The GDgvn Podcast

This episode marks a first for the GDgvn podcast, as I interview James Townsend, someone whom I didn’t already know personally prior to the start of this podcast.  Like many of my fellow CrossFitters, I first knew of James from his reputation as a former football player turned fire breathing CrossFitter & Olympic weightlifter, but that is not why I continue to follow him and draw inspiration from him.  It is because of how outward and unashamed he is about his faith in God  & Christ and the role that he firmly believes that they both have played in his life. 

Tune in and learn how trusting God for the past year and a simple leap of faith on my part led to this very episode, and, more importantly, listen and learn all about James' path to boldness and love for Jesus Christ!

In this episode, Annalynn shares about looking back at her life and seeing how God was working in it and working on her the entire time. Once she let God fully into her life, her life started to finally make sense and she has found confidence and peace knowing that she is exactly where God intended for her to be.

She also talks a lot about how God worked backwards in her life, as if He had already planned her entire life and she was just stepping into it.  However, she never could have done that it she did not accept God into her life and trusted in Him and His plan.

Happy New Year everyone! 

Thank you to everyone who has supported the GDgvn podcast!  The level of growth I have experienced personally, the stories I have been able to share, the connections I have made and remade, the thank you’s I have received, the people I have inspired, and the countless other gifts I’ve experienced have given me countless affirmations that the small leap of faith I took early in 2018 and trusting in God and his plan were all worth it.  I am excited for some new changes for 2019 including new shorter 20-30 minute episodes that I will be alternating with the longer interviews.  They will be called “My GDgvn”, and in these episodes, I will be sharing my story and the personal lessons that I am learning each and everyday through the grace of God!  

Take a listen to the first episode of 2019 and hear how I came to make this decision!  I am looking forward to sharing the rest of 2019 with all of you.

Amen and God bless you all!

In part 2, we discuss how God basically played matchmaker for Marianne and Gary, and the reasons why they believe God brought them together as a couple. They admit their story and the strength of their faith at such a young age is not common nowadays, and so we talk a lot about the little things you can do turn your faith around no matter where you are in your life and journey of faith. Spoiler alert, it does require a little bit of crazy!

00:00 Start

00:20 Introduction

06:20 God the Matchmaker

9:30 “I’m your sister in Christ first…everything I do needs to lead you closer to heaven.”

11:45 “Wow.  I’m speechless”

16:30 What they have to say to those who don’t feel they have found their faith?

21:40 “Everyone is going to suffer.  Are you going to choose to struggle with or without Jesus?”

26:45 “If you’re mad at God, just tell Him you’re mad… that’s prayer too!”

28:00 “I felt like was a little bit crazy.”

33:30 “Imagine yourself as a living house…” –CS Lewis

37:30 “Sometimes the miracle comes through the process.”

42:50 “Jesus is my example, so I try to be more like Him everyday.”

45:15 “We do want to prepare our children to meet suffering.  We want to prepare children to meet differences in other people.  We want to prepare our children to meet to temptations because temptations come to everybody.”

47:05 “My purpose is to be as connected to as many people as I can, and to make a difference in as many people’s lives as I can.”

48:30 Closing Prayer

50:15 Closing Reflection

For a long time, my personal anger and resentment prevented me from seeing what God had placed right in front of me for many years, a fellow brother and fellow sister in Christ!  After a failed business endeavor between my long-time friend Gary and me, I held a long-time grudge against him and that simple fact alone prevented me from developing a meaningful relationship with him and his wife, Marianne, for many years.  However, through the grace of God, recently I was finally able to see past my anger, reconcile with Gary and realize a lot about my life and the mysterious, but wonderful, way that God works in our lives!  These two are by far two of the most grounded and faithful people I know, and a great example for me and many others struggling to with their faith. 

Listen in on part 1 of my talk with them as they give their full testimonies as they talk how God built them up separately and eventually brought them together to become even stronger as a couple than they ever were apart!

00:00 Podcast Introduction

01:15 What does it mean to be crazy?

08:15 Dyogis Introduction

13:00 Gary's Testimony

31:50 Marianne's Testimony

1:13:10 Closing Statement & Question for Reflection

A chance meeting, or a GDgvn one, about eight months ago with my friend Zeb Pascual set in motion what I now call the GDgvn podcast.  However, Zeb does not consider himself a Christian or Cathoic.  Yet, I believe that God used Zeb and set in motion a chance meeting between us that would eventually lead me to take a huge leap of faith and start the GDgvn Podcast.

So, how could and why would God use someone who is not a believer in Christ to help me on this journey of finding my GDgvn mission?  The answers may surprise you!  Furthermore, I believe that Zeb is the prime example of living a fulfilled life who is helping others to do the same.  Because it is true that not all Christians are living out their best lives or the nicest people, and, vice versa, there are people out there who are not Christian that are doing great things and living fulfilled lives!  

I believe the answer to the above question is lies in a concept that is central to Aristotelian ethics and philosophy, called "eudaemonia"! Listen in to learn more about it & Zeb!

00:00 Podcast Introduction

00:45 I paid over $100 on fried chicken!

09:30 Zeb's Introduction

16:00 Zeb's upbringing & his thoughts on religion

20:40 Zeb's path to his “fulfilled” life and pursuit of the “American Dream”

28:00 Zeb talks about grasping his life and discusses what he considers is GDgvn in his life

45:15 “The idea that we have free will, and we can use our ability to reason to exercise that free will is proof of God … God will not actively come (into your life), and will only reveal himself in little ways and it’s up to you to make decisions.”

53:10 “You will attract what you are.”

54:00 Natural intermission

54:30 Obstacles to living out a fulfilled life – fear & laziness.  The beauty is in the struggle.

58:30 Don’t be lazy! The world rewards actions.

1:08:15 What’s next for Zeb?

1:18:30 Final Closing & Prayer

Part 2 of my interview with my good friend, Jacob "Cub" Edwards.  In this second episode, we talk more about his struggle as an African American male in America, and how we deals with that everyday while still trying to remain faithful to God.  

00:00 Podcast Introduction & Reflection

06:45 “Admit you don’t know what you don’t know.”

10:30 “It is my responsibility to pray for those in leadership, whether I agree or disagree with what he stands for.  I have strong personal feelings, but those are personal feelings … that I’m not going to project on people.  I know responsibility as a Christian is to pray for him.”

13:00 “We (all people) are really not that different at the core.  We really just want the best for ours, our family, and beyond.”

18:20 “How are people supposed to know we are His (Christ)? What evidence do people have that we’re mark and we’re called? The number one thing is love … I know people can be justified by not loving me (for stuff that I’ve done), but my God loves me regardless of what I’ve done … How can I not love the bigot?  How can I not love my friend?

24:00 “Imagine if you were genuinely happy for every single person you came across.  How much better would your life be? How much easier would it be for you to identify things in your life you could genuinely be happy for if just took a minute to appreciate them?”

30:00 “We all have this idea of who we’re going to be, until we face adversity … The way you match up reality versus the perception we have of ourselves … is when we look back at our life when we faced adversity.  The great part about it, it’s never too late.  Even if we didn’t like what we saw when we faced adversity, we thank God that we heard a word, that “next time we face adversity we have an opportunity to display really what we’re trying to be, what’s GDgvn.”

36:05 “There is no interaction that is neutral … if you think it’s neutral, it’s likely a negative one … Acknowledge people for being alive and put in your pathway for a reason.”

44:45 Closing Prayer & Reflection

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Trust me when I say that you do NOT want to miss this episode! It's going to be different than what you're used to hearing from the GDgvn Podcast, but just as inspiring!

My friend Jacob “Cub” Edwards is a passionate dude, and that is easily an understatement.  When we are passionate about something, we easily jump at any opportunity to share that something with anyone who shows interest! But for many of us, it’s just maybe those one or two things.  However, for Cub, passion is just part of who he is and he expresses that passion in all facets of his life.  The man is always fully engaged with whomever he speaks, and he is excited to talk to you about anything that is worth fighting for or working towards in this world, even if it’s not his own personal mission.

He is a UCLA graduate with a Masters in Education AND Masters in Educational Leadership & Administration.  He has a lengthy resume with Green Dot Public Schools serving as an Asst Principal or Principal for many inner city schools and has really pushed the status quo of education in our country.  And now God has blessed him even more, by helping him expanding his reach as he is now an Educational Consultant, traveling around the country empowering schools with all the knowledge he has learned over his short but impressive career!

00:00 Podcast introduction & reflection

06:20 Cub's introduction

12:00 "I love people.  I've been so blessed in my life, and it would be selfish of me not to give the same love unconditionally!"

18:00 “There are no neutral interactions – only either investments or withdrawals.”

21:00 – “If your dream doesn’t make me laugh, it’s not big enough.”

28:20 – “Every time God does something for you it’s justification that if he can do it for you, he can do it for me. I'm just excited to be a part of it.”

32:20 – “I may not be able to have the platform that everyone else has, and that can be infuriating especially since I feel like I’m passion, I’m articulate, I’m educated.  Or what I can do is start changing the narrative, start living, and start pushing through.  When I run a lane that is not designed for me….I can’t do that.  But when I just ran the lane that God created for me, I was perfect for the lane he put me in… because he created that lane for me to influence others.”

35:30 – “I am so grateful I can’t sing and look good at the same, because of those blessings were on me, I would be a headache for my wife.”

38:30 – “Remember where He’s brought you from.  That’s the whole purpose of it, the current test trial or acceleration is to prepare for the next, but also when you pass that it’s to remind you of what He’s done. I don’t think He would invest that much in us, to see us drown.”

41:40 – “Don’t overthink it! He gives you natural gifts to be in service for His ultimate plan.  He gives you [deep-seeded & personal] desires for His ultimate plan…. It’s what God placed in your heart.”

47:50 – “Here’s what awesome about living a GDgvn life.  Even when you mess-up, and you do it with honest intent, God still gets the glory.”

54:20 – “I will have the biggest smile on my face to know that I was a part of your journey.  I don’t need to be (Michael) Jordan.  I would have loved to have been the assistant coach who told him, one day you’re going to be great.”

55:50 - “We got to have accountability partners in our group….who are spiritually mature, and who really believe in God more than they believe in my vision, because sometimes my vision is too small.”

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Part 2 of my great conversation with Marion & Papa Savella where we discuss the individual struggles the couple has had to endure both individually and as a couple, and how those struggles have strengthened their faith even more!

00:00 Podcast introduction 01:10 Marion discusses one the biggest obstacles of her life and how it prepared her 05:40 Savella's discuss Donnie's life altering accident and how it strengthened their faith even more 31:00 Savella's discuss why they're not perfect! 40:30 Savella's discuss how to start on the road to a GDgvn life! 52:15 Savella's final message! 1:01:10 Closing Prayer & Message

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Marion and Donnie Savella are a couple that I have really looked up to over the short time that I’ve known them.  Over that period, I have had some wonderful conversations with them both and learned a great deal about them, their lives and their journeys.  They both have such a positive outlook on life that it is hard not to also want that for ourselves, and so I have found a great deal guidance and inspiration from them, just from seeing how they carry themselves and live out their everyday GDgvn lives!  And, as I have grown into this GDgvn ministry, the authenticity and fearlessness in which they talk about Jesus Christ and their faith has been a great source of strength for me! So when the agreed to be on my podcast, I was truly humbled and blessed!  

00:00 Podcast introduction 05:40 Savella's introduction 08:50 Savella's talk about answering the call 12:50 Savella's discuss how it all began, and their struggles & journey to faith both as individuals and as a couple 24:00 Savella's discuss the major turning point in Donnie's life 29:15 Donnie discusses what "flipped the switch" in his mind & his heart 37:20 We discuss what other people / couples can learn from their experiences

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