What effect does your faith have on your lifestyle?

My decisions, relationships, actions, and thoughts are determined by my faith in Jesus Christ. I think everyone’s way of life is determined by what they believe, whether they realize it or not. Some of the tangible things that I can recognize as a result of Jesus’ presence in my life are the fruits of the Spirit that He is continually growing in me. This wasn’t always the case. I used to be a people pleaser—my level of joy ebbed and flowed according to how the world reacted toward me. I realized that when my identity was found in my performance, my life was extremely fragile. Now that I have set my foundation firmly on God alone, I know Who I’m playing for and what I’m living my life for. No other voices have power over my life.

Describe how your Journey with Christ began.

I grew up in a Christian household, going to a Christian school through grade 5. When I was in Kindergarten I vividly remember my teacher, Miss Alyce Kurecki, teaching us about the Lord. She asked if anyone wanted to accept Jesus into their heart and I raised my hand. She then took me onto the patio of the school and we prayed together. It was there that I accepted the salvation of Christ. However, at that time I wasn’t able to fully understand what it meant to be a Christian or who Christ was. Fast forward to high school. During these years I was blessed to meet with a man named Rodney Ring every Wednesday morning for breakfast before school. Over breakfast, he sowed into me what it means to be a Christian. He taught me how to study Scripture, remember verses, and seek after God. While he was feeding me great teaching, I was still living the worldly life outside of Sunday morning church and Wednesday morning Bible study. I hadn’t fully given my heart to Christ. In college, I met my future wife. We were off-and-on for a while but had just decided to commit to a relationship with each other and we wanted to please the Lord in that. But we slipped up a few times. One day, I walked into my girlfriend’s apartment and found her crying…she was pregnant. At that moment, we both decided to confess our sins to the Lord and commit both our lives and our relationship to Him. We stopped living the lives that we had been and started living solely for the Lord. Soon after that we were married; weeks after that we were blessed with our first daughter.

Who have been the mentors in your life? How did God bring these people into your life?

I grew up without a father, but my mother’s dad was extremely influential in my life. In fact, many of the men on my mom’s side of our family were great leaders and role models who I looked up to. Together with my high school football coaches, they taught me what it meant to be a strong man. It’s because of these men that I am the man I am today.

What does the Increase of Christ mean to you?

Complete surrender. The more you are willing to surrender—even when it’s uncomfortable—to Christ through prayer and spending time with Him, the greater impact He will have in your life and through your life. It’s about having constant relationship with Him, not prioritizing Him just for Sundays or before-meal blessings, but by daily walking in His Spirit. When we do this, we are more easily able to ignore the worldly things that we selfishly thought we desired, and instead we are able to be led by Him, allowing the Lord to have full reign over our lives for His glory.

What is your life verse and why?

Jeremiah 29:13 says, “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find Me.” This is my life story. I wanted to know who God was, but I was not seeking after Him. When He gave me a wake-up call, I sought after Him and discovered what it means to live life to the fullest in the joy of our God.