From a small town I went away to a big city to attend college. My sights were set on high goals – academic, personal achievement, leadership, etc. Religion had always played a role in my goals and I did know Christ as Savior, yet my goals were all about Me, Me, Me and More, More, More.
Pretty quickly I discovered that I could not live up to my own goals, let alone God’s perfect goals and standards. How often I let myself down! In every goal, I didn’t just narrowly miss the mark – I completely blew it and became very frustrated. Life was all about me.
In the midst of my frustration, a student named Jim stopped by my dorm room one day and offered to pray for me. Jim – who led a Bible study on campus sponsored by Cru – was one of the first people I’d ever met who, when he prayed, seemed to connect with Someone sitting right there in the room with us. I felt peace.
Ever so slowly it dawned on me: When I depend on myself to live the Christian life, I will naturally be frustrated. Yet, when I depend on God through the power of the Holy Spirit to live the Christian life through me, I can experience His forgiveness and joy.
This began a slow process of change for me. From there I began to get involved in Jim’s Bible study and later, as a student, went on several missions projects with Cru.
Upon graduation, I joined Cru in 1992, serving my first year in Slovakia, helping to launch a new university ministry. Shannon and I met in 1995 and married in 1996. We have three children: Avery (1999), Addison (2002) and Toby (2004).