Chapter 13: A Light On My Path

Page 34

Jackie and I moved to Elk River, Minnesota in 1973 where our kids

wouldn’t be bused in three separate directions all their school lives. I soon left Bunker Ramo and restarted a local electronics repair business out of my home. I already had all the equipment and it was an easy start up. For the next five years, the business was in various phases of development. It had

evolved into the manufacturing of a security system I designed, but all was not well financially. The business was always under capitalized. I can tell you that business is always fraught with difficulties that will challenge any person’s mental sanity. I tried every business skill I learned in business

journals and books. What could go wrong did go wrong and I was rapidly headed towards bankruptcy. I had struggled for many years in business and Jackie was sick of it all. She even threatened a divorce as we entered 1978. Both my business and home life were under some serious stress.

I have always been a possibility thinker. I enjoy the intellectual tests that confront business people. However, I was overextended and had run out of options. I had used up every bit of mental, physical and emotional power I could muster. About a year and a half earlier I had been given a

tape of Earl Nightingale’s Strangest Secret. It sat on the shelf until one day in May 1978, the thirty-second year of my life. I picked up the tape and decided to listen to it for reasons I cannot recall. Within the tape, the author cited the words of Jesus contained in Mark 9:23.

“Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” Mark 9:23 KJV

I recall the initial shock and disbelief that those words were actually in the Bible. I went and found a Bible and opened it to that scripture. I had been living life to the best that I was able to do with everything of my own personal being. In other words, I knew intellectually I had reached my own

internal capacity and that it was simply not enough. I thought there had to be something in life that I was not factoring in, something that would make a difference. God was showing me that life could be different with Him at that particular moment. I felt God’s awesome presence and I simply knew God

instantly in a moment of time throughout my whole being. I’ll never forget the moment. It would change my life instantly and forever.