when a heart breaks

Category

Miracles out of messes

They say hindsight is 20/20. Well, right now it is 2020, and I’ve begun to do a little reflecting. A little over ten years ago, we lost my father-in-law to suicide. It was awful - there’s no other way to say it. It was a complete shock to our family, and rocked our entire world. It was the result of brokenness and hurt - and I don’t for ONE SECOND believe it was God’s fault, or His plan. In fact,…

Better together

It was one of the scariest things I have ever done. I gathered a room full of people who I had led for two years, people I felt probably looked up to me, people who trusted me and thought of me as someone to share their struggles with - and now I was about to share my struggle with them. What would it cost me? Their trust? Their friendship? Their respect? My job? After all, this same issue had cost…

A guy on a couch

I was sitting in the front seat of my 1982 Oldsmobile 98 regency, the day the world changed. I wasn’t the best of college students at that time, and I was trying to decide whether I wanted to grab McDonald’s breakfast and go home, or attend my next class which I believe was speech. For some reason I had KTIS (the local Christian station) on the radio (which I almost never do), and when I turned the engine over I…

Hope and help – from a whole lotta hurt

Suicide sucks. Sorry to for the bluntness and harsh language, but that’s about as ‘soft’ as I am comfortable going on the matter. It just plain sucks. Unfortunately, I would know. Tonight my wife and kids and I ate a fantabulous dinner of chili dogs, potato chips and root beer, in honor of her late father Neil, who’s death was 7 years ago today. Or at least that’s when we found out about it. Sadly, Neil, who was one of…

if it doesn’t break your heart, it isn’t love

Sometimes the things that you don’t see coming change you the most. I guess it only makes sense, if you saw them coming you’d probably be more ready for them or something. I’d made kind of a habit of making sure I saw things coming. My whole life I’d played things safe, not gotten too far outside of my comfort zone, made sure that if life was happening it was happening on my terms. Looking back at it I’m actually…

from football to faith

Let’s be clear about something – I love football. No if, ands or buts about it (for that matter no butts either.) A few years back I was deprived of my favorite game because of a player strike. Sunday afternoons from September to January just weren't the same without grown men throwing a piece of inflated pigskin back and forth while they clobber each other senselessly. I love football. It seems that sometimes you don’t fully understand how much you…

exhale

When you are young you take certain things for granted. At least I did. Things that some people fight and pray for, most people don’t even think about. Things like breathing. It’s actually a rather complex bodily function when it comes down to it, but most of us can go through an entire day without even thinking about it. Then, in an instant, life can take your breath away. Things that once seemed normal now require almost superhuman effort. Things…