Welcome to the Jesus Calling podcast.

God has used Matt Mars life in ways Matt would never have imagined.

Matt had a strained relationship with his father as a teen,

and over the years he slowly learned to peel back the image of his father from his image of God.

As Matt himself has stepped into fatherhood, he's seen many ways God has used present moments to heal his past hurts.

My name is Matt Maher. I'm a singer-songwriter and

worship leader originally from Newfoundland, Canada. I live in Nashville, Tennessee now, been married nine years, have three kids, and I love what I do.

I grew up in Newfoundland, Canada, Newfoundland's a very, I don't want to say isolated,

but it's physically isolating in the sense that it is,

it juts out onto the North Atlantic.

It's the most easterly point of North America.

Newfoundland was kind of one of the first places where Irish, English, French, Portuguese settlers came and for hundreds and hundreds of years because they were isolated,

living in outport communities, very unique culture developed and faith was actually a huge part of it.

You know, living in Newfoundland

is a strong sense of culture,

strong sense of family and community and hospitality,

but I think at the heart of that all is a strong faith.

It's a harsh place to live in the sense that the winners can go on.

There's a lot of rain where I grew up in St. John's. you're kind of just out there on the North Atlantic, you know,

coast and the wind is just kind of howling.

But Faith was very much a strong current that I think that moved people and motivated people and inspired people and you know the one of the there's a old order of monks called

the Benedict in order and the first rule of their way of life is you greet every person as if they're Jesus themselves.

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