ISI Brotherhood Podcast

142. Faith-Forward Leadership: Guiding Your Business with Purpose.

• Aaron Walker

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We’re bringing this episode back because this conversation feels more relevant than ever. So many entrepreneurs are still wrestling with the same tension: their business looks successful on paper, but something is missing in their soul. When profit becomes the only scoreboard, even a “winning” business can feel empty.

In this replay, first released in April 2025, we revisit how your business can become far more than a money-making machine. What if it could function as a calling, a mission field, and a platform for Kingdom impact? We challenge the false divide between “faith life” and “work life” and explore what it looks like to lead with a faith-forward mindset in every decision you make.

We discuss practical, real-world examples of integrating faith into leadership—such as choosing integrity over financial shortcuts, setting goals that honor God and drive results, and being willing to say no to opportunities that would compromise your witness. You’ll hear stories, including turning down tax advantages that didn’t align with our convictions, and how those “small” decisions shape the long-term character of a business.

We also unpack how to seek God’s direction in your business without getting stuck in fear of “missing His will.” Through prayer, scripture, and wise counsel, we describe a framework for moving at a “grace pace”—walking in freedom and responsibility inside the boundaries He’s already made clear.

Most importantly, we reframe business challenges as spiritual training grounds rather than unfair burdens. When you see obstacles as part of God’s refining work, you can endure hardship with more peace, purpose, and confidence that He’s doing something deeper than what you can see right now.

If you’re hungry for more than material success and want your leadership to reflect what you believe, this episode is a timely reminder that faith and business were never meant to be separated.

Key Takeaways:

  • What a business rooted in faith actually looks like in practice.
  • How to intentionally integrate faith into everyday business decisions.
  • Why aligning business goals with God’s plan matters for more than just profit.
  • How to lead with integrity, even when it costs you.
  • How to use faith as your leadership compass in seasons of clarity and confusion.

Connect:

Connect with ISI Brothers: https://www.isibrotherhood.com/
Join the ISI Community: https://www.isibrotherhood.com/isi-community
Big A's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronwalkerviewfromthetop/
Seth’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-buechley/

SPEAKER_00:

Do you ever feel like business becomes just about making money, or maybe you feel like you're losing your momentum because there's just really no purpose in joy in the business? You know, today we're gonna be talking about how to integrate your faith into your business and how to truly lead in a world that maybe disregards faith or feels like it should be separate from business. We're gonna be talking about what it looks like to lead with faith and how to align your goals with God's plan and why integrity is so important to bringing about long-term success. So if you're ready to lead with faith and build with purpose, let's get going.

SPEAKER_01:

It's also a mission field and it's a platform for impact. You know, today we're going to be talking about what does it mean to lead a business rooted in faith? How in the world do we align our business goals with our faith? Like what does that even look like? Leading with integrity, which I know is paramount to you, and navigating challenges with faith. Along with my co-host, Seth Buckley. Seth, what's happening, buddy?

SPEAKER_00:

Big A. Glad to be here. This is a fun topic. I love talking about purpose and business. We work awful hard. We might as well be on purpose, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no kidding. You know, this reminds me of my buddy when we say on purpose, Scott Bebe. My business on purpose, man, what a great job he's done over the past 10 years. I'm actually speaking at his 10-year anniversary next week. And so I'm pretty fired up about that. Seth is, I mean, uh, Scott's really helped us a lot with our business on purpose. And so hopefully we're going to be able to share some of that with you guys today. Hey, what about your week, man? Has it gone good?

SPEAKER_00:

You know, tearing it up, getting ready to do a little travel, do a little bit of skiing while I still can, and uh then some international travel. So I'm I'm kind of this is my last hurrah before I hit the road. So I'm I'm but I'm super glad to be here with you.

SPEAKER_01:

Where's a fun place to ski for you?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, well, Oregon's pretty good, but really good is actually Salt Lake City or you know, Denver. And this happens to be my uh nephew's getting married, and he invited a bunch of the boys out for a quote unquote bachelor party, and I'm the old guy that gets to ski with them. So uh I'm I'm heading out there uh tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01:

I've never skied ever. You'd like to like I would break every bone in my body first trip down. You know, we go out to the Grand Tetons and they take us up on that lift, and and I see where those guys go off. It's like almost straight down, isn't it? I mean, I don't know what you call that.

SPEAKER_00:

It sure can be, but there's a little bit of adrenaline mixed in the sport, I won't lie.

SPEAKER_01:

I would imagine. Hey, Seth, what does it mean to you to have a business rooted in faith? What does that even mean?

SPEAKER_00:

You know, I at the shortest way I could say it is one that doesn't become an idol, right? That you're doing it in the context of this is God's world. I'm I'm working inside of God's world. I'm not just doing this as a thing unto itself.

SPEAKER_01:

That's yeah, like we talked about last week just a little bit. Like, is this a newfound thing for you to be able to look at it like that? As a young man, did you always look at your businesses that way? Um, I know you've been a believer since you were 18 years old. Like, did you always have your business rooted in faith? When you worked for somebody or owned your own?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, what's interesting is as an entrepreneur, to be honest, I was never married to the idea of business. I I just like to solve problems, right? And so as if you solve the same problem for money over time, you end up with a business, right? And so now the one of the challenges I have is I still love tackling problems. I love doing the fun stuff. Where a business is it becomes an entity unto itself. And now you've got families and responsibilities and it be, and it becomes this thing. And then you're like, okay, if I'm the leader of this thing, how do I keep it on track relative to what God, you know, expects of me?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I get asked a lot uh on these podcast interviews I do, and you know, as well as the majority of our audience, I've been a guest on numbers of podcasts over the past 10 years. And I used to get asked this question a lot is how do you separate your faith from your business? How do you keep those separate? And I'm like, you don't. They're inseparable. Would you agree or disagree with that?

SPEAKER_00:

I agree. And the late Dan Miller, who you probably introduced me to, was like, hey, you shouldn't tell the difference between when you're playing, working, and living and worshiping, and like this should all kind of, you know, be a be kind of a blur. And I tend to agree with that, in that um, I don't subscribe to the idea that, well, business is business. You know, no. People are involved in business, and and I think that there's an ethic to it. I had a mentor, um, you uh you've heard me talk about him, but he had this quote. He said, In God's world, business done right is a blessing. You know, that's the motto at Cathedral, the company I run now. But that was his premise. And so he's framing it as this is God's world. And business done right is this idea that there's a science to business and there's an ethics to business, right? And then that last part is it's a blessing. That's kind of the outcome, right? If you do these things the right way, it's gonna be a blessing. Doesn't mean it's always gonna be easy, right?

SPEAKER_01:

That blessing rarely is it easy, yeah. Truthfully.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. But um, you know, but it can be beautiful. And, you know, a lot of people look at work, as you know, um, like it's part of the curse. And they're not entirely wrong, but but there was work happening before the fall of man, before there was sin entered the world. God had given Adam and Eve responsibilities, right? And some people actually think about in the future in heaven. Uh, I think in Randy Alcorn's book Heaven, he talks about having meaningful work in the future. It's not just sitting around like playing a harp and, you know, watching things happen, which is which isn't that inspiring to most of us, right? No.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, so you know, when I think about my profession now versus what it was decades ago, numbers of businesses I've owned, but those that have followed me for any length of time know that in 2001, I had an automobile accident that really changed the paradigm shift of my focus. And that was to be more outward rather than inward. And then I was a believer. I've been a believer since I was nine years old, but I never really thought about uh in the early days, in my 20s and 30s, incorporating my faith. I was a believer and I behaved like a believer, but there was somewhat of a difference in not being in total alignment then versus now. Because I guess I kind of did keep them separate, didn't talk about my faith a lot, didn't share the gospel a lot, especially my 20s up to my 30s. And then a little bit more convicted after that, is like, how can I incorporate uh my faith more into the business? And then when I had the accident, uh God really uh shone a light on my heart and said, You've had great success financially, but no significance. And nobody really cares the things that you've accomplished except for your family and how can you help transform the lives of other men? And which really birthed what we're doing today, which is the ISI Brotherhood. And today, our whole focus is on personal professional development and how to live a life of success and significance. And we talk nonstop about our faith and how it impacts our decisions. So at Cathedral with what you're doing today, how does it naturally fit with what you're doing? Like, what are some of the tactical things you actually do pragmatically to demonstrate your faith in the marketplace?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, first is, you know, we don't hide it. So we don't, we don't lay hide the ball. We just say, hey, this is who we are. We're not, we're not gonna be uh shoving any agenda at you, but we we're not gonna check our faith at the door, which can be really refreshing uh for some people. Um the second thing is really try to listen. Listen for um where somebody's coming at from, uh, whether they're a person of faith or not. And and and when you find them in a moment of crisis to just stop and say, Can I pray? I mean, I get involved in mergers and acquisitions. And it's not uncommon to have sellers that are so weirded out by the due diligence process and the hassle and the effort and the risk and the opportunity of selling their business, they get towards the end of it and they're just emotionally spent.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's really hard, labor, laborus, I guess you should say, to go through anyway, right? The due diligence.

SPEAKER_00:

For sure. And and they're, you know, then their life, their, their big dream of exiting, you know, maybe, and and you know, there's been literal tears where I'll just stop and say, let me pray for you. And to just be sensitive, to be aware, um, to not be transactional. I think that's the key. I'll give you, I was in uh, where was I? I was in, I was in Raleigh, North Carolina last week, and I was getting ready to go do a networking thing before a major event that I had the privilege of speaking at the event as a panel uh moderator the next day. Anyhow, I'm going into this networking thing and I'm feeling really agitated. Like, I'm not for sure why I'm here. You know, who am I gonna see? You know, and and and I just had this thought, maybe it was from the Lord, was like, don't be a mercenary, be a missionary. And it just kind of changed my thought. Like, listen, I'm gonna bump into somebody tonight. And I kid you not, throughout the night, I saw all the people that I needed to see, including a prospect. I'm sitting there on my phone trying to find his text, and he taps me on the shoulder, like, hey, right? You know, um, and I sat at the table and I just talked to him. Normally, I would be in a mode, I should say it differently, naturally, I would be in the mode of hunting for that next deal. But instead, I'm sitting here, I'm looking at him in the eye. I'm not getting up to go network. I was tempted, I admit, I just was, you know, my rule of networking is you don't spend a lot of time talking to the people you already know. You go meet the new people, right? But here I am talking to this guy about his uh challenge of transitioning out of his business and whether he's gonna sell it or whether he's gonna hand it off to the next generation. And uh I happen to know from my previous conversations, this man didn't grow up a believer. He's in his late 60s. He started snowbirding down in Florida, and lo and behold, somebody in his in his condominium started a Bible study. And so he's been attending the Bible study. And so I'm sitting there and I'm having a conversation with him. And for me, it was just, hey man, relax. You're exactly where you need to be. I know you want to close this deal and help him sell his business, but the Lord's got this, right? That's a practical level.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, when I start thinking about our business, ISI Brotherhood, I'm very aspirational, you know, very goal-oriented. I believe in giving it all you've got, you know, probably borderlining on redlining oftentimes. And uh you can't do that long term, but like I'm passionate about what we do, and I want other men to be able to experience what we do in ISI. And so I have very lofty goals, uh, the things that I want to accomplish. How do we align our business goals with what God is maybe wanting us to do or not do? Like, how do we get in alignment with making sure we don't get ahead of God? Because I don't want to take a step without him. At the same time, carnally speaking, I'm very, you know, aspirational. Uh, what has been a good practice for you in making sure those coincide?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that's a tough question, but I will say this. I I have a friend who has this phrase that he's hit me with a time or two, which is keep a grace pace. And I didn't like it the first couple of times that he said it. And as I've gotten older, I'm like, all right, a grace pace, which means, you know, I want to push, but I don't want to push so hard that I'm outside of what I'm I'm hearing from God. Uh I mean, I I think that it starts with that question.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, what does that mean though? Hold on. Let's go back because people have hearing that it's like, he don't send you a postcard, he doesn't call you on the phone. Like, what how do you know like for you?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So interesting uh another story. So I'm with a friend of mine. Uh he's never gonna listen to this podcast because he doesn't do personal development like this. So he's never gonna tell you. I'll tell you. He col literally collects Lamborghinis uh or collected Lamborghinis. And we were, I was visiting him, I was driving to his house, and he straight up says, I think people overthink, you know, how God talks to them and directs to them and and gives them guidance. He goes, I think they make it way too complicated. You just need to love the Lord, go to church, you know, give, and then do what you want. That was literally what he said. And, you know, I went to his house, had a nice dinner, looked at his Lamborghinis, etc. And the morning he was dropping me off at my next meeting, and I said, Bob, that's not his real name. I said, I've been reflecting on our conversation, and I'm like, I hear what you're saying, which is sometimes we just got to make a decision, and you're not gonna hear left or right. I said, but it seems to me the posture has to be, Lord, this is your world. I'm your servant, you're the king, I'm not. I want to hear, I'm willing to wait, I'm willing to take risk. Are you talking to me? Will you give me a hint whether it's left or right? And then if it's still, you know, and then you seek counsel from others, you seek counsel from the word. And if you still don't know, well, then you got to make a move. You can't just sit there forever. And but that wasn't his attitude. His attitude was, I'm doing what I want, and I'd really like to have God stamp it. And I don't think, and I want to tell myself God doesn't really care about it. And that guy went into some massive change over the last few years, created by crisis. And I look at it frankly as a gift from God to get his attention because he doesn't talk like that anymore, right? So hard way or easy way.

SPEAKER_01:

I was gonna get your attention one way or the other.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

This is probably a much deeper theological question, and I'll kind of give you my perspective. Robin and I, my wife of 45 years, have varying, you know, um uh opinions about this particular question. But do you do you believe God's will for your life is a point? Like when you're praying for a goal, and let's just say I want, you know, 5,000 ISI brothers in ISI in the next five years. Well, that's a that's a goal. That's that's an aspirational goal. And I think that's gonna happen. I know that's gonna happen because there's so many guys' lives that are transforming, and we're building such an amazing community here that I think other people are gonna join as a result of this transformational experience. But do you believe that that is specific? Like Robin's belief is God's will for your life is a point. I believe God's will for your life is an area. He gives you parameters and boundaries to work within, but he wants us to enjoy our life, he wants us to be aspirational, goal-oriented. I think where we get in trouble is when we make the goal our God. Yeah. When that becomes, you know, when our heart transforms towards the material possession or the financial resources more than we desire to follow his heart. And so just curious in relationship to talking about goals for you, is it a point or does he give you kind of a playground with boundaries?

SPEAKER_00:

Big A, as I think about that, I think about the catechism question number one. Like these theologians debated this for years and years and years. And they said, What's the chief aim of God? And they said, to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Okay. And um, it's my belief that each of us has a certain set of gifts. And as you get a little older, you under you understand those gifts, you understand how God made you. And as you begin to employ those gifts in the service of God's kingdom, note what I said, God's kingdom, then we experience joy. Right. And so if you think about that, that catechism response, it's it's to glorify God. Well, how do we glorify God? We glorify him by doing the thing he made us to do. And it I feel like it's our job to focus on that, not necessarily the outcome. I actually don't want to know the outcome. Like there's no adventure in the outcome.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, if you if you had the outcome, you wouldn't need faith.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Right. And I and I think a lot of the crises that happen in our life are are just so that we remind ourselves that we're dependent on him, right? But as we get to know our gifts, our purpose is to glorify God with our gifts, full stop, in the service of the kingdom, right? And the cool part about their answer in that catechism is and enjoy him forever. And I love that it highlights joy because to me, I know for my personality type, I chase joy and adventure. I think most people do. And there's this movement right now. Uh, you've seen it from time to time. People are like, go buy a boring business. Why are you guys all trying to get fulfillment through business? Why don't you just buy a boring business and make lots of money? And then you can take all the time off you want to go be with your family. And I I listened to that, and part of me can nod my head, like, okay, I get it. But holy cow, don't you think that your work can be full of joy if if you've if you're in the right zone?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, yeah, Rabbi Daniel Lappin is a friend of ours, and he says that completely. We were designed to enjoy that process. And so, you know, some pragmatic ways I think about getting to the place to where God is really speaking to you. For me, and I don't want to make it too, too, you know, too simplified, but obviously it's through prayer. And oftentimes for me, it's not when I'm asking for anything, but when I'm silent. And it's a really good time for me to be silent early in the mornings. Obviously, we've been empty nesters for over 20 years, so I have a lot of free time in the morning. But it's just being quiet and calming my mind and listening to the small, still voice of God. It's just like I can't begin to tell you how many prayers and directions have been given to me in that quietness. And I think God would speak to us more if we'd shut up and quit asking him for stuff and listen a little bit more. The second way for me is just uh through scripture reading. As we have talked about in previous episodes, the in scripture, God speaks to us through the living word, like we need it at this appointed time in our life. And then, third, for me, it's through the counsel of the multitudes, which is ISI Brotherhood, my mastermind group that know me intimately. They know everything about me. They know about my family, my finances, my relationships, my shortcomings, my kryptonite. They know about everything in my life. And they can go, hey, Big A, I think based on what you're sharing with the this point in time in your life, based on your circumstances, collectively, we agree this would probably be the right path for you. And this was introduced to me 25 years ago through the first mastermind group I was in with Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller and some of those guys. It really introduced to me that we were designed to be in community. We're not designed to be alone. Yeah. We're designed to be with other brothers that can hold our arms up when we're tired, they can encourage us when we're down, and they can give us insight and advice. And so when we're thinking about our goals today and how that incorporates with your faith, I do think that we overcomplicate that. If we'll ask God, he said, I'll Give you wisdom abundantly. And if we'll just be quiet and listen, pray, get the counsel of the multitudes, I think it simplifies our goal setting.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. You know, it's funny when you say goal setting, uh, I could hear the word mission, right? And I had a thought not long ago. I don't think I've ever talked about it, which is we're on a sub-mission, meaning it's subordinated to a greater mission. Right. Right. And then the word sub-mission is a hard word in today's culture. It's like nobody wants to talk about being submitted, right? But really, that's where we start. If we start whatever we're doing from a place of submission, uh, I think it does a couple things. It helps us believe that we're being good stewards, right? Because we're we're approaching it the right way. And I also think it helps relieve some of the pressure. I think a lot of business owners have this immense pressure where we're like, we got to make it happen. We've fallen into this trap of if it is to be, it is up to me. And I actually think that's just a torturous mindset.

SPEAKER_01:

It is. That would drive me crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm glad it don't depend on me completely, right? You know, the next thing I wanted to talk about a little bit was leading with integrity. And this is a thing that we talk about a lot in ISI. Uh, and it's we want to have great integrity, but I see so many guys get caught up in a situation to where they've got to make a decision. And oftentimes the monetary benefit or deficit uh impacts their integrity. So, yeah, I've told this story a number of times, and some of you have heard it that have been following me for a length of time. But I went to my CPA years ago and I was gonna buy Robin a new car. And he said, uh, listen, run it through the company and we can write off, you know, it'll save you about 10 grand on your taxes this year. And I went, well, Robin doesn't work for the company. He goes, Well, she comes down and visits with you. And I said, I'm not sure Robin could find my office. And he just laughed. He goes, Well, you use it and go out and run, Aaron. I said, I don't ever drive her car. And he said, You're gonna not run it through the business and pay$10,000 more doll in taxes. And I said, The truth is, is that I'm gonna write that check and I'm gonna pay those$10,000 in taxes because it's the right thing to do. And I could give you countless stories like that. I got to live with myself. Like last week we talked about, you know, the man in the mirror. I've got to live with that guy and shave with that guy, and I've got to look at myself and say, are you doing things above reproach? And I can't say that I've always done the right thing. I haven't. There was a time in my business where I was taking cash. And this has been 25, 30 years ago, but I was really convicted that I was stealing. And the truth is, I was stealing. Yeah. And I wasn't paying taxes, I wasn't tithing on it, and it was stealing. And I just, how can I go to Brooke and Holly and go, you can't cheat on the spelling test, but your daddy's screwing the government? Yeah. How can I do that? And so that's really uh parlayed into a lot of healthy conversations for men in ISI in how do we handle our finances, how do we handle our word, the things that we say, the things that we don't say that were misleading. How do you look at integrity with cathedral and how do you manage it?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, uh, I believe that we're all judging ourselves in the courtroom of our conscience, right? So we have a record. We know how we roll, we know how we behave. And uh I think this is a missing truth for a lot of people, or maybe they just haven't, I think they they believe it, but they haven't articulated it, which is if we know that we're a flake, if we know that we're not living up to our own standards, basic standards, I'm not talking about perfection, right? Um we will judge that we don't deserve to win. We're like that guy's a flake, right? Flakes don't deserve to win. And so we'll actually sabotage ourselves with our awareness that we don't have any integrity. That's why people with secret sin that never gets confessed, uh, you know, they'll they'll often struggle until it just comes out and they're and it's it's a tremendous, it's holding them back. I mean, there's two ways to look at this. Number one is if if you belong to God, God will bring that out anyhow. Like you don't get through life without God exposing these gaps in our integrity, right? Um, but we're also judging ourselves and having a clear conscience is amazing because it gives us confidence, right? Yes. And you, you know, you can sleep at night and you can have real relationships because you know, hiding is uh is a lot of work.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I just want to encourage guys that are listening to us today. Seth and I, neither one are professing to be perfect in our walk, in our business. We deal with these same challenges that you do each and every day. I think what's vital is that we take an inventory of our lives and we say, where do I lack integrity? For example, during this discussion, where is it that I'm not doing the right things uh with my family? What is it that I'm hiding from my spouse? What is it that I'm lying to myself about? And just really think through how you can resolve that because there's freedom on the other side of the confession.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You feel much lighter as a result of going to some trusted, you know, uh persons and say, listen, you're unbiased in this situation. You have nothing to gain or lose as a result of the outcome, but I need somebody that's safe to talk to. And that's what we provide in ISI, in the Brotherhood, is a safe environment to be able to share these things and go, okay, now that that's out, how can we go forward so that you don't have this conscience of guilt and so that you are leading a life of integrity, both personally and professionally?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh Psalm 32 uh was written, and it basically says, When I kept silent, like I have sinned, and I kept silent, my bones wasted away within me, and my strength was sapped like the heat of summer. And it's just this picture of somebody that's got a secret that hasn't brought it to the Lord and confessed, and they're they're just burdened, they're heavy, they're miserable. You know, and we we know that that's God's kindness. It doesn't feel like God's kindness when, when, when we haven't yet confessed. And so that that confession is that first step. We talked about it in last week's episode is you know, you confess so that you're healed. God forgives, but it's that actually confessing to another human being that really brings that healing because you you see into somebody's eyes that, you know, that that they've they're uh they're with you.

SPEAKER_01:

You know what happens too, and I found this over the course of my career. A lot of people think it repels people away from us and they're not gonna trust you any longer. What it actually does is it endears you to other people.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And people will only be as transparent with you as you are with them. And so if you're stiff-arming people, you want to allow them to get close. They're not gonna do that with you as well. The important thing is to have trusted advisors, people that are not gonna use this against you in any way. And so just be real mindful of the people that you share with. Last thing I want to talk about was navigating challenges with your faith. Is there been a challenge for you in your faith that maybe even today that you struggle with?

SPEAKER_00:

I I don't really honestly think there is. Um I would tend to say I have a lot of challenges in life and I would lean on my faith to help me navigate the challenges of life. I think if maybe I thought about the question a little bit more, I might realize, and I think I would, that I'm doing a lot of things still in my own strength. Right. I'm I'm spending my brain cycles of trying to figure my way out of the mousetrap, as opposed to, you know, more time in prayer, more time surrendering, more time focused on the Lord. That that verse comes to mind, you know, seek first the kingdom of God and all else will be added. I mean, it can't be more plain than that. I was reading when Jesus reconciles Peter to himself, and Peter immediately goes, he asks him a question about John, and Jesus looks at him is like, what is that? Doesn't have anything to do with you. You follow me, right? And so, so that to me is the the challenges in my faith are more about letting go of my natural inclination to be creative and solve the problem versus taking a step back and saying, all right, Lord, what are you doing? How how can I do this? For me, that's I don't see the problem in my faith. It's in my practice, right?

SPEAKER_01:

That's good. The reason I put the question in there is that I see so many people today that are challenging things in their faith because it doesn't seem fair. I hear that word a lot. I also hear people uh from a religious standpoint will say, Well, I'm not gonna go to that church because I don't like the way they spend money, or the pastor makes too much money, or why are they building these big buildings and why are these mega church pastors, you know, designating so much money to infrastructure and to building facilities, and why aren't we feeding the poor? I think what we've got to do is reconcile that in our own way with ourselves. Um, there's a lot of those things that I question as well, but that's not my responsibility. Right. My responsibility is to be faithful with the resources that God's entrusted me. Those persons will have to be held responsible and accountable for the way they disperse those resources. And so just know that God thinks with the mind of God, we think with a carnal mind, and they're not the same. And the things that often appear to be uh not fair, that's from a carnal perspective. We don't know the larger picture and we don't know why those things are happening. And I've even periodically, not on a regular basis, asked some of those questions. Like when I had the automobile accident, it's like, why did that happen to me? There was a lesson in that. God doesn't waste anything, and he really reoriented my thinking as a result of it. I thought oftentimes about my daughter getting sick and within 60 days of death. And I'm like, why are we going through this? A lot of it was the natural consequence to sin. But the other side of it is it wasn't anything Robin and I did, but it was a consequence to my daughter, but we're still going through the anguish. And then we see her recover and restore and back to normal health now. But then you hear about the children, you know, I've got another situation to where one of our team members, little girls, sick, very sick. And I'm like, this little girl's innocent. And I might question why would that be happening to her? Yeah. But we it's it comes to a time of trust where we've got to say, there's a broader, bigger picture. Romans 8, 28. Yeah. All these things are gonna work together for the good of those who glorify God. And so we've got to think through the bigger picture and not look at it in isolation.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's amazing how God can do both of those things uh at the same time. He could take something very negative for one person involved and make it very positive. I'll make this very quick. Uh, there was recently somebody who uh positions themselves as an expert historian who went on a podcast with somebody that was a legit biblical historian. And it went really poorly for one of those gentlemen because he wasn't prepared and he'd been basically making a career out of being a liar. And it was it was interesting how it all happened because both things happened at the same time. For one person, it was a horrible experience that will cause him shame, but might bring him to God.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

For the other person, his name's Wes Huff, it led to a very interesting podcast that led to a very interesting invitation. He was invited by Joe Rogan onto his podcast. Wow. And he's a stud, and he preached the gospel to Rogan straightforward with joy and energy, and 90 million people have heard that now. And so it was just a fascinating moment for me to say, look at how the Lord used one little moment, nobody just randomly, where he brought kind of judgment, hopefully leading to conviction and repentance for one gentleman, and he brought elevation to somebody else at the same exact time, right? And so it was just another reminder to me that God is working multiple levels all at one time. And, you know, we're kind of along for the ride sometimes.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll always remember that we don't know the greater plan, and God does have a plan. Hopefully, today's been beneficial to you as we've talked about aligning your business goals with your faith, because there are practical ways to integrate prayer and scripture into your decision making. So when I think about leading with integrity, I want you to think about how you can reflect on integrity. What is it that you're doing in your life today that possibly you need to change? And then navigating challenges with your faith is always difficult. We have to search the scripture, search our hearts, go to God in prayer, and figure out how you can navigate these challenges as well. Well, as we end today, think about faith provides a compass for leadership. If you want to be a great leader, you've got to have that compass. And integrity, without a question, builds businesses that last. There's no other way that you're gonna build your business solid, long term, something that's gonna last without a measure of integrity. And challenges are opportunities to strengthen your faith. Without those, we're not gonna grow. So today I want to thank you for being here. Remember, you can go to theisibrotherhood.com and you can get connected with our ISI community. I'll see you guys next week.