"Those Pivotal Moments"| Episode #75 | Builder of All Things | Author’s Cut: Chapter Four w/ Richie Breaux

Welcome to the Builder of All Things Podcast—where we go beyond the pages of the book and explore into the Author’s Cut! 🔥 Join Richie Breaux and Ray Bisnar as they break down each chapter in micro-episodes, giving you the behind-the-scenes insights, deeper wisdom, and real-life applications—just like a Director’s Cut for a book.

🚪 You Were Called for This | A Journey Through Calling, Purpose & Pivotal Moments
In this raw and deeply personal episode, Richie shares the origin story behind his calling—a journey marked by unexpected twists, childhood memories, house fires, military orders, and powerful God-orchestrated moments that shaped everything.
Whether you're questioning your purpose or navigating your own pivotal moments, this episode is a guidepost. It’s about recognizing how the storms, setbacks, and even your random detours are actually divine setups.

🎧 What you'll hear in this episode:
* Why Richie calls himself “the guy at the door” with the sign that says You Were Called for This
* How a song about Jesus from his mom shaped his entire spiritual journey
* The life-changing house fire that revealed Jesus in a real way
* The reluctant football tryout that revealed leadership as a calling
* The near-miss military assignment that landed him in Hawaii—and on the USS Chosen
* Why ordinary choices often build the foundation for extraordinary purpose

This isn’t just a testimony. It’s a reminder that your story matters, and every part of your past—especially the hard parts—may be God’s positioning for a future you can’t yet see.
So, pay attention. You were chosen.Even when it doesn’t feel like it.

#YouWereCalledForThis #ChristianTestimony #FaithJourney #PivotalMoments #PodcastInspiration #KingdomCalling #LifePurpose #RichiesStory #USSChosen

Chapters

• 0:00 Finding Your Calling as a Guide
• 3:30 Origin Stories and Pivotal Moments
• 6:23 Football Journey and Leadership Discovery
• 10:50 Military Orders and Divine Positioning
• 14:45 Pay Attention to Life's Foundations

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

there's a lot of twists and turns with how you you step into your calling.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Can you kind of how you you uh step into your calling. Can you kind of talk about that?

Speaker 1: 0:31

yeah, in this chapter I share a lot of personal like backwards backstories and I share a lot of origin backstories for myself.

Speaker 2: 0:36

So if you're like wanting to go on to uh like you know internet and look up richie's backstory, I gave it now yeah, this is here.

Speaker 1: 0:44

Yeah, it's here.

Speaker 2: 0:45

So chapter four guys chapter four, um, and if you were to like, hey, richie, what's your calling man? I think my calling in life is I'm the guy at the door, you know, with the, the sign on the above that says you were called for this. I'm the guy at the door as a servant, trying to get you through the door. You know, I'm like, I'm like ray, like, look like Ray, like look man, hey, I'm like that. And you're in the mall. I'm that annoying guy that you know tries to get you to try to perfume, to come into the store and tell you about the new lotion product.

Speaker 2: 1:15

You know like hey, come here, man, Let me try Smell that man. So yeah, I think that's I mean that's like the comical version, but I believe that's my calling is the guy at the door who tries to encourage, motivate, educate, do anything I can to tell you it's okay to walk through that door, man.

Speaker 1: 1:35

You know what I mean. Real brief, richie. There's another analogy or story about the shoe shine. Is that what it was?

Speaker 2: 1:43

I don't know if that's true. I got to look it up because you know how sometimes you read stuff on the internet.

Speaker 2: 1:47

But yeah, yeah yeah, you're talking about that's billy graham billy graham, it might be it might be true, but you know billy graham, if you look at like you know what he's done for sharing the gospel or sharing jesus to the world, it's like what's his origin. So I went and looked it up and hopefully it's true, because you know. But the story I read which would make a really good movie is he was a teenage boy and he saw a revival tent and tried to get in. He couldn't. And you know it was already packed and he's young, so it wasn't like people were just letting him in.

Speaker 2: 2:25

And then there's this shoe shiner you know who was there and he was able. He actually took the initiative to grab, you know, billy Graham and his friend and take them into the tent. And that revival is what rocked Billy Graham's world and from there is the rest of the story. But just thinking about that shoe shiner, who wasn't even in the revival, was just outside servicing and working, and I look at his whole backstory as a shoe shiner and everything he went through, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 2:42

It's all connected man, and here he was this one day. He didn't realize the kid that he was letting in. And I look at my grandkids like that man, I don't know who I'm raising in these 13. One of them could be the tribe of Judah, not literally, but the tribe of Judah. If you don't know, that was a lineage of David and everyone that went down to Jesus. Man, you don't know who you're raising and who you're calling.

Speaker 2: 3:02

So me personally, my backstory got me to a day where today I look back and I say, man, I was chosen for this. You know, like I feel like when I'm talking to somebody one-on-one and you know, I feel like I see all the, the, the parenting and life that god has taken them through. I'm hearing their stories and I'm hearing all their gifts and passions and and failures and successes. It's like, it's like the story is like coming together and I'm like, oh, man, you're, you're, you got a calling on your life. Like you know, I know, I know it, and so my, my goal and my hope is like get you to that door.

Speaker 2: 3:43

Right, right, right so that's my calling and where it started. Man is like. I look at the and I don't know if challenge is the right word, but as I think maybe challenge, like everyone who's listening to this, just go look at your past and there's these certain pin moments right in there that are just so pivotal.

Speaker 2: 4:06

If they didn't happen, you would not be like certain things when you know it happened, and so I look for those moments and you know, one of them I share with my mom and her backstory, and I'll let you guys read it, but my mom's backstory is really cool and then coming to the day where she finally, you know she had the desires and passions to play a guitar. And here she was singing for me, a little three year old, and I heard her singing about jesus and I asked who jesus is and the way she sang jesus man, it wasn't like a religion or like some some words off a book that she was just like reading and learning.

Speaker 2: 4:35

She sang like she knew him more, like she had a closer relationship with this, this jesus, than my dad. So I was just like, who is she singing about? I want to know this guy, Jesus. Because the way she sang I wanted, I like, I loved how her emotions and how she you know how I could just see her feelings when she sang, like there was just like this love.

Speaker 2: 4:56

And I was like, oh man, I want to know that Jesus, you know, like. And so, as a little toddler, I'm like hey, you know, I didn't say it like this Like yo, yo, you know who's this Jesus, dude. I was probably like you know who's Jesus? Like, I want to know who he is. And so she shared with me and like saying that I can accept him in my heart and all this. And so, like a little kid, I just rolled over to the side, put my head against the wall like I'm going to sleep, and I said against the wall, like I'm going to sleep and I said jesus, will you come into my heart?

Speaker 2: 5:27

no, seriously, true story, yeah, yeah. So I was just like you know, I really wanted jesus to be in my. I wanted him in my heart. So I didn't know, I didn't think of heart like my beating heart, but I knew like it meant in, like part of me somehow sure I got understood that a little three-year-old man, which is crazy.

Speaker 2: 5:39

And then, like two or three months later, house fire, I died, I died and got, you know, brought back to life and I got to witness Jesus for real, you know, and experience him. So that pivotal moment, man just makes me think like what if she didn't introduce me to Jesus? Like, would the fire have been the same, you know, like I don't know, you know, and so that was a real pivotal moment. I think I share a lot of my football emotions and stories. I think I share a lot of my football emotions and stories and kind of that was really a scary moment for me and just as a freshman in high school, you know I, you know I didn't, I didn't like football, I didn't, you know, I was more into basketball and other sports, baseball. But my mom, who is still, you know, kind of the parenting person of my life at at the time too, was telling me I should try out for football and I really didn't want to. And I ended up trying out 6-2, played defense and then God just took over man. I guess oops, I keep leaving the mic God just took over man, because I just keep, I don't know man. It was fruitful, like everything, and I let people read the story of my football journey.

Speaker 2: 6:47

But it was very fruitful man and I became, you know, by sophomore year I was a varsity quarterback, or invited to be a varsity quarterback, but the emotions of a sophomore, like some people would be like super excited for that opportunity. Well, I could be the varsity quarterback. I'm only 16. You know, I'm a sophomore, I'm going to be the hip man at the school, you know. But me I was a total opposite. Like are you freaking kidding me? Like, on a football field, I don't know the sport and I'm going to be a quarterback. People are going to try the sport and I'm gonna be a quarterback. People are gonna try to hit me. You know what I mean. It was very barbaric to me. I'm more like swag and basketball and kind of like shake you and you know, do a layup kind of guy shoot a three, but like to hit people and rah and all that wasn't your jams, no so it was just, it was just frightening man and and, uh, you know I could have said no, but you know I I wanted to quit football.

Speaker 2: 7:37

Honestly, honestly. I remember sitting in my bedroom like man, I want to quit this man. And just the fear, man, I understand that fear and I didn't know it was like a beginning to my calling and my calling is not like football and NFL I'm going to get to that. But that calling of being a leader, of taking people from one part of the field to the next and crossing a line, actually getting, of taking people from one part of the field to the next and crossing a line, actually getting a team to cross the line to get through the door. You see where I'm going with this. Yeah, that's, that's, that was my calling.

Speaker 2: 8:04

And I didn't realize, like, as a quarterback, I'm taking a team and I'm learning. Now here I go, I accept the role and the stories there and I like, eminem, in an eight mile, I'm throwing up in the, the bathroom before the first game and I'm just like man, I can't do this. And then, you know, just having teammates there to encourage, and that's what happened, that was a shift for me in that moment. Playing football man was like, okay, this isn't about me, this is about me supporting my team, yeah. And that's where it shifted for me like I can do that because I've been parented all along to be that kind of guy, yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:36

So that was the moment I realized, okay, this isn't about who cares. If, like, I don't want to fail them, that's my motivation. But I don't like it's not about mean anymore, like I gotta be there for them. So that was like that was easy for me. And that's when I realized, oh, okay, maybe I'm. This is like this fits, this glove fits, yeah. So when I stepped down the field, man, I ended up breaking some quarterback rating record for a sophomore and quarterback. You know, two, almost 300 yards, had, like you know, three touchdowns and played the number one team in the state and lost by two bear almost beat them. It was in the rain, so I think we had a little bit of advantage.

Speaker 1: 9:14

It was God advantage you got it.

Speaker 2: 9:17

But God was positioning me to, you know, be a quarterback in life and in my calling to help people get across that line, get through that door in their calling in life. And so, yeah, I share personal stories, man of my origin, of even going through the company. I remember even military too. I think there's another pivotal point if we're gonna like do points. There was a point where um at a school I got um. I was third in my class, you know, and that's not normal. I'm usually like there's 26 people, I'm like 24 and in the in 24 is like the guy who just got the d, you know, like or c.

Speaker 1: 9:55

I'm like C level.

Speaker 2: 9:56

I'm not D, but yeah, you know, I always got got by and so the fact that I was third in my class was just like mind blowing to me. It was whatever office, administration, school, Um, but when you get ranked on how you do in your class, at least in that school or at that time I don't know how it is now, but you get to pick the orders of where you're going to be stationed in the military, because this is my first time picking a station, so being third, the guy presented to the whole class he's like yeah, we got, like we got like 20 options in san diego, we got another 20 orders over here in newport, uh, newport, uh, virginia, and so it's either Virginia or Cali. But he says, oh, we got one in Japan and we got one in Hawaii, and I was like, okay, I'm from Peoria, illinois, I'm trying to get out.

Speaker 2: 10:46

you know, like that's, that was a desire that was placed in me, I'm trying to trying to go to Japan or Hawaii, man like I guess, or I'll settle for San San Diego, my dad's from San Diego. So I'm like, all right, cool, but I'm third, so I'm like, okay, I'm already settling on San Diego, right?

Speaker 2: 11:02

And so the first order the guy did, he picked Japan. He's like, yeah, japan, I'm taking that. Everyone's like, yeah, japan, you know like it's cool and this A school was in Mississippi, so you couldn't even imagine. Man, we're in the middle of nowhere, you know, and so, uh, here we go. The second guy he's like all right, he's gonna get hawaii. Who wouldn't pick, like, from the mainland, you know, version of hawaii?

Speaker 2: 11:25

like right and this is like get out of here. You know, yeah, and he was like and he was sitting there and he was sitting there. I'm like, everyone's like what like, like what do you go pick man?

Speaker 2: 11:37

and then he looks at me because he knows I'm number three. He's like man, you owe me a six pack. Man. He's like Virginia. And I was like he's like, yeah, my family's from Virginia. So I got to go there, man, and then I jumped like I won the lottery, man, I'm like y'all don't even know where I come from, man from Peoria, illinois, I'm about to go to Hawaii, man, you know.

Speaker 2: 12:01

So I was just like so excited man, I just felt like I just won the biggest lottery of my life because I All my life of parenting, the desire and passion was get out and I felt like I received that gift to get out and I'm out now. And so now, why I share that is my whole life, the next 25 years. Here I am today. I cannot imagine it anywhere else on the planet. I can't imagine that when my baby was born, you know, here on the islands, if I didn't like have that pivotal moment, I wouldn't have that baby, my baby to look in her eyes and say, so, nothing could change. Yeah, no house fire. No, any other me messing up in college, no, anything. That pivotal moment when I could have gone to san diego because my dad's from there and family or pick, you know, hawaii. And so, yeah, man, it's those pivotal moments. You know, I feel like if you look back, you can see God shifting and taking you through this journey For sure.

Speaker 1: 13:06

I think one of the things I underlined here was that you know God works in the background and God works in ways you can't see. And these little pivotal moments, you know, with football you mentioned that in that era of your life, that pivotal moments, you learned the skill of leading with your heart and that's something you can't just learn out of nowhere, especially in those situations, how it panned out. You can't just learn out of nowhere, especially in those situations and how it panned out. It's a portion people definitely got to read to get a more, what do you call a bigger picture of it. But it's where you learn to leave with your heart right. And then another pivotal moment of that guy you know, being from Virginia and choosing to go home. That's just not random. I mean, that's God working in the background and it's crazy. And you had a small joke with your mom. It's like you were chosen because what's that thing?

Speaker 2: 14:07

Yeah. So the name of the ship that I got assigned to in Pearl Harbor, hawaii, was the USS Chosin. It's a Korean war name with a C-H-O-S-I-N. But the fact that it was like I was chosen to come out to the islands and so the irony of that analogy is like you were called for this, but then I go on to this chosen ship to say, yeah, I was chosen to be here, for whatever reason it is, and I encourage everyone to look at their personal life like that Like you were chosen for something and look at where God's calling. There's going to be a day you look back and say, yeah, this is where I'm supposed to be. If you're not there, it's coming.

Speaker 1: 14:54

I do believe that man and so, yeah, and the one of the last things I want to say, which is that, um, on the last portion or last page of that chapter, it says to pay attention, pay attention to these small things, because what could be, you know, ordinary, ordinary actions to you could be a foundation for for the future, uh, a foundation for what you're actually called to be. But you want to close it up, bro.

Speaker 2: 15:20

Yeah, it's positioning man for our purpose. I think when I say pay attention, it means, like you know, don't disregard all the storms in life, because I believe God allows a lot of storms and some of them are really hard, you know. But he's setting us up and positioning us for a certain moment that will just change course. You know, on everything, patient and pay attention because it's coming, and continually look back on the history of what God has been doing all along, even when it looks hard and it looks horrible. How come I got kicked out of my house and wasn't able to pay rent? That's not resourceful, that's not the builder of all things. Guess what. You're going to look back one day and say, oh, I see what he was doing, yeah, but you're not there yet, you know. And so if you're still in that place of you know, maybe blame or shame or whatever it is, I've been there too and you'll get over that hump. You know when everything pans out and, um, you know, just keep doing, keep moving, don't stay stagnant.