A Father's Love - Keith Dante

A Father's Love is a true story of the author's long and treacherous journey, which by all accounts, should have simply ended in his unheralded death, imprisonment, insanity, or all of the above. But there is a different ending because this story is also a testimony of God's love-the Father's love-and just some of the miracles he did on behalf of a young man who had no clue as to the true nature and character of God. The story begins with the author's struggles in an abusive home environment mixed in with the strict, legalistic teachings of his church. He enters his teen years with a twisted, unrealistic perspective of God, viewing him as a cruel, merciless ogre intent on damning him to hell. The author recounts his bout with mental illness, and the final incident of parental abuse, which pushed him over the edge where he gave up all hope. Resigning himself to hell, the author vows never to end up there for pettiness and wastes no time in pursuing a life of worldly pleasure, taking to the streets and highways. But he is soon blindsided, falling in love with a girl who changed his mind, his heart, and his world forever. He shares his failure at intimate relationship and the radical effect his loss has on his life. Estranged from his family, he faces life alone and lonely, sure that God is indifferent to his pain, which finally drives him back to the highway, where he lives as a gypsy and a criminal. Desperate to outrun his pain and regain the love he lost, he runs thousands of miles rolling the dice with his life again and again. Just when it seems he has finally succeeded in destroying himself, the unthinkable happens-God begins to reveal himself and then another journey begins, that of experiencing the Father's love.