Regardless of what you're struggling with in this life, Jesus loves you and will help you recover from your pain

6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7

A friend's post regarding asking for prayer for his depression prompted me to write this post.

This past Friday evening I treated my wife to a happy birthday celebration by taking her, along with my son and his girlfriend to the Tenth Avenue North/Mercy Me concert at the Target Center. This concert comes on the heels of the 'I can only imagine' movie which was the story of a tumultuous upbringing by an emotionally and physically abusive father who was disappointed by the choices he made in life. In an article by Brad Schmitt for the Tennessean are these words: His dad switched from a razor strap to a wooden paddle halfway through the beating.

Bart Millard, only 8 or 9, was terrified. He’d been beaten before, often. But this time was different.
His father ambushed him and grabbed the boy with one arm, wailing away with the other with a growing rage his son hadn’t seen before.

“He beat me like a dog on a leash,” Millard said.
“When I made eye contact with him, I thought: He’s going to kill me.”
After that, the boy missed two days of school — it hurt too much for him to put on clothes.

Bart's mom could not stand his father's emotional rage and left Bart and his dad.Again, I turn to the Tennessean article for more about his dad.

Millard’s dad wasn’t always a monster. In fact, Arthur Wesley Millard Jr. was a beloved high school football hero, one of only two All-Americans from his rural Texas town of Greeneville, about 45 miles northeast of Dallas. Everyone called him “Bub,” and even though he was a big bear of a guy, he was more teddy than a grizzly. Until the accident.

While flagging cars for the Texas highway department, Arthur Millard got hit by a diesel truck, a collision that put him in a coma for eight weeks.When he regained consciousness, “Bub” was a different guy. His attitude and temperament darkened. Combative with orderlies, crude with nurses, Arthur Millard eventually was restrained.

Three years later, the couple’s second child, Bart, was born. The tension in the house grew, and Millard's parents divorced when the boy was only 3. In his youth, Bart started going to Church at the invite of friends. His life began to change on the inside, but on the outside, he continues to suffer the beatings of his father.

When I did a Wikipedia search on Bart Millard, it gave me none of this information. But, what would expect from a culture that still believes 'God's dead?'

After his dad's deadly cancer diagnosis, his dad began listening to Church services on the radio. The messages so penetrated his dad's soul that the former rage he had was supplanted by the true peace that only God provides. 

Bart Millard learned that he had to forgive his father before his Christian band could really get started.

What I learned from Bart's story is that every one of us struggles with dark periods of the soul and that the only way to recover from this human condition is through a loving relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

At one point in my grief journey, it occurred to me that every one of us is just one traumatic life event from succumbing to a mental health condition. 

I also discovered the importance of giving people in such a crisis permission to tell their story with someone willing to listen without offering opinions about what they think they should do.  Allowing people to share their stories and praying for them opens the door for Jesus to restore their soul.

For anyone who might be in the painful throes of grief and loss, I encourage you to consider getting involved in a Grief Share group near you. This 13-week group will teach you how to go through the pain instead of around it. If you go to this link www.griefshare.org you can find a group near you.

Finally, no matter what happens in your life, or whatever traumatic event that has occurred, our God is always there for you. He will help you win the fight you've been battling. Those words from Isaiah 145 give me great comfort:


"I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name forever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. ...