Why I Keep On Keeping On
I’ve served as a Naval Flight Officer, run marathons and ultra-marathons, achieved full professor status at a large research university in 1994, published over 160 scientific articles, advised over 45 Ph.D. candidates, and traveled to 52 countries.
I have been eligible for retirement since 2006 and could have easily and quite comfortably left my academic post with all the financial security I need.
Some might ask, “Isn’t it time to quit?” Yet, I keep on.
Why?
Grace makes me stay
First, because I realized many years ago “that I’m just a professor who is lost apart from Christ” and when I consider how far God has brought me, I must ask with King David in 2 Samuel 7:18, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?”
I stand truly amazed when I consider how far God has taken this Physical Education professor. I never saw it coming. Now the grace of God’s great provision and blessing keeps me going.
Grace makes me stay.
I have an opportunity to exert great influence
Second, I keep on because I believe that we professors have one of the greatest mission fields on earth. Whether we are at a community college, a public university, or a Christian liberal arts institution, we have the opportunity to exert great influence on the world leaders of the future. And each term our institutions deliver a new crop of students for us to influence.
In my case, I stay here because I know the eternal impact God invites me to have.
Looking forward to sharing other ways in which God’s grace surprised me in ways I never saw coming.