The harvest season was always the busiest and most important time of the year.
That morning I remember being anxious about getting out into the fields.
I was looking for my dad everywhere but I couldn't find him.
What happened was a young man from our community stopped by the farm and my dad invited him
in and began talking to him, coaching him, counseling him, and in the end he led him
into a personal relationship with Jesus. When he finally left I went to my dad and I was angry
because I thought we should be harvesting the grain. My dad says, Leonard,
this young man is more important than our crops. He said we need to care about others
more than ourselves because that's what Christians do. God's work always came first for my dad.
You know, I watched that young man and many other people like him grow up, mature spiritually,
later become leaders in our community. You know, now it's easy to see that that day
of harvest loss didn't matter at all compared to the transformational impact my dad had on those
young men. Sacrifice gave my dad abundant life full of rich, deep rewards.
God has an exciting plan for your life and every Christian's life but does this guarantee
that we will naturally live out this plan or will each of us need to make a deliberate choice
to experience life God's way?
People want to be loved. That's the best way you can do is show kindness and love to people.
Just know that God's called all of us to be in the position that we're in and he's given us all
gifts to take advantage of. For me to be all in it's all about your heart. Is your heart all in?
You gotta have brothers, you gotta have sisters, you gotta have people around you
that will challenge you. I mean if we were all in a burning building how could I not
reach back to help you?
So growing up I was just I would say in a normal
Quebecois home so my parents would talk about I don't know God and angels and pray but it was
not really deep. I don't know when but at some point I just lost hope and I became more and more
depressed and I was thinking about I was thinking about suicide because I thought it was the best
hope for me. It was the only thing I could do to just end this suffering. I remember the first
time I saw Marielle she was sitting in a corner by the windows in the cafeteria and I was like
I think I'm gonna go talk to that girl. So I was really scared right? I'm like God I don't have
what it takes. I am not the poster girl for missions. I am I'm not even good at talking to
people about Jesus. One day a girl showed up to me and her name is Erica and she just
she was smiling so maybe it was good for me to just talk with her and she was kind of
interested in what I was seeing and I think I told her some of these things like I was
depressed and it was not going the way I wanted to be and she said yeah life is not supposed to
be that way. God created you for something better than that. A couple days later I was back in the
cafeteria and I saw her and part of me was like oh I don't want to go up to her again and like
bother her and she'd be like oh that girl again but then I was like no like that was a great
conversation I'm not gonna listen to that fear. We became friends for I don't know it took maybe
like one or two months and we did some things together and I could see in our life something
different and she brings me she brought me to this meeting with other Christians people and
they were really living their faith when they were talking about God it was really like
they were loving him it was kind of a real love.
Each day is filled with opportunities in our careers with our friends enjoying our hobbies
but each day we also come in contact with person after person that's struggling desperate for help
or just simply searching for more. Well one of the greatest experiences in my life
guy by the name of Mel Stevens knocked on my door one day and asked me to work at this hockey
school he ran a Christian camp so I asked him how much you pay and he said we don't pay I said
what do you mean you don't pay you don't know who you're talking to I had no spiritual dimension
to my life at this point then he said he's you know I see you interviewed on television Paul and
you look like you're an angry frustrated guy I was I was frustrated with life no one had ever
said that to me before and then he explained to me how I could get rid of this anger bitterness
worry in my life and man I was interested in that and that's what started the process
two years later because of the influence of him helping me to understand who Christ was
in March of 75 I became a follower of Jesus Christ changed my life incredibly.
You know when I turn pro and being a professional athlete you really have the opportunity to
to have whatever you want whether it's girls money the party scene guy named Iggy Caferro
really challenged me in a lot of ways to take faith on for myself he was a regular guy that
was actually working for a trucking company Iggy felt a real strong calling from God to work with
you know young men and and in the the sports world he had a real strong desire to to really
know the Bible inside out and you know I think that really influenced me to to do the same he
was always available for us and it seemed like a real priority for him in his life putting
that first kind of above everything else. Jesus selflessly came to save the people of Canada
setting the example for us to care about others instead of ourselves the radical step here is
availability anytime anywhere at any cost to do anything just like Jesus was for you.
There aren't a lot of Christian people doing this kind of work but there I'm probably there
if you went up to an accountant you could ask the exact same question we're living we're swimming
upstream as believers and we understand that we know that we're living in a world that is dark
but we've been called to be lights I believe you can only be all in you're all in or all out
making an impact on young men and young women and families that's the why football is just the door
that allowed me to walk through. I don't have a separation of faith life in business I am absolutely
passionate about bringing Christ's presence into the workplace I know where I am God is
and so whatever challenge I face I just really rely on him to get me through that.
The other passion I have yet for the future is to hopefully encourage other business owners to
recognize the calling they have from God on their life and as a business owner they have this
tremendous potential to use their businesses as a mission field to reach others for Christ and I
think so many Christian entrepreneurs Christian business leaders business owners haven't yet
recognized that gift that's lying right before them.
You know it's not about making life busier for ourselves it's really about a change of paradigm
from life about us to those around us. God has placed all of us in this world for a very specific
reason but if we aren't willing to sacrifice our lives for him how can we accomplish the mission
he intended us for. Well I was invited to speak in Grand Prairie and a guy by the name of Dan
Beliskey was the guy that brought me in and after I spoke I sat down and had a conversation with him
and I really challenged him to make his life count and I told him what I was doing and I felt
that he could do the same thing. Well after I got home for some reason I felt impressed to write
him a letter and just to encourage him again and tell him to get some men together and go deep and
if you take the leadership of this you will be the guy that will grow the most but you will see
fruit behind you and you'll have a tremendous impact and so I wrote him a letter and encouraged
him to do it. If I still have the letter in my possession he followed it up with another letter
Dan how is it going? Then he challenged me to start a men's group and that's about 30 years ago
that he challenged us and that group is still going today.
For me I had to cross a physical line I did it with a prayer and a commitment
and it went like this. Dear Jesus I want you in the center of my life through your power I commit
to serve and obey you anytime anywhere at any cost to do anything whatever kind of commitment you
want to make just do it.
I feel a lot of times like God uses me almost in spite of myself
and that's pretty amazing actually when I just feel like I get to be in a situation and watch
God working around me. Erica was a big part of my fate my journey with God and I think because
of her I was really intrigued by God and Jesus but it's really when I saw her life the way she
was living life that it really has an impact on me. I really believe that God has me here for a reason
for a purpose and you know for me I think it's to influence my teammates influence the people in
this organization and those that I'm around with every day as well as by doing interviews like this
and using the platform that I've been given to you know just share Jesus share the story share
my faith with others it's really given me a sense of purpose and sense of identity and sense of
fulfillment and I just hope for that for everyone. Now it comes down to you. What would it be like
if you impacted one life tomorrow? What if 10 of your friends each impacted a life? The movement
has already started. Discover how to get involved at thelife.com join today and find out how to
challenge yourself and your friends. You will be equipped with tools and training that will help
you share your faith and we will send you a commitment card for you to sign and put in your
wallet as a reminder of your decision and to help guide your daily choices. Thelife.com is about
your life personalizing your commitment and your journey while joining a movement of people like
you. I'm not a big planner but I want my life to count. I want to be 80 years old or I don't know
and just look back and see like oh my life I did something with my life that for other people
also not just for me and just being selfish because it didn't it didn't do me well I was
really selfish before and it was not good for me. I just want to look back and say oh you know what
that person was touched by this period because I was there and I let Jesus like go through me and
touch that person. Make your life count we're only passing through here this is not the game scoring
that goal in Russia was a wonderful wonderful experience and I still revel in that but when
I can look over my shoulder and see changed lives families put back together marriages become so much
stronger man that goal just pales into insignificance and I would say to you there is not a person
that doesn't have something that God can't use we're all different just use what you're passionate
about what you're good at at the end of the day you're going to feel good about yourself.
My dad died of cancer a couple years ago when he finally surrendered to the reality of death when
he knew he was going to die he came to me one day and said Leonard he says all our lives
has been about helping people find Jesus it's never really been about farming has it I said yeah dad
it's never been about farming and he looks at me and he says you know Leonard he says it looks
like I'm going to have to live out the rest of my dream of helping people find Jesus through you
it's the same kind of vision that Jesus gave us in the great commission go into all the world
make disciples of all nations no one promises that this is going to be easy we'll be turned down
and rejected we'll be ignored we'll be on our knees praying for those around us
but that's what it takes and that's what Jesus did on behalf of humanity he laid down his life
that people could know him Christ in you is that voice in society today
if you let Jesus guide your life your life will bring redemption to those around you
here anytime anywhere at any cost to do anything
thing make this your commitment to Jesus it will change your life
you
you
