If This Is the Top of the Mountain, I’ve Climbed the Wrong One — Ash Metry
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Some stories don’t begin with a miracle. They begin with a slow, steady awakening — the kind that happens when God gently unsettles the life you thought you wanted so He can lead you into the life you were made for. That’s what happened to me. My journey winds from Egypt to America, from corporate success to holy discontent, and ultimately from building my own kingdom to joining God’s. It’s a story about surrender, obedience, and discovering that the top of the world isn’t the same as the center of God’s will. It’s about learning to follow Jesus into a better story — one step of faith at a time.
I’m a husband, a father, and a software entrepreneur. But the most important thing about me — and about our family — is that we belong to Jesus.
I grew up in Egypt and came to America in my early twenties. Like many young men, I chased opportunity, ambition, and the thrill of building something meaningful. I studied computer science, stepped into entrepreneurship, and worked hard to create a life that looked successful from the outside. Those years shaped me, and God used them. But over time, my wife Cindy and I learned that walking with Jesus is not about asking God to bless our plans. It is about surrendering our plans to Him. It is about obedience, faithfulness, and becoming more like Christ.
Before my senior year of college in Egypt, I wanted to spend the summer in New York City selling hot dogs — make some money, meet people, enjoy the adventure. My mom pushed back. She wanted me to do something that would actually build toward a career. I didn’t love the idea, but I knew she was right. Through a few providential connections, I landed an unpaid internship at a computer science department in Alabama. So instead of selling hot dogs in New York, I spent the summer carrying heavy old computer monitors and replacing them with flat screens.
It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t the adventure I imagined. But looking back, that summer was one of the first clear lessons that God was opening a door I didn’t even know existed.
Eighteen months after returning to Egypt, my boss from that internship reached out. He remembered my work and offered me a full scholarship for a master’s degree in computer science, along with a paid graduate assistant position. That single phone call changed the direction of my life.
I returned to America, earned my degree, married Cindy, and moved to Houston. That’s where my story became our story.
We were young, excited, and figuring out life together. I started my career in software, working on systems that supported critical decisions. Later, I moved into the financial world, where the stakes were higher and the margin for error was smaller. Eventually, I landed what looked like a dream job — fast paced, well paying, filled with brilliant Ph.D. mathematicians from MIT, Harvard, and other elite universities. The perks were impressive. From the outside, it looked like success. But inside, I wasn’t at peace.
I later came to call that feeling holy discontent. Cindy and I had to wrestle with it together. We had more of the things we thought we wanted, but something deeper was missing. We had to ask hard questions: What are we chasing? What are we building? What kind of life do we want our family to live?
Around that time, I began reading, praying, and talking to trusted friends. I came across the idea of living a better story — one focused on Kingdom impact rather than personal achievement. It gave language to what I had been feeling. I didn’t want a more impressive story. I wanted a fuller one.
Not long after, I spent two weeks in Mexico serving with a church group at a Christian ranch. It was exhausting, beautiful, and deeply rewarding. I came home with a new awareness of what God was doing beyond the world I had been building for myself. I sensed an invitation from God to join His rescue mission in the world. I didn’t fully understand what that meant, but I knew I had a choice: stay comfortable or step into something deeper.
A few weeks later, I sat in a company meeting — a masterclass in corporate achievement. Brilliant minds. Ivy League pedigrees. Massive earnings. A sense that we were sitting at the very peak of the industry. The CEO painted a picture of absolute success. But as I looked around that room, the unrest I had carried home from Mexico crystallized into a single, piercing thought:
If this is the top of the mountain, I’ve climbed the wrong one.
That moment changed everything. Leaving that job was both one of the hardest and easiest decisions we’ve ever made. On paper, it made no sense. It provided well for our family. Walking away felt like career suicide. But we had a peace that surpassed understanding. We knew God was leading us in a different direction.
I had always wanted to build something of my own. I loved technology, problem solving, creativity, and the ownership that comes with entrepreneurship. I didn’t want a room in someone else’s mansion. I wanted a small house that was ours. So, we stepped into entrepreneurship.
The early years were messy. I built, grew, and sold online digital businesses. Some worked. Some didn’t. Cindy lived every bit of that season with me — the uncertainty, the experiments, the wins, the losses, the late nights, the pressure. Entrepreneurship tests what you actually can trust. It exposes what you’re really chasing. It reveals your motives, whether you want it to or not.
Over time, the work began to mean something different. A business could serve people. A product could be an act of love. Excellence could be worship. We didn’t need to be entrepreneurs over here and Christians over there. It’s one life under one King. And that truth began shaping our decisions in practical ways, not just theoretical ones.
The younger version of me wanted opportunity, success, freedom, and ownership. Those desires weren’t wrong — God used every bit of them. But somewhere along the way, Cindy and I realized the better story was never about building our own kingdom. It was about joining God’s Kingdom.
And that invitation kept showing up. I got involved in men’s ministry. Cindy stepped into women’s ministry. We began serving couples together. The flexibility entrepreneurship gave us — our schedule, our freedom — allowed us to say yes to things a corporate job never would have allowed. We could show up for people. We could give. We could serve. We could be present when it mattered. Our business goes through seasons, but the Lord remains faithful.
Yes, we’re still entrepreneurs. But that role now sits under something bigger. We want our work to serve people. We want to be faithful with what’s in front of us before asking God for more. We want to build a Kingdom legacy that lasts for eternity. Profits may come and go, but we want our impact to be eternal.
We want to follow Jesus, love people, build with excellence, take risks, and create real value in the world. We want to choose obedience over comfort and embrace the freedom to say no to good things so we can say yes to the best things.
And when God speaks, we want to move. This is the story we are still learning to live.
