Raised in a Baptist home, my grandmother, a minster of profound charisma and spiritual vigor, often spoke most clearly on Sundays, "if you don't go to church service this morning to feed the spirit, then you don't need to eat dinner tonight to feed the body." I learned very quickly that there are things in life that just need to happen. Out of a strong curiosity of spirituality and out of a profound desire to eat later, I elected to go to service. As a youth, it became very clear that life would not always provide the most opportune avenue for development. Those difficult times became the foundation for lessons later developed. The struggles that I saw in early years helped me to cultivate an enriched sense of gratitude for simplicity and the earnest efforts of others on my behalf. Life provided me lessons in appreciating every kindness. By Grace and the strong will of a mother who accepted nothing less than all she knew I was capable of, I learned lessons of humility and strength and endurance from the world's harshness and cruelty. "Good better best, never stop to rest, until your good is better, and your better is best." Life in service to those around me became a foundation for my development. As a young man, progression in the ranks of Active duty service in the USMC, both as enlisted and later as an officer, became my avenue for assisting others and ensuring their development as well as ensuring the proper development of myself. That tradition is still a part of my life today almost 20 years later. During such time, I have met some of the most charismatic and wonderful folks, devoted to service, and to each other. A continued focused study of biblical scripture and behavior sciences at Grace Bible College allowed me to look closely at what prompts an individual to make the choices in their lives, and what was utilized in setting priorities in one's life, and how that corresponds to what is directed for us according to the will of God. In all of it, I am humbled, and in truth I am privileged and blessed to have the borrowed breath that I still hold. I pray to do more with it for others than I could ever do for myself. If I can write a single passage or capture just one photograph that allows the smallest window of opportunity for you to see how blessed you are, even though your life right now may seem so very out of place, then I have again found my focus. There has been only one righteous, and that puts the rest of us in a category all together; I love the simplicity of that.
