Last week I went in to Northside Hospital in Lawrenceville (love those people) to have my aortic valve replaced in my heart which had built up calcium deposits and was narrowing. The procedure is known as TAVR Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement which goes through the femoral arteries in the groin to insert a new valve without open heart surgery. My thinking - piece of cake!

Surgery was successful and I was released from the hospital a day later to go home transported by my youngest daughter Briana and grandchildren. Instructions before we left, if you start to bleed from the wounds and can't stop it call 911 or you will bleed out. B and Logan both volunteered to stay with me but being that hard headed Marine I declined saying I was good to go.

About 1:30 AM I awoke to urinate and had that portable urinal with me which I began to use. Then I felt something warm on my leg thinking I may have missed the urinal (lights were out). Instead I realized I was bleeding profusely on the rug, on the bed, and I couldn't stop it. Went into the bathroom, looked in the mirror and saw the area it was bleeding from, called 911 opened the front door and they took me back to Northside.

Making a long story shorter, they could not stop the bleeding for awhile and after finally doing it I spent all day in the ER with Briana by my side. Stable now and at home healing here are a few thoughts:

Jen volunteered to clean up my place before I went home - loyal friends are critical in your life.
Briana stayed with me two days after the ER and changed my bandages - family is everything.
God spoke to me while laying on my bed holding a washcloth on the wound - it's not time he said.

If ever I felt the love of God in a critical moment this was it. For some who have had similar close calls
using has been an option, or it was the option that made your spirit bleed.  But what I felt that night to the present time is what I knew - God is not an option, he is the only option, and he brings what you need in the most difficult of moments in life.

Joshua 1:9 - Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. I felt that.

That includes alone and bleeding out (bad move on my part not letting them stay), calling 911 or in any dark place in your life where you feel alone and lost - God is with you if you let him be. We tell stories like this to let you know he is and will be if you invite him into your life.

And it helps to have incredible individuals like Jen and Briana to help along the way. Be blessed and feel his love! Glenn

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is married by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms , the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows that in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat.                                                      Theodore Roosevelt

I love being in the arena, it's where God has me. And I love being there with our team at ATB and the rehabs and sober living facilities who are also in that same arena with us.  In the addiction recovery arena it is an extremely dysfunctional place to begin with.  It is often kindergarten on steroids dealing with folks that have failed to master basic living skills and are constantly in need of finding hope.

All of us together are imperfect but in the perfect place to make a difference and show people the way to live and find that hope. Whether people love us or hate us collectively, we have saved thousands of lives and turned them toward heaven. If you think about it, it's what Jesus did, and he too, being in the arena, was often criticized for his methods.

This blog is not aimed at anyone in particular except at the modern day Pharisees who have failed to grasp the Biblical concept that "love covers over a multitude of sins". So all of us in this arena will continue to help and love on you, your sons and daughters, despite our imperfections by pointing them to the one who is perfect.

As the theme from the successful series of Wide World of Sports said, we experience ​the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. One thing we, or our partners will never do is throw in the towel and quit!

Happy New Year, may God bless you always!

He's making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty or nice, Santa Claus is coming to town. He sees you when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake, He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. Oh you better watch out....."

After reaching adulthood and reading these lyrics does it seem encouraging to our young children or rather threatening? Or is it just a "kids song" and we act jolly and bright when we sing it? I think it's actually a pre-cursor to the Santa Clause. That's right, the planting of a seed when we are young that naughty is always punished and nice is always rewarded. It may be a kids song but is it real life?

The strangest thing I have seen God do in my own life is reward me even after I have done something "naughty", and it's happened several times and literally shocked me. It's also shocked me into being "nice" because of the way that reward showed me how much He loves me. My Mom was also like that.

Hebrews 11:6 - And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

What I learned is that in my faith walk I will screw up somewhere, but God looks at the overall picture of me and says that guy is following me, and that in that walk I am earnestly trying to seek him even when I go off the rails a bit. Not excuses, just examples like Peter and even Abraham who did some really knucklehead things on his way to becoming the father of all the nations. Read Romans 4:18-21 and tell me what you think. Did he lose either his faith or promise of gifts from God just because of bad decisions? Simple answer, no!

Bottom line, God certainly cares if we are naughty or nice, but he's not looking over our shoulders cancelling us out for our mistakes every day when he knows that our heart has turned to him. Though for many years through many kids and grandchildren I sang this song, I think I will replace it with the Jesus Clause:

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so! (you know the rest)

It was a normal day when I walked into a building for lease at 900 Cripple Creek Drive in Lawrenceville in 2018. As soon as I toured it I knew it was perfect for the new home of Across The Bridge. Now if only I could convince the building owner that we would be a worthy tenant. So far others had turned their back on us.

That's when I met Jim Walker, a fellow Viet Nam veteran who was a huge advocate for veterans and later as I would see, a man with a very big heart. I told him, being completely honest, that if he let us lease it we would be bringing in a band of misfits, drug users, alcoholics, and those with mental health issues. But we had no problems in the church we were in and had a track record of great success.

When he called me to say he was taking a chance on us his words were "I think you will do more good for people than a church would". Kind words, but when he asked me when we would move in I had to pause because I did not have the money raised yet to do so. After a few days donors chipped in and thus began a journey of partnership that now seven years later has seen over 280,000 people come through the doors of Jim Walkers building to find hope and healing. 

Unfortunately Jim passed away on October 31st, but his vision and generosity will not be forgotten. Not only did he eventually lease us the entire building but he became a donor when addiction hit his own family. Then we began to help veterans, then we became good friends and then he helped me as well get benefits from the VA. And then, like that good soldier he was, he made sure he extended our lease before he left for heaven.

He will be missed, but we will sustain his legacy by naming our main meeting area The Walker Room. And each day I am there I will tap that plaque hanging in his honor knowing he will help thousands more and say "well done brother, look what you started, look what that God that you loved so much has done".

Love you Jim, save some room for the rest of us up there please!

Commitment: The state or quality of being dedicated to a cause or activity. 

"And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground."
Luke 22:44

Great way to start a blog right? No warm up just a direct hit on a topic many of us have struggled with. Now I seem to have it right but in my days of addiction that word meant nothing to me. But then, I met Jesus and I read things like the above which demonstrated to me both the humanity of Him and the dedication to his commitment to die for us.

Anguish, yes! The thought often of keeping our commitments can be like that so deeply felt that we have a massive internal struggle to keep it or not. But now, many years removed from those bad days I understand how important it is not only to me but to those it will have an impact on. God kept his to us, why can't I do it for  you?

Take a read in Daniel 3 of those three brave Jewish boys Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego whenever you are weakening, thinking of bailing out, and remember not only that Jesus died for us in a painful and horrific way, but that the faith to believe in him propels us to summon courage to die to ourselves and our selfishness as well.

Say to yourself - I am keeping my commitment no matter what!