Bart Millard Talks About His Dad

When the hit song, "I Can Only Imagine" crossed into mainstream radio, the story behind the song was as popular as the tune itself. MercyMe frontman Bart Millard wrote the song after his dad died of cancer as a way to deal with his grief and sense of loss. People assumed that the two men had always been close. Now, it turns out that Bart's dad was abusive until getting diagnosed and turning his life over to the Lord.

Bart told Fox News that his dad was an abusive father up through his freshman year in high school. When he found out that he had cancer, his whole life changed. He committed himself to Christ and one of hte few "old things" to go was his abusinve ways. "He kind of fell in love with Christ and he went from the monster to the guy I wanted to be like when I grew up," Millard shared. For the next five years, the two were very close, a bond that Bart referred to as "best friends."

While Bart is a lot older and wiser now, emotional scars from years of abuse lingered. A song that he wrote for the band's latest album, Welcome to the New called "Dear Younger Me" lays it out there and serves as a gentle reminder to victims of abuse that the burden of guilt doesn't lie with them. His story itself is a reminder too ... even though bad things can happen in this life, they're not set in stone, nor are they forever. God can (and often does) turn lives around and that leads to much better results.