Finding My Way Home - A Christian Testimony

The plans which I had made during those initial months of active duty went exactly according to schedule. I served my three years for the Navy, I received my MS degree from William and Mary in August 1975, and I was released from active duty on the last day of October in 1975. After satisfying our military obligation, Linda and I followed the next job and moved our family to the Washington, DC suburbs. There, I began to apply my Math and Computer Science skills in the Nation's Capitol as a Department of Defense contractor. Over the next nine years, I worked seven years at the Washington Navy Yard and two at the Pentagon.

While at the Pentagon, I learned about a new way to apply my services, a way which provided a unique opportunity for one in my profession. That new method for doing business offered immediate appeal, and because of its entrepreneurial flavor, I liked the idea of being a consultant almost from the very beginning! My opportunity to enter that unique realm of employment, hence to work as a consultant and be my own boss, happened something like this. When I had worked at the Navy Yard, I had developed a fairly well known expertise in Math and Computer Graphic applications. I had even been specially picked out of a group of about seventy-five other analysts to be the technical leader of a high-level Navy DOD program. But in 1982, shortly after completing my specialized training for that project, I decided to switch jobs and go to the Pentagon.

Two years later, in March 1984, I discovered that no one had filled my vacant position at the Navy Yard on that special project. So since I had been away for nearly two years and because the job was still open, I knew that I could easily go back. However, I did not want to merely return to my old Government Agency, to my old boring, relatively unprosperous position, just to do the same old job! I wanted something more, something a little more exciting and something a lot more rewarding. Having learned about consulting while at the Pentagon, I knew that I wanted to be a consultant! Therefore, I approached the Contractor which supported that Navy Yard work and offered my services, not as an employee but as a sub-contractor. They took me on, and for the next six years, I sub-contracted myself to that Department of Defense Contractor and effectively ran my own business.

The Lord blessed me abundantly during those years. For the first time during our marriage, Linda and I could actually spend money somewhat freely. By my second year, I was already earning a six figure income, but the most significant part of those six years happened one Sunday morning, in May 1988 in Lynchburg, Virginia. We were at a motel, returning home from a business trip and getting ready for church. I was sitting in a chair, watching a televised church service from Thomas Roads Baptist Church. Reverend Jerry Falwell, the Pastor of the church, spoke during a brief church announcement about getting a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA), right in your own home. I had never before considered pursuing an MBA degree, but when Dr. Falwell mentioned "right in your own home," my ears perked up!

The time since my eventful December night in 1967 has been well over twenty-five years, and that is quite a long time. Yet, in all of that time, I have never seen God, and I have never audibly heard His voice. Instead, I have always felt something similar to an internal nudging, something moving me in a particular direction, and that day in Lynchburg was no different! I did not see the Lord, I did not audibly hear His voice, but I felt that same familiar nudge pushing me towards Liberty University and the degree that was being discussed on television. Because I desire to love the Lord with all my heart, mind, and soul, as He enables me to do so, and because I freely choose to serve Him, I immediately took steps to have myself enrolled into that MBA program. By the following Wednesday, I was already ordering courses.

As part of the enrollment process, I had to have my transcripts sent to Liberty University from Old Dominion University and also from the College of William and Mary. All of that was completed without incident, so a few weeks later, I received my first courses and began studying. Because I had not taken any Business courses up to that point, I had to take ten Undergraduate and twelve Graduate-level courses in order to earn that degree. All total, the work was very strenuous, and I needed a little more than five years to get everything done. Finally, in September 1993, I was awarded my second Masters degree, this time in Business and this time with a Grade Point Average of 3.441.

A few months before my 1993 graduation from Liberty University, I was casually looking over some of the paperwork which had been submitted during my original May 1988 enrollment. In so doing, I came across the transcript information which had been originally supplied by my two earlier schools. I looked at the 2.433 Grade Point Average from ODU and the 3.250 from William and Mary, and just as in 1973, I once again wondered about my low average from ODU. For all of those years dating back to 1972, I had questioned how I could have been so dedicated to my education, yet still have done so poorly. Even in 1993, twenty-one years later, my low average at ODU still puzzled me! This time, though, I took a second, more careful look at the actual numbers and almost instantly tears began to come to my eyes. I quickly grabbed my calculator to confirm what I already could not believe!

In 1967, when I had flunked out, my average had been 0.172. I had signed up for twenty-nine semester hours and earned only five quality points. The 0.172 average was computed by dividing five by twenty-nine. Five years later, I had graduated from ODU with a 2.433, and for that second time around, I had taken one hundred and twenty semester hours and earned two hundred and ninety-two quality points. Hence, two hundred and ninety-two divided by one hundred and twenty was correctly stated as 2.433. Now, though, recall the words that had been spoken to me on the 6th of November in 1967 at Old Dominion University by the President of Admissions! He had told me that I had a wall of "F"s against me which I could never overcome. As I looked at the numbers on my Liberty University enrollment receipt, I realized for the very first time after so many years that he had been exactly right! I quickly combined the two sets of numbers. I added twenty-nine to one hundred and twenty to obtain one hundred and forty-nine total semester hours attempted. Then, I added five to two hundred and ninety-two to get two hundred and ninety-seven total quality points.

Colleges always require at least a 2.000 average for graduation, and when my records were not brought together, a 2.433 average had obviously qualified. However, what happened when those records from both sessions at ODU were combined? The answer is simple! My combined average for the five-years at Old Dominion was two hundred and ninety-seven divided by one hundred and forty-nine, or 1.993. Because my overall average was too low, I should not have graduated! After twenty-one years of wondering about my low grades, I immediately understood. Because I had attempted one hundred and forty-nine semester hours of study, I would have needed two hundred and ninety-eight quality points to obtain the minimum 2.000 average, but I only had two hundred and ninety-seven! I was one point BELOW the minimum requirement for graduation. Hence, the President of Admissions really had been correct! I had not been able to overcome my wall of "F"s, and I should not have been allowed to graduate! In truth, the Lord had actually overcome those "F"s for me. It was not me, and it certainly had not just been good or even dumb luck!

To say that the Lord has been symbolic in dealing with me would be an understatement. In the early days after December 14th, 1967, when I was so charged up to take the Reserve Officer Candidate test, I had only passed that exam by one point. I was only ONE POINT ABOVE the minimum requirement, but that one point had been enough. Then, when I had graduated from Old Dominion in 1972, I was actually ONE POINT UNDER the minimum requirement, but the hiding of that one point had again been just enough. To me, the conclusion is obvious. I really should not have graduated from Old Dominion University, and my entire comeback really should not have happened! I cannot explain why the Lord did everything just the way He did. I also cannot say why He chose to hide my records under the cloak of an Administration foul-up, but the important part to me is that He did! The one point over happened just when I most needed it, and the hiding of the one point under happened just exactly when I most needed it, too.

I can honestly confess that I live a life which I do not deserve, that I have three degrees and am working on a fourth which I do not deserve, and that I have a decent career which I do not deserve. I should have never been granted my first degree or my Commission in the U.S. Navy, I should not have been allowed to attend William and Mary from 1973 to 1975, I should not have been admitted to Liberty University for the five years from 1988 to 1993, and I should not be allowed to pursue my Master of Arts degree in Religion and Counseling now. But I was, I have, and I am! On the 14th of December in 1967, I met the Lord Jesus Christ while driving hastily along a busy Interstate highway. At that time, He not only heard my desperate plea, but He changed my life and even the circumstances of my life forever! Therefore, the moral to my story is very profound, yet incredibly simple:

"Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will freely pardon."

I am genuinely thankful for the second chance at life which I have received, but getting a second chance at this life was not my chief gain that night on the Interstate. The person who had lived inside me before the 14th of December in 1967 had been desperately miserable, terribly evil, and also a great failure. The new person, whom I became on that evening, has for the most part been very happy and also enjoyed a relatively successful existence. Yet, more than any of those positive benefits of happiness and worldly success, my greatest return over all of these years has been the peace and right relationship which I have experienced and enjoyed as a result of personally knowing the Lord. For that peace and right relationship that I possess with Him, both of which have carried me from then until now, I am most profoundly grateful! To God be the glory for the good things which He has done.

To God be the glory for the good things which He has done.