All About Me
I discovered the public library in Henderson, Kentucky when I was in the 3rd grade. We only lived a block and a half away. And one of my first heroes was a guy named Andrew Carnegie because there was a bas-relief sculpture of him when you walked in. According to the accompanying plaque he had donated the money for our library and hundreds of others. That library was my favorite place in town.
And some of my favorite books were the “All About” books. “All About Your Body”, “All About Lightning”, “All About the Solar System”, etc. That’s why I call this page “All About Me”. Not because I’m egotistical. My deepest hope is as you learn about me you’ll learn more about yourself. And that is a great thing.
I was raised a staunch Catholic which means I felt guilty most of the time :), but I also had a hunger for the things of God. My mother died suddenly when I was 12, and then I knew how tenuous life could be. In middle school I grew even more spiritually hungry and decided to study for the priesthood in high school.
That lasted 2 years, and I left because I was disillusioned. I had found religion distilled to it’s essence, and it didn’t move me or fill my heart. At home I played in a popular rock band for 4 years, got top grades in high school & community college, and eventually went off to college.
I continued to get top grades, was very active at my campus radio station becoming program director my last 2 years, and I continued to play music. I did partake of the excesses of the early 70’s, but eventually tired of those and started seeking the Divine again. I looked in philosophy, Eastern religions, metaphysics, the emerging field of quantum physics, etc. It was a heady time, and I filled mine with knowledge. I eventually came up with my own eclectic belief system picking and choosing what I liked.
Eventually out of a sense of fair play I decided I should read the Bible too. I’d been exposed to parts of it of course, but mostly only those passages explained by the priests through the years. I’d never read it for myself. So I read through the Book.
To my surprise I fell in love with Jesus. And then over a period of months I had three deeply moving, very liberating spiritual experiences. And don’t say it was the case of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Any preconceived notions I had were out in left field compared to what happened. I was blind-sided by unconditional Love.
And being touched that deeply by Divine Love seems to have innoculated me from getting too religious, legalistic or judgmental since the mid-70’s. Loving Jesus and continually discovering the richness of the scriptures has kept me on a healthy, fulfilled path, and I’ve always sought to share what I’ve received with as many people as possible.
Since those days I’ve become a faithful husband of 28 years, father of 5 and grandfather of 5 more. We’ve been involved in churches which stressed faith, love, the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit, and worship music. I’ve worked in information technology at the University of Florida, been an amateur basketball shooting coach, and have recently felt a calling as a spiritual coach.
My heart’s desire is this blog and website at http://deandelker.com/ open you up to knowing the unlimited love of God and the Divinity which is within you when you believe.
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