There is a line from Jonathan Anthony Burkett’s memoir that many readers carry with them: “You know my name, not my story. You’ve heard what I’ve done, but not what I’ve been through.”
Today we want to look at one part of that story, a part that is easy to say in a single sentence and hard to imagine living through. By the age of fourteen, Jonathan was homeless.
This is not a story told for sympathy. It is a story told so that others in the storm can see there is a way through, and so the rest of us can learn to see the young people around us a little more clearly.
How the Storm Began
As Jonathan shares in his memoir, Neglected But Undefeated: The Life Of A Boy Who Never Knew A Mother’s Love, his early childhood was a happy one. He spent those years with his grandparents in Jamaica, surrounded by love.
At six, he moved back to the United States to live with his mother. That home became a place of abuse. And by fourteen, at an age when most children are worrying about school and friends, Jonathan had no home at all.
We will not linger on the painful details. What matters most is what came after.
What Kept Him Going
Jonathan has said it plainly in his own words: “Faith is why I’m here today and faith is why I made it through.”
The storms did not stop when he was a teenager. On Monday, January 30, 2006, he faced brain surgery for a disorder that caused seizures, and by God’s grace the surgery was successful. Through faith and through writing, Jonathan kept moving forward. He forgave his mother. He refused to give up.
That boy who once had nowhere to go grew into an author, a songwriter and an entrepreneur. He wrote his memoir, the Friends 2 Lovers novels and Fighting To Become Champions. He founded Upstormed, including this magazine, to help families believe that God carries us through every trial.
“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”
Isaiah 49:15 (KJV)
Few verses speak more directly to a child who never knew a mother’s love. Even when the people who should protect us fail, God does not forget us. That promise held true for a fourteen-year-old with no home, and it holds true for every reader today.
Lessons From a Boy Who Kept Going
1. Where you start is not where you have to stay
Jonathan’s story is proof that a hard beginning does not have to write the ending. If you are in a storm right now, your future is still open in God’s hands.
2. Faith can grow in the hardest soil
Faith did not take Jonathan around his problems. As he wrote in another book, “Faith doesn’t get you around problems in life and relationships, it gets you through it.”
3. Forgiveness sets the forgiver free
Forgiving his mother did not erase the past, but it kept the past from ruling his future.
4. Your story can become someone else’s hope
Jonathan chose to write about what he lived through. Today his words reach readers who are walking similar roads.
Seeing the Young People Around Us
Jonathan’s story also asks something of the rest of us. Somewhere near you, there may be a young person carrying more than anyone knows. Here are a few simple ways to be a safe presence:
- Notice. Pay attention to a child or teen who seems hungry, tired, withdrawn or always reluctant to go home.
- Listen without judging. Remember his words: people may know a name, but not a story.
- Open your table. A warm meal and a seat with a family can mean more than you will ever know.
- Connect them with help. Pastors, school counselors and local youth services can step in where one person cannot. If a child is in danger, contact the proper authorities.
- Pray by name. Ask God to protect and guide the young people He puts in your path.
And if you are a young person reading this in the middle of your own storm, please hear this: you are not forgotten. Reach out to a trusted adult, a teacher, a counselor or a church. Your story is not finished.
Through every storm, we rise together.
Who was the person who saw you when you felt unseen? Tell us about them in the comments.
Learn more about Jonathan at www.jonathanburkett.com
Follow Jonathan on Instagram and Facebook
Sources: Jonathan Anthony Burkett, Neglected But Undefeated (published facts); Goodreads, Jonathan Anthony Burkett (quotes and books); KJV Isaiah 49:15
Leave a Reply