My freshman year I was an alcoholic and I finished with a 2.3 GPA. I wanted to get into medicine and that's difficult with a GPA like mine. Everyone had pretty much given up on me. That was a turning point in my life. My Dad and I had just gotten into an argument. He wanted me to leave Marshall and go into something different. He wanted me to be a chemical engineer or something like that, even though I despised chemistry. So, I was driving to work and I asked the Lord, "What am I going to do now." Now that's something that I didn't normally do. I'm Catholic. I had been brought up in the church. I was an alter boy, but it didn't have a lot of meaning to me then. Well, I asked for help and I could very clearly hear a voice in my head say, "You do your part. I'll do mine."

That was the big turning point because suddenly I had a great deal of confidence to go face my Dad and say, "this is what I'm going to do." What was surprising was that he said okay and gave me one more chance. That's unlike my Dad because if you lose his trust, it takes a lot to get it back. Then my best friend comes up out of the blue - I had lost touch with him. We got an apartment together and another one of my old friends who was valedictorian and was in pre-med shows up out of the blue and moved in upstairs of me. Miracles just began to occur. You could call them coincidences, but they're not. I know they're not. None of this was planned except by God. All of this was just confirmation of what God was telling me. You do your part and I'll do mine. His part was providing all these little things and removing obstacles. All I had to do was try and do my best. So I graduated and came here to North Carolina for my family residency practice. So I guess I've succeeded, but I thank God for it. He did all the work.

Two years ago I did something that I had wanted to do for a long time. I went on a medical missionary trip to Kenya. That experience was another one of those turning points and I knew that the Lord was calling me to do missionary work. So when I got home I waited about a month and then sprang the news on my wife [laughs]. We struggled with it for about a year and then two weeks before going to the Ukraine for another trip, my wife came to me and said, "if you need to make a change, go ahead and I'll go wherever you need me to go."

I knew after getting back from Kenya that I was in the wrong place for me. I just wasn't happy. I had great partners, great guys to work with, wonderful staff, but I wasn't content because I knew the Lord wanted me to do more.

When I told both my partners that I was leaving to pursue missionary work, they both were very supportive. It was hard on all of us. Most of my friends were the same way. Some looked at me to make sure that I was sure about the decision and not some sort of emotional high I was getting coming back from overseas, but it hasn't been. I'm going in the direction the Lord is leading me. I took a huge salary cut to do this, but I just know the Lord is going to provide. I have a peace and a comfort that only comes from knowing you're doing what you know God wants you to do. I'm a scientist. I've got a M.D. after my name. I've had a lot of experience in psychology, but you can't take away an experience someone has had with the Lord. The truth is the truth.

I guess in a way when you think about success, for me, the true way to success is following the path that the Lord has laid out for you. Then you find a great sense of confidence and value. You're not struggling or searching anymore. That's where I'm at now. It's been a gradual process and plan for me. It didn't happen overnight.

I think the spiritual fulfillment has to come first before you can be successful. I'm a very prosperous man . I'll make this year close to a quarter of a million dollars, but none of that would mean much if I had not gotten my wealth and success from God. I look at it from the standpoint that what I have is His. I know a lot of guys who are successful from a societal standpoint--well respected, wealthy, huge house, but they're not happy. And some of them come to the point where they realize that something is missing and they're crying out for more than all of the money in the world can fix. When they come to that spiritual reality, then all of that can't make you happy.

The first step to finding the path for you is to not deny the fact that there is something more to life. Life is not the be all and end all. That's how you start on the path. It doesn't take a lot of thought, scholarship, or study to find God. It's really very simple. God made you and he wants a relationship with you all you have to do is ask for it. It may not be a lightning bolt experience, but a gradual process. It may just be a gradual feeling of peace, but you will find him.