CHAPTER ELEVEN

The Saga of Two Good Men

Recently, I was privileged to hear remarks made by two men who spoke at a National Day of Prayer event in Washington, D.C. Only men were present, and the testimonies we heard touched everyone who attended. I’m going to share their personal stories with you because I believe they will hit near where you live.

We’ll hear first from Russ Branzell. He has served in numerous health-care leadership positions, including his present assignment as CEO/President of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).¹ He also served in the U.S. Air Force for twenty years. He is married to Kathy and they have two children, Chandler (20) and Emily (16).

Then Craig Dance will share his story. He is the owner and president of Champion Coach.² He is married to Hazel and they have three children, Matthew (21), Jacob (18), and Anna (16).

Both Kathy and Hazel are deeply committed Christians, and as you will see, they have been influential at critical times in their husbands’ spiritual walks. Thus, these two transcripts will have “takeaway value” not only for men but for women, too.

I admire these two families and appreciate them allowing me to invade their private lives.

Comments by Russ Branzell

Good morning. I want to begin my comments today with a verse that will be the basis for what I will share with you. That passage is, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Prov. 3:5).

My story begins with my answering a call to salvation back in the late seventies. Then there was a long period of apathy from then until 2011. Those were what I call “the dark years.” I wasn’t living for anything but myself. The reason for my lack of growth was that I had an addiction. I wasn’t involved in drugs, alcohol, or sex. I was gripped by something even more addictive than that. Millions of men are afflicted with it, and I was a carrier. Here are some of the symptoms of this disorder. It is the tendency to become overcommitted and driven for success, and the hunger for promotions, and the lust for power, money, and more “stuff.” I had a poor relationship with my wife and kids; I had no really good friends. I was in debt, especially from my abuse of credit cards, and I wanted more cars and houses. It was always a desire for more, more, more.

I was depressed almost every day. I was overweight, and consequentially, I was hypertensive. I was also prediabetic, and all my lab tests were out of whack. Generally, I was a miserable human being. You know people like that. They are all around us. Their lifestyle reflects the desire for pleasure of all varieties. I had this addiction for three decades and it controlled me.

Finally in 2011, I’d had enough. Rephrase that. God had had enough. Have you ever had Him tap you on the shoulder and talk straight to you? He sometimes speaks in a whisper, and then in a gentle voice. Occasionally, He hits you with a two-by-four. I can tell you that I have had many bumps on the back of my head. And the question He asked me in 2011 was quite simple. He said, “Do you trust Me? Do you really trust Me?” My answer was a little wishy-washy. I said, “Well, I kind of trust You.”

Many of you know my wife Kathy. She is committed to Christ like Craig’s wife, Hazel, is. We both “married up.” The Lord then said to me, “Tell Kathy everything. Come clean. Talk to her about your life. Talk about your stresses. Talk about your fears, your weaknesses. Admit everything your life has come down to.” As you would guess if you know Kathy, she said, “Let’s attack this together with God’s help.” She went straight to her knees and began praying for me. Then she said, “What are we going to deal with first on this list?” Then she answered her own question: “Let’s attack something tangible, such as our debt.”

We began talking about how we dealt with money. We signed up at our church for the Dave Ramsey class and sat in a room with a hundred people. I began to realize that we had as much debt as the rest of the class combined. Literally. When we completed our “Ramsey plan,” we saw that if we did everything right, we would be close to debt-free in five to seven years. So with a lot of strength from my wife, much prayer, and the Lord’s leading, we said, “Let’s do it. Let’s just follow the entire program.” The very first thing they taught us was to begin tithing.

Okay. Now, wait a second. This doesn’t make sense, does it? I’m knee-deep in debt and the first thing I need to do is begin giving money away? The leaders didn’t just want me to start tithing. They told me to begin giving above that level. Start giving generously to the Lord. Test Him. Really? You want me to test the Lord? Well, that made no sense to me. But we checked it out in the Scriptures. And it was there in the Book of Malachi. It says to “test the Lord.” We began there.

In the next four months, two weird business deals that I had made were sold. I didn’t even know I had stock in them. Honestly, I didn’t. I was on the board for one of these companies and it was about to go under. I expected to never hear from it again. But these two companies sold, and in four months, our debt was gone. It was shocking to us. Every bill was paid! All we owed was the mortgage on our house, which is right in line with the Ramsey plan.

Now I don’t care if you believe it or not, but what happened was an amazing “God thing.” We were not only out of debt, but we were able to bless various ministries. We were able to help our church. It was very gratifying.

However, by early 2012, as with any powerful addiction, I began falling back into my old habits. So the Lord brought out the two-by-four. Again, He said, “Do you really trust Me?” I had a little more confidence this time, and I said, “Yes, Lord. What do You want of me?”

He said, “I want you to start rebuilding your family. I want you to make new friends. I want you to develop a relationship with your son, your daughter, your wife, and your friends. I want you to build friendships with people you can lean on because this is going to get tougher, not easier.”

I said, “Okay, Lord.”

Today I have a much better relationship with my family. I have some great friends, and I can pick up the phone or text them and they will be right there for me any time of the night or day. When you’re struggling, and when you’re tempted, when you just need a friend, they’re there. But that was a difficult process. I had to give a lot of myself to get there.

Out came another two-by-four. The Lord said again, “Do you really trust me?”

At that time, I was very fortunate to be invited to a golf tournament called the Payne Stewart Cup. Payne had a wonderful walk of faith near the end of his life, and he and his friends organized a golf tournament in St. Andrews, Scotland. I thought it was just a bunch of guys going to play golf with some cool PGA pros. I had no idea this was a men’s ministry. The pros included Wally Armstrong, who has written books on faith, and Bill Rogers, who won the ’81 British Open Championship.³ We played some good golf, but it was actually about one thing. They asked the participants, “Do you have a personal friendship/relationship with Jesus Christ? Is He the person sitting right next to you in everything you do in your life?” To be honest I don’t remember the golf. All I remember is I was changed. I came back and said, “I’ve got to discover who this person is.”

My calling was to sanctification, which means becoming like Christ, and to follow Him. There was an overwhelming longing in my soul. And I changed unbelievably. I asked myself, “Can I really have a personal relationship with the God of the universe? Can He be my Savior?” No, that’s not possible. He’s a mystical being way out there somewhere who forgave me of my sins and my name is written in a book, but that’s a long way off. But then I learned that He is not a million miles away. He’s beside me. What He wants is a relationship with me. So that was the next step in this journey.

Well, the process continued. In late 2012, the same question came up again, “Do you really trust Me?”

I still had many of the same addictions I had struggled with for years, including overwork, stress, and fatigue. I was absolutely driven to succeed in my job. During this time, I had been promoted to CEO over a portion of our company and was handling three senior executive assignments simultaneously. I averaged seventy-five to ninety hours of work per week. Many times I was away twenty-four/seven.

I told you I was a carrier of this addiction, and I’m sure some of you are, too, although you may not be aware of it. Let me ask you. Have you ever sent an e-mail to a co-worker, or someone that reports to you, on a Sunday or a Saturday or in the evening? What are you telling them? Speaking for myself, I was telling them, “I expect you to work twenty-four/seven. I expect you to work ninety hours a week.” You know why? Because that’s the behavior I was showing them. I wasn’t telling them to honor the Sabbath. I wanted them to answer my e-mail on Sunday morning. I was expecting them to pour every ounce of their time and energy into work. I wanted my employees to be like me.

I had an extremely high-profile job, not only in Colorado but across the country. I had taken a relatively small portion of the company from about twenty million dollars in income to one hundred million dollars in about twelve months. It became a very fast-paced, highly successful business.

But then I heard from the Lord as loud as I’ve ever heard Him speak. He said, “This job will kill you.” I knew that was true. My work was going to destroy my walk with the Lord. It was going to wreck my relationship with my family, and it was going to keep dragging me back in the direction of my addiction.

Instead, I followed the Lord’s lead. I left the lucrative job and accepted another. From the beginning, I worked from my house in my jeans. I had dinner with my wife every night. I saw my daughter go off to school. I paid a price for the change financially, but my life took a huge leap forward. A huge leap forward.

So what have I done to replace the addictive behavior that seemed so important to me? I have a thirst to understand His significance. I have a peace I haven’t known. I am still like a recovering alcoholic who can’t drink. I still struggle occasionally with doubt and fear of failure, but I have a peace inside. I have found a reasonable balance in a job that I actually love. I have a better life every single day. I am debt-free. I am joyful, hopeful, and grateful.

My hypertension is gone. I take fewer medications at lower doses. My doctor was amazed and he said, “You have a lower blood pressure than you have had in ten years.” My prediabetes is gone. Gone. Every lab result is normal for the first time since 2003. I also have friends who are holding me accountable.

But like any other addict, the temptations are still out there. You probably deal with them, too. I believe Christian men are no different from the rest of society in this regard. If anything, they may have a greater struggle to succeed than those with no faith. We are driven to be without fault in this world. But we have to admit that we are vulnerable and we need to lean on each other to stay on the right path.

I still have to be careful about money. I sold my place and deposited the funds in the bank. Then I said to the Lord, “It’s Yours.” I want to invest in something that has significance. I knew the Lord wanted me to support a bus tour sponsored by the National Day of Prayer. I could have invested it in a 401(k). I could have invested it in retirement plans. But I have to ask myself, when I’m gone, will that money serve any purpose? I want to invest in my kids and in something that will revitalize my country. I hope I’ll be blessed with many grandkids someday. I want them to have a country in which they can still pray freely, where marriage is still valued. I want to help promote Christian principles and values.

So I leave you with a verse that I’ve carried in my wallet for thirty years now. It’s the same little piece of paper. I would take it out but it would probably fall into a million little pieces. I’ve read it every time I’ve changed positions and when I entered the military. It is so meaningful to me.

It says:

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:13, 14).

My simple prayer for every man here and for every man in this country, is that they will listen to God and really, really trust Him.

Thank you and God bless you all.⁴

Comments by Craig Dance

I’m honored to be standing in the presence of so many godly men this morning. This is my sixth year to attend the National Day of Prayer, and I feel a great sense of humility to be asked to speak today.

I’d like to tell you my story about God’s faithfulness in my life. Let me give you a little background. I was born and raised in a Christian home in South Carolina. I know no more godly man than my father. He set a tremendous example in our home as a leader, but it took a long time for me to follow him.

To say I was the black sheep of the family would be an understatement. I had three brothers and I suppose I was “The Least Likely to Succeed.” I went far astray as I was growing up. I wasn’t a really wild party animal or anything like that, but I was flunking out of college and making some other big mistakes.

Then I met and fell in love with Hazel and we were married. She is a wonderful woman of God and she actually began mentoring me spiritually when we were dating and continued after we were married. I began to get on the right track. However, I had always been a bad money manager and Hazel began talking to me about the concept of tithing. We had very little money in those days. I’m not one of those guys who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Sometimes I didn’t have a dollar to buy two hot dogs. So I told Hazel that we just couldn’t afford to give, and we didn’t.

Then one night in the late 1990s, my dad came by our house. At one point he said, “Son, until you grasp the concept of tithing, you’re going to struggle with it for the rest of your life.” And he challenged me very, very strongly on the doorstep of our home to read the book of Malachi, which speaks specifically about giving. He said, “Son, test God in this area of your life. The Scripture says that you can trust Him.”

For some reason, I heard it that day and I made up my mind that I would tithe thereafter even though we still had very little in the bank. So I started giving, and I want to tell you that God changed my life quickly. The Scripture says if He can’t trust you with a small amount, then you can’t be trusted with a lot. I didn’t really understand that, but I began to pay tithe on what little I had. And very quickly my life began to turn around.

Here’s how that happened. I grew up as a huge sports fan. I love sports and I wanted to be the next Brent Musburger, or the next Jim Nance. So as things started to get better in the late ’90s, I went to work for a bus company called Good News Express. I was with them for two years and I learned the business. I still didn’t have much money, but that’s when the Lord put a dream in my heart to start my own company.

I put together a business plan to cater to sports teams, and it was based on three pillars. First, I wanted to make a better life for my family and to provide for my children. Second, as I learned the lessons of giving, I wanted to be able to sow resources back into God’s kingdom and to give to the ministries I believed in. The third is that I wanted to make Champion Coach a very good place to work for drivers. I wanted to create an atmosphere of respect and kindness for them based on a decidedly Christian culture. Those were the three pillars of Champion Coach and that’s where we started.

I still didn’t have two nickels to rub together but this was my dream. Nevertheless, I was able to start Champion Coach in 1998, literally without a dime in my pocket. I borrowed one and a half million dollars at ten percent interest and financed the business for ten years. You do the math and tell me how we survived with no other capital. It was the grace of God.

We started operating with four buses in September. I took delivery of my eighth bus on December thirty-first, and we were on a roll. Champion Coach went from zero to eight buses in about ninety days. It took off from the first day.

I’m not going to tell you we didn’t have struggles, because we certainly did. As a thirty-one-year-old with no business experience, it was difficult to manage eight and twelve and then finally fifteen buses, with thirty drivers. We operated out of the basement of my house. I certainly made some bad decisions, but I can honestly say that we never missed a payroll. There was never a day that I wondered if we would make it. I always knew that the Lord would provide for us as long as we obeyed Him and maintained the pillar of sowing back into the Kingdom.

We became a very respected company throughout the country, having contracts with Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA, and college football and basketball games. Champion became the exclusive carrier for the New York Yankees and served the Super Bowl and the Final Four basketball events. I just couldn’t believe how God was blessing us.

Remember that I wanted to be a sportscaster but it never could have been. It wouldn’t work for me to travel three hundred days a year or to call a hundred and eighty baseball games a year, because I’m a family man. My priority was to be home with my family and be a good husband and a good father to my children. So I never could have done that. Instead, God called me to fulfill His perfect will for my life.

But there was a big challenge to come. On August 3, 2011, I received a call from one of our largest customers. He said, “I just heard from CBS Sports and they’re looking for a quality bus company. I told them to call you.”

I said, “That’s great. I’ll talk to them.”

Later that day, the executive director of CBS Sports called me. That was the beginning of several weeks of negotiations that involved our company. It was unbelievable. They brought me to CBS headquarters in New York where the details were laid out. They had the rights to the SEC championship game, the LSU Alabama game, the Masters Tournament, the Super Bowl, the Final Four basketball tournament, Major League Baseball, and many other national sporting events. It was everything I could have dreamed about. Champion Coach was to be “wrapped” and seen by millions of people on network television. The deal would continue for two years.

Finally, on the Friday before Labor Day, we reached an agreement with CBS Sports to make Champion Coach the CBS SEC Cruiser.

But it didn’t stop there. The president of CBS Television stopped me in the lobby of a hotel and said, “I want to promote CBS Television on a sixty-day bus tour and showcase our new fall lineup this summer. We want to visit all of our affiliates all around the country. We’re going to open the tour on national television with the Boston Pops Festival on July Fourth.” George said he wanted to talk to me about providing the bus to do this.

I said, “Wow, that sounds interesting.” But I began to feel uneasy. I was thinking, “Is this something I should be involved in?”

There is a distinct difference between CBS Sports and CBS Television programming, which produces trash and things my family won’t watch. Could I allow my bus to be wrapped with depictions of violence, scantily clad women, and other filth? This is not what Champion Coach has stood for.

I didn’t tell the executive about my reluctance. I just said, “Fine. That sounds great. We’ll talk about it.” It was clear that the sports deal and the television tour were connected, and George held the key to our 2012 deal with CBS Sports. It was a lucrative deal for us.

Negotiations moved on and George stayed in touch with me. In January 2012, he called and said, “We’ve got to get ‘The Buzz Tour’ off the ground.” He wanted to know what Champion Coach was going to do.

“Well, George,” I said, “I’ll be out in LA in February.”

That’s where CBS is based.

I said, “Why don’t I come out and we can talk about this?”

He said, “That’d be great! I’ll put you on the schedule.”

Hazel and I flew to Los Angeles and had lunch together. We prayed about the decision we faced, and then we went to CBS.

We met again with George. We discussed the deal but didn’t finalize it.

After leaving the meeting, Hazel and I again asked each other if this was something we could feel good about doing.

We returned to South Carolina and George began calling again and sending e-mails. Before I knew it, other executives from CBS were flying down from New York to our offices. They were bringing stars from television shows to our little office in Greenville, South Carolina. We continued to pray about all this and we just could not get peace that God gives us when we’re doing the right thing. It just was not there. But what would I do with CBS pursuing us? I thought maybe I’d send them the contract and raise the price so high they would never accept it. I wanted to take the easy way out.

I began seeking counsel from Christian leaders, including people who were wiser than I was: my father, my pastor and the chairman of Joni and Friends, and others. And we all began to pray and seek God’s will. We finally felt the Lord telling me to call CBS and let them know where we stood on the issues.

So I picked up the phone and I called the CBS president. I said, “George, it’s Craig. Listen, I need to have a heart-to-heart with you. I need to tell you where I stand. I’m a Christian. I’m born-again. And my company promotes good, honest, clean values in America.”

I said, “I just can’t align myself or my company with some of the things that you guys are producing there at CBS.” I said, “I’m mainly concerned about the wrap of the bus. What will it look like? What are you going to put on it? Is it going to include violence? Is it going to show scantily clad women? What it is going to be?”

He said, “Craig, we’re like-minded. You and I are like-minded.”

I’m sitting there thinking, “We are?!”

He said, “I would like to think that CBS does not have any shows like that. And no problem, we’ll work with you. You can have the final say on the wrap.”

Let me tell you why this businessman said we were like-minded and how he could say it so easily. It is because the popular culture accepts profanity, violence, sex, and homosexuality on TV. It isn’t shocking anymore.

So we finished our call and I went in and told my wife about it. We called our pastor and my dad again and we talked and prayed about the dilemma.

About that time the first wrap design on the bus came out, and it had a guy holding a gun. So I sent an e-mail to the designers and I said, “I talked to George about this. We cleared this. I won’t accept it.” So they sent another wrap. They took the bad stuff off.

But then I walked into Hazel’s office and I looked down at the entertainment section of USA Today. The headline read, “CBS unveils fall lineup for 2012.” We read the story. It said CBS will have a new show in the fall called Partners. And you can imagine what Partners was about… two gay men.

I knew at that point that we had reached the end of the road with CBS. So I sent an e-mail to the designer and I said, “Will Partners be promoted on our bus or in any way?” and the lady asked, “Is there a problem?” And I said, “Yes.”

This was around five o’clock in the afternoon. George was in LA. So I went home. I told Hazel what had happened and I said, “You know, we’re going to walk away from the deal. We’re going to walk. We’re going to stand up for righteousness and do what’s right here.”

So the next morning, I got to the office about eight o’clock and George from CBS television was on the phone. I answered,

“George, how are you this morning?”

He said, “Fine, Craig, and you?”

“Great.”

“Listen, Craig,” he said. These were his exact words: “Craig we have to compromise on this. We have to compromise.”

I sat down and took a deep breath and I thought, “Lord, help me.” I said, “George, there will be no compromise on this issue.” I said, “I told you where I stand, and I tell you, I think I need to move on.” I didn’t mention the topic of gays and homosexuality when I talked to him. I mean, it’s a touchy subject for people, particularly in the entertainment industry. And at the time CBS didn’t have any shows promoting gays that I could find, so I didn’t mention it. Now I was kind of in a bind, because I had waffled about it. But I said, “There will be no compromise. The Bible is clear. Marriage is between one man and one woman and we can’t compromise.”

I said, “I’ll be happy to let you out of the contract and I’ll walk away from it, but Champion Coach cannot do it.”

He said, “Craig, we’ll work it out. We’ll work it out. Call you back in an hour.”

I went in and told Hazel, “I think they’re going to work it out. They respect me.”

She said, “Honey, they respect you but you’ll receive another call shortly from George.”

And I did. He called me and said, “Craig, I respect your opinion but CBS cannot promote our shows for the views of one man. So we ask you to let us out of the contract.”

I agreed to it and said, “I’m sorry, George, but what Champion Coach stands for and what we’ve been promoting for fifteen years is far more important to us than the lucrative deal we’ve struck.”

I don’t know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars we would’ve received from CBS Sports, but it didn’t matter because I knew that the Scripture was clear on all the issues. There was no black and white. I mean… it was just clear and I was convicted. I knew it was time to take a stand for righteousness.

George told me as he hung up the phone, “Listen, Craig, I like you a lot. You can go ahead and do your deal with CBS Sports. You’ll be able to do that.” But I knew it was over. And so I hung up the phone and went in and I talked to Hazel. I told her what had happened and we were fine with it. There was the peace that God promises in His Word. It surpasses all understanding.

But there was one more thing I had to do. I had to make a phone call to all the guys at CBS Sports. They had been my friends. They had trusted me to take their vision for the CBS Cruiser into the 2012 season. They had placed a lot of faith in me and they knew I would get it done. And so I had to call them.

I didn’t look forward to that call because I thought they’d tell me I was an idiot and how could you do this to us? But the guy who had been planning the sports events, who is an atheist, was completely silent for a minute. Then he said, “Wow. I’ve never heard anybody put their money where their mouth is like that in all my life.” That is exactly what he said.

He continued, “I respect you and I hate it, but I will do everything I can to push the sports deal through in spite of this. I don’t know where the bureaucracy will fall but I will try to make it happen.” Each person I called treated me with respect.

I just want to say to all of you who are here today, that I want to encourage you in your business. If you’re in a moral dilemma like this and you take a stand for righteousness, you will not regret it. In the end, righteousness will prevail.

The year 2012 turned out to be the best year we’ve had in the history of Champion Coach. We didn’t miss the CBS money. Because of that blessing we’ve been able to take that second pillar to the next level. We provided buses for the Family Research Council, Joni and Friends, Family Talk, the National Day of Prayer, Focus on the Family, and others. We tested God, and He was faithful.

So this is what we’re doing now. Our new project is to promote prayer for America. This is all about righteousness and standing in the gap. I just want to leave you with one verse of Scripture that I read this morning: It says, “From everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him and his righteousness with his children’s children” (Ps. 103:17).

Securing righteousness for my children and their children is what it’s all about.

God bless you all.⁵

Weren’t those inspiring remarks from Russ and Craig? I want to thank them for sharing their personal stories with us, and for their willingness to reveal not only their triumphs along the way, but also the dark side of their journeys. I have included their accounts in this book because their experiences are highly relevant to other men. I have talked to thousands of guys of all ages, and I can tell you that those who are middle-aged or older usually harbor deep regrets about their priorities. Most of them understand that now. Younger men haven’t yet realized the mistakes they are making, but eventually they will. The details are different in each case, but the roads they have traveled look very familiar.

Those who have “Type A” personalities have bumped their heads on the same old rock. They began adult life with an unquenchable thirst for power, possessions, success, achievement, and position, which led to constant time pressure, exhaustion, marital conflict and/or divorce, and ultimately, alienation from children. If something doesn’t happen to turn them around, the end result will often be chronic illness, despair, and death. Russ saw that coming.

Let me speak directly now to young men, particularly, about another trap that lies in your paths. Read carefully, please. Whatever you ache for, whether it is money, status, glory, sex, influence, or all the above, I promise you that Satan will appear to offer it to you. He knows your vulnerabilities, and he will put what you lust for right in front of you. Then he will entice you to take it, as he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden. But as it was with her and later with Adam, you won’t get the prize without paying a dear price for it. You may even have to sell your soul to bring it home. You may begin to compromise your belief system, such as with dishonesty, sexual flirtation, excessive drinking, and exploitation of others. You might be among countless men who ignore the sexual and emotional needs of your wife. That can lead to your own inner loneliness, which gives rise to pornography, gambling, and other cheap thrills. It’s all part of the package.

Imagine the temptation Craig was under. He had within his grasp every possible business success he could have dreamed about. It came from one of the most powerful institutions ever built, CBS Television and CBS Sports. All he had to do was allow his company to be used to promote evil in various forms. The allure couldn’t have been more seductive. Thank God he had a great wife and father who stood by him during his trial by fire. He wavered for a moment, but then made the right decision in the nick of time. Now the Lord is blessing him abundantly—not just financially, but in his marriage, his personal life, and the spirituality of his children. How could CBS have competed with such rich benefits?

The good news is that men don’t have to self-destruct. Russ and Craig recognized where they were headed. Their wives were somewhere praying for them. Men are fools who won’t listen to the concerned voices of the women God gave them. That is one of the most important messages found in these two stories.

If I have sounded somewhat preachy in this commentary, please remember that I almost made the same mistakes when I was a young man. Opportunity beckoned me from every side, and I became almost drunk with its promises. Yes Sir, I was headed down the same rocky road. My wife Shirley helped to open my eyes and my father pulled me back from the edge. He got to the heart of the problem when he wrote, “Failure to win your children to Christ would make mere success in your profession a very pale and washed-out affair, indeed. But this prayer demands time—time that cannot be given if it is all signed and conscripted and laid on the altar of career ambition.”

I awakened in time to reverse course. Will you? That is my prayer for you.