Step by Step He leads Me

My new book came in the mail yesterday. I am very proud of this one. Now if only I can convince people to read it. It is about radio towers in part, and the average reader may not realize that it is really a very exciting book. But I promise you, it is! Did you know that tower building is the most dangerous job in the USA? Well that alone should make you want to read about this engineer who climbs 2,000-ft towers regularly and lived past age fifty...and is still climbing them! Did you know there is an aircraft beacon on the roof of the famous WBT historic transmitter building that has been there at least 70 years....and until this book was published, no one knew why it was there!!!???? If that doesn't convince you, did you know that 3 of the 6 existing diamond shaped towers built before WWII are right here in Charlotte and that death-defying engineer I talked about a moment ago rebuilt them when Hurricane Hugo knocked them down...without blueprints? Top all that off with dashes of faith, love, family, honor, and others-before-self generation, and it really should appeal to everyone.

I love this kind of stuff. The mysteries and danger and history all fascinated me. I got to interview scores of WWII aviators and navigators for this book. I learned about the historic airmail system, the bonfires and then beacons that crisscrossed our country to light the way for the early pilots, the use of AM radio towers as navigational tools during early aviation history, and the heart and motivation of tower engineers who daily risk their lives to do their jobs. I love learning obscure things, and even better, finding the finger of God in the midst of it all.

I knew nothing about radio towers, or engineering, or WWII aviation, or navigation when I started this book. I had no hope of unraveling the mysteries that swirled about those towers. But time after time, God sent me a miracle that uncovered just enough of a clue to lead me to the next step.

I have noticed that He often works this way in my life. He never reveals the whole path I am to tread. He only reveals a very small portion of the way forward. I have to take the next step on faith that it is leading where I should go. Most of the time, it is not at all clear that it will lead anywhere. It is not only one's beliefs about the origins of life that require a leap of faith....living life each day does as well.

By the end of the book, every mystery I set out to solve was indeed solved. It was a long, often torturous journey through hours and hours of reading materials, emailing countless experts, being told I was completely wrong countless times, and interviewing scores of WWII veterans. What a journey it has been! Funny how in the midst of it, there were times it didn't seem worth it, and I certainly didn't see God's direction. Looking back, it is all I see.

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Psalm 32:8 

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Proverbs 3:5-6 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

John 16:13 

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Matthew 7:7-11 

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Psalm 119:105 

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Isaiah 30:21 

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,”