0:00

Hi, Chris Valentine here. Thanks for

0:02

tuning in to my podcast. I'm so excited

0:04

about my new show, cultural catalyst,

0:07

where we help you to learn how to live fully

0:09

live co layer with God and

0:11

change the world. You can

0:13

watch it weekly on my YouTube channel

0:15

or listen to it here.

0:17

Hope you enjoy it. Welcome

0:19

to cultural catalyst where we help you to learn

0:22

how to live fully alive, co labor

0:24

with God, and change the world.

0:26

I'm Chris Felton, your host. And today,

0:29

I have Greg Hendrix with

0:31

me. He's a pastor from

0:33

Rock Church in San Diego. I think you actually

0:36

are moved on from that, but

0:38

you used to be a pro basketball player

0:40

and you actually have a ministry. What's

0:42

your ministry called right now?

0:44

I have two ministries. Actually,

0:46

one is a consultant called Rima

0:48

Insight LLC, and then I also

0:51

have a ministry called Kingdom Collective.

0:53

Well, and you're also working with BRAFCO.

0:56

Yeah. I'm working with BRAFCO now. It's

0:59

-- I heard today's name on the team.

1:01

Come on. It's a it's it's gonna be

1:03

fun. We got a lot in store, man, get

1:05

ready because it's about that time

1:07

to turn up. So

1:10

we're gonna we're gonna change the world here, bro.

1:12

I'm I'm excited. I love

1:14

changing the world, but more importantly, I love

1:16

doing it with people I love. Like, yourself

1:18

and Jake, and the whole bray cool

1:20

and battle family. It's gonna be phenomenal.

1:23

I'm excited too. And listen,

1:25

we're gonna talk about overcoming file,

1:27

since that's gonna be our major topic today.

1:30

You and I have a very similar story.

1:33

So why don't we start with your story?

1:36

tell me a little bit about your background,

1:38

how you found Christ, how you grew up,

1:40

and you

1:41

got a beautiful wife and three kids.

1:43

Yeah. There it is. Yeah. Yes.

1:46

It was a I could tell you this much.

1:48

I wasn't raised in the church. Church

1:50

was not my background. I had no grit

1:52

for God. I knew

1:54

there was God, but I didn't

1:56

understand anything about a relationship with

1:58

him. My wife

1:59

didn't have any grief for God. Her

2:02

family is not brought up in the church.

2:04

So we had no church grid

2:06

prior to my encounter.

2:08

I grew up in San Diego, California

2:11

where I currently live right now.

2:12

and, you know, play pro

2:15

basketball, have no father in

2:17

the home. I still don't know my dad till this

2:19

day and raised by a single

2:21

other who's Hispanic, so

2:23

I'm half Hispanic, half black. And

2:25

so I was raised primarily in the Hispanic

2:27

home But obviously, all my

2:30

friends are are black. After

2:32

America, I played basketball growing up

2:34

and, you know, growing up in

2:36

in a big city. You're just

2:38

trying to find, you know, who you are and

2:40

what you love, what you like to do,

2:42

and I gravitated towards playing

2:44

sports. early on because I

2:47

just felt like I could be around people

2:49

that like to do the same thing I like to do.

2:51

And I ended up becoming a real prominent

2:54

player in my city becoming

2:56

the best player at a certain year in my city,

2:59

ended up going to college, two,

3:03

college in Cal Poly Promona in

3:06

California wasn't

3:08

quite satisfied. I wanted to do more.

3:10

I wanted to play division one basketball.

3:12

That's most aspiring kids,

3:14

dreams, a part of Plan Pro.

3:17

And I end up transferring to a junior

3:19

college for two years. ended

3:21

up meeting my girlfriend who's now my

3:23

wife there along the way,

3:25

not even knowing God, which is a

3:27

crazy amazing story. Ended up

3:29

transferring to Division one College in

3:31

Kentucky. That's in the Ohio

3:33

Valley Conference. Same conference

3:35

as, you know, NBA star job Iran came

3:37

out of that conference. It's a really strong conference.

3:40

Morehead, Kentucky. I went to Morehead State University

3:42

than I graduated. All this

3:44

not known in Christ. all this not

3:46

having a relationship with God. This aspiring

3:49

to be a professional basketball

3:51

player or really just aspiring to

3:54

do something with my life -- Yeah. -- because

3:56

my environment growing up, I didn't, you

3:58

know, based on the statistics,

3:59

for

4:00

a a person of my

4:02

my the way I look, how

4:05

I am I don't have very

4:07

high statistics doing anything with your life.

4:09

So the fact that I even got to go to college was

4:11

was phenomenal for me. I thought I had made

4:13

it, but, you know, I had aspirations like every

4:15

other young athlete a plan professional. I

4:17

ended up graduating with a

4:19

bachelor's degree from

4:21

college, the first in my in my family to

4:23

ever graduate with a college degree.

4:25

And then I end up going to play professional

4:28

basketball for eight years.

4:30

And in the midst of that eight years,

4:32

I got hurt. in the middle of

4:34

that, which afforded me the

4:36

opportunity to coach in the NBA

4:38

as a volunteer assistant with the Seattle

4:40

Supersonics for a year, which is

4:42

one of the, you know, one of the great treasures

4:44

of my life. And it's actually where

4:46

I actually saw a relationship

4:49

with God Modeled to me

4:51

was in from a guy

4:53

on that team, and that

4:55

planet deceded me. I didn't give my

4:57

life to Christ. I didn't changed. Nothing

4:59

supernatural happened until

5:02

about four years later when

5:04

I had an encounter with God. and

5:06

everything changed from there and it actually

5:08

really started from seeing this man

5:11

on the team how he carried

5:13

himself and how he walked with God. It was a

5:15

phenomenal phenomenal time

5:17

and it was tough, it was hard.

5:19

I didn't know what I was doing, just

5:21

kind of working my way. not

5:23

having a father, not having someone speaking

5:26

into my life as a male figure. But

5:28

God and God's grace now that I

5:30

have language for it and God's grace, you know,

5:32

everything worked out for

5:34

the good till this day.

5:36

So just a small snapshot and we can get

5:38

into some particulars, but that's a

5:40

small snapshot of of chrome coming

5:42

up. Oh, how old was your mama when

5:44

she had you? My

5:46

mom was very young at

5:48

the time. I believe she was

5:50

about twenty six at

5:53

the time that she had me. And

5:56

she worked hard. I

5:58

mean, she was a single mom. She was working

5:59

really hard. She was really not

6:02

around much because she worked multiple jobs like

6:04

most single moms do. Yeah.

6:06

My grandmother was around

6:08

a a whole lot more And

6:10

I didn't find this out till I got later

6:12

on in life. My grandmother was illiterate,

6:15

and she couldn't read and write. And so

6:17

growing up in a home, you know,

6:20

the things that I didn't know, you know, we wouldn't do

6:22

very much. We wouldn't go very many

6:24

places. because I

6:26

found this out that my grandmother couldn't read

6:28

and write. So, you know, she you know, we couldn't no.

6:30

We only couldn't take the bus. We only had

6:32

to take certain buses. places

6:34

because she only knew certain numbers. It

6:36

was very limited in

6:39

my ability to grow and scale

6:41

and do all that stuff as a young person.

6:43

And like I said, it

6:45

was the grace of God, man. I'm telling you,

6:47

like, especially not even knowing God.

6:49

Now I look back, it was a grace that was

6:51

over our family at the time. It's amazing

6:54

how God's in our life before we're in

6:56

his for

6:58

real. That's that's that's so true.

7:00

So true. And he was definitely in my life

7:02

I saw his hand, like, you

7:05

know, looking back and reflecting back

7:07

on my life. I saw his hand more

7:09

so than that. And I always thought, wow, you know,

7:11

that's I would say that's God,

7:13

but I didn't have a relationship with Jesus

7:15

by any means. But I would say, oh, that's God.

7:17

That's God. Right? That's God. And And I

7:19

was always proclaiming God out of

7:21

my mouth, but my life definitely wasn't

7:23

adding up to that by any means.

7:26

Greg, I lost my dad when I was three.

7:29

he drowned when I was three.

7:31

You you never known your dad.

7:33

Right? To this day,

7:35

have you ever tried to find

7:37

your dad? Yeah. I mean, you know,

7:39

you do the ancestry dot, you know, dot

7:41

com things and you try to do the lineage

7:44

piece. I've asked my mom. I'm

7:46

a product and I can say this openly,

7:48

my mom, and I've had this guy. I'm a product of a

7:50

one night stand. And so I

7:52

was a one night stand kid, And

7:55

well, from what my mother told me is that

7:57

he actually tried to come and my mom was

7:59

going through a whole lot of

8:01

dark stuff in her life at the time.

8:03

and she told him to leave. I think he wanted to

8:06

take me. And she was like, no, you're not

8:08

taking him. And he I

8:10

ended up being raised by her. but

8:12

I tried to look, never

8:14

found anything, and it's always kinda led

8:16

to a dead end type of thing. And

8:19

for a while, it made me bitter.

8:21

But like I said, after God

8:23

really came into my life and

8:25

I started to encounter Jesus

8:28

on a whole another level, he

8:30

started to unwind me of, like, all

8:32

these lies, all these

8:34

ceilings that society was put in

8:36

into my head, all my life. It was

8:38

crazy, though. And and and

8:40

now, like I said, I I have the

8:42

opportunity to do that for others, including

8:44

said rewriting the narrative from my

8:46

own family that I have currently Yeah.

8:49

It's it's kinda tough

8:51

becoming

8:51

a father when you haven't

8:53

been a father. Right? It's hard to become what you

8:55

haven't seen or heard. And

8:58

so and you're you're writing a book or

9:00

you've written a book actually on overcoming

9:02

falllessness.

9:03

though So how

9:04

did you you know,

9:07

like, I I had the same journey.

9:09

I ended

9:10

up with two stepfathers. I don't think you had

9:12

a stepfather. Did you? Never.

9:15

None. So but neither one of

9:17

my stuff bothers like me, which I'm not

9:19

sure that's a whole lot

9:21

of of improvement. And

9:24

then when I got saved,

9:26

I ended up with a spiritual dad the

9:28

day I got saved. He

9:30

was actually more like a big brother because

9:32

he's only years old when I mean I was eighteen. What

9:35

kind of influence is Like, how have you learned

9:37

how to be a dad when

9:39

it was never modeled for you?

9:41

Great

9:42

question. So, you know,

9:45

something that I did when I

9:47

was younger and looking back

9:49

on it, I thought it was a defense

9:51

mechanism but it was

9:53

actually God doing something in me

9:55

before like you were saying before I even knew

9:57

him. So what I would do is the men

9:59

that I would meet that just

10:01

had a profound impact on

10:03

me, I would take the best

10:05

characteristic of

10:07

that man. So for example, if this

10:09

person was humorous, I would take his humor.

10:11

If this person was kind, I would take

10:13

his kindness. This person was generous. I would

10:15

take his generosity. And I would just

10:17

compile all these amazing

10:19

attributes from all these

10:21

different men that I've met over

10:23

the course of my life up

10:25

until the point I I gave my life to

10:27

Jesus, and I compiled

10:29

this dad in my head

10:31

and in my heart, like, hey, that would be my

10:33

dad if if I've met my

10:35

dad. And one day

10:37

after I got saved and gave my life

10:39

to Christ, God actually

10:41

brought that up. He say, hey. So you remember

10:43

how you were when you were younger and you

10:45

were compiling all these things,

10:48

you know, about the different people you

10:50

met. And I say, yeah. he said, write them out. So

10:52

I started writing them all out and

10:54

it was like kindness, patience,

10:57

faithfulness, humor, funny,

11:00

you know, deep listener, all

11:02

these things. And then he's and then I got to

11:04

the end, and I was like, and he says, who

11:06

do you think that describes? And I

11:08

and and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I

11:10

was like, that describes you. He said that's how

11:12

much I love you and how much my

11:14

grace has been in your life. that

11:16

I would reveal myself through these

11:19

different people, through those attributes.

11:21

That's essentially that was my

11:23

starting point of learning to

11:25

become a father was taking the best

11:27

attributes out of these

11:29

people and compiling in my heart and in

11:31

my mind what I thought in my heart

11:33

and my mind a real dash should look like. So

11:35

you

11:35

kinda had a fantasy dad who

11:37

became your reality dad.

11:39

Right? Yeah. you're kinda living with this

11:41

fantasy of, hey,

11:44

my dad probably looks like this.

11:47

And when you take all those attributes, the

11:49

best of all those men, you know, like,

11:51

this is my fantasy dad. This is this is what

11:53

I believe in. My father ever showed up,

11:55

he would look like this. And

11:57

then you get saved and your father shows

11:59

up.

12:00

Yeah. Absolutely. Actually, it looks

12:03

like that. And one of those

12:05

characteristics was

12:07

challenging me, like, pushing

12:09

me, you know, like like

12:11

jamming me up, like it wasn't all

12:13

just airy, It hard

12:15

stuff. Like, yo, watch your mouth. Why are you

12:17

treating that girl that

12:19

way or whatever the case may be?

12:21

you know, like, it was it was hard things as

12:23

well as amazing things. And like

12:25

you said, at the end, I looked at it. I was like,

12:27

wow. That's that's That's

12:30

good. Like, that's that's you. And he

12:32

was like, yeah. That's me. And it was just

12:34

man, it it made me cry. I cried for like

12:36

three days straight. especially, you know,

12:38

because I I gave my life to Christ, and

12:40

I I saw like a I saw like

12:42

his grace before, I even

12:44

had language for what that was.

12:46

You know,

12:46

I know you pretty well. People

12:49

say this about me too. It's

12:52

amazing how health you are

12:54

for

12:54

how

12:55

broken of background

12:58

you have and

13:01

how much of that Like, when

13:03

you receive Christ, how

13:05

did that change your life? I I

13:07

know you're already on a trajectory. You're

13:09

already looking for God. you

13:11

you already you already have something going

13:14

on inside of you. You

13:16

you saw a man who knew God

13:18

and it it planted a seed in

13:20

you. when you actually received

13:22

Christ, how did it what kind of impact

13:24

did it have on you? Man,

13:26

it changed everything. Prior

13:29

to that, playing professional

13:32

basketball, doing all these things, traveling

13:34

the world, seeing the world,

13:36

making a little money but not a whole

13:38

lot of money. I

13:40

just wasn't fulfilled, honestly.

13:42

And I was like, man, there has to be more to

13:44

this. And by that time, I'd have my second

13:46

son. So now I'm in this

13:48

thought of my mind, like, I gotta

13:50

do something for my children, and I don't

13:52

even necessarily know how to be a dad

13:54

because half of the time out of the year,

13:56

I'm not even at home. My wife's

13:58

holding down the fort, her

13:59

family's helping her. I still don't even

14:02

know to be a dad, so there has to be

14:04

more. So when I gave my life to Christ,

14:06

I was I gave my life to

14:08

Christ actually at probably one of the lowest

14:10

points of my life -- Wow. -- is when I

14:12

got back from playing professional

14:14

basketball is my last year plan. I was

14:16

coming back from Ukraine. And I didn't have

14:18

a really good experience there.

14:20

And I flute when I was flying back,

14:22

you know, I I knew I was like,

14:24

I'm done land professional

14:26

basketball. Like, I just didn't have an

14:28

enemy anymore. Plus, my family was

14:30

development. I I was at work

14:32

overnight and talking to

14:34

one of my friends. I worked an overnight

14:36

security job at a golf resort in

14:38

Washington at the time. And I was

14:40

talking to my friend he was

14:42

telling me about an

14:44

evangelist out of San Diego. I was, man, you like

14:46

this dude. He's funny, man, you like the

14:48

church blah blah blah blah. He's just going on and

14:50

on. And and I was like, oh, let me

14:52

check it out. So I went online

14:54

and watched three online

14:56

services at the time. This again, no

14:58

grid from God. at all. No grit

15:00

for God. And by the

15:02

third service, he gives the alter call on

15:04

the video. So I stand up in

15:06

the middle of work. Uh-huh. Say, okay.

15:08

You know what? Jesus, I'm get I'm

15:10

really giving you my life, like no

15:13

more games. I'm not saying that. I'm

15:15

really gonna give you my life and I'm not turning

15:17

back. and this bright light came

15:19

into the room. I thought I was having a heart

15:21

attack. I didn't know what was

15:23

going on. This bright light came

15:25

into the room and it felt like

15:27

I don't know. It may have felt like fifteen minutes, but in reality,

15:29

it was really only like five.

15:31

And I just started crying. And

15:33

I was crying, not because I was

15:35

sad. I was crying

15:37

because what God was doing, he was

15:39

unwinding me of all of the

15:41

lies. Wow. That's so cool.

15:44

all all of the ceilings that

15:46

society put me on and and

15:48

everything that everybody had ever said

15:50

to me publicly, privately,

15:52

from our family, anybody, he was just

15:55

unwinding everything. So I was like, I was just

15:57

draining myself crying, like,

15:59

a little

15:59

baby, and he's like, your mind now.

16:02

I'm about to rebuild you so you

16:04

know what it looks like to be my

16:06

disciple, to be

16:07

in love with me, and more

16:10

importantly for you to do the same with

16:12

your children to be a father. And I

16:14

was like, man, so I'm just

16:16

crying, crying, crying. This light's

16:18

in the room. My heart's beating really

16:20

quick. I'm sweating, and

16:22

then it leaves. And then I'm back at

16:24

work, and that's it. And I'm like, well,

16:26

I guess I gave my life to Jesus. You

16:28

know? Like, I guess

16:30

that's that's it. You know, like And

16:32

so I came home that morning

16:34

and I told my wife,

16:37

And she

16:37

was I told my girl she was my girl at the

16:39

time. She wasn't we weren't even married.

16:42

And and I said, I I believe I gave my

16:44

life to Jesus and he wants me

16:46

to get on a plane and

16:48

fly to San Diego.

16:50

And and she says, you gave your life

16:52

to who? And I was like, III gave my

16:54

life to Jesus. And she was like,

16:56

and she got snappy with me.

16:58

She actually got pissed off. She was upset.

17:00

She goes, really, and

17:02

and God speaking to you, I say, yeah, you told

17:05

me to get on the plane and fly to San

17:07

Diego and meet this path It's weird. Like, I'm

17:09

hearing him. Like, I can hear him talking to

17:11

me. And she was like, what

17:12

did he say about me? Is he saying

17:14

anything about me? Like, she like she got

17:17

really upset. And

17:18

she could tell you this and she would tell

17:20

everybody that's watching this. She

17:22

thought at that time that our relationship

17:25

was over. She thought that we were

17:27

gonna split and that we weren't gonna be

17:29

together anymore because I

17:31

was going this way. She didn't even have

17:33

understanding or grit and and

17:35

she didn't her family wasn't raising the show.

17:37

She felt disqualified right away.

17:40

Wow. And so I

17:42

ended up getting on this plane, flying to San

17:44

Diego, meet the pastor, which

17:46

is a whole another God story.

17:48

But at the end of the day, what

17:50

was really beautiful about that

17:53

is that I no longer

17:55

felt like there was a cap on

17:57

me anymore. Like, I was like, man, I can

17:59

actually learn

18:01

how to you know, be AAAA

18:04

husband or and be a dad to

18:06

my kids. And prior to

18:09

that, last thing I'll say about that is that

18:11

I really I wanted to

18:13

marry my wife, but I had

18:15

a real problem with being a womanizer.

18:19

and and and she knows

18:21

this. And so I

18:23

struggled with that. And so I didn't

18:25

wanna be the guy that married his

18:27

wife and be that dog that's

18:29

cheating on

18:29

his wife. I didn't wanna do that because I've

18:31

seen it break families and I've

18:33

seen what it did and I've seen I

18:35

seen I wouldn't wanna raise my kids

18:37

that way as a father. And

18:39

so when I got saved and

18:41

gave my life to price, I heard this

18:43

real clear. He said, you can marry my daughter

18:45

now. You have my permission. And

18:48

we invest That's we got married. And

18:50

and did that change your relationship

18:52

with her? Oh,

18:54

totally. Totally. Because it

18:56

it I'm not gonna sit here and lie. I

18:58

mean, it was out the it was tough

19:01

because I'm growing

19:03

and, you know, trying to help her grow

19:05

at the same time. we

19:07

weren't a part of an amazing

19:09

church at the time in the small

19:11

town we were living there. I mean, I lived in a

19:13

really really small town in

19:15

Washington State. told about two

19:17

thousand is, like, smaller, almost smaller than weaverview.

19:19

If you can you can even if you can even

19:21

imagine that. That'd be hard. But

19:24

I mean, it's a town of 111 gun,

19:27

one one bullet, one sheriff,

19:29

one black person. It's all the one of

19:31

everything, and you were the one black

19:33

person. Now Exactly.

19:36

Exactly. But I found

19:38

God there. And literally, the

19:40

Lord had to take me out of my

19:42

city literally put me in the wilderness for

19:44

me to discover him. But when

19:46

that happened, everything

19:48

started turning and

19:50

and was

19:51

like how obedient and how faithful you're

19:53

gonna be to me because the more obedience you

19:55

give to me and the more faithfulness you give

19:57

to me, the more I'm gonna do that

19:59

and you're under standing of how to be a father,

20:01

a husband, and more importantly, a

20:04

believer in me. How long was

20:06

it before you guys got married?

20:08

I I don't We ended up getting married

20:11

the the following year. Wow.

20:13

So I got saved in

20:15

two thousand nine. It was the end

20:17

of two thousand nine. And

20:19

the following year, we

20:21

got married in two thousand ten

20:24

to each other in the small town.

20:26

And what's funny is that That small

20:28

town, the only place you would ever catch

20:30

me is at the gym or

20:32

walking home. You would never see me to

20:34

the point that a lot of people in

20:36

Natalia is a small town. You lived in Weaverville,

20:39

so you know what it is. It's like everybody know each

20:41

other. Yeah. Everybody know your business.

20:43

Yeah. And so they always thought

20:45

my wife, she's she's very beautiful

20:47

too. And so they're like, oh, you know, you have

20:49

a you have a a fiance, you have a

20:51

you have a husband, like, you know,

20:53

No. We never see him. And then when I got saved,

20:55

the whole town opened up to me.

20:57

I ended up becoming the coach of the local

20:59

high school basketball team there.

21:02

I end up becoming, you know, they they

21:04

wanted me to run for mayor at a

21:06

certain point, you know? And so

21:09

it turned into, you know,

21:11

hey, you're Lisa's husband too,

21:13

hey, you're great. Why? She's like, what do you mean? I grew up

21:15

here. She won a state basketball championship

21:17

there and everything, but everything turned

21:20

around based on, you know,

21:22

really being obedient and following the Lord

21:24

and listening to his voice. I gotta

21:26

ask you this. Did you guys win any

21:28

games? Oh, yeah. Oh, so

21:30

we yeah. This that's even better question.

21:32

So they were horrible. They didn't win one

21:34

game, I think, for four years. They

21:37

were all in owe and whatever they

21:39

were twenty something for four years

21:42

straight. I came in, and

21:44

the first year, we

21:46

won two games. and you would have thought

21:48

we won NBA championship because

21:52

because everybody was like, oh my god.

21:54

The pro ramps turning around and,

21:56

you know, I'm in

21:58

there talking about Jesus. This is a public

21:59

school. And I'm in there talking about Jesus. And I

22:02

don't know anything. I'm just on fire.

22:04

I just I just came to the Lord. I'm teaching

22:06

these kids. You know, what's crazy is that I

22:08

was teaching these kids core

22:11

values and principles based

22:14

off the personhood of Jesus and I didn't

22:16

even know it. Hey man, you gotta be on

22:18

time. Hey man, you gotta be honest, you gotta be

22:20

truthful, you gotta be faithful. This is your team

22:22

man. I'm I'm sharing this stuff with

22:24

these young kids and they just,

22:26

like, ate it all up. They loved it

22:28

because it was transforming their

22:30

lives. And then as I was saying

22:32

that to them and the community

22:34

was seeing how these young boys

22:36

were being transformed. their

22:39

parents got involved and the

22:41

family started being transformed. It was

22:43

really, really powerful, beautiful, and very

22:45

humbling to be a part of at the

22:47

same time. Did

22:47

you ever get any better than two games? Yeah.

22:49

We ended up

22:50

in next year. We ended up winning

22:53

six games. It was all over the paper. They

22:55

wrote a huge article about it. I

22:57

was like, you know, a small town man. So

22:59

you again, you might have thought we didn't want a

23:01

championship, but They wrote this crazy

23:03

article about faith

23:05

in sports and about my

23:07

relationship with Christ and

23:09

you know, they they dived into my past

23:11

with the Seattle Supersonics and

23:13

I was working with them for a while and just

23:15

what God it did in my life at that

23:17

time. wrote about it in a public paper,

23:20

and I had so many people come

23:22

up to me just wanting to talk about

23:24

God. It wasn't even about basketball.

23:27

hey, can you tell me about And it ended up being, like, a

23:29

big part of my my testimony

23:31

and witness at the time to

23:33

share about Christ and my life.

23:36

Dude, you

23:37

write the book

23:42

about fatherlessness, about your

23:44

story. Yeah. What would you say? You know, we're gonna have a lot

23:46

of people watching this that don't get a dad

23:48

and growing up a lot like

23:50

you or me. African

23:54

American communities largely

23:56

flawless. America

23:58

is largely flawless. and

24:01

moving the wrong direction as we both

24:04

know. What would you

24:06

say to the person who doesn't have

24:08

a daddy? What would you say to that

24:10

person who has an absent father?

24:12

How would you encourage them?

24:14

I would

24:15

tell them first, that your

24:18

story is not dictated

24:20

by your lack, but

24:22

more importantly by who you have access

24:25

to. Number one. Number two, that

24:27

they're loved. Even though they may not

24:29

feel loved on in

24:31

this life right now on the planet if may

24:33

not feel love because their father's not around.

24:35

But they are love number

24:38

three is how willing

24:40

are you able to

24:43

or wanting to

24:45

get over being an offended? Because I

24:47

was a big, big, big obstacle for me,

24:49

like, offense. Defense is

24:51

the greatest hindrance to

24:54

breakthrough.

24:54

When you when you walk

24:56

around offended, you don't you

24:58

can't see through the lens of Christ.

25:00

You can't see through the lens of being

25:03

redeemed or reformed or built

25:05

back up appropriately. because

25:07

there's always gonna be something there that's

25:09

taken up space where God

25:11

wants to inhabit. So those are

25:13

just like the three major questions

25:15

I asked somebody, and then I

25:17

wanna encourage them, hey, if you

25:19

really, really want to be

25:21

well, you really, really wanna

25:23

grow, you really, really wanna have

25:25

an opportunity, you know, can we

25:27

start on these three pillars right

25:29

here? And if you're willing to do

25:31

that, then I guarantee

25:33

you you will start to see traction towards the breakthrough

25:35

that God has in store because someone

25:38

else's breakthrough is not my breakthrough

25:41

vice versa. and everybody's

25:43

story is different. But at the

25:45

at the men and narrative of all of

25:47

that is like how much

25:49

do you desire to feel fulfill,

25:52

to feel champion, and feel propelled into

25:54

your destiny? And if that's the

25:57

case, say yeah, and you're

25:59

really about that life and you're really about

26:01

wanting to be well, let's start with

26:03

these three things. A fence is a big one,

26:05

though. when is your book

26:06

coming out and what's the name of it? The

26:09

book the name

26:10

of the book is the way truth life

26:13

keys from going from victim

26:15

to victory. and it's

26:17

supposed to come out at the end of

26:19

September. That is the due

26:21

date we're gonna be pushing for

26:23

I'm really wrote it

26:26

during pandemic, in the

26:28

pandemic. So there's a lot

26:30

of great there's great stories in there,

26:32

great principles. And again,

26:34

it's just little key things that I've

26:36

learned along my journey of you

26:38

know, receiving my breakthrough, receiving my full

26:41

identity in Christ that I'm just sharing

26:43

with others. And hopefully, they would share with

26:45

other people that want to be

26:47

healed and set free from those who may be

26:49

suffering from not having a father in the home

26:51

again. I don't know my dad till this

26:53

day, but if he was to walk through

26:55

the door, or show up at anything I'm at, it

26:57

wouldn't be nothing but fully embraced. Like,

26:59

hey, man. Let's talk. Tell me about

27:01

yourself. You know? Let's go. you

27:03

know, what's your name? Who who I don't even know his name. Like, what no.

27:05

Tell me about your background. Tell me, you know, it'd

27:07

be time to catch up, but there would be no offense

27:09

there, but it'd be all embrace. that's

27:12

beautiful. How can they get a whole

27:14

of your book when it comes out? You have

27:16

a a website yet? when

27:19

we set up a website,

27:20

it's gonna be

27:22

on, you know, the Amazon, it's gonna be

27:24

on all those platforms where you can order

27:27

it. gonna do a audio version of it as

27:29

well. Hopefully, if it's at

27:31

Bethel Bookstore, I'm just saying that

27:33

it might be in there. put a

27:35

plug in right now for it. I I heard it. I

27:37

heard it. There it

27:39

is. Yep. It might be

27:41

in there, but no. We'll have it.

27:43

All the channels open. that you can

27:45

receive it. You can get it. And, you

27:47

know, Amazon, you know, those those type state

27:49

Barnes and Nobles, we're gonna have it

27:52

full layout for that. I'm really excited about it. Again,

27:54

it's it was very private story, very personal

27:56

story, but I found the more I

27:58

open up about this, the more a lot of

28:00

other people suffer especially with the

28:02

line of work that I'm in. A lot of pro I

28:04

I mentor a lot of pro athletes, Olympians,

28:09

political people, and I don't care

28:11

what their age or background is a lot of them

28:13

deal with identity issues and

28:15

the majority majority has

28:18

to do with lack of fatherlessness

28:20

in the home. Yep.

28:23

Well, I just

28:23

wrote a book as you well know.

28:26

It's called uprising the epic battle for

28:28

the most flawless generation in

28:30

history, and it's released October

28:32

twenty fifth. So, hey,

28:35

hey, I want you to plug it and You

28:38

got time. We got this five

28:40

part series. I wanna tell you about

28:42

five part series It's

28:45

on on that's a following

28:47

series. Five part video

28:49

series features so many stories

28:51

about hope especially for

28:53

people who are coming out of homelessness,

28:55

you can learn and register at

28:57

WWW the uprising

29:00

book that's WWW

29:02

dot the uprisingbook

29:04

dot com. We'd love

29:06

to have you on there.

29:09

And, Greg, I'm so thankful

29:11

for you. I'm so thankful

29:13

working together now with Jay

29:15

and BraveCo. and this was a

29:17

fantastic interview. And

29:19

I'll I'll help I I I'll give you my word

29:21

to help promote your book because we're

29:23

on same page. I know your story and we

29:25

just need to put our

29:27

lives together and help turn

29:29

this generation around. Thank

29:31

you so very much for being on. Give

29:34

your wife my love, and

29:36

we'll do it again. Absolutely. I

29:39

appreciate it. Love you too, bro. God

29:41

bless you. Bye

29:46

now. Thanks

29:52

so much for

29:57

listening

29:57

to my podcast. If

29:59

you wanna find out

29:59

more, read my blog or listen

30:02

to the previous podcast episodes.

30:04

Go to chris valleton dot com.

30:06

Have an awesome day.