Rooted before I knew I would be uprooted.

I started at Nationwide as a college intern. I did not know then that it would become almost 30 years of my life. Over time I found my place in institutional investment strategy, working alongside people I respected on work that mattered. It was demanding, and it was good.

I want to say this plainly at the start, because it shapes everything that follows: that work was not a lesser calling. Leading teams, serving clients, and making careful decisions with other people's resources were all places where faith could be lived out. God was present in those meetings and those years, and much of what I know about leadership I learned there.

In August 2022, an unexpected restructuring changed my team and my role. Nothing about it was dramatic from the outside. Inside, though, it shook something I had not fully noticed. I had come to think of my role as close to ideal, and without quite meaning to, I had let it become a source of identity and security.

That season raised a question I had not been asking: if this changes, who am I? It is an uncomfortable question. Looking back, it was also a gracious one.

2023 became a year of spiritual formation. Through my church, leadership classes, and time in Scripture, I found myself paying closer attention to how God shapes people, not just what He asks them to do.

Ephesians 2:10 kept returning to me: we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. Around the same time, a visiting missionary spoke at our church, and something in that message stayed with me. I did not hear a clear instruction. I heard better questions. What had God prepared? Was I holding my plans more tightly than I was holding Him?

As 2024 began, one word kept surfacing in prayer: transfigure. Not improve, not adjust, but be changed from the inside. In January I began my first 21-day fast. I did not approach it as a way to get an answer. It was a way of making room to listen.

During that fast I spent time with Genesis 19 and the story of Lot's wife, who looked back. I recognized my own tendency to look back toward what felt safe and known. On January 31, I communicated my intention to leave Nationwide on May 31. I did not have a next job lined up. I want to be honest that this was not a confident leap. It was a step taken with trembling, because I believed it was the faithful next step.

On April 22, I began a 40-day fast. Waiting was its own kind of discipline. During those weeks an opportunity emerged to serve as church administrator at Northwest Chapel, and on April 28 I received an offer.

I share those dates carefully. This is not a formula, and it is not a promise that fasting or obedience produces a particular result. Many faithful people take hard steps and wait far longer, or see outcomes they did not hope for. What I can say is that God was faithful to meet me in the waiting, and that the waiting changed me more than the outcome did.

I left Nationwide on May 31 and began serving in ministry in June 2024.

In 2025 I transitioned to Grace Polaris Church, where I now serve as Executive Director of Strategy, Finance and Technology. Much of the work draws directly on what I learned over decades in the corporate world. Nothing was wasted.

I do not think of this as arriving. Obedience has turned out to be less like a single decision and more like a daily posture. I still have plenty to learn about humility, listening, and holding what I have with open hands.

Deep Rooted Believers exists to help equip others wherever they serve. You do not need to leave your job to live out your calling. For most people, faithfulness looks like staying rooted in Christ, leading with character, and stewarding time, talent, treasure, relationships, and influence right where God has placed them: in business, education, ministry, community, and at home.

The resources here grew out of my own journey, but they are not about my story. They are meant to help you take your own next faithful step.