Happy Father's Day from HeartBound

I believe that man’s highest calling is to be a great father.

 You might find it funny that I should say such a thing, given that I have no children of my own. 

Given that I lack the experience that comes from being a father, you might be wondering how I arrived at such a conclusion. Two things:

1. I have a great father.

2. Every time I visit a prison or a youth detention center, I see just how much a poor father, or a lack of one altogether, affects human beings, both male and female.

I have come to believe that in a vast majority of inmates we meet, there is a hole in their heart that is often in the shape of their father. 

I recently read Gregory Boyle’s Tattoos on the Heart. Father Boyle is a Jesuit priest who has served the Los Angeles community for over 40 years. He’s also the founder of Homeboy Industries, a conglomerate of businesses that provide jobs, training, and counseling to former gang members. Los Angeles, in case you didn’t know, has over 1,100 gangs. There are a lot of people hurting in LA. There are also a lot of fathers who are buried in the ground or languishing in jail cells. 

In his book, Father Boyle tells one story of a “homegirl” who was offered a job in Homeboy Industries but repeatedly failed in her new capacity. She showed up to work high. She caused fights. She mouthed off to her supervisors. 

Most people would fire such an employee. But not Homeboy. They continued to show her grace.

Mr. Boyle writes, “You stand with the least likely to succeed until success is succeeded by something more valuable: kinship. You stand with the belligerent, the surly, and the badly behaved until bad behavior is recognized for the language it is: the vocabulary of the deeply wounded and of those whose burdens are more than they can bear.” 

At HeartBound, we stand alongside the deeply wounded, those whose burdens are too great to bear. We exist to join in kinship, to make a difference, to turn a new leaf in the lives of these families that we serve. 

We’re here to take a stand for what is right, to show God’s love to those in prison.

One last quote from Tattoos on the Heart: “

Jesus was not a man for others. He was one with others. There is a world of difference in that. Jesus didn’t seek the rights of lepers. He touched the leper even before he got around to curing him. He didn’t champion the cause of the outcast. He was the outcast. He didn’t fight for improved conditions for the prisoner. He simply said, ‘I was in prison.’ The strategy of Jesus is not centered in taking the right stand on issues, but rather in standing in the right place - with the outcast and those relegated to the margins.” 

Happy Father’s Day. 

God bless you. 

Spencer and the HeartBound team