For two years, Samuel Worden didn’t attend church.  He didn’t read the Bible.  He wouldn’t listen to worship music.  He wasn’t trying to renounce God.  He just didn’t understand why a good God would let something so terrible happen.

When Samuel was 14, his father was murdered right in front of him.  Samuel, his dad, and his mother were walking through a Wal-Mart parking lot when they were confronted by a gunman. What had started as a happy Sunday morning for his family, ended in mind-numbing tragedy.

Samuel had grown up in a Christian home.  That Sunday morning they had been to church together.  But the idea of a loving God that would allow such heartache, didn’t make sense to Samuel.  So for two years, he shut God out.

Samuel was the spitting image of his father.  Unfortunately, just the sight of him brought his mother to tears.  Their life spiraled down into grief, depression, and endless questions that seemed to have no answers.

Finally, it became too much.  Samuel made a decision to end his life.  He made a plan, and intended to carry it out.  But at the last moment, Samuel closed his eyes and took a deep breath. And that’s when, for the first time in his life, he heard God’s voice.

“I love you, son.”

It wasn’t an explanation for his father’s murder.  It wasn’t an apology.  But there was an overwhelming awareness of the Father’s love that God had for Samuel.  And it changed his life.  The anger that had been bottled up inside him, began to fade.  It changed into a passion to know more about his Father’s love, and to tell everyone about it.   Even his father’s murderer.

Hear Samuel Worden’s powerful story in Chapter 32 of Epic.

The Father’s Love - Samuel Worden