The fat kid in class, the little girl with big rimmed glasses, the Jewish kid with unfamiliar ways, the shy boy with a speech impediment, even the teacher’s kid – there is very little tolerance for those who are “different” at school. Kids can be extremely abrasive when it comes to blending culture, style, religion, size and race. If you don’t fit in as a part of the crowd then you can easily become a target when one is needed.
For me it was faith. My family were a regular church family, weekly Sunday worship services and gatherings were our way of life. The only problem with this was no-one else in the neighbourhood joined us. That made me different. And when there was a conflict situation at school even my friends would use this abnormality as a weapon against me. I would get called all sorts of names and have insults and curses hurled at me, words that cut much deeper than the attempted beatings. Sometimes kids have no heart.
Don’t worry, my scars healed and didn’t cause long-term permanent damage. But I’m sure we can all think of someone we know and love who has been hurt by the cutting remarks of others in their younger, formative years. It’s this behaviour that causes adults to fear standing out from the crowd.
So in 2008 when a ‘seed-thought’ dropped into my mind I could have easily chosen to reject it because of an internal fear.
At the time we were a family who were hurting in many ways. A recent business failure of massive proportions had rocked us to the core in every way. Financially we were in a deep, deep hole – so deep we had to look up to see the bottom! Relationally our family was fragmented; Kathy and I had struggled to maintain unity through financial failure and this was putting pressure on our marriage – severe pressure that could have easily broken the tie we had to each other. My two kids had missed me for many years as multiple businesses had taken all my time and focus and, to be honest, even being at home didn’t mean that I was present mentally or emotionally. My family watched me crumble from a sharp, successful, passionate entrepreneur to a broken man hidden behind long hair and a scraggy beard.
Hope was shattered, trust was broken, love was spread pretty thin, patience was all gone, dreams had dissolved. Our faith was an anchor that was dragging on the bottom of the ocean. We were hurting.
… here ends the preview… grab the book to read more….
