the hope of true intimacy with God.

  My oldest son has pastored a church in the "working poor" part of town for years and often posts about it online. Whatever we post we all know that we will always have our critics, and this is the response my son gave to someone online minimizing him.  

"What is Christian ministry like in our church? 

Healthy church ministry is seeing people come to Christ, 

baptizing them, 

walking with addicts in living free, 

helping the poor and marginalized into homes, 

fixing cars, advocating for employment, 

caring for the elderly, sick and depressed. 

Walking with people through life debilitating disease, 

standing alongside abuse victims as they go through deep and difficult healing.

Befriending those in the LGBTIQ community, men, women and trans who are in the shelters and celebrating their sobriety and employment victories as well as their first turnings towards Jesus.

Standing with married couples in their fight to come back from the edge of divorce. 

Standing firm against sin and also administering grace and mercy.

We’re in the hood, 

at the margins, 

hating soiled garments but reaching in the fire. 

Mourning the dead from overdoses, encouraging workers from despair and rallying good folks to use their time, treasure and talent for the kingdom.

Sooooo, I don’t know what your reality is but this is no online talk or pontificating keyboard trolling, it’s conversations born of blood and bone brother."

 

Has your spouse cheated on you? 

Here is some counsel to help you going forward - 

"First of all, I hope you are finding sounding boards to help think through the difficult journey you're on. 

 I’ve walked through, with a number of parishioners, who had very difficult divorces as a Pastor over the years.

I am intertwined into people’s lives, families and souls through the work I do.

 My place is often right in the chaos of unraveling, attempts to reweave, and sometimes the dire hope of resurrection. 

I wish I had more stories of rebuilding instead of burying, but that’s been my witness.

 

Relationships are surprisingly difficult to save once the fabric of trust is severed. 

I’ve seen it happen but it’s painfully rare.

What I have seen more is the slow suffocation of people’s souls who try to carry the dead in their life beyond the graveyard.

 There’s a time to lay to rest our deepest hopes, 

our longest battles, our best attempts.

We can’t ever give up before we should, 

but the stench of a fool’s hope is often dragged too far in relationships, when it should have been washed off through repentance, grieving, mourning and healing. 

I’ve seen people build such an apocalyptic view of divorce, that it is more often built on the failure of mature people to walk out and divorce, than the actual divorce itself.

 I know that in some children it isn’t the divorce that devastates the child but it is the way life and relationships are handled by the parents. 

So much could be far less damaging, and life could be put together far sooner, if that season would have been handled better. 

It doesn’t have to be so dysfunctional. 

I’ve seen families break up but go on to mend and actually act like mature people in the aftermath. 

Yes, there were difficult moments, big emotions etc. but the driving desire to do what was best for the children resulted in being able to reign in the drama, and trauma, of it all.

Children need healthy parents. 

Doing what is best for the children isn’t about maintaining a family structure, as much as it’s about having a mom and dad that are healthy in their heart, mind and soul.

 Life isn’t formal, it’s organic and the light or dark in one’s inner life spills out in parenting. 

We can’t “play parts,” we must live in truth, our children need us and if we are lost in the process, nothing we gain is true.

Children don’t want just to see their parents together, as much as they want to be happy, and to see their parents happy. 

Seeing people suffering out-loud, is very difficult for children, but absorbing their silent suffering is even more deforming to an inner disposition about life, love and marriage. 

Children need light to grow and sometimes what’s around them needs to be pruned out to get more light in. 

Suffocating, tense, despairing, soulless living, 

poisons the soul of children.

 Dark tales need to end, and sometimes it’s the parent that needs to close chapters or books sooner than later. 

Some stories don’t need to be read, and some need to come to some sort of conclusion, either as a “tragedy” or “happily ever after.”

 We need to resolve stuff, much more than we do, for the sake of tomorrow.

I’m not advocating for divorce, but I am not advocating for prolonging something that needs to be dealt with honestly and bravely.

 There are many seasons of life that I wish I would have been braver and most of those matters revolved around endings, more so than beginnings. 

 We know how to start, way better than how to end, but both are a part of life.  

Just remember to give your children the best YOU they can have, and if that isn’t possible, then do whatever it takes to get there, no matter how dark it may be to let go of the dock.”

Pastor Eric.

 A friend sent this song to me today, he's had a very dark past and this song kind of summarizes his life. 

Let me warn you, it mentions suicide, drugs and has coarse lyrics. 

"I'd Rather Overdose (Remix)"

Can't let go

I can't let you go

I try, but I always know

I wish you was holding me close

Can't be without you, I'd rather overdose

When you're fucked up on them pills, you can't hear me cry

Without them, you're sick and we both know why

Pint after pint 'til the well runs dry

If only you loved me like you love getting high

I can't let you go

I try, but I always know

I wish you was holding me close

Can't be without you, I'd rather overdose

Fucked up, can't slow down

Won't come down, don't know how

My dad's dead, my mom's proud

Got bros stuck in our hometown

My bank account got zeros

I'm 'posed to be the hero

But here I am, still fucking up

I'll drink my weight in beer though, I

Know that you hate me and I hate me too

I can't get over what I did to you

You tried to help me and it wasn't going through

I hope that you miss me 'cause I miss you too

But I can't let you go

I try, but I always know

I wish you was holding me close

Can't be without you, I'd rather overdose

It was May 11th, 2019

I stayed up for a week

All these drugs won't let me sleep

I did one last line until both my eyes closed

I said one last goodbye and then I overdosed

They found me laid on my bathroom floor

I know couldn't live life like this anymore

Been sober five years since the day I almost died

I finally love myself the way I loved getting high

But I can't let you go

I try, but I always know

I wish you was holding me close

Can't be without you, I'd rather overdose

Here is the link if you choose to hear it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv9HYzgmbK4&rco=1

 

 My heart bleeds for the survivors of menacing, vicious, brutal and horror causing deeds, done in too many cases, by those who should love you most.

Childhood trauma, which hardly describes what too many have suffered, causes so many ongoing problems in adulthood, in so many ways words fail to describe.

That being said, there is help, there are counselors and therapists that can guide one out of the life damning, soul killing abuses; 

so as adults, it is incumbent on us to seek help, seek faith, and find ways to heal: 

it has been done by countless souls who have survived the most heinous abuses.

None of it's easy, it's never a quick fix, but healing is available 

and if we don't seek after it like silver and gold, 

we will hurt all who ever get close to us.