1/16 It’s a miracle of grace that Sue and I are still married and deeply in love. It’s a miracle of grace that I didn’t destroy our children and that they genuinely like me. My life was supposed to be a complete disaster. I’ll explain. #QuarantineContemplations

2/16 My dad didn’t want kids, so the day I was born he ran. My mom married another guy—handsome, charismatic, likable—who punched her the first time on their honeymoon. The beatings continued for eight years, driving her into alcoholism & drug addiction. #QuarantineContemplations

3/16 She finally fled for her life with her four children and proceeded to raise us as a single mom, sinking lower and lower into addiction, cycling through one bad man after another. Every adult man I knew was abusive. #QuarantineContemplations

4/16 I began drug use in the 5th grade, beginning with valium, cuz my friend, whose dad was a pharmacist, said it would stop my stomach from hurting, which was due to the brutality of life. Drugs kept the nausea at bay & my mind distracted from it all. #QuarantineContemplations

5/16 Addiction, near-death overdose, self-harm practices & suicide attempts. Life was brutal, bleak & meaningless. Mom was passed out on the couch. As I looked at her there night after night, I only knew two things with absolute certainty: pain and love. #QuarantineContemplations

6/16 Then one day a supernatural being introduced Himself into my consciousness & said something to me, not with an audible voice but in the form of an idea: God is love & all the pain in the world is the result of violated love by the misuse of freedom. #QuarantineContemplations

7/16 My girlfriend heard the same inaudible voice, so we decided from that point forward to use our freedom to do whatever this God of love might tell us to do, and He told us to do all kinds of gloriously crazy things. #QuarantineContemplations

8/16 He told us to get married & how to treat one another: be both friends & lovers, laugh a lot because both of you are funny even when you’re not, no violence, no yelling, lots of playfulness & hanky-panky, forgive quickly & divorce is not an option. #QuarantineContemplations

9/16 He told us how to raise our kids: give them nothing for which they cry, never discipline in anger, always say YES unless NO is best for them, play with them a lot, give them all the freedom they can handle, reason with them rather than control them. #QuarantineContemplations

10/16 He told us how to treat our bodies, what to eat & not to eat, to never eat to the point of feeling full, to eat only twice a day or three times if sufficient energy has been expended, and to move vigorously and break a sweat as often as possible. #QuarantineContemplations

11/16 He told us to forgive everyone who has ever wronged us and to keep on forgiving anybody else who might wrong us, and to hold no negative feelings in our hearts toward anyone because none of us is any better than the rest of us. #QuarantineContemplations

12/16 He told us to pay attention to those in need and to give away as much of our money as possible to relieve people’s messed up situations, because money is just a tool for helping people. #QuarantineContemplations

13/16 He told us to never manipulate or control anybody, because that would injure the very part of their humanity that is vitally needed in order to know and love Him. #QuarantineContemplations

14/16 And He told us that when we fail in any of these endeavors, His forgiveness will always be immediate & free, so that we never need to have any anxiety as to where we stand with Him or try to earn His favor, because we already have it & always will. #QuarantineContemplations

15/16 Fast forward. Today my son & I worked out listening to music we love & cracking up about our sore muscles. My youngest daughter called to tell me funny stories & my oldest daughter said that on a scale from 1-10 she likes me at the level of 15. #QuarantineContemplations

16/16 This is my life. It shouldn’t be, but it is. Disaster and destruction tried to devour me, but I'm laughing my way into eternity future with a pretty girl’s hand in mine and three kids that somehow still like me. #QuarantineContemplations