About

Living Phoenix is a community of men that have experienced traumatic loss of every sort on their journey from life to legacy. Our legacy is what is left when everything is said and done. Our journey beyond our legacy is everything we can hope for in our one true God. Neither belong in our control and both require humility, forging, sacrifice, responsibility, trust, and faith. So often, a man finds himself in sudden ruins and, in our culture and society, we are doomed to be defined by our mistakes. When the world defines you by your mistakes and you are sitting in the ashes of the hopes and dreams you once had it is easiest to assume this place as your identity. More often than not, you are a good person with a good heart and you are as confused as everyone else how you got here. Your identity is not liar, cheater, manipulator, addict, lazy; your identity is a child of God, candidate for redemption, chosen to sit at the table with our Creator…worthy of love. When those who loved you conditionally condemn you there is but one place to leave your shame and burdens- at the foot of the cross. When we sit in our ashes with profound pain there is a path that we can take that lifts us up and sets our hearts on fire that we may rise like a phoenix and live again. “…he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory.” (Isaiah 61)

This blog is a collection of writings accumulated throughout my journey of great loss that brought pain, even to the point of death. It is a path of reluctance and tragedy that provided the only hope left when my own will gave way and only God’s will remained. These posts and this community are the building blocks to a novel about our painful journey of our purpose and our hope, The Postcard, by Robert Rhoades. We need a community. We need each other. We need the hope of love as defines our Lord and Savior. There is only one option to begin the process of healing in a way that truly brings peace and freedom: honesty. Even when those truths hurt and bring us guilt and shame.