When our first daughter was born, my wife and I both continued with our legal careers, although she started working part-time (80 percent). This was a real drain on everyone, as Christine's job required full- time attention but then provided only part-time compensation.
A couple years later, after our second daughter was born, we were blessed with a great opportunity for Christine to serve as a member of the Bush Administration. It was a great job, one she truly loved. But it turned out to be an opportunity that we were not -- or perhaps just I was not -- prepared to handle emotionally or spiritually. I was working full time, she was working full time and then some, and the nanny was raising the girls.
Where was God during this trying period? He was calling, ready to offer love and support, but I wasn't listening. I wasn't reading the Bible, wasn't praying -- never really had done either to that point in my adult life. While I had accepted Jesus as my Savior some twenty-five years earlier at the age of five, and had been baptized in the Episcopal Church as an adult, my Christian faith was "dead." If asked, I would say that I believed in God and considered myself a Christian. But as I now know, it's not enough to believe. As James instructs:
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. (James 2:17-19)*
Faced with these circumstances, we drastically reorganized our family. Christine left her magnificent job, and we relocated to Michigan, where I grew up, and where we have an extensive network of family and friends.
