Exile - Randall Cumley

“I feel like I have been lied to” said Nathan. These were not the words you would expect to hear from a
successful businessman when asked about his plans for retirement. Through twenty five years as the
owner of a small business, Nathan had achieved the modern definition of a successful life. His home
and business shared space on a ten acre Colorado property. He owns a second home on the coast of
Florida where he keeps an expensive boat and all the gear to support his love of fishing. “They told me
‘he who owns the most toys wins,” he said, “but I don’t feel like I’ve won anything.”

Nathan had collided with the reality that the version of success presented by modern society is smoke
and mirrors designed to distract us all from the true purpose of life. The definition of success being sold
to our society is a lie.

Like Nathan, I had once been a business owner with cash flow, assets and opportunity yet I found myself
looking beyond all of that, longing for a deeper meaning from life. What should have been the pinnacle
of my personal success became instead a pivot point that turned my life to a new direction.
Through a small prayer, asking for understanding, I unknowingly opened a door that allowed God to
move me off of a Caribbean beach and into a modern wilderness where He changed both my definition
of success, and my understanding of life.

In order to save me from myself, God took me to exile.