Armin Assadi + Crime Boss

[00:00:03] Welcome to the Ask About My Faith Podcast, where our hope is to inspire everyday faith

[00:00:08] conversations.

[00:00:09] I'm Jess and I'm Abby.

[00:00:11] Today we have an incredible guest, Armin Assadi.

[00:00:15] Armin's journey is one of resilience, survival, and transformation.

[00:00:20] As a child, he fled religious persecution in Iran, only later to find himself entangled

[00:00:27] in a life of organized crime.

[00:00:30] Everything changed when he asked himself, how did I get here?

[00:00:34] And then counter God in a life-altering moment.

[00:00:38] From contemplating suicide to experiencing the miraculous grace of God in a courtroom,

[00:00:44] Armin's story is raw and powerful.

[00:00:48] If you've ever questioned where you belong or felt hesitant to share your faith, this

[00:00:53] episode will challenge you to step up and normalize faith conversations.

[00:01:04] Armin, welcome to the Ask About My Faith Podcast, how are you?

[00:01:08] Amazing.

[00:01:09] Thank you for having me.

[00:01:10] Oh, we're so glad to have you.

[00:01:13] I just can't wait to have you share some of your stories.

[00:01:16] I don't even know most of them, but I know that one of the most incredible stories is

[00:01:24] your own of how you cater to the Lord and just kind of how you got to where you

[00:01:28] are now.

[00:01:29] So let us know.

[00:01:32] Man, I'll give you a brief summary and you guys tell me what part interests you, but

[00:01:37] it's born in the Islamic Republic of Iran into a family that was not Muslim and a family

[00:01:45] that was serving the monarchy at the time, the Shah of Iran or the King of Iran,

[00:01:51] and my mother's side was more like military leaders.

[00:01:55] And so when the Islamic Revolution took over, we essentially became gay, black, and Jewish

[00:02:00] living in Nazi Germany.

[00:02:02] So I got pretty rough and we started escaping around the country for a while until we

[00:02:08] ran out of places, then we fled on foot across a desert over a mountain and went and moved

[00:02:13] into the slums of Pakistan.

[00:02:15] Live there for 17 months, got a religious refugee pass, came to America, learned my fifth

[00:02:20] language, third culture and had a fairly typical refugee life.

[00:02:26] And then when I was 15, my parents started divorcing, which doesn't sound like a big deal,

[00:02:30] but I didn't never heard the word divorce before.

[00:02:34] I was 11.

[00:02:35] I never even heard of the concept.

[00:02:38] And then I judged Americans on it and then four years later, my parents were divorcing.

[00:02:43] I just kind of set me off and I went back hanging out with my friends in the projects

[00:02:48] that I no longer lived in.

[00:02:50] And we started dabbling in criminal activities, got organized when we were 19, made my first

[00:02:55] million when I was 21, and became the crime bosses in the kit by the time I was 26.

[00:03:01] And then left that life, face the federal court trial, but got saved in the process,

[00:03:09] and then started interning at a church, working on a church, then taking over ministries.

[00:03:14] And here I am today.

[00:03:16] So to go from taking over all the crime in wherever you lived, taking over churches,

[00:03:23] growing their ministries and more people in the Lord.

[00:03:27] Oh my God.

[00:03:28] And you grab somebody out of darkness, you got a little shine.

[00:03:31] Oh for sure.

[00:03:32] So what was the, what was the turning point for you?

[00:03:35] How did you come to know the Lord?

[00:03:40] So I, everyone thinks I actually found the Lord at before I quit my old criminal life.

[00:03:49] But I actually quit that life before I found God.

[00:03:55] I don't like self-aparty.

[00:03:57] It was like a, you know.

[00:03:59] It was, it was big.

[00:04:01] It was at a nightclub, you know, cost me like a quarter million dollars just to celebrate me because I'm so humble.

[00:04:09] And I just remember that night, I went.

[00:04:12] It's a very specific.

[00:04:14] It's a very vivid, but I went in satin the VIP section where they had this big,

[00:04:19] got-off of Gody, velvet, red monster chair.

[00:04:24] And I went and sat in it and I grabbed my drink.

[00:04:28] And I remember just sitting there and feeling like I was on top of the world, you know?

[00:04:33] And I just kept asking the question like, how did I get here?

[00:04:37] You know, like it was a good question.

[00:04:39] How did I get here?

[00:04:40] But for some reason I kept asking that question again and the tone changed each time where

[00:04:45] it's kind of like, wait a minute, how did I get here?

[00:04:50] Wait, how did I, you know, it was like one of those things?

[00:04:54] Yeah, yeah.

[00:04:54] And it was the first time in 10 years that I even reflected

[00:05:01] of why I even got into this life.

[00:05:04] And it was the first time I remember the only reason I started hanging out with those people

[00:05:09] that different group or old group, whatever you want to call it,

[00:05:13] was because I was losing my family and I was looking for a new family.

[00:05:19] And I'm not kidding.

[00:05:20] There was literally the first time I thought about it.

[00:05:22] I've been living in this life for like 10 years, right?

[00:05:26] And then I started looking around the room, looking for my family.

[00:05:32] You know?

[00:05:32] And these are people.

[00:05:34] And we've been shot at stabbed, shot at people, we've been beaten jailed,

[00:05:39] we've gone through millions of dollars, we have traveled the world,

[00:05:44] seen the craziest things, you know, we've protected these.

[00:05:47] We've gone through enough cred to feel like a family.

[00:05:51] But when I started looking around, it was probably one of the most

[00:05:55] pressing moments of my entire life because I kept making eye contact with all sorts of people

[00:06:01] and everyone has a way of reciprocating their, you know, greeting to you.

[00:06:07] Whatever, you know, everyone we're doing the exchange, but then I just remember every person

[00:06:11] I looked at, I was just like, you're not a family, you're not a family, you're not a family.

[00:06:17] And I just realized I'd built a criminal business to convince myself I have a family.

[00:06:24] And I wasn't even at my own party for more than 45 minutes and I got up left

[00:06:29] onto my hotel room and played with a gun.

[00:06:32] On my head, I just like, wow.

[00:06:34] I can't believe this is, this is who I've become.

[00:06:39] And I got anything but what I said out for.

[00:06:43] If anything, I disenfranchised my own family.

[00:06:47] And all I got out of it was criminal power and money.

[00:06:53] I don't think I found success that I never wanted.

[00:06:58] Yeah.

[00:06:58] It was a...

[00:06:59] Yeah, quite literally the most pressing moments of my life.

[00:07:04] No kidding.

[00:07:05] And so it was there, I mean, clearly you did not choose to end it all that night.

[00:07:11] Despite, I mean, you were sitting in that place for quite a long time.

[00:07:16] What turned it around?

[00:07:17] What changed your mind?

[00:07:18] Where did God seem to step in or how did that go?

[00:07:22] There was no god in that moment.

[00:07:24] It was a business decision.

[00:07:28] Wow.

[00:07:28] It was if we were at war with a different group.

[00:07:32] Yeah.

[00:07:33] It was just a logical decision.

[00:07:35] If I...

[00:07:35] I got to build here to...

[00:07:37] Well, if the boss kills himself, everyone out,

[00:07:40] my mind as well, put a bullet in everyone else's head too.

[00:07:44] So it was just a very logical decision or than anything.

[00:07:48] But I remember going home and just kind of having to figure out

[00:07:56] after my drunk and high, whatever.

[00:08:00] I mean, I literally tried to drown myself.

[00:08:04] I could have...

[00:08:05] But I came home the next night and I remember just sitting around being like,

[00:08:09] what do I do?

[00:08:11] What do I do?

[00:08:14] And instead of coming up with something that might be considered a good plan,

[00:08:19] I decided to get myself killed.

[00:08:21] So I keep putting myself in these like criminal scenarios,

[00:08:26] hoping someone would pull the trigger.

[00:08:28] And I got into a couple of them and I remember once I actually,

[00:08:31] literally bit, you know, like, my mouth on the gun that was being held on me.

[00:08:37] And I just remember being like, you know,

[00:08:41] I was almost begging to do shoot, you know, just please shoot.

[00:08:44] Get this over with.

[00:08:45] Oh my gosh.

[00:08:47] And I couldn't even do that and for whatever reason,

[00:08:50] that was so depressing to me that I couldn't even...

[00:08:53] I feel that getting killed.

[00:08:55] You know, it was like, how hard?

[00:08:56] You just go walk on a highway or something, you know?

[00:09:00] And I went home that night and I said, all right,

[00:09:04] let's think about this.

[00:09:05] What made you happy when you were happy?

[00:09:07] And I remember I came to two things that actually made me happy.

[00:09:10] I had faith and I had family.

[00:09:12] And so I remember just trying to figure out, okay,

[00:09:15] family's gonna take a long time.

[00:09:16] I screwed that one up.

[00:09:19] I seducated 10 years of people who were barely friends.

[00:09:23] You know?

[00:09:24] So faith, I don't want to just be my mom and dad's faith.

[00:09:27] And, you know, like my family's faith is

[00:09:31] legendary but in a different religion.

[00:09:33] And so I was like, is that the religion that I meant for?

[00:09:37] And I just remember being like, nope,

[00:09:39] I'm not doing this just so I can say I have faith

[00:09:43] if I'm gonna have faith it's gonna be real.

[00:09:45] So I started trying to find God.

[00:09:47] I went to everything.

[00:09:49] You know, into Islamic mosque,

[00:09:50] Hindu temple, Buddhist temples,

[00:09:54] Church of science which is not just here at just Scientology.

[00:09:58] Baptist Church Lutheran Church Catholic Church,

[00:10:00] you know, I was just going around and

[00:10:02] they all really felt similar, you know?

[00:10:05] Like you do not belong here.

[00:10:07] You know, I'd go to the Muslim that

[00:10:09] and you know, I'm trying to follow.

[00:10:10] I don't speak Arabic.

[00:10:11] They would go down.

[00:10:12] I'd still be sitting up right back all crap.

[00:10:14] And then I would go down and as I'm going down,

[00:10:17] they're all going up and so,

[00:10:19] you know, this was the situation.

[00:10:21] Yeah.

[00:10:21] I went to Catholic Church and then,

[00:10:24] you know, I'm sitting in an awesome

[00:10:25] Christian temple.

[00:10:26] Yeah.

[00:10:27] It happens because like,

[00:10:29] crack here we go again.

[00:10:31] Lutheran Church here we go again.

[00:10:33] I was just like, man,

[00:10:34] I don't really fit.

[00:10:35] None of this is real.

[00:10:36] Like, it's beautiful.

[00:10:39] There's rituals or traditions.

[00:10:41] There's whatever.

[00:10:43] It's just like, it's a felt so robotic.

[00:10:45] I was just like, I don't get what's going on.

[00:10:46] I don't belong here and

[00:10:49] eventually I ended up in a predominantly black church

[00:10:52] which ended up kind of feeling like home for me.

[00:10:54] And that was the first place I actually gave my information

[00:10:57] and that Thursday,

[00:11:02] one of the guys from that church calls me.

[00:11:04] And he's like, yo, is this armin acety?

[00:11:08] I was like close enough.

[00:11:10] Close enough.

[00:11:12] I was like, what's up with this?

[00:11:13] You know, he's like, how's this crisp?

[00:11:15] He went through his shabby on.

[00:11:16] He's like, we got this man's group.

[00:11:18] This would be probably good for you.

[00:11:20] And man, we'd love to meet you and get to know you.

[00:11:22] And I was like, all right, cool.

[00:11:25] So, I was like, I went, when is it, you know?

[00:11:28] And he's like, oh, it starts at 630.

[00:11:31] I was like, it's five p.m.

[00:11:33] And I was like, what day?

[00:11:35] He's like, oh, today.

[00:11:37] And I was like, all right, man.

[00:11:41] You know, like, I got nothing going on in my life at this point.

[00:11:44] So I ended up going and meeting probably some of the most

[00:11:47] awkward Christian dudes I've ever met.

[00:11:50] Okay.

[00:11:52] And the socializing with them was somewhat painful.

[00:11:56] But there were just, I don't know, like, you grew up in a criminal life.

[00:12:00] You kind of learned to not care what people say.

[00:12:02] Just read the body language.

[00:12:04] Do you know what I'm saying?

[00:12:05] And they just made me feel like I wasn't at risk.

[00:12:12] You know, like it's not like I felt safe in the sense that they were going to

[00:12:19] they, you know?

[00:12:21] And no matter how awkward it was, it was almost something I needed.

[00:12:25] And I remember they kept trying to invite me to this place called substance.

[00:12:31] And because I was invited from a church that's not substance and they kept trying to

[00:12:36] invite me to this substance place.

[00:12:38] I got to the point where I got mad and started cussing, you know, I was like,

[00:12:42] I don't know the substance problem.

[00:12:43] You live a substance problem.

[00:12:44] You know, I was just getting so amazing.

[00:12:46] There was some kind of substance addiction.

[00:12:50] And they all started cracking up.

[00:12:52] What is so far?

[00:12:53] Yeah, dude, it's the name of our church.

[00:12:55] I was like, oh, yeah.

[00:12:57] Yeah.

[00:12:58] I'm not going to get up.

[00:12:59] I mean, so I ended up going in like the first time I went.

[00:13:03] And it's not like I've gone, this is my first church service.

[00:13:06] I went to a whole and you have church services.

[00:13:09] Okay.

[00:13:09] Look for whatever reason that was that service I gave my life to Christ.

[00:13:13] Okay.

[00:13:13] I just remember Pastor Peter just gave this.

[00:13:17] It was raw kind of, you know, like how many times are you going to find your way

[00:13:23] to the bottom of the bottle to find what you're looking for isn't there.

[00:13:26] How many times are you going to wake up in the morning and look to your left and

[00:13:30] right and realize it's not that, you know, it was just one of those like, yeah.

[00:13:33] This doesn't feel like church commentary.

[00:13:36] And I just, and I just remember sitting and I started like shaking, you know,

[00:13:40] literally shaking, you know.

[00:13:42] I was like, what's happening?

[00:13:43] Am I, I must be nervous, anxious, and having a panic attack.

[00:13:47] And then he went into this like,

[00:13:50] alter call thing, which I'm not familiar with.

[00:13:53] You know, he did his thing and he said raise your hand.

[00:13:56] I don't know why, like as if there was a cop in front of me holding guns both hands

[00:13:59] but up and up, you know.

[00:14:01] And it's just what this one here, my little one.

[00:14:03] I was like, what is happening?

[00:14:05] And then I remember even after it, you know, like,

[00:14:09] just I don't, I just sat there and wept.

[00:14:13] I don't know why.

[00:14:13] I just wept that could stop crying.

[00:14:16] And I just stayed in that auditorium and then like

[00:14:20] getting up and looking around and I'm like, oh man,

[00:14:23] there's people kind of watching me and I felt judged but then I realized like some

[00:14:28] couple of people hand their hand up.

[00:14:30] And I was like, oh, this is that weird like

[00:14:34] directs my prayer at you thing.

[00:14:36] And I was like, oh, they're actually praying for me.

[00:14:38] I was like, this is the craziest place.

[00:14:41] And it was substance, you know, like everyone looked like the teenage kids.

[00:14:45] I was like, that just ended up with a youth group.

[00:14:47] There's just, I don't know, there's weird.

[00:14:48] I don't know how to explain it but I think I just got overwhelmed into faith

[00:14:53] and come to realize God isn't a religion.

[00:14:59] And it's like a relationship and that's not a concept.

[00:15:02] Yeah.

[00:15:03] You learn in the Middle East, you know?

[00:15:05] Sure.

[00:15:05] These are the Punisher.

[00:15:07] More than he is a relationship.

[00:15:10] Wow.

[00:15:12] Yeah, gosh.

[00:15:13] Sorry, I got too long, too long of a story.

[00:15:16] I was like, you'd experience

[00:15:17] youth experience enough of pain and punishment and judgment through your life

[00:15:22] and so to finally being a place where it's like,

[00:15:25] wait, they're not just looking at me because they're judging me.

[00:15:27] They're looking at me because they care about me.

[00:15:32] I had to have been a big moment.

[00:15:34] Yeah, you know, it actually forms a lot of my

[00:15:39] ministry vision strategy and I didn't even know it at first.

[00:15:46] It took me years to figure it out but I realized how powerful it is to feel

[00:15:53] like you'd be long to something or belong somewhere.

[00:15:57] You know?

[00:15:58] Because it's like I grew up in Iran.

[00:15:59] I don't belong there even though my family built that country,

[00:16:03] protected that country.

[00:16:07] You know, my great-grandfather was the highest ranking military general.

[00:16:11] My grandfather was the personal finance manager to the shop for 23 years.

[00:16:15] Like we did some big things.

[00:16:17] We had the biggest farm.

[00:16:18] We had all sorts of stuff, you know?

[00:16:20] But I never felt like we belonged there because we weren't Muslim.

[00:16:24] Then you go to Pakistan and then you don't belong there

[00:16:27] speaking more to even after I learned or do I still didn't belong there.

[00:16:32] Then we come to America moving to the projects.

[00:16:34] I'm not white, I'm not black, I'm not Asian, I'm not Latino,

[00:16:39] I don't belong, I moved to suburbia and I went from being the whiteest kid on my

[00:16:44] black to being, you know, the darkest kid on my black and in my whole school.

[00:16:48] I felt like all my life I've just gone through so much like not belong.

[00:16:54] I think at some point I just accepted the fact that I don't belong anywhere and I got a force

[00:17:00] of to work or just own it so that I choose who belongs.

[00:17:05] And then you have this experience with God that like,

[00:17:10] I don't know how to logically explain because there's no logic in it where you just feel like

[00:17:16] you belong, you know?

[00:17:18] And I didn't know how powerful that was and it's literally been a spiritual formation

[00:17:24] realization for me ever since I had it, you know?

[00:17:27] That's so good.

[00:17:29] Well and it's wild to how you had such physical reactions to spiritual moments like

[00:17:35] in the club that was a spiritual moment where you felt compelled to like run away.

[00:17:41] And then in the church having this physical reaction where you felt compelled to like surrender

[00:17:46] your arms in the air and like run forward. It's it's like cyclical how God was like pulling you out of

[00:17:54] and then into the place to belong, you know?

[00:17:59] I've never thought of that club moment as spiritual.

[00:18:03] That was a fascinating statement.

[00:18:07] Now you got me thinking, okay, it's got your wheels turned in a little bit.

[00:18:11] So when you saw you had the moment at Substance Church and then have you did you start like

[00:18:19] attending there really felt like your first sense of belonging there at that church or was that also

[00:18:24] kind of a journey for you?

[00:18:27] No, I immediately just jumped in.

[00:18:29] Oh yeah, okay.

[00:18:31] I just like how do I take over?

[00:18:34] Ask questions, start your volunteer and showing up and then respond to talking to every pastor whether

[00:18:39] they wanted to talk to me or not, you know?

[00:18:42] I was just everywhere all at the same time and yeah.

[00:18:47] And they just kept pulling me and pulling me in and you know like the whole podcast you guys do

[00:18:53] ask me about my faith. It's like when I first got saved,

[00:18:58] you didn't have to ask me much. You were gonna hear like I didn't know what else to talk about.

[00:19:03] You know, I literally all I would talk about.

[00:19:05] You know, I was just on fire. So

[00:19:09] but at the same time I had a federal court case hanging over my head with the 10 year mandatory,

[00:19:15] minimum 10 year minimum mandatory hanging over my head.

[00:19:19] And so like I'm diving into this whole church. God love thing.

[00:19:26] At the same time I'm mentally preparing to be in a prison for at least 10 years, you know.

[00:19:32] Wow. Do I do? Yeah. And anyway that's a whole another story. I won't get into it. But yeah,

[00:19:38] I definitely do. Well, so long story short you didn't do the prison time. That did you?

[00:19:46] Nope. So I was found guilty. I am a felon. So I was found guilty.

[00:19:56] But I didn't get a 10 year minimum of mandatory. They gave me a downward departure.

[00:20:02] And it was such a holy moment. I don't want to take up a podcast with it. But

[00:20:08] the judge complimented me before taking a recess to go figure out what my sentence was.

[00:20:16] And then, you know, my lawyer was like, man, I hope he takes a long time because that means he's getting

[00:20:20] creative to blah, blah, blah. That's a good sign. But if he comes back right away,

[00:20:25] you know, sticking to that 10 year minimum mandatory. And I was like, Jesus.

[00:20:32] Make him not come back until next week. Yeah. And he came back 15 minutes later. Oh my God.

[00:20:40] It's like Jesus where you at dude. And um and he started off this sentence by complimenting me again.

[00:20:48] This is a federal judge. Okay. Like I don't know. Yeah. And you just hear just found guilty. So

[00:20:55] this is where we find out I'm going to be found guilty, right? Oh, okay. And this is the

[00:21:00] sentence in portion of it. And before he gets into his sentence and he starts talking about

[00:21:06] he's like, I mean, I was racking my brain trying to figure a word that describes you.

[00:21:12] And I couldn't figure it out until I walk back in here. Okay. I know none of this sounds weird,

[00:21:19] but you got to understand this is a federal courtroom. It looks like a, yeah, it's like a Greek

[00:21:25] temple made for punishment criminals. You know what I'm saying? And it's intimidating and you

[00:21:32] got like guard standing next to you just in case you're about to like jump and run and it's

[00:21:37] super intimidating and you're just sitting there and all of a sudden he starts it off by trying to

[00:21:42] say, I've been racking my brain trying to think of a word that describes you and I was like,

[00:21:46] God, this can't be. And he goes, but when I came back in here, I realized what it was.

[00:21:52] Gracious. You're one of the most gracious people I've ever had in this court. Wow.

[00:22:00] And you know, you don't want to tilt your head when you're looking at a judge, but I don't,

[00:22:03] I think I was paying attention to body, and I don't think my lawyer knew what was going on.

[00:22:09] And he's one of the best than he's never experienced. And there's all sorts of crazy stuff that

[00:22:14] happened beforehand like the judge put the prosecution on trial during my trial.

[00:22:20] Like to the point where he took his first recess went off and brought back a pile of papers.

[00:22:26] That was like a foot foot and a half thick because it was five different ones. He handed it

[00:22:31] to everyone because the judge asked the defense attorney or not the defense of the prosecutor.

[00:22:37] When was the last time you guys show an leniency to anyone that you've had in this court?

[00:22:41] And the prosecutors like, oh, you're on her. I'm sure we've done it plenty times and

[00:22:45] the judge looked at him goes, I've seen your records.

[00:22:47] You still receive. Yeah. He's like, you're not. And he's like, you're on her. I'm sure we have.

[00:22:53] And he's like, oh, okay. Like he thought mad. Yeah. He literally took a recess

[00:22:59] into his chamber printed off a stack of papers came back handed out copies to each party and said,

[00:23:07] sir, that is the last 17 years of your cases. If you could show me one person that you have shown

[00:23:14] leniency to other than this, one case I will listen to what you have to say. And like the

[00:23:21] prosecutors started apologizing and like back pedaling and all this stuff. And so now this is the

[00:23:27] sentence. And he starts it off with this gracious thing at this point.

[00:23:33] Me and my attorney have no clue what's going on. I'm like, this is whatever's going on.

[00:23:38] Yeah. There's there's no norm to this. And all the sudden he gives the top gives us downward

[00:23:44] departure, creates a slieny and see. But finds me guilty. And then it gets to the sentencing part

[00:23:52] and I was like, oh man. All right. It's cool. I didn't get 10 years or 15 years. So this will

[00:23:57] probably be like, you know, 36 months, 48 months. I can handle that. And he goes,

[00:24:08] he said, I mean, give you 15 weekends in jail. And me and my attorney kind of looked at each other.

[00:24:18] And then he stopped my attorney stopped the judge and said, your honor. I'm sorry,

[00:24:25] they're in trouble. Did you did you say weekends? Not 15 weeks. He said, yeah, okay. I'm sorry.

[00:24:32] Let me clarify that. I started breaking it down. Excuse my cuff. But this is how basically

[00:24:40] he worded it. He said, I mean, I want you to check yourself and to whatever so and so county jail.

[00:24:47] And if you guys don't know the difference between like jail and prison, it's like play ground versus

[00:24:56] like mosh pit. Yeah. Yeah. Like going to jail is. Anyway, so he's like I'm going to have you

[00:25:05] turn yourself in every Friday at 10 a.m. To so and so county jail blah blah blah and I'm going to have

[00:25:12] you check yourself out like it's a hotel basically, right? Because I'm going to have you check yourself up.

[00:25:17] I 10 a.m. on Sunday that should give you enough time to get to the second service of your church.

[00:25:23] Oh, my gosh. Wow. That is crazy. It's just one of those things are, I don't know. It's been

[00:25:41] 14 years and I still don't know how to describe that moment. Like you find guilty, but you're telling

[00:25:49] me to turn myself into jail. Like it's a whole town check myself out. That is crazy. I thought,

[00:25:56] oh 15 weekends. That's a very creative way to say 30 days or something. But even, I mean,

[00:26:01] whatever, what? Yeah. Exactly. That was my response. What? And that's where I

[00:26:10] go ahead. What's that? No, I was going to say so after that was when I landed my internship. So I remember

[00:26:16] calling my pastor and they all like gotten a circle. Like, dude, how are you calling us right now?

[00:26:21] I thought you're supposed to be in prison. We were just praying that it would be a lighter sentence.

[00:26:24] And I gave them the, you know, give them them like, I'm not going. What do you mean you're not going?

[00:26:30] I was it. And I told them the sentence that I got. No, no, no way. What are you going to do now?

[00:26:33] I was like, I'm in turn for you. And they're like, we don't have an intern program like you do now.

[00:26:39] And literally started interning for that. Oh, it was just crazy. I just, you can't make stuff up.

[00:26:48] No kidding. Okay. So, um, I mean, some of your earliest memories of sharing your faith then,

[00:26:55] you said you like, you didn't know what to talk about other than Jesus and your faith. I mean,

[00:27:01] did you share about the Lord with your, your inmate, the other inmates? Like, what I don't

[00:27:09] would it who tell us about some of those earliest memories of sharing your faith? Oh, man. I mean,

[00:27:13] it's like, it's almost impossible to have a singular memory. It was literally the only thing I wanted

[00:27:18] to talk about, you know, I discovered gravity or like I discovered that you can teleport from Minnesota

[00:27:24] to New York and a blank, you know, like I discovered something that I didn't think really existed

[00:27:30] and, you know, so it wasn't a conversation where I was like, you know, here's my even

[00:27:36] jellicle script and I hope so. Which is kind of cool, right? Yeah, it was just like, it was just

[00:27:42] talking to people from the heart. Yeah, like I, if I eat something and I want to talk about

[00:27:49] I'm going to talk about it. If I have a good conversation, I'm going to talk about it. If I had some

[00:27:54] experience with my workplace, I'm going to talk about, you know, there's just normal conversation

[00:27:57] for me. It wasn't, like I wasn't trying to do anything. I was just talking and just

[00:28:04] constantly talked about my faith because I couldn't believe I found God, you know, like,

[00:28:11] and as people knew me and I was start talking about it, they all thought, especially if they knew

[00:28:17] me from my past, they all thought I was losing it. Like they literally thought I had

[00:28:23] a mental breakdown and I was seeing things and creating experiences in my head,

[00:28:32] which is all valid. Like I don't know if you ever step outside of your own faith and your

[00:28:36] own knowledge of your faith and then you think about the type of God experiences you have

[00:28:41] and how you would describe it to someone who is completely outside of that, how crazy it sounds.

[00:28:47] Like, you know, just sound weird. That's fair. I like trying to explain a try-in God

[00:28:52] and make it sound logical, you know? Like, I don't know. It's just it was, but that's all I could

[00:28:58] talk about. And it was great because I wasn't trying to do anything and it worked better than

[00:29:01] what I wanted to finally start trying to share my faith. Right. Well, and I mean, you said you

[00:29:08] kind of compared it to talking about the meal you ate, that was super good. You know, it's

[00:29:17] what if faith really is that easy for us to talk about or can be and we again over-complicated.

[00:29:24] I'm not the first person to suggest that maybe we over-complicate talking about faith and what

[00:29:29] that has to look like and sound like and the formula for it. What if it's simpler than we make

[00:29:37] it? Yeah. I think it would be really fun to maybe grab a piece of advice as we wrap up part one

[00:29:44] for anyone listening that maybe has been like they're in their faith journey and just looking

[00:29:50] for a new spark, a new excitement as if they were brand new in the faith again, just babies.

[00:29:58] What would you say to encourage our listeners to go out and incorporate faith in their everyday

[00:30:04] conversations? Just incorporated in their everyday conversations. I mean, I would say this. We live

[00:30:11] such a politically correct culture right now that it makes it impossible to not think before you

[00:30:18] talk because you are consumed and obsessed with judgment. And I would say this, you're not talking

[00:30:26] about anything that is bad. It's not offensive even though people are offended by it. It's a part

[00:30:36] of your life. You talk about children, you talk about school, you talk about work, you talk about politics,

[00:30:44] you talk about whatever diet, just normalize it and eventually people will get used to it because

[00:30:55] it's just a part of your life and you don't have to necessarily filter out the significant portion

[00:31:02] of your life just because it might be offensive or uncomfortable to someone. Some people you want

[00:31:08] to be around anyway, you know? One of my business partners is a Muslim. He asked me about my faith

[00:31:13] more than anyone does. You start to go into church and he talks to me about his faith. It's just

[00:31:20] conversation. I think we're just living a culture that makes it so convoluted and so difficult.

[00:31:27] I'm not just blaming LGBTQ or anything like that. I think we did that as Christians,

[00:31:33] but we up to 40,000 denominations. Obviously, we don't know how to talk about our own faith to each other.

[00:31:41] So obviously, we haven't necessarily figured it out with people who aren't Christians. We have

[00:31:46] to have 40,000 denominations. That means the only thing we're comfortable with is finding the

[00:31:50] niche of people that fall agree with everything that I think and it's an echo chamber and

[00:31:56] nobody is going to be offended. What's the point of that? I would just say, and normalize it,

[00:32:04] there's nothing wrong with it. I don't care what religion you are, or what faith background you are.

[00:32:09] It's a significant part of who you are. Don't hide it. Talk about it. You'll learn something too.

[00:32:14] Yeah. It sounds like you're pretty unoffendable which I imagine makes it easy for other people

[00:32:20] like your Muslim partner to talk to you about things as well. So for the Christians, it's like

[00:32:27] be an offendable, have conversations, learn something, be curious, talk about it. It's, yeah,

[00:32:35] all those things I love that. Thank you for that piece of advice. Absolutely. Yeah, curiosity.

[00:32:42] That's something I could talk about for a while. I would say the people who are antagonistic

[00:32:50] towards Christians are some of the easiest people to talk to about your faith. I love that.

[00:32:56] Well, and that is something that you said before we got rolling here that you are more than happy

[00:33:04] to go and share the gospel with people that a lot of Christians might be afraid of. So

[00:33:11] I can't wait to hear more stories about it. Thank you for listening to the Ask But My Faith podcast.

[00:33:18] We'd love your support in continuing to bring you encouraging and inspiring stories.

[00:33:23] Please subscribe, rate, and review wherever you're listening,

[00:33:26] and you can learn more about us and donate at AskButMyFaith.com.

[00:33:30] God bless you the speak as you go out and share your faith.