One of the greatest joys and challenges in life is being a parent. For Christian parents, when their child walks away from God, they not only feel the heartache but also a sense of failure with their Christian testimony. In this multi-part series, Gary and Kelly Wilkerson share their family’s story.
This is our story of God’s grace and faithfulness during a stormy season of sorrow. It’s a journey of uncertainty and fear but, ultimately, of God’s redemptive grace.
The Wilkersons come from a long line of Christian ministers, evangelists, pastors and even supposedly a Civil War chaplain. My father, David Wilkerson, founded Times Square Church, World Challenge and Teen Challenge, a drug rehab program with almost 1,500 centers worldwide. Kelly and I are ministers who pastored for many years.
What a wonderful spiritual heritage, and what fertile ground for family problems to take root and flourish. You see, when a family loves God and is wholeheartedly committed to spreading the gospel, the enemy sits up and takes notice. He wastes no time attacking the family at its core. Because we had made a positive dent in the kingdom of darkness in the area of addiction, Satan sent every demon from the pit of Hell to come against us with addiction.
Some years ago, two of our sons, Elliot and Evan, became deeply involved in drugs and alcohol. They both always had a heart for God. Elliot, even when he was homeless and addicted to heroin, would call and say, "Dad, I’ve been praying all day, ‘Jesus, help me; set me free.’ I want to change, but I don't know how. My prayers don’t work."
With broken hearts, Kelly and I cried out to the Lord, “You said to ask, so we’re asking you to deliver our children.” Often, we just fell on our faces and pleaded, “Help us, Jesus.” Other times we would shake our fists angrily. "Where are you, God? You heal other people's children!” It felt like the more we prayed, the worse it became.
We endlessly questioned ourselves and our abilities as parents. We felt like we had failed. “What could we have done differently? Maybe we should have spent more time with them; maybe we should have been harder on them.” We spun through the ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ cycle of defeat with self-loathing, anger and despair.
The entire family felt powerless. Remember, Satan has endless ways to deceive and counterfeit and penetrate the hearts of our children, and he used them all. Evan and Elliot had lost their way, and our best efforts as parents came to nothing.
The only recourse we had was prayer. We clung to the words of King David, “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (1 Chronicles 16:11, ESV).
Gary and Kelly’s testimony will continue next week, and their full story with Evan is available on the Gary Wilkerson podcast.