Grab your coffee and pastry. We'll start with something light.

This being my very first blog post, I figured I'd start from the...well...the start. I know that, at least to most, I'm a new acquaintance, and hopefully in the near future, a friend. Therefore, let's begin by getting to know each other. You have no way of knowing this, but I'm laughing to myself about how cheesy that last sentence was! Let's face the facts; this is a pretty one-sided conversation! While I look forward to getting your thoughts and comments as this blog grows and matures, that may take a while. Nevertheless, I will do my part.

An Odd Beginning...Considering the Results

Have you ever read a book by your favorite author and formed a picture in your head of what that author's life was like? Of course! I know I have. For example, many years ago I was given a copy of a two-in-one book by Frank E. Peretti. The two books were called "This Present Darkness" and "Piercing the Darkness." I was absolutely blown away by the way Peretti wove the natural world and the spiritual realm together in such a way as to suck me into the story so deeply that I actually stayed up all night to finish it! I simply couldn't force myself to put it down.

Once I finished those two books, I felt as though I knew something about Frank Peretti and the way he grew up. I just knew I had him pegged! First off, he was obviously a genius for whom the stories came free and easy into a settled and tranquil mind. I was sure that he probably had the luxury of hammering out his novels in a postcard-quality mountain hamlet much like those in his stories. And, I was certain that when he wrote his first book, he probable had several publishers fighting for the honor of introducing the public to this hero of literature!

The truth, when I finally researched it, was nothing like I thought! In fact Frank Peretti overcame, slogged through, and climbed out of life's troubles just like we all must if we're to be successful at anything. It would be worth your time to take a look at Frank Peretti's life story for yourself. It made me feel better about my own struggles.

When I meet people who find out that I'm a theology professor and a writer, they tend to see me through similar lenses to the ones I once saw Mr. Peretti through. However, they would be far more mistaken than even I was! When they do finally hear what my original profession was, I get some very odd looks. All that being said, here goes.

I was born in a very small town in Rural Southwest Florida. That town was best known for its vast orange groves and cattle ranches than anything having to do with sand and surf. When I was five, my father took over the management of a grocery store in an even more rural, and even smaller town 30 miles to the south. This town also had orange groves and cattle, but was more famous for its All Florida Championship Rodeo.

As I grew up, the joke was, if you wanted to do anything other than riding horses or angry cows, you pretty much had to go out of town! In fact, the biggest thing to happen there was in 1989, when we finally got a Taco Bell! That little place was absolutely mauled by the throngs of bored cowboys for months! Then, we got a Wal-Mart Supercenter. The town was really growing then...except for the small businesses, which were folding up faster than the Chinese chairs sold in the Supercenter's housewares isle.

When I was fourteen, a deacon at our church asked me if I wanted to earn some money doing a job at his slaughterhouse. I jumped at it. If I could earn enough to buy real Levi's instead of wearing the cheapo jeans they sold at the Supercenter, I was willing to do anything!

When I arrived, he handed me a shovel and said, "I need you to dig me a blood pit."

Well, I did say I was willing to do anything, so I dug...and dug. It was hard work, but I stuck to it and impressed the man enough that he asked me if I wanted to come in a few days a week to help clean up. He also offered to let me work at his ranch, which was directly across the road from the high school, on the other three days after school. Forgive the obvious pun, but I was in hog heaven!

Eventually, and though it seemed to take forever at the time, I was probably the only eleventh-grader in town who was capable of killing, skinning, gutting, splitting, quartering, cutting, and wrapping any animal on two or four legs--including alligators. I loved my work, and I was good at it. I felt as though my career almost picked itself, so I completely ignored my teachers who told me I had talent as a writer. I actually hated writing at the time. Besides, I was getting what I thought was a lot of money for playing with knives; a very reputation-building thing for a kid in a cow-town.

At this point, I will skip a lot of life that I can tell you about later. Fast forward 30 years, and my decision to ignore my teachers wasn't nearly as genius as I thought at the time. My back, hands, feet, knees and elbows hurt something fierce, and the sudden emergence of a nerve condition that only accentuated all those pains, finally forced me to retire from that career well before I was emotionally and financially ready.

Through lots of prayer and discussion with my wife, I decided that I would go to a Bible college to use my time wisely since, for a list of reasons too long to get into now, I could no longer work at any physically taxing job. I poured myself into it and spent 6 years getting a Theological Master's Degree. Then, I began teaching at that same school. I eventually left that school and began writing full time, though I still teach a few classes here and there, and speak at various events on a variety of subjects.

I have now published 5 titles and I am in the process of converting those books to audiobook. I am also working on a full-length novel as well as other theological study guides.

It has certainly been an odd journey from butcher to theologian and writer, but one must come to grips with a truth of life that God has been teaching me for a while now:

Sometimes God requires us to take a U-turn before He can send us to our destination!