My personal and professional journey has now spanned over six decades. I have always had a natural leadership ability which led me through the ranks of Boy Scouts to eventually becoming an Eagle Scout. Those leadership skills also played a part in many of my early business endeavors. Life has given me many opportunities to learn new skills over the last four decades, many of which came about through unexpected and sometimes undesired circumstances. As I look back on life I don’t know that I would change anything.

Here is where my personal and professional journey really began:

When I was a boy, I attended Vacation Bible School with a neighbor. Our family did not regularly attend church as I was growing up, so the neighbor kids invited me to their church. From Monday through Thursday of that week, we heard about Bible stories, made things, and generally had a good time. On Friday morning, we all gathered together in the large activity room, and one of the adults asked us to close our eyes. They then asked if there was anyone in the group that would like to receive Jesus as their Savior. Well, after hearing all of these stories about Jesus throughout the week, I thought who wouldn’t want to know Him. So they said again, everyone keep your eyes closed, and anyone who would like to invite Jesus to be their Savior raise your hand. So, up my hand went. Now, I must admit that I cheated and looked around, and to my surprise guess how many raised hands I saw? One. Mine.

That day was the start of my long journey in finding and allowing God to work in my life. Over the next several years, and throughout my teens, I never gave God much thought. But, as I look back at those years, I can recall many times that I should have been severely hurt or possibly killed. In retrospect, I can see God was watching over me.

As my twenties passed by, again not much thought was given to God. My wife and I attended a church during those years, mainly because we thought it was the right thing to do. We wanted our son to be exposed to church. Unfortunately, we didn’t learn much about God at that church. It was boring as we heard the pastor read the morning’s sermon. Even though we were in church, we still didn’t think much about God and how He might be involved in our daily life.

In my thirties, three men gathered together with our differing talents to form a company devoted to producing technical documentation. After a year in my basement, we made the bold and unnerving move to a rented office. We also lost one of the business partners. The first three years of business were definitely challenging as we struggled to grow the company. I remember our income for the second quarter of that first year was $400.00 and we had to split that two ways. This was not working out to be a get-rich-quick method of gaining income, and again, not much thought was given to God.

This is the same company, of which I am now the sole owner, that is publishing this little book.

Then in 1993, my business partner became ill, and I didn’t know if he was even going to live. On top of that was the increasing pressure of growing a business; which is a substantial investment in time. Financial struggles and just the day-to-day grind of life were becoming increasingly more intense.

It was at that point in time that I knew I needed a change. I found that change one Sunday morning at a new church we had been attending. I clearly heard the presentation of the Gospel, or the Good News, of who Jesus Christ was to me personally. This was not a time of just listening to Bible stories in Vacation Bible School (VBS); this was now very personal. I believe my acceptance of Christ as my Savior happened that day in VBS, but on April 18, 1993, Jesus became my Lord and not just my Savior. I view that day as a significant step in my continuing search of truly knowing God and that search will most likely continue to the day I die.

Once God became a living part of my life, I began attending the Christian Businessmen’s Connection (CBMC), which is a men’s ministry with the mission to present Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to business and professional men and to develop Christian businessmen to carry out the Great Commission. I meet weekly with a diverse group of professional businessmen who share a common desire to deepen our connection with God, and along the way, we answer the call to tell others about the completeness we’ve discovered through Christ. I have been involved in this group since mid-1993. Today, I work in a one-on-one setting helping business leaders to see the potential God will release in them.

As we jump forward to my fifties, I was diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis) in July of 2012. Believe it or not, that news changed my life for the better. My experiences over the past few years, and especially after being diagnosed with MS has really helped to anchor my faith and increase my trust in God. Without the personal relationship that I have with God, my life would probably have been devastated by this news. However, I viewed this as an opportunity for me to reach out and meet new people, just like you.

Someone asked me if this experience has changed the way I live my life. I still think about that question today, and I must say it has. It has given me a renewed sense of how important people are in my life. It has also reminded me that people are important to God and, therefore, should be equally important to me. I still have the hustle and bustle in my daily life, but now I’m beginning to value the time I spend just getting to know and build relationships with the people that God brings into my life.

In July of 2014, through what we now know was a divine connection, we started attending a Bible-teaching church. We had been looking for this type of church for years; we just were unable to find it (partly because it did not exist until early 2014). My wife and I were now studying and learning more about the love God has for us. We were learning more on one Sunday than we had learned in the past twenty years. Our faith was coming alive. I also learned that Jesus had taken away all the sins and sickness of the world when He died on the cross just as I had talked about earlier in this booklet. He died for me! He died for you!

He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds, you are healed. 1 Peter 2:24

Through a growing faith in the power of God for healing and through prayer, I was delivered from the symptoms of MS and in late October of 2015 went off all my medication. I have never felt better in my life. God has completely restored my health. Now, just because I am telling you about what God did for me, don’t make any rash medical decisions on your own. Wait for God to let you know what to do next. It took me 3-1/2 years to get to that point. Here’s an update to the original writing of this booklet: It’s now June of 2019, and I have had no recurring symptoms. Praise God for His Devine healing, which flows throughout my body every day.

I have found out, and want you to know that you are valued by God and that is why I share this little book with you. The one fact we eventually face is that we all die. The good news for me is that I have a 1,000% assurance that when I die, I will spend eternity with the God that I have come to love so much. Whether or not we have known each other for many years, or in most cases just had a brief encounter, my greatest desire would be to spend eternity in heaven with you.

Being a follower of Christ has done two things for me—it has caused me to live a life that I hope others would like to emulate, and it has made me more self-conscience about the way I treat other people. Right or wrong, my life has been enhanced over the years of knowing Christ as my personal Savior. I have had many ups and many downs, but I wouldn’t change a thing.