I am familiar with suffering. I was abused in every way a boy can be abused including sexually.When I was 15 my father killed himself with my gun. To this day no one who was adult at that time has ever asked me how I felt about daddy killing himself with my gun. If they … More DEALING WITH BURIED SUFFERING
I like to say God is surprising. No matter how good I think God is it turns out God is better. When I worked at the Mission there was a very elderly retired Baptist preacher that liked to sit in the chapel. His name was Henry. I loved him dearly. One day I was walking … More God Is Surprising
Growing up,I had the feeling that nobody ever listened to me. The truth is I don’t think listening to anyone was part of our family reality. I was taught to never air the dirty laundry outside the family.” To me that meant that we would talk our family problems inside the family. That never happened. … More The Importance Of Being Heard
Years ago I asked one of my daughters, who was about twelve at the time, “What do you think about guilt?” She replied, “Guilt sucks.” I think that statement is a needed and profound piece of theology. Feeling guilty is unnecessary. We all swim in a giant sea of God’s forgiveness. Total forgiveness is ours … More Guilt Sucks
I have had several dreams given to me from time That have helped me. One of them was about Heaven. In this vision, I was just outside a structure about the size and dimensions of a high school gymnasium. The building was my heavenly home. It was being prepared for my arrival at some … More A Heavenly Dream
For to much of my life my style was Ready, Fire, Aim. When I got active in Al-Anon I had to straiten that out. One good thing about having a shotgun Anger style was I got lots of wonderful practice making amends.
There is a tension between the urgent and the important. One of the things that went wrong for me at Union Rescue Mission was that the frantic urgency of running the mission made it hard for me me to remain God centered. I began getting to the mission at 5:30 or 6:00 AM. That greatly … More The Urgent And The Important
The pattern suggested by Christ is that we are never called to the cross. Instead we are called through the Cross to the resurrection. He said “Take up your cross and follow me”. He went through the cross to a new eternal lifeI have heard it said that God sends me problems to teach me … More Cross and Resurrection
There is a difference between slow progress and fast progress for me. insisting on fast progress is a character defect. I call it young man’s disease because when I was young if I didn’t keep doing anything that I didn’t catch on to right away, That meant I did not learn to do many wonderful … More Slow Progress Vs Fast Progress
There is a saying in Al-Anon that tells part of my story. It is “No one ever comes to Al-Anon because they are feeling so good”. In one of my first meetings with my sponsor she said “You are going to have to do something about your anger”. I said “Me angry?, She said ” … More My Al-Anon Start
George Caywood 