I am blessed to have been born into a Christian home. Both of my parents were committed to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of life, and they have set life-long examples of Christian character, maturity, and faithfulness for me. They followed God's missionary call to Latin America, where I spent the first 15 years of my life. Spiritual concerns were central in our family life, from regular family devotional times to consistent participation in church life to my parents' encouragement of their children's personal devotional life.
I asked Christ into my life as Savior at the age of three or four, at my mother's knee. At age 14, I faced death in the remote mountains of Colombia in a terrorist attack that killed my best friend's father, Ernest Fowler, a missionary martyred for his faithfulness. During the attack, I was convinced that we would all be killed, and I faced up quickly to the reality of seeing Jesus face to face in a matter of minutes. The truth of Paul's words about death being gain were implanted in my mind, and I chose this text as a "life verse" a few months later:
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Phil. 1:20-21)
My Christian life since then has deepened, and it has been marked by both successes and failures. Nevertheless, the foundation of my life is my experience of Christ and commitment to the truth of his Gospel. My early college years were spent considering questions of how, specifically, God makes a difference in one's life; in time, the answer came not in an abstract formula but inextricably linked with the exercise of my personal faith. That is, the adequacy of my experience of God rested on my own active commitment to him and exercise of the spiritual disciplines, not merely an intellectual assent that he existed and made a difference of some type.
I was exposed in college to the idea of Christ's lordship extending to every area of life, and that has informed how I relate to God's world, to culture, to others. All of life is to be a never-ending quest to know the mind and character of Christ, to emulate these, to pursue the vertical and horizontal relationships commanded in Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18 and repeated by our Lord in his summary of the Law (Matt. 22:37-40). But, the Gospel is not for me alone; it is to be shared with those who have not heard it, consistently and well (Matt. 28:19-20).
I focused in college on the sciences, believing that God was calling me into medical missions, but God placed several markers in my path in the year after college that indicated a call to theological studies. During my master's work at Wheaton College, I seriously considered the call to pastoral ministry vs. the call to teaching, and was clearly led to pursue the latter. I have since then chosen a second "life verse" text, this one encountered in my Old Testament studies:
This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD. (Jer. 9:23-24)
My passion is to live a God-centered, Christ-centered life as indicated by my two "life verses." In all that I am and do, personally or professionally, my desire is to honor and glorify him, and to point people to him by word, attitude, and deed.
I am keenly aware of personal inadequacies in all of the areas mentioned above, as well as many others. However, it is by God's grace alone, and by the blood of Christ alone, that I will stand at the judgment seat and be welcomed into his presence, and I rest, marvel, and rejoice in his sacrifice for me. As Charles Wesley wrote in one of the greatest hymns ever written:
No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him is mine! Alive in Him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine, bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown through Christ my own. Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, should die for me!