“I came to faith at the age of 19 after hearing the gospel from a fellow student in college. After a game of volleyball and dinner with a bunch of young adults, this friend asked me one of the most important questions of my life: ‘On a scale from one to ten, if you were to die tonight, do you believe you would go to heaven?’ I couldn’t answer him with a confident ‘ten.’ That friend proceeded to love me well and tell me who Jesus was.
“I thought, ‘OK, I’ve got some work to do.’
“It took me a full two weeks to realize that not only do I need a Savior, but there is also no way I can live this life on my own. There is nothing I can do to get me to heaven. I have to submit. I have to believe Jesus is who He says He is! From then on, I knew that on the scale I was presented with earlier, I could answer ‘ten’ with confidence and assurance. That is when my spiritual formation started moving forward.
“The life I knew previously was very performance-oriented and not grounded by the Lord. We were a military family and deployed frequently. I was consistently involved in scouting, sports, and the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). I valued winning at all costs and wanted everything to be about me.
“After trusting in Christ, I was introduced to a new way of life! I was now asking, ‘God, what can my life look like according to You?’ Knowing Christ changed everything.
“My plan after trusting Christ was to become a Christian businessman and make a whole lot of money so I could support men and women in ministries. I wanted to support God’s Kingdom. But as I was trying to be faithful in business, it felt like the Lord had other plans for me.
“Through a series of multiple events, I changed gears and enrolled in seminary to hopefully one day plant a church. While I was working in the business world, I completed seminary and married my wife, Stefanie. We then served on staff at a church for seven years together, and I began preparing to plant a church.
“At that time, I learned about an organization called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and it sounded incredible. This was a group of people who loved sports, but more than that, they loved Jesus, who is the master of all things! We started serving as volunteers, and little did I know that God would use this time as a springboard for my wife and me.
“I ended up working on staff full time for FCA with full intentions to plant the church in three years. When three years passed, it didn’t seem like that was what the Lord was asking of us. Three more years passed, and then a decade… Now, it’s 20 years later, and I’m still at it!
“Through those 20 years, I’ve watched the Lord move in many ways. I am still watching God’s faithfulness to unfaithful people through the platform of athletics. He is unchanging, which forces me to change and continue to yield to Him. I can stay ‘true north’ on my compass because I have God’s Word to inform me. I can rely on His Word to show me if I am walking with Him or not.
“The intentional decision-making to yield to God has impacted every aspect of my life. As an individual, I am nothing apart from God and my relationship with Him. In the context of marriage, God is sovereign, even when the storms come. As a parent, it has been critical for me to have the Lord as my shepherd.
“He is a soothing balm for a lot of my insecurities and rough edges. The sandpaper of the Holy Spirit has been working on the corners of my life from hurts, habits, and addictions.
“I continue to be reminded that there is my way, and then there is God’s way. His way always proves the most faithful and the most fruitful. God does follow through on what He says He’s going to do. I am so grateful for God’s consistency over my 50+ years of life! When I have not been faithful to the Lord, he has still been faithful to me.”