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Aaron Libner: Start Somewhere · Why I Believe

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to why I believe podcast hosted by yours truly Michelle Van Rydden.
• 0:06
  Today my special guest is Aaron Libner.
• 0:08
  Aaron and Libner and I go back a few years.
• 0:10
  We're both in the same area running a bunch of the same networks.
• 0:13
  Aaron, would you like to introduce yourself?
• 0:16
  I sure would.
• 0:17
  Thanks for having me here today, Michelle.
• 0:19
  ah For those listening, I am the president for Cooley Tech Market.
• 0:24
  We are a managed service provider for IT cybersecurity here in the area.
• 0:27
  I'm also president for a nonprofit called Fierce Freedom, which we fight against human trafficking through that organization.
• 0:36
  And I have a number of other hats I wear.
• 0:38
  um Married to a lovely, lovely individual.
• 0:42
  Erin.
• 0:43
  So when I'm talking about Erin, I'm not talking about myself, I'm talking about my wife.
• 0:48
  And we have a six year old daughter who is uh learning all sorts of independence, challenging her parents patience, um but is a little sweet girl who we love and adore very
• 1:04
  much and are very proud to have her as our daughter.
• 1:08
  uh
• 1:10
  Born, I lived right here in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, born and raised up in Rice Lake.
• 1:14
  So I didn't go far only 45 minutes south or so from there.
• 1:18
  And, uh, love this, love the Wisconsin area.
• 1:22
  And, uh, I do enjoy the winter transition and fall all the different seasons we go through.
• 1:29
  Um, but yeah, that's a real basic run up about myself.
• 1:34
  Wonderful, thanks for sharing, Erin.
• 1:36
  You know, since I've known you, you've been a person of faith, but I don't think that was always the case, was it?
• 1:41
  Tell us a little about that.
• 1:43
  Yeah.
• 1:46
  So I grew up uh in the Lutheran church, but it was more of a, let's go to Sunday school.
• 1:57
  Let's go through communion.
• 2:00
  We didn't regularly attend church.
• 2:03
  So um from the standpoint of ah being a Christian follower, uh we'd like to say we were
• 2:13
  We were there, but we weren't really practicing like the good Lord asks us to practice.
• 2:19
  And I wouldn't say until my teenage years, when I got in with some Bible study groups, actually with the CEO and CTO of Cooley Tech, the owners, close friends of mine for over
• 2:34
  30 years, did I start going to some Bible study sessions and leaning a little heavily and then,
• 2:41
  I had a, I kind of had a falling out away from things and, and got away from the practice of the word for a while there until my mid to late thirties, I would say it was when I
• 2:52
  picked it back up again here.
• 2:54
  So, um, it's been in my life and it's been in my life in and out, but not a consistent thing.
• 3:02
  Unfortunately.
• 3:04
  Yeah, what made you come back to the faith?
• 3:07
  Well, our daughter, my wife and I got married and became members at Peace Church here in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
• 3:17
  And they really opened up that door again.
• 3:20
  They opened the curiosity of what it means to be truly a Christian following the word.
• 3:30
  I feel very young in my Christian knowledge.
• 3:36
  I have a Bible app on my phone.
• 3:38
  do daily devotionals and readings through.
• 3:41
  I have a challenge that I'm doing right now for 21 days, that trying to keep up with daily devotionals.
• 3:50
  But yeah, was really just some of the messaging the pastors were saying at our church, um hearing testimonials from other folk, uh going to Ben's No Regrets Conference.
• 4:04
  which I'm sure we'll talk about at some point, is really kind of what opened up the door for me to realize like, hey, I'm starting a family, know, a couple of years fast forward
• 4:16
  from being married, we had her daughter, I want her to know and love the Lord, and I wanna be that light in her journey to Him, and make sure that I'm being the father figure.
• 4:33
  like our father has asked us to be.
• 4:37
  So, by our father, I mean the Lord.
• 4:40
  I mean, that's a...
• 4:41
  Yeah, I think as I'm doing these interviews, I'm really seeing a trend.
• 4:46
  People are, you know, faithful growing up either by inheritance or choice and they step away and then they come back.
• 4:53
  Usually about the time families are getting involved.
• 4:56
  And I think it's interesting that we realize what was missing at the time when we're starting our own families.
• 5:02
  But I know that you and Erin had some challenges with starting your family and
• 5:07
  uh Like my daughter Kimberly, so did yours.
• 5:11
  Can you explain that?
• 5:13
  daughter came two months early and nobody prepares you for those challenges or things, but ah she was a very small preemie.
• 5:24
  Went through ah the phases of being in a NICU.
• 5:30
  uh for us, it was scary.
• 5:34
  The fact that we were away from home, my wife was away from home for two months in Rochester, Minnesota.
• 5:40
  And, um you know, we were just weren't, I wasn't part of our plan for having a child.
• 5:48
  And those hardships and times, plus we're talking in the, this is early 2020, we're talking January 2020, this is before COVID.
• 5:59
  And, and our daughter was, it was planned to come in March of that year.
• 6:04
  So in a roundabout way, while it was,
• 6:08
  challenging times.
• 6:10
  I do believe we were blessed with an opportunity that she came early because we were able to be there with her before all the restrictions and um distancing kind of got put in
• 6:25
  place.
• 6:25
  And then when we got her home, we got to be with her for a whole year because we were working from home pretty much.
• 6:34
  Yeah.
• 6:34
  wasn't that interaction of going out, you stayed home with the family.
• 6:37
  I mean, there's some families that still continued on as normal, but um we followed pretty close to what was being asked.
• 6:45
  And that allowed us to get really close to her at a very young age and have that time together.
• 6:57
  Yeah, and I think you're right.
• 6:58
  You know, I was also blessed with Emily in 2019 before the pandemic, but it makes it stops.
• 7:04
  It makes you think about what would have happened had this happened just eight months later, right?
• 7:10
  In your case, just two months later, what would that have looked like?
• 7:13
  So.
• 7:14
  Yeah, and you know, I know some friends of mine that had children during that time frame and you know, those NICUs were closed off.
• 7:23
  It was one parent only in those areas.
• 7:26
  As it stood, oh they were kind of starting to ramp up how some of those visitation things would look like.
• 7:34
  My mother-in-law and family did not see Raelynn until she was actually out of the hospital because only Erin and I were allowed to see her.
• 7:43
  those special moments that the family come and visits um to see that newborn baby wasn't there.
• 7:51
  It wasn't allowed.
• 7:53
  And so that was a little challenging because it was an exciting moment for us.
• 7:57
  uh But we did navigate through it and we had lots of prayers and decisions because there's testings and things involved.
• 8:09
  And uh my wife was in the
• 8:12
  hospital a month before our daughter was was born, trying to just prolong the time she would be coming into the world to give her as much time in the womb for developmental
• 8:22
  processes.
• 8:23
  And they do testing and all sorts of things along the way.
• 8:28
  And there were several different steps along that path that we had to make decisions.
• 8:34
  depending on the decision we made could determine the type of outcome that would have happened as a result of that.
• 8:40
  But fortunately for us,
• 8:42
  our prayers were answered and we really guided to the best possible scenario and outcome we could ever ask for.
• 8:51
  I mean, when our daughter was born, she was half a percentile of the average kids in her age group in that timeframe.
• 8:59
  And now she's excelling in the higher percentiles of the same kids in her age group.
• 9:07
  So it's really a miracle of how fast things have moved along.
• 9:13
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:13
  You know, I've had the pleasure of meeting her and yeah, she's just like every other six year old girl, right?
• 9:20
  So, um, and thankfully the same with my daughter.
• 9:23
  So that's clearly God was there for us and doing stuff for us, right?
• 9:29
  Yeah, I love it.
• 9:30
  So how have you taken that faith and grown that faith since those times?
• 9:35
  I know you had mentioned the conference you attend.
• 9:37
  Yeah, so really getting leaning in heavier and how I can grow individually, but also how I can help disciple other men to find or other individuals to find their way to faith.
• 9:53
  And no regrets is one of those things that Kool-E-Tech, uh we sponsor a certain number of men to come, meaning we buy tickets for the event and we bring them in together.
• 10:05
  So last year we had 75 men.
• 10:07
  We brought this year, we did 100.
• 10:10
  We had actually 110 guys come together.
• 10:12
  And then we go to a conference that has over 3000 men in attendance.
• 10:18
  And it's right down in Elmbrook Church down by Brookfield, Wisconsin there.
• 10:26
  And really great conference.
• 10:29
  That's a half day conference, a lot of action packed scenarios.
• 10:33
  uh They have remote sites across the nation.
• 10:36
  think over 140 remote sites that uh hold this conference live from those remote sites.
• 10:43
  And then uh I think there's over 15 countries across the world that participated in that conference that day.
• 10:51
  So they're making an impact in a huge way.
• 10:54
  We love the in-person live uh experience and the time we get with those guys.
• 11:00
  while we're there and the night before all the camaraderie and the driving down.
• 11:05
  It's it's really a unique experience.
• 11:07
  And what you realize is you're not the only one who's walking in the path you've walked.
• 11:13
  Like, and as you've kind of alluded already, as you start talking about people and their faith and where they're at or, where they're coming into faith, we have a lot more in a
• 11:26
  like as a society than people let on and
• 11:29
  And I don't know if it's societal norms to bury that, if it's social media pressures of that stuff getting out that could be used in a negative connotation against people that
• 11:43
  brings on this fear or concern to talk about it.
• 11:47
  But those testimonies are what could change the trajectory of somebody's life in a way you have no idea.
• 11:57
  and how I could play.
• 12:00
  And one of my good friends who was coming into faith was got home from that conference.
• 12:09
  And this is a little testimony of the experience.
• 12:13
  And he was talking with his son.
• 12:15
  And he asked his son if he was interested in going back to church, something they had done that their family had got away from it.
• 12:21
  And he goes, yeah, I love church.
• 12:23
  I love God.
• 12:24
  And he goes, really?
• 12:26
  He goes, yeah, and I pray every night.
• 12:28
  And he goes, you do, buddy?
• 12:29
  He goes, yeah, I prayed for my Nana and my Papa and for them to get better when they were sick.
• 12:36
  And my prayers got answered and they got better.
• 12:40
  He never lets me down.
• 12:44
  That's awesome.
• 12:47
  yeah, very powerful stuff.
• 12:50
  And that's a kid like that, that the father had no idea that the son was praying at night, believed in the good Lord and that the good Lord has been there by his side the entire
• 13:02
  time.
• 13:04
  Yeah, that's amazing.
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  And I think it's a testament to not only us taking our children to church, but even when we get away, they've already got that foundation.
• 13:15
  They've already got that relationship started.
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  And at some point in their lives, and what I've noticed is that everyone has to make a choice.
• 13:22
  Do you stay or do you go?
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  And if you leave, do you come back?
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  Right.
• 13:27
  I've talked to so many people through this podcast and just in my everyday life now, I've talked to so many people because I think you're right, Aaron.
• 13:34
  At some point it was the expectation that you don't talk about religion.
• 13:40
  You talk about it at church when you're around like minded people, but you don't talk about it elsewhere.
• 13:46
  But that's changing.
• 13:48
  And you and I are part of that change, right?
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  The whole reason behind the podcast is to help people learn about God.
• 13:56
  Right.
• 13:56
  And so we're doing that by sharing our stories and our testimonies and everybody that I'm interviewing.
• 14:01
  But the more I seem to talk about it in my everyday life,
• 14:04
  the more I find out my friends are also like-hearted and like-minded with their faith.
• 14:10
  And the more I see it around me over and over again.
• 14:14
  I think that just, I think somewhere along the way the lines got blurred and then they became split.
• 14:22
  And it's our job as disciples of Christ to bring it back together.
• 14:28
  Well, I really believe, Michelle, that in, I think, more ways than one, and I've talked about this with a number of adults, and I think, you know, that's the demons in the
• 14:42
  darkness in the world, God, Satan, whatever you want to do, working against us to try to quiet us, to create isolation.
• 14:53
  And there's number of references within the Bible that
• 14:58
  that tell us isolation is, it's very, like it's bad for us.
• 15:04
  We're not meant to be isolated.
• 15:05
  We're made to be united as a community.
• 15:08
  And I just, I know that there's circumstances like case in point, even for this men's conference, there's a gentleman who I've invited year after year.
• 15:17
  And every year he was a non-believer and every year he's turned me down.
• 15:24
  Well, and this year is like,
• 15:26
  invite him again that he's always trying to turn me down and I'm like and something you know whether it's the Lord, Holy Spirit, you call it whatever you call it it's like you
• 15:37
  need to invite him I'm like all right so I go in and talk to him and I'm like hey we got this conference coming up and he's like I can't go because I do have an event planned this
• 15:48
  time but I gotta tell you that I really appreciate you inviting me this year
• 15:52
  and that I've actually started praying recently because I've had a number of coincidences happen in my life that just can't be explained any other way.
• 16:03
  And it's like, holy cow, that's wild.
• 16:09
  Yeah, that's awesome.
• 16:12
  So I'm assuming you're gonna ask him next year?
• 16:14
  Did you give him the dates already?
• 16:16
  Get him on the calendar?
• 16:17
  yeah.
• 16:18
  Yeah.
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  And I'll put it out there for any men listening.
• 16:20
  If, if you're interested in going to a men's conference, that's the first Friday and Saturday in February.
• 16:26
  If you're, you want to go and be a part of the live event or females, if you're listening, you have a man in your life that you think could benefit, um, have get, get, get my
• 16:38
  contact info through Michelle, or maybe they show up a spot in the podcast, wherever this is put to put my contact info.
• 16:44
  um Anybody's invited who's there will have 150 to 200 tickets we're going to get this next year for the next season.
• 16:52
  I want to bring as many people to the table that want to be there.
• 16:55
  And uh I'm happy to guide those who can't or want to do a remote session and how that goes about.
• 17:01
  You know, it's very important to bring people together in more ways than one.
• 17:06
  So.
• 17:08
  Well, it's a very generous offer.
• 17:09
  Thank you, Erin.
• 17:09
  I'll definitely make sure we get that in the show notes and on the Facebook page for why I believe.
• 17:14
  So we'll have it there so people can find it.
• 17:16
  Absolutely.
• 17:19
  So you mentioned earlier, you're doing a daily devotional.
• 17:21
  And so how are you working in that to your insanely busy life?
• 17:26
  Yeah, you know, it's, it's, sometimes it's the first thing I do in the morning when I wake up.
• 17:34
  If I got a little time, I'm waiting on something.
• 17:36
  I take a couple minutes to do a piece or part of it.
• 17:39
  And sometimes I'm finished in the afternoon.
• 17:42
  He might be sitting before you get to that appointment.
• 17:45
  You got a little extra time.
• 17:47
  You know, I use every extra moment I can to complete those things.
• 17:51
  If I'm sitting somewhere, uh, idle, I got time.
• 17:55
  can.
• 17:56
  be digging in and looking into that.
• 17:58
  And so that's what I'm doing.
• 18:00
  And it's working for me.
• 18:02
  Do I get every day perfect?
• 18:04
  No, I think I have a couple days I got to play a little catch up on here because I got at a busy weekend and I didn't didn't get it done.
• 18:13
  But I'll have those caught up by the end of tonight and done.
• 18:17
  So uh you know, there's there's so many ways if you don't if you don't have an app, you can get on newsletters for
• 18:26
  daily devotionals.
• 18:28
  There's so many ways to get to start.
• 18:31
  sometimes it's only reading a couple sentences.
• 18:34
  Like it doesn't have to be any super sophisticated.
• 18:39
  There's podcasts like Michelle's here.
• 18:42
  There's audio books you can listen to.
• 18:45
  uh There's radio stations that are spiritually guided, whether it's K Love or locally WWIBE.
• 18:53
  And there's some really great content on those things to get somebody who's just interested if they just don't, they aren't picked on a church they want to go to, but you
• 19:01
  want to get interested and hear some content.
• 19:04
  There's some great stuff that comes through those areas to help you get going.
• 19:10
  And I highly encourage that I stopped listening to basically all other radio stations.
• 19:15
  listened strictly to WWI be your K love and yeah.
• 19:20
  m
• 19:22
  It's just most of it's something I decided I needed to do.
• 19:25
  My daughter actually loves listening to those channels.
• 19:29
  she sings all the little infomercials between them and she knows like the brothers cast jingle that's coming up on WWI B like, so yeah, you just, you just, and it works in her.
• 19:41
  I see it working in her.
• 19:42
  And she talks about how she's prayed for her grandparents when they've become ill, even the non-believing grandparents that are out there.
• 19:50
  Uh,
• 19:51
  because we have a couple of those and, you know, we're working on them.
• 19:56
  When we go to family gatherings, she's doing grace at the table, we're doing grace at the table, even at their house.
• 20:01
  And she's like, hey, why aren't you uh saying grace, you know?
• 20:08
  Keep working on it.
• 20:09
  Well, I think that's so great.
• 20:11
  Even if they are non-believers or not practicing Christians, right, that they're allowing that space for your family to do that at their table.
• 20:19
  Right.
• 20:20
  And so they're giving you that grace and space.
• 20:21
  And I think that's just amazing because there are times where you walk into a house and you know that maybe it's not welcome there and you just kind of shut it down just to not
• 20:29
  be uncomfortable.
• 20:31
  And somewhere along the line, we have to start getting uncomfortable to have that growth.
• 20:37
  not only in others, but in ourselves.
• 20:41
  Yeah, I love it.
• 20:42
  We've been doing grace at every meal since our daughter was in our, been in our lives.
• 20:46
  And that's something that got away from us as adults.
• 20:51
  And, and, it's required every meal.
• 20:55
  Our daughter will remind us if we don't do it, we do it when we're in public.
• 20:59
  We do it when we're at home.
• 21:00
  We do it when we're at somebody's house.
• 21:02
  Um, every night we read the Bible to her and I, our kid Bible to my daughter every night.
• 21:08
  We do prayers every night.
• 21:11
  We do the Lord's Prayer every night together, her and I, and she knows the Lord's Prayer at six years old.
• 21:18
  She's got it down.
• 21:19
  We'll be working on other things now.
• 21:22
  But when you ask her, know, who outside your family loves you, she knows Jesus loves her at six years old.
• 21:30
  That's a pretty awesome thing.
• 21:35
  Yeah.
• 21:36
  So what would you say is the biggest impact that God has had on your life?
• 21:40
  Like was there a God moment where he saved you?
• 21:43
  Some people call them maybe a God wink, but what has been the biggest impact so far?
• 21:48
  I mean, I we talked about your daughter being in the NICU and both Aaron and Braylon surviving that pregnancy, right?
• 21:54
  That's obviously a big one.
• 21:57
  Is there something outside of that?
• 21:59
  Yeah, I would say in my early 20s, I was pretty heavy into partying and I would work and party.
• 22:07
  That was pretty much my life.
• 22:10
  I was drinking probably till I was blacking out.
• 22:12
  Probably I was drinking till I would black out and um completely just wild.
• 22:20
  um And I saw a train wreck about to happen.
• 22:27
  And I had to make some changes and those changes didn't happen overnight.
• 22:32
  Over a decade later, it took me to finally like, feel like I have a pretty solid foundation underneath my life.
• 22:41
  I went through a divorce myself.
• 22:43
  uh Didn't have ah love languages built into that relationship.
• 22:51
  Wasn't attending church.
• 22:57
  all the values that you really need to do you can't you can't be happy with god
• 23:03
  Yeah.
• 23:05
  And uh you can't move forward without Him.
• 23:09
  um You can try, you can try your own way to get to happiness.
• 23:14
  But it says multiple place in the Bible, you never find true happiness without believing in the Lord.
• 23:22
  And it's so true.
• 23:25
  You gotta do it.
• 23:27
  And it's not an easy battle.
• 23:29
  It's not an easy fight.
• 23:31
  You're gonna get tested.
• 23:34
  over and over again and you're gonna ask why and you're not gonna get the answer you're looking for and People are gonna come and go in your life people are gonna pass away
• 23:44
  things are gonna happen and One of the biggest things that stood out to me at this last conference was is When you ask what your favorite things are we try to pair God with our
• 23:57
  favorite things and the thing is is He's not a part of our favorite things
• 24:02
  Our favorite things are underneath him.
• 24:07
  Yeah.
• 24:09
  He doesn't, he has such a bigger agenda than to be a part of our favorite things.
• 24:15
  We're underneath his umbrella.
• 24:18
  He's not a part of our little inner circle.
• 24:21
  He's working on all of us in multiple ways.
• 24:25
  And there's such a bigger scale of things going on there that people have such a hard time to understand.
• 24:32
  And he's working in us and through us at every given moment.
• 24:35
  We may not have the answers we're looking for today.
• 24:38
  but you got to keep going and grinding and following the word and trying to implement how you can be a little bit better the next day, how you can keep working your fields and
• 24:52
  making your soil more fertile and being able to plant seeds, you know, getting into some of those parables and things like that.
• 25:02
  I just encourage somebody to start somewhere.
• 25:05
  Like if you're not doing anything today,
• 25:09
  start doing something tomorrow.
• 25:10
  Maybe it's just starting off a daily prayer.
• 25:13
  Maybe it's a nightly prayer.
• 25:14
  Maybe it's saying grace.
• 25:16
  Maybe you're getting into a devotional.
• 25:19
  Go to a church.
• 25:21
  I don't know, listen to this podcast.
• 25:25
  You gotta start somewhere and go from there.
• 25:31
  not everybody's comfortable walking into a church, not knowing if that's the right space for them or the right denomination for them.
• 25:39
  Right.
• 25:40
  And so on this podcast, you're going to see I'll be interviewing people of all different faiths, uh whether that's Christian or not Christian.
• 25:48
  And that's just because there's so many options out there.
• 25:51
  Obviously, I believe in the Holy Trinity and the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 25:58
  But this podcast isn't about me.
• 25:59
  This whole podcast is about bringing people closer to God.
• 26:03
  What that looks like, right?
• 26:04
  And so I really appreciate you being here.
• 26:07
  I really appreciate you sharing your story.
• 26:09
  Is there any thing that I didn't ask you that you just love to share with the people that are listening today?
• 26:15
  I'll tell you if you see me in the community, hear you, you find yourself in struggle, you don't know what to do, you don't know where to go.
• 26:25
  My door is open, I'm sure just like Michelle's is.
• 26:28
  uh We'll meet you where we are.
• 26:32
  I know Michelle will, because that's the kind of person she is, and it's the kind of person I am.
• 26:37
  And you're not alone.
• 26:41
  There's so many resources, use them.
• 26:44
  Yes.
• 26:46
  Amen to that.
• 26:46
  All right, Aaron, I'm to put you on the spot real quick.
• 26:51
  So forgive me.
• 26:54
  What is your favorite Bible verse or what are the what is the Bible verse that you're leaning into for 2026?
• 27:01
  Bible verse, huh?
• 27:02
  I normally keep these pretty queued up here, so give me one second here.
• 27:07
  I will get you a favorite Bible verse here.
• 27:14
  There we go.
• 27:14
  All right.
• 27:17
  And then this is something I started doing and I encourage you all ah listening.
• 27:22
  If you're not doing this, a place you keep your Bible verses handy for somebody who does this.
• 27:27
  So let's go into Philippians 4, 6 through 7.
• 27:32
  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer or petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God and
• 27:43
  The peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
• 27:53
  Beautiful.
• 27:55
  I don't think there's a better way to end that.
• 27:57
  So thank you so much, Aaron, for being on the podcast today.
• 27:59
  I truly appreciate you, your friendship and your testimony today.
• 28:03
  And I will make sure I get that information about the conference and the show notes.
• 28:08
  Thank you so much for having me, Michelle, and God bless everybody and look forward to hearing this when it goes live.
• 28:15
  Yes, have a blessed day.