A Call To Leadership

EP253: Cell Block Salvation Part 2 with Jason Courtney

• Dr. Nate Salah

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What does it take to rebuild a shattered life and find purpose after hitting rock bottom? In part two of Jason Courtney's riveting story, he shares the unexpected twists and turns that shaped his journey of redemption and faith. Packed with raw honesty and powerful lessons, this episode will leave you inspired to embrace transformation and walk boldly into your own next chapter. Tune in and discover what’s possible when grace takes the lead!



Key Takeaways To Listen For

  • The surprising struggles and eye-opening moments of stepping back into a fast-moving world after years in prison
  • Healing Through Confrontation: Discover how an emotional conversation brought long-overdue reconciliation
  • Ways Jason leveraged creativity and determination to revitalize a struggling sales office
  • The miraculous series of events that led Jason to his wife and how prayer and faith guided their journey
  • How Jason’s decision to fully trust in God reshaped his life and paved the way for a newfound purpose



Resources Mentioned In This Episode



About Jason Courtney
Jason is the founder of "Deals With Jason," based in St. Louis, Missouri. With a background in the building and real estate industry, he has experience in short sales, house flipping, and commercial developments. During a challenging period, Jason developed a business model that benefits both homeowners and buyers. Homeowners can turn unwanted properties into quick, hassle-free investments, while buyers who don't qualify for traditional loans have a chance to rebuild credit and become homeowners again. Jason is passionate about helping others while building a portfolio of passive income.



Connect With Jason
Website: Deals With Jason



Connect With Us
Master your context with real results leadership training!
To learn more, visit our website at www.greatsummit.com.

For tax, bookkeeping, or accounting help, contact Dr. Nate’s team at www.theincometaxcenter.com or send an email to info@theincometaxcenter.com.



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[00:00:00] Dr. Nate Salah
Well, we are on part two of the Cell Block Salvation series with Jason Courtney. If you haven't watched or listened to part one, I suggest you check that out first, as he shares what it's like to be in prison for five years, what an experience, and then coming out of it and realizing that life has changed. The world has changed. How do you acclimate and what is the greater meaning of life, and this new vision of having a faith in Jesus? Can't wait for you to listen in. I'm Dr. Nate Salah, and this is A Call to Leadership. So, we left off, and our listener was eager to get to part two. We've heard so many people say, Where's the rest of the story? Where's the rest of the story? You have God's story. It's God's story, 100% or the rest of it is his story. And I didn't say it, right? His story in you, yeah? Because we left off with this incredible experience that you had while in prison. And you come out of this journey going in with, okay, I get the sentence. I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm going to prison and I'm not coming out for a while. Yeah, that's right. And you come out, and the a lot of folks don't know, what happens when you get out of prison? What are some of the steps that take place you get a parole officer? Yeah. And what can and can you not do? You're reporting to a parole officer every I think it was every two weeks at first, then once a month. What did it feel like? Let me ask. Let me step back. Yeah. What it feel like when you?


[01:47] Jason Courtney
There's no problem for me at all. Like, once I became a Christian, nothing fazed me anymore. Like, what else could happen to me, other than death? Yeah. And so having to see a pro officer F is much better than being in prison.


[01:59] Dr. Nate Salah
What do you remember when you left the prison like the day that you walked out? You see movies a lot right where it shows getting your garment back, your jewelry, whatever it is was in your pockets. I know that's not necessarily the case. And then you walk out and you're on the other side of incarceration.


[02:20] Jason Courtney
So when you were in, as long as I have, they don't have any of your belongings anymore. And actually, the way that I went in, they took my belongings from me and gave them to my family before I went into county jail to be go through diagnostics, they didn't have any my old stuff. But I got a funny story. I get my mom's there. She picks me up. I'm 20. I went in when I was 20, had my 21st purchase. I've never had a legal drink in my life. I went to prison when I was 20 and three days later, was my 21st birthday, or four days later, and then I got out four days before my 26th birthday. So anyway, my mom was there to pick me up. Now my body hadn't moved 55 miles an hour, which is how fast a car goes back then, speedland was 55 years so my mom picks me up, and I'm like, I want to go to McDonald's. I just wanted to go to McDonald's and get some chicken, of course. Yeah. So she I get in the car, and my mom's not the greatest driver to begin with, but 55 miles an hour felt like 150 miles an hour like it was pretty weird. I didn't expect to feel my senses weren't hadn't been moving for that speed in a long time. So that's one weird thing that I don't think people know about. If you don't drive in a car for years, and then you get in the car and just do average speed and.


[03:35] Dr. Nate Salah
How many years had gone by since you've been in a car? Five, five years. 


[03:39] Jason Courtney
Yeah, so exactly to the day, including leap year, which was very straight, yeah. But so you get your McDonald's, get my McDonald's. It wasn't half as good as I thought it was going to be, but I was excited to be out and free, and I'd been anticipating it. What year was that that was 19 or 2000 it was 2000 May 3 of 2000 is when I got out. Nate. So, 24 and a half years ago, so, yeah, so.


[04:04] Dr. Nate Salah
You entered in the 90s. You left in a different century.


[04:08] Jason Courtney
When I went in, fax machines were a big deal when I got out. The internet was airy. Yeah, Al Gore created it, right? So that was a trip. I thought it was amazing how we could get a piece of paper to go from my office to your office. Your pagers were out, but they'll paper was moving, yeah, like that, and that was amazing.


[04:25] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, even in five years technology, technology was changing rapidly, already highways.


[04:29] Jason Courtney
Yeah, I couldn't figure out how to get home. If my mom had not taken me home, I would have never found my way home, because the highways were so different in just a five-year period. In fact, the road to my house was gone because the highways came in wiped it out. We had to go all the way up through a hill now to get to our. Oh, it's crazy, but yeah, a lot changes in five years, that's for sure.


[04:50] Dr. Nate Salah
So a lot of things are probably going through your mind. What are my next steps? What am I going to do? Who? What's how do people what's happened in the last five years? What's going through your mind? 


[05:00] Jason Courtney
I think there's a lot of things that they try to prepare you for. Like, I haven't, hadn't been able to turn a light switch off and on in five years either, because the lights are automatic. So I where they were back then. I don't know what they are now. And so I was going through my parents home and never turning off the lights. I would turn them on, apparently, so I could see, but I would never turn them off. And so they prepared my parents for, oh, he's going to be like, he's going to do some weird stuff. You need to be prepared for it. And they said nothing's going to be important to him. Because when you're fear for your life for five years, and then you get out, you forget to feed the dog. Who cares? I said, that big a deal, right? Right? And so you're the things that you have to reprogram your brain for so sleeping was very difficult. So I slept on the floor for about a month, because you're sleeping on a hard, metal bed with a two or three-inch pad, so sitting and sleeping in a really comfy bed, forget about it. Man. I was like, That couldn't just felt weird. 


[00:05:57]
Yeah, so that was strange. People were really weird. They weren't weird. I was a weird one, but I thought everyone knew I just got out, and nobody knew I just got out, and people would shake my hand and hug me. I hadn't been embraced right until that one event where I encountered Christ. But girls were coming up to me. This was a big problem, right? So I'm like, in prison, you're working out all the time. You get out your riff was pretty interesting, that's for sure. What about your dad? So this was interesting. I think my dad was still on the fence about whether there was something different about me or not at this point, but he wanted me to get into the business, family business, and help me, which I was really impressed. I think he realized that I was done playing games. He was devastated when I went to prison, because he felt like I finally figured I was sober for a year before I went in. And so he felt like I had finally figured it out, and I was going to get my act together, then I had to go off to prison, and so he was anticipating me coming back and doing something great.


[07:03] Dr. Nate Salah
But had you seen your dad? Did they visit you in prison? 


[07:07] Jason Courtney
My dad visited me, I want to say maybe two or three times. So not much, not much. But my mother visited me every other weekend and brought my daughter up so that I could build a relationship with her the best day. My mom was just phenomenal. That's greenest woman on the planet.


[07:22] Dr. Nate Salah
So when you saw your dad for the first time on the other side of the bars, you remember that?


[07:26] Jason Courtney
The first time I saw him on the other side of the bars? Yeah, I was in Algo at the time, and he came to the visiting room. But I don't really remember. It wasn't special. It wasn't we took a picture together, so I had it my little photo album so I could remember it.


[07:41] Dr. Nate Salah
But so it's more like you're out. Let's get moving here.


[07:45] Jason Courtney
What am I? What can I do for my dad? Was a fixer like me, and he wanted to help me. And, um, immediately, pretty quickly, I would say, within a month, I confronted him about our past, because I felt like I needed to talk to him about why he did the things he did to me, like, when your hero, when you're a child and your hero beat you up like you're a full grown man, it messes with you in a way that I can't really explain, but it just needed some answers, and so I would, I met we, I remember we went to steak and shake because he loved the Smash burgers, which I love too. And I confront him about all these things, and I'm like, Dad, why would you do that to your kid? And he just he cried and he owned it all, even the stuff he didn't remember.


[08:31] Dr. Nate Salah
What was going on in your head during that time?


[08:34] Jason Courtney
I understand business in a way I never understood it before. At this point, it was so easy for me to forgive him. I had already forgiven him, because who am I to not forgive him after everything I put him through as maybe a result of the way he treated me? I don't know my dad was a not a victim to alcohol. I would never say that he made those choices, but he didn't remember most of the things that he I knew he didn't remember because he couldn't believe he was capable of doing some of those things and how this the slate was clean after steak and shake, baby and dad and I's relationship ignited that day in a way that's, I think, in a way I would want everyone to experience their relationship with their father. I hope I emphasize that enough, because my relationship with him from there on out completely changed. The playing field was leveled, and he's all right, kid, let's see what you can do. Because I'm an ex con, it's not like someone's going to go hire me, so you're in the business now. And they told him, Listen, don't make him do too many things right off the bat. So when I was at his house, I was sleeping there. 


[00:09:36]
I would walk around, I'd find stuff wrong with his house, and I'd fix it. So I built a big retaining wall he'd been neglecting for a long time. I painted his house. I fixed his couple of his cars, whatever he needed, whatever I walked around and saw that was needed done. And then he says, Listen, I'd like for you to come to work and get on the sales floor. I'm like Dad, I don't I've never drawn a house before because all the salespeople had to learn how to sketch. He says, Oh, I can teach it. Stuff that's easy, that piece of cake. You know, what you have that I can't teach is the way to sell. You're a good sales guy. So he takes me out to the lake St Louis office. And this is a business podcast, right? We could talk about absolutely mistakes or whatever. So my dad, he built houses on raw property within a 200-mile radius of his office. He made a mistake and opened up an office within that 200-mile radius. So he doubled his overhead and didn't increase the amount of housings he was building. He didn't know that at the time. He thought he was trying to be more convenient for his customers that were farther west. So that office was on top of a bank. No one knew he existed. His main office was on Highway 55 and the drive-by traffic was crazy, so you couldn't miss it. Yeah, the visible. Oh, yeah, that's right, you've been there. So the visibility was fantastic. 


[00:10:48]
They didn't have to advertise or market or anything. But here we are in Lake St Louis, sitting on top of the bank, twiddling our thumbs, hoping someone walks in the door. And so my dad says to me, you need to set an appointment for every single day of the week. I'm like, Okay, how do I do that? And he said, the lady you replaced, the salesperson you replaced, go through all of her files, call every single one of them and find out why they didn't buy a house. Let's see if you can get them back in. She had 2030 files. So I did that. I got four of those people in. And he says, now go to the white pages. Remember the white pages, oh yeah, and just pick a letter. So I picked W, because my middle initials W, and I just started calling people and said, Hey, my name is Jason, with Home Source Custom Homes. And have you ever considered building a custom home, or even the market the building, they'd say no or hang up on me, or I say, Hey, did you know anybody that I could call that might be interested in our services? And so I booked an appointment for every single day for the next three months. 


[00:11:43]
So I was like, this is easy. I called a lot of people. Don't want to be full 81 I probably called over 1000 people to do that, but I didn't know how to do anything else, and he only gave me those instructions, so I just did what he told me, and I sold my first house two weeks and no salesperson had ever done that in the history of his company. He didn't tell me any of these things, right? And so there was just me and one other sales guy in that office. His name was Lou, and then we had, I think, six salespeople at the other office. So I'm just doing my thing. My dad hadn't taken me to a sales meeting yet to meet all the other people. I knew them, but we weren't in any meetings. My sister had held our sales meetings, I think, at the time. So I sold my first deal. Then I just started selling like a deal a week, I was going pretty good, and I finally get invited to a sales meeting at the other office. And so I had sold more properties than all the other salespeople put together. Wow. And my dad couldn't wait to tell all the other salespeople how this had happened. So he says to me, Jason, you've been proven. You proved what I've been telling these idiots for the last five years. You know, am I? Oh no. So I get there and they all think my dad fed me these deals. And so all of a sudden I'm Bill son and be trying to help him, and blah blah, my dad never felt me. Fed me a single deal the entire time I was there. Standards got raised. Listen, if Jason's doing this, he just got out of prison. 


[00:13:09]
This guy has no job history other than selling dope and washing dishes. And look at what he's doing. Who'd have thought? Who'd have thought? And it really just was a matter of listening to the master, right? My dad was the master. He had sales records that I never even got close to crushing or even meeting. Back then, you could buy a house for 4050, grand. It was pretty easy to sell at 90 in a month, but or in I think he I don't know how many sold one month, but it was a lot. And I'm on the sales floor. I'm selling houses. My dad taught me how to sketch, and I became a pretty good draftsman. I was able to see things because I knew how to build them. Because, before I went to prison, I worked on our cruise, building houses, delivered lumber, so I knew how things worked. So I had some experience that helped me with drafting. But I was able to take what people had in their brain and put it on a piece of paper to where they could they knew I understood what they wanted. And so that's how it started, man. Now I'm this sales guy and this office that they were going to close down, and Lake St Louis is now doing better business than the way that was. Yeah,


[14:15] Dr. Nate Salah
it's quite remarkable. It's remarkable that your dad took you in. It's a risk, taking your son, especially in your circumstance. It could have easily said, Go get yourself a job. Your parole officer can find you something, I'm sure, bagging groceries or doing something like that, and figure it out on your own.


[14:38] Jason Courtney
After the things I had done to his company. That's what he should have done, if you wanna know the truth. I threw big parties with live bands, and there's display homes, and they get trashed, people punching holes in walls, ripping doors off their hinges. And this is his business, where he would take people through and show them what type of a product he could build. I had no regard that would max out his. Accounts at gas stations with fuel and beer and whatever else I can buy on these accounts. I was just reckless. I was the worst of the worst.


[15:08] Dr. Nate Salah
And this was before he went to prison. Yeah, so he saw a change.


[15:11] Jason Courtney
Oh, he did. And his was was beautiful. My dad's like, how are you doing all this? And I got to give God all the glory, because I knew I didn't know what I was doing, washing dishes to the top sales guy in a firm like that was only by the grace of God, there's no other explanation for the things I knew and were capable of pulling off. And the favor he gave me for my customers to help them achieve what it is that they wanted, and the favor I got from my dad as these things were happening, one instance that I do want to mention, I asked my brother, you know, there were some trust issues about what was going on around the office. And I took my brother to lunch. I'm like, Dude, what is going on? What more do I have to do? I've been out now for four or five years, and things are going great, and married now, and my youth pastor, and I'm working as a sales guy, and my brother says to me, we're all just waiting for the old Jason to come back. That rocked me. I like her really, like I knew that guy wasn't coming back, but they didn't, and neither did anyone else that knew me.


[16:15] Dr. Nate Salah
So why wasn't he coming back? How were you confident of that assured? 


[16:19] Jason Courtney
I am glad you asked that question, because that guy died, and I don't know if people really understand what that means, and when you're born again, what that means. And so it sounds so weird. Yeah, born again. What does that mean? In fact, Nicodemus says, How am I supposed to crawl upon my mother to woo the second dive, right? It's not about that at all. It's the old man dies. I'm still a rebel. I mean, I hate the rules, but my heart's different, and now I don't hurt people. I the best definition of a criminal I ever heard. At least the one best definition for this criminal me was someone who solved problems without regard for others, and I created destruction everywhere I went, solving my own problems, regardless of how it impacted anybody else, I would lie, cheat, steal, whatever I had to do to fix whatever I needed, and because I never thought I was a criminal, I'm like, Listen, I'm this nice guy, and if you judge me by my intentions, I was a nice guy. But that's not how the really, real world works. We get judged by our actions, that's right. And my actions proved me out to be a criminal. 


[17:22] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. I remember similarly we share in just being making poor decisions. And I remember I was a very unscrupulous young man, and I remember one of my buddies unscrupulous. And years later, after I came to know Christ, he said, Man, I want the old Nate back. Like, sorry, dude's dead,


[17:46] Jason Courtney
Yeah? Like, you can't revive him, yeah, there's no reviving of that guy after you've experienced the beauty and the love and the truth behind God's plan for humanity. Why would you ever go back to that crap? People that struggle with their faith. Grew up in the church. You know? I mean literally, both true boobs, so you move, Oh, yeah. I don't ever question. Sometimes I question God, which, how dare I? But I never question my faith at all. Yeah. So yeah, I wish that other people, when I'm sharing the gospel with people, there doesn't seem to be that radical can't be manufactured, that's for sure. I've tried plenty of time.


[18:24] Dr. Nate Salah
It's a radical love. It's a radical love. It's the kind of radical love that God first loved us in because it takes a radical kind of love to love your enemy. It takes a radical kind of love to love those who persecute you. It kind it takes a radical kind of love to love those who hate you and despise you. And so many of us have been that to God. Yet while we were still sinners.


[18:48] Jason Courtney
He loved us. He sent His Son to die for us so unworthy.


[18:53] Dr. Nate Salah
It's radical love, and it's the kind of radical love that unless we receive it, we really don't have it to give away. So that's the first step, is receiving the radical love.


[19:04] Jason Courtney
Yeah, I agree with that wholeheartedly. I think when I look at surrender, because that's what it takes, anyone listening here that's on the fence and doesn't know you have to surrender all and who better to surrender it to than the One who created you and everything else in this world, the creator of the world, wants to be your friend. That's like, my favorite thing, let him. Would you just? Will you just let him be your friend? Come on, there is no better friend. There's no better father. There's no better he's the all in all. And that's difficult to wrap your mind around, but surrender is really the key. So I know there's going to be people listening to this podcast that I know that have not gotten there yet, and they want to, they just don't understand what that means to completely surrender. And for me, it was super easy, because I looked at my life and I said, God, if you want this life, you can have it. It was none. I'm in prison. Look what I did with it. I remember saying. That to my to him when I prayed, I'm like, if you want my life, you could have it. This sucks, like, I do a terrible job, right? But I have friends who have had great lives and done great things, and they don't understand what that means, and they think they did it on their own too, which is a whole nother problem. But surrender for me was easy. And those of you struggling with surrender figure it out. Your life depends on it, you know.


[20:22] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, yeah. Surrender is a this relinquishing of control, relinquishing of your own power. It's also relinquishing. I look at surrender as relinquishing of your own weapons formed against God. We all have those Yeah. And so it's saying some you call it walls, yeah. Indeed, yeah. It shows up in different ways, and that step is a step toward God. In a sense, you're either walking toward God or away from God. It's either your back's toward him or your faces. It's a choice. And for me, like you, I was on a one way, road to nowhere. Darkness, nowhere.


[21:03] Jason Courtney
Isn't that a real word for us? There was nothing we drove down till we ran.


[21:10] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, you keep rolling, like, where am I going? This is not going anywhere. Good. And to your point about someone listening, it's my life is pretty good. Like I wasn't in prison, I wasn't facing a sentence, I wasn't I'm I got a pretty good life.


[21:25] Jason Courtney
I never heard anybody, not any, right? It could be lots of things.


[21:29] Dr. Nate Salah
Sure, and it's okay. That's great. Congratulations. That's fantastic. And like you said, there's a lot to unpack, even in that that we don't have that, this, maybe that, maybe part three, we can cover that.


[21:38] Jason Courtney
That's just the truth. No one's good. Not one person is good. You are not good. If you're listening today and you think you're good, I'm sorry, spoiler alert, you are not, nor can you be.


[21:49] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, because when we look at good, we look at it as the mark or the standard is us. You say, Oh, I'm better than that guy, someone listening. Ah, I'm better than Jason and Nate were when they were young, and we were not the standard.


[22:04] Jason Courtney
Yeah, oh, that's a good I remember my daughter saying to me, Dad, my friends think I'm like an angel. I said, I know because they're the devil. Yeah, I'm just teasing. They will my daughter, I was trying to say, Dad, I'm a good kid, yeah, and I and it's difficult to tell it, you're not good, you can't be good, and those kids aren't the standard he is, and none of us can live up to that. 


[22:28] Dr. Nate Salah
And this is where, when you're talking about your brother and everyone waiting for the old Jason to come back, and that the standard had changed dramatically for you and your life. The standard was no longer, hey, my buddies are all doing it, so I'm gonna do it too. Now I have such a high standard in my sanctification, my change, my my growth, my the way that I'm that I'm a new person. I'm a new person, and that new person doesn't ever have to be I don't ever have to go back to that, nor do I ever want to go back to that.


[23:08] Jason Courtney
Why would? Why would we?


[23:12] Dr. Nate Salah
The new me is too good.


[23:13] Jason Courtney
There's two sweeter. It's everything too good. I want to think of a better word today. It's too good. It's so sweet. My life, I didn't know it could be like this. I didn't know it existed. I think I always felt like other people had it. Oh, that person looks happy, or whatever. I want to be like them, the old happiness quest that led me to Jesus, but nah, yeah, it's just not real.


[23:39] Dr. Nate Salah
So you're working with Dad. You're married now. Oh yeah, yeah.

How'd that happen? 


[23:46] Jason Courtney
That was really weird. So I was at a Bible study called BSF, and I met this girl. Her name was Leanne, and I said, Hey, let's go out to dinner after Bible. 


[23:57] Dr. Nate Salah
Were you buff at the time still, or did you lose some of it by that? No, I was still still pretty buff. Okay.


[24:02] Jason Courtney
I was running seven miles a day. Oh yeah, I was pretty I wasn't lifting weights anymore because I really hated that. But anyway, so she we met, and she was quite a bit younger than me, I found out, and I was like, Oh, what a bummer, because she's smoking hot, and she's at a Bible study, so she probably loves Jesus. So I need to explore how much younger.


[24:19] Dr. Nate Salah
Nah, seven years. Oh, seven years. How old were you?


[24:23] Jason Courtney
I was 27 Okay, so 20 Oh, I was 26 she was 19. Okay, all right, which became very evident when we went to a pool hall and they wouldn't let her in. I was like, Oh, my God, shade a baby teaser. But here's the funny part. So I met her and her friend, and we went out to dinner with a group of people, and we just started talking, and really hit it off. She goes home and tells her sister, Hey, there's this guy at BSF, you gotta meet him. And so I hadn't met her sister yet or whatever, but so she fixes me up with her sister because she had a boyfriend, right? And. And I was like, okay, so I started hanging out with her sister. Just loved her sister. Tracy is just the sweetest kind and one of the kindest people I've ever met in my entire life, but there just wasn't the intimate connection or whatever love her dearly, zero bad to say about her, because I think she's a really good example of a godly woman, but just weren't connecting on a romantic level. And so one day, I called Tracy up, and I said, Hey, we need a weekend receptionist, and she was a school teacher, and it was the summertime, so I thought, Oh, she could use some extra money, and we need somebody to answer the phones. So I called her u,p and she says, No, I'm not really interested, but my sister's in town, and she might be interested, and I didn't know I remembered her sister. So anyway, Leanne comes in and interviews. 


[00:25:47]
My dad hires her, and she's the weekend receptionist. So anyway, we how this story, if she tells it's gonna be a little bit different, but I'm gonna, we're gonna have her on the show, okay, yeah, well, she'd love that. Yeah, sure. But so I'm going to tell the truth about the story, and then she'll tell you her version, because I know the truth, because it was my story here. So anyway, my buddies and I were going to a Michael W Smith concert, and one of my buddies bailed out an extra ticket. I'm like, Hey, you want to go? She's, Oh, this guy's asking me out on a date or whatever. And I was just being nice and friendly, although I was very excited. You were interested, I was definitely interested. So we go to Michael David Smith concert. Afterwards, we go over to a friend of mine's house who just got out of the police academy, and he was praying that God would place him as a police officer in St Louis County. And as soon as I heard her pray, I knew she was going to be my wife. I knew it. So I went home and I dropped her off, I went home, I called my best buds, Jeff and John the J Crew, right? And I'm like, Dude, I just, I gotta marry this girl. They're like, You're crazy. Shut up, Jeff. Eggs up on me.
 
 [00:26:52]
John's tasting you don't even know this girl. I'm like, Listen, I'm telling you she's going to be my wife. I am 100% certain about this, John. I've never been more certain about anything in my whole life, like I'm convinced this is my wife. He's what for do you brighten that over see her again. She's my weekend receptions. I see her every weekend. I brought flowers to her house and left him on the front door in the car and saying he had a great time. Hopefully, we can do it again sometime. And she I found this out later, but she called her sister after that night and said, I think I'm gonna marry this guy. No way, yes. So I'm telling my friend, leading with my friends while there isn't this joy with me friends, right? They're like, you're an idiot. And then she calls her sister up, and she's really, that's me, her sister totally believes her. I think it's a good thing. And so two weeks later, there were some other fun stories in between there, but I said, I can't hold it in anymore. I'm in love with you, and I want to marry you. And she said, Are you serious? I said, Yes. She said, Me too. Well, I could believe it, so I called John and Jeff. I'm like, Oh yeah, she wants to marry me too.
 
 [00:28:04]
So anyway, we dated for two weeks, got engaged. We were married two months later, and been together now 22 years, three years. So what a story? Yeah, people say love at first sight. It wasn't for me. I thought she was attractive, yeah, but when I heard her pray, her Spirit spoke to my spirit in a way that I had not experienced ever in my life. And that's how I knew I was just certain, and you couldn't convince me otherwise. Now, I guess I would have been convinced if she just said no or whatever, but oh, that feeling. I could feel it today. Just talking about it was just something I've never felt it again ever in my whole life. So love at first sight is real, kinda right, man. So 22 years, 22 years.


[28:44] Dr. Nate Salah
Man, and she's still putting up with you barely. No, she loves you dearly. I you know, we've you and I have been friends for a long time, and I see the way you look at each other, and it's still that fire of love. 


[28:57] Jason Courtney
Yeah, yeah. I'm a lucky dude, yeah. And here's the beauty. I did nothing to deserve this. This is how great my god is, right? This is how it's just how he takes care of me. Yeah, he lavishes me with things that overwhelm me. So I can't talk about it. I need to talk about it more.


[29:17] Dr. Nate Salah
But because it's his story in you. 


[29:19] Jason Courtney
Oh, man, I think my whole life was in a four-by-eight cell for five years, and that's what I did on my own without him, and then to see where I am today. The freedom I have because of him, the blessings I have because of him, the relationships I have because of him, it's all because of him. I like to take credit for it sometimes, and I have to watch myself. I'm like, Look at me. I'm, I'm this awesome sales guy. Now you a favor. You're not awesome at all, He is.


[29:47] Dr. Nate Salah
The one, the only, I think the only thing that we can take credit for. We have to be very trepidatious about it is the response of obedience. That's and I think we need to be mindful, intentive. About that, because your response of obedience was the proper, the only response, and it's it was the only response that you could have gotten, because you knew in the depth of your spirit where the other would where the other way took you.


[30:15] Jason Courtney
Oh yeah, well, I knew the dead-end road. I'd been there. I'd been living there for a couple years. I got to the dead end, and I was like, Okay, I guess I've arrived. This sucks, but I'd been there for so long, and was miserable, and was trying to get turn the car around, but I drove it so far I was out of gas, and I just had to turn around, start walking, and eventually started to see light again.


[30:38] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, here's what happened. You started walking, and guess who you encountered on the way? It's like the Damascus Road, right? You met Jesus, I really did, and he started walking with you, and he walked you to this day today. And there's so much more to come. Another cliffhanger, because we gotta have a part three, because there's more to the story.


[30:59] Jason Courtney
Yeah, what God's done in my life, not just after I got out, not just after I got married, but daily is tremendous. Can't wait. Thanks for being here. Glad to be here anytime.


[31:11] Dr. Nate Salah
Well, my friend, I am so thrilled that you joined me on this episode of A Call to Leadership. And before you go to the next episode, especially if you're binge-listening, take a moment. I would love to get your honest review right here on your screen. Your feedback is so important. It helps the podcast. It encourages me, and it helps me. It helps me to give you more and more and more value. So, I can't wait to read your review. I can't wait to be with you on the next episode. I'm Dr. Nate Salah, this is A Call to Leadership. 

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