Dear publisher,

We can sense it, can’t we? Maybe it’s the echo of the past, or perhaps it’s the divine
whisper catching the attention of our souls. Something is telling us there’s more. We want
it, but how do we get there.

In God Climbers, I share my own experience and the experience of others who’ve
reached for that something more in their relationship with God. And we’ve done so by
wrestling with the greatest source of strength and stability in our lives - our careers!

Yes, the Bible says there’s value in work as its ‘done unto Him’. That’s true. But then we
have Jesus’ command to share our faith and help others grow in faith. Plus there are the
New Testament passages about loving other believers in community. How can we hold
down jobs and fulfill these purposes of God? To do this, God Climbers proposes a
viewpoint shift from ‘work as an end unto itself’ to ‘work as a means to a greater end’.
To make this perspective real may mean a change or alteration to our careers so we’re
even more available to answer the Lord’s call.

I speak from my own experience and that of others who’ve grappled with how to do this.
There are difficulties in doing this and I try to be honest about that in my life and the lives
of those I’ve interviewed. But there are also tremendous payoffs that are worth the costs.
I balance Scriptural authority with practical reality; I also try to have some fun with the
subject matter. I aim to come across as an ordinary person trying to follow God with
passion.

I’ve been writing in the Christian market for the last nine years and have been published
in the top Christian magazines in the country, with combined total circulation of over 2
million. My stories have appeared in Focus on the Family magazine and a number of it’s
sister publications, Christianity Today, Christian Parenting Today, Plain Truth, Sports
Spectrum and others. Many are archived on the Internet.

I look forward to discussing God Climbers with you further. I love speaking about this
subject because it deals with how to experience the rich life God offers. To reach me
please write to clemboyd@sbcglobal.net; send letters to 3101 Springhill Rd.,
Beavercreek, Oh 45434; or call at 937-427-1876.

Thanks for your consideration. And I pray the Lord’s peace, direction and power as you
make your own climb.

Sincerely,

Clem Boyd
Clem Boyd
3101 Springhill Rd.
Beavercreek, OH 45434
clemboyd@sbcglobal.net

God Climbers - Chapter 1

Why am I thinking about this?

There’s a story told of a guy who worked 60-70 hours a week, rarely saw his family, was

a good father and husband when he was around, retired in his 60s and died a year or so

afterwards. The end.

For many of us that’s the story of our lives. Unless, of course, you’re reading these pages,

which means you’re not dead. And that’s good. Because while you’re still alive there’s

still the potential for change, if change is what you seek.

American life is about work. How many societies get as pumped up about something so

bland as ‘worker productivity’. Yet newspapers around the country will excitedly

announce surges in productivity as a sign of a robust economy. Or, conversely, that things

are going bad because productivity is down.

I’m not saying hard work is bad; it’s good. But have you ever wondered whether your job

was eating up a disproportionate amount of your life? Whether the really important things
in life might lie somewhere other than the corporate cubicle? Whether, if you made some

changes, you might have more time for your spouse and your kids, for a worthy cause or

a spiritual pursuit? If you answer no, thanks for reading this far, and best wishes. Perhaps

we’ll meet again someday.

But if, in the deeper recesses of your mind, you’ve begun to wonder whether work has

taken on too much importance and you need to make some changes, read on.

Crazy people

A few years back major media outlets were making a big fuss about how Generation X

(or maybe it was Y; possibly Z - I lose track) was trading in traditional American values

of working 60 hours a week, owning 4000 square foot homes and bolstering the gross

national product in favor of retreating to Walden’s pond, Thoreau’s creek or Brucker’s

breakdown. They were opting for counter cultural values of making time for friends and

family, living simply and not using up every natural resource known to man before their

grandchildren were born.

They wanted their lives to be value driven, rather than dollar driven. It didn’t really

matter if this was a major national trend touching millions, the point was this: there were

at least a few crazy people saying that significance in life could include careers, but had

something to do with life outside the office too. And that made headlines. That tells you

what a big deal it was in our workaholic society.

 **********

Many young people assume the ‘important’ part of their lives will be related to leaving

some kind of legacy in connection to career or public service - writing the great American

novel, perhaps, or landing a high profile job, or designing an important bridge or public

building or serving multiple terms on the school board. I had a buddy whose goal in life

was having a building named after him in his hometown.

Heading down the homestretch of my college career, my hopes and aspirations were

similar. My academic career reflected this viewpoint: pretty good GPA, lots of extra-

curricular activity, a few notable achievements along the way. People expected great

things from me.

After college I worked in several jobs before landing as a newspaper reporter. I worked

for a chain of community newspapers for several years then moved on to a job as beat

reporter with a small daily near my hometown. Things were moving along briskly. I

could see my journalism career going somewhere. And then I veered off the career path.

**********
The choices I made in life, since those days of working as a beat writer in Xenia, Ohio,

are not choices I can recommend to everyone. They’re choices that spring from who I am,

my interests and the values I share with my wife, Julia, a part-time family practice doctor.

I work part time as a church leader and freelance writer out of a home-based office,

taking care of my kids four half days a week and keeping a schedule that let’s me respond

to spur of the moment opportunities to do things I think God wants me to do with family

and friends.

Not everyone wants what I have and what I have isn’t for everyone. Your situation is

different than mine. But consider this: if you’ve read this far, the question of re-arranging

things so you can be more available for the people and pursuits in your life is cooking

inside you.

**********

Back when Julia and I were talking about marriage, we talked frankly about the direction

of our lives. At the time I was a small-town newspaper editor and Julia was in her third

year of residency as a family practice doctor, just a couple months from going into

practice.

We started out talking mainly about kids and childcare but the conversation morphed into

other topics: being there for parents; making relationships with brothers and sisters in
Christ a priority; what kind of atmosphere we wanted in our home. Looking back I realize

we were having a discussion about values: what were Julia’s values and what were mine.

Values drive decision-making. Making lots of money and having the nicest house is a

value with a capital ‘V’. Important decisions affecting every other area of life will flow

from that. Wanting plenty of free time to support political or social causes is a value. So

is raising your kids attending church or not attending church; playing sports or not

playing sports; visiting art museums or going to football games.

Many people don’t think about their values, out loud at least. Our values remain secluded

in the shady portions of our minds, hanging back in the shadows of our brains but barking

orders like a Marine drill sergeant – “you will drive the nice car; you will work 80 hours

a week; you will have 3 beautiful children” – and on and on.

Where do values come from? The answer is simple: everywhere - television, movies,

newspapers, magazines, books, peers. Our parents and our upbringing have a major

impact on values, whether to model mom or dad’s priorities or react against them.

Other significant adults often shape values. It may be a sibling, an uncle or aunt, a soccer

coach or football coach, a favorite teacher. It may be something they said to us, choices

they made which impressed us, or the life they lived that resonated with us.
Then there’s the all-pervasive media. Does Madison Avenue really shape your values?

Well, it sure tries to, and not just passively, but with vigor. The billions of dollars spent on

advertising each year testifies to that. I hope there’s not much doubt about that in our

give-me-more consumer society.

But what about the Bible? As Christians our values should be changing and re-arranging

according to what God’s truth tells us. This is the meaning of Romans 12:2,

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the

renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his

good, pleasing and perfect will. (NIV)

According to 2 Timothy 3:16-17, God breathed the words of Scripture into existence, just

as He spoke the world into existence. These words are useful for ‘teaching, correcting,

rebuking and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly

equipped for every good work.”

To live a life of ‘good works’ will require a transformation of the mind. We will need to

saturate ourselves in the truths of God; we must allow the Bible to teach us, correct us,

rebuke us and train us about what it means to live a righteous life. We should listen as

Christian friends and spiritual mentors challenge us and encourage us with scriptural

truth. Then we will have values that more and more reflect God’s, resulting in lives of

eternal significance.
Julia and I wouldn’t even have had the what-about-kids discussion and its related

subtopics unless we had undergone some of the transformation described above. Not that

it’s over; the mental revolution is still happening. But this change from worldly values to

God’s values will have implications for your life.

This transformation had implications for ours: if we wanted to be the main ones in our

kids’ lives, and wanted to make investing in others a top priority then career would have

to come second. We’d have to aim for jobs with flexibility. Climbing the ladder of

success and having lots of money was not on the horizon and probably never would be.

But don’t doctors make big bucks? Yes, that’s true, most physicians do very well. While

Julia’s income is good, it’s nothing like it could be. After four years of pre-med

undergraduate training, four years of med school and three years in family practice

residency, the expectation is that all that sweat and those sleepless nights will lead to a

major payday bonanza. She has spurned that potential windfall in favor of the value of

raising kids who can give their lives away to others and investing in Christian and

nonChristian friendships.

**********

I don’t know how you ended up reading a book about changing your life. Usually a

combination of events and realizations spur change. It could be the birth of a child or the
death of a parent or both. Maybe you got fired or laid off or didn’t get the promotion you

thought you were getting. Or you did get the promotion and the raise but your life got

harder instead of better. Perhaps you or a spouse were blindsided by severe illness. We all

get wake-up calls; the real question is whether we jump out of our beds of complacency

or hit the mental snooze alarm.

At age 27, I could not have imagined making some of the choices I’ve ended up making.

My macho focus wouldn’t allow the idea of not being the big provider. But here are a few

of the realizations and circumstances that God used to break my worldly perspective so

that I might adopt His point of view.

Income disparity - I’m a pragmatist and one thing was very clear at the beginning of our

marriage - Julia could work part-time and still make more money than I could make full-

time. If we really held raising our kids as a value, and being available for ministry in our

church, then we’d have to bank our money and time wisely. I began to see this would

affect me.

Our kids - My son David was born in 1992. Holding him and spending time with him

awakened a desire to be involved in his life in a way that would change my life. This

longing only heightened with the birth of Bethany and Mark. I wanted to have a greater

role in the lives of my children, and not just after working 8 to 12 hours a day for The

Newspaper.
The Holy Spirit has strongly impressed me that one of my greatest Great Commission

legacies will be my children. Will I give the Lord the carte blanche to use me as He

determined in shaping them, along with Julia, into people who knew Jesus, loved Jesus

and wanted to give their lives away to others as He had? Will that carte blanche include

putting my career aspirations in His hands? I have come to the conclusion that, even if I

were to win a Pulitzer but not be a major player in God’s game plan for my children, I

would be a failure.

Plus, I must admit, I have fun with my kids. I totally enjoyed helping David build Lego

villages when he was three, which he would play with for awhile then destroy like

Godzilla in Tokyo. I loved pretending to be pirates on our gym set. I got a kick out of

speaking for my daughter’s Ken doll and inserting life philosophy in his comments to

Barbie (“Really Barbie, I like your pink convertible but I think getting married on the

first date is a little sudden. But you do look cute in your princess dress.”). I’m touched

deeply when I take walks with Mark in the woods near our house, have a donut and

drinks next to the creek and gaze quietly as deer cross our path. Awesome isn’t a big

enough word for what all that means to me.

Going back to school - In 1993 my love of building relationships with people for God’s

purposes won out over writing about car crashes and school levy campaigns. You can

work as a journalist and follow God; I’m not saying you can’t. Who knows, I may end up

covering a beat again, someday. But making God-centered relationships a priority means

other things become less of a priority and that’s how it went in 1993 with newspaper
deadlines. And because of this I made a conscious choice to pursue further education,

which would hopefully equip me for more effective ministry. However, it also meant not

moving up the journalism career ladder.

Lois’ death - After seminary I began spending more time watching the kids, with my

mother-in-law Lois Sammons covering the times I worked part time as a media relations

coordinator and fundraiser for a local hospice program. But then Lois succumbed to

breast cancer that had metastasized to her brain. She went into the hospice program I

worked for and died just before Easter, 1997.

I had always imagined going back to work full time, although I was hoping I could do

that through our church. I had never seen myself not doing that. But something changed

after Lois died. Maybe I became adjusted to the idea of taking on more of the ‘caregiver’

role. Maybe I had worked through some key things about the way I saw myself. My sense

of self-worth was coming less and less from having a successful career, as the world

defined it, and more and more from enjoyable and rewarding interactions with my kids,

my friends and other people God had placed in my life.

Satisfied by freelancing - After graduating seminary I submitted story proposals to

Christian magazines and eventually got my first sale with Plain Truth Magazine in 1997.

By 1998 I was beginning to make headway with freelancing: I had a formal contract for

regular stories with one magazine and was getting a variety of assignments from other

publications.
For me, the adventure of researching a story, the mental piston-firing experience involved

in producing a written work and turning the polished article over to an editor on time has

always been rewarding, even with tough topics or tight deadlines. Who needs a title when

you’ve already got the greatest job in the world? You can explore and think about any

topic you want and then get paid for your research and observations. How great is that?

The availability dividend - Being available has it’s own upside which is very appealing.

Because of my schedule I’m pretty flexible for meeting other guys for lunch or breakfast

and talking about their lives, my life, what God is showing us, how the favorite sports

team is doing, etc. This can mean that I’m actually busier at times than I would be with a

8-to-5 job but I’ve concluded that’s how God wants my life to be, for now. And there’s

tremendous satisfaction I experience because of my flexible schedule.

**********

The life I’m living is not one I can honestly advocate for anyone else. Being a primary

caregiver is not for everyone and isn’t, I believe, the divine vision for everyone. But this

isn’t about you becoming the parent who’s around the most. It is about being the person

God wants you to be.

The kind of job you have may be an aspect of God’s bigger plan for your life, but that

isn’t all of it. Doing your job with devotion and without complaining is important, but
that isn’t all of it either. You may even view providing food, clothing and shelter for your

family and putting a check in the offering plate as the extent of your ‘ministry’. All of this

is good, but it’s still far short of what He made you for.

Most of the Bible’s message about God’s plan for us is in the context of fulfilling a role

that we’ve been given in his worldwide endeavor called the church. The role we have to

play is primarily local, carrying out numerous kinds of service with other people,

especially in small communities of Christians where we make friends and learn how to

love others as Jesus Christ has loved us. God’s view on our lives is entirely through the

lens of relationships - who we’re supposed to be connecting with and the way we’re

letting Him use us to benefit these people and vice versa. Relationships naturally include

your spouse and your children.

With relationships in view, consider for a moment what a normal week looks like. How

many hours do you clock at your job? 40, 50, 60 hours or more? Now think about this

part - even if your work hours are fairly reasonable, how much of you is really ‘there’

when you see your spouse, the kids, or spend time with friends? That was a serious

problem for me when I started grad school and still worked as a newspaper reporter. I

could have pulled off the trifecta of parent, student, and reporter but I wasn’t really

energetic emotionally for much of anyone or anything else. And you and I know we’ve

got to have some head and heart left over to successfully interact with family and friends

at the end of the day.

God’s plan for us is also moral. He wants to see our character change, which has

implications for relationships and the impact we have on others. He wants to see the fruit

of a life led more and more by His Spirit --love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). He wants to see our choices

about career and family and everything else have more and more his moral stamp. This is

something He’s committed to accomplishing in us, if we’re willing to cooperate.

**********

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Having more time sounds great - where do I sign up and still

keep the pay scale I’m enjoying now?” Yes, I understand. I would love to tell you that

you can have your cake and eat it too. Which, by the way, I never understood as a catch

phrase - why have cake if you can’t eat it? OK, another metaphor then - you can’t have

your cake and expect unlimited icing. No one hands you a jar of ready-made icing with a

piece of cake so you can keep pouring it on. Each piece of cake comes with a designated

amount of icing, end of story.

Having more time is its own icing, but it will mean sacrifices. To be more available as a

spouse, as a parent, or for God’s purposes in general will probably mean taking a job with

less pay. You may find yourself in a good spot right now as far as being around for your

wife and children and your dilemma will be foregoing a promotion which may increase

your gross income by $20-50,000 a year. Why? Because taking that raise would take you
out of town, out of your family’s life, force you to move or just leave you out of it

physically and emotionally at the end of the day, whenever your work day ends.

Here’s something else to consider: working in any job where it’s perceived that you’re

not giving 120 percent to the company may result in a loss of prestige in the eyes of some

-- not all, but some -- of your colleagues. Jeff Gordon, a Columbus, Ohio internist whose

story will be discussed in detail later, faced exactly this. There were fellow doctors who

questioned his ‘commitment’ to medicine because of his choice to be more available for

ministry in his church and to his wife and children. Did his job choice suddenly make Jeff

less competent? Did he suffer a sudden loss in medical expertise? No, of course he didn’t.

But he was willing to risk the estimation of others to pursue a bigger purpose.

You say that doesn’t matter to you? Just for a test start floating the idea of going for a

different kind of job that makes less money and requires less of you and see what kind of

responses you get. More importantly, see how you respond to those responses. This will

quickly tell you how much the whole ‘prestige’ thing will cost.

I love the life I’m leading but you need to tally up the potential costs of making a similar

decision. If you don’t, you may make some choices which you’ll resent and become

frustrated later. I didn’t understand some of these costs myself and experienced

resentment and discouragement that I hope others do not repeat.

I remember getting quite agitated one afternoon during graduate school when my oldest

son was a toddler. “I should be out there tracking down criminals, interviewing cops and

detectives and beating a deadline, not making macaroni and cheese,” was how it went in

my brain. “I should be doing something I know how to do instead of pursuing a master’s

degree where the outcome is uncertain. Who knows if I’ll even be able to earn a paycheck

from this!”

I was feeling very negative about myself. I remember kicking a door and slamming some

plates on the table and yelling at my oldest son David, who was 2 at the time, about

something really unimportant. I remember thinking that my life being over might not be

such a bad thing. Inside, I was seething with anger and self-hatred and berated myself

with thoughts that I’d been stupid to choose this path.

Thank God I had enough Scripture in my head, like Romans 8:1 (For there is now no

condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus) to realize all this self-slamming thought

was not the way God saw me. Eventually I sat down at the kitchen table, put my head in

my hands and meditated on this verse and others, prayed for God’s peace and perspective,

and also recognized that the devil was involved, pouring gasoline on the fire with

accusatory thoughts. I apologized to David and to God and focused on whatever domestic

chore that was in front of me.

**********
The drive to be “important” is very strong in human beings. We want to leave our mark.

This is good, I believe. The desire to do significant work is designed into us. And so we

strive and slave and try to link what we do to something meaningful, permanent and

valuable.

When we fail to do that, we find ourselves at a crossroads. Perhaps that’s where you find

yourself today. You may be asking yourself what’s “important” in your life. Has it meant

a 40-60 hour a week job outside home with little thought of God’s priorities? Has it been

more about things than people? Has it centered on career accomplishment at the expense

of the Bible’s moral commands?

Now is the time for honest evaluation. Don’t hold back; this is not the moment to quake

in fear and turn back. Ponder Caleb’s counsel to Israel in the Old Testament -- you can

take the land! But the ground you’re after is spiritual ground and the potential

consequences are much more profound. Don’t settle for the epitaph at the beginning of

the chapter. Aim for something greater.