Why I Wrote a Tech Billionaire into a Faith Journey

When I began writing DESTIN, I had no idea where the story was going. I just sat with my laptop and prayed that the Lord would give me a revelation of words. Several earlier book ideas had died after 50-plus pages over a three-year stretch. Then God, who sees the heart, answered my prayer of surrender. Keystrokes came rapidly, and words appeared on the screen.

By the time I finished what I thought was the first chapter, I knew I was seeing a protagonist unlike any I'd encountered in Christian fiction—someone whose past was complicated enough to be interesting, whose present was radical enough to be challenging, and whose future was uncertain enough to be suspenseful.

John Striker emerged from a simple question: What would it look like if one of the most powerful people in the world genuinely surrendered everything to follow Jesus?

Not just wrote a check to charity. Not just started attending church. But actually gave it all up—the power, the influence, the technology—and hit the road with nothing but a backpack and faith. I wrote well over 100,000 words, and then the story changed significantly.

During that time, I completed a nine-month self-led journey through the St. Ignatius Spiritual Exercises. I discovered what St. Ignatius had been shown: that union with Christ was not only possible but the very work of the Holy Spirit in a life fully surrendered to God's will. I believe God used what I learned by experience to write into John Striker's story a surrendered life that others looking on would think impossible.

The result is a character who is both saint and sinner, both powerful and humble, both protected by advanced AI and utterly dependent on God. John Striker embodies the paradox at the heart of Christian faith: in weakness we find strength, in surrender we find freedom, and in dying to self we find true life.

I hope readers find in John a companion for their own faith journey—someone whose struggles illuminate their own, and whose victories point always to the One who makes all things new.

—DrZ