Jesus

Daughter,

I naively got into religion (Christianity)after an awful bout of bone cancer in 2003. For roughly six years I attended church weekly, tithed, and did my best to be a good Christian boy, while still drinking and partying three days a week.

In the mid 2000’s the Catholic Priest sex abuse scandal came to light and the church completely botched it. Instead of booting priests from the church, helping prosecute them, and providing victims with the resources to heal…. The church moved priests around and in some cases, sadly, blamed the victims.

It was around this time several “celebrity” pastors were caught doing the exact opposite of what they preached was righteous. In some cases they committed fraud, and blatantly broke the law.

Naturally, these were massive headlines. Anyone that was on the fence or questioning their faith (me) jumped ship.

From 2010 to 2023 (current) I experienced more career and financial success than I thought possible. This led to a massive amount of pride, loneliness, excessive drinking (probably had an alcohol problem), and the naive belief that organized religion, Christianity, was fake.

At the end of 2022 I had a very serious health scare that required a 4 night hospital stay, biopsy, and ended in a life changing diagnosis. At the time, I wasn’t clear headed enough to understand the opportunity I was being given. To get my stress under control I wrote down several options, one of which was to go to church. Thankfully, as a 5 year old, you had no choice but to be my church buddy.

Six months later, I know a few historical facts that help inform my faith: Jesus was born, lived, and died on a cross. What I have learned since then was that roughly 100 people said they saw him after he was risen from the grave, multiple apostles were so convinced that they gave their life to the “cause”, and a movement was ignited.

I’m still grappling with the virgin birth. Knowing the Bible has several different authors, and was written over several time periods helps….it’s called “faith” for a reason. I believe Jesus/God/The Holy Spirit use the physical to give us and our limited understanding insight into the spiritual realm.

Examples of this are Sister Wilheim (SP) being found incorruptible, The Shroud of Turin, and physical encounters with Jesus & Mary trustworthy figures report.

If you ever reach a low point in your faith, remember the facts of history, and know that faith simply means reading between the lines and choosing to believe.

Faith requires no sacrifice on your end. The debt has been paid, and the Holy Spirit will use you as a vessel to bring God’s love to the world.

Love,

Dad

PS – I didn’t understand(emotionally)the sacrifice not requiring anything on our end until you were born.