Growth takes time!

I wasn’t always the man I am today. In fact, for a long time, I was the exact opposite of who I said I wanted to become. I was a college basketball player who quit—more than once. I was the student who rarely showed up to class. I was a man who ran toward lust and away from anything that looked like a real relationship. I had children in situations I shouldn’t have been in, continuing the broken family cycles I came from instead of breaking them. And despite knowing I was called for something greater, I ran from God—again and again—even when I saw progress, even when I felt that gentle tug on my heart.
I’ve hit rock bottom so many times, I lost count. But one day, I made a promise. A simple one: I would never get arrested again. And while life had its own sense of humor and I was later arrested for something as ridiculous as not walking my dog on a leash—yes, that happened—I didn’t quit on myself. Because the promise wasn’t really about avoiding arrest. The promise was about showing up every day to be better than I was the day before. It was about becoming the version of me I knew deep down I could be.

Now at 52, my life is built around daily discipline. I check in with myself—honestly. I journal. I pray. I work out and take care of my body. I lift others up when I can, and I feed my spirit by reading a few pages of the Bible each day. Most importantly, I remind myself daily that I am not a prisoner of my past. I’m not perfect. I have moments of doubt, and I still wrestle with feeling unworthy. But I persist. Because this journey isn’t about perfection—it’s about persistence.

Over time, that persistence has placed me in rooms with people I used to look up to—people who now look to me for leadership. That alone reminds me of how far I’ve come. I’m not proud of everything I’ve done, but I am proud of the progress. And in this season of my life, I don’t take that for granted.

So if you’re reading this, let me leave you with this: you don’t have to have it all figured out to take the next step. Just be honest with yourself. Be consistent. And don’t give up on becoming the person you were created to be. Progress—real, raw, earned progress—is proof that your past doesn’t get to write your final chapter.

We’re all just regular people trying to grow.
And that’s more than enough.