I was born into a family that taught me to follow Jesus from a very early age. I certainly knew the basics between right and wrong both from personal experience and the teachings of the Bible. That knowledge guaranteed nothing. What I faced was the reality that we live in a world at war. The old adage made famous by Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II, “keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” isn’t such a good idea when it comes to spiritual beings.
My early years were full of fun and excitement, like most kids experience. I didn’t understand how the wounds unknowingly inflicted by imperfect parents and my individual choices would dramatically shape my view of who I am and who God is. Nor did I understand how the decisions that I would make in my effort to cover those wounds would yield all sorts of dysfunctional behaviors.
My identity was wrapped up in this make-believe world. This world that had no value to the Kingdom of God. In fact, it was working against everything God had created in me and ultimately the purpose for which I was created. But I believed my own press. I so wanted to prove to myself and everybody who was watching that I had arrived and was a significant part of this worldly way.
That is the ultimate definition of brokenness—at least it was for me.
But God . . . in His infinite wisdom, didn’t let me get away with that. He was patient, kind, caring, but mostly patient in exposing my inability to pull it off on my own. In my most vulnerable moments, He began to teach me what real love looks like—what being a “child of God” really means.
For each of us, He orchestrates outcomes and creates new paths. Mostly after we create our own. Those paths lead to new places that lead to a newly-found freedom. He heals the wounds and brings true joy and peace into our lives. He exposes the lies we believe about ourselves and Him. Most often in times when we’re looking up from a fall. But it’s not easy and never will be. Anything worthwhile comes at a cost. And when it comes, it completely redefines our lives. Not the world’s definition or my definition of what life should hold. He knew me from the foundation of the world and created a new name for me. One that’s completely unique and grounded in the gifts He’s given me.
God is my Savior but also my mentor, friend, companion, father, and the identifier of who I am and who He created me to be. A man with a purpose and a calling to spread the truth about the freedom available in an intimate relationship with Christ.
That knowledge is what motivates me to learn, write, teach, and speak about what truly matters - not what the world believes matters but what God, through me wants to demonstrate as the most important reason we are on this planet. To love God and to love others with the same self-sacrificing love shown by Jesus as he lived among us.
Every man carries a wound. I have never met a man without one. No matter how good your life may have seemed to you, you live in a broken world full of broken people. A wound that goes unacknowledged and unwept is a wound that cannot heal.
I started writing just for fun, blogging and tweeting. Then I got the assignment from above to go deeper into my healing journey by authentically chronicling that journey. Writing somewhat of a memoir that highlighted the detours I took but also the redemption of a life yielded to Christ. I can see there's more to come. All will be a testament to what's available to those who choose a different path - one focused on pursuing life in Christ.
The greatest spiritual growth in my life came after the greatest failures. A 38-year marriage and a crumbling business. God introduced me to another way. A way that would help peel back the layers of the onion of my life. It started in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at a ranch called Crooked Creek. God met me there in the most intimate way possible. Through the ministry of Wild at Heart and in the most unlikely manner. My life would never be the same.
That's a great question. No way to capture that answer here in a few sentences. Explore for yourself. Here's a pretty good start though:
Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob — has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation".