Imagine if you will...

A little boy who grows up being in the shadow of his sisters and all their drama. Who’s automatically assumed a pain in the ass because of their behaviors, and how his father was as a child.

He feels completely alone most days and like he’s raising himself. Very few sports games are his parents in attendance; and help with school and everyday life lessons, well HA.

His grandparents all leave this Earth way to early for him...which only makes him feel even more alone.

As the young boy grows up, he’s introduced to some pretty rough ride or die kind of friends. You know the kind...the ones who have your back and introduce you to things that never serve anyone well.

He gets mixed up hanging in the wrong crowds because it’s easy, it feels like love when someone has your back. Yet he still deep down feels alone...he just hides and buries those feelings with alcohol instead. A lot of alcohol.

Then he meets ‘the’ girl. You know the one I’m talking about...the one who sees through the shell and believes in him more than he sees in himself. She loves him as big as the sky and that lights a spark in him that he’s never known before.

He fights long.
He fights hard.
He lays down a lot of self destruction that he no longer needs to ‘survive’

He chooses love.
He chooses Jesus.
He chooses his dreams.

And it costs him. It costs him people ‘close’ to him; ones who just won’t accept and respect his redeemed life. Ones who don’t support his dreams.

He tries.
He tries hard.
He tries so hard to mend fences.

He chooses love.
He chooses Jesus.
He chooses his dreams.

Then his phone rings one day...with this message left. ‘Your Dad has cancer’ and the phone goes dead. No Hi. No Bye. No Love You. Just those four short, deeply wounding words.

He fights long.
He fights hard.
He tries so hard to mend fences.

He chooses love.
He chooses Jesus.
He chooses his dreams.

But what does one keep doing if the other party isn’t willing?

And then one day he’s sharing a meal with his parents...and they hand him a box of stuff that was supposed to be his Dad’s military stuff...but instead when he gets home and opens it in excitement of having a fresh new connection...it’s actually all his stuff he’s given them in recent years, all in this box.

He’s crushed...AGAIN.
He fights long.
He fights hard.
Only this time, he realizes that there is nothing more to do until both parties want to fight towards healing.

Time keeps going by.
And by.
And by.
He’s hopeful the day will come someday for things to be better.

You can love from afar, even if they don’t want you in their life.

Then the unthinkable happens! You open Facebook and read that your Dad has died. No one has called, texted, messaged, mailed, or signal fired.

He’s crushed...AGAIN. Only this time the hopes are over. And the doubt that you ever really mattered has set in.

What do you say to encourage and uplift this man today??