Testimony from Gareth

Dear Ken

We’ve never met – not face to face at least.  But I was lucky enough to recently be drawn to the” restoring the well” website and there I read an article written by your good self, entitled “Love and Freedom”.

It reminded me of a time much earlier in my life where I experienced what I can only describe as a divine revelation.   I have no doubt God that spoke to me that day and for a while I was held in loving arms.  It was a wondrous experience and one that remains with me to this day, despite the many trials and tribulations I have experienced since.

Sadly I was unable to stay on my path and wandered off course for a while  Eventually, and I won’t bore you with the details, I ended up as one of the “broken, bound and bankrupt”, locked in a severe depression and unable to forgive myself for the hurt I had unintentionally caused friends and family.  To the outside world I had suffered a mental illness but deep inside I know that it was a spiritual malady that had laid me so low.

Finally, I am resurfacing after 3 years in the wilderness having lost my house, my home, my profession, and most of my “friends”.  Although I now have very little, I feel as though I have everything, and for the first time in my life, I no longer feel lonely as I finally listen to the soothing voice from above that calls me to pastures new.

Where this calling will lead me, I do not know.  What I do know is that I am finally back on my path.  The line in your passage “The glorious message of the cross is that there is no person so broken, bound or bankrupt that God cannot restore to freedom and empower to love” spoke directly to me, as if spoken by God himself.

Finally, I was able to summon the courage to forgive myself and, in that moment, knew that I had to hand myself over to God so that I too could recover my dignity and desire for life.  In writing this email I would like to bear witness to the wondrous and loving power of God and to thank you personally for sharing your words of wisdom.

Sent with kind regards and best wishes.

Gareth