Where My Story Begins
Many years later, engulfed in sadness, seemingly losing everything I loved and had worked so hard to achieve, I remembered I had encountered the power to change everything I was facing. In our greatest moments of powerlessness, we often discover we have the solution to our life problems already within us. Self awareness is an amazing pathway to the power we will need to survive, long before we need it. No, I did not have the blues when I walked down America’s iconic Beale Street in 1990 on a visit to Memphis, TN. That came later–when the great sadness literally broke my heart and I needed power to stay alive for another day.
My Ordinary Life and Early Mentors
I was 26, and a married seminary student with a wife and three children I loved. They were back in Springfield, Missouri while I journeyed to Memphis. I was going to school in The Ozarks, far from my childhood home in Western New York. Our twenties are a time of discovering our purpose, trying new things, and learning. In my third decade of life, my goal was to become a teacher of spirituality, and to coach people to reach the peak of their potential. Spirituality is an important part of my life. It is not the only part; far from it. Life is complex. Simplicity is the goal. This blog is not just for the religious or the spiritually-minded. It is actually a journey to the peak of our potential as a diverse race of humans.
It was the quest for truth, personal change, and hunger for knowledge that led me to the city of Elvis and Graceland. My father loved Elvis and should have visited Memphis. He didn’t. Yet, there I was with my friends Roger Best, and Steve Smallwood (also my pastor) to hear John Wimber, founder of The Association of Vineyard Churches talk about life, healing, and God. John was a role model to me, yet I was about to meet someone who would impact my life for years to come.
From 1992-2015, my life was a ‘best of times, worst of times” story of the ups and downs of having a heart to love people and help them discover meaning, healing, and progress in life while also building a successful career in business. I experienced victory, defeat, love, and betrayal. Twenty-three years later, laying in a hospital in Rochester, New York in July 2015 with a health crisis changed me forever as my mind drifted back to Memphis.
An Adventure Begins
Gorgeous weather, the aroma of ribs, and the sound of great blues. A perfect environment for a conference. On the speaker list at the conference in 1990 was Steve Sjogren from Cincinnati, Ohio Little did I know it, but the talk he gave was about to change me forever. His stories about being servants to reach people through love, acceptance, and forgiveness got planted in my mind for life. It is like a song that I hear and just cannot stop singing. Steve challenged us to go out into our city and radically demonstrate love to change the world. I took him seriously.
These three words became the foundational thought of the next 23 years of my life. In my work with people as their spiritual guide and life coach, I often said those words–love, acceptance, and forgiveness. Answering the call to transform lives is my passion. Love, acceptance, and forgiveness is the power to change everything. Everything including the horrible pain I experienced on the road to recovering everything I had ever loved, cared about, or worked for.
