Episode #8 Biblical Grit: Standing Firm When Life Gets Hard With Jason Williams

What happens when your faith gets pushed to the limit?
 Pastor Jason Williams from Family Church in Lake Worth Beach sits down with me to share his journey through challenges that tested everything he believed. We talk about biblical grit, perseverance, and why staying rooted in God matters most when life gets uncomfortable

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

What is up everybody? Welcome back to the Everyday Faith Podcast. I am your host, Tyler Klein, and joining me today, which I'm happy to share the room with a Michigan fan, not a Ohio State fan. That's right, that's right. That's right. Is Jason Williams, the pastor of Lake Worth Beach. I mean it's a new new campus for us. Yeah. It's a lot of potential. Very excited about how you do today.

SPEAKER_05 0:27

Good, man. I'm I'm great. Super excited to be here. Um, always fun to talk about all these things with you. And I found out you're a sports guy. Big sports guy.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

So was hoping my Saints would draft at least one Michigan guy.

SPEAKER_05 0:40

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Hasn't happened.

SPEAKER_05 0:42

I know. Detroit did. Detroit drafted Derek Moore. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

I think my biggest downfall of being a Saints is they draft a lot of Ohio State fans. They do. But I love it at the same time.

SPEAKER_05 0:52

Well, yeah, so the weird thing with Ohio State is like Taylor Decker was my favorite lion. Okay. But I hated him at Ohio.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Like, like, if you're, you know, like it's like you hate the Ohio State player, but you love them for your team because you know how good they are.

SPEAKER_04 1:07

The product is a good product.

SPEAKER_05 1:09

I will say, I will say they they put out a good product, even if you know Ryan Day puts up participation trophies behind him on the wall, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

But now, real quick, off-air, we were talking about fast food. It's a great icebreaker. Yeah, yeah. And we were talking about what we eat that's not good, what do we create? What is your go-to spot down here? Maybe in Lake Worth Beach, or just in the West Palm area. What is your go-to? Is it Taco Bell?

SPEAKER_05 1:32

If I want, if I want like a junk food meal. Yeah. We typically go to Chick-fil-A. If I want Taco really go, like I don't care about the results. It's either Taco Bell or Culver's.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

You know what's funny is there's a culverse, like you passed it 10 minutes down the street from here. And we me and Lakin, we had no idea what that was. Oh man. Because that's I don't know. Was that up north for you? That's a northern thing. Is it really? Yeah. Like, so not for us in Pennsylvania where we live. Yeah, it doesn't exist. And so like we had so many people that would come out to our house, be like, how do you guys not go there every day? I'm like, I don't even know what that is. I went there one time, got chicken tenders, and I thought it was a grocery chicken tenders. Oh, yeah, yeah. You gotta go for like a burger, you gotta go for the ice cream and the root. And so like we went a couple like a month ago too, and I was like, all right, let's get a burger. Yeah. Get the root the root beer is delicious. The root beer's good. And like they give you like this little ice cream. I forget the meal we get. It might even be a kid's meal, but it's like an amazing value meal. Yeah. I was like, you know, this isn't terrible.

SPEAKER_05 2:35

No, they have they have um pretty good prices. Yeah. They have like if you get if you like a fish sandwich, their fish sandwich is good. That sounds like potential food poison, though. It is. It is. Um you know what? You got uh there's I look I like their burgers, I like their root beer, I like their concrete mixers, and then concrete mixers. Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Is it really is that ice cream?

SPEAKER_05 3:00

It's ice cream with like it's what the McFlurry should be.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Okay, gotcha, gotcha.

SPEAKER_05 3:04

Like the McFlurry should be like chunks of things, yeah. You know. Um and then you have to get cheese curds. If you've never had a cheese curd, I haven't no anyone watching, if you've never had a cheese curd, get it, get the cheese curds from Culver's. It's just fried cheese.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Yeah, it sounds like pretty good. Do you remember Long John Silvers? Yeah, that was good. Yeah, I think you would have risked though of getting sick of Long John Silvers.

SPEAKER_05 3:29

It's a risk. It's like that's kind of how Taco Bell is. Like once a year.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

We're big Wawa people. Yeah, is that did you have that? We didn't have Wawa. Like that's like people down here are like, it's a gr it's a gas station. I'm like, no, it's like a bougie guy. Like you go up north, like everyone goes there for lunch breaks. Like, you're getting a Wawa Hoagie, you're getting burgers, pizza.

SPEAKER_05 3:51

Okay, all right. So I just learned this from John McTaggart. Because he talked about, well, we were playing soccer, and John was like, Well, I'm gonna go get a hoagie. Yeah, so I call them hoagies. So you call it a hoagie. I don't call it a sub. So, okay, all right. So I get made fun of a hoagie is the same thing as a sub.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

It's better. It's better, it's better than a sub. I came down and everyone was like, You gotta go to Pub Sub. I said, You gotta get a Wawa Hoagie. And they're like, What? And I I will say a a uh a public sub is so good. They're good. It's it's it's really good.

SPEAKER_05 4:22

Yeah, they're really good. Um but typically like local, if I'm trying to get something and not have it potentially risk food poisoning. Um Cellus. Yeah, I like I like Cellus a little bit. I've never had that. Cellus is really good. Really? Cellus um juice company.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Oh, okay. I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_05 4:43

I know what you're talking about. It's really good. But I've never had it. Sandwiches are incredible. Really? And like high protein, low, like they're they're good. Did you have sheets up where you're from?

SPEAKER_02 4:53

We did. Okay, yeah. Sheets is good too. Sheets is really good. Sheets is good if you like late at night, you're like, I want a greasy snack. Like you just get the bucket of fries, which are the best fries in the world, and then they had these little uh mac and cheese bites. Yeah, the mac and cheese bites were insane.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

I miss sheets. Like, I I don't know how to explain to people down here, like we had gas station food, but like I feel like when you tell people it's gas station, like 7-Eleven, yeah, but it's like, no, like these were places where you're getting a greasy burger out of a gas station that was delicious.

SPEAKER_05 5:27

Yeah, sheets like um like I I like Bucky's. I'll get that brisket sandwich. Oh, yeah. That thing's amazing. Bucky's is good. But like if I'm going to Sheets, it's because I want something different. Like I think Buckys is around because of Sheets and Wawa. I think so.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Like, what is what's that saying? Like, they had to walk so the Buckeys could run. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:46

Sheets had to walk so Buckeys could run. Yeah. You had to get the brisket sandwich. You had to start off by getting that greasy burger, putting putting like onion rings on it, cheese bites, and it weighs like six pounds.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Oh, yeah. Now now just share a little bit about you're from the north, what that looked like, where you moved around, how you ended up in Florida.

SPEAKER_05 6:07

Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, so I was born and raised, greatest state in the Continental Union, um, great state of Michigan. Um blue. Um so I was born and raised in the upper peninsula of Michigan. So if if you don't know, Michigan has a um it has two peninsulas, and they're attached by a five-mile bridge. And so it's the longest expansion bridge or suspension bridge in North America. And to get to where I lived, you had to go from Detroit like five hours north and then cross this bridge. And then it was like another hour up. My brother's actually gonna swim under that bridge on Labor Day in a race, which is crazy. Five miles. That's crazy. That is crazy. Yeah, he's got like a wetsuit, like it's freezing cold. Uh well, it gets cold in Michigan. Their snow just melted. Like my parents had three feet of snow like ten days ago. I don't miss that.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

Because when it rains and it gets hard, and it's like you know that that snow is gonna be there for a month.

SPEAKER_05 7:04

Yeah, man, like at Christmas, it's magical. Oh, absolutely. Like like November, Thanksgiving, it's it's the most incredible place on earth. Yeah. But in February, when you don't see the sun and it's just dumping feet of snow, it's the magical. You step outside and that wind is cold to your bone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Even when you have a jacket on, you're like, what are we doing?

SPEAKER_05 7:25

Yeah. Yeah, or like it'll be 85 degrees in the middle of July, and you get in that water and it's like taking a ice plunge.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

I I there was a couple I saw I work in construction. There was a couple times I would try and describe to you guys like what it's like in the cold.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

And I it was an older gentleman that one day, I was like, Yeah, like you'd have kids that would walk to the bus stop wearing shorts.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Yeah. And he was like, the look on his face, he was like, Yeah. Shorts. And there's snow on them. I'm like, Yeah, like it's not like Antarctica. No, no. Like it's cold. It's cold. Like, it can get down to the negatives, but like you have some crazy kids that, like, hey mom, like, can I please wear shorts at school? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:04

Well, I mean, you know, on I grew up on this little lake called East Lake, so it's two miles round. And there's people who still go, cut a hole in the ice, jump into it. You know, thank you. Get out, run into the house, hit the sauna. Actually, my family does it every time Michigan beats Ohio State. Really? Yeah, we we uh cut a hole in the ice and jump in. If you're if it's gotta be good for you, though. Yeah, it's really good for you. I mean Are you a cold plunge kind of guy? Yeah, yeah. People pay a ton of money to do that. We just used to do it growing up. Didn't know it was good. We thought it was a bad like a like a crazy idea, it turns out.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

Yeah, that's so funny. So how you moved eventually to Ohio, right? Yeah, so why and how did that work?

SPEAKER_05 8:44

Yeah, so I moved first to Indiana. Um, I was 17.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 8:50

Um moved to Indiana, went to college there, met my wife, who was from Columbus, Ohio. It's tough. Yeah, yeah. Um, but she's a Michigan fan now. I was saying that kind of thing split household for a while. It was. It was for a long time. Um especially going over to her parents' house and stuff. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I moved to Ohio in the decade of Urban Meyer just wiping the floor with us. That's tough. So it was like, welcome to this state that just continually kicks our butt.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

I remember looking at my dad, I'm like, so why did you make me a Michigan fan? Like every year we're just gonna get beat by these guys. I'm like, I don't even know how we're Michigan fans.

SPEAKER_05 9:28

Yeah, and we didn't just lose. Like, I I remember there was games that were open in two drives, and it was like we lost. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

And then just the beat down would get the closest that for the longest time before they had like JD McCarthy and all this, the closest time that we ever got was what was the quarterback's name, Gardner? Yeah, yeah. Devin Gardener. And you saw them score, and you watched the coach put up two to go for two. I was like, oh crap, we're going for the win. That was uh Brady Hoke, right? Yes, yeah, and I was like, this is the closest we're gonna get.

SPEAKER_05 9:56

I was like that was the high water mark for years.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

But hey, it's it's good now. I like Bryce Underwood.

SPEAKER_05 10:02

Yeah, I like Bryce Underwood. Um I like the new coach. I like Kyle Whittingham.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

I like him a lot. He's older, and I don't think people expected that pick, but I think he brings a good culture change. Yeah. Especially after something that's kind of going on.

SPEAKER_05 10:14

It's needed. Um it it's been needed for a while. Um I think he brings, and I like um I like the running game. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

We got the number one uh kid out of high school. Yeah, plus the guys we already have.

SPEAKER_05 10:25

Yeah, and the wide receiver groups young and good. And I like um, I don't know if you watch the spring game, but Carr, Lloyd Carr's grandson, looked good. He he can ball.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

He can ball.

SPEAKER_05 10:35

So I think Bryce obviously is the guy, and Bryce is gonna be really good. Yeah. But it's not bad to have Carr there.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Not bad. We're a little off topic, but like what do you what do you think about the college athletes campaign? Because I think it's tough. I remember writing an essay in college like ten years ago about this.

SPEAKER_05 10:54

Yeah, yeah. I think if they're using your name to profit, yes, I have no problem like with you getting some of the profit. 100% agree. I don't know if what we're doing right now is the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

No.

SPEAKER_05 11:11

I will say it's interesting that Big Ten teams have become a lot better since you can openly pay. They might be better than SEC teams now. I mean, it's debatable.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Like look at the past three championships.

SPEAKER_04 11:24

Yeah, uh yeah, Indiana. I mean, like Michigan, Ohio State, yeah. Come on now.

SPEAKER_05 11:28

Yeah, so I think it's balanced things because there probably was stuff going on. Well, there there was, like, you know, there always has been stuff, but um yeah. If if I have a jersey and it's being sold with my name on it, I should I should be hundred percent compensated for that. But I don't know if what we're doing now is the same thing of like, hey, if you come here, we're gonna give you seven million dollars.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:00

I don't know if that's the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Sometimes they're making more money than athletes in the NFL.

SPEAKER_05 12:04

Yeah, there's a the kid that um that didn't want to go from uh Old Miss, he didn't want to go to the NFL. He he was like fighting to stay in college because he was gonna why not make more money.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Nick Savan said it last night. He said the average age of kids getting draft this year is like 24 or 25. It's the most they've ever seen. Yep. And it's like, why not? Like if you're not projected to be a first round pick, yeah, get all the money. And but I agree with you where I'm like, if you are if they're using your name, if they're selling your jersey, if you're in the video games, you get that money. If you're doing sponsorships, right? But Greg Olson said it the best when he's like, Could you imagine like just say Joe Burrow, right? Yeah, he signs a four-year deal, a lot of money, and after year one, he's like, Hey, I'm gonna go test the market. Yeah, yeah. What do you mean you're gonna go test the market? Like when I'm seeing on Twitter, like the Michigan Wolverines uh reached an agreement to bring back this play. I'm like, what do you mean reach an agreement to bring him back? Yeah, like he committed to this school. Cadot's here. Like, why are we why are yeah? So that's the part that I think kind of gets me is like every year's free agency now, and these kids, there's more and more money where it's like they're getting paid more than some of these NFL athletes. Yeah, and it's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 13:09

It is, and also like coaches now, you can't even start a guy in the spring game because if that dude then other dude's not starting or named the starter in the spring game, he's getting messages in that game recruiting him to go elsewhere, which is increasing.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

It's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 13:34

Because I profited off of that.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

I think it's gonna ruin college football because I think a lot of people enjoyed the vibe of college football because these kids were fighting for something. Yeah. And now it's like, yeah, I'm already making money. Yeah. All right, well, totally off topic. I can talk about this all day. Sorry. What um so you meet your wife? Yep. How do you guys just short story, how do you guys end up in Florida? Yeah. And was that hard?

SPEAKER_05 13:59

Yeah, I mean, it it was a journey. Um we met we met in Indiana. She moved back to Columbus. I was living in Indiana.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Oh, some long distance. Yeah, yeah. That's tough. I've been there. Oh, it's terrible, man. It's almost two years.

SPEAKER_05 14:13

Yeah. Oh, that was longer than us. That was terrible. It's brutal. Uh it yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

It improves your character though.

SPEAKER_05 14:19

It does. It does. Um, yeah, I was like working two jobs and driving up every weekend.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

Is that is that it's been a while since I stared at a map. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 14:29

How far of a drive is it was five and a half on like a I don't know. It's like driving to Jacksonville almost that stuff. Yeah. So you love that.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

You loved her though. Yeah, I loved her.

SPEAKER_05 14:38

Like it was always worth it, you know. Yeah. Um man, there'd be Monday mornings. Like, I worked for a construction company Monday morning. Oh man. And bro, I I would be like dragging. And then straight from there to go work for FedEx loading trucks. Dang. And so like when Monday night rolled around, it was midnight.

SPEAKER_04 14:56

I'm like, oh my goodness, I need to go to bed. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 15:02

Uh yeah, but um, yeah, it was it was long distance, and then um I moved to Columbus to to be closer to her. Yeah. And um, we started working at a church there, and um got married, served at that church for almost a decade, and then started a church in another like a another suburb of Columbus in Westerville. And so we started a church out of a CrossFit gym, and then it went into like a jazzer-sized ballet gym.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 15:35

Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, so it was funny. Like when we started it, we would do like Godwads. It was like, you know, these guys would be playing uh 50 cent, they'd be playing, you know, all this stuff. There's yeah, F bomb, there's all these things.

SPEAKER_04 15:50

And then like you drop the weights when the timer goes off, and they'd be like, All right, Pastor Jay's gonna preach. I'll get out there like trying to catch my breath. You know, like, all right, let's open our Bibles. Let's open our Bibles, or forgive us for the secular music entertainment outside.

unknown 16:06

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 16:07

Um, so that kind of like I was doing that. I was working with fellowship of Christian athletes, I was working with politicians, I had like multiple Bible studies kind of running all over.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

I heard you mention before working with Christian athletes. That sounds like a really fun job. I love it. Because I know um there's uh Mike Miller. I don't know if you know him. Yeah, Mike's a great guy. He kind of does that right now for high school athletes, and I think that's so cool. It's awesome. Um, what what is that like this? This is this is this is what's great about doing this podcast. There's so many things you could pick at. What does that look like? Like, are you just meeting with these college athletes like once a week and you're having like almost like a Bible study with them? Yeah, yeah, and then like maybe meeting up if they want to have coffee and stuff.

SPEAKER_05 16:47

Yeah, so it's a little bit different at different levels. There's there's middle school, there's high school, there's college, there's professional.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:54

So I was like a chaplain, so I kind of interacted with different levels when needed. A guy like Mike is like trying to build community in a school. So he's specifically working with athletes of any sport. He's uh having Bible studies with them, they're leading their own Bible studies in the school.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_05 17:18

And um, he's kind of helping facilitate that. So he's really That's amazing. Really, what you do is work with the leaders and develop them, and then they're able to like pour into their own peers.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

That's so cool, man. You're like building the younger generation up, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:32

And then what I would do is come along and like um be the chaplain for their teams. So like our our Westerville Central high school football team and basketball team, I was their chaplain. So I went to practice once a week. I helped spiritually and emotionally guide the younger guys, prayed with them when needed, spoke when needed, did did a lot of those things, and then led a huddle once a week. So that huddle was like me kind of pouring into the leaders.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

Yeah, that's cool. I mean, have you did you ever get to the professional level of that?

SPEAKER_05 18:03

Yeah, yeah. So I spoke um a couple times with the Columbus crew, which is our MLS team, and was friends with a bunch of their guys. Um that's awesome. Yeah, one time it was pretty cool. I did um they had a faith and family night, so I brought like 300 believers. We all watched the game, and then um some of their guys came out and I interviewed them about their faith and then gave the gospel, like standing at the middle of Crew Stadium. That was so cool. It was cool. That's that was cool.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

That'd be so cool to like be at a professional level, not for like the fame and everything, but like just to like pour into these guys that are on a platform. Yep. Like, I I the one thing I took away from the NFL draft this year is all these kids giving glory to God. Yeah, and I was like, that's that's amazing. Like, you can see there's some kind of movement going on, especially the one when you saw Ohio State that was at last year, two years ago. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, so now you're doing that. How do you get down to Florida?

SPEAKER_05 18:56

Yeah, so we had planted this church, um, and the entire like last couple of years, like I had gone through we had COVID, then I had two strokes, yeah, and I had a heart surgery, then I got COVID twice. So we What's that span look like within like six months? Yeah, it was like six months. Wow. It was it was it was brutal while trying to do a church, yeah. Trying to plan a church. Um we also owned a business that we were doing. It takes some grip. Man, it does. It does. There were days I would preach, go home, and I like I couldn't get up the stairs. Yeah. Um I would just I was so worn out because the the thing about this the strokes that I had, the brain damage just like is so hard on your body. That's crazy. It just wears you down.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

So how do you how do you recover your brain from that? I mean, what does that look like? Is there rehab for that? Is there some kind of thing they have you read? Like what does that look like?

SPEAKER_05 19:54

Yeah, there is. Um some of it was just like God's hand is healing me. Yeah, um, I was in the MRI tube. I couldn't use the left half of my body. Um, the technician who was doing the MRI was like, I'm not a Christian, but I'll play a Christian song. And she played that Waymaker song.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

Great song.

SPEAKER_05 20:13

Yeah. And so I was in there in this tube, and you know, I'm here in Waymaker, and when I got out, she was like, You you feel better? And um because like the whole left half of my body just started working in the tube. Wow. So got so good while while listening to Waymaker, which is it's wild.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

That's crazy. So what ever happened to that person?

SPEAKER_04 20:35

Did they ever like look at that like Yeah, maybe I take back what I she said to me, she was like, Man, I I I like I said, I'm not a believer, but this is crazy. Let me show the gospel with you. Like you should be a believer.

SPEAKER_05 20:47

Um and then um so physically that all happened in that tube. Um, like I walked out of the hospital a couple days later.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 20:57

Um, but then uh the surgery um on my heart and then the the COVID twice, like I it just drained me.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Oh, I bet.

SPEAKER_05 21:07

So I went from the day before I had strokes, I could I did a 235-pound clean, uh 405-pound deadlift, and then ran a mile in six minutes. The time I started going to the gym after recovering from COVID the second time, I could barely lift the bar.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 21:25

So yeah, it was a lot. Yeah. Um but yeah, mentally the recovery at like six months you start to get um some of your memory back. At like a year, you start to get um you start to get past some like depression and all that stuff that goes with that. And then at about 18 months, your energy starts to starts to come back. So things I did, like I try to be as active as I could possibly be. Yeah. And I tried to read more, do crossword puzzles. Do stuff that would like stimulate brain growth. Yeah. Balance things, trying to use my right hand since I'm left-handed, all those things. Are you left-handed? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

My wife's left-handed. I don't believe that left-hander is a real. I'm just kidding. We're like birds. We're not real. That's um man, that's that's a crazy good story. Yeah. Now what is that what does that look like with your faith with God? Like, how did that challenge your faith with God? I mean, COVID twice, part surgery, can not even move your left side of your body. Yeah. What did that look like?

SPEAKER_05 22:30

Yeah, it was interesting. The when I had the strokes, um, there was like no no shaking, like, I'm good, I'm gonna get through this. Um, I'll I'll walk out of here. Like I kept telling the doctor, like, uh I'm gonna walk out of this hospital, you'll see.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:49

So there was like no lack of faith. Um, but when when it came like heart surgery, then COVID.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

I mean, heart surgery is scary.

SPEAKER_05 22:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

I mean, like, obviously, we're called not to fear with God. Yeah. But I mean, when you hear the word heart surgery, you're like, Yeah, anything can go wrong.

SPEAKER_05 23:04

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So uh the surgery I had through my hip, I was fully awake. No met no medicine, because they were like, we don't want any more brain damage. So the doctor literally told me, like, this is gonna hurt really bad. No way. And it did. It it it did. So you felt everything. Oh man, but yeah, there's a giant screen to this side. You can watch it, right? Yeah, and I can see my I can see the tube going in my heart and feel like my body be impressed. Like it was it was wild.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

They couldn't, why couldn't they put you to sleep?

SPEAKER_05 23:37

Because the medicine inside of you, they said, Yeah, so I had so much brain damage from the two strokes. Oh my god. So like to sedate you causes brain damage. So they were like, we we don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Were you was there any like did you have any like cold feet? You're like, there's no way I could do this. Yeah, I'm gonna be sitting here watching them go in my side, yeah, and I'm gonna have to sit here and watch this.

SPEAKER_05 23:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. And then there's like the very real, like, if anything goes wrong, you are going to be sedated and because we're gonna open open surgery. That does to your brain. Yeah, we'll open heart surgery on that table. So there's there's definite fear. Um what story, man? I think it was the COVID, like that first round of COVID when I I finally felt good, I finally was coming back and finally able to like preach and do the things, and then to get COVID where like I immediately was just laying on my back in a bed for like 13 days or whatever it was.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

That's where I like faith was a lot harder at that point. Like, what is happening? What's happening? Now we're gonna get to how you got to Florida, but I feel like this is a great spot to insert. We talked off air, and what one thing I love about asking people is what do you see young adults struggling with? Yeah. I I was telling Dwight this, I was like, you would think you'd hear the same answer by now. Yeah, and that's what's so cool, is so many people are experiencing different things, and you told me there's a lack of grit. Yeah, and I thought that was amazing because I think that's so true.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

So kind of going off your story, I I want to go back into that in a second, but like just for those that don't know what that is, like, what is grit to you? Yeah, maybe through a biblical lens, too.

SPEAKER_05 25:15

Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, I definitely see an issue now. Um I think I think comfort is is a killer.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:26

And I I think we've been so comfortable for so long that anytime there's any difficulty, we're out. Yeah. Um, and especially I think, you know, younger people if there's an awkward interaction at church, we got 15 more to choose from.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:45

If there's an awkward interaction with a coworker, we'll just quit that job because we got 15 more jobs. Yeah. If we don't like McDonald's, we can go to Culver's. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. And um I think I think we've really lost sight of the struggle being part of the good thing.

SPEAKER_03 26:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:06

Um and so I do, I really think younger people have a hard time with any discomfort because we view it as as bad. Because here in America, if there's something not comfortable, we get rid of it and put something comfortable in its place.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

Discomfort, um, what's the other one? Conflict, how to handle conflict healthy, like in a healthy way, in a healthy Christian way. Anything like that, I totally agree. Where like I just feel like when times get hard, it's so easy for our generation to be like, it's okay. I'll I'll I'm I'm cool stepping away and doing something else.

SPEAKER_05 26:41

I'm gonna do this because I it's it's all like I have a sense of peace about doing something else. Yeah. We yeah, but like the disciples on the water didn't have a sense of peace, even though I was just thinking in that brain, man, that's crazy. Jesus had to meet them in the middle. Yeah. All right. So um it's not always the sense of peace that's good for you.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

I think when you become a Christian, you're signing up for uncomfortable things. Absolutely. Like Jesus is gonna call us out of our comfort, right? I mean, you think by just having a gospel conversation, that's not comfortable. No, no, that's that's a little awkward sometimes. Very awkward, you know. I used to, I I used to pray in a way where I was like, hey God, like today, like let me like the most simple prayer where I was like, let me just be a smile for somebody, let me just like be there to talk with somebody and never would say the words use me with to share the gospel. Yeah. Because it was it was uncomfortable. Yeah, yeah. And now I'm trying to embrace that where I'm like, whatever you need me to do, use it. Yeah. But like, like you said, like it's easy to quit a job because it's too hard. Now there's a difference between if something's unhealthy, yeah. That's a totally different situation. It's a totally different conversation. What what what would you like? What does grit mean to you? Like, yeah, we actually use that work, and I wish I remembered what all the letters stand for. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like gratitude, some like it's our core values.

SPEAKER_05 27:52

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I think grit is um, you know, Jesus set his face like a flint towards Jerusalem, right? Like, um, I think we cultivate grit through gratitude, through relentless learning, through integrity, and then being thick-skinned, tight-lipped. Yeah. Um, gratitude, especially, should be the foundation for all of us. Because the if we're grateful for something, we're not gonna want to quit it. Yeah. And I think that the reason we quit on relationships, we quit on all of these things is we're constantly being shown something different.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Something different. Yep. And so this is killing us.

SPEAKER_05 28:31

Yeah, yeah, it is. And so we're we're no longer grateful because you know, um, it's a it's like an old man thing. But when I was a kid, like we played with sticks outside. Oh, yeah. That's what we did.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

We would pretend they were guns. Yeah, it was not the best thing, but it was it was fun.

SPEAKER_05 28:47

Yeah, yeah. Um, but now, man, like my daughter has any toy like she wants, if she doesn't have it, someone's buying it. Like, yeah, so we have to figure out ways to teach her how to be grateful for what she does have. Yeah. Um, and then relentless learning, man. I th I think I think Michael Jordan, I believe, was the guy that said, could be Michael Scott, but um I love Michael Scott that said, I never lose, I learn. Oh, I like that. Um, and I think that's if you if everything is an opportunity to learn, yeah, then you don't want to quit because losses help you learn, things help you learn, discomfort helps you learn.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

You ever see Meet the Robinsons on Disney? Meet the Robinsons. I just made my wife watch it. It was a movie when I was growing up. And he fails a license event or and they they cheer him and he's so confused. He's like, Why are you cheering? I failed. Like, how are you gonna learn? Yeah. Like if I if we just only cheered when you succeeded, yeah, well, where's the growth out of that? Right, right. And uh going back to being being uh you said gratitude, like that people say journal too. Write down what you're grateful for. Write it down because you'll realize how blessed of a life you're living.

SPEAKER_05 29:55

If you write down, you know, hey, here's 10 things I'm grateful for with my my spouse, my house, my family every day, it changes your life. Oh yeah. Um, because you start to realize, like, oh man, like my wife's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

Yeah, you know, I think it's almost like a little bit of a slap in the face to God when we kind of like we're told not to complain.

SPEAKER_03 30:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

And we do it every day. Every day. And I'm guilty of it. Like, I'm not a perfect man, no one is. And like there's times I'm like, man, I need to check my heart. Yeah. Like I'm I'll be complaining about work. I'm like, I have a job. Yeah, yeah. I have a house, I have a wife. Right. Like I have breath in my line. Like, even the simplest thing, like, I can move my finger. Yeah. Yeah. Like that that's just like so you can continue with the the grat the g the grit, because I like this.

SPEAKER_05 30:39

Yeah, so gratitude is the foundation of it. Like if you're not grateful, you're not gonna have grit. You just won't. You'll always be, I'm moving on to something different. Yeah, relentless learning. Everything is an opportunity to learn, you're not losing your learning. Yeah, integrity, and I think integrity is important because what integrity does is it keeps you in the places you want to be.

SPEAKER_01 30:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 31:00

If you don't have integrity, so I I grew up in this world of like these preachers would preach these really hard things, yeah, and they weren't backing it up.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:10

And so then they couldn't stay where even if they wanted to. So um, we need to be people of integrity, especially men. Like, we need to be men who have integrity. Yeah, we do what we say, we say what we do, like we're you know, we'd just say God, his his he never breaks those promises.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Right. That's a good reflection of how we should be.

SPEAKER_05 31:29

Right. And then I think that if you want to have grit, thick skin, tight lit.

SPEAKER_02 31:34

So I like I heard you say this one, and I love this one because you know the Bible says we should be quick to listen and slow to speak. Yeah. And we live, this might hurt some people, but we we live in a soft world. Yeah, no, we we definitely do. I'm first hand that in construction, like sometimes like people are yelling at you, and they're not yelling at you because they're mad at you. Like, they're just like they're trying to get a job done.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

And it's hard to have thick skin sometimes. We're like, man, why you don't gotta talk to me like that?

SPEAKER_03 31:59

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Like, I don't need this. Yeah, yeah. And but it's it's very like, I mean, I I I had this conversation with my wife the other day because I was I was going through some some stuff, and I said, God, what do you want me to do? Want me just roll over here? Like, like what am I supposed to do here? And I said, Don't answer that. Yeah, because I know what you're gonna say. Like, there's there's a healthy way, you know, like and and and God did some things back in the old testament where it's like, but man, like Jesus is this reflection of like, man, how to handle conflict, how to lay your life down for people, how to serve. And I'm like, that is so hard. It's so, it's so difficult. And I said, I said, just picture right, like when he met Judas, knowing that that's the guy that's probably gonna betray him. Yeah. And on the day that he was gonna betray him, he still washed his feet. Washed his feet. How crazy is that? Right. And like, if if that is not a reflection of like, like we live in a world where like if someone rubs me the wrong way, yeah, I'm not gonna fight for that relationship. No, no, I'm not gonna. I'm gonna give him the cold shoulder. Right, right. And it's like, man, like but Jesus would love that person so much and he would forgive that person. And if if that person doesn't want to receive it, shake the dust off of him. Yeah, yeah. You tried to be the reflection of Jesus in that.

SPEAKER_05 33:06

Right, right. That's hard. It's it's dude, it's incredibly hard. He he asked twice as many questions as he gave statements. Wow. So like I think I think Jesus only directly answered like eight of the questions. So that may be wrong, but that he was asked. Um, but he asked a ton of questions. So he's he's he's tight-lipped, he's not constantly going doing all these things, but also thick skinned, like you said, like this dude's gonna kill me. He's gonna give me away. I'm gonna wash his feet.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

I mean, that's that's mind blowing to me.

SPEAKER_05 33:40

Yeah. And and I think our world convicts me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It does. Our world, yeah, um yeah, I'm a pastor. Every time I speak, people are gonna have opinions, they're gonna have thoughts. Yeah. Not only about that, but like everything we do that Sunday, they're gonna have opinions, they're gonna have thoughts on worship, greeting, all that. Yeah, and then there's gonna be thoughts and opinions on everything we do all week. If you're not thick skinned, you you just can't do it. Yeah, right? Like you've gotta be able to have enough grit to be like, okay, we're learning, we're improving, and we're moving on to next Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

Yeah. Cause even taking feedback, like um, like if I asked you, like, say I was becoming a pastor and I was oh, you were mentor, you were mentoring me. And I walked up to you and I'm like, what am I doing wrong? Like, how can I improve? Even if you go up to your wife, right, and you say, I always ask her once in a blue moon, because sometimes it hurts. I'm like, how can I be a better husband? Yeah. If you can't accept what they're gonna say in a loving way, be like, you know what, you point out a flaw and I need to grow in that. Like if you don't have the thick skin to hear it, yeah, that's tough. That's gonna be a tough thing for you. You're gonna be like, I'm not growing on that. I think I'm perfect at that.

SPEAKER_05 34:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Anytime I think I've nailed something, um, my wife and daughter are like, hey, this is what you're you need to improve at. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:57

I'm like, oh man. Now, why why do you think so many people will take the sign of discomfort as uh I'm out? Like, I I I think that like I mean, I have been there at work where like I have had such a hard moment one time. I'm like, God, is this really where you want me? But it's more of like uh, is this just getting a little too hard and I don't want to work harder towards it because I messed up? Yeah. But I feel like a lot of young adults, they're like, I feel like God's leading me here. This is the door. You get in there three months later, ah, this isn't it. Yes. But it's like, but is it because it got a little too hard for you to work, or is it like something else? So I feel like people get in a discomfort spot where they're like, this isn't where God wants me. So why do we feel like people feel it that way?

SPEAKER_05 35:41

Yeah, I think number one, um we we're constantly looking at devices that are always showing us better and different things. Yeah. And so anytime that we're anytime that we face discomfort, we can get on a device and see how everyone has it seemingly perfect. In reality, there social media is sand castles, right? They look great, but waves are just gonna collapse them. Yep. Um, and so I think that's a that's a big part of it. But also, man, like we've we've been custom trained that that uh culturally trained that comfort is is good and needed and it's everything, yeah, and discomfort is bad or wrong. Yeah, and so we look at anytime there's discomfort. We American Christians view it as like, well, this is bad, I need to get out of here.

unknown 36:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:37

But you look around the world, there are there are Nigerian Christians choosing to stay in their town because it will get more uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

Yeah, I mean they're they're putting their life on the line.

SPEAKER_05 36:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:51

That's uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_05 36:52

That's uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

What we have is pretty easy.

SPEAKER_05 36:56

Yeah, man. I I woke up this morning, I went and got Starbucks, I drove here and met you when we have a great conversation about sports and faith, and then we go about our day. Yeah. Like, there's not a group of people hunting me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:10

Um we can express our faith for God pretty much everywhere in this country. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:16

We have a kingdom come hat on. Yeah. There's there's like you, you know what I mean? Like you um, but I think that we've we've bought into they lived happily ever after. Right. The end of the movie is is the beginning of reality. Yeah. And because all of our stuff is in shorter form, I think we don't understand that. Yeah. So we expect like we spend more time preparing for a 50-minute wedding ceremony than we do the 50 years following it.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Oh, I like that. That was good.

SPEAKER_05 37:50

It's the thing I'm picking up with couples, is like we'll have it all down to the color of the napkin. But nothing planned past the honeymoon. Yeah. And so when the honeymoon ends, when we have some kids and we have life, and and we're looking around like this isn't it. This isn't what I've been told. Yeah, I've been told this would make me happier, better. We would live happily ever after.

SPEAKER_03 38:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:15

You are living happily ever after.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:18

In the uncomfortable things. Like the dirty diapers are the happily ever after. It's tough.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Yeah. Yeah. But dirty diapers are tough. They are tough. I love that man, because I feel like every conversation I have on this podcast, it all leads back to are you consistently in God's word? Yeah. Because this it it that is what it that's the truth. That's what's going to get you through this. That's the foundation. And I feel like the I feel like the enemy wants us to be in isolation.

SPEAKER_03 38:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

And like you said, when you are in comfort, that could lead to anxiety, that could lead to depression, suicides at a high time, the most highest rate we've ever had. Yep. And like I said earlier, like God doesn't promise us an easy life. No. Like when you sign up for that, like He promises peace. Yep. And he's gonna be there with you. Yeah. But like we're we are gonna be called to uncomfortable situations. And in those uncomfortable situations, I feel like that is when we need to lean on Him the most, roll up our sleeves and be like, Man, I need some grit in my life. Yeah. And I'm gonna get through this with God.

SPEAKER_05 39:15

Yeah. Yeah. Jesus set his face like a flint. Like a flint is this tool where other weapon other things are used to sharpen it or beat against it. And Jesus is like, nah, this is where I'm going. Um I think all of us need to be doing activities together that make us uncomfortable. Yeah. To develop within us the ability to confront being uncomfortable. Yeah. Um what was that Spartan thing you were telling me off there? Yeah, yeah. So the Spartans hated fear. Yeah. Like that was the worst thing for Spartans. And obviously, we're not recommending everything Spartans said or did. But what they got right was they built these tight-knit communities, these cultures. And what one of the things they did is because they hated fear so much, they built programs of them doing activities together physically leading up to battles, all the way up to like, hey, at this point before the battle, everyone's gonna check everyone else's gear. Yeah. At this point before the battle, we're all gonna do this physical activity together.

SPEAKER_03 40:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:23

I think what we see now, particularly with young men, we don't do much physical activity, and we certainly don't do it together with others. Yeah. So we need to find physical activities we love, we need to do them with others as much as we can and force ourselves into discomfort so that we get more comfortable with it. Like you can get comfortable in the discomfort, yeah, and then you begin to like learn from it, grow through it, and that way when life throws haymakers at you, you're able to just keep walking forward like Jesus did towards Jerusalem.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

That's just why community is so important too, just like you're saying. Yeah, that that's just such an important thing. And sports, man, I that's one thing I love about sports is like I hope my son gets into sports, so I want to put him in sports because it develops a lot of good characteristics. It does. How to work as a team when you don't really everyone's different, right? But uh but a chain link, like you need to be strong together, yeah, and you need to understand how to work as a team. Um, where did I want to go with that? Like, oh, if I if I was gonna ask you, like, what's one piece of advice you would give to a young adult that feels like they want to give up, they don't like to be in the discomfort. Is that pretty much what you would recommend?

SPEAKER_05 41:33

Is yeah, find find a way to be doing physical activities with people you love. Whether I'm not a pickleballer, but like if you're a pickleball dude or girl, play pickleball with other believers. If it's golf, uh, you know, I don't have the time or money to golf. Um, but play golf, be be physical. Um, and be physical in activity with other believers. And and um I think especially men, um, we don't like it, but we need it. Yeah, um one of the reasons we have so much fear is we're alone in a room playing Call of Duty, yeah, and there's that's not what God built men to do. Yeah. Um not that it's bad, I like Call of Duty, all I like all that, yeah, but but like be in the word and then be in activity with other people.

SPEAKER_02 42:27

Yeah, I totally agree. I agree. I think the Bible calls us to be in communion with others, but and I think the Bible is is a this is why it's important to be in the word. Like I always tell people like I don't like reading really. I force myself to do it. Right. And the same thing with the Bible, like it could be not fun, yeah, but you need it, man, because the Bible shows you real people, not stories, like not fake stories, right? Like Moses. Moses was in some discomfort when God called him to go free all those realists. He was like, Me. Yeah, I can't even speak right. You want me? Yeah. I mean, you think about Paul, like Paul was literally trying to abolish, like just end the Christian movement. Yep. And then he God calls him to go preach. And he there were probably so many people that looked at him like, what are you doing here? Yeah, yeah. Like it was probably very uncomfortable for him. And he could have quit at any moment. Yeah. But instead he wrote most of the New Testament. Yeah, yeah. And so it's like God calls you into uncomfortable spaces, do great things.

SPEAKER_05 43:22

Yeah, I think that's what we gotta remember. Yeah, yeah. And if you're if you're not able to handle the uncomfortable moments, yeah, and then you're you're not living the way you need to be living, because we need to prepare ourselves for those things. Yeah, I think especially like my grandkids, uh, they're gonna need to be ready for discomfort. Yeah. So I I have to like teach my daughter now, like, hey, uh, there's just some uncomfortable situations, get used to them.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

Yeah, I love that. I think to bring this all together is like we're talking about grit. I feel like listening to your story, which is a great story, at any moment you could have. Just quit.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

You couldn't be like, well, I I I don't want to do this church anymore. I mean, I've had two strokes. Lord, I I don't even I'm Lord, I'm questioning everything you're you're doing in my life.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

So like what really anchored you through that to like roll your sleeves and be like, I'm gonna ride this out with you through the end?

SPEAKER_00 44:15

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 44:16

Yeah. Um a big, big part of that for me is I have a wife that believes in me. Yeah. Um, I have a I have a daughter that believes in me. I think men, we should believe in God, we should build trustworthy relationships, and we should bet on ourselves. Yeah. Um, more than we do. Um, but a a big thing for me is like my wife believes in me. Um, and if you have a wife that believes in you, there's nothing you can't do. I love that. Like a lion who knows he's got lionesses, like a lioness that's really believing in him to supply, he'll fight any animal. Yeah, right. Men are the same. Like we will go at anything if we know that there's a woman who believes in us. Yeah. Um and so we're willing to come home carrying our shield or being carried on it. Yeah. Because she's waiting and believing in us. So that was a huge thing. Um but then also the examples I've had, my dad, um, my dad and mom planted a church 50 years ago in a town of 80 people. Wow. In northern Michigan, where Christianity is not really a thing. Like they they don't there's the expressionism that comes along with Christianity makes Michiganders like, nah. Like, you know. Um, and so I've watched my mom and dad just stick it out, be faithful. I've seen um people leave their church and walk away. I've seen things said about them. I've seen everything that I went through happen to them. Yeah, I've seen their church split by by evil people who everyone praised, and then 10 years later people were like, wait a minute, like it took a decade, but like, oh, actually, they were the you know, yeah. Um I've seen all that, and so that helped me because um, you know, my dad, my mom, they're northern Michigan people, yeah, they're out there doing their thing day after day after day. Need some thick skin for that cold weather. Yeah, you do thick skin, thick coats. Um and so the example of that that they've given to us, I mean, 50 years of marriage, 50 years of pastoring the same church. Wow, that's grit. Yeah, like grit is not some influencer on a treadmill running and then shutting the treadmill off as soon as he's done with his little speech to give you and then heading home. That's not grit. Grit is not even like, well, I don't want to run today, but I am. Grit is like, I don't want to run today, but I am like I have been for the last 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

There we say, like, you'll know really about somebody behind closed doors. Yeah. Not what they're putting out for show.

SPEAKER_05 47:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:01

I love that.

SPEAKER_05 47:01

Yeah, one of the best things I've ever heard was don't worry about getting revenge. Rotten fruit falls, anyways.

SPEAKER_02 47:09

Yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_05 47:10

Right? Like it's it's a like don't worry about it. It's really good, right? Like, don't worry about it, just let them let them do their thing. They're they're right, they're gonna fall, right? Yeah, but like but like a tree or a rock that stands faithfully for generation after generation after generation, yeah. That's something to look towards and try to emulate. Wow. So I had that in my parents, I have that in my parents. So what I went through um before we got here was yeah, it was hard, but like I had a wife believing in me. Yeah, I had a very firm belief in God. Um I don't know if I should have such a belief in myself or not, but I do. Um and then um my parents are just like examples of how to keep moving, how to keep going.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

I love that. So hearing your story, I'm just like, man, family church picked a good one because thank you. Thank you. I mean that in a way where it's like, man, God was God was working in you the whole time without you even knowing, like preparing you for something big. Yeah. And man, you're gonna do such amazing things in Lake Worth Beach. Thank you. You're in Florida now, yeah. How are you enjoying it? Dude, um, we love Florida, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:22

So we're we're outdoor people, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:24

Um it's different hiking here than it is up north.

SPEAKER_05 48:27

It is, it is actually crazy. My brother uh came to visit, and he was like, Hey, I want to go hiking, but I don't want to hike anywhere that like tourist hike. Yeah, so I took him to the big Cypress Trail in the Everglades. Have you ever been there? No. Okay, so is it cool? Uh it's wild.

SPEAKER_02 48:46

So it's probably some snakes and gators out there.

SPEAKER_05 48:49

There's there's a boardwalk and there's like a six-foot-long gator. Okay, I don't know enough.

SPEAKER_02 48:54

My wife's not going that walk away.

SPEAKER_05 48:55

I don't know enough about Florida to know if that thing's gonna eat me or not, but it looks like it can. And then the boardwalk just ends in waist deep water, and you walk through a swamp for like 40 miles.

SPEAKER_02 49:06

And you did it?

SPEAKER_05 49:07

And we did six of it. Did you have like uh what do they call that? Waders on?

SPEAKER_02 49:11

No, so here's it's crazy, man.

SPEAKER_05 49:15

This is so my brother's like the ultimate male, right?

SPEAKER_02 49:18

Like he No gator gonna fight. I'm gonna fight that gator.

SPEAKER_05 49:21

Yeah. I mean, he's he lives in Ghana and you know, he goes to the Congo and he's swimming Mackinac. Like, you know, he's just like this ultimate dude. Yeah, so he just got plunged right in. I was in like Lululemon shorts.

SPEAKER_01 49:34

Oh man.

SPEAKER_05 49:35

And I'm like, are are we doing this?

SPEAKER_02 49:37

Like, my wife might kill me.

SPEAKER_05 49:38

We we doing this. Yeah, that's crazy. Um, so we we did like six miles out there in the swamp. Wow, and there were yeah, there's snakes, you know. I mean, like you're walking along and you're like, the snake goes by. Like, bro.

SPEAKER_02 49:54

I can't do that. I have so like I got I got into hunting this year.

SPEAKER_05 49:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:57

And I was I was boar hunting for a while. My buddy Josh, he's like, hey, come duck hunt with me.

SPEAKER_05 50:02

Yeah, duck hunting's fun too.

SPEAKER_02 50:03

I said, I can't, man. I said, Listen, I'm from up north. Like, you get in the water, nothing's gonna bite me.

SPEAKER_04 50:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

I don't know what's in the water now. Everything will bite you. If I shoot a duck, I then have to walk to that duck. I'm good. So, like here in your store, like, I'm not getting in the water.

SPEAKER_05 50:17

It was wild. That was like I didn't know what to expect. And my brother is like, you know, he he wants it to be more difficult, right? So just like give me all the advanced. Yeah, so I picked that trail, we drove out there, got in, and then I was like, oh man, uh, this is wild.

SPEAKER_02 50:34

After seeing the six-foot gator, I'm shocked you got in that one. Yeah, yeah, like that was the same water that gator was in. Yeah, yeah. And he didn't pause, he just uh here we go, this is the trail. Got I'm like, all right, man. Like, um you see any gators when you were in there? No, we didn't.

SPEAKER_05 50:48

We didn't.

SPEAKER_02 50:49

I heard they try and like they typically are scared of us, but I would imagine the Everglades, like you're the risk of injury is a little higher.

SPEAKER_05 50:57

Yeah, so it was interesting because we're walking on like rock in waste deep water. Yeah, so you're like slipping and you're and you're tripping over roots, and you're doing all you know, so like one point I'm like, is that a gator? Is that a snake? Yeah, so it was it was crazy, but I love South Florida. Um I grew up outdoors all day, every day. Yeah, and like we like literally from the moment we were up, my mom was like, go outside. Yeah, and we would come back home for dinner.

SPEAKER_02 51:29

That's good for kids, though. That's so good, man. Like, I want to do that for my son. Like, I I I think I'm leaning towards homeschool because public school is a little different. I just talked about this with Dwight.

SPEAKER_03 51:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

And I want him to like get like three to four hours of like real stuff, yeah. And then man, go learn how to be a kid. Yeah, go be a kid. Go be a kid, like maybe build some stuff with dad or learn how to cut the grass, like just random stuff, go build a fort.

SPEAKER_05 51:51

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 51:52

I just think that's good for a kid.

SPEAKER_05 51:53

It's I mean, like cognitively, them learning how to problem solve, you know, like we would we would hop, uh, hop a fence, yeah, go through this field that had a bull and it had all these cows. So we had to get over and through the barbed wire fence. Like one time my brother got caught in it and hung upside down. Oh wow. Um, he had like this, he's got the scar in his leg to show for that. Um, but like we had to get away from the bull and then go through this forest and then like go down into this this swamp and like catch frog eggs, bring the frog eggs home, turn them into tadpoles, turn them into frogs. That's so you learn way more. Oh yeah. At least I did.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

Like I grew up like you had a tire swing. Yeah. Yeah. I had this my Aunt Gina, she was like my great aunt. She had like this uh we call them like a minehole because it was like where they would dig up and then they would leave there and then eventually it turned into like a small lake. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want to drink that water or go to that country. Like that's what you learn. You go out there, you walk around barefoot, like you're just doing fun stuff, man.

SPEAKER_05 52:52

Yeah, it's I this is just my like hobby horse, but I don't think 180 days spent with government people teaching our kids is the answer.

SPEAKER_02 53:08

I don't either.

SPEAKER_05 53:09

I I nothing against those people. It's not against them. No. But why does why does anyone have the right to say to me your kid has has to force to spend half of their life growing up with us.

SPEAKER_02 53:25

In a classroom like this size all day.

SPEAKER_05 53:29

All day. It's not a natural thing.

SPEAKER_02 53:31

Like which they don't even have the attention span for an hour. Right. It's like this can't be good.

SPEAKER_05 53:36

No.

SPEAKER_02 53:36

No. That's another loophole though.

SPEAKER_05 53:38

Yeah, we could go on that.

SPEAKER_02 53:39

I got into it with Dwayne. It was fun.

SPEAKER_05 53:41

I'll I'll watch that episode.

SPEAKER_04 53:42

Because I'm sure he says similar to what I said, but like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:46

So you are now the pastor of Lake Worth Beach, and then we'll we'll end here. But what should people know about what's going on at Lake Worth Beach Church? Because it's it's I feel like it's it's booming, it's growing, and I'm excited to see what God's gonna do there.

SPEAKER_05 53:58

Thank you, thank you. Yeah. Um I am just somebody who believes that a church can flip a neighborhood. Oh, yeah. Um, I firmly believe that. Like you you get a church, you put families in that church, the neighborhood will change.

SPEAKER_02 54:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 54:16

Um, and so we're starting to see that.

SPEAKER_02 54:19

Which is what I love about family church.

SPEAKER_05 54:21

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I couldn't have come, like, there's not a better place for me to have come to. I'm super grateful for Family Church. Family Church is like every week I'm more grateful to be here, and that's not how it normally goes. Like, you know, normally you get past the shiny stuff, and then you're like, okay, here's what I'm dealing with.

SPEAKER_03 54:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 54:41

Um, with family church, it's like week by week I'm more grateful to be in it.

SPEAKER_02 54:46

Yeah. I told you when I met with you that that's how I was because my wife, when we were doing long distance, was always talking about family church. I'm like, I get it, I get it. Your church is so great. Yeah. I was like, what about my church? Yeah. It's like you come down, you're like, oh, I get it. Yeah. Like, yeah, this is great. Like planting a neighborhood church in a neighborhood is like, this is great.

SPEAKER_05 55:04

Yeah. Yeah, that's what I love. So our church looks like our neighborhood. Yeah. I mean, we're very multicultural, multi-generational, and people are walking in. Um, a ton of people, golf carts are walking in, right? One of the two, I love that feel of like this is a true neighborhood church. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, we're building it with young families and and young people. It's it's full of them. And I think God's really doing something special, and we're starting to see lives changed. Yeah. Um, one of the coolest things, I have I have two pictures. I know I'm probably going over, but this is good. One is this guy, Travis. So Travis is standing in knee deep water and he's holding a rake above his head celebrating. Yeah. And Travis is celebrating the fact that he managed to unplug our storm sewer drain in the on a Sunday morning at like 9 a.m. And he's in like knee deep water. Yeah. And he's celebrating with his friend that he did this, that he got it. And then two weeks later, we baptized 10 people in the ocean.

SPEAKER_02 56:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 56:14

And in the ocean, we baptize this guy. He comes out and he raises his hands in the same exact way that Travis raised his hand.

SPEAKER_03 56:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:24

I think that like this leads to this.

SPEAKER_03 56:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:27

And so the thing that I love about our church and family church in general, but but Lake Work Beach is you get to serve with guys, with girls, with you know, people who they're they're seeing this. Yeah. Like they're seeing that this leads to this. We're watching people's faith stories unfold in front of us. Yeah. And we're seeing men like people who come in um broken or like angry or having curiosity, but no real understanding of faith at all.

SPEAKER_03 57:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:02

And then right now we're just watching God just change their lives in front of us. I love that. And it really has nothing to do with me. Um, it has everything to do with everybody else who's doing their thing, and then God just radically transforming lives in this in this space. And then as a result, we're starting to see the town begin to change too. Yeah. Which is which is really powerful.

SPEAKER_02 57:29

Well, I love that. I appreciate you, Pastor Jason, for coming on the podcast, man. Your story. Incredible. Thank you, man. We'll have to watch Michigan and Ohio State together. I tell my wife that. I was like, I'm in. We gotta do that. I'm in. Um, for those that have made it this far, incredible story, incredible uh wisdom. And that's just what I love about this. I feel like one of my spiritual gifts is like I love just getting to know somebody and have a good conversation and hearing their story and just picking at it. Yeah. Because it's also some wisdom for me and everyone else. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 57:55

Yeah, it's it's we learn, I learned by listening to my grandpa tell stories.

SPEAKER_03 58:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 58:00

We learn through these conversations. You have to be in relationship. You're really great at relationship, and and learning and uncovering wisdom is a gift you have for sure.

SPEAKER_02 58:10

I appreciate that. Well, we'll see you guys next time on the Everyday Faith podcast.