Growing up, I was considered a pretty good kid. Solid A’s, never in trouble, represented my family to the community well. Pretty good altar boy.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I gave my life to our Lord. And almost in an instant, he lifted some of his protection from me.

I fell into some addictions. God did so many amazing things for me during that period — but it culminated with me on my knees, begging God to give me the desire to even want to change. To show me his way.

He answered my prayers. He took me from thinking I had it together, to understanding I am totally reliant on him.

But my head was hard.

Nearing the end of college, I made some life choices and plans. They worked well. I reworked my goal of having a decent job and getting married by 30, to building a business and retiring by 30. I did well.

I remember driving to the office early on a Sunday morning just before my 30th birthday — we had a good suitor for the business — and God asked me why I wasn’t going to church on Sundays anymore. I was busy, and a lot of people depended on me. But I had learned to trust him — so I asked him to show me a better way.

And in almost an instant, he lifted some of his protection from me. The company was gone — not sold, but closed. Vanished.

He took me from thinking I had it together, to understanding I am totally reliant on him.

The pattern keeps repeating.

So now for twenty years, God has been showing me his way. I still have a pretty hard head — so lessons others may have learned early, I have spent a career learning. Bit by bit, the Holy Spirit is transforming my life, and moving me from thinking I have it together, to relying totally on him.

How God prepared Moses: Somebody → Nobody → God’s Nobody.

That is the pattern. It doesn’t stop.