Lasting Impact
Welcome to "Lasting Impact," the podcast that dives deep into the stories and insights of extraordinary individuals who are leaving an indelible mark on the world. Here, we'll explore the transformative power of their actions and innovations in the realms of business, ministry, and community. Our guests are the change-makers, the visionaries, and the unsung heroes whose unwavering dedication and passion have not only made an impact but a lasting one. Prepare to be inspired, informed, and empowered as we explore the stories behind the lasting impact these remarkable individuals are creating.
Lasting Impact
Faith, Perseverance & Personal Transformation with Alex Sevensky
From his early days as a high school athlete to his success as an entrepreneur, Alex's story shatters traditional notions of success. Experience the transformative power of faith that guided him through spiritual growth, career transitions, and building a legacy of love and integrity.
Through personal anecdotes and introspection, Alex reveals how pivotal encounters and divine experiences during his time at Oral Roberts University led to a profound spiritual awakening. Discover how he navigated the challenges of the COVID pandemic by embracing new spiritual disciplines and relying on the power of prayer.
Don't miss this insightful episode that'll leave you inspired to embrace authenticity and pursue a life aligned with divine purpose and love, just like Alex Sevensky.
These athletes that do awesome in high school. You're getting honored and it is becoming part of your identity. There's a big struggle when that gets stripped away from you.
Speaker 2:Like you're no longer that anymore.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Lasting Impact Podcast. I'm your host, mark Marquand. Join me as I sit down with remarkable individuals making a meaningful difference in business and ministry. We'll explore their stories, challenges and successes, all with the goal of encouraging you to go out and make a lasting impact. If you love what you hear, don't forget to rate, review and share. Welcome to Lasting Impact, alex Savinsky. Welcome to the podcast, man.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, grateful to be, here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude. Well, for those listening that don't know, you tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:I am a mortgage loan officer here at the Mortgage Link, been married for over a year and a half now, celebrating two years in May, and me and my wife Haley, we have a little one coming on the way in July. Dude, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so awesome. Well, our connection is we work together and loan officers here at the same place, and so here at our office we do a weekly devotional. It's company-wide, but we add other friends into and I think hearing you on that podcast excuse me, hearing you on the Zoom, like you really stood out to me because I was like, okay, this guy loves the Lord and he is a great studier of the word. Because when you would just kind of answer questions and give your feedback, I was like I think I'm going to click with this dude. So getting to know you, you you were a baseball player yes, yeah, I was oh, are you baseball player here?
Speaker 1:because we're here in Tulsa, oklahoma. Yeah, and Oral Roberts University is here and Oral Roberts is division one, right?
Speaker 2:they sure are yeah, okay, that's very cool. College World Series 2023 let's go dude, that was amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, and so you were a baseball player there and but you're not from here now, so tell us how you got to our Roberts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so born and raised in Phoenix, arizona, for anyone who mostly knows Scottsdale, 15 minutes West of Scottsdale. Um yeah, born and raised, like I said. But how I really got to ORU was I had a coach back when I was playing high school ball out there and he knew one of the pitching coaches out here at ORU really well. So didn't really think much of it at the time too. It was just kind of a far out dream because I was a sophomore and junior when I was starting to get familiar with it. But then my senior year really started to get real, so ended up going to the school, was told that they had a full roster and that I was recommended to go to a junior college or go somewhere else and maybe transfer in. But I was very stubborn and I didn't like that answer.
Speaker 1:So why didn't you want to go to a junior college or something other than going straight? Yeah, I wanted to get a good degree.
Speaker 2:I wanted and I knew how smart I was. So I was just really in a position to want to go to a school that was Division I to play at a really high level but also get a really good education. Not saying that Division IIs or any other schools didn't have really high-quality education, but again, I just had my mind set on something and when I had my mind set on something I was going to do it. So January rolls around, season started, so I made it a point to email this pitching coach every single week my stats, how we were doing as a team. The whole nine yards, um, fast forward, may. We're number one team in the state. We're going to the playoffs.
Speaker 2:I had a pretty good year and I kept getting the same answer hey, this is great, I'm glad you're doing so well. You're kind of the first guy on our reserves, but we're just, we're still booked. I'm sorry, um, and it was just really hard getting to the end of the you know, my senior year. Most of these people that I knew in my high school already had their other schools that they were going to, but I was just kind of still up in the air.
Speaker 1:Um, were you a, were you a believer back then, uh, by, I would say, socially I was.
Speaker 2:I had really great parents, we, we, we were in a in a church community at the time too that they would bring me to. And you know, I loved being able to go when I was younger, but then when I got into high school it just wasn't really my most favorite thing to do on a Sunday. So I really went just because I knew it made my parents happy and that's just what we did as a family. But I would say, you know, I would say the right thing, I knew the lingo, I knew the environment. But I would say the right thing, I knew the lingo, I knew the environment.
Speaker 2:But all that to say, my relationship and my prayer life was nothing to brag about. So when it comes to June, my mom was like Alex, you have to make a decision, you just have to go somewhere. So I prayed a very, very whimsical prayer Lord, if I'm supposed to go somewhere, if I'm supposed to go to this school, just make it happen. Woke up the next morning to a phone call from this coach saying hey, a kid, quit, we have a spot for you, we'll see you in two months if you want it. And I ran to my dad. I was like you'll never believe what happened.
Speaker 2:They have a spot, can we like? What do you think? And both of my parents were like absolutely so. Two months later I found myself on campus, and that was August of 2016.
Speaker 1:Wow, man, so had you spent much time in Tulsa before.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, I went for that one visit, like I said that senior fall, just to go and visit, but then when they told me that they didn't have a spot for me, that was about it.
Speaker 1:Did you? Okay. So you're over there in Arizona. You're coming to Oral Roberts University. Man, most people that go to Oral Roberts University know everything about Oral Roberts University, and most people that go to Oral Roberts University know everything about Oral Roberts University and what they're getting themselves into when they go to that college, Cause it's not like your typical university man.
Speaker 2:Definitely not, definitely not.
Speaker 1:We have this humongous statue of praying hands right there at the front of the entrance of the campus. So now I know. Well, rumor has it that we get a lot of baseball players at Oral Roberts University. That may not be, so I'm going there for because it's a faith school, because it's a great baseball program. It's a great baseball program. So was that a culture shock for you when you got here?
Speaker 2:Definitely when I, when I first came here. I mean, even the first thing that I said was you know, I'll get my degree, I'm going to have a good time, I'm going to play some really good baseball and I'm going to go home because I'm Phoenix, I'm a Phoenician through and through.
Speaker 2:But, man, when I came here, you did feel a little bit of that kind of that persona that people had cast upon baseball players or just athletes in general too that they're mostly here for their team, they're mostly here just to finish out their degree, if they don't get drafted, or whatever the case might be, and then they go on their merry way. And so when I came and I kind of felt that immediately when I stepped foot on campus too, I really felt like okay, if that's just what the stigma necessarily is.
Speaker 1:Then I'm just going to kind of continue to operate in that lane, because that's just mostly what people think. So yeah, well. So tell me a little about your time. You're first getting, you're getting there, you're starting to play baseball, did you? Did you make the team right away?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I registered in my first year to um, really good friend of mine. Now, all of them, every guy that I played with, I love them so much so I had we had a guy catching our first year now still playing with the yeah, still playing with the Rangers Um yeah, Matthew.
Speaker 2:Watley, love him, love him, yeah. So he's still with the Rangers and so he was the guy that I got to basically just kind of learn under that first year too, which was awesome. And so after that, too, just kind of played more periodically too. I think it was something where when I came, I, you know, worked my tail off just to be able to get in lineups whenever I could. But, yeah, it just became something too, or just being on the team, being around everyone getting to play when I could and just working hard off the field, no matter what it was, whether it was for playing time, whether it was just for practicing too, just being a part of a competitive culture was more than anything that I loved.
Speaker 1:Man, yeah, like with you, I can tell, like just if I think of young Alex being tenacious about getting an opportunity to come to division one school yeah, so you're competitive, like there's something you want, you're going after it. You have a great belief in yourself. It seems like um, what um is that from your folks? Like where do you get, where's that come from? Man, I'd say a little bit of both. Have you always been like that A little?
Speaker 2:bit of both. Have you always been like that? A little bit of both, I think what really drove it into me was the fact that whenever I was getting into high school, I wasn't necessarily the most gifted, even though I was a really good athlete. I was able to play on these varsity teams when I was a sophomore and things started to progress for me in my athletic career pretty quickly. It was something that came on the coattails of. I didn't necessarily have the most athletic build, I wasn't necessarily just the. Nothing really came to me all that easy. I had to work really hard for it.
Speaker 2:So when I got into my junior and senior year, I just made this commitment. I was like, dude, I'm not doing anything other than any other hours of my day that I had outside of studying, outside of being with some people like friends that I had. It was going to be in a batting cage. It was going to be catching someone just to get better at the craft, all these things too.
Speaker 2:So I think just being in high school, not necessarily being the most gifted, drove into me. Okay, I have to be disciplined and I have to work on this thing more than someone else might, who may have a little bit more of like a natural inclination for it. So then, carrying that over to ORU, I was just like, yeah, if there's, whether it was school, whether it was just being on the field, day in, day out. I was like, okay, I have to work harder than a lot of these other guys Cause they were grown men that I was playing with, like I, like I know we were talking. I was like I was, I went from a big fish in a little pond to a little fish in a huge pond, yeah, so some of these guys were just grown men that I was playing with man.
Speaker 2:I'm 18 years old. Some of these guys are 24.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, and I'm just, I was used to being hotshot senior, all this stuff going to now I'm bottom of the totem pole. So I was like, okay, I had to adapt or die. It was kind of just like my mentality going into my first year.
Speaker 1:Did you like that challenge? Or were you like, oh dude, I'm freaking out? And I started like what was? What was your reaction?
Speaker 2:I think I had a little bit of both, I think it was overwhelming at first, especially just, you know, having a really good relationship with one of the coaches but then having a multitude of coaches now that I was still having to grow in relationship with a lot of them didn't really get to see me or know me as well as this other one did, and so just kind of having to feel a little bit of performance and then was a little bit overwhelming at first, um, but again, just the culture of the team that we had to was always great too, loved the guys loved being there, and so I think that helped mitigate some of the nerves that I had to that we were. Even though we're competing for spots, we're competing against each other.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, when when I mean when we tow the rubber for that first game, it's like we're always on the same team kind of a side question is like could you feel, did you have anything to warm you up, like like a, like you think of boxing and there's a sparring partner to help you get ready for a game? Did you have, um, anybody to to to catch for or to bat against to help prepare you, because I imagine you're 18 like that. Like those balls came in faster, I imagine 100, right I mean just like these arms from these college athletes.
Speaker 1:Just they can throw the heat yeah and so were you warmed up at all, or just like whoa hit you like a ton of bricks?
Speaker 2:I think I was as prepared as I could be. I mean, in arizona too, you're just the the baseball hub of the southwest so my, my hitting coach. He was a professional hitting coach for the athletics for a long time, so he knew guys that he would have come in I would either catch them or hit against them. So being able to have those kinds of arms, that kind of talent that I'm just a 16, 17, 18 year old hit playing against, it was awesome.
Speaker 2:And then even in some of the tournaments that we would play into, like you have these 16 new teams, 17 new teams, 18 new teams. And so when I was 16 years old, I was already playing up against some of these 18 year olds, where guys from California, guys from Colorado too, they're already basically getting into some of these other rosters at these huge colleges all across the Southwest. And so getting into play against some of them too, especially in my junior year, really helped prepare me for senior and even getting over to ORU. I think so, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm going to go back to a little bit of what you talked about on cause, I can definitely relate to this. I don't execute as well as you do, but, being a person that I'm going to have to work harder at something just to bring myself up to par, or and if I really want to go beyond that and Excel, I really have to dial in a lot of stuff that doesn't come naturally to me. I mean, uh, when you name it and I could see that in in my sons sometimes, you know and I'm thinking of one son in particular, of like.
Speaker 1:I'd be like, oh man, I see you. Fortunately, you got that for me is that you're going to have to dial in on school, or you know, extra basketball practice or whatever it is to to help you excel.
Speaker 1:Like you're you're going to have to put in the work you're going to put in the extra work to to get you there, and you know well, both of us I mean we all going to have some of that, you know, um. But one thing I'm talking to him about is like but it's going to make you awesome, though it does, it's going to make you awesome. It does Because you're going to be like if it's about school and studying and it takes you extra quizzes to prepare for a test or you know writing flashcards or whatever the routine is, to get you prepared for an assignment or a test Right Like next level stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All of that is going to help you be a good learner. It's going to prepare you for what's coming.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:If it's all just super easy.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:At some point you're going to get to do some tough stuff, right, and you didn't learn how to be gritty. Yeah, you know you didn't learn how to be gritty. You didn't learn to like. Okay, I'm going to have to really roll up my sleeves or dial in and focus. I mean, would you agree?
Speaker 2:Absolutely no, I would absolutely agree.
Speaker 1:Do you play with anybody? That things came easily and then when stuff got harder, they're like they couldn't keep up.
Speaker 2:It felt like everywhere I went, there was someone who always had something, naturally, that came to them. We had a guy that I played with in high school too. It felt like you could put him at any position, or you could just put him in any sport and the guy would just excel. Um, and so I think, on going back to just like my own personal experience too, I think it does help being able to have a little bit of a lack of like what would someone would say like a natural gifting, and it's supplemented by discipline, it's supplemented by grit.
Speaker 2:But I think the one thing that no one really prepared me for was what happens when you put all this work into something. You're gritty, you're doing your best to do the things that you know are going to prepare you for it, but then when something falls through, and the identity issues that come with that and the the difficulty of being able to navigate failure as well. So all that to say, what really happened was when I got to ORU and I'm able to work my way through um, just the surrounding talent around me, and I'm feeling like you know I I think I'm up to play, I think I'm up to par with some of these other guys too, and I really think that I've I'm slowly but surely earning my way into a lineup or earning my way into um, just being able to get some recognition like on the team. You know, yeah, cause in high school that was easy, like it was just like I was able to kind of go up and go up and beyond some of the other guys that I was playing with, whether it was like club teams or even on my high school team too, we all just were a cohesive unit and I was able to get there.
Speaker 2:But again D one baseball. It's a whole different ball game, and so whenever my coaches and just other people that I was playing with to, like, I didn't really feel like I was getting recognition, I felt like I was putting all this work and it kind of fell flat. Identity issues came up. So you know, leading into like my freshman, sophomore, junior year, it just got harder and harder over the course of the years and I had some guys that were really helpful on the team that just kind of helped me navigate it. But again, like, I found myself slowly but surely getting into a spot where it became harder and harder and harder to navigate that, regardless of how much work I put in.
Speaker 1:So that's really good stuff, man. I love talking about identity because all of us will deal with it. You're, you're getting honored and it is becoming part of your identity. Yeah, there's a big struggle when that gets stripped away from you.
Speaker 2:Like you're no longer that anymore.
Speaker 1:So now, what am I? Yeah, did you feel yourself going through some of that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think it kind of apexed at my junior year. Um, you know, there were some things that I was doing that I knew that I shouldn't have been. But you know, when I was in high school, like it was just, it was frivolous, it wasn't like it felt all that harmful, um, just to help, like navigate some of those identity things that I was, you know, struggling with beneath the surface, that I wasn't really communicating, Um, and you know, it just became so difficult to and again all this to say too, I didn't have a relationship with God, Like I was again riding off the coattails of my dad. He was the one who was in the word. My mom was just really big into community and she, she was the one who would get me up out of bed, you know, Um, but again I, I, and even being at ORU too, just going to chapel cause I didn't want to get fined more than anything, just kind of going through the motions as far as the spiritual aspect of it was, and never actually receiving anything that was going to be helpful in any of those situations. So, all that to say, I get to my junior year, end of my or middle of my junior year, going into my spring semester and, man, I like everyone's rock bottom is different to the point that I found myself.
Speaker 2:I just got to it. I got to a point where I said, oh, I never get here. You know all the things that I did when I was in high school or all the things that I just kept making tiny little mistakes in earlier on, when I was 18, 19, whatever the case was. I got to this point when I was in my junior year and I was like man, like I told myself I'd never get here. And here I am and what do I do? Um, and I didn't really have a whole, I just didn't really. I cause I ostracized myself in a way to where I wasn't really as incorporated on campus and all the different spiritual things that people were doing. I just had my team and we were all just kind of banded together too. But again, I was just so bad at communicating the deep felt things I had beneath the surface. So I was really good at putting on a facade. I was really good at manipulating, really good at putting on. This portrayal of Alex is doing great.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Smile on doing well in school, all the things, but beneath the surface I was just decaying. And so spring of junior year happens. I have this crazy, radical encounter with God and did not deserve it. The plate, the place that I was in to receive the kind of love that I felt. It was overwhelming. You know, like in people talk about having encounters with God and they feel like urgent or just senses of power. They feel this overwhelming sense of God's, like authority or his presence, and all these moments and all those are beautiful and I've come to now encounter those along the way in this now six year journey since that point. But at that moment I couldn't help but describe it in any other way than just a sense of love that filled this chasm that I had been digging, this grave that I've dug for myself over four years, five years period of time, and that love of God in that moment that I got encountered, just filled it.
Speaker 1:Wow, man, there's so much we can unpack there. I do have a question on the putting on the mask, or putting on the facade, or putting on this. Do you, or do you, was this for you, or what do you think about for others?
Speaker 2:Do you realize?
Speaker 1:you're doing it Like do you realize it's like I'm being fake right now or I'm putting on a mask, or is it like pretty subconscious that that's happening, and then later you discover, like man, I'm phony.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's moments where it comes up where I felt like, oh man, I didn't mean that, or oh, I'm having to, like when I step foot in the locker room, like I have to kind of turn something on Um but, it was moments where, like my mom would call me out on it and she called me out plenty, and that was just kind of the nature of our relationship too, where she in her love it was all love, like it was never anything out of. I care for you so deeply that I know that something else is going on. I know that you may be lying, or you may be saying this, or whatever the case is, because I love you I wouldn't call you out on it if I didn't love you.
Speaker 2:But then again I was stubborn like yeah, the same stubbornness that got me to email my coach on a weekly basis was the same stubbornness that bit me in the butt whenever I was actually having to be honest with myself.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:So it it, it goes both ways. And so, yeah, I think it was something where subconsciously I knew it, but I just I felt the self soothing in the things that I was the tangible things and the intangible things that I was doing where it just it hadn't become a problem enough yet for me to actually need to address it. So it just was something that rode underneath the surface until God met me and I was like okay, I have to deal with these things.
Speaker 1:When you? I'd like to talk a little bit about this encounter that you had Is this is this your? Your? You went to a church service. Is this like over time that you had an account, or was it like riding in a car? Yeah, what what happened in your life that that this moment would happen? Yeah, Funny.
Speaker 2:You say I was riding in a car. It wasn't a church service. No one evangelized to me. It wasn't like someone pulled me off of the street corner and said like you need to give your life to God.
Speaker 2:It wasn't like. It was in one of the and now I've come to appreciate the chapel services at ORU. I love them to death, Um, but at the time it wasn't even in one of those. It was. It was something where and the only way that I can describe it was in God's sovereignty and in his love. He saw me, um, driving in a car, doing something that put have, should have put me in prison, should have, and doing it multiple times before. Yet, still having so much mercy in all these times and all these mistakes that I made, he chose this time to meet me where I was at, completely, completely on my own. And it's still rest. I still wrestle with it to this day.
Speaker 2:I asked the question God, why, why just me? Like? Why did you find it so important in that moment just to meet me where I was at, Like no one else did anything? It wasn't like there was some message that really just struck a chord, Like later that happened. Later there was things that developed and there was messages that were spoken. There was people that came into my life that continued to propel me forward, but I think God knew that there needed to be some triggering event that had to be so inexplainable. There needed to be some triggering event that had to be so inexplainable. It had to be so extravagant. To just snap me out of this, just this illusion that I was in, or delusion that I was in.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, now it's like now all the things that you typically would think would just be fruitful, and that sow seed and water those seeds. Now those are bountiful in my life because my soil is good now, but my soil was so rocky, my soil was so difficult to penetrate that God had to come in the way that he did, and now I'm grateful for it.
Speaker 1:That does sound like God, of course. He's so good and loving and mighty and powerful. It does seem like there's an event for somebody Like there seems like there was this moment, and when there's a real, like radical change there is, like my pastor likes to talk about, if he's talking to the audience, the congregation, like, okay, raise your hand if you came to Jesus when times were good, when it was all together, you know, or like, or raise your hands when you were like if you wouldn't say much yeah, it's just like most of us are like surrendering because it's no other choice.
Speaker 2:Like nothing else is going to work Like I am 100% lost.
Speaker 1:I want to surrender and that's obviously a testament to his love. Yes, because who would want someone like I? Wouldn't want someone like that? Like, fine.
Speaker 2:I give in. I want to be your friend, Mark.
Speaker 1:No, exactly, I'm like man, that's what kind of relationships.
Speaker 2:Is this going to be?
Speaker 2:It's baffling to be in such a rut or to come to that place of surrender, and in that it's like and later on too, like as the journey continued to progress. After that, too, I got struck with something that summer, where, you know, I felt like I just got taken into, like this dream, and it was like I saw all these points in my life, of these low points, right, and it was like God was walking me to like these thought bubbles of these past moments, and every single time we would look at one of these, these encounters, or look at one of these mistakes that I had made, every single time he'd say the same thing I loved you just as much then as I do right now.
Speaker 1:Wow, oh man, it just it did something to me. That is really good. That was really good. Yeah, again, I love thinking of that. Just think of your you as a person in a relationship like you. You don't really like relationships that like okay, because I have no other choice, I'll be your friend, right.
Speaker 2:Like man. What kind of friendship is that?
Speaker 1:Right, but a lot of God's children are that way. I was like man.
Speaker 2:there's no other there's nowhere to go to you, Lord so yes, I'll take you. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, okay, so let's, let's keep moving forward here on your journey with the Lord. You're now or you? What's some pivotal stuff that happened next.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it felt like after that moment um.
Speaker 1:I know there's missions trip school, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I mean, after that encounter that I had to, I think the most transformational thing too it was just it felt really mundane in the moment, but I look back on it now and it was the most transformational thing that I could have done was a couple of days after we had this service where, um, it was these chapel services that we had.
Speaker 2:That, again, I never really paid much mind to, but it felt like in that moment there was a shift where again, like I said, my soil became a lot more sensitive to actually receiving the word of God. So after that I felt like I needed to pray, I needed just to relinquish myself of this weight that I was carrying to um, to a chaplain that we had, and as soon as I did, it felt like I could actually hear the voice of God clearly for the first time. Like other times, it came like even in those previous moments it came as like a uh, as like uh. You know, it had to pierce the cloud and it had to break through, like this, this fog that I was in. But now it felt so clear to where I could. Actually it was like a like how we're talking now?
Speaker 2:the the, the whole demeanor and the whole way that I could speak with God changed. So after I left that service, I heard go to Barnes and Noble, buy a Bible and bury your face in it. That's all I heard. I was like, all right, let's do it. And so, for every, every day, 5am, I'd wake up before weights If we're on the road, no matter where we were. I just woke up and I was like, okay, god, I've, I really don't know who you are. I've built up this persona of who I thought you were Um Holy spirit. I've never had a good relationship with you. I've never really knew who you were. So help me as I read this book, prayed that same thing every day for six months and, dude, my whole life got wrecked just like never. I never thought in a million years that I would cry reading the book of judges you know, just like getting struck in that way too.
Speaker 2:so inevitably, I actually got to get in some really great connections with some friends I had was kind of just like going rogue for like that first month and then I prayed. I was like, lord, I need friends, like I need to really get around some people who are going to like help, like be winded. My sales got around some really great people and with those people they had, um, a mission or it was like a mission school that they had gotten me in connection with too. So I ended up going to Brazil for a whole month and a half in the summer of 2019. They were just like you know, you should come to it, and I was like, yes, like say less.
Speaker 2:It was just something that I really wanted to jump on, just because I knew that the people that I knew were going to this and the people that even introduced me to it were on fire, like they loved Jesus and they wanted to get close and they saw this as an opportunity to do just that, and I was like, let's do it.
Speaker 2:And so it was at that time where I really got more introduced to what I now have so much value in, which is just the really like a deep understanding and true knowledge of the word being fed by leaders and people and getting a connection with people, too, who are so sound and not and just simple things too, like they have their husbands that love their wives, their wives that are so, so kind and tender to their husbands. It's friends of mine, who are young, young adults at the time too, who really had this vision and this mission in mind to not only just advance the gospel but just to live a godly life. And that's where I just got introduced to these things, got introduced to some of the things of the spirit too, and I was like, man, this is, this is the life that I was created for, and I think that mission school was something that really was another pivotal moment in my life, to where like, okay, I'm in this for life now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like the. That's wonderful. I like the prayer of asking God for friends or asking God to send you some people.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And because that's a big deal. I mean I've experienced the same of like I like Lord. I need the right people in my life.
Speaker 1:And that is a great call for a believer to pray, because, man, this whole life is about relationships and God wants to work through relationships. I mean the worst decisions I'm making in my life I'm on an island. Yeah, I'm on my own. I have, no, no godly relationships. Yeah, the best things happen in my life I'm in godly friendships, relationships, doing God's work on mission, being kingdom minded, and yeah, so that I mean. Right, when you said that I'm like that's, that's gold, right, there is just that simple prayer of send me some people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I need people in my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I love that, and then and then especially, I mean there's something about the age too, and you're young and you could just go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, and and have people that are just on fire until it's it's um, that doesn't necessarily have to go away, obviously, but that's. It's just such a great time in life where you're God's starting to form who he's wanting you to be, and those foundational years of making those decisions. Yeah, I'm going to not be on the typical spring break, or not be on this typical summer break, and I'm going to Brazil to serve you. I'm going to go, be on mission and God's going to answer the call man Like he's, he's going to come through for you and and do some great things in your life. Well, one thing we've talked about for you, a big part of your life is T-Hop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so tell us what T-Hop is and what is that, and what role do you play?
Speaker 2:Yeah, talk about foundational years. Shortly after I left, when I came back from Brazil, some friends of mine from ORU, the they had known of the person who was running Tulsa house of prayer at the time, t hop, and I didn't really think much of it too. I was just like, oh, this is a. There was just so many and I just got like bombarded by the world that is. And if you live in Tulsa, oklahoma, if you're familiar with ORU, there's just always some spiritual group, there's something to do, and I was bombarded and so and even I myself was trying to do similar things like that too.
Speaker 2:So when I got introduced to it, it was just another really cool thing that I saw a lot of fruit in. But I didn't really have a whole lot of affinity for it quite yet. It wasn't until COVID happened, and you know for that next year, whenever our season started to roll around. So we played for like about a month, but it got cut short in middle of March, early March. So we had maybe three weeks of ball in and then we all got sent home. So it's just like what do we do? Yeah, like you you have, especially in the spring semester too. It's like as an athlete and even most of the year, but especially in the spring, you just have the next six months of your life on a on the hour are made for you and so and I like that, I love structure, I love organization, so it's just like it fed into that too. I was like, okay, I know exactly what I'm going to do, I can order my life, all this stuff. And then when COVID happened, we all got sent home. I was like, god, what Like I? Just I've had like the last year and a half or the last, yeah, a last year, year and a half or so too, I just kind of had things in order and it was really good for my growth. But now it was just like, okay, now it's time to really kind of do these disciplines on your own.
Speaker 2:But one of the main things that shifted when COVID happened was when I went back do you want to do with me, what did you want to do with me going home, all these things? He said I want to teach you how to pray. Wow, and this is now been just this and it's the same. It's the same thing that whenever he was talking with his disciples in Matthew six, when you pray, pray like this and I just love the inquiry of, there's multiple times in the gospels where you see when the actual disciples asked Jesus a question or what do you do when you do this, all these things? It was less about all the other extravagant parts of his ministry. It was when you do, when you commune with God, when we see you going to the mountain, teach us to pray like that, you know, cause you had this communication with the father, and so I felt like that was the invitation for me. And so when I went home, similar in the, in the similar vein of you know Bible, bear your face in it. It was OK.
Speaker 2:Now, instead of getting up at five and reading, I'm getting up at five am. I'm having a prayer call with my friends all over the world. And so, yeah, it was crazy, dude, like getting up at five am and some people are eight am, some people it's like just like we're. They were in the same time zone, but we all made this commitment we're going to get up and we're going to pray, and then in the evenings, when I would get home. I worked for my dad during that time too. It was awesome being able to do that, but living at home, getting to be with them. But then I made this point. I was like, all right, after dinner, after we watch Family Feud, after we?
Speaker 1:do our family things.
Speaker 2:I was like, okay, from 8 to 11 pm. You know I was getting introduced to places like Bethel and Upper Room and just prayer sets, just the kind of like worship music scene, Because I just I listened to rap music beforehand. I just didn't.
Speaker 1:I didn't know anything, so I was just I was again.
Speaker 2:I was pretty green to the whole. I was green to the whole scene of worship music, but I was like falling in love with it. So I put on some worship music, some worship set, from like 8 to 11 pm and would just pray every night. God, teach me how to pray. And then that's where I found, you know, praying the word, being able to just actually receive the voice of the Lord in those moments too and just continue to have those conversations with them. And I think in that moment I learned, okay, prayer, life with God it's all about communing with them. And it just changed my life. And so, after COVID happened too, when I came back I was like, okay, this T-Hop thing's real now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I want to ask you something real quick. Yeah, go for it, and we don't have to spend a whole lot of time on it, but the thought of an 8 PM to 11 PM prayer set what you say, right yeah. Is like the first question I think people are going to ask, like so what are you doing for all? Those hours Is it like just some worship music in the back and when you think of something to pray, you pray, or what is it like? Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, like I was saying, I love organization, I love structure and I try to be really structured at first with it, like, okay, I'm going to spend 30 minutes doing this, 30 minutes doing this, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, or trying to build a structure for it too, but slowly but surely, over the course of time, the Lord just kept chopping all those things down, not like they were bad in any sort of way, but it was really being able to learn to yield to the Holy Spirit in those moments. And so there would be times where I would just sit on the floor and just be silent the whole time, and I would just, even if I wasn't hearing anything, or even if I felt like there wasn't really a strong impressions going on too, it was just the fact that I made the sacrifice, lord, I'm going to be here until you say something, until you do something, until you tell me what to do. Or there would be times where I would just read the whole time, and then there would be something that would strike me too, and I would just begin to pray it. And so it's like what it says in the word, like what it says in the word too. It's like when the word becomes so deeply ingrained in your heart, like it's written on a tablet in your heart, it becomes a part of you.
Speaker 2:And so I just felt like, in those moments too, of prayer, prayer became less of just the vocal words that I was speaking and more of just the act of being able to, like, set myself apart to be in the presence of God, yeah, and so, yeah, I just it was less of like, okay, I'm speaking, I'm praying, I'm doing all these things, but it just became okay. Now I'm dedicating this time just to be in the presence of God and whatever he has, he has.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And and I like though that you said sacrifice, you know, because I think some would say like man, for me to carve out 35 minutes would be a sacrifice, and I would probably agree to some degree, you would think but.
Speaker 1:If you're carving out that much of a time. You're sacrificing other things to go to abide, to be with the Lord, and I like that you're breaking that down on the prayer, because I think someone can really get intimidated by how in the world am I going to pray for more than two minutes? Right, but it's not necessarily about like well, here's exactly what to say during your prayer.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:When we're carving out time, it's like, well, like I don't rehearse what I'm gonna go talk to my wife about tonight, exactly, we're gonna spend time together tonight. And spending time together, like you know, we're going to have conversations. We will talk about our day, we're going to talk about our children, we're talking about our future or whatever it is Right, but we will be spending time together, yes, and that's the stuff that deepens the relationship. So you think of this time.
Speaker 1:I'm like, I think someone could start looking forward to spending time with the Lord, when they view it as a relationship, right Of like, okay, well, why don't you replace the? This is for me talking out loud. Yeah, you know, you be you, I'm not trying to read. Yeah, if I'm talking to someone like, hey, we're going to do a prayer meeting and and they're like dude, well, like, well, thinking about it's like we're going to go spend time with God, yes, a relationship. Or let's just say, you on your own, I want, if I have a challenge to a brother, like I want you to start spending time, certain amount of time, with the Lord.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, well, what am I going to do, right? Well, you're going to go spend time with someone, you're going to go talk to them, yeah, and then you're going to listen to and you're going to trust that that something's going to develop Right, because it will. Right, it will, and God's not going to leave you hanging.
Speaker 2:If he did.
Speaker 1:It's because he wants you to come back the next day Right and the next day and trust that something will develop.
Speaker 2:Exactly, he will speak Exactly.
Speaker 1:He's always speaking Very powerful man. Yeah, I couldn't have put it better. Man, that was great. It's very challenging to me to like man, I could, I want to do that sort of stuff. You know just like where and when and how. But then when you say the word sacrifice, I don't like that word because I'm trying to think like, oh, like that just sounds terrible.
Speaker 1:It has a negative connotation Sacrifice for God. He sacrificed so much. It's just that it seems so insulting to him. But there is truth to be like. Well, I'm going to lay down these other things and put them to the side because, more than likely, they are meaningless, absolutely. They are really meaningless and doing me no good, right? Imagine spending a ton of time with the Lord and what could he do inside of you and what you will do for your life. Right? That's amazing. I know I kind of derailed you there, for a little bit Okay.
Speaker 1:So where? Where are you at with T-Hop and what's? What's exactly cooking right now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so over the last couple of years. So when I came back and I got really involved with them, it was just more of like going to their meetings that they would have on a weekly basis for for most of that fall. But then January of 2021 was when I really felt the urge, or just the, the call, to actually be a part of the prayer sets.
Speaker 2:So the actual times, those two hour time blocks where we, we at T hop, we have these things, um, like I said, called sets, where every morning up until around noon and then every evening from around 6 PM to midnight, we would have people who would gather together on these teams and they would go up for two hours and they would pray or they would have a set. Yeah, um, and so I really felt excited Some really good friends of mine who were already on some of these sets too, and I was like okay, I'm, I'm joining in, and so I went on the Monday evening set from eight to 10 PM and from Wednesday morning eight to 10 AM, and I did it for three years.
Speaker 1:I was just like.
Speaker 2:I'm committing to this, I'm committing to this, I'm going to do it. And it was awesome. Yeah, super mundane, but so, so, so, so awesome, and it was just a consistent commitment. And I kind of wanted to touch on something, too, that you said, too, when it comes to.
Speaker 1:I love the consistent commitment. Yes, I just want to say that right now, I want to pull the consistent commitment to seeking God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Simple obedience man. It's, it's so, it's so good, and I think that's why, like when you say that too, it's like when you talk about sacrifice, when you talk about some of these things too, or even and I got into this kind of like comparative mindset too, because again I'm competitive- yeah.
Speaker 2:So competitiveness can also kind of masquerade itself as comparison, and I had to work on that. So I had some of these people where you know they were doing all these things, praying for three hours, and I'm assuming most of the people who are listening to this don't necessarily have the margin to just have an evening from 8 to 11 pm every night where they can do that, which I totally understand. And that was something, too, where like going back to what we said earlier too, it was foundational. It was something where I had to learn in that moment to create a culture in my own heart space that this culture of sacrifice is what we're going to do for God from here on out. Cause I was so selfish for most of my life and I was like all right, this is just the new culture that I'm establishing in in in Alex Savinsky, and so you know it just.
Speaker 2:And it progressed to like, if you would have told me in 2019, fresh off the block, buying a Bible to do it like it wasn't like I was reading the Bible, like for when I woke up at 5 am, sometimes I'd kind of doze off while I was reading it, but it was just the commitment to do it, and so I love talking about, like, just some of the times too, where, like we're in prayer set Dude, I had a long day and I'd maybe fall asleep, but it was just like going there showing up, but the overarching theme of it being God is so excited and so delighted that we would make the decision to want to be with him, excited and so delighted that we would make the decision to want to be with him.
Speaker 2:So I don't have to come in with this agenda. Agendas are good. Having a structure or having an intention in mind is always great. But just making the decision and the commitment to say, okay, I'm going to do this to spend time with God and he's going to lead me in that, yeah, or I'm going to commit this schedule or this organ is or or or this thing that I've said that I was going to do to him, and then, if he derails it, even better. So over the course of time now it's been three years since I've done that and then there's been other things that have happened along the way, like getting married or before even that, getting a girlfriend, then being a fiance, then getting married. I mean other things along the way too, like we fostered our Haley's one of Haley's older brothers for about a you know commitment to actually go to the, go to the house of prayer and create this schedule in my week. To do that just always kept it in my mind too, no matter how busy I got, no matter what things were coming my way, no matter how much margin in my life continued to condense a little bit too, I'm still going to have this in there. And then now it's just progressed to you know, getting really, really, really, really close with um, now my mentor, but the director of the Tulsa House of Prayer, kl Breedlove.
Speaker 2:We just I was so I was so eager to have someone mentor me. I just was. So I knew that I had to have someone who had went out ahead of me to just kind of bring me and help me along. And so January 2021 rolls around. We also kind of had a bible study with some of the guys that were in Tulsa House of Prayer when I was joining, and I was just fascinated by how much this guy knew Fascinated. And I just as a cerebral mind myself, this guy knew so much and I was like I want to be around you more. And so I kept asking him hey, can you mentor me? Hey, can you mentor me? It took him six months to say yes.
Speaker 1:And so.
Speaker 2:But when he said yes to, we just like but we both made the commitment to ourselves we're going to do this, and it's been every week for about three and a half years now that we've been meeting, and if we missed we'd call. If we had something come up, we'd text. Whatever the case is too, but now it's just been over the course of time, getting a little bit more responsibility, because I love the house and this house is my family now.
Speaker 2:So, being a part of the teaching team, getting to be on some of the other things that we've been doing over these last couple of years has been awesome, just to see it kind of grow from a small community of about 30 of us to now a whole church, which has been great smokes.
Speaker 1:I like how you said. I love the house.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I love the house and that's really cool. And going back to the relationship stuff, I mean you sought out this person to be like man. I want to be like you get mentored by you. Um well, when I'm, when I'm, when I'm taken away, a lot right now is determination, tenacity in pursuing the Lord.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know that, that that inside of you that God put there originally was for sports.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that same personality that he gave you hunger for sports. Now that's hunger for him.
Speaker 2:I love that man.
Speaker 1:That's just really making me excited right now to just know that that exists and God will honor the commitment. God will honor the commitment, even if it's reading very little in the morning, 100%. I read a little bit of my Bible in the morning yeah, not a whole lot, a little bit and I can tell you, man, I look forward to it Because I remember where I left off.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:I remember I left off. I'm like okay, we're going to find out what David's about to do yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And that is me drawing closer to. That's me having a hunger. Yes, that's me Like. This is God's living word. This is him speaking to me through through his, through his word.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I love some takeaways, I guess to say that what I'm pulling out of this man is the spending time with the Lord, and it's going to look it's. It's going to look different than what people possibly could think. It's just making a commitment to spend time with God, trust him, abide with him and find out what he wants for you and to do in you.
Speaker 2:And um, you said something really important finding out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is true.
Speaker 2:Cause he wants to tell you yeah, it doesn't have to be something you have to figure out on your own.
Speaker 1:It was ask seek knock.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Right, like you're asking.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And talking about mentorship, there's two guys that I get mentorship from a lot, and one of the key questions that they post to me is like well, what are you trusting God for right now? What exactly are you trusting God for?
Speaker 2:And it's a saying.
Speaker 1:It's like what am I seeking God for? Well, man, let's keep rolling, because this is you know this is good, we can talk off the pod for some of this stuff Rolling into business. You know you're a man that's in ministry. Yeah, you're you're. You're degreed man, you're educated, you could do a lot of things finding yourself in the mortgage business.
Speaker 1:Um, how do you feel about, you know, going into business or or going into a vocation that's like, okay, ministry won't be paying for my living right now. Has that always been like, yeah, that's probably how it's going to be? Or did you like I don't know? How do you feel about being in business and having such a passion for the church?
Speaker 2:That's a really great question. It was something that happened in around 2021, when I officially had graduated, I got my first job and I was working in the athletic department, actually at ORU. I was working with, you know, alumni, donor relations, helping with events and still doing a lot of things with T-Hop, and I found myself with this little inkling beneath the surface of you know, I feel called to business. I feel like this is something that you know, cause all these different people would come across my way, relationships that I would build, things that I would see, and it would just urge something in me like man. I think this is going to happen, but I just didn't know the expression yet.
Speaker 2:It was just it was kind of it was like nameless at the time, but I just but I felt the impression of it, so I just put it on the shelf. Um, and so things continue to progress, life continued to happen and when I was wanting to, I wanted to transition out of ORU because I just felt like it was time for me to kind of branch out. The Lord kept me there. Okay, I need you to go into recruiting now. I need you to go into recruiting at ORU. And I was like, okay, yes, lord, this time I was getting my master's and it had eventually turned into me getting into the counseling part of it too. So there was a concentration that I was able to step into. Where it was addictions counseling, I was like what better way, man, if I could think about being able to help people in similar spots that I may have found myself in, just being able to be like that soundboard for someone, for them to be able to express their emotions, find their identity and all the different things that I knew that I needed when I was 18, 19 and so on, and no matter what stage they may find themselves in life. So that's just kind of what I had my. I had my sights set on but again. So that inkling of business was like, okay, what is this still there? What's that going to look like so fast forward?
Speaker 2:Um was pretty much finishing my degree and then I had a friend of mine who got me connected with Alfredo, and you know, it didn't really it didn't really formulate into much, it was just more of kind of like get to know you at first too. But then it started to get really real about a month and a half later when he's like hey, I want you to help me in this endeavor. I would love to see you in this industry. I think you can be really good at it. The more people that I talked to outside of you know Alfredo. And just as like this opportunity came up when I started to talk Alfredo's our boss.
Speaker 1:Yes, alfredo was our boss, absolutely. He doesn't know this guy. He runs, he runs the show here. So it's his, it's his office, and you and I both work here at his place. Yeah yeah, go ahead. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um. And so whenever I started to get in contact with some of these people too, was just kind of telling them my heart of you know why I wanted to get into this, what I felt like the lord was speaking as I was getting into it too, they were just all pretty affirming of like man, I could really see you doing well in this or I could really like I feel the spirit of god on it and so I was like, okay, lord, let's, let's go for it, and it really it.
Speaker 2:It finally kind of put that, what was kind of like smoke and it's it form it like formulated, into actually something tangible that could hold on to, to be like, wow, this could actually be the thing that could allow my wife and I which is a huge desire of ours to go back to Phoenix, help plant and establish Phoenix House of Prayer and, you know, continue to build our family, or build our family that we're, that we now get to steward out in Phoenix. It brought some more like liveliness to that too, and the more that I was able to talk with my, my mentor as well, about, like you know, not only establishing, you know, phoenix house of prayer, but also being like missionaries sent from Tulsa house of prayer to have that covering, and it just really started to gain some traction. And so now it's still in it's very like seedling stages you know, it's very early on.
Speaker 2:But I felt like there was all like to answer your question.
Speaker 2:There was always that just that desire of wanting to do something in that way too, because you know there was a gifting, there was a skillset for it too, but also like what better way to be able to um in a profession like this where you have mammon, you have greed, you have these spiritual aspects that dominate something like business and to be a spirit-filled, bible-believing, jesus-loving businessman, to kind of just break down some of those strongholds, to also be able to build wealth and wealth and legacy for my family, to pour back into the kingdom and just to continue to gain all this traction that you know, someone else or a lot of people would say too that just like these other negative things are just like always associated with businessmen, and so that was kind of my big heart.
Speaker 2:Behind it too was, you know, wanting to be that spirit filled person in this kind of field. But then whenever I was leaving um my master's too, or like leaving ORU, where I was just getting my master's at too, you know, and at least the counseling part of it too I had a really great. I had a really great friend who's um, who's in pastoral care and he was like Alex. It doesn't necessarily mean that just because you're leaving this degree plan as of right now that you're not going to be a counselor, but you have this thing planted on the inside of you to be a counselor like vocationally, but occupationally it could look like you being a mortgage loan officer.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then you just continue to progress in that over time too. That freed me up of like this binding mindset of, oh, I can't leave because I have to do this. I've set my mind to it because I just have that kind of personality or that kind of mindset, so it just helped me to be able to integrate all these different things that I felt like God had been culminating over some time, and now it's looking like how it is now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, that's awesome. I can just really see God paving the way for you for plans that he has, and I mean God needs businessmen.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And he needs men and women out in the workforce being a light and using the skill sets that he's put inside them to bring him honor and bring him glory. 100, you know doing great for a business and you're working as unto the lord, you mean you're bringing god honor, yeah and you're and there's all god's going to bring you opportunities to minister to people through business. Um, I mean, can you imagine if we don't have any doctors or lawyers or anybody?
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's so many spirit-filled, believing, powerful Christians out there doing every vocation possible.
Speaker 2:And we need more of them, and we need more of them, we need more of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's God's call and that's His heart, so I love that. Well, let's start winding down, man. I've got a couple questions left. So you're going to be a dad soon, gotta be a dad soon. What, uh, what are you looking forward to most about being a dad?
Speaker 2:Dude I. I never really got struck with baby videos before him. My wife, she's an empath dude.
Speaker 1:She'll cry at anything, and so even my mom will send me like little dresses I'm having a girl, um, and she'll send me little dresses and I'll start tearing up.
Speaker 2:I'm like dude, I can't wait. And so I think I've had friends who have become fathers very, very close friends of mine who have become fathers, um, recently even getting to have more conversations with my dad too, or or mentors of mine who are fathers. It was always this theme of, like, what are you learning in fatherhood? And I felt like the overarching theme too is when you see your son, when you see your daughter as a father or just as a parent, you just have this thing that clicks in you of that's how God sees me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And so there's been so many things where I'm just like, I'm so excited to even now have inklings of that, or even when it comes to provisions sake, you know, like this baby is not going to be concerned, uh, you know, if it's going to have food on the table, if its needs are going to be met or taken care of, it knows mommy or daddy is going to take care of these things.
Speaker 2:And so even just being able to go back to like that child likeness in myself too as I'm gaining more responsibility, it just offers that other ulterior perspective too of even though I'm gaining responsibility, I'm growing into the mature manhood. I have just more things coming my way that are just being added to my plate. I'm still always just like, I'm just so excited just to continue to have this little one that I love so much, who's just going to remind me to be more like her, to be like a child, to ask and just know I'm going to receive it, to know that these things are always going to be taken care of, because I have a good dad and I want to be that good dad and I have a very, very good father in God.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well you, that's really good stuff, man, I'm excited for you and and um, you're going to have a lot of moments where you start saying, well, how much more does God like when you, when? I look at my my my sons and and especially my youngest. You just well, I shouldn't say especially my youngest, shouldn't say especially my youngest. I'd say especially my youngest because I still curl up with him when he's still asleep, right, and um, I probably do with both of them.
Speaker 1:I'm an affectionate dad you know, go in there, tuck them in and whatever. But uh, my little guy, I've always still I still kind of crawl into bed with him and whatever and just like, well, you know, when he's asleep you're gonna have these moments here's what I'm leading to here.
Speaker 2:Here's where I'm leading to.
Speaker 1:These moments that you look at your children and you don't have words to describe on how much you love them. You're going to you as a believer. You're going to have these thoughts of being in awe of this is nothing compared to how much God loves me. It's awesome and you're going to be an imperfect father and it's going to you start thinking of God, your heavenly father.
Speaker 2:He is a perfect father.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so there's no line there's no mistakes, there was no accidental, there's like, and um, those are sort of the stuff that takes my breath away.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Of when, when I am just the worst dad some days yeah, and I have an opportunity, great dad. And then how much I feel bad. Or or I look, god, I love you guys so much I'm sorry it's.
Speaker 1:You're in awe of god on how much he loves you and how perfect he is and honest and pure he is. Yeah, um well, let's wrap it up with our last question. Uh, the podcast is lasting impact and, um, that's what you're doing, man. You're making a lasting impact in all you're doing. So what does lasting impact mean to you?
Speaker 2:What does lasting impact mean to me? Uh, even when I, just right off the cuff, when I think about it, man, the the kind of lasting impact that I think, that I want to, that I want to leave, or even when I think about it too, it's just the kind of trail that you leave behind you, and I've always said this of myself, too, like I want it to be written on my gravestone that I was someone who feared God and loved. Well, that's just always like when I, when I, when I think about it too, like if I can confidently say that someone else would also be able to write that about me, like if I was to say I want to put this on there, then they're going to be like, yes, like this is how he lived his life. Um, man, I just that's the kind of, that's the kind of thing that I want to leave behind, because I feel like the kind of examples that we can set too, because you've been seeing a lot of people now, too, where they get to the end of the rope or they get to the end of their race that they've ran, and they get to the other side, and then there's things that come up out. There's things that come up that were hidden beneath the surface, that they chose to hide all this time, and I've been seeing that and it just it kind of ruins the witness.
Speaker 2:You see that there's a lot of people now where I've been seeing some of these leaders who things come up and then there's people that are commenting on it or there's people that, like, did life with that person who were deeply and wounded by it, and it kind of taints how people view God or taints how people view Jesus, and it's like I would rather be the person who lives that kind of quiet life or lives the kind of life where it's just the simple things done well, loving and fearing God, to where, when I get to the end of my rope, people can see me and say God. I feel like I can actually trust that what Alex said about God God is who he says he is because of the life that he lived. And so, if anything, even beyond the kind of legacy that I want to build for my family, the kind of things that I want to do as far as setting, setting my kids up for success, or setting my the people that I'm going to be mentoring in the future, or even the kind of businesses that I'm going to build in the future, leaving them up for success. By the time that I leave, all those things are going to decay anyways. Like the word says, it's just going to have rust and moths on it.
Speaker 2:But that doesn't mean that it's not important and it's not like it up for success. But I think the intangible of being able to live a life that other people can confidently say, you know, I think I believe that this Jesus, or that this God that Alex so loved and that Alex dedicated his life to, even though I may not have understood when I go to the grave or when he goes down, I think I believe him. That's the kind of life that I want to live. And I think that, when it comes to lasting impact, if anything, if it's something that brings people closer to the actual thing that's most important, which is being able to have that relationship with God and being able to stand before him and be near with him for eternity, that's the kind of impact that I think that I want to live. And when I think of lasting impact, at least for a Christian, that's what comes to mind.
Speaker 1:Wow, man, that's awesome and appreciate you being here, bro. This is Alex Savinsky.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And he's leaving a lasting excuse me. He's making a lasting impact. If you liked today's conversation and want to hear more, hit that subscribe button. Don't forget to leave a review and share your thoughts. Your feedback keeps the impact going.