Join us on a transformative journey as we welcome my dear friends Jarret Kovics and Michael Swail to explore the intricate balance of the 5F framework—family, friends, fitness, finances, and faith and its impact on our lives. Together, we share personal stories from ultramarathons to building businesses, emphasizing the power of supportive relationships and mental health. Michael opens up about his transition from investment banking to integrative wellness with Alive and Well, while I stress the importance of fostering deeply meaningful connections and shedding toxicity for a truly fulfilling existence.

Listen in as we unpack our personal morning rituals and the profound effect they have on setting the tone for our day. From my sunrise-simulating Hatch alarm to Michael's devotional, cold showers, we each reveal how we intertwine wellness and productivity into our routines.

Our discussion highlights the small yet significant habits, like three-minute cold showers, that can create powerful ripples throughout our day, and we emphasize the intention behind starting our mornings with practices that nourish both body and soul.

Wrap up your listening experience with reflections on life's voyage, where we ponder the spontaneous thoughts and values that surface in moments of pressure. Acknowledging personal growth and the ability to express love more freely than in the past.

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Links:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/31qziZxRwdKx1KC8YYqfmj?si=a6X9IN1yRuG2BNxul9soWA&nd=1&dlsi=11182282549342da

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAFcHMidJj8&t=82s

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of military service, she understood from a young age the importance of giving back. In college,

she studied history and took opportunities to gain experience as they came, but couldn’t quite

find the right fit for her skills. One day, she saw a recruiter for the CIA on her college campus.

She handed in her resume and by the time she graduated, she had a job offer on the table. That

daring decision, made while she was still a student, ultimately shaped much of her professional

career.

She spent the next several years working with the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center before moving

on to the FBI, where she was a special agent focusing on Chinese Counterintelligence

operations The hours were long and the work challenging. At some points along the way, she

experienced adversity and harassment, but Walder persevered. On this week’s episode of The

Simple Talk, host Wayne McCullough speaks with Walder about the ups and downs and the

nuggets of wisdom she’s learned along the way. The path might not be easy, but with

confidence and humility, you can put your knowledge and skills to work in service of a better

future.

This Week’s Takeaways:

-Be proactive about finding opportunities

-Have confidence in yourself

-Don’t leave situations without a reason

-Push the boundaries of your comfort zone

-Use your knowledge to give back to others

Quotes:

“I believe fully that how men and women are treated really starts at the top.” -Tracy Walder

“I was bullied.The amount of bullying that I faced was astronomical. … I spent a lot of my life

hating myself and not being very confident. So, I think at 16, I would have told myself to have

more confidence.” -Tracy Walder

“Working out has always been my therapy. I think, from being at the FBI, I would just go on

crazy long runs by myself with no one else.” -Tracy Walder

“The thing I always tell (my daughter) -- because this is what I always told myself -- is be brave.

Be brave, be brave, be brave. That’s always my message to her.” -Tracy Walder

Contact:

You can find out more about Tracy Walder online at https://www.tracywalder.com/. You can also

follow her on Twitter @tracy_walder and Instagram @TheUnexpectedSpy. Be sure to check out

her new book, The Unexpected Spy: From the CIA to the FBI, My Secret Life Taking Down

Some of the World’s Most Notorious Terrorists, available online, in stores, and as an audiobook.

Mentioned This Week:

-Girl Security, a nonprofit dedicated to closing the gender gap in national security through

training and mentoring support for girls: https://www.girlsecurity.org/

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Sometimes it takes a spiritual awakening to find the right path forward. This week, Michael

Molthan shares his story of addiction and recovery, from hitting rock bottom to pushing through

to the other side. In years past, Molthan was known as one of the preeminent luxury home

builders in the country. But more than 25 years into his career, an addiction to drugs and alcohol

led him on a downward spiral. He lost his marriage and relationships with family and friends.

After 27 arrests and four years in prison, Molthan started to read a Bible he’d gotten from a

fellow inmate. That began his journey to recovery and to serving others first and foremost as a

guiding principle in his life. Through service and a dedication to being present in the moment,

Molthan found a way to freedom, both inside and out. He continues that work today, helping at a

recovery facility and sharing what he’s learned in weekly social media talks to connect with

others looking for a light to shine the way.

This Week’s Takeaways:

-Learn the difference between shame and guilt

-Be open to a spiritual awakening

-Serve others with an open heart

-Cherish the relationships you have with family

-Welcome opportunities to learn and grow

Quotes:

“When I look at my mugshots … the common denominator in every one of those mugshots was

spiritual bankruptcy. There was no God.” -Michael Molthan

“I had this spiritual awakening like no other and I became free.” -Michael Molthan

“I did not want to think about the future. I did not want to think about the past. I wanted to live in

the now because I was realizing the safest place is right here, right now, because that’s where

God’s at.” -Michael Molthan

“In order for God to set me free, I had to set everyone around me free. I had to set the people

around me free that were holding me hostage. The word forgiveness means so much to me

today.” -Michael Molthan

“Guilt is an opportunity to do a moral inventory on my immoral behavior ... to look at what role I

play in it and what I need to do to change the behavior and make it right.” -Michael Molthan

Contact:

You can find out more about Michael Molthan and his work online at

https://www.m2therock.com/. There, you’ll also find links to his weekly talks on Facebook and

YouTube about addiction, alcoholism, unmanageable habits, and recovery. If you are looking for

recovery resources on drug and alcohol addiction, process addictions, trauma, and more you

can find information at https://www.healingspringsranch.com/.

Mentioned This Week:

-Detours: The Unpredictable Path to Your Destiny by Tony Evans

-”In the Know” with Brian Glenn

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There’s a lesson that many people don’t learn until it’s too late: Keep your life straight. This

week on the Simple Talk podcast, the Honorable Allen B. Clark talks about the importance of

having thoughtful priorities and keeping all aspects of your life moving forward along a good

path. Clark is a West Point graduate who volunteered for a tour in Vietnam as a military

intelligence officer. Just weeks before his tour was set to be over, he sustained serious injuries

in a mortar attack. He ultimately lost both of his legs.

Along with his physical injuries, Clark struggled emotionally with the new trajectory his life had

taken. He’d planned on being a career officer and found himself having to envision a different

future. He went into business and then politics, working in state office and later, as a

presidential nominee to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “The Lord didn’t promise us a

rose garden,” Clark says. You will encounter challenges and trials along the way. But by

maintaining a strong spiritual connection and keeping your life, family, and faith straight, he

says, you can reach your full potential.

This Week’s Takeaways:

-Forgive yourself for past mistakes

-Never give up on your goals

-Strive for heart knowledge, not just head knowledge

-Don’t let ego dominate your actions

-Practice good daily habits for a structured life

Quotes:

“To keep my life straight, I need to forgive all others all the time, no matter whether I want to or

not. I don’t need to harbor the resentment.” -Allen B. Clark

“The Lord didn’t promise us a rose garden. … And the world is not a rose garden, by any

stretch. You’re going to be beset and besieged — what I call tactical spiritual warfare on you

individually — to get at you, to tear you down, to bring stress into your life, to bring conflict into

your life. So, you’ve got to keep yourself straight so the demon spirits tactically cannot get at

you.” -Allen B. Clark

“If you don’t have your spiritual connection, nothing else matters.” -Allen B. Clark

“Love your family first and foremost outside of the Lord. Be loyal to them, take care of them,

love them.” -Allen B. Clark

“Pay attention to friends. Take care of them, just like you want them to take care of you.

Develop and encourage friendships.” - Allen B. Clark

“It’s really painful if you have everything, and you don’t have anything.” -Wayne McCullough

Contact:

You can find out more about the Honorable Allen B. Clark’s work through Combat Faith at

http://www.combatfaith.com/. He’s also written three books, which are all available on Amazon:

-Valor in Vietnam: Chronicles of Honor, Courage, and Sacrifice, 1963-1977

-Soldiers’ Blood and Bloodied Money: Wars and the Ruling Elites

-Wounded Soldier, Healing Warrior: A Personal Story of a Vietnam Veteran Who Lost His Legs

But Found His Soul

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Your thoughts lead your actions. If your inner voice is stuck on a negative loop — like a broken

tape — it’s hard to change your mental habits for the better. This week, author, coach, and

psychologist Dr. Julie Bell talks about the importance of mindset and how it can guide your

journey in the right direction, or make you stray from the path. She shares stories from her own

life about the challenges she’s overcome and what she learned to do differently along the way.

One way we can work to improve our inner coach is to focus on how we got to where we are,

rather than just the outcome itself. It’s important to acknowledge successes, of course, but it’s

even more critical to celebrate what got us there. That gives us room to learn from our mistakes

and really work to change our habits. It also takes the power back from the idea of perfection.

There’s no such thing as perfect, Bell says. Whenever you reach a milestone, you realize you

can aim higher. But if you’re on the right path already, future goals will be attainable if you put in

the work and keep your thoughts ahead of your actions.

This Week’s Takeaways:

-Walk with the Lord, hand-in-hand

-Focus on what you can do, instead of what you can’t

-Train your inner voice to guide you

-Own your average

-Practice with a purpose

Quotes:

“Once you choose your focus or your direction, then your voice in your head has to coach you

there. I think, too often, that voice in our head is playing for the other team. So, it’s putting us on

the sidelines rather than really bringing out our best.” -Dr. Julie Bell

“We have to own our average. Whatever it is that you’re doing, you have an average. You have

this achievement side of you that could be your goal and then you have your below average. A

lot of times people see if you haven’t achieved your goal, it’s failure. But really, anytime that you

are executing above average, you’re in that success field. And that’s what you have to be able

to see. If you can see it, you gain confidence. When you have confidence, you have more

success. It grows that way.” -Dr. Julie Bell

“I think, too often, we celebrate the success — the outcome — and not what got us there. We

have to reinforce playing the game. We need to recognize the outcome and celebrate how we

got there.” -Dr. Julie Bell

“As soon as you start getting closer to your goal, you realize there’s another level. So, perfect

doesn’t exist.” -Dr. Julie Bell

“I think the most important thing in a coaching relationship is a relationship. And so, you’ve got

to find somebody that you connect with, that can be honest with you, that can be that thinking

partner, that can help you make decisions.” -Dr. Julie Bell

Contact:

You can follow Dr. Julie Bell’s work online at themindofachampion.com. The Mind of a

Champion is also active on LinkedIn and Instagram. For more in-depth information, check out

The Mind of a Champion’s Virtual Mindset and Mindset on Demand offerings on their website.

The next Champions Club is scheduled for March 30-31 in Dallas, Texas.

Check out her book, Performance Intelligence at Work: The 5 Essentials to Achieving the Mind

of a Champion, wherever you buy your books. Dr. Bell also has a Christian version of the book,

called Renewed, available for download as a 21-day journal on her website.

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Relationships are at the core of every interaction. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, an

employee, or a parent, learning how to build strong relationships that last and evolve over time

is key. This week on the Simple Talk, host Wayne McCullough speaks with guest David

Scoggins, a business and life coach and fellow podcaster who shares ideas for creating a more

fulfilling work-life balance and achieving stability on the job and at home.

It takes work to build a solid foundation and maintain it over time, Scoggins says. Each of the

five Fs -- faith, family, friends, fitness, and finances -- require dedication and perseverance, so

people should be prepared to spend time and energy on these key components. But that hard

work will be rewarded with a strong support network and base for other aspects of life, as well. It

comes down to taking ownership of your decisions and actions and holding yourself

accountable for how you walk through life and how you relate to those walking alongside you.

This Week’s Takeaways:

-Give people space to change over time

-Ask others how you can help them

-Don’t shy away from hard work

-Take ownership of your decisions and actions

-Focus on building good relationships

Quotes:

“I think part of my ultimate mission here is to bring a faith perspective into the personal

development and bring the personal development perspective into the church, and I don’t think

that’s an easy thing.” -David Scoggins

“That’s really been a joy, being able to see … how people who’ve really, really been hurt by

each other and been hurt by the way they approach their relationships, how they can heal and

how they can grow together and how they can flourish and persist.” -David Scoggins

“If we were in a sports team or if we were playing a musical instrument, even if you were playing

as an amateur, you were not getting paid for it, you would practice and you would practice on a

regular basis. But then you show up for marriage and you’ve not practiced anything, You show

up for a relationship and you’ve not practiced anything other than whatever you practiced in

previous relationships. We don’t get even one class on how to do relationships right.” -David

Scoggins

“Whatever is in your life that you don’t like, whether it’s your marriage or your financial situation

or your body or it’s how you feel, an emotion you have or a thought you have, it didn’t come

from nowhere.” -David Scoggins

“The more we can understand where things come from, the more power we have to work with

them.” -David Scoggins

Contact:

You can get in touch with David Scoggins via email at david@scogginsgroup.com. You can also

find him on LinkedIn by searching for his name. Also, check out the TMP Coaching Podcast with

David Scoggins wherever you get your podcasts.

Mentions:

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David D. Burns

The work of Tony Robbins (www.tonyrobbins.com)

The work of Dallas Willard (www.dwillard.org)

Living the Sermon on the Mount: A Practical Hope for Grace and Deliverance by Glen Stassen

Augustine’s The City of God

The Ready, Set, Love online relationship program (readysetlove.com)

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You have more than you know. There is rarely so much scarcity as we tend to focus on and by

changing the way we approach each day, we can change the way we live our lives. This week,

Simple Talk host Wayne McCullough speaks with Dr. Rob Carman, pastor and leader of a

worldwide ministry, who shares this message of hope and faith. Too often, we can find

ourselves living in the past and dwelling on life’s difficulties. But there is always a future with

God, Dr. Carman says, and it’s a greater future than we can possibly imagine.

In order to follow that path, it’s important to tap into the power within. Humans are holistic

beings; they are made up of a body, a soul, and a spirit, and it’s important to nourish and find

the potential of each to amplify that power. Sometimes, it comes down to taking a hard look at

our habits, as they are what shape the way we walk through each day. If we approach our days

with positivity and a purposeful outlook, that will, in turn, affect what we experience. Everything

is connected and it’s up to us to discover what we truly have.

This Week’s Takeaways:

-Work with an idea of purpose

-Cast off old, unhealthy habits

-Remember that everything affects something else

-Remove the shame from difficulty and depression

-Have moments of quiet and stillness in your life

Quotes:

“Life is never behind you; it is always in front of you. I don’t live out of a memory; I live out of an

imagination.” -Dr. Rob Carman

“God said in the book of Ephesians that he would do above and beyond what you can ask or

imagine, according to the power that’s at work in you. Well, you’ve got to amplify, you’ve got to

jump start that power. That’s the power of faith, hope, and the Holy Spirit. And unless you gear

that thing up and be determined, you begin to live off your laurels and you don’t want to live in

your past. If you live your past, you’re going to go backwards. You’re going to die. The definition

of old age has nothing to do with a numerical amount or when you were born. The definition of

old age simply says in Webster’s 1828 dictionary — nobody would argue with Noah Webster —

that old is belonging to the past and then he gave the second definition is stale. We don’t want

to be stale. We don’t want to belong to the past. There’s always a future with God and it’s

always bigger than what you’ve had before.” -Dr. Rob Carman

“I tell people, you can retire from a company, a job, an occupation, but you never retire from

work. Work is one of the greatest things that God gave an individual. … Work is the tool that

God gave a human being to get out of them everything he put in them. Without work, every

talent, every skill, every ability lies dormant.” -Dr. Rob Carman

Contact:

You can follow Dr. Rob Carman’s work on his website, robcarman.com, where you can also

sign up for his weekly devotionals, as recommended by Wayne McCullough. On his website,

you can also check out his latest projects, which include broadcasting his ministry to Iran,

Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Turkey. You can also find his published work on the

YouVersion Bible App.

Mentions:

The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom by Corrie Ten Boom with

John and Elizabeth Sherrill

Tramp for the Lord by Corrie Ten Boom

2 Chairs: The Secret that Changes Everything by Bob Beaudine

“The Mind: Mental and Emotional Health” recorded by Dr. Rob Carman

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There is always hope. Even in a person’s darkest moments, there is a path forward. Finding it

can be difficult, but it’s made easier when you have a community to turn to for support. This

week, host Wayne McCullough speaks with Jessica Trudeau, executive director of the

Momentous Institute, about finding that path through difficult times. Trudeau had a challenging

childhood and it took many years for her to both sit with and move forward from those

experiences, she says. Now, she’s dedicated to helping others learn to grow from adversity.

The Momentous Institute, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary next year, works to help

children reach their full potential through fostering social emotional health. Providing children

and their families with mental and social help resources gives them the chance to become

agents of change within their own lives and communities. After all, Trudeau says, people can

break unhealthy generational cycles if they can begin by healing themselves.

This Week’s Takeaways:

-Acknowledge mistakes and work to repair them

-Practice forgiveness of both self and others

-Seek help and support if you are feeling alone

-Learn to sit with discomfort

-Find a way to release trauma after honoring it

Quotes:

“At one point, someone told me, for stained glass, it’s the fractures that let the light in and allow

it to be beautiful. I believe that about human beings.” -Jessica Trudeau

“The moments of really deep suffering in my life, I’ve grown from. My mother always says, you

can learn in the darkness and you can learn in the light.” -Jessica Trudeau

“It’s easy to think there’s not a path out. There is always a path out. The easiest way to access

that path is to surround yourself with community. We cannot do this life alone. We were not

meant to do this life alone. I believe we were created and hardwired to be in community. When

you feel like (you) just can’t keep going on, find the person who will be safe for you and reach

out and ask for support.” -Jessica Trudeau

“You have to be able to sit with discomfort. The goal is not to numb pain. If you numb pain, you

numb joy. And sitting in pain will not kill you. You will get to the other side. But there’s no way

around it. There’s no path to recovery in this lifetime that does not involve walking through the

pain you’re experiencing.” -Jessica Trudeau

“We have an opportunity to understand that everyone has their own life path to walk. And it’s not

our job to save anyone. It’s our job to learn the lessons we’re supposed to learn in this lifetime

and to witness and offer light and hope to others, but to let them walk their path.” -Jessica

Trudeau

Contact:

You can find out more about the Momentous Institute at momentousinstitute.org. The institute’s

Changing the Odds 2019 conference is scheduled for Oct. 24-25 in Dallas. The theme of the

conference is Hidden Factors.

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Every week on Simple Talk, host Wayne McCullough talks with his guests about faith, family,

friends, fitness, and finances. This week, guest Larry Redell takes a deep dive into the world of

personal finances and investments. He’s the co-owner of St. James Investment Company which

has been managing equity portfolios for individuals and institutions for two decades. He shares

his thoughts on how to be a smart investor and how to start early to build security for your

future.

Discipline is more important than mindset, Redell says. You can go into investing with the right

frame of mind, but if you can’t establish and sustain good practices, even the best of intentions

can go astray. After all, no one can predict the future. It’s impossible to know what peaks or

valleys lay ahead, so it’s critical to prepare ahead and be ready for those fluctuations when they

come. Being prepared and disciplined, even a first-time investor can build something great.

This Week’s Takeaways:

-Discipline is more important than mindset

-Partnerships grow through shared values and varied skills

-There’s a difference between speculating and investing

-There are times to be bold and times to be cautious

-Build an antifragile portfolio

Quotes:

“What money should give people, I would suggest, if things are healthy, it gives you a lot of

flexibility, it gives you a lot of freedom, you know you’re going to be able to take care of those

you love and those you care about.” -Larry Redell

“If you get yourself in debt … that exponential trap can keep you really mired in a bad situation.

It can cause a lot of strife and can affect the other areas of your life really adversely.” -Larry

Redell

“If you can be an investor and put away a little money, if you can compound that money and live

below your means, to me, you don’t need to hit home runs. You hit singles. That’s the basis of

our strategy.” -Larry Redell

“It’s not as hard as everybody thinks. The average person could start with $10,000 and do

something.” -Wayne McCullough

“You don’t sit there and try to predict the future. What you try to do is build an antifragile portfolio

and economy because you don’t know where this black swan is going to come from. You don’t

know what unintended consequences might unwind.” -Larry Redell

Mentions:

On this week’s episode, host Wayne McCullough and guest Larry Redell mentioned the

following books and films:

Liar’s Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis

The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing by Benjamin Graham

The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor by Howard Marks

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Taleb

Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder by Nassim Taleb

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis

The Big Short (2015)

The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy by Thomas Stanley and

William Danko

Contact:

You can follow St. James Investment Company on their website, stjic.com. There, you can also

find their regular newsletter on value investing.

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This week, Simple Talk podcast host Wayne McCullough shares ideas about how to vertically

integrate faith in your life to live in gratitude. One of the most important steps toward doing that

is removing comparison from your life. After all, he says, if you’re in a state of comparison, how

can you be in a state of gratitude?

If you can find a way to get centered and spend the time you need to sit with God and your own

thoughts, you can start making decisions that reflect that relationship you want to have. It comes

down to reality, your perception, and seeking contentment through distractions. More than

anything, it’s important to remember that life is a gift and to live graciously is one way to give

back.

What You’ll Learn:

-Center God in your life

-Practice good stewardship of family, faith, friends, fitness, and finances

-Remember that competitiveness is OK, but comparison kills gratitude

-Stress test situations that are worrying you

-Seek authenticity

Quotes:

“We need to walk with Christ or God inside of us as opposed to alongside of us.” -Wayne

McCullough

“We live in a world where we’re in a constant state of comparison, we’re in a constant state of

what perception should be. And all those situations just create failure.” -Wayne McCullough

“Comparison is the death of joy.” -Wayne McCullough

“Life is so precious. Just being able to breathe, just breathing, taking a deep breath, you’ve got

to be gracious for that.” -Wayne McCullough

“Own your responsibilities, own your mistakes, but own the things that you have done great and

don’t even look at others.” -Wayne McCullough

Mentions:

This week, host Wayne McCullough mentioned the book “2 Chairs: The Secret that Changes

Everything” by Bob Bodine.

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the space to find the path you’re meant to be on. On this episode of The Simple Talk podcast,

host Wayne McCullough speaks with Noel Bouché, of pureHOPE, which seeks to build a world

free of sexual exploitation and brokenness. Bouché shares stories of challenges and successes

in his own life and tells his own truth of change.

Throughout a person’s life, they will often find themselves at a crossroads. Sometimes the

choices they face are difficult or dangerous; other times they are more clear-cut. Fear, guilt, and

shame can be powerful drivers, so it’s important to try to find identity, relationships, and

community that will uplift you in your times of change and need and confront difficult

conversations honestly to move forward in learning and growth.

This Week’s Takeaways

-Embrace transitional periods in life

-Understand that growth means change

-Seek out community and provide it for others

-Help yourself to help others

-Focus on relationship-building

Quotes

“What happens in our life is things get interwoven and what can happen is, we don’t see it

happening, but they can become idols. When our identity is wrapped around something, some

way that’s detracting us ultimately from who we really are and who’ve been designed to be and

it can be limiting.” -Noel Bouche

“If we can just rest in those periods, those transitions, where the oceans are choppy and we

don’t have certainty, what’s going to happen is we’re going to grow. Because anytime we

transition, it literally means to step across. Naturally, our perspective is going to be shifted and

that is a good thing because we can get stuck in ruts. And more than that, healthy things grow

and growing things change.” -Noel Bouche

“Fear is not just the absence of courage, fear is about self-preservation. When a stimulus

comes, what fear is, is me trying to protect myself and that’s why we put up barriers, that’s why

we wear masks, that’s why we hide. And the Bible says the antidote to that is not courage; it’s

love because love is self-giving.” -Noel Bouche

“A crisis is just danger meeting opportunity. It’s a crossroads.” -Noel Bouche

“The beauty of climbing the mountain is not at the top when you look out at everything, it is in

climbing the mountain, which is the hardest part. You don’t tell the story when you climb Everest

about standing up there for 25 seconds, you tell the story of climbing and how tough it was, but

that’s where you grow, that’s where you get stronger, that’s where the story is.” -Wayne

McCullough

References

You can find out more about pureHOPE at purehope.net or on social media @findpurehope.

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It’s important to have friends and feel comfortable turning to them for support, McCullough says. There are times when depression can make it hard to feel motivated, so it’s critical to get up and move around or take time outside to kick start your system. But above all, McCullough says it’s faith that put him on a better path to accepting the pain he’d felt in his life and building up the tools he needed to move forward.

This Week’s Takeaways

-Bring together the spiritual, emotional, and physical

-Understand it can be helpful to sit with pain or hurt and learn from it

-Restart your system by getting outside, doing exercise, and moving

-Have a support system for when times get tough

-Persevere with acceptance

Quotes

“We can focus on the emotional, the physical, but we also have to focus on the spiritual because, you know, we are a spirit. We have a soul and we live in a body. So, we’ve got to have all three line up.” -Mike McCullough

“That weakness is literally your superpower. It is a gift from God.” -Wayne McCullough

“Friends (are) hugely important in our lives for a variety of reasons, but particularly when you’re going through physical or emotional pain, you’ve got to have people around you.” -Mike McCullough

“You can’t regret the past. It is what it is, and you’ve just got to learn from it.” -Mike McCullough

“I want people, if they’re listening to this podcast, to know, one, there’s hope, and two, to experience God in some way in their life.” -Mike McCullough

References

This week, the McCullough brothers mentioned Dallas, Texas-based Dr. George Burris, the New Hope class at Park Cities Baptist Church, and the following:

-You Gotta Keep Dancin’ by Tim Hansel, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/96162.You_Gotta_Keep_Dancin_

-Lisa Ann McCall, founder of The McCall Method, https://mccallmethod.com/

-Brennan Manning, https://brennanmanning.com/

-Richard J. Foster, https://renovare.org/people/richard-foster/bio

You can contact today’s guest, Mike McCullough at [INSERT] and our host, Wayne McCullough, at [INSERT].

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He says it opened his eyes to a different world and one he felt he had the resources to help shed light on. Throughout this week’s episode, McCullough returns to the intersection of struggle and faith. He asks us to take a moment to consider a question posed by renowned composer and non-profit leader Tony Anderson: “What if my brokenness was a bridge to God and not a barrier?”

This Week’s Takeaways

-Brokenness is a path to God, not a barrier

-It can be important to talk about uncomfortable topics

-Sexual abuse and sex trafficking happen across this country

-Faith and family are the foundation of a good life

-Worry less and have fun for longevity and health

Quotes

“I think you really have to believe in providence — whatever that looks like to you — providence being that certain things make their way into your life and you have to let those things happen. And then sometimes, you have to take those things on when it doesn’t seem right.” -Wayne McCullough

“There’s too much shame out there in the world.” -Wayne McCullough

“There’s a whole world that exists outside of my little bubble.” -Wayne McCullough

“We can kick down brothel doors and arrest people but until we address that there’s a demand, we can never control the supply.” -Wayne McCullough

“Get uncomfortable. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.” -Wayne McCullough

References

This week, Wayne recommended checking out the film he co-produced, which is called The Heart of Man. You can find out more at https://heartofmanmovie.com. He also mentioned the Dallas, Texas-based non-profit pureHOPE. You can learn more at their website, http://purehope.net/. He also discussed the documentary, Rape for Profit, about sex trafficking in the United States. More info at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2179660/.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.