ChristAlive! Archives: Workplace & Family Life Balance

I sat down to lunch a few years ago with my friend, John. I told him, “John, I seemed to be in a rut. What can you recommend to help me grow in my relationship with God?” He gave me this verse, not the entire verse mind you, just the last six words: "… apart from me you can do nothing." He said, “Go pray about that for a while and then we can talk again.”

Even though my physical appearance seems to be “wasting away”, I have not lost heart, because day by day, I am being renewed inwardly. Because what I do for a living is incorporated with fulfilling my purpose for God, it’s difficult for me to visualize myself doing anything else. I love what I do and love the people I serve.

In the spring of 1997 my wife, Michelle, informed me that she was experiencing the early symptoms of Huntington’s Disease (HD) and wanted to be tested. HD is a hereditary, degenerative brain disorder that had not only claimed the life of her grandmother, but had also been passed on to her mother. A child of a parent with HD has a 50% chance of acquiring the gene.

There is a song we sing in CIC called Come Follow Me. In the refrain it says, “Leave all behind and follow me.” Last year, as my wife, Michelle, and I prepared to make the move from Arizona to Iowa to a much smaller home, we found ourselves getting rid of many possessions... Something told us that the list of things Jesus was calling us to leave behind probably went further than a dining room set, couch and pool table.