About My Faithful Path

My Story

Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Steve Hartwig. Like you, I have been on a path of growing in faith most of my life. I do not come from a large family. It was just Mom, Dad, and me. I attended Sunday School every week for as far back as I can remember. Then, in my teens, I took Confirmation classes and became a member of a local Lutheran Church. A few years later, I stopped going to church. I had a long period of backsliding and living as if God did not see or care how I was living my life. That was in the late 1960s and mid-1970s. It was the time of “Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll”. Although I still considered myself a Christian, I was far from living a life of following the teachings and commandments of Jesus. But, even though I was not walking a faithful path with the Lord, He still walked with me. He led me to people who were a great source of learning and growing in the faith. But, stubbornly, I held on to things that kept me from having a true and fruitful relationship with our Lord Jesus.

Years passed while I was addicted to alcohol (beer mostly). I smoked pot daily and was usually the life of any party. Did I say, “years passed”? Actually, I reached retirement age and began drawing my Social Security when I moved to Nicaragua, where I could live well on my monthly SS payment. Up to that point, I was still far from God. I can now truly appreciate the saying, “Except for by the Grace of God, go I”. I lived in several cities before coming to Leon. I seemed to know that this is the place. This is where I will put down roots and live out my life here. I became friends with a Christian family, who reminded me of the need I had to have God in my life.

One day I was sitting alone in my rented home, drinking my daily quota of beer. My mind took me back to a time when I had a taste of spiritual growth. I had been living in Texas, and a friend introduced me to a daily radio devotion. It was called “Thru the Bible, with Dr. J Vernon McGee”. He was teaching a five-year program from every book of the Bible. I remembered how I was eager to hear the next lesson each day as I drove to work. But, times changed and I lost track of that ministry. But, sitting in my room that day, I decided to see if the program still existed. I did a search on my computer and to my amazement, there was Dr. McGee! Of course, more than thirty years had passed since I listened to the program in Dallas. Dr. J Vernon McGee had long since gone home to be with the Lord. But his insightful teachings live on. I am now halfway through my second five-year journey. The ministry is now going out to more than two hundred languages. They are taking the “whole Word to the whole world”.

I have continued to study and seek more resources to help me walk a more faithful path. I don’t know if you can call a love to do research a gift from God. But with today’s technology, it is fun for me to find more and more information that will make my life better. And of course, I want to share that information with others so they too can find the resources needed to walk a smoother faithful path. So, My Faithful Path was born out of a desire to share the transformative power of faith. After experiencing my own spiritual journey, I felt called to create a space where others could find the same hope and encouragement that guided me. Through this platform, I aim to share the lessons I’ve learned and the resources that have been instrumental in my growth.