SONSHIP STORIES:

ROBERT BOUWENS

DENVER, COLORADO

“I came to faith as a 12-year-old at a camp. As a kid I didn't really understand God as my father. There was quite a bit of focus on doing and on trying to accomplish things for God, much of that connected to the trauma and legalism of my childhood.”

“As I was going through college and accomplishing and getting complimented by people in the university for what I was doing and achieving, I had a lot of people tell me that I was a good person. And so that started to put my focus even more and more on accomplishing.”

“As I entered my career, I ran a $120 million business in Malaysia, and I launched this startup with one of my Iranian friends from Malaysia. And I had a huge amount of pride—I thought I could do anything. But God was kind of an afterthought, I didn’t think of him as active in my life in business.”

“I was a workaholic legalist at that point. I sought a lot of control, to be controlling of people, controlling of circumstances, of people’s perceptions of me. It was difficult for me to relax, to stay silent—to allow God to actually bring about true peace and true joy and true love between me and other people.”

“I’ve learned the story of the prodigal son isn't just about one son, it's about two. I was the lost older son, being successful so effectively that he didn’t spend any time with his father. At a Canyon Pathways retreat, I read with new eyes the father’s statement, ‘I've always been with you, everything I have is yours’. God's words touched my heart, and I just wept.”

“It was at a Canyon Pathways retreat where I really realized what sonship really is. My best friends now, though 48 years of life, have come from the Canyon Pathways community.”