About

My journey with Christ began with the sinner’s prayer one night, at age 6 while we were supposed to be quiet and going to sleep, when my older brother convinced me that Heaven was a better eternal destination than Hell. I whispered the prayer because I was so conscientious and knew that Mommy had told us to be quiet, so as my brother drifted off to a blissful dream-filled sleep after helping me be saved from eternal damnation, I was struggling with whether the prayer counted because I was disobeying when I prayed it out loud. After a restless night, I stumbled out of my room and distinctly remember an invisible weight falling on my shoulders as I passed through the doorway. The weight was, the responsibility that I had to be good, now that I was a Christian.

This view of God and my relationship with Him continued for eight years, as I continually attempted to measure up to the impossibly high bar I assumed God had set for me. This mindset was not the fault of my parents, my Dad preached a sermon, Are you Married to Christ, at least 100 times all over the nation. The summary of the sermon, from Romans 7 was, our relationship with Christ ought to be a love relationship, not one that is stuck under the law. Even though I heard the sermon, I wasn’t getting the point.

One night as I approached my house after spending a night on the streets evangelizing with brothers from church, it suddenly dawned on me that if I had been the only human to ever live, Christ would have still died for me. This realization awoke in me the realization of God’s unconditional love and His desire to be in an eternity-long love relationship with Him.

This transformation set the trajectory of my life, towards hungering and thirsting after righteousness, with the transformed goal of growing in my love relationship with Christ, instead of just trying to please Him through my spirituality. I soaked up anything on the topic of spiritual vitality and just longed for everyone to experience the level of ecstasy that I now knew with Christ. I can honestly say that each day is a journey closer to the heart of God and my love for Him grows continually.

I feel so humbled and amazed that God saw fit to give me the world’s best wife. I get overjoyed whenever I think about the man I was, compared to the one I am today because of God’s grace flowing through her to transform my life. She so perfectly completes me by being everything that I am not, when I am too focused on the forest, she reminds me to see the trees. When I am making decisions that negatively affect someone who is vulnerable she helps me return to the straight and narrow, the way of love.

Gracious Defender of Mankind

The moment I realized that this precious child was developing inside of Diane, my perspective on life changed. I realized in a fresh way, the father heart of God and the real impact of each of my decisions on the future generations. When I finally got to hold this tiny bundle of joy, these feelings and a flood of others coursed through my being. Now that she is growing so fast, the moments seem already to be fleeting. I am amazed by the way that she looks forward to our monthly dates. It’s also a joy to learn and help to shape her worldview. The other night when I was starting our bedtime prayer, she stopped me and told me that she already prayed and didn’t want to pray, because she doesn’t “want too much prayer.”

Excellent Messenger of God

As a father, to have a son is to have a mirror in which to see both your individual strengths and weaknesses as well as those contributed by your wife. In Sterling I see a servant leader who loves people especially when he can serve them in some way, but if anyone, including me, gets in the way of his grand visions for his life at any given moment, beware. He loves his sisters and when he remembers, he’s an excellent protector. Although he’s young, he’s maturity is amazing.

Shining Brightly with Hope

When Emberly came into the world in the middle of the COVID-19 era, there was much need for hope, and she definitely brought it. Her joy for life, even though it comes with a trickster’s attitude, is such a blessing to our family and beyond. She currently takes great joy in congratulating herself through a big smile and clapping, when she does something that brings us joy.

Meadow to Dance with God

Our youngest member joined us in January of 2023. She brings us plenty of joy, she’s just learning to scoot around and starting to make a lot of noise.

Her life song….

Lord of the Dance-

I danced in the morning
When the world was begun,
And I danced in the moon
And the stars and the sun,
And I came down from heaven
And I danced on the earth,
At Bethlehem
I had my birth.
Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said he
I danced for the scribe
And the pharisee,
But they would not dance
And they wouldn’t follow me.
I danced for the fishermen,
For James and John
They came with me
And the Dance went on.
Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said he
I danced on the Sabbath
And I cured the lame;
The holy people
Said it was a shame.
They whipped and they stripped
And they hung me on high,
And they left me there
On a Cross to die.
Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said he
I danced on a Friday
When the sky turned black
It’s hard to dance
With the devil on your back.
They buried my body
And they thought I’d gone,
But I am the Dance,
And I still go on.
Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said he
They cut me down
And I leapt up high;
I am the life
That’ll never, never die;
I’ll live in you
If you’ll live in me –
I am the Lord
Of the Dance, said he.