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Clock Into Your Calling exists to encourage believers to live out their faith in everyday life, making Monday through Saturday feel more like Sunday morning. Each episode inspires consistent faithfulness, breaking the divide between “sacred” and “secular” by showing how God uses our work, relationships, and daily routines for His glory. Through stories, practical wisdom, and biblical encouragement, you’ll be equipped to live intentionally, steward your gifts well, and embrace a kingdom mindset over culture. Our goal is to empower you to take faithful steps right where God has placed you.
Ian Hess:
What is going on everybody? Welcome into another episode of Clock into Your Calling. Thank you for taking some time and investing it in being here with us today. Your reviews, your likes, your comments, greatly, greatly helped me out and I'm so appreciative of you just taking a couple seconds out of your time. If you liked the video, just a drop a like, drop something on there, flip over to YouTube, just a reminder for the video version of this podcast and stay tuned all the way till the end for the challenge question that we have for you guys and leave a comment below if you guys want to hear any certain things talked about.
Ian Hess:
Or discuss on this podcast in any upcoming episode. So today's topic, we got faith as a habit, not a feeling. I'm joined here by my guest, JR. How you doing brother?
JR:
I'm doing well, Ian, how are you?
Ian Hess:
Doing well brother, thank you. Hey, thanks for being here. I'm honored to sit across from you. We've got EMT Firefighter School coming up for you. So many great things coming up, sports performance coaching. I know that's what you're doing now. I'm so excited to hear everything that's going on in your life, what's to come. So I want to...
Ian Hess:
Open this up with a little question. Didn't prep you for this one. OK, so I want to just hear right now. Currently, if you took a snapshot of your time and what you're kind of digesting right now in your personal time, what's like a podcast or book, you know, podcast besides this one, of course, that you've been digesting, that you've been getting something from and maybe you want to recommend to somebody else or books or podcasts or book?
JR:
Mature me podcast with Rich Wilkerson. It's been a really good podcast that I've been just listening to. He has a really good episode with Darius Daniels. Really good. A lot of lot of gems thrown in there. And also in my free time, I like to listen to a lot of sermons. I like to say I'm a digital disciple of other other churches. Yeah.
JR:
And Social Dallas with Pastor Robert Medeo is one of the pastors that I love to watch from afar. And also Union Church with Pastor Stephen Chandler. Gotcha is a really good one. He also has a pastor at another location. And his name is Pastor Brian Bullock. Gotcha. And just just love their ministry and how, you know, they spread the gospel.
Ian Hess:
Also our church, you know, actually, I was like, are you going to mention that? I'd remiss. I'd be remiss to not to not to not put in our church, especially, you know, in this season where a lot more opportunities are going our opening to be involved. Yeah. So I feel like within that, especially our church being an advanced season,
Ian Hess:
I feel that I need to learn where we started. And so I find myself going back and watching old sermons and, a, gives me like a good, glimpse of how we got here, even though I may not understand like the full formula. it gives me like a good, snapshot of, okay, so we started here and here's where we are. so yeah.
Ian Hess:
I would say those to name a few, but Action Church is number one. Save it best for last. for last.
Ian Hess:
So speaking of how we got here to where we are today, I know you mentioned looking at some older sermons. Yeah. First of all, it's amazing to be sitting across from you just to think of the things that we were doing leading up to this moment. But I really want to touch on you.
Ian Hess:
And just hear a little bit about your journey and how we got to today. So run me through maybe what you did in school at your time at UCF, what you're doing professionally now, and maybe what's next for you.
JR:
Yeah, yeah. First of all, I would say thank you for having me on the pod. We've had so many great intentional dialogue. And it's really awesome that we have the opportunity to put a timestamp on it and share it with the world. So I appreciate you.
JR:
Yeah, so my time at UCF, I graduated with a bachelor's in kinesiology. Initially, I wanted to go into PA school in the medical space. I realized that back then, my motives and my ethics, my morals, all of my goals were all centered around making the most amount of money in the least amount of school time. And it
JR:
just was all centered around me and what would serve me in my life. And that's how I carried myself. I carried myself as just wanting to please myself. It wasn't about others. And it was like that for the majority of my college career. It wasn't up until I was met at
JR:
such a low moment in my life where the Lord met me in that moment. And I was faced with a challenge. I could have went back to what was normal, things that would just please myself, Things that would just be kind of like this bottomless pit of feeling this void that God placed in my heart, this God-sized hole in my heart.
JR:
I realized I made the decision to not do that. And it started with, you know, me. I was attending church at the time, but I was letting the church convict me on Sunday and live a different way for the rest of the week. There was no repentance. There was no turn. So I went to church and I was met by a leader and he greeted me. He asked me how I was doing.
JR:
And I said, I'm okay. And he was like, great to see you. And then I told him, I'm not okay. And at that point, I believe is when my healing journey began. And at that point, you know, I started to experience that God never wanted me to be a certain way, act a certain way, clean myself up. He just wanted my heart. It's good. And it just felt so foreign to the things that
JR:
to what I believe, to what I thought who God was. So it took some time for me to first accept that, accept and believe that. So once I did, I took a step of faith in investing into my health and recovery and being involved in a freedom group that you led.
JR:
Stan, you can shout out to David, David, you guys led. And I learned so much about myself in those three to four months that I have in pretty much my whole time here on this earth. You know, things that I thought were just a part of who I am. Yeah, that's and I think that's what the enemy can get us into believing is.
JR:
is it's a lie to say, it's just who I am. No, it's not who you are. God defines who you are. So if you have something where it's your default nature that you default to, you got to do some digging there, you know, see where it came from. And for me, I realized that it stemmed from a lot of trauma that I faced when I was young. My father was a pastor, grew up in a Christian household.
JR:
And he suffered his first stroke in 2009. I was home that day, came from elementary school. I was the only child that was home. was just me, my mom, my dad. And I remember the paramedics just running rushing in while they were in Russian. They just walked in. Why you got to do it like that? Well, well, it was a speed walk. Well, we'll that. Well, we'll revisit that because I know that now with with what I'm pursuing now.
JR:
But they walked in and in that moment, I just felt helpless. I felt like I couldn't help him. I didn't know what was going on. And once he suffered that first stroke, it was years in where we would have multiple traumatic health events. And the common denominator of it all was I was always there. It was always me that was there. There would be times I would find him.
JR:
and he wasn't well. His blood glucose was crashing and his blood sugar was crashing and he was becoming, he was on his way to have a stroke and I would always find him first and I would always call for somebody, call for my mom, call for somebody and they would call 911 and I would just always see paramedics coming in and helping him. once,
JR:
Once he got to a point where it was it was it was pretty clear he was turning towards the direction of God's not going to heal him on this side of heaven. was tough for me. It was tough for me to accept. Yeah, it actually led me to not wanting to go see him. Well, and and putting that stress on my mother.
JR:
So in that, after he passed, that's when I had rebelled against God. I rebelled and I was chasing the things of this world, know, in college, just chasing the things of this world. And then it led me back to the moment that I mentioned earlier, you know, coming back to the Lord and really just learning that he didn't want.
JR:
my perfection. just went in my heart and in that he restored me, he redeemed me, he healed me. It's good. And I'm not here today if it wasn't for the prayers of my mother. But also if it wasn't for me just making the decision to not to say I've had enough, you know, and, and letting somebody know that wasn't okay. It's good. Yeah.
Ian Hess:
Wow. Thanks for sharing all that. I know you've been through a lot of life and not a lot of time. And just to see where you are now though, it's amazing mean, yeah, that's just, that's a tough situation. And I'm happy to see where you've come to today, but I know there's so much more left. So today we're thinking, we're talking about faith as a habit, not a feeling. So what does that even, what does that mean? Like, can we just kind of define that just so we know where to go with the rest of this conversation?
JR:
Yeah. I think that faith, oftentimes we can attach our feelings to it because we're humans and we like to associate with things that we can see and things that we can feel. But faith is is opposite of that. It's the things that you can't see. Right. And oftentimes it's the things that you can't feel. Yeah. And oftentimes we can look at, if I'm not feeling this, then
JR:
I don't then I shouldn't be doing it or I don't have to do it. But in reality, you know, we have to be disciplined in our faith. Yeah, we can't be a slave to our feelings. You know, you know, it says in in in Luke that you can't serve two masters. Yeah. Right. You can't serve your feelings and your faith. One's going to overtake the other. So stepping out in faith is
JR:
in opposition of my feelings, your feelings aren't, it's not that your feelings aren't valid. Yeah. Your feelings are valid. That's a good point. It's just oftentimes the enemy can leverage your feelings against you. That's good. And saying that, I'm not feeling this, so I don't need to do it. And that's how the enemy can get you into isolation. Yeah.
JR:
then he can again use your feelings against you. And that's where you know, depression creeps in. That's when anxiety creeps in. Yeah, that's where doubt of your identity creeps in. So that's what it means to me. Yeah. And that's that's good. I love that you talked about like how volatile they are your feelings. And if you start to follow them,
Ian Hess:
You know, it's it's like your appetite, like you never know. I'm hungry for this. like, everything's always shifting. There's no stability in that. And I think that that's what God offers for us. Everybody is building the house like on his foundation, like on his accord. But what is the what do you think is the biggest obstacle that someone might face when trying to build their faith as a habit and not just a feeling like why do people so many people fall short? What's like that one thing that maybe is the common denominator for everybody's pitfall when it seems to be falling there?
JR:
Their faith is attached to their feelings. Yeah, that's a good question. And I think one of one of the ways that we can fall into that is is just like the use of like technology and social media. Right. I mean, I fall victim to this. No, I do scroll, you know, and it can lead to, you know, you can see, you know, at risk pregnancy, you know, a baby being born.
JR:
And it can you can watch videos of, you know, war veterans coming home and surprising their families. know, you feel man joyful. And in the next scroll, you can see, you know, somebody getting shot, somebody murdered, somebody getting beaten up. Yeah. And it's just kind of like a crazy pendulum for your feelings sometimes. And it's in.
JR:
And also we have a lot of people in the religious space that talks about, you know, just your feelings are it's all about feelings like we serve a God of feelings. Yeah. one of the biggest threats to to the world are the people who are on the pulpit,
JR:
who aren't really...
JR:
Surrendered to God But more so have their own ulterior motive. Yeah, and they just fill up You know this this new generation with lies because I do think that especially with the new generation I believe that the enemy attacks them through their feelings and it's it's crazy how
JR:
You know, I'm I'm a leader in our church's youth group and there's a lot of feelings involved in terms of the things that they struggle with. It's always centered around feelings. So, yeah, feelings are are definitely like I said, you know, they're valid. Yeah. But they they shouldn't guide you in terms of how you live out your faith. Yeah. So.
JR:
How we go about that, some practical ways is mainly just doing the little things. think starting your day off with the Lord, whether it's just thank you, God, for waking me up today or, being reverent before him and, you know, playing worship music, you know, praying and really just giving God the glory, you know, for
JR:
all that he's done in your life. So I think that's just the main thing is doing it regardless of how you feel. Yeah, because faith is is beautiful. Because if you stay disciplined in it, your feelings will follow. Yeah, that's good. So yeah, no, that's good. I just want to emphasize the point that you mentioned to about the validity of feelings, because they are valid. Yeah, like and everybody has them and those are important, but they just can't be the driver. Right.
Ian Hess:
And I was looking at some of them earlier, they should be the good passenger because they come in and out of cars. They come in and they go, but they're not driving the car, right? Our faith and our rock, our foundation is what's driving the car. So yeah, that's a great point. Do you got anything else on that? Okay. Let's go ahead. Let's go and move on. So as you talked about, and I do want to mention one more thing actually.
Ian Hess:
You touched on what's some good stuff for you. And I think it's so easy for us to kind of tune out sometimes, but we don't have like a real life applicable example from someone who's speaking, talking, like, I don't mean I don't struggle with that. I do have habits, but I would encourage someone maybe listening to this to apply this to their own life. Like just because I don't work in, know, JR's EMT field, I'm not a coach at a sport, don't use youth group, right? Like still lean in and see how you can develop your own personal habits because all of ours look different.
Ian Hess:
And I think that's why it's beautiful. But that's also why it's hard. Because if I talk to you and you're like, Ian, you know, I can't just wake up and worship. Like, I got to wake up and take my dog out. I got to wake up and feed my kids. Well, maybe your worship is after that, after the kids are out the house. And I think that's why it's sometimes tough because I know a lot of times, even for myself and kind of outing myself right now, a lot of times when I meet with people that I want guidance from, I want mentorship from, a lot of times I'm coming in sometimes unintentionally with the heart of,
Ian Hess:
Here's my situation. What do do? What do do? Right. And it's not, I had the wrong posture in that situation because at end of the day, I need to do what's what the God is telling me to do personally with the help of obviously the spiritual guidance. But I think we come in with a, what do I do in this situation instead of talking vertically first, instead of talking horizontally. that's just a little, little bit of encouragement. mean, because
Ian Hess:
everything needs to be adapted to our own situation and no one can do that for you by you and God. So it's just a good thing to keep in mind as we talk about different habits that can make your faith a habit truly instead of making it a feeling. I want to ask you, so I know that you're working in too high pressure, busy, chaotic, maybe with all those kids, environments, even at our church's youth group, city group. So how does your...
Ian Hess:
How does your daily practices impact your leadership at these different positions, your decision making, your joy, your peace? How did you see that make a difference when you do have those disciplines and those habits in place in your day to day?
JR:
Great question. I think for me, it's propelled me to have a sense of confidence and clarity, as well as authority. It gives me kind of just like the presence of I'm not pouring out of a cup that's empty or a cup that's half full. Yeah. You know, I always aim to pour out of a cup that's overflowing. So how do you fill up that cup is being disciplined in your faith, you know, Monday through Saturday, making sure that, you know, you have things in place where
JR:
you know, you can you can fill your cup up. And like you said earlier, it may look different for for people like for me, like currently in the season, it's different in the season because my time is a little bit limited. it all derives from intentionality and being intentional in from the morning you wake up until when you go to bed. know, I don't have much time in the mornings, so I don't have
JR:
time to, you know, pray like for five, 10 minutes, right. But when I when I get home and you know, I'm tired from all the stresses of the day. It's very easy for me to just lay in my bed and just be like, well, you're tired, you know, but making that decision to invite God into that, because there are there are times
JR:
You can go to sleep, right? Have you ever gone to sleep and you you woke up tired? Yeah, all the time. Just being honest, sometimes I'm like, dude, I this is this is a random thought. This is definitely more back in the day when I was able to. But I used to wake up sometimes so tired, I would like be looking forward to my nap as soon as I woke up. Have you been there? Yeah. Like I'm like, God, I can't wait to take a nap. And I'm like, just waking up. That's how know I didn't sleep good. Anyways, continue.
JR:
No, that's good. There are times where, you know, you wake up tired and mainly it's because that your soul is never really at rest. know, we have we should be inviting God into those moments. And for me personally, I struggle with sleeping. I struggle with being able to just fall asleep. But one thing that I've noticed is when, you know, I invite God into it.
JR:
Whether it's through a prayer or you know, I'm a big playlist guy. I have like a nighttime worship playlist. Big guy. Big playlist I won't listen. That's what you guys are gonna remember from this. Hey, big playlist guy. Alright. I like my playlist over anybody's except for me. We'll see. But no, it's just having those things where it can set your mind at rest and really
JR:
you know, give you that rest. There's a verse in Matthew 1129. says, come to me all those who are rearing burden for my yoke is easy. My burden is light. You know, come to me and I will find rest for your souls. And I didn't really know what rest really meant until I invited the Lord into it.
JR:
And it just it just helps me recover. Yeah. But also recharge in and have an in those moments where, you know, I have to, you know, be a leader in Citigroup or have to be a leader in Academy. Right. Yeah. I I have a level of clarity and confidence in knowing that, my identity, my comes through the father and
JR:
I'm spending that time with him. He will give me revelation in private time to be able to minister, it is to, you know, people in like my coworkers or people in, you youth group or even, you know, the people that I'm with in an academy. So, yeah, it just gives me a level of confidence and clarity.
Ian Hess:
Yeah, no, that's good. I know you talked a lot about rest too. And that's so important too. We did an episode on that. Go back and watch that one with Zach, if you guys haven't seen that, but about the rhythms and the sacred rhythms and rest truly. But I think that what I've been, what I've been finding for myself is that there is a certain level of things that everybody needs personally to be at, to be operating at their best spiritually, physically, you know, out like in your family as well.
Ian Hess:
And we, it's so important to know what that is for you and be able to communicate that and also prioritize that as well. Because it's tough because sometimes like I can easily look at your schedule and I'm like, dang, Jay, are you wasting all that time? Well, like it's like, no, that time's not wasting for me. That's actually how I'm resting is have a thing or, or just refueling for the next day. And that's why it's so important to not conform to this world and what the patterns of this world have to say about us because
Ian Hess:
That's different from what I need personally. And that's, mean, that comes with a lot of time and it's hard to, because everyone always wants to say something about it too. Like in even the small comments that like people don't even know what they're doing, but they're kind of like, it's not, it's unintentional, but like trying to undermine what you're doing and making it sound like it's not important, but no, Hey, that is important for me because I know what I need to do to be at my best. And it's so hard because as you mentioned with social media doom scrolling, mean, we're like inviting the opportunity for envy.
Ian Hess:
in comparison to our life. And it's so easy because then we see other gifts, we see other creations of God, and we think that we need to do all that. Especially me, like I like to learn from my pastors, my leadership, and it's natural, I feel like, to try to want that for yourself. But then I think the problem is that you try to copy and paste their routines into your life and you're like, okay, well, that's not working for me. And I'm like, well, why? Am I doing it wrong? Well, it's like, no, like that's not meant for me.
Ian Hess:
And so it's so important. think a big emphasis point on this topic is knowing yourself. Because personally, I like to get up and go work out in the morning. It helps me start my day. I to get up, get out, get something done before work. You know, we have a shout out to Live 365. We got a little prayer group going in the morning where it's nice where we get to go over there and I mean, exercise, get the blood flow. But that's not for everybody. Right. And the most important is that's okay. Yeah.
Ian Hess:
That's for me personally, and it doesn't have to be for everybody. Because then I could easily go to you and be like, JR, why don't you work out in the morning? That's how that looks in the conversation. If it works for me, why doesn't it work for you? Are you not doing it right, JR? Are you not working out? you just talking? No, I just laid my time in the morning. Yeah.
JR:
Point in time. Well, it's funny because that was an arbitrary example. But that boy, you're not a morning guy. Every time I see you in the morning, you're still sleeping when I see you at the gym. Like on the machine taking a nap. That's how I see you doing. Well, it's because I don't sleep well. Like I get there, I barely get hours of sleep. And now I'm going into firefighting. It's like, you're not going to get much sleep anyways. Yeah, that's true. That's probably good then. You're not getting enough of, cut that in half.
JR:
And that's what you're going to get. But that's why that's why we film this at two o'clock. So you're awake. We're to have to take me along. I mean, talking to myself. Yeah, I'm wide awake. I'm wide awake now. Good. Yeah. So you mentioned that it's going to look different for everyone. And I'm glad that you mentioned that, because even the gym, for example, right.
JR:
For a season, that was my place of worship. That was the place where, you know, I would commune with God. And there was a pastor who I'm not going to I'm not going to say his name because I don't want people out there to judge him. know, but there was a pastor who says, I don't know how you guys do that. When I go to the gym, it is go time. I'm trying to put in the work. Yeah. But here's the thing.
JR:
I'm a sports performance coach. I train athletes. I'm always in the gym. when I'm knowing that that's my place of business, right? When I go into the gym, and it's for me, I had to disassociate myself from having that mindset. And I think the same thing can be true for pastors, right? Because, you know, the church is their place of business, right? But when
JR:
they come into the gym, they got to disassociate themselves, you know, a bit from, you know, working, working at work. And, know, working on themselves, you know, sharpening their temple. But it's going to look different for everybody. know, everybody's place of worship is going to isn't going to look the same. Is it going to be the same? But as long as you're being transparent and having that place and being disciplined in going into it.
JR:
Yeah. I think that's just the greatest thing. Like it's going to look different for everybody. Yeah. No, that's a good point too. Cause the same place might have a different result for everybody too. That's such a great point. Cause we can, it's just, we, I think we do a lot of assuming, even though like we consciously try not to, we still do it. Like, cause I'm like, okay, you're at the gym to get healthy. Right. Well it's like, no, like I'm at the gym to network, which honestly happens a lot. you just, I met a lot of great people at the gym, honestly, you have a little conversation, but that's not for everybody.
Ian Hess:
So that's so good. I love that we're talking about the gym so much because I want to ask you as being a coach and someone who likes to train on their own. I remember passing by you so many times at the UCF gym, just like we definitely did. We weren't touching base real quick, like a lot then, but I would just see you there all the time, which was cool how we kind of rejoin back a couple of years later and get to get to talk about God instead of pre-workout.
JR:
Yeah, I use a C4. I'm more so honey. Yeah. Okay. That's right. If you know, know. Yeah. Nobody knows. Nobody knows. It's gonna be one guy. Get a load of this guy. I was gonna it's gonna be one guy, but I hope it's one guy that knows what you're talking about. Anyways. So anyways, have you seen so
JR:
Training athletes and also training on your own. Do you see any parallels between that and also strengthening your habit of faith? yeah, absolutely. You know, the details of how I train an athlete versus how I train myself, you know, they're going to be different, right? An athlete doesn't have, I don't have the same goals or the same, you know, motives as an athlete. An athlete
JR:
they're trying to get better specifically for their sport, whatever sport that they play. For me, it's more so about longevity. It's also about being functional and also having longevity in the field that I'm going into. So I focus a lot on mobility and recovery, but it's all the same in terms of intentionality, right? Because you have to approach it
JR:
in terms of what it looks like for you and the goals that you're trying to accomplish. going back to what we were saying earlier, you know, it's going to look different for everybody. Your faith is going to look different. So but as long as the intention behind it is is the same and it's rooted in wanting to know Christ more, wanting to be like Christ. And I think that is the greatest thing.
JR:
Also, I feel led to share this, but every time, you know, I train athletes, especially as I started to grow a lot more in my faith, I've been very blessed. Shout out to D1 Southeast Orlando. No sponsorships here. D1 Southeast Orlando. Cut out immediately. Chop it up. No, I have I've been really blessed to be able to.
JR:
be a part of that family. they have given me the autonomy to share my faith and be very expressive towards it, whether it's hosting small groups there over the summer, but also being able to share my faith with members, with athletes, clients that I train. There's a younger athlete, he plays lacrosse and
JR:
I was we were training right the past couple of sessions we've been training, but we'll end up stopping, you know, with 15 minutes left and just talking about where the Lord has us. You know, it's good what the things that we're working on. That's really, you know, the things where we feel like we're getting stretched out. And we have a task at hand, right. But we kind of put that aside to talk about.
JR:
the what what really matters. Right. Right. The eternal task. The eternal task. Right. Because you can be. I love this. This is verse back when I was an athlete. This used to be my favorite verse. It's in First Corinthians, chapter nine verse. It's yeah. Chapter nine, verse twenty five. It says that everyone who competes in games goes into strict training. Those who compete do it for a crown that will not last. We.
JR:
compete for a crown that will last forever. And in that, I started to just see more athletes just open up about where they're at in their faith. And it all just started with me just being intentional from the beginning in the stretch, asking how are their grades, asking how are they doing at home, like how's life at home. And because it's more than just a session, it's more than just a training session, it's
JR:
it's an opportunity to minister and sharpen the next generation. yeah, it's just, it's a beautiful opportunity that I get to do that. And yeah, I've been able to build deeper relationships with my athletes because of it. Yeah. That's really good. mean, I was just thinking of just all the great relationships that I have. There's knowledge on both ends of the relationship, if that makes sense. So what?
Ian Hess:
And I think that's just like a quick shout out to even the people that we think we're mentoring or not we think that we are mentoring and people that we're a little bit ahead of you taking the opportunity to share with them or you're stretched out. I don't think it's like, it's not dumping like a load on them and set up in the sense of just jumping, dumping all my feelings and my thoughts on them, but it's actually allowing them to get into your life a little bit and to speak a little like, cause you don't know if they have a word for you as well.
Ian Hess:
But I think what it does in that moment is it takes it away from being transactional and then you become into the relational aspect of it. And that's so awesome that you're doing that. mean, what a great story. Just to take, you know, that's like three quarters, not three quarters. I can't even do math and I have an engineering degree. Goodness gracious. I was in school for eight years. do you expect? Anyways, I was in school for six, brother. I got you beat there. Unfortunately, unfortunately. But,
Ian Hess:
Yeah, that's so cool. Thanks for sharing that story. I love that you're bringing your faith into your daily life because that's what it's about. And I think what I don't want to end this podcast without talking about this specific word. And this is one of my goals for this podcast because I think it kind of sums up the topic that we have today. It's really just consistency. Yeah. And that word alone will speak numbers to this situation because it's about doing the right things and showing up when you don't want to. It's about doing the right things when you don't want to. And I want to before I get into the question about
Ian Hess:
Or the question that you can, I want you to encourage maybe some of, somebody listening to this saying that, you know, it's been hard for me. Okay. But I want to ask you, is there any biblical examples that have kept you grounded in this topic? When you think about this or maybe your feelings trying to overwhelm your habits or something like that?
JR:
Yeah, there's, there's a couple that comes to mind, but kind of the, the first verse that has been on my heart for a little over a year is in James. James will get you. Yeah, James. James will jab you. Don't go there when you're down bad. Yeah, you end up worse. I'm just kidding. Yeah, there's a verse in James and it talks about, you know, to consider it pure joy, know, brothers and sisters that when you go through trials, right, that to consider it as an opportunity. How many times do we do we consider?
JR:
When we go through trials and tribulations, obligation, man, like, God, like, really, you dumping this on me, bro. no, it says-
JR:
To consider an opportunity for great joy. you know that when your faith is tested, it has an opportunity to grow. It has an opportunity to produce perseverance. So we must let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. And the key word is perseverance. Like you have to persevere and have an endurance to that when you go through trials, it doesn't say if.
JR:
But when you know the when is crucial. Exactly. You know, when we go through trials, we have an opportunity. And my prayer is, Lord, may I never look at it any other way? Yeah. You know, because if you put it on my shoulders, then you must see a way out. It's good. So I'm just going to continuously going to seek you in those moments until, you know,
JR:
you deliver me. And when you do, I'm still going to serve you. Yeah, that's good. You know, so it's it's just a great verse that has been keeping me grounded because in a season where I've been going through trials and it looks different every season, I just have to look at it as an opportunity to grow. It's good. Yeah, that's really good. So I want to end with a little encouragement from you, I guess, today to the audience. And
JR:
If you could maybe think about what is one practical example, like a tangible thing you could do or mindset shift that would help somebody that you'd recommend that you would want the listeners to do to strengthen their faith habit or routine. Yeah. First, I would, I would say that replacing with your, have to's with I get to. It's good. Kind of what I was saying earlier, the obligation versus opportunity mindset.
JR:
If you if you say find yourself saying I get to then you're gonna have more Of a heart where it's like man, I get to do this. Yeah, you know and you're gonna have even the bad things, right? Yeah, yeah, or even the things you don't want to do right? Okay, right and It changes your perspective, you know, it changes your perspective and you start to look for the good in a world where
JR:
negativity gets highlighted. How man it is so against going against the grain when you look for the good in things when every it seems like everything's going bad. Yeah. It's very easy to like what do you yeah they're like what are you seeing are you even looking at it? Yeah like you're going to your nine to five. it's it's tough out here. know it's tough out here. These these customers my co-workers.
JR:
They smell like grease. I don't know if it's we got to clean the grease tray or if it's my customers that haven't cleaned it or it's my coworkers that have to their clothes. No, but I have an opportunity. have opportunity to share the love of Jesus with someone today. It's good. It's just having a different perspective. You know, so I would just say replace here. I have to use with I get to and in.
JR:
In your prayer time, I would say, thank God for what He has done first and foremost. I think having a heart and spirit of gratitude first is one way to just condition your heart, to align your heart towards... It's like prepping your heart for anything else that the Lord adds onto your life. Lord, if you do not add a dollar,
JR:
another dollar to my life. Jesus, he will be glorified. And that's just such a posture, a good posture to be in. Even if you don't necessarily your feelings don't feel that way. But having being saying that audibly and saying that to the father, your feelings will follow. In the name of Jesus, your feelings will follow. So it's like, it's like that song, Brandon Lake sings.
JR:
Okay. Yeah. guy's getting out of control. You two is definitely going to take this down. You're not going to be able to, you're not going to be able to monitor. You might be doing this for my podcast or everywhere else you go. Cause you talk about other things. Well, I think I might be one and done brother. I think I might be one and done. No, but, um, in gratitude, says, come on my soul. Don't you get shy on, know? Um, and it's, it's just, it's calling for, for your feelings to just say, let's go. even though
JR:
I don't feel this way, even though I don't necessarily believe this, I'm still going to continue to put my trust in it because God has delivered me from so much. God has delivered me from this. God has delivered me from that. God woke me up this morning. Right. It doesn't even have to be something that is so catastrophic. It could just be something as so simple as the Lord waking you up, you having access to clean water, you having a bed to sleep on. Right. How many people in this world
JR:
don't have access to clean water, you know, and we take that for we take that for granted. Yeah. but that's that's kind of like what we default to as as a society sometimes. So just having a perspective of and gratitude for the little things. And that will lead to the big things. Yeah. Is what I would just
JR:
encourage the people who may be struggling in this department, in that department. Yeah, I think that's good. I love the heart of gratitude topic. And I also love that I asked for one thing and you guys got like seven. So that was complimentary. It's on the house. That's literally how. Well, I was I got a little nervous when you said the first thing and I was like, I asked for one thing. So what do you the first thing? is the first and final. I'd like to give you three practical points. Three times.
JR:
10 and we'll go one by one. Yeah. Okay. They all start with P. We don't have time for all those. We're going to be here all day. But anyways, no, thank you for that. I love the heart of gratitude and starting small. It's so important. And I don't think it's our fault for taking things for granted. It's just a small drift every day that we just are like, Hey, I've had this all my life. Yeah. Why do I, should I be thankful for the rules? Cause like, you know, we should be thankful for everything. Even the breath in our lungs that God has given us for just each and every day. So
Ian Hess:
As we end every podcast, I want to end with a practical challenge question for the audience that everyone listening. So what you guys agree to your homework, not homework. It's one question. Everybody likes one question. anyways, the question I have for you guys today is what is one small habit or thing you guys can change that will strengthen your faith tomorrow? So what's one thing you can do today that will strengthen your faith tomorrow? And I love a lot of examples that JR was talking about. A lot of it's small too. It doesn't have to be
Ian Hess:
I need to go to six services a week or I need to listen to 12 messages, you know, every month or whatever. Yeah. the, on the week or the months that have five Sundays. But, but yeah, what's one thing you guys can do in your schedule today that will help with your faith tomorrow? Cause a lot of times tomorrow is too late. Cause we're going to just kind of wait. So, and what I love about this is that the one small thing, because when you guys put these habits in there, there's going be so many things in your life that are always changing.
Ian Hess:
You know, your route to work is never the same amount of time. Remember that same route. There's going to be traffic. There's going be someone cutting you off. There's so much variability to every life. But if you can start to build some of that consistency, what we talked about, their days will get better. And our mission here is to help our Monday through Saturday look more like our Sunday. Well, how do we do that? It's a consistency. It's consistent search and desire to know God more and to allow Him to come into our life more. One thing that I'm actually going to be doing, I this, I forget where I heard this from, but I want to give credit to it. But
Ian Hess:
is a, I bought a five-year journal, three or five years, multiple years. So you go in there, you record one or two lines a day. And what you do is you can see how God delivered you from some things. If you want to like your fears in there, you can see are things that you're struggling with. You can see how God's delivered them from you on that same day, kind of the next year, because you'll be writing on the same day. So that's something I just bought. Hold me accountable. I need to start. I'm going to start tonight. Hold me accountable now. If you're listening to this. JR, before I...
Ian Hess:
Go into the outro here. Do you? Well, first of all, I want to thank you for taking. I know you're serving the community this morning. You're in here. What do you got? Let you get a cat out of a tree. I think I'd say once you're not going to be locked in taking quizzes and taking questions. But I want to thank you, brother. You got any final words before we close out here? Final word word. I just get it. I don't want to do like that change.
JR:
Yeah, man. God is great. Jesus saves. I think that my life, where I'm at in my life is if somebody told me that I would be at an outreach Saturday morning, you know, three years, four years, five years ago, I'd tell them that they'd be, lying because I'd be hungover from the night before.
JR:
You're right. I'd be driving home that while they're doing outreach, I'd be getting the free gas. But yeah, I might go for the free gas. But no, mean, God can change, can do so much in your obedience and in your in your yes. Yeah. So even when you just don't feel like, you know, going to church or you never know what's on the other side of that decision. So.
JR:
Always, you know, even with today, I did a service Saturday and, I didn't, it was my first one. I didn't really feel like it was something that, I was really equipped to do in this season. But, you know, when I got there, just had all these encounters and, had these beautiful moments that I got to share. And, so it all started from a yes. Right. So, give God, don't be afraid to give God your yes because,
JR:
What's on the other side of it? You know, you have the blessing. Yeah, it's good. Yeah. Thank you, brother. I appreciate your time. As a reminder, as we end every single podcast that you personally, you listen to this to remember that you've been given a purpose and a calling that only you can fulfill. So don't settle for the ordinary, but step into the extraordinary work that God wants to do in your individual life. Thank you guys so much for being here and God bless. God bless.