Have you ever been asked to give a public speech or presentation and your body immediately goes into "fight or flight" survival mode?
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​Ever since I can remember, that was me.  I can remember back in my high school years in our small town church having to pray for the offering and I would stress out like no other if I knew ahead of time that I had to be the one to pray.
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​As an adult, anytime I have had to address a crowd of people...and I mean crowd as anything more than 5, I would experience a racing heart, tightness in my chest, and severe anxiety from the moment I knew I had to speak until after it was done.  Sometimes there were weeks in between these two points.
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​In 2015, I attended a leadership conference and the only thing I remember about this conference was the very clear message in my heart that God was calling me to be a leader of a large number of people.  What that would like...I'm still figuring it out.  But it was as clear to me as if God was audibly telling me those words.
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​Fast-forward to the fall of 2023, I could write a book of all the experiences that I've been through, both as an entrepreneur and at the spiritual level in my personal life.  During this time, I had a conversation with my close friend and Founder of Chariots4Hope, Jason Hurt that had a profound impact in my life journey.  You can hear about this conversation in the video below.
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​What's not in the video is it was shortly after this conversation that moved my wife and I to step up and commit a large amount of money from our businesses to sponsor the 2024 Chariots4Hope fundraiser.  This was a commitment that was much larger than anything we had ever done before.
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​What I didn't know at the time was that as part of this sponsorship, I would be expected to speak at the gala...where there would be at least 600 people in attendance.  And, to be honest, this freaked me out way more than giving the money.
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​But God has been doing a major overhaul in my life over the last two years, and as I started praying about it, I started seeing it as an opportunity to lean into God's calling from 9 years ago and to trust him to use me for his greater good.
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​For me, my one act of obedience wasn't just about letting go of the money, but letting go of my fear of public speaking.
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​Last Thursday night, May 16, 2024, I got up in front of almost SEVEN-HUNDRED people and delivered a 7ish minute talk to an amazing audience that was so kind and supportive.  I talked to them about my journey of becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ which included an intentional goal of becoming a generous person with my time, talents, and treasures.
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​I challenged them to consider what God could do with THEIR one act of obedience by partnering with Chariots4Hope to give Hope and change the lives of single moms and dads all over Omaha.
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​For me, only time will tell what God will do with my one act of obedience of giving my fears over to him so he can use me and my resources to bring people to Christ, because at the end of my life, I want to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
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​Here is my talk and then it is followed by a POWERFUL recap of the last 10 years at Chariots4Hope.  I hope you enjoy it, but more more importantly, I hope it moves you to action.