Jackson admits he once feared being known as the "paint doctor," when he supported his family by painting houses just after graduating with his Doctorate from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He didn't have to worry for long. Two months after receiving his doctorate, George Guthrie invited his former fellow seminary student to apply for a job at Union. Jackson began work at Union in the fall of 1992 and began "living the dream" of becoming a college professor in a caring, Christian atmosphere.

Earlier in his life, Jackson had not the slightest interest in becoming a college professor, much less a teacher of Greek and New Testament. Describing himself as a non-committed Christian, Jackson says he was heading straight for a professional life in electrical engineering, shooting for the engineering department on the 10th floor of the Southwestern Bell building in San Antonio, Texas. But after two years of studying engineering at San Antonio Junior College, Jackson's life took a major turn. He never made it to the 10th floor. "My life was already figured out according to me," Jackson says. That is until he wound up in the hospital with appendicitis. During that fateful stay, Jackson bargained with God. "Please get me out of here OK and I'll become a more committed Christian," he prayed. Jackson made it out of the hospital healthy and well and began what would be a "long process" of finding out why he was never supposed to make it to the pinnacle of electrical engineering.

"It was kind of scary," Jackson remembers. He started to ask God what he should do with his life; the more he asked, the more it became apparent that he was to preach and teach. When he failed to succeed at a wave motion class twice, Jackson knew God did not intend for him to have a career in engineering; nor did he intend for Jackson to marry the woman he was engaged to at the time. Jackson's former fiancee finally had enough with his "spitting Scripture." She returned his ring and left for California. "I quit the phone company. She quit me. I dropped out of the engineering program. It was a low day," Jackson says.

Getting from his Bachelor's to a Doctorate was no easy ride. Jackson spent his late 20s and 30s in school, pastoring churches, building a family and working as parents in a home for troubled children.

The day of his graduation from Harding-Simmons, Jackson proposed to his soon-to-be-wife, Janet. He sheepishly describes the union as an uneven one, "She figured no one else would marry me, so she better do it."

Janet Jackson tells a very different story: "I fell in love with Paul and knew instantly that I would marry him long before he ever knew he would marry me. When Paul proposed, we had been on about eight dates over the course of three years. When he asked me, my head was telling me I was crazy but my heart was saying yes," Janet explains. "I definitely did not marry low, and he knows it. He knows flattery will get him everywhere."

Eight days after he and Janet were married, they began work at the Buckner Children's Home in Dallas, Texas. For four years, the Jacksons lived at the children's home, providing them with much-needed structure and discipline.

Jackson describes those years as healthy but trying. Eventually "we needed a break from Buckner. We learned a lot about parenting and discipline. But the stress with the job was tremendous," Jackson says.

In 1984 Jackson took his first church in Rule, Texas, at the Sweethome Baptist Church. Jackson fondly remembers his deacons (Skeet, Cooter, Luther, Doyl and Tom) calling him the "college-looking guy."

The Jacksons (now with three children) eventually returned to Fort Worth and Southwestern. Jackson completed his course work and then went on to pastor a new church in Fort Collins, Colo. It had developed out of an angry dispute with an established church. As the tormented group's first pastor, "I was trying to put Band-Aids on wounds that were still bleeding." In two years, the Jacksons returned again to Fort Worth. Soon after that he came to Union.

After following God's call for nearly 15 years, Jackson was ready to do the real thing. A bit nervous and a little "skittish" before his first class at Union, he quickly channeled his "healthy anticipation" into "energy and concentration" in the classroom and on the basketball court. Dr. J, as Jackson is known to his students, has been on a men's scrimmage squad that works out with the Lady Bulldogs for five years.

"I have opportunities to really help forge a person's thinking by what I say in class. I take that seriously, and I am always striving to be better at it," Jackson says. "We (professors) meet students at critical and formative points in their lives. It is very important that we be sensitive to that."

Being sensitive to God's direction in his formative years led Jackson to the "dream" he lives today. He doesn't regret one bit of the rough road he travelled to get here.