Finding Jesus again after 9 years of looking.
I heard songwriter Michael McLean talk about his experience in more detail—especially in coming to fully accept his gay son—at an Affirmation Conference several years ago. It was powerful. His video account in the link below is much more brief—just under 6 minutes.
As an aside, this December’s Faith Again presenter, John Gustav-Wrathall was Executive Director of Affirmation until recently.
Like Michael, many of us have had similar struggles to connect with God. And/or to question everything. To explore nearly everything. To wonder. I have never experienced such a god-drought as Michael did, but I have had my dark nights of the soul off and on since age 19 at the beginning of my mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Gratefully, I have felt God’s grace attend to me in time. And I have found some satisfactory answers to some of my questions and found some questions that I had never thought of. I have learned to lean into curiosity and remain open to unexpected answers from unexpected places and people. Isn’t that really, when you think about it, what the Christmas story is all about? Few who were looking for grace and a messiah to save them would have thought to look where Jesus was found. And what they found was more beautiful and grand than they imagined—God’s promise made live through godly love.
Here’s Michael’s short but long story:
