The Playbook with Colin Jonov
Formerly The Athletic Fortitude Show.... Colin Jonov’s Athletic Fortitude Show has rebranded to The Playbook with Colin Jonov, evolving from a sports-centric podcast to a universal guide for mastering life’s challenges. While retaining its foundation in mindset and performance excellence, the show now expands its scope to empower everyone—athletes, entrepreneurs, professionals, and beyond—to live life to its fullest potential
The Playbook with Colin Jonov
Living With Purpose: From Pastor to American Ninja Warrior With Johnathan Morin
What happens when a pastor turns YouTube show host and American Ninja Warrior contestant? Join us for a captivating conversation with Johnathan Morin, who shares his journey of living with purpose through his faith in Jesus. From leadership in the family to extraordinary feats on national TV, Jonathan's story is a testament to the power of intentional living and trusting in a higher power. Discover how he navigates the complexities of making decisions that align with his calling, even in the face of misunderstanding and difficulty.
Hear touching tales of early leadership and faith nurtured within the family setting, including heartwarming anecdotes about Jonathan's son's bold acts of compassion and leadership at school. This episode highlights the importance of nurturing spiritual and leadership qualities in children, and the rewards of balancing personal priorities with family responsibilities. Jonathan emphasizes raising good men over good athletes, sharing personal stories that underscore the profound impact of prioritizing purpose over popularity.
Johnathan also takes us through his unexpected yet successful journey on American Ninja Warrior, an endeavor driven by faith and perseverance. Learn about his surprising success with a YouTube channel that transcended being just a side hustle, growing exponentially through a combination of prayer, integrity, and innovative content. With his unique appearance as a tattooed pastor, Johnathan has opened doors to meaningful conversations and connections, illustrating the profound influence of living authentically and purposefully. Tune in to be inspired by stories of faith, resilience, and the remarkable ways in which unexpected opportunities can shape our lives.
Welcome back to the show. Everybody, again, super excited to bring another guest here. Before I get into who my guest is, I want to give our sponsor a shout out All Black, everything Performance Energy Drink, the official energy drink of the Athletic Fortitude Podcast, available in Walmart, meijer and select GNC franchise locations. Again, it's been powering me through this entire travel series. Don't know what I'd be doing without it. It's also just incredibly delicious. Doesn't even feel like I'm drinking an energy drink. With that being said, I'm excited to bring another guest on, jonathan Murren. He's a husband, father, pastor, former pro athlete and a YouTube show host. How's it going, jonathan? Doing good man? How about you? Good?
Speaker 2:I know we had a little bit of a debate on the former pro athlete, but I had another American Ninja Warrior guest on.
Speaker 1:He considered himself a pro athlete so I got to give you the pro athlete label. Well, I know Nate and he is a pro, so I'll give him that. I'll give him that. We were referencing another athlete and you said he does everything on purpose and in a simple conversation. It was one of the things that probably struck me most in recent conversations I've had and I want to know where did that come from, that saying, because that's the first time I'd heard it.
Speaker 2:I mean I'm glad it was kind of revelatory to you. It's kind of just how I try to live live life on purpose. I think in today's society people just kind of cruise through life and I got too many things that are important to me to get kind of bogged down or weighed down with what's not, and so I try to make every decision, whether that's for my family, my wife, my kids, the church that I pastor at, or really any decision in life, just on purpose, right With a purpose. And I think that once you figure out what your purpose is and kind of for me, who God's called me to be and the purpose that he's put inside of me, if I filter my decisions through that, the rest of it kind of just. You know, the rest of the things kind of fall into place, as long as I have the main thing. The main thing, right, what?
Speaker 1:can you look for to know you are chasing your purpose, or when you're searching for your purpose, what is something that tells you along the line that this is it?
Speaker 2:I mean that's a tough question, right? Everybody's got a different story. I mean that's a tough question, right? Everybody's got a different story For me.
Speaker 2:I was a young man, probably 17 years old, when I felt like God called me to something specific. Wasn't excited about that we may get into that a little bit later in this conversation but I said no to a lot of things that everyone around me would tell me was the wrong decision because I felt like that was what God wanted me to do Hindsight's 20-20, right. So I look back and go, man, the decisions I made then made such a difference and, at 17 years old, chose to make a decision on purpose for what I thought and thankfully, was correct in following what I felt like God was calling me to do. I think for everyone it's different, right? You've got to figure that out for you. You know, for me my purpose is rooted in my faith in Jesus and everything in my life filters through that. So for me that would be the first thing to say. You know, and if that's somebody who's, if that's not the way they've chosen to live their life, I can't really answer that question for them. But if you're a person of faith like I know you are. Once you really determine and decide that you're living in the vein, I guess that God's asked you to and called you to.
Speaker 2:I try to live my life day by day. I used to hate the question like what's your five-year plan? I don't know. My five-year plan is to still be honoring God with my life and if I do that and I'm continuing to make decisions based on that, then you know I'm gonna. Well, it's funny. Look the hat I'm wearing right now says work hard, trust God. It God. It's kind of how I'm going to live, right, I'm going to work hard, I'm going to trust God, I'm going to do what I can do, what I know I can do, and I'm going to trust Him to do what only he can do. And if I do that, it's going to line up. I continue to walk out what I think the get. We worry about the wrong things, right, we worry about these things and I feel like if you focus on what matters, if you live your life in a way that continues to do what you feel called to do, the rest of it kind of just falls in the line. You know it's funny I say that work hard, trust God. It's a friend of mine's company. The shirt I'm wearing right now and the hat I'm wearing day 41 apparel friend of mine, justin Wagner, started this company, uh, based off of the exact thing, he had, a extremely successful company about a year ago.
Speaker 2:Uh, me and him had a conversation over lunch where he was not walking in his purpose, to be quite honest, and, uh, we had some uncomfortable conversations. I asked him some uncomfortable, you know, questions that he was like man. He didn't want to answer them, I would say. But once he came to that conclusion and he lined his life and kind of realigned his life on what he felt like God's purpose was for his life, literally everything changed. He took a very successful, as I said, business and I'll just leave the name out of that one and keep it on this one. He changed the name of the company to Day 41.
Speaker 2:And this whole company has now shifted to aligning what God's purpose is in your life. And so he in essence, killed a very successful company, rebranded and restarted another one in Day 41. And it's been a struggle, don't get me wrong. But we had a conversation the other day where he said man, it's like there's days where I just want to quit, give it up, throw in the towel, he's like. But I remember what my purpose is and why I did it, and so I don't know if that answers the question. Like I said, it's hard to answer the question because everybody's purpose is different, and for me it all starts with aligning your purpose with God's purpose. I got lots of friends who walked in God's purpose for a while and got convinced they should do something else or whatever that may look like, and I've never seen it end well. So I just try to stay in my lane where I feel like my purpose is so.
Speaker 1:What were some of the opportunities that you passed up, that everyone said you were crazy for Well?
Speaker 2:so you know high school. You know I remember talking with a coach. You know I was a high school football player, like you know you were and like probably most of your listeners were or are, and you know I remember having a conversation with a coach at a D1 school saying, you know, we would be willing to offer you a full scholarship. And I was excited about those moments. You know you feel like, hey, that's what God you know I practiced, I did all that I could. God opens up a door of opportunity and I was in Pennsylvania with my dad. My dad was a traveling minister at the time and I was sitting in a service at church while he was speaking, or actually worship before the service, and I felt like God told me to say no to it. In that moment, if I'm being honest, I was ticked off at God. I said, no chance, I've worked this hard for this, got the full scholarship, all the things I wanted, it's finally fallen into my lap. And then God said say no. Thankfully, I came to my senses and said, hey, if he's telling me no, then I'll say no to it. But I said no to that. My coaches told me I was an idiot. My principal at the high school. I remember telling me he called me into his office. He said you can always do ministry after. And what's funny is I wasn't even going to be doing ministry, I was going to be an intern at my church and work at a restaurant.
Speaker 2:Instead of saying no to that and like I said earlier, hindsight is 20-20. Seeing where my life was going to go in the next couple of years and the things that were going to happen in our family that were going to be just my family was going to blow up a little bit, I was so thankful that I chose God in that moment instead of going to, at that time, the number two party school on the East Coast, but a football player, you know I could just say my life would have went out of control. And thankfully, as a young man, I chose, like I said, chose purpose over. You know, whatever you want to say, right the dream or wherever you hoped it would go, chose purpose instead. And you know I can guarantee you I right the dream or wherever you hoped it would go, chose purpose instead. And uh, you know I can, I can guarantee you I wouldn't be where I am today if I would have chose the other route Um you know nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 2:You know, my dream was as your dream was right. You just went a lot farther in the dream than me. My dream was always to be a pro athlete, you know, and play in the NFL, like I'm sure every kid is. You know, I have an 11 and a 9-year-old, two sons, and my 11-year-old, you know, if you say his name is Braden, if you say, braden, what do you want to be when you grow up? He'll say an NFL player, a hunter and a pastor. Well, two of those three I am. I'm a pastor and I love to hunt and fish and be outside in the outdoors, and so does he.
Speaker 2:But he always says you know, do you think God would let me be an NFL player? I said, buddy, I have no idea what you're going to be, but you know, if you get that opportunity, I think that'd be incredible. But at the same time I think it's cool because at 11, he's already going. Hey, I know I have to choose purpose over. You know, at his age I would say popularity right or the popular decision right. My decision was not the popular decision. There were a few people in my life that were for that decision and backed me 100%, thankfully, my parents being one of those you know groups of people. But most people thought I was an idiot, right? It's kind of how it goes.
Speaker 1:I think that's a big thing with the younger generation, young kids, even people my age, this perception, popularity, wanting to be liked For sure.
Speaker 2:How do you encourage people to push against that and to be authentic? Well, I think it all comes back to once again if you know who you are and whose you are, you know I had an attitude. I say it's an attitude. I'm glad I had an attitude of this. If you didn't like me, I didn't really care. I'm not saying that's always healthy. So let me clarify that. You know I don't want to be a. Let me just pause and say this is awesome. So, coming into this interview interview, never heard of this. I have always been a different energy drink kind of guy, but this flavor tastes like I'm drinking kool-aid and that's a compliment. Let me just clarify it's not a bad thing.
Speaker 1:So well done, that's all black, everything, all black, everything is is everything it so.
Speaker 2:But you know, once you know whose you are, you don't really care about people's opinions. And I decided at a young age thankfully right, pretty much, you know, probably 16 years old, right before I'm 40 now but and I haven't really changed my attitude since I was 16. But you know, when I was 17, as I said, I felt like God was going to call me to do something specific and I was going to say no to things that weren't the popular thing. But I had decided, hey, as long as God's proud of me, I don't really care what you think. And I've kind of lived my life that way still, and, like I said, I wouldn't say everybody should have that attitude necessarily, but for me, because at a young age that was more out of pride, I think, sometimes also you know, now it's just become a different pride.
Speaker 2:It's being proud of who I am, that God's called me to be right and finding purpose in that. But at the same time, you know if, if you're too worried about everyone else's opinions. You know, I think you know once again a lot of times people, especially young people, they're worried about what are their friends going to say? They're worried about what is their girlfriend or their boyfriend going to say. I mean, you get into a. In reality, like I said, I'm 40 years old. I'm not friends with barely any, if any, of the people's opinions who I cared about back then. So what's the matter? I can tell you his opinion. I still do care about God's right and for me, like I say, I filter my life and I filter my decision process through living on purpose. So if I'm going to live on purpose and with a purpose, then everything's going to fall under that and if I'm doing that, then I mean love you, dude, but I don't care what your opinion is of me.
Speaker 1:How'd you get to that point at such a young age? Because there's 50, 60 year olds that still struggle with that.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure, and I think that you know. I mean, don't get me wrong, everybody has different insecurities, right? That's just never been one of mine. I will say different insecurities, right, that's just never been one of mine. I will say that it started as a pride thing, though, which isn't that's an insecurity right there alone, but for me that was just somewhere. You know, I know you haven't met my son yet, but you know, if and when you meet Brayden, my 11 year old, he is me to a T and he doesn't care what you think he's going to be him.
Speaker 2:And sometimes I have to take that down because it gets him into trouble, I think. But just as a leader right and you can grow into your leadership journey, what you lead and who you lead in those moments. But I think for me, kind of answering the call of being a leader at a young age is the same way I've watched my 11-year-old answer that being a leader Once you do, I mean for me. That's why I say I can't really answer the question. There's no secret sauce. I wish there was right, because I'd write a book and be a millionaire.
Speaker 1:What experiences maybe in your home life led to you needing to? Be a leader at a young age? Anything at all.
Speaker 2:I think that you know, I watched my parents model honoring God and there was a little bit of stuff that was going to happen later on. You know, as I was older, that I would see some things come to light that weren't honoring. But I think for me, I watched them and and I just wanted it, but at the same time it came out of me just once again wanting to be more than just the average right, like I mean, there's nothing wrong with kids that just want to do kid things. But you know, like I wanted to lead people right and I don't know if that was just a desire that God placed on the inside of me or that was just something that I wanted to happen to. But you know, I wasn't the guy who followed people, I was the guy who tried to lead people.
Speaker 2:You know not saying I always did a good job of that I led some people in the wrong way, sometimes even after I had, you know, decided things. I still made stupid decisions. I was still a kid. But you know, it's like every morning when I take my kids to school right, I'm usually the one that takes them to school about eight out of 10 times, and we pray on the way to school together, as just a dad and his two boys, and I pray that they would be leaders in their school, they'd be a light to this world, they'd be listeners, they'd be learners. We pray these things and I think that, you know, thankfully, my parents probably prayed those same things over me and it worked, right. I mean, I see that my kids, you know, my kids at 11 and nine are already leaders in their school. You know leaders on their football team, my 11-year-old especially. You know he's the kid that leads other kids. You know I've seen him do things that just don't make sense in an awesome way that make me proud of him as a dad and truly just proud of him as a Christian, to be honest, and a man. You know, I've seen this last, just this last year. He's going into sixth grade. This next year he's a fifth grader, or just got done with his fifth grade year. And this fifth grade year he brought six teachers and his principal to Christ as an 11-year-old or 10-year-old at the time. Some of them go to our church now. He brought over 20 kids to church. You know there was a kid that he got invited to a birthday party the day before Easter. And so, like, easter for the church is the Super Bowl, right, like literally, and on Saturday we're slam busy, obviously leading into to to that moment. But on Saturday he's like dad, can I go to this birthday party? I'm the only one they invited, okay, so why is that? And he said I don't really know, but we went. So then we go to that, go to that spot.
Speaker 2:And I find out that he's been invited. The mom I meet the mom. She's a single mom of four kids. This kid is in Braden's class and she says you know, thank you so much for letting him come. I could only afford to have one kid come to this thing and I asked him who he wanted. He picked Braden. I said that's awesome, you know whatever. I said I'm happy to pay for you know whatever. And she was like no, we want to do it, it's our treat. But he just wanted him to be here. I said, okay, well, come to find out that kid's dad just got sentenced to 20 years in prison and was taken to prison the day before Spent the first six years of that kid's life in prison got out, and now he's going back for 20 or 20 plus.
Speaker 2:And Braden came out of the birthday party it was at a main event or some bowl in a video game. He came out and said dad, can I invite him to church tomorrow? I said yeah, so he and he. He asked the mom and said would your family want to come to church? And so you know I love it Cause he's bold, right. Boldness has never been a trait that I lacked in either, but I love seeing an 11 year old do that to a parent. And then so we found out the situation. My wife said let's just bless this family. So we bought their whole family like outfits, because they just didn't have the means, and the kid came to church the next day, gave his heart to Christ.
Speaker 2:The week after that another kid in Braden's class, who I didn't know anything about. Braden said dad, he came home with no shoes on and some brand new Kyrie Irving shoes that we had bought him and he had given them to this kid at school. And, like I said, it's an 11 year old right, but leading and choosing purpose over popularity. The next week, I went on a fifth grade trip to a indoor skydiving place here with my son, and that kid was there, and I saw him in the shoes, and I said, hey, sweet shoes, bro. I never met this kid in my life. He was like thanks, you're bringing game to me. He was all excited, and then next week, that kid came to church with us and gave his heart to Christ.
Speaker 2:What I found out, though, which is the craziest thing, is, once again, my 11 year old tells me and I find out later that that kid's father had murdered his mom in their home and was now sentenced to prison for the rest of his life. So he's in jail for the rest of his life. His mom is gone, and this happened this last year. This kid's living with some family members. It takes a kid who's decided purpose to be a leader in situations over whatever the popular decision is, and I thought, man, I've never been prouder of my kid and I can show you later off off air, but like I got a picture of them together at church. This kid's never been to church in his life and sitting in our worship service singing to God. And this kid has every reason in the world to be mad at God, to say what the heck dude His dad's murdered his mom and instead, because and I'm not saying it's because of my son, but because my son was willing to most 11-year-olds aren't focused on someone else's life. They're focused on what can they do, what can they get into, what can, what can benefit them.
Speaker 2:But choosing purpose once again, rooting your life in living on purpose, and I think for us it all stems from asking God just to do that in our life. Right, we pray together as a family every night. You know that God would do big things. Continue to make us bold for him, continue to affect people for him and change people's lives for him. And you know you ask and you shall receive. And I think that when we ask it, you know you ask God to open up a door of opportunity. He's going to open it. You just got to be bold enough and obedient enough to walk through it. And so I think that's where all of that kind of stems from the first question, right, what's that mean to live on purpose? I think my 11-year-old shows you what it means, right. Where do you think he learned that? I hope to say he learned it from watching me and my wife, his mom. I also think he learned it from choosing from a young age to just honor God.
Speaker 2:Like I said most kids and I'm not saying he's perfect because you're Lord, some days he drives me crazy. He's a kid. But my hopeful answer to you is, hey, he watched it from his mom and dad. But I also say that our kids have been raised probably a little different. Being a pastor's kid, he's in church. Every time the doors are open he's there, and we have an incredible children's ministry at our church. That is a tool that is so helpful to parents, Because my kids understand and have opportunities, even at church to lead, and I think when you have those opportunities and you have those moments and you start walking through them, it becomes easier. And yeah, I think he just because you know it's like if I ask God to do something or give me an opportunity and then he does and I don't do it, then next time he might not let me have that opportunity For my kids. I think they've asked, They've had the opportunities, They've been obedient, and so God keeps blessing it and giving them more opportunities in more ways.
Speaker 1:I think one thing a lot of athletes get wrong and this is going back to the perception, the popularity. You work with a lot of professional athletes through your church. What are some of the tough questions? The ways that you guide them to get them past popularity perception Because you think about a professional athlete has every temptation in the world For sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm a part of a group of pro athletes that we do a Bible study a bunch of different pro athletes in every whether it's. I know one of the other guys you had a conversation with Sean Spencer, ufc fighter to a lot of NBA players, a lot of NFL players, really kind of anything, mlb players, you know, and I think it always comes back to. I think it's funny you say that because I think the average person, if they're, if they're currently in the league right, whatever that league is, or the NFL, mlb, nba, wherever they are, you know, if you say, what can I be praying for you, man, what do you need? It's always going to be health, because they want their career to continue.
Speaker 2:But then when I, when I have conversations with guys who are no longer in the league, it shifts completely from health to purpose, because I think of a lot of pro athletes find their purpose in sports and you know it can go away like that and you know it's like people who find their worth and their purpose in money and then all of a sudden something happens and they find themselves bankrupt and they commit suicide. There's a reason that you know. I mean, I can tell you I've had lunch personally with two billionaires, with a B. I'm not a millionaire, but I'm definitely not a billionaire. And I can tell you neither of them I had lunch with are one happy, two have healthy marriages, three have kids that want anything to do with them, and for both of them I'd say they found their purpose in that. But the problem is when that goes away.
Speaker 2:As we know, just as sports like, you know, you're one injury away from your career being over. If your purpose is found only in that, your career being over, if your purpose is found only in that, I mean that's why I think the prayer changes from hey, pray that I'm healthy. You know the usual. You know I was talking to an athlete the other day who's currently in the league and I said man, what can I be Love you, dude, what can I be praying for you? He said my health, I stay healthy and I continue to have opportunities.
Speaker 2:Well, the difference is, and let's just say, 10 years or next week, right, if he gets cut or he gets whatever and this kid's a stud, I mean, he's a big name in the industry, in the league All of a sudden that's gone. If your purpose is found only in the NBA or in the NFL, or who you are as an athlete, and not rooted in whose you are, I say that because I know that whose I am is way more important than who I am athletes. You know, I think, talking with those guys, all the different pro athletes, that I'm around on a couple of times a month basis you know every one of them that's been.
Speaker 2:You know there's a. You know, torrey Hunter, who played in the MLB for.
Speaker 2:I think 19 or 20 years or 21,. Tons, tons of years. One of the best outfielders in the game. You know, he's a part of that group and he's actually one of the guys that started that group him and Anthony Tolliver, who's an NBA player for many, many years. They both say, like once I've, once I realized that my life was God's and not about sports everything changed. I think I think that kind of you know that can speak volumes to athletes when it comes to purpose, when it comes to, you know, like you said, the popular thing right. Like don't get me wrong, that's not going to be the popular thing, right. I mean, I love when I see athletes glorify God. You know, I love it when they really take it to another level. And you know, because I would think that when you, when you were on the bills for that short amount of time, the hope wasn't that you'd be doing podcasts, right, right, but I'm stoked.
Speaker 1:You are right, because I wouldn't have met you if you weren't you know.
Speaker 2:But it's understanding right, it's having the fortitude right, Like, really it comes back to those few things right, If I have integrity, if I have purpose, if I have fortitude, if I have grit right, like to keep going.
Speaker 2:You know I hate today's society when it comes to you know people give up too easy. Now, right, like, quit being a pansy and fight, right, I think that when you get you know we talked about this, I think, earlier at the gym you know, like, everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face, right, well, life's going to punch you in the face and if you just lay down and let it punch you, you're going to die. Or if you fight back Before this we were talking me, you and another guy it's marriage. Right, I'm 16 years into marriage. I'm about to be in three weeks.
Speaker 2:We're going to celebrate 16 years of marriage and go to Cabo together and just celebrate, you know, but it's like 16 years into this thing, I'm not still married and happily married. Let me just clarify that, like I'm, I'm married to the hottest chick in the world to me and and, uh, you know, uh, I love my wife with all my heart, but there's some days where I drive her crazy, she drives me crazy. There's some days where it's not, doesn't feel all nice and fluffy and warm inside, but I choose, I choose her right Like.
Speaker 2:I, I choose to be married to her. I choose to be to find our purpose in that together. You know, and you know I'm sure you could attest to that too, you're four years into marriage and you know, I'm sure you could attest that to your four years into marriage, and you know it's not always.
Speaker 2:It's not it's not always the honeymoon. Yeah, you run out of the honeymoon stage Right Like I'm 16 years into this and two kids, 11 and nine, and our kids drive us nuts. I drive my wife nuts sometimes, but you know I'm committed to her Right and, like I told you you, we pray every night together as a family. I wrote down some things kind of as a declaration for my life. Our kids did the same thing, my wife did the same thing, but we pray together as a family and I say some things out loud for my kids to hear, on purpose. Now, once again, we go back to that living on purpose. I say those things out loud. So when I pray at night one of the things that I declare over my wife and me in our marriages I say God. I thank you, lord, that my eyes are only for my wife. I thank you, lord, that I continue to fall more in love with her. As I fall more in love with you, I continue to have my mind and heart grow in you, towards her. Well, I say those things on purpose, but I also say them in front of my kids on purpose because I want them to know daddy chooses mommy on purpose, right, and I do that for the health of our family, for the health of the purpose I feel like God's called me to.
Speaker 2:And you know, I mean we live in a world where that's not the norm, right? We live in a society where within men I've seen it, within athletes especially you know, porn is what it is. You know, I like to work out, you like to work out, you go to the gym and girls are half naked in the gym practically. And so I'll say it out loud, like I'll literally say out loud like Father, thank you that my eyes are only for my wife, and that's just something I do for me, right? You know, I don't necessarily I'm not saying I necessarily even struggle in that area. I'm not, you know, but it's just, it's almost a preemptive strike, right, like you'd rather be, you'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it, right? So I just thank God and, like I said, I do it on purpose, in front of my kids. You know, when I changed that confession, my wife even came to me. She said, like, privately, my wife was like, do you say that Cause?
Speaker 1:you started struggling there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I said no, I just want them to hear it. I want them to know daddy chooses mommy on purpose.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like you know, I'm not saying it's the right thing for everybody to say, but for me, I want them to know. You know, I'm choosing to live this way on purpose, for a purpose, and that purpose is God's purpose.
Speaker 1:I want to take a step back and talk a little bit about the identity piece, because there's a number of different lenses to look at it. Identity you could look at it like a house, right, and each part has a room, has a basement, kitchen, whatever. But identity becomes so fragile and you talked about people quitting too early, and it's because people don't have it as a house right and they have it in one dimension, they have it in a single room and, like you said, that's so easily gone and so when that's stripped from you, you lose yourself, and so a lot of the work that I do and I believe in is you have to put your identity in things that can never be taken from you For sure.
Speaker 1:So you talk about- Well, the house has got to be the foundation, right, right, exactly. So, like faith is our number one, yep Can never be taken from me.
Speaker 1:And then it's those other things that you talked about you know, grit, purpose, fortitude, right, learning how to put your identity in those things and learning how to live it through. And a lot of what I love just hearing from you and observing is that leadership piece through action and then confirming it through words. And I love the piece about the wife because I got to talk about this. I probably don't talk about how much I love my wife. She's the only person I've ever been with. We've been together since we were 15, 16 years old.
Speaker 2:That's incredible. First of all, the only person you've ever been with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's unheard of Right, and I talk about it and people will say to us like who are in bad relationships or whatever, like you don't understand, you've only been with each other? I'd wear that as a badge of honor, first of all, if I were you. I do. That's, honestly, probably the thing I'm most proud about. Yeah, but we communicate, we have standards that we hold ourselves to, that we're committed to, and it goes beyond just the physical appearance. It's rooted in faith, it's rooted in our commitment to one another, to our kids, to our future kids and to the life that we want to build. And that, and seeing her as a mother, makes me so much more attracted to my wife than anything in the world. So I really wanted to highlight that, because I think that's something that not even just athletes, people in general, miss. They look for the wrong thing in relationships and they put their faith in the wrong. That's why I said we don't make the main thing.
Speaker 2:The main thing Right, Like we're worried about Whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it all probably is rooted in some insecurities right, yes. Same way as I'm sure. Well, I don't know how your wife is, but my wife will say things like you know, like I mean, like I said, we're over 40 years old. So she'll say like, oh, I feel fat, or this. I'm sorry I don't have this anymore.
Speaker 1:I'm like maybe I didn't marry you for it.
Speaker 2:I didn't marry you for your looks or for anything. And once again it comes back to I'm committed to you, I love you because I love you and I'm committed to deciding every day that I'm going to love you. It's not based off of emotion. It's not based off of I mean, dude, your emotions will take you places you don't want to go and they'll keep you there a lot longer than you want to stay.
Speaker 2:Will take you places you don't want to go and they'll keep you there a lot longer than you want to stay. Yeah, for me. Uh, I know that can be a danger, so I just don't allow it to be there right, all right.
Speaker 1:I want to transition a little bit now. Yeah, before let's talk about american ninja warrior. What drew you to do that? What drew you to keep pursuing after failing a few times? You?
Speaker 2:know it's funny, thanks for bringing the failing part up, but you know it's funny as we've all failed, yeah for sure. You know, I tried to teach my kid that, like my kids, like you're going to fail, like, don't get me wrong, I hate to lose, probably more than anyone, you know. Yes, but you got to learn to lose well and grow and learn from it, right. But so Ninja Warrior was actually a complete accident I like to say a God accident, because at the time I was a youth pastor at the same church I'm a part of now We've been here 15 years and took a group of about 25 students because we were going to be taking a mission trip to China. So this is in 2012. And at the time they were filming Ninja Warrior, it was part of NBC, which it still is, and then, at the time, g4, and it was going to be filming in Dallas. And a lady in our church told me hey, I know you guys are raising money for the youth group to go to China, for this youth, for this mission trip, she nbc is paying I think it was 35 bucks or 45 bucks a head for people to be in the audience. You want us to get you in said absolutely, that's the easiest way to make money. Go watch. Tell the kids, hey, you're going to be on, you might get on tv or whatever, be in the audience wherever, um, so we show up that morning.
Speaker 2:At that time the first episode was going to be filmed in the morning all-day event. There was going to be 176 people come to find out they were going to run that day. So it was a long day. So we showed up that morning early, right at the crack of dawn. We're walking into this area holding area where some parking lady or whatever is going to tell you where to go, to go to the seats. And my students in the youth group are like Pastor Jonathan, you should do the show. I was like guys, I've watched the show since y'all been alive, like before you've been alive, I'd love to do the show, but that's not how that works, right? And they said you need to find out how you get on the show.
Speaker 2:And so there was a lady that same lady that was sitting there talking to us and telling us where to go. I said, well, I'm not a, you know, I'm not a producer, I don't really know everything, but I said I said well, is it like a you know? Is it a casting call? Is it a, you know? Whatever you know, you have to submit things. She said, well, I think you submit a bunch of videos and if they like you, you know, then they would pick you or they would start the process of picking. I said Sometimes we need walk-ons.
Speaker 2:I was like, huh, you need a walk-on today. She was like, oh, I have no idea. You have to talk to a producer. I don't know who. That I don't know. I'm literally taking you to your seat. I'm not the guy to ask or the woman to ask. And I said, well, who's a producer? And she literally pointed to this lady.
Speaker 2:It was a shot down at Dallas and Fair Park. This lady, like like 150 yards away, she said those people over there, they're producers. Well, they're behind like six sets of ropes. And you know, I said I'm doing it. So I just went and crawled under all the ropes, walked right up to the producer and I said, hey, you guys need walk-ons today. And the lady looked at me like who are you? And she said we did earlier. But you know, I think we're fine. I'm sorry, but like kind of, who are you?
Speaker 2:And this guy behind her which come to find out he was the executive producer of the show. I didn't know that. He says we might need a couple more. Who's asking? And then he kind of looked behind her and I said I am for me. And he goes like let's talk. And he handed me what was. I don't know if you've bought a house before, but probably 150 to 200 sheets of paper way more than when you buy a house to sign your life away. Pretty much if I die it's my fault and I won't sue NBC or whatever. And I was filling these paper where he said hey, there's no. You know, the walk-on competitors are pretty much like course testers. They expect you to fail pretty quick. And you're, you're going to go at the very beginning, not thinking anything's going to work out for you, obviously.
Speaker 2:And I was sitting there, I was just filling it out he walked back over. He said did you fill out the paperwork? I said not, yet I'm still working. He goes well, you're number six to run. I was like what? And so I was in a pair of jeans, just like this, and you weren't allowed to wear the logos. So I couldn't award this because you know my friend's company can't you know they, they're not gonna put that on tv to you know the rights to it. And he was like you have a different shirt. I had a polo on. Well, the polo and jeans are not what you want to run american ninja warrior course in. I said uh, and so I ended up sending one of my youth leaders that was there with us to my car with my keys. I had a pair of gym shorts in my bag and I borrowed a shirt from some dude, I didn't know. And I'm standing in line literally in a white cutoff t-shirt from some dude, in a pair of gym shorts and shoes. You don't want to run a Ninja Warrior course in. To be honest with you. And there's five people in front of me, I'm number six to run. All five fall on. At the time.
Speaker 2:The quad steps was the obstacle right there. At the very beginning they went boom, boom splash, boom splash, boom, boom, boom splash. Everyone, five people in front of me, everyone on fell. I remember the dude that went right in front of me. He fell on the quad steps and he took his arm and he splashed water out of like anger and just soak the quad steps. I'm like well, now I'm going to slip on the quadrupeds. Appreciate it, bud.
Speaker 2:And the dude looked at me and he said you're a big dude. I was like yeah, this is one of the producers. He said you should just like rip. I mean, like I said I'm 40 now. I was 28 at the time. I was a little more cut than I am right now. But he said you should rip your shirt off right here. I was like I'm not going to be the guy that rips his shirt off at the very beginning of the course and then just splashes Looks like that idiot. I was like no, I'm not going to do that. And he was like you should do it. I'm like no.
Speaker 2:And so it comes on and there's cameras everywhere and it's I mean, it's a huge production. Let's just put it that way. It's truly just you either can do it or you can't. There's no help. You either got it or you don't. And it goes. All the cameras are on me, producers are everywhere In three, two, one and I jump on those quad steps, beat the quad steps and I run through the whole entire course and beat the whole course and went up the warped wall, hit the buzzer and everybody's screaming and freaking out and I'm like what just happened?
Speaker 2:Like how did this happen? And I remember coming down the steps after and the producer come okay, you got to go over here for interviews. One of the executive producers that was interviewing me said so what's your story? Who are you? Like, what's going on? Because I was a walker. They didn't know who I was, but they heard the crowd cheering. My nickname is Jumbo and uh, and everybody was chanting that and even the producer, or even the host, matt Eisman on the show, says Jumbo, what are they chanting Like? You can hear them on the on the episode Cause, uh, the whole place went nuts and uh, and I had a huge support system in the crowd because I had brought 25 or 30 kids and so they did the interviews and, uh, I ended up coming back the next evening, or actually that was a Wednesday night, ended up coming back, or I had to stay till Wednesday, ended up coming back on Friday to do the regional finals course to, if you make that course.
Speaker 2:So out of the 176 people on the first course, I think 12 people finished in total and I was one of them and then you go to the next regional finals course. They don't tell you this stuff on TV, but I'm going to run the course at 4.30 in the morning. I've never been sore in my life because, I'll be honest, I'd never trained a day in my life for Ninja Warrior and I ended up coming back. Then the next course is those six obstacles plus four more, and out of the top 30, go to that one. 12 of us finished. Top 30 go Furthest to fastest, get into the top 30. Out of that, eight people finished and I finished the next set of things and went to the world finals.
Speaker 2:And it's funny because you know, in reality to this day I'm like how did I do that? Like I'd never trained a day in my life. But but one of the things I did was when I got on that stage or you know the starting platform, cameras are everywhere. I hear the countdown starting. You know we're, you know filming in one minute I just closed my eyes and uh and prayed. You know and this is a prayer I do quite often that sounds pretty ridiculous or even stupid.
Speaker 2:Sometimes people I say God, do something cool through this and I never know what that's going to be Right, like I thought maybe I'll have an opportunity to share faith with some other ninja on the show, right, um, and I, and I can share a story here later of something that God did through that, but, like you know, it's just like what you know. What do you want to do? I may literally fall on this first obstacle and make an idiot of myself on national TV, like the five guys in front of me did, or who knows. But whatever you want to do, god or who knows? But whatever you want to do, just do something cool. So I ended up going to Vegas in the top 100 in the world, competing there, falling on the spider, climb or jump. It's where the two different walls come in and open air and you have to jump like a ninja spider. I fell on that obstacle. I was fine. I mean to be quite honest with you. Did I think I could win the show, win the million dollars?
Speaker 2:absolutely not, honestly, like if I can just be real absolutely, you see, please be real, and when you see those things in in person, especially the vegas finals I'd never train a damn lot for this. I mean, there's dudes that are. I remember.
Speaker 2:I remember beating the course and you know Olympic gymnasts who you know I'm six, I'm a six, four and 200 at that time, two, 25, two, 30. Like there's guys that are five foot five and 130 pounds of shredded. You know Olympic gymnast muscle. But I was beating them, which made no sense to me but I didn't think I could beat it so I didn't really care. It was just like, once again, god, do something cool through this, whatever that looks like for you and whatever that looks like for me, do something cool. And so I did four seasons on the show and made it to the national finals top 100 in the world twice. I was one spot away from making it three times. One of the other seasons the course malfunctioned. Actually I had to run the course twice and it malfunctioned and sliced my hand open. So the second run didn't go well because the grip didn't feel great on some of those obstacles.
Speaker 2:But through all of that I just always, every season I was on there, I prayed God do something cool and never ceases to amaze me. As I said, there's stories I could share with you that are just absolutely mind blowing, that put into perspective that if you do life on purpose, god can do some things that you know, like I said, my thought was, hey, maybe I'll get to like, sit down with somebody on the show and talk about God. Well, that was you know. I know you did a podcast with Nate Burkhalter has become a real good friend of mine over the years. We met in 2014 on the show, the third season. I was going to be on the show and he told me like you know.
Speaker 2:I don't know what he told you, but when we met he told me that night he's like dude, I watched you on TV because that first season I was on the show. My story you never know if you're going to get on TV, obviously, like there's 176 people that run, they only show 20 or 30. But my story was the longest story of the whole entire season. So they came to the church. They filmed me. You know, I remember them. You know, once again living life on purpose. I remember the producers calling saying hey, we're going to be there on a Monday and Tuesday. We want to film you at your home. We want to film. At the time my wife was pregnant with our first child. We would love to talk about that. So we actually announced it on the show that we were having a baby. We want to film you at you know church, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:I said well, you know, and they said can we do a mock service at the church? I was like I'm not doing mock anything, I'm not going to. You know, at the time, like I said, I was a youth pastor. They wanted all those kids that were in the audience to be there and so I said guys, I'll be honest. I talked to our senior pastor at the time. I said, hey, they want to do this. Are you fine if we do a service on Monday night? He said I think that'd be fine. He said, and I told him they want to do a mock service. He said but we're not doing anything mock Like either. Do you do? Tell them, hey, we're going to have we just bought a bunch of pizza, we're going to have food and you can be on American Ninja Warrior on TV national TV. We can get kids here. And they were like, well, we just want to do a mock service. I said, well, I'm not going to do a mock service. This is who I am and we're going to do it this way.
Speaker 2:Service that night we had 17 kids who didn't have a relationship with Jesus left with a relationship with Christ and it was like they showed that and they showed kids actually accepting Christ on NBC that season during that show and so to which I once again was like dude when I prayed, standing on the starting line, got to do something cool. I didn't think that this would be shown on national TV, but that was one of the things that encouraged Nate Burkhalter. He told me like hey, you know they would joke and say like, cause I was the first, I guess, pastor or person of faith really that ever was on the show, that really you know that they made that a part of my story. And he's like, did it encourage me to do this too? I thought it was awesome, right, like that's cool too Once again. But God did some truly just tremendous things. And you know, I don't know how far, how deep into the into it you want to get, but like I'll share just a quick story.
Speaker 2:That night I remember we had about 70 people come over to our house, which was way too many people in my house at the time. It was like a 17 or 1600 square foot, little three bedroom, two bath, little starter home and we had way too many people in our living room and, once again, not knowing if they'll show anything on TV and that night they show all that on TV Everybody leaves our house. It was so much fun. You know we're laying in bed and my wife was like that was crazy, like can you believe they showed that? And I was like, no, you know, never would have guessed in a million years. And we're laying in bed and my phone dings an email and it's an email that says hey, my name is Sarah, my daughter and I watched you tonight on American Enjoyer.
Speaker 2:Now, obviously, like thankfully, because I had some weird people reach out to me through social media. Social media is a weird place, you know. I remember. I mean well, I don't want to put light on some of those weird people, but you know they don't put any of your personal information. Obviously they put social media out there, but this is my personal email, or my church email actually, um, but because they had showed the church on TV, my name, the church name, whatever this lady had, you know, detective, worked to get my personal email address and sent me an email that said hey, my name is Sarah. I have a daughter. We watch you tonight. She's eight years old and her name's Livy and she's got stage four neuroblastoma cancer as an eight-year-old little girl, you're a dad of girls.
Speaker 2:I mean, like I'm a, I'm about to be a parent, right, I'm in that moment. I'm not a dad yet, in that moment, but I'm like whoa.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I remember I wrote back an email. It's like 1030 at night. I wrote back an email and just said, hey, I think that's so incredible Cause she said she thinks you're a hero. I said tell your daughter, she's one of my heroes. I wrote her back just a sweet email and she said she wanted to write me a letter. So I said, absolutely, she can write me a letter, whatever. So then me and my wife were sitting there talking like that's crazy. Well, and then an hour later my wife's down to sleep. I'm just sitting there. Still. I kind of can't. I'm just like it was an exciting night, obviously. And I get an email and I want to read this email to you. And this is this is what it says. This is that little girl. Her letter to me it says hi, Mr Jonathan, how are you? I'm okay. My name is Olivia. I'll leave her last name out of this, but you can call me Livvy.
Speaker 2:I'm eight years old. I have two big brothers and two baby brothers. I also have two dogs, but I have cancer. It's a bad cancer. I got sick when I was three. I take lots of medicine but it's not working and the doctors can't fix me. So now I'm going to die and go to heaven.
Speaker 2:No one tells me I'm going to die, but really kids are a lot smarter than grownups. Think we are Mr Jonathan, but I'm scared to die. Think we are Mr Jonathan, but I'm scared to die. I wish I was so big and strong like you and I could tell you all the words that are stuck in my heart, but I can't. I want to say that I love you so big and I think you're so brave. I wish I could be brave like you, mr Jonathan. I've never been to church, I've never had a Bible and no one's ever told me how to pray. I just try to talk to God with my heart, but now I know God loves me because I prayed for him to let me find you. I know that you love God and maybe you can ask him to not let the cancer hurt so bad and to make my mommy be ready to let me die. I don't know if you'll ever read my letter before I die or hear my voice, but if you don't, I'll whisper in your heart all the way from heaven. So listen, real careful, okay. Thank you for making me happy and making my life and for letting me love you Love Livvy.
Speaker 2:And so at midnight my phone dings. I read this email and I'm balling Like I'm just like wrecked Cause. I remember saying God, do something cool through this. And I shook my wife and woke her up. And I read her the email and she's boohooing like any mom. Would you know she's about to be a. She's about to be a mom. And I thought, holy cow. So I wrote this lady an email back and I said you know, sorry it's so late. I just read your email Once again. Tell your daughter she's my hero. And I said this may be totally outside of your comfort level, not cool. And if so, I'm so sorry. I said, but I would love to talk to your daughter, you know cause I'm thinking this little girl thinks this is cool, like let's make you know anything I can do to make her smile. And I said and if that works, just let me know. If not, no big deal, no harm or foul.
Speaker 2:The next morning she obviously was probably asleep by then the next morning I get a text I mean an email back and saying hey, that would be incredible. She would love that. Here's a time where you can call. So I called that day.
Speaker 2:I remember sitting in my office at the church calling and just being like once again I just prayed God, do something cool to this Calling and this mom answering the phone. And I talked to the mom for a little while and she said Libby's asleep right now. The treatments that she's doing and everything it keeps her up at night a lot of times and so she sleeps a lot of times. And I said no problem, whenever it works, you guys call me back or whatever. We're sitting there talking.
Speaker 2:But while I'm sitting there talking to this lady, I realize this lady is not a Christian. Her and her husband have literally never been to church in their life. She said the only time I've ever been to church, I was four years old, went to Catholic Mass. That was it. She said. You know you could tell she was angry at God. They would have probably considered themselves atheists. Then I find out the only other people this little girl is ever going to be around she's in like a home care situation was two nurses that come every 12 hours shifts and she said they're almost evil to a little girl. You know it's a bad situation.
Speaker 2:I thought, man like here, I know that this little girl, you know she's never chose Jesus for herself, her parents would consider themselves atheists, and she's around two other women who obviously treat her like junk man. Then she says, hey, she just woke up. You still have enough time, you can talk to us, absolutely. So the sweet little girl gets on the phone and, uh, sitting there talking to her and I'm, you know, telling her how awesome she is and how she's one of my heroes, and she's just, you know, like I said, sweet little eight-year-old voice, who's who's dealing with a situation that nobody should ever have to deal with, um, but trying to keep her attitude and her head up, and just said I start talking to her about heaven and what the bible says. And I just said man, let me, you know, you might live to, you're 100 years old, but whenever you do die, do you want to, do you want to go to heaven? And and she said, yeah, she said, but I don't know how what that means or how that works. And so I talked to her and right there on the phone we prayed. She asked jesus into her heart as a personal and savior and eight days later she died. She asked Jesus into her heart as her personal Lord and Savior and eight days later she died and I thought, whoa, what could seem like an insignificant prayer of God do something cool when you decide to live on purpose, that's the kind of stuff that happens.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of allowing God out of the box right Of your, of what we think. You know, when I say do something cool, I'm like dude, I'm so surface level, right and so. But then something like that happens and you go Holy cow, something that I thought was cool, god's like. Now watch me work.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And let me, let me do what I want to do.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if that answers the question or not, but there's few, few things in life that can pretty much leave me speechless. I think that that story is is one of them. In life that can pretty much leave me speechless. I think that that story is is one of them. Um, but just trying to to tie it back to just making decisions and choices.
Speaker 2:Yeah, by liberal purpose.
Speaker 1:And just when you consciously make a decision, you never know what's going to come of it, and that's I mean talk about fortitude, I mean that little girl, and something that she said in that letter that keeps just ringing in my head, though, is children are a lot smarter.
Speaker 1:I think we are, mr John, I know smarter than I know, and I just like how much and you think about even two year olds, like how much my daughter picks up and how much they learn, and how much I think as we as adults take for granted or are ignorant to, and we think we're so smart and you know even your son at 11 years old, what he does. It's, it's incredible, it's absolutely incredible. And um one, thank you for sharing that story. Absolutely, and one of my questions was going to be how untrained like being untrained, how are you able to do that?
Speaker 2:through God, yeah, through God. I mean I try to. I'm naturally athletic right, absolutely, and I try to work out and stay strong and do the things that I can do and eat in a way that kind of like, if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready. Yes, absolutely, and I'll say this was before we had kids. It all gets harder after you have kids right, two kids.
Speaker 2:You just had your second kid. You know it gets harder the older they get, it gets even harder, right, like you know, because now I normally you know, I know me and you worked out this morning at eight o'clock. I usually work out on my lunch break every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because priorities, right, right. What I'd really like to do is work out every day after work yeah, about 4.30, go to the gym. That's when I would feel the best to me to work out. That's funny. I'm a morning guy. I hate morning workouts Really Right, and I told you you can hear it in my voice I've been congested this last week and this morning I felt like I had the worst workout of my life. But at the same time, I choose, once again on purpose, to focus on the priority. Right, if I'm being selfish, I'm going to choose this part of life. I'm going to do this here.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna go work out this time and do this Well, but I've also got to you know, I'll also coach my son's football teams and I want to be a part of their life and I, and and I want to be. You know, I'm a very active father, right, I don't want to just I'm a very active father, right, I don't want to just, you know, even you know it's why, why I coach my son's teams, honestly, I don't need anything else to do, I'm busy. I mean, just point blank, honest, I'm busy. But if I'm going to go, if I'm going to go anyways, I might as well be a voice, not only to my kids but to other kids. Man, there's kids on those teams that they don't have a solid man's voice in their life, right? And you know I think I told you this this morning.
Speaker 2:It's more than football, right, like I'm not. Or basketball, or baseball, all their teams. Like I'm not trying to raise a good athlete, I'm trying to raise a good athlete. I'm trying to raise a good man, you know, a good follower of Christ, a good husband one day, a good father one day. You know, like, my hope is that they love, they continue to love, playing sports and being involved in sports, cause I think every kid should be on a team. Like I think you'll be a better employee one day, or boss or employer or whatever you want to say, but just from what you learn by being on a team, it's so beneficial to their life.
Speaker 2:But I don't really care about sports If they end up doing that, awesome. But I'm trying to raise good men, right, for both of us. We both learned some things through sports. But we'm trying to raise good men, right, you know, like, for both of us, we both learned some things through sports, but we're not athletes anymore. I mean, you know there's nobody paying us to do anything, uh and uh, but I'd rather you be a good husband than a good football player, right, and I'll guarantee you your wife would agree with me and I'd rather you be a good dad than a good football player, and I guarantee your kids will agree with me.
Speaker 2:Right, you know I've. I've done things in life and I've walked away from things in my life because it didn't line up with the priorities or it took away from what mattered. You know, that was why I told you just shortly ago I walked away from something here recently, this last week. It wasn't detrimental, but it took my focus off of things I wanted that mattered more. So I just cut those ties and I think that once you decide to live on purpose, the main thing will become the main thing.
Speaker 1:Is there something in your life that you can point to? That may be a failure or a lesson learned, but something that felt catastrophic, that you emerged from, that ended up being a blessing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I will say I kind of hinted to it earlier. You know, when I said I said no to, you know, going to college, where I was thinking I was going to go and playing football and all that stuff, I said hindsight's, 2020,. You know, seeing the world, my life was going to go. Later on, when I was 21 years old or about to be 21, probably 20 years old actually, I found out my dad had kind of a whole other life. And it's not a shock you want, it's not a surprise, you want to happen in life. And it wrecked and rocked, flipped my whole life upside down.
Speaker 2:I would say my dad at the time would have been, I would have said like he was literally one of my best friends in the whole world and he was also a man of faith and a minister who allowed sin and allowed other things in life to, you know, take priority, and he threw his whole life away because of it and, honestly, in 2007, it ended up killing him because of that, because of it, and honestly, in 2007, it ended up killing him because of that and I think because of those life choices, you know, I was at a crucial moment that I say like if I would have chose football in the college.
Speaker 2:I was going to that once again. You know, the number two party school in the U? S on the beach all the you know would have been all the girls, all the booze, all the whatever, and being a football player wouldn't have helped any of that, um. But when all that happened I'm not saying there was not moments of, you know, weakness, but I chose God and his plan for my life over the pain that I was walking through in that moment and I think, because I chose purpose over the pain, that would be a defining moment. I would say that made through that decision. It defined a lot of things going forward in my life and it's probably why I am where I am today.
Speaker 1:I mean again, just you know, the stories that you've shared here today have been, you know, incredible and good and bad ways. How did you move from that, like, how did you use that to guide you in the right way instead of the wrong way?
Speaker 2:I think it all comes back to that Choosing who I was supposed to be right Like I said I'm not saying I didn't make some really stupid decisions and I mean royally stupid decisions but just choosing God's purpose and God's plan over what I wanted. Because I'll be honest, like when it all happened, I wanted to kill my dad. That's where I was and I had a really bad temper. I was pretty short-fused. I mean, honestly, I would rather just punch you in the face than talk to people back then that you know, if you, my life's completely transformed now and thankfully, god, you know now, like you could talk junk to me, I could care less, right, like legitimately, that people can mess with me, I'll shrug it off whatever.
Speaker 2:The only way you get me hot is if you mess with somebody I love, you mess with my wife or my kids, I'll kill you. But me I could care less. But back then I was very short-fused and I think it just comes back to the house you're talking about. It's where the foundation was. I'm thankful that my dad was one of the main people that created that foundation in me to where I wasn't shook. I mean, I was shook but not broken in that moment, even though he allowed things to change his foundational issues. But I think for me it was just choosing purpose instead of pain right Like.
Speaker 2:I said earlier, your emotions will take you places you don't want to go and they'll keep you there a lot longer than you want to stay. It's something our senior pastor said a bunch of times and he's helped me walk people through. Whether it's, you know, because of what I do, I do you know, do a lot of.
Speaker 2:I did a funeral this last week, you know, just just on Saturday, just a few days ago, I did a funeral for somebody and, you know, did a funeral not too long ago for someone else and and I always try to walk families through that but you know, I was walking a guy through losing his wife, you know, not a situation you ever expect to go or do, but it's understanding that if I allow my emotions to guide me like your emotions are liars, right, like your emotions will tell you stupid things and if I allow my emotions to guide me, they'll take me places I don't want to go and they'll keep me there longer than I want to be. And then the problem is when you stay somewhere longer, when you stay somewhere longer than you want to be, it takes you a lot longer to get out. It's like quicksand, right. If you dip your toe in it and you go oh, that's quicksand, you pull it out real quick.
Speaker 2:You're good If you jump in there and say, well, I'm only going to go knee deep. All of a sudden you're up to your waist. All of a sudden you're up to your chest. All of a sudden you're over your head and you're dead. So I think, for me, I had a moment where I freaked out, had a moment where I was mad Well, more than a moment that I was mad but a moment where I chose anger and I chose the pain. But thankfully I didn't stay there, right Like there's nothing wrong with getting angry, but don't stay there, don't live in it.
Speaker 2:Right. Jesus got angry Right, but the sin comes from staying in that place and living in it and for me, I chose not to stay in it.
Speaker 1:All right. Last thing I want to talk about here, maybe a little bit different tone here, but how have you allowed God to channel your life into your YouTube show? Because you've had immense success throughout your life and there's a lot of aspiring youtubers that can't pull off what you've done in such a short period of time.
Speaker 2:Well, let me first of all clarify that I don't even consider myself a quote-unquote youtuber you ever show a hundred, a hundred thousand subscribers.
Speaker 1:That's um, that's part of what you do.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, I mean it is, but what's funny is so, like, if you say, jonathan, who are? Like, if you say Jonathan, who are you, what do you do? You know who are you? I don't even talk about that. Yeah, you know, like I'm a pastor.
Speaker 2:I should have clarified no no, no, I'm not saying that you clarified it wrong or didn't clarify it, you know, or incorrectly or anything. I'm just saying like for me, I'm a husband to my wife, I I'm a husband to my wife, I'm a father to my kids, I'm a pastor, and those are the things I feel called to do. Yeah, I'll be honest with you YouTube is a side hustle what an amazing and I couldn't tell you. It would probably make you sick and it would make anybody who watches this, who's quote unquote aspiring to be a YouTube or YouTuber mad and hate me and right in your comment section that I shouldn't have any of it. But it's, it's truly just a side hustle and I don't put a lot of effort into it, as bad as that may sound like, like not in a bad way, not like I don't care or whatever, but like it's not the main thing, it's not even close to the main thing.
Speaker 2:When I started it and I think this is probably you know, cause if you say like, how'd you get? I think we're, I don't know I can look at my phone right now and tell you how many quote unquote subscribers we're up to today Um 114,755. If I go to views, we'll go to views since we started and we've only been doing this about 16 months. If I go to views and go lifetime, we're at 33,317,000. That's pretty awesome. Those numbers blow my mind because, but I think part of the reason is I asked God to bless it but at the same time, it isn't the main thing. And uh, and I started this with with what we do with it um, with the owner of the dealership that I started doing this with, you know, when we started it, I told him hey, I'm in. He said he was in, I'm in.
Speaker 2:I said, but if it ever gets in the way of the main thing, I'm out, and I think that's part of why God's blessed it, because I don't have any. I mean honestly, like it's not that cool, like it is, but it's not. It doesn't warrant, I guess, how awesome it's become, or I don't think so, like I guess I guess how awesome it's become, or I don't think so, like I guess I can say that because it's mine. But, like you know, this whole thing started. You know they kill it on social media. It's Autoplex Customs and they do custom vehicles and our clientele has been massive because of Instagram. We have almost a million followers, tiktok over 3 million Just started on YouTube, as I said, and it's going well. But it was. You know. I was talking to the owner of the dealership. I said you guys kill it on social media but you've never done anything like this. Why not? And he said well, we've thought about it, but there's never been anybody to do it.
Speaker 2:And I said hey, here's the deal Date the girl before you marry her. Don't pay me, don't do anything other than give me a vehicle to shoot. Let me film something for you. We'll film a few. See if you we can talk. I filmed one and he said I'm in, let's do it. And David's he's a great friend of mine. Now We've become great friends. His family's awesome. The whole family at the dealership is awesome. It's a family owned dealership.
Speaker 2:That is just different than next time you come to town I'll have to take you over there and you can see it but different than really anywhere in the country. And partially why they've done so. Well, you know they're doing things that other people aren't doing. They're pretty innovative in what they do with customizing vehicles and it's been a roller coaster man. We started it. It's worked. You know we got the 100 hundred thousand play button from YouTube in just 14 months, which is kind of unheard of starting something from from nothing.
Speaker 2:And and, like I said, I think just God's blessed it. You know I prayed that same. What some people have told me before is a lame prayer. God, do something cool through this, you know. You know, when we started I said, hey, look you, look, you can, because he's like I'm trusting you with this, obviously, but I'm not the guy that's going to go out and do something stupid that's going to make your company look dumb. I'm not going to go out and, you know, whatever that looks like that's going to put a brown spot on your nose, like I'm just going to be the guy that's going to do it. You can trust me with it and if you do, I'll represent you well, because I'm going to represent God well, and I think that that's really what it comes down to. If you decide and you live on purpose and you go, hey, in my life, in my decisions, I'm going to do things so that it honors God, then, like I said at the beginning, the rest of it kind of falls into place. You know, um, that's how I just live my life, it's how I am married, it's how I pastor, it's how I raise my kids, it's how I try to just live in a way. You know, um, you know I love it.
Speaker 2:I don't necessarily look like the average pastor, probably, you know, full sleeve tattoo. I've got tattoos everywhere and people don't usually expect that right on somebody in ministry or you know, but I love that because I'll meet people at the gym or at a car show or wherever at the dealership and they'll say, well, you're a what You're a pastor Cause, and I, I, I wear that just as you wear your high school sweetheart badge of honor. I wear that as a badge of honor because one it allows me into conversations with people who may not normally talk to somebody that is a man of faith or a woman of faith. You know that like and I don't even just mean pastor, but just like they don't want anything to do with that world, but then they realize you're just a normal guy but life's going well, marriage is going well, your kids are doing great. You know, I mean, there's different.
Speaker 2:The football team, right, like with my kids, it's a high level, select team. There's tons of NFL athletes and their kids that are part of our organization. Some of them come to our church and gotten saved. Like it opens up doors of opportunity for you when you live your life in a way that's not high and mighty but just honors God. And if you do that, he opens up doors of opportunity. He does. If you're that, he opens up doors of opportunity when he does. If you're obedient, you walk through him and you pray things like God do something cool here. He'll do it.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I can't thank you enough for coming on, man.
Speaker 2:Absolutely man, my honor.
Speaker 1:It's been a pleasure. Where can people find you?
Speaker 2:Social media. My name, jonathan Lawrence, just spelled out just as it is, so I can give you the spelling on that. But, um, and I'm sure you'll, you'll tag me in all your stuff here and it's been a pleasure. Man, I love being a part. If you're ever in dallas the fw area, plano, texas come check out the church. Um, if you're, uh, traveling here and here on a wednesday night or a sunday morning, we'd love to have you. I'd love to meet you in person and yeah, yeah it's an honor, man.
Speaker 2:Thanks for being a part. Look forward to this friendship growing over the next, however long dude, and thanks for having me on and pray. God bless us and does something cool through this podcast, man and through through athletic fortitude in your life and your wife's life.
Speaker 1:So thank you so much, man. It means a lot, honestly. Thank you Uh. Listeners reach out to them. Um thanks for tuning in. Download, subscribe. Uh tune in. Next week check us out at athletic fortitudecom Thanks. Thanks again, man, absolutely.