#50 Divorce, Financial Ruin and the Struggle For Faith – Mike Parker

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

1. After his second divorce, Mike Parker was broke and without hope.  He didn’t have enough money to provide Christmas for his boys and he spent all his time on the road trying to spend time with his daughter.  Friends and faith were the things that Mike needed to hold onto.

   “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” – James 1:2-4

   1. Mike sees himself as a dad first and a man who struggles with his faith, but is always trying to understand it.
   2. Biggest Weakness – His desire to control things.  Mike has trouble letting go of resentment.
   3. Biggest Strength – Belief in Jesus.  Mike loves discovering that people believe in God, ministering and finding fellowship.
   4. Dark Time – Mike became a bad husband when he started struggling financially.  He lost his job in Palm Springs and was exhausted all the time driving to see his daughter from his first marriage.  Mike fell out of love with his second wife and began drinking a lot and cheating.  Soon his wife filed for a restraining order and he had to leave his home within a week.  Mike set up bunk beds in his dark 2 bedroom apt for his sons and after saying goodnight snuck back into their room and cried for 3 hours.
   5. Ego caused Mike to stop caring about his wife.  He took everything for granted and when his job started going south he began blaming and became selfish.  He has yet to earn the faith and trust of his ex-wife, but he still resents the way she’s treating him.
   6. Many times during this dark period Mike didn’t think God was in his life and began asking what faith really means.
   7. Mike has turned his anger at being away from his kids to gratitude at the time he spends with them.
   8. Advice – Don’t be an island unto yourself, because you can’t do it alone.  Small men’s groups are essential.
   9. Recommended Book – “Raising A Modern Day Knight.” – Robert Lewis
   10. God’s Men of Influence – Reaching out when it’s not easy, because you never know who you will touch.

    

For past shows and to learn more about the God’s Men of Influence community, check us out at www.godsmenofinfluence.org

Join us on Facebook for our daily devotionals and updates and please like our page www.facebook.com/GodsMenOfInfluence

Help us spread the Word and please rate our show on itunes and leave comments for us. Tell us what insights you took from this episode.