“If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.”

- The Apostle Paul

Paul wrote these words in prison when his life hung in the balance. In 2003, I was diagnosed with cancer, and saw my life hang in the balance. That summer, Paul’s words became my life vision: “If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.”

So far, I’m still living in the body, so I want to spend my life in fruitful labor for things that last. For me, that means raising my family and serving the church. I believe the local church is the hope of the world, and God has called me to use my days to serve it and develop its leaders.

Along the way I have realized that God called me to this great purpose not because of what I would do for the church, but for what God, through the challenges of ministry, would do in me. But that’s another story.