![]() After all, I’ve been to seminary and served on a pastoral staff, and like a lot of other Christians, I’ve heard some of the best Bible teaching anyone could possibly hear. Still, it’s embarrassing to think about how far I actually wandered before God got my attention again. I’ve counseled enough people over the past thirty years to know that getting off track is a common problem. My hope is that if you hear the inside story - and the rest of the story - it might inspire you to draw closer to God and to experience the same renewal, refreshment, and revitalization that I have experienced… If this were only my own story of wandering away from God, it might be of limited use or interest, but I have seen the same principles - both positive and negative - played out in the lives of so many of the people I have counseled over the years, people who have read my books and attended my seminars. ![]() I was miserable, and I wasn’t sure if I could ever regain the joy I had once known.įortunately, that’s not the end of the story… Though I achieved just about everything I could possibly want in a material sense, I lost life’s satisfaction and the enjoyment of God’s blessings for a period of about ten years. I know firsthand what it feels like to succumb to the temptation for more things, more money, more recognition, more comfort, and more leisure. If our guard is down, we can easily fall prey to the whims of the world. These voices grow louder and louder, and soon we ignore the voice in our spirit that cries out, “No! We don’t need more things we just need more of God.” As Jesus said, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” We begin to believe that we need more to be happy. There are so many voices in our culture that compete with God’s voice for our attention. If the truth be told, we’re all susceptible to drifting. The results were a major spiritual and emotional burnout and some very serious physical problems. Along the way I had stopped relying on God and began to lean heavily on my own understanding and my own resources. I was angry, impatient, disappointed, and frustrated with a lot of things in my life - and I was under a ton of stress. ![]() I hadn’t intended to end up self-absorbed, physically sick, emotionally out of balance, and spiritually isolated, but that’s what happened. I open with this story because in a lot of ways it sums up a major crisis in my life that had encompassed my physical, emotional, and spiritual health for years. While they were working to stabilize my son’s condition, I was grumping and grousing in the next room about the inconvenience of having to wait. As the doctors removed the kidney that Michael was donating to me, one of his lungs collapsed and his situation became perilous. What I didn’t know was that at that very moment, in the room next door, my son Michael was fighting for his life. All I knew was that I was cold, uncomfortable, and apprehensive about the transplant and that I wanted to get it over with. I was in sort of a twilight zone, but it seemed as if I had been cooling my heels for hours - and patience had never been one of my strengths. The room was fairly cold and the nurses were bustling about doing what nurses do, not paying much attention to me. I was lying on a bed in a pre-op room, wearing one of those wonderful hospital gowns - you know the type. “What is taking so long?” I fumed as I waited for the doctors to arrive to begin my kidney transplant operation.
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