Justin Widener

Hello, I am a married father of four. My wife and I met in Colorado and were married not long after. I was born and raised in Northwest Iowa on a dairy farm. Under the age of 9, I suffered a really bad accident when I was hit by a car. I was in a coma for two weeks but came out of the coma and left the hospital a little over a month later. After High School I joined the Iowa Army National Guard, where I served for six and a half years. I started to suffer from seizures while in the military. Was released from the military because of them . And a little over a year later, I went to the doctor and found out I was miraculously cured. After that I went on to become an emergency medical technician with the local ambulance. I moved to Denver, Colorado and served as an EMT out there. I had gone on to paramedic school but faced another struggle when I tore my rotator cuff and couldn't finish. Not long after that I had become homeless for 2 years. But I did not let that get me down. I had always known there was a certain purpose for my life. But I was not sure what it was. I had gone through several jobs but I always kept my eyes on the Lord. That is until the one day at church when I met my wife and that is when my future began. The next four years we went on to have four beautiful children. Many years before i had wrote a poem for my hometown. I wasn't sure how people were going to take it, but everyone seemed to like it. Before my wife and I had met I had also started writing another book. But I never did finish that book. Then after the birth of my first son I decided to write a poem to him on his birth. I received a great response from the poem and every child after I wrote a poem for them on their birth also. Then back in 2016 after trying my hand at a few other poems I had a little voice telling me to continue writing. The first Sunday of that year I told my pastor that I was going to write a poem based off of every sermon that he gave on Sundays. I finished that year with 52 poems. And the poems, which are included in this book, were done within an hour of time. And now since this calling from God, I am always having ideas come into my head for new poems. I am also working on a second edition do this first book. I encourage everyone that if they are feeling short on their patience with God or if they're just wondering what their purpose might be, they pick up this book and they really see the love that God has for us. God has a purpose for each one of us and we just need to listen to him and see what that is. Thank you again and I hope you will enjoy the poetry the God has put on my heart to write.