Latest / Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten / You’re Not Tired… You’re Living Below Your Calling | JD Tremblay On Faithful Fitness

Transcript

You’re Not Tired… You’re Living Below Your Calling | JD Tremblay On Faithful Fitness · Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, faithful, Welcome to the Faithful Fitness Podcast. In a moment,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: my dad coach Alex Van Houghton will help you honor
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: God by making the most out of the body God's
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: given you. Today you can expect truth from the Bible,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: tools from science, and guidance for everyday life. So listen closing,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: get ready, let's get one percent better today.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: What's a faithful coach? Alex?
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Here, grace and peace to you. Some people think they're tired,
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: but they're not. They're just living below what God called
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: them to. And there's a difference because real exhaustion comes
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: from obedience, from pouring yourself out, from walking the path
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: that God gave you, even when it costs you everything.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Most people never get there, though, not because they can't,
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: but because they won't. This conversation with JD is going
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: to confront that this is a man who sold everything,
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: who put himself into positions where failure wasn't just uncomfortable,
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: it was catastrophic. And he kept going anyway, not because
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: he's superhuman, but because he decided something that most people won't.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: If God said it, then I'm doing it, no matter what.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: No backup planned, no negotiation, no exit strategy. In scripture,
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: Jesus says, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves,
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: take up their cross daily, and follow me. That's not
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: a metaphor. It's a call to die to the version
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: of yourself that keeps choosing comfort over calling. And here's
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: the tension. Most people say they want purpose, but they
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: avoid the pain required to walk in it. They say
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: they want more from life, but they keep choosing the
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: easier path. So as you listen to this episode, I
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: want you to wrestle with this. Where am I choosing
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: comfort when God is clearly calling me higher? Because that's
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: the gap right there. That's not fatigue, that's disobedience. And
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: this is hitting you if you're realizing you don't just
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: need motivation, that you need structure, You need discipline in
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: a place to actually live this out. That's why the
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: Faithful Fitness app exists. Right now is an awesome time
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: to join because we're just about to start our summer
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: shred and you can save fifty dollars on an annual
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: premium membership when you join us in the show notes below.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Come learn how to steward your body well in your
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: Faithful Fitness journey by teaching it to burn fat well
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: as a fuel source. Again, the links in the show
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: notes We're not perfect, but we are faithful, all right.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Without further ado, let's get to this challenging conversation with
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: JD Trimbley.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: What's up, guys.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: This is coach Alex ben how on the Faithful Fitness Podcast.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: I'm super excited to be hanging out with j D today.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: We work really hard here to help you make the
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: most out of the body God's given you. And I'm
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: very stoked because we have a deeply, deeply committed, disciplined, gritty,
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: endurable christ follower hanging out with us today and we
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: got some cool things to talk about.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: JD, how are you doing today, brother.
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: I'm doing fantastic. Thank you for having me on the show.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: Addicts, I'm really excited about this. I hope it doesn't
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: feel like an endurance event to our people, but we're
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: going to talk about endurance today. It's necessary. But I dude,
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: I want to dive right in because because you have
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: such an interesting background, You've done such cool things. God
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: has carried you through some very intense trials. But I
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: want to dive right into the physical and I want
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: to say, you know, in your military career and in
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: your endurance world, when was the first time you understood
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: that either yourself or other people were selling themselves short
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: about what their capacity actually is.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: That's a good question, Alex. It was in two thousand
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: and thirteen. Yeah, I was going I was going through
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: divorce and I was somewhat pushed into it like a
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: guy just told me, you know how, you know the bike,
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: you know to swim, you know to run, just go
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: do it. And I always put my pride first. I
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: was a Christian, always a believer. On my dog DAGs
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: they're hanging on the wall now, but it was always
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: written Christian, but based on the human performance and their limits.
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: And it's not until I went through this breakup essentially
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: of a relationship that I discovered, Okay, we can do
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: more than we can achieve, and if I can do it,
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: then that's when I realize, Okay, now everybody can do it, right.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: And what did you do?
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: Not everybody listening knows what a trathlon is, and not
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: everybody listening knows what you have actually done through triathlon.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: So can you tell me a bit about what you
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: did that brought you to those limits and yourself and
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: then where that carried you.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure. Two thousand and nine, God told me
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: you're going to do a triathlon, and I immediately picked
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: up my phone. I looked at the longest triathlon and
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: the most difficult one that I could do, and it
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: was called an ultraman. An ultraman consist of twenty ks
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: of swimming, biking, and running. In terms of miles, that's
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: roughly three hundred give or a cake. It's like double
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: an iron man about that, so to eighty about that
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: to eighty three hundred miles of swimming, biking and running.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: And I thought, well, this is a lotch I'm going
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: to train. So I started biking and I fell down.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: And when I fell down, because you have to clip
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: on these pedals and I fell down, I thought everybody
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: was watching me. And I just decided this is not
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: for me. I was prideful, and although I was praying
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: reading my Bible, I was faithful. I thought I was
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: at my maximum. I thought God had used me to
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: its full capacity already. But God had told me, no,
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: you're going to do an ultraman. But my pride kicked in.
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: I didn't even touch that bike. For five years. And
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: when I went through the divorce my and now ex wife,
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: she left me with she left me with a bicycle,
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: with that bicycle, that very bicycle, and I had no money. Okay,
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: And for a lot of the listeners, they probably went
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: through this. They know I don't need to go through
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: all the details, but they know that sometimes some people
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: get wipe out. And I I, yeah, I had, I
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: had a bicycle. So she left me with a bicycle
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: and my military uniform. Yeah, and I was forced to
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: take that bicycle. Now, so to go to work, I
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: could not even afford a bus pass or like a
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: bus ticket. I had no money. So I said that, well,
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: I'm going to buy to work, started cycling, went into
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: an hour away and started cycling so that nobody looks
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: at me, and finally I realized, well, it's easy to
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: clip on and clip off. One guy saw me, he said,
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: how about you do a triathlon. You know how to swim,
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: you know the bike, you know how to run, just
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: do it. And I said, well, all right, what's the
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: worst thing that can happen? I finished top ten And
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: for those like you said, not, those that don't know
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: what a triathlon is, swimming biking and running. So that's
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: the three sports into one and then you have different distances.
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: The distances are from sprint Olympic there, there's there's trathlone
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: in the Olympics, there's a half ironman and iron Man,
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: and then you get to the ultraman. The ultramen is
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: double the distance of an iron man, give or take
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: over the span of three days with a cutoff of
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: twelve hours. Then after a few I got injured and
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: my it was minor injury, just aches and pains, and
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: I just stopped triathlon all together. I did two strant
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: one Olympic. I finish top ten in my first one
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: and I finished fifth or six in Canada uh In.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: For a sprint, our sprint is about give or take
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: about an hour of swimming, biking and running and all
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  Speaker 4: this was no not much of a training. So again
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: it's natural for me, God is showing me. And now
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: I know God was showing me. This is natural for
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: you and my Well, now now he's he's passed away,
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: that guy that helped me, but he was always jealous
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: of me and telling his wife. You realize for JD
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: it's natural, like he just hops on a bike and
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: swims and bikes and run like this guy. He has something,
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: it's natural for him. I wish I had the And
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: that's the guy I who did so many ultras. So
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  Speaker 4: I moved away from triathlon for another five years, again
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: not touching it. God was telling me, no, you're gonna
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: be making money out of this. And I started looking
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: online like most people would and saying, God, look clearly
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  Speaker 4: you are wrong. Okay, I pray, I'm faithful. I want
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: to follow, but clearly you're wrong. Look at everything online.
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: It doesn't show that I can make any money. And
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: so I went into engineering. I graduated as integrated engineer,
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: as an integrated engineer, which is all field of engineering
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: into one, and I specialized in biomedical. Then what I
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: did was I I was going through a tough time
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: in university, still going there was a lot going on,
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: and I decided to do an iron Man with no training,
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: just nothing, out of the blue. I was highly depressive.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: I just said, Okay, I don't recommend to do anyone
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  Speaker 4: else to do that. Please train for it.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but can I pause you right there, because that's
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: a special type of crazy. You're like, I'm really depressed.
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  Speaker 3: I got all this stuff going on. You know what
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  Speaker 3: I'm gonna do.
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  Speaker 2: So some people are like, hey, this life is hard.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: I would like to exit this life, but you're a
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Christ follower. What are you What are you gonna do?
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna do an iron Man. I'll probably make it.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: But if I don't, oh wow, well the way exactly,
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: you know, I like the way you're putting it because
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: that's exactly what was in my head.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: You're right now. Like I was at the end of
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: my rope. Essentially, I was depressive, and I said, okay,
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: well God, you're going to carry me through or if
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: I don't make it to me, I'm just going to
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: meet you. So and I saw online, well apparently no money.
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: But I saw online that one guy he died out
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: of doing an iron Man. So I said, well, there's
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: my way out. So I said, well the military did
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: not take me out that I said, well there you go.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: Now now it's going to be endurance events. So I
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: started doing an iron Man and to go even deeper.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: Not many people know that I I finished it. I
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: did not even know how to fuel. I was grabbing
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: anything I could find anything. I did not know how
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: to fuel. I did not know any I had a
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: bike that was four sized too big. It was a
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: size sixty I ride of fifty four. I could have
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: injured myself so much into that bike. Right, one hundred
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: and twelve miles of cycling with a with a bike
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: that is way too big for me. And when I
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: got out, my iron immune system crashed. I was cold,
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: like shivering. I went in the top. I had a
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: tent on top of my truck and I was camping.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: I got in my truck and I said, okay, God
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: take my life please, like this is this is the end. Yeah,
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: I thought, I thought this was going to be the end.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: And I remember being really sad to open my eyes
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: on the next day. Are you kidding? I have to
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: go another day?
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Another one? Come on, man?
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: I just I did my best back there and then.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: And then I realized, okay, well sure, hoping my truck
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: went away, I did another one two months after, and
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: then a coach. I told a coach, I said, well
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: I did two iron Man. I did not even train.
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: I just did them. It looks at me, he said, Oh,
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: I trained Olympians like they don't even do that, Like
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: they like nobody just hawks into an iron man and
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: just says Okay, well I'm gonna do this and and
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: completes it, but a bite that is too big. You're
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: I'm hard.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry to interrupt, but I have to say the
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: same thing because like this is what I'm hearing. You're
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: saying this, But I've I've worked with people for over
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: twenty years in fitness, and the iron Man is no joke.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: It is no joke.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: And I know for you jumping in, you're like, well,
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: I mean maybe i'll die, maybe I want I'll be
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: all right, like whatever, And then you you complete it.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: And you're not dead.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: That's a big deal, and then you just jump into
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: another one two months later. Like the average person who
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: does an Iron Man and actually like trains for it
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: and does that sort of thing, it's like life altering
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: and they will spend months recovering like it's it's a
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: it's a thing for them. And it sounds to me
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: like there was something spiritual happening inside you where God
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: was showing you where your true limits were, and those
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: limits were not the same limits that the average person's
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: wrestling with with regard to endurance. It sounds like he
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: was taking you on a journey of self discovery and
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: you didn't even know it was that special yet.
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: I had no idea. I had no idea, no nobody
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: to turn to. Most of the churches would say pray
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: about it or some other garbage like because it is garbage,
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: just telling people I will pray, I will pray for you.
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: That's garbage. Okay, well will you pray for me? I
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: love the podcast because you said I will pray for
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: you and them you prayed. So many people use it
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: as garbage because it's it's prayer. It's with the God
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: of the universe. It's with a guy that is outside
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: of space, time and matter, and you want to speak
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: to him. It needs to be a deep connection, not
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: just some some prayer that you say, oh, I'm gonna
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: pray for you, as just a saying, well, that's what
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: I was getting from the people. It was saying, oh,
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna pray for you. And I don't know if
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: they did or not, or I'm thinking that most people
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: they don't even follow through or no. Here on the
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: podcast bad right away, we start with this right it's
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: it's it's a deep connection. So now I understand it
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: a bit more because it's it's based on being serious
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: with God. So many churches, so many people, they're just
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: not serious about it. And I was that guy. I
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: was that guy who was again, was I praying? Yes?
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: Was it the right type of prayer? How? Probably not? Why?
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: Because I was asking at a church and I was
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: preaching at a few months ago, So anybody know what
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: a Christian is and the majority of people would not
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: even know what a Christian is. And I said, well,
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: a Christian has accepted Jesus Christ. Because you have that part.
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: A lot of people would know that. And a lot
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: of people raise their hand and said that. And then
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: there's the other parts where you have the obedience part.
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: So when God told me in two thousand and nine,
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: go do triathlon, no matter if you're injured, no matter
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: if that That's what God told me to do. But
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: there's no money, God, God told you, but God, it
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: stop with the butts. Just do That's it. Just do it.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: So I did. Those two iron men ended up signing
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: up for an ultraman, and I did the ultraman. I
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: was scared, and I completed it no injuries, and I
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: finished the ultraman. I finished. Right after I finished my
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: first ultraman, I did a sprint, an Olympic, a half
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: iron man, an iron Man, and an ultraman, so all
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: distances within the span of three months, and I qualitied
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: what they were all. In Mexico, I finished seven in
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: a half iron man, and everybody was looking at me, going,
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: you're You're having races like every weekend, like how are
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: you even able to recover? And and and I said, well,
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: this is this is just me, like it's just natural.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: So my my coach was Jeff He he was coaching
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: me for all these other iron men that I was
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: signed up to in twenty twenty two, and they were
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: pushing me to do well. I was pushing myself to
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: do more iron Man, and he was pushing me physically.
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: And then a guy got injured at a race called
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: the Epic Deca. Now the Epic Deca is was built
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: by a brand called Epic five. So they do five
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: iron men in five days on five different Hawaiian islands.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: But for their ten year anniversary, hence the EA, they
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: built the event around the Epic five and they're building
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: the Epic Deca. The Epic Deca is ten iron men
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: in ten days on six different Hawaiian so that gives you.
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: If it's one one hundred and forty point six miles
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: of swimming, biking, and running, it gives you one thousand,
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: four hundred and six miles of swimming, biking, and running
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: on all the islands. So I swam, bike, and ran
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: all of Hawaii. So that's my That was the big event.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: But God took me to a whole new level of
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: faith with this because now since money was an issue
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: and I said, well, God, there's no money into this.
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: When I was in university, I purchased a house. The
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: house gained some like it, it increased in value at
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: the appropriate time. I prayed about it. I'm not saying
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: to do this, okay. I had to pray about it.
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: There's a process to know if it's God. And now
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: I know more about it. I've done lots of research
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: and now I'm okay. But I did end up selling
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: my house. The race cost me about one hundred thousand dollars.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: I went to Hawaii. So in a way, I'm happy
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: that I got divorced because I don't know how I
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: would have. So we're going to Hawaii. That's the good news.
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: The bad news is we don't have a house.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: We don't have a house anymore. See how it works out.
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: That God is going to lead us. Yeah, now, now
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: looking back, it was I'm not regretting it. I followed God,
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: I followed what he said, and I was never Now
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: I like I said, I I swam back and ran
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: the entire country of Israel in twenty twenty three, right
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: before the October. There's so many races that I've done
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: around around the world that now we're doing fundraising for children,
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: We're helping children, and God has taken this to a
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: whole new level of faith that I could not even
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: I could only dream of doing. So. To me, it's
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: a blessing. But it had to come from pain and
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: suffering and really from stewardship, and I had to be
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: that steward that God was calling me.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well said man.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: Well said I I have so much unpacked there, but
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: I want to drill down on just one thing for
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: a moment as you're speaking.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I'm obsessed with this idea of grit.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: In fact, in the devotional that I wrote and published,
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: I have four disciplines that I'm tying fitness and faith together.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: And I don't believe I'm doing this. I'm just putting
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: a word to this.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: This is God. This is megaphone to God's word.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: But grit is an especially interesting one because grit isn't
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: just being stubborn.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: Grit isn't just endurance. Grit.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: Grit is this thing that God put inside of us
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: that when we follow Christ, who's the grittiest guy I know?
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: By the way, when we follow Christ, he leads us
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: through a path that generally does have some sort of
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: pain and suffering involved in it. And the story that
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: comes to mind is Jacob. Are you familiar with Jacob
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: and Esau and Jacob's story to become Israel and have
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: twelve children and start the tribe, right, Jacob spends his
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: whole life seeking God's blessing. He spends his whole life
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: like working to see his life blessed and to take
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: on that you know, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to take
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: on the blessing of that covenant. And there's this amazing, amazing,
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: very strange passage in Genesis. We're on his way to
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: make peace with his brother Esau. So he's been through
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: all kinds of stuff up until this point. On his
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: way to make peace with his brother, he meets with
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: an angelic figure. We don't know if this was God.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: We don't know if this was an archangel. We don't
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: know if this was Jesus himself.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: We don't know. It just says in Genesis this heavenly being.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: And they wrestle, which is just like, you know, I mean,
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: like who else does that? Everybody else sees an angel
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: and they're like, oh, don't be afraid, and you're like, oh, yes, sir.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: Jacob's like, come here, you and so he engages in
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: this battle with this heavenly being, and the heavenly being
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: apparently fights back, smites his hip, you know. But Jacob
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: won't let go. And that's the word picture. I won't
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: let go God. I'm not letting go to what until
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: you bless me? Like this is what I want, This
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: is the thing I just want to And what is
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: a blessing?
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Man?
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: It means it means I want to I want to
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: be close to you. I want to know you're with me.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: I want to know I'm doing the right thing in
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: my life.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: I want I want to know you so deeply that
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: nobody can argue about that with me, right and so
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: and so he has this wrestling with God and dislocates
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: his hip. It leaves a mark on his life. It's
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: painful and brutal. And then after that he's known not
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: as Jacob, the usurper, the one who takes the blessing.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: He's known as Israel, he who wrestles with God. And
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: to me, that is like, it's just a ridiculously gritty story.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: A man has to be willing to wrestle with God,
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: to hold on when everybody else would let go. And
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: that's a painful process. And in that God God not
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: only blesses us but also teaches us that that thing
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: I'm obsessed with grit.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: It sounds like you've been through a similar journey.
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: They're the best part of this, which might help a
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: lot of listeners right now, is that Jacob was known
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: not as a great man with lots of money. He
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: was known as a liar, a deceiver, the type of
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: man you don't want in your family, the type of
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: man that did not deserve a blessing from anyone at all.
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: He did not deserve anything, but yet he kept wanting
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: that blessing. He kept moving forward, and when he reached
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: a point where he had to fight with that angel,
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: he did not let go until up to a point
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: where the angel could have.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: Killed him like this, yeah yeah, right.
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: But he realized that he was willing to go to
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: that death to get a blessing. That blessing meant more
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: to him, which is essentially the moral of the story
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: between Esa and Jacob is that Isa was willing to
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: sacrifice it for just a bit of hunger and Jacob,
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: Jacob is willing to go all the way to death
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: to find it. So I would advise people to uh
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: seek God as much as possible in their life. And
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: that's why we put a little resource so for for
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: for for your listeners and for everyone. So if you
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: want to share the link with you after and what
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: we did is in it, there's a an acronym on
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: how people can really discover their way of being stewards
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: of that path that God has called them to be
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: in mm hmm, and the acronym is called well steward.
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: So if you take the whole thing and then you
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: just follow along, the s is surrendered to Christ. So
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: that and the reason why I'm going through it is
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: because people need to no exactly not just hear those
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: stories that a JD came out of this now the
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: business is well, we're growing how Grey Warrior Academy. If
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: you want to find a come and just talk to us.
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: If you hate us, come talk to us. If you don't,
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: if you love us, come talk to us. Anyway, we
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: work with the best and I love all my clients.
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: It's been an amazing journey and we've been giving back.
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: But now it's for all the people listening to this
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: and saying, well, how can I do this? Now? How
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: am I able to How am I about to do this?
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: So surrender to Christ is the most important hard that
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: I've seen, because faith is not something that I add
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: to my life like now, it's part of my life.
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: It's at the center of my life. Praying is part
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: of this. But I surrender my life to Christ. And
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: that's what I did with the Epic Deca, with the
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: Iron Man, I was I was ready to die to
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: achieve that level. So I like that you brought up
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: the story of Jacob.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: And well, I really think, I really think that's a
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: deep part of grit and and anybody that I've ever trained,
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: especially if they're in a really rough health spot, they
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: have to come to that question, am I willing to die?
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: And I know it sounds morbid, but that that's the
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: limit case for the human body.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: What's the worst that can happen? I guess I die, right.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: And And once you have that in your in your mind,
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: once you understand you know what I am.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: I am willing.
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: I am willing to do whatever God says with this body,
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: even if it leads to death. If if you can
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: come to that in your own heart and your own mind,
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: then then everything God asks is on the table.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: And once you.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: Got there, like you said, surrender to Christ. Once you're there,
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: like Lord, my life, my body, my mind, my energy,
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: my my heart, disease, my diabetes, my my triathlon, whatever
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: it is, it's yours and so and so I'm going
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: to do whatever you say, even if I don't make
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: it through this, even if even if it's it's not
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: it's not. I don't see the other side of it,
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm going to do what you say.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: That that is.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: I think that is a perrequisite to grit because until
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: you come to that in your mind, there's always a
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: way out in your head. Oh, if it gets too hard,
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: I'll stop, you know, if if I don't feel like it,
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: I'll be done.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: You know if if I can't, if if.
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: I don't like it, you know, whatever insert thing here,
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: you know, like if if that's if, if you have
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: a way out, mentally.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: Speaking, you won't. You won't do it. You can't do it.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: We're too fickle as human beings until we have decided Okay,
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: whatever you say, Lord, I'll do that thing.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: It sounds like you got it.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: And nobody is asking people to go sacrifice their children
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: on an altar on their own point. No, if you
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: look at the whole story that I talked about and
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: that we take Abram also, Abram had his faith has
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: to be built to get to that point. God did
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: not just say, okay, sacrifice that child, the promised child
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: like sacrifice it. He did not say that at the beginning.
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: What he said was, okay, you're gonna leave a very rich,
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: prominent family in your area. The dad left with him,
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: then you see, okay, I have to leave even the family.
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: So he had to be away from his family, away
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: from his culture, away like there's a build up to it.
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: There were some lies for him with Sarah, so again
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: now he had to trust God. So there is this
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: these components. That's why God called me to do a triathlon.
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: I knew I would do this race and these events.
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: I chose to go the opposite way, like a jonah
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: I would say, And eventually it led me. God recalibrated
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: me and said, no, you will surrender, but you will
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: be doing exactly what I'm telling you. And now every
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: see I had difficulty. I had difficulty spending one thousand dollars.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: That's what I had difficulty spending with. I had difficulty
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: spending one thousand dollars. And when I left the military,
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: I had no money. And then all of a sudden,
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: I'm looking at my bank accounts and I even asked God.
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: I said, God, I don't even have money to pay
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: for my school. I need ten thousand dollars. That's what
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: I needed. I started praying. All of a sudden, it seemed
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: like a like a movie or one of these pastor
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: that talk about things that happened that are Oh yeah,
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: someone knocked at my door and gave me a new car.
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: I thought, oh, this only happens in the movies. No,
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: the phone rings. It was this lady. She said, you know,
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: a couple of weeks ago, you filed some paperwork. We're
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: so sorry. We said no to you back then, But
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: now we made a mistake. We reviewed it. I never
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: reviewed these paperwork, but now suddenly I just did. And
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: you're gonna be given ten thousand dollars. We can afford
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: it to you. You'll have it by Tuesday or in
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: the next couple of days. So this happened, and that
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: was ten thousand dollars, and I was I was amazed
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: by ten thousand. Wow, thank you God. Oh yeah, blown away.
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: I mean ten thousand dollars a lot of money. And
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: I'm just talking finances here. And then I get to
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: a point where I sell my house and I spend
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: one hundred thousand dollars of this into a race for
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: two weeks that will give me no money, no fame,
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: there's nothing at all. You get this wooden metal that
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: I got in a box downstairs.
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: And the club, and the club of people who complete
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: something like the Epideca is very small.
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: It's not like it doesn't exist anymore.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: It's a huge party, you know, like, oh, thousands of
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: people are there, like yeah, d Like it's a very
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: small group of people who are like that was hard.
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, the majority of people don't even understand what
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: it takes to well, if you look at the statistics,
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: one percent of people do a marathon. That's one percent
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: of the population on Earth. And so because a lot
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: of people come back to a marathon, or a lot
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: of people are not even able to afford a marathon,
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: or or they're just scared. So you got one percent
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: of people that do a marathon. Now you do an
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: iron man, that's even less of a percent. And now
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: you're looking at well, the epig deca, there's only three
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: people in the entire world that did this. So to me,
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: I'm talking to people and they don't even understand what
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: it is to do a marathon. So now there it's
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: it's very hard to comprehend even for them. But to me, now,
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: I talk to people and I was talking to a
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: client today and he was talking to me about one
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: hundred mile rays and I wasn't phased. And he says,
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: you're the only person that I talked to that is
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: just not phased about one hundred miles race, right, yea, Yeah,
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: to me, it's said, it's just another You've.
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: Been there, done that. Are you gonna swim or is
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: it just running? Yeah?
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: Like that, I should have got that's great.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: Are you gonna swim or yeah, that's what else? Yeah,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: that's great.
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: Well and so so I think this is one of
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: the reasons I'm obsessed with grit. So so part of
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: my struggles I wrestle with a genetic disorder called eelers
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: dan Loos. I would love to be good at endurance events.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: My tendons and ligaments are way stretcher than they should be,
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: and so about the most I can do for me
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: is I did a death by five k, which is
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: you run five k's every two and a half hours
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: over a twenty four hour period, and it was it
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: was brutal, you know, like health wise, it's even brutal
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: to to go through that. That's one of those like
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: it might actually kill me.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: And for a guy who in his twenties was told
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: he would never run again, that's a big deal for me. Right,
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: But I want to speak to the listener who's like, Okay,
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: I'm hearing this guy talk about endurance and you know,
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: I can't even imagine running a triathlon, let alone an
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: epic deca.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: Right, I want you to.
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: Speak to their heart about what the difference between following
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: through and not following through is if God didn't design
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: your body to be an endurance athlete, because there are
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: some people you have some gifted genetics. This is a
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: gift for you, and obviously you've trained it. Obviously God's
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: making the most of it in you. Obviously you're stewarding that.
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: But other individuals might not have that strength. But I
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: do believe God placed in each of us the capacity
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: to overcome. Romans five says this, not only do we
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: do this, but we also glory and our sufferings. And
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: I'm reading this so I don't mess it up because
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, character, hope,
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: and that hope does not put us to shame because
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: God's love has been poured into our hearts through the
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: Holy Spirit who's been given to us.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: This is the Apostle Paul talking to the Roman Church.
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: So, given your journey to a place a lot of
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: people maybe won't go in their body, what's the difference
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: between following through and not following through when you get
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: to that place that you'd like to give up.
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: I did give up on a lot of things, and
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: sometimes I still do make mistakes where both opportunities, both
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: options are Christians. It would be like picking one race
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: over the other or going to last year we had
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: an opportunity. It was either I went to Mexico and
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: beat a world record and I'm already prepared, I'm trained,
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: I got the money we got and then God just says, okay,
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: you're going to Kenya. Of course you say, well, what
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: are you talking about? Kenya?
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: Uh? And then I ended up following through with Kenya
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: isn't the right call? And to me, I'm not regretting
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: it at all. It opened new doors, new opportunities. You're
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: going to see, You're going to have a closer relationship
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: with God if you follow through. If you don't, it
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: will in my case, it will only delay your full
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: potential outcome because you still have it in you. See,
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm about to turn forty. God is still
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: using me in multiple ways and endurance events, and I'm
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: still doing lots of endurance races. But it only delays
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: me because it only delayed me because I said in
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: two thousand and nine I'm too prideful, I'm not gonna
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: buy God has only moved it to five years after
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: and then he pushed me into a position where Okay,
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: now you're going to be doing triathlon. And I moved
• 39:29
  Speaker 4: away from it because I said, well, I'm going to
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: be an engineer, so I need to be more into
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: the books rather than to be working out. Until I
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: understood that no, both can be merging. I can also
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: be an engineer and I can also be an ultra
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: endurance athlete. And I would say I'm even in a
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: way better because not only is it natural for me
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: God has called me to do to do this, but
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: now I have frameworks and data points. Now I'm able
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: to provide it to people. And even at the center
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: here we use it. We use it on executives. They
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: come to our center and they train not just physically,
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: but also mentally and spiritually because we have now machines
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: that now I understand, and we can test everything from
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: biomarkers to how the brain operates. We have EEGs, we
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: have machines that test the organs, like the vibrations we have.
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: We have all sorts of tools that we can use.
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: And I think the way because I think, you see,
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: well we skipped a lot ahead. But if we look
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: at the acronym Steward, Okay, the A in Steward is alignment.
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: So it's alignment with your calling. And I think that's
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: huge for a lot of people because they think, oh,
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: I wanted to be I wanted to be a Navy seal,
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: or I wanted to be the president of a country,
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: or I wanted to be this type of person, and
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: then you end up being told by everybody when you're
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: a child, you can become anything you want. The world
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: is yours, But there is a calling for your life,
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: not everybody. Every pastor talks about the heroes of the faith, Moses,
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: the Jacob, they even talk about Samson and even David.
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: And who's a David here? Who was their Goliad? You
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: take an entire army, there was one David. There was
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: one David, Okay, But if you take that David was
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: defeating Goliath, then what is the Goliad in your life?
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: Maybe it is that you shouldn't be watching something on
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: your screen every night before bed. You have your wife
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: beside you, and you're watching something that you shouldn't that's
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: not your calling. What about injecting something in your system
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: that is poisonous. You shouldn't be doing this. You think
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: that God called you to be in that No, so
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: this is in contradiction with your alignment, with your with
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: your calling.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Mm hm.
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: So again it's now anyway, we skipped ahead with the
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: with the steward, but maybe I should go through through
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: the whole acronym if you if you allow.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: Me, yeah, yeah, go ahead.
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: What's the TEA stand for?
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: He is for train, So train the body in the
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: sense that the body is not separate from your faith.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: And what's the E stand for engineer?
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: Okay, so engineer your environment or you could say it's environment. Okay,
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: you must create that environment. Two have better habits. If
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: you hang out with guys, yeah it's what Oh sorry, Yeah,
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: if you hang out with people that are laughing at
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: certain things that are destructive to your life, you're not
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: going to be in an environment to essentially grow and
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: in your calling.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: Mm hmm. And what's the W.
• 43:30
  Speaker 4: Work, So work with discipline, have that discipline in your life.
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: Those standards must be real and definite for everybody. They
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: must know everything. A.
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: We already touched on it, which is are as resilience.
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: So once you build up that resilience through adversity, because
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: these adversities will come regardless if you think that you
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: have a unicorn world and nothing is happening. There will
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: be adversities that will come eventually, and that builds resilience,
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: and the D is for develop the next person. Because
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: I am not the same JD that I was ten
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: years ago, that I was five years ago. I am
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: a changed person. Just like well you talked about Jacob
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: becoming Israel, you become a person I would I would
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: have considered myself a Christian and told you all about
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: these stories in the Bible. But to say that I
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: was ready to preach in front of a church, to
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: say that I was going to another country to help
• 44:44
  Speaker 4: children and spend money and everything that we have is
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: just given to God, I would have said, no, I'm
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: not able to do that. My pride would have kicked in,
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: and now I'm able to say it's not out of
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: my own stre I have no idea how I know
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: it's on air, so my team is going to see this.
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: Most of the time, I don't even know what I'm doing.
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, right, right, Well, that's that's the thing. That's
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: the thing about following God day by day is you
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: you don't you don't have the overarching vision. You have
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: pieces of what you'd love to see God do in
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: the world and what you're what you're willing to let
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: Him do through you. But every day you're asking, Okay,
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: what's next, what's what's my step today?
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: And that's what Jesus told us.
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: He told us that on a day by day basis
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: seek you first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: and all these things will be added to you after.
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: He says, worry not for tomorrow. Today has plenty of
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: worries of its own. He says, sufficient, doneto the day
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: is evil thereof don't really worry about where we're going, like,
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: just to worry about this day.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: Worry about this day today. Yeah, Hey, that's that's fair man,
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: that's a fair thing.
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: And I think that's actually a very leader thing to
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: know and to say is like, hey, I love you guys.
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: I'm doing the best I can to make sure that
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: I follow God's.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: Lead on us.
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: I want you to know I always show up on
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: our commitments here. But if you asked me where we're
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: going to be in ten years, I couldn't tell you,
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: Like I couldn't have told you this ten years ago.
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: So yeah, like I still have a vision plan, a
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: vision board. I want to accomplish these things. We still
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: have a structure a plan. But even when we did
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: were we did our board meeting in December, the question arose.
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: The question arose even during the board meeting, and they said,
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: do you really think that this was from God? You
• 46:39
  Speaker 4: know the amount of money we spent on this and
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: this and this? And I said, yeah, got yeah, yeah,
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: it is, it is. And then I showed them those
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: signs that God had pushed through to prove us that
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: this was exactly how he was saying it. And everyone
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: was record, every every single person at the board meeting
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: was saying, wow, it's.
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: You.
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: You have to be acute to these signs. You have
• 47:13
  Speaker 4: you have to have lived it to have some form
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: of experience with them. And I I don't know if
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: testing God is a solid wording or improperly improper grammar.
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: It would be testing as in it says test the spirit, Okay,
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: so don't test God in a bad way. You're testing
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: the spirit to see does it really come from God
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: or does it come from a tear party? Or so
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: to me, we we tested the spirit. And that's that's
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: how I even before I sold my house, before I
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: sold my house, I placed those barriers in I ploys
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: those barriers to God. I prayed, and I said, God,
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: I don't have the money. I need sixty thousand dollars minimum.
• 48:12
  Speaker 4: At the very minimum, I need to fly four people
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: plus me, so five to Hawaii from different parts of
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: the world into Hawaii. All the flights, the food, the hotels,
• 48:24
  Speaker 4: the car rental and anything that they are so anything
• 48:28
  Speaker 4: they can possibly think that we need. Plus I need
• 48:32
  Speaker 4: to move my bicycle around, so that's an extra cost.
• 48:35
  Speaker 4: All my nutrition. There's a lot of cost. So I
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: need sixty grand and I need four people that are
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: fully knowledgeable about ultra and durance events, either the crude
• 48:48
  Speaker 4: or they did them. I asked my dad. My dad said, JD,
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: I don't fit that I can go with you, but
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: I don't fit that criteria that you have placed on
• 49:03
  Speaker 4: on God. You ask God for people that understand that
• 49:11
  Speaker 4: those endurance event. He says, I don't. So I can
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: go with you, and you have and even if you
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: had the money, but I can't just because you don't.
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: I don't fit in that. I asked other people, and
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: a lot of people imagine I'm calling people telling them,
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: can you come to Hawaii for two weeks. Everything is paid,
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: Everything is paid.
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: Wow, And.
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: God will just close those doors. And I would call friends,
• 49:42
  Speaker 4: I would call acquaintances, old friends. I turned out to
• 49:48
  Speaker 4: have four amazing people. Two of them were the crew chief.
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: They were head nurses as well. And it was and
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: it was during COVID period do by the way, Yeah,
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: so they even the hospitals are asking for nurses. And
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: I have two of those nurses with me crewing in
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: my car.
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 50:14
  Speaker 4: And and we were two teams, one on one off
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: and I would be the only one going for ten
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: days and one crew would be taking one day off
• 50:26
  Speaker 4: and the other crew was like on the field with
• 50:29
  Speaker 4: me and taking care of me. And God sold my
• 50:33
  Speaker 4: house at the right time with the right price. Even
• 50:36
  Speaker 4: my real estate agent called me two weeks after and
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: she said, JD, I don't know how you know about
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: the market or anything, but you sold your house at
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: peak and you would have lost a lot of money
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: if you sold just right now. And that's two weeks.
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: So if I sold two weeks after, somehow God just
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: moved it. And when He's sold my house, I knew
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: exactly that I would make a minimum of sixty thousand
• 51:03
  Speaker 4: dollars a minimum of sixty. And meanwhile I went there,
• 51:07
  Speaker 4: I spent one hundred. So to me, it just I
• 51:12
  Speaker 4: placed those completely out of reach. There is nobody, nobody
• 51:20
  Speaker 4: could tell me these are the four people I could have.
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: Nobody was going to be able. I don't come from
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: a rich family like a rich dad, a rich mom like.
• 51:28
  Speaker 4: I don't have people that are rich in my family
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: that can just all of a sudden give me sixty
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: thousand dollars somehow, especially especially try to call your dad. So, Dad,
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: I'd like to go to Hawaii for two weeks. Give
• 51:44
  Speaker 4: you give me sixty grand write, don't worry.
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: I won't be on the beach.
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: I'll be on a life threatening ten day ultra endurance event.
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: So I mean, if that makes you when I die.
• 51:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, if you feel better, right then I die? Right?
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: Are you gonna?
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: But I do want, I do want to ask you
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: a couple of rapid fire questions as we're closing up
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: our time together here. I want to know what day
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: was the hardest in those ten days? Because Day four
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: was the hardest. What was a Day four?
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: I was in a wheelchair, so my it bends had
• 52:21
  Speaker 4: stopped working and it were really really tight. I had
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: difficulty walking, but we had to make it to the
• 52:28
  Speaker 4: So we're already at the airport, but I'm trying to
• 52:30
  Speaker 4: walk and we're trying to make our plane.
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: Because you apply to the other island exactly. Yeah, okay, wow,
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: you'rest race in a wheelchair.
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: Well, one of the nurse said, I'll go get a wheelchair.
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: So I'm in a wheelchair. And it was my birthday too,
• 52:50
  Speaker 4: and people so now my my entire face is burned.
• 52:54
  Speaker 4: Somebody stole my pants, so they did not even have
• 52:56
  Speaker 4: time to give me some pants. I'm in my underwear.
• 53:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, I'm in my underwear. It's my birthday. I'm
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: in a wheelchair. I look like a like a burnt victim.
• 53:10
  Speaker 4: And they're pushing me towards my flight. And some people
• 53:15
  Speaker 4: that knew that it was my birthday said, well, happy birthday.
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: G So.
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: You do something like Paul, Like Paul's like I've been shipwrecked,
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: I've been beaten, I've been a drug around like thanks
• 53:27
  Speaker 3: for not you know, getting mad at my appearance or
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: something like that.
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: I get to the next island. Half the crew goes
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: and get the luggage. The other half goes and get
• 53:37
  Speaker 4: the car. I hop in the car and my crew
• 53:41
  Speaker 4: chief says, JD. You said that you wouldn't quit. Well,
• 53:45
  Speaker 4: here's your bag with your wet suit in twenty minutes
• 53:49
  Speaker 4: where we're starting again, So get ready. And that was
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: the most difficult moment. I did not even know I
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: had that in me, like at all. That was the
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: hardest part.
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 54:03
  Speaker 4: And I called. I tried to call my dad. I mean, Hawaii,
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: I'm calling my dad. My dad said that, well, there's
• 54:11
  Speaker 4: not much I can do, but he was thinking maybe
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: I should take a flight come and he says, no,
• 54:15
  Speaker 4: I'm just gonna I'm not gonna be useful, so I'm
• 54:19
  Speaker 4: just gonna pray about it. Called my coach. He said
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: that I just take it one one step at a
• 54:25
  Speaker 4: time and just keep going. And then I swam with
• 54:28
  Speaker 4: no legs, right, I swam with just my arms. I
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: did not use my legs. And then I just kept
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: on going. And it's at that point on the bike
• 54:39
  Speaker 4: that I realized I'm gonna make it. So as much
• 54:43
  Speaker 4: as it is the hardest day was also the best day. Yeah, well,
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: the most memorable bird day ever.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: Well, because you got you got all the way to
• 54:52
  Speaker 3: the bottom of yourself. Man like you could have stopped,
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: but you didn't. And that's that sounds like quite the
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: turning point.
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: Oh, God said, no, that's it. See, when you do
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: something you talked about like alignment, and what is the
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: cost of not doing something that God has called you.
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: If I quit at that moment, and if it was
• 55:11
  Speaker 4: my fault, then I wouldn't have gone to the end.
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: So I was. I was willing to do whatever it
• 55:17
  Speaker 4: takes to finish that race. To me, it was I
• 55:21
  Speaker 4: told nobody nobody that I sold my house and that
• 55:25
  Speaker 4: I was that's it. I I'm on my last leg.
• 55:30
  Speaker 3: To me, it's I'm on my last leg and neither
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: of them are working.
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: That's awesome. Now you have kids, do you not? Yeah?
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: It looked like from the pictures three boys, or at
• 55:46
  Speaker 3: least I thought I saw three boys and you have
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: one boy.
• 55:50
  Speaker 4: Okay, one boy.
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there are other kids hanging out on the trathle
• 55:53
  Speaker 3: on podium.
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: So that was just him. It was just him and
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: his stuff.
• 55:56
  Speaker 4: Huh yes, yeah, exactly. Yeah. He is the two times
• 56:02
  Speaker 4: half marathon trail world champion, so he has that in him.
• 56:10
  Speaker 4: But for all the people listening, just know that whatever
• 56:16
  Speaker 4: you have accomplished in your life. You can be this engineer,
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: a big deck, natural bad saving people and babies around
• 56:23
  Speaker 4: the world and military. No no, no, no, no, no, no no,
• 56:26
  Speaker 4: no matter who you are. Okay, your kid is not impressed.
• 56:32
  Speaker 4: My kid is not He's fourteen years old. All he
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: cares is whatever his friends are saying, and that's it. Okay,
• 56:42
  Speaker 4: he just talks about is dad like it's nothing at all.
• 56:47
  Speaker 4: So anything you can accomplish that you think your children
• 56:50
  Speaker 4: are going to think this is amazing that you've done this. No,
• 56:55
  Speaker 4: just start thinking differently. Yeah, my son is not in
• 57:00
  Speaker 4: rest at all whatsoever.
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: Yep, that's awesome. That's awesome.
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: Well, you're a tough fact to follow too, So if
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: he thinks you're too impressive, it might it might be
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: hard to forge his own path.
• 57:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly why. I want to put the bar really high.
• 57:15
  Speaker 4: And then I'm going to help him. I'm going to
• 57:18
  Speaker 4: help him in achieving his own path. And so far
• 57:21
  Speaker 4: he's been doing doing amazing and forging his own path.
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: And yeah, So I love that this conversation has been
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: so life giving and uh and fun. Also I pray
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: that our listeners have gotten something powerful out of it.
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: Also, I have a link in.
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: The show notes below for the resource that you told
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: us about the Steward acronym, I encourage my listeners to
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: grab a hold of that. I wanted to give you
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: an opportunity to say one more thing. If anybody takes
• 57:49
  Speaker 3: nothing else away from you today, what's the one thing
• 57:51
  Speaker 3: you want them to take away before I prairi us out?
• 57:56
  Speaker 4: How serious are you with your walk with Jesus? Because
• 58:04
  Speaker 4: no matter how difficult those times are going to be,
• 58:07
  Speaker 4: no matter what's going to happen with the world, and
• 58:12
  Speaker 4: you want to follow what's in revelation and not and
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: where are we in the world, It really depends on
• 58:20
  Speaker 4: are you really aligned with your calling. Some people are
• 58:24
  Speaker 4: called and we have sponsors now with our business, so
• 58:29
  Speaker 4: we have people that help us financially, but they're never
• 58:33
  Speaker 4: going to set foot in Africa. And then we have
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: other people that are willing to take that money and
• 58:39
  Speaker 4: help children around the world. So it doesn't matter if
• 58:44
  Speaker 4: you're the one carrying the shield of the warrior or
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: you are the warrior yourself. You have a calling and
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: you are to take your calling seriously. Because don't try
• 58:58
  Speaker 4: to be JD, don't try to be Alex, try to
• 59:02
  Speaker 4: be what God is calling you to do. That's that's
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: the whole message that I want people to understand. Yeah,
• 59:12
  Speaker 4: that's that's the most important.
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 59:14
  Speaker 3: Well said, Let me pray over your brother and we'll
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: close this down here. Father, God, thank you so much
• 59:20
  Speaker 3: for this opportunity. Thank you for bringing us together as brothers,
• 59:23
  Speaker 3: and thank you for the path that you have led JD.
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: Down.
• 59:27
  Speaker 3: Your grace is sufficient and good, and despite our weakness,
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: you show your power in us. I pray that same
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: thing over our listeners and audience. Lord, I pray that
• 59:39
  Speaker 3: you would show them their calling, speak to their heart.
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: Let your Holy Spirit be loud to them so they
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: know which direction you want them to go. And God,
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: I pray that part of this conversation would help them
• 59:51
  Speaker 3: to say yes, come what may God bless JD. Bless
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: the ministries that he's a part of. Bless his fatherhood
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: and his unimpressed son. I pray that you will let
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: them grow. We love you, Lord and Jesus name.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: Amen, guys. This has been coach Alex ben Holton on
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: the Faithful Fitness Podcast. Until next time, train hard, but
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 3: pray harder. What's up?
• 1:00:20
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• 1:00:24
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• 1:00:27
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• 1:00:30
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