Looking for a City – The Prequels

(and the Bridge that began it all)

Looking forward to getting educated

Friends,

Over the past year I’ve been sharing my life and career story on LinkedIn through the Moving the Rock and Looking for a City series — tracing twenty-one years at the Prudential and the seasons of business, teaching, and writing that followed.

Today I’m announcing a new project: The Prequels — the untold chapters that came before the Rock moved.

These will cover my early years (1946–1972) in seven-year episodes, walking backward through time to explore how faith, failure, and grace shaped the man God was preparing me to become.

But before we go there, I’m publishing a short Bridge Episode — a deeply personal story from early 1972, when everything I built seemed to collapse at once.

It’s called “Before the Rock Rolled.”It begins with a verse from Luke 15:

“The younger son gathered all his belongings and took his journey into a distant country, where he wasted his substance through riotous living.” — Luke 15:13

That verse could have been written about me. I had left home — not only in miles, but in heart. My academic career had ended, my marriage had failed, and I found myself back at my parents’ house, unsure of what came next.

Yet that was the very place where grace found me.The famine I feared became the turning of the page. Christ didn’t let me go — He saved me from myself.

What I thought was the end turned out to be the beginning of Moving the Rock.

If you’ve ever found yourself in a “distant country,” I hope this story will remind you that the Father still watches the road — and that His mercy is greater than our mistakes.

🙏 May every road of regret become a road of redemption.

****************************

I’ve wandered far away from God,

Now I’m coming home;

The paths of sin too long I’ve trod,

Lord, I’m coming home.

Coming home, coming home,

Nevermore to roam;

Open wide Thine arms of love;

Lord, I’m coming home.

2

I’ve wasted many precious years,

Now I’m coming home;

I now repent with bitter tears,

Lord, I’m coming home.

3

I’m tired of sin and straying, Lord,

Now I’m coming home;

I’ll trust Thy love, believe Thy word;

Lord, I’m coming home.

4

My soul is sick, my heart is sore,

Now I’m coming home;

My strength renew, my hope restore:

Lord, I’m coming home.

5

My only hope, my only plea,

Now I’m coming home;

That Jesus died, and died for me;

Lord, I’m coming home.

6

I need His cleansing blood, I know,

Now I’m coming home;

O wash me whiter than the snow;

Lord, I’m coming home.

William James Kirkpatrick (1838-1921)