From Crisis to Champion! Hockey, Heart Attacks, and Turning Trauma into Triumph

Is it possible that your worst day can become your greatest testimony? 

And if so, how do you endure long enough to flip the script? 

In this heart-felt "long-play" summer road-trip episode, Steve and Mary Alessi sit down with their son Chris Alessi to open up about the life-changing moment when Steve survived a near-fatal heart attack, and how they transformed a dark day of trauma into an annual celebration of life. Through honest reflections and a dash of humor, they dive into how unexpected setbacks—whether in health, sports, or everyday struggles—can become powerful sources of gratitude and hope.

You’ll pick up real-life strategies for facing anxiety, shifting your mental narrative, and surrounding yourself with a supportive community that lifts you up. We'll examine everything from dramatic sports comebacks to family stories of resilience, and challenge you to embrace the idea that even after the darkest times, life offers new and unexpected joys.

Listen and you'll walk away inspired to find victories in unlikely places—and maybe even start your own celebration of comeback moments.

Purchase Steve Alessi's book "Forty Two" here

Transcript

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It always makes me question my own ability to go through something like that. And I just look at them with this sense of awe, of wow. You talk about mental toughness when you're young and you're going through a battle for your life. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Family Business with the Alessies, where family is everybody's business. We are in the middle of our summer long play for all of you who are on the road. You're traveling, you need some time just to kind of enjoy something. And some advertising. Not advertising, come on, some programming that is filling up some of your travel space. This is what our summer long play is all about. Now, if you're enjoying what you're hearing, we want to keep you updated. So make sure you are getting text updates and you can do that by texting family 230-252-4-0800. We've got over 5,500 YouTube subscribers. So if you're enjoying what you're hearing, like it and pass it on. Share it and definitely subscribe. We're having a great time in the podcast booth because here's we. We talk about things we don't always get to talk about on Sunday. And I'm here today with PC, my son, Bubba. Bubs. Christopher. Chris. How you doing, son? I'm very good. All right, we're champs today. Feeling good, feeling good, feeling good. All right. Since you, you are definitely in the garb. Yes. You're. Why don't you tell us why, why you're wearing that kind of garb. Well, just so everybody knows right now, it is June 18th on the day of filming, which means after our Florida Panthers won back to back championships. Yep. You'll appreciate this. This team has officially, outside of the undefeated part, done exactly what the 1970 dolphins did. Lost in 71 in 71, 1 in 72. Very cool. Or I think lost 71, 172, 173. And we did the same. We lost three years ago, won last year, won this year. It's pretty cool. So we're champs and you got me this for Father's Day. Yep. Today's also an important day, though. Yeah. As you were walking into the studio, John, who's in the back, turned and said, happy birthday, Pastor Steve. Yep. And this is the only time we like to actually date our programming because we don't usually do so. But it's June 18th and it was 18 years ago that I had the heart attack. Yep. And so it's a new birthday for you. It's A new birthday every. I've got three in my life. I've got my natural birth. I got my spiritual birth, and then I got my rebirth with that after the heart attack. But, you know, we're gonna kind of go through some of those things that just, you know, people get hit in life with good things and not so good things. You're celebrating a very good thing. When you wear that jersey for the Florida Panthers, it says champion. Yeah. And so that. That's a good, good deal. You know, I mean, not too many teams. I don't know how many hockey teams. I think they're in the 30s or 40s, something like that, but two end up playing out of that big number for this championship. And we did have a Canadian team that came down and played against the Florida team. Florida team won. We have zero snow in South Florida, but a lot of sun. And there in Toronto, they have no. Sun and tons of ice. They have no sun and tons of ice. So, you know, the Canadians and those in the north, they don't like Floridians. No, they don't. What do we got? We got a team in Tampa. Yeah. And they went to the three before we did. Yeah. And then we have the Florida Panthers. So they don't like these Florida teams because there is no. But if you're Canadian, you know, and you're watching, it's important to know we're not very good at football down here, so it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. But, you know, I think either are they. Neither are they. Yeah. But it's okay. They're not expected to be the Edmonton Oilers. Yeah. You know, dad, it was actually in this chair over the last kind of six weeks that I have been being the voice behind your book 42, as we've been getting ready for the audiobook to get out there. And so, you know, the reason that we want to talk about it on your birthday, your new birthday, which we don't actually celebrate, but the reason to kind of bring it up and even talk about it a little bit today was because, you know, it used to be maybe the first 10 years where the whole family would get really, really weary of this day because it brought back so much of the trauma of it. Even when I was reading it, there were moments I just had to stop because, you know, when you're going through the trauma when you're young, you don't really know what's going on. Now that I'm older, I've got my own son reading some of those things again. Was weird. So we. The first kind of 10 years coming to this day was hard, but then all of a sudden, it, like, starts to shift, and all of a sudden, this day makes you so thankful. Yeah. Because you see it like a birthday. We didn't see it like that the first. You know, so it's important to recognize, like, even this championship. Nobody expected the Florida Panthers would be this good. And I just think when someone looks at their future, whether they're in the middle of something terrible right now or they're still feeling the pain of the recent terrible thing, I think the Panthers are a sign that there's unexpected good in your future. Yeah. There's a whole realm that you're totally underestimating that will one day bring you great joy. I was never a hockey fan. I think I pulled more of my beard out over the last eight weeks watching the Stanley cup playoffs because I love the sport now. It's a total area of unexpected joy. And so that's what this day has actually turned into, a day where there's unexpected joy, at least for us as the family. Because, man, every time I drive by that hospital over in Hutchinson island, it's like, that used to be a dark place. Now I'm like, man, thank. Thank God for the events that took place in that hospital. So, you know, you're driving along, you know, you're getting ready for vacation. Even your vacation right now is probably an unexpected joy that during a dark season of your life, you didn't see coming. So it's just good to be thinking my future is full of unexpected joy. Yeah. Even after something that is challenging and heartbreaking and a step back and definitely heartbreaking. We did write the book, and we did it. We call it 42, titled. It says, a guide to Finishing. Well, when you were almost finished back in our season three, I believe it is, right, Alan. Season three, we hit it a little bit more in depth, and it was more, you know, kind of moving, because anytime we do get into the deep story of. Can definitely touch us and our emotions. And anybody who reads it, especially on the front end of it, they all tell me, takes them back to their own challenge, you know, so it is moving. But 42. The reason it's called 42 is because it was 42 minutes that when I started having the heart attack and I knew that I was in trouble, I took off my shirt, my glasses, and told mary immediately called 911. We heard the sirens going on. When those men came walking in, those paramedics, five of them to Help me. At that point, I was still on my feet. They said, hey, you know what's going on? I told them, I got this pain. They said, hey, have you taken any of this? Said, no. And they said, chew on this baby aspirin. They give me that baby aspirin. And that from that point on, for the next 42 minutes, the men worked on me to stabilize my heart. Now, my heart never stopped, but it was at that what they call a quivering stage, which means the heart's on the verge of stopping. They hit me seven times with the paddle because they could not get the heart back in rhythm. So these men worked hard. 42 minutes, chest compressions, everything that you see taking place. I don't know if anybody has watched Bad Boys 3. I think it is here in Miami. Bad Boys 3. It starts with, gosh, Will Smith and who? Martin Lawrence. Martin Lawrence. Martin Lawrence is having a heart attack. Yes. I haven't seen the movie yet. And at the beginning, and I'm like. Mary says, let's watch it. So we're watching it last week, and I'm like, there it is again. I hate those images. They're popping them with those paddles and all that kind of stuff, but that's what they did. It's a lot of work. 42 minutes. It's like a major workout. Okay. These guys were sweating profusely. I was sweating profusely. I'm coming in and out. I wanted to sleep. All of that for 42 minutes. So the book is 42 to chronicle. Really, what was symbolic and the symbol of all of those 42 minutes is this. That if I was done, if God was done with me, if I had run my course, if I finished my assignment here on Earth, then, all right, take me home, it'd be over. People die all the time. Some before their time. Some guy, the same day that you passed early in the morning, he passed. They passed. The same men were working on them, and they lost them. So people die all the time. Children die. And you're like, how could this happen? We see death right now occurring because of war. What's happening in Russia and Ukraine, what's happening to Israel right now in Iran, People die. It's terrible. It's tragic. It's. But it's part of life. So the fact that, yeah, I had this deal, 42 minutes. These men worked. I didn't die. So what does that mean? Evidently, if it couldn't kill me, it meant that there's still work for me to do. The assignment's not over. And this then becomes a memorial, a jersey to remind me and others of what this event could have been and what happened. And yes, thank God my book is symbolic of my championship. I was able to overcome, fight through that. And when it looked like I should have been down and out and lost, no, thankfully, we came back. And with the goodness of God and some great family members, my wife, you, kids, the church, my friends, my family, we were able to come back. And all these years later, 18 years later, we're standing. Life is better than ever. Better than ever. So who knows? I know life can get hard for people, but, hey, if you're alive, if the cancer didn't get you, you know what I'm saying, if the divorce didn't knock you out, if that bankruptcy didn't bury you, then there's. There's room and time for you to be able to come back and, and make a comeback. And all those years later, Give it time. You're going to be raising your hands again in victory. Well, the Panthers actually were the eighth seed this year. They started every single series on the road. That means of all the playoff teams, they were the worst, and they were champions. Last year, they were the worst going into the playoffs. But, you know, they always say it. It's like, it's really not about what happened yesterday. It's about the team that's in front of you. Can you go beat them? And so if. If there are people that have experienced a challenge or are going through a challenge right now, you know, it really doesn't matter what has happened up to this point. The important thing is beating the opponent in front of you, going and overcoming. One of my favorite parts of your book is the punch you didn't see coming. And, you know, that actually is kind of perfectly encapsulates anxiety. People trying to prepare for the punch that they don't see coming. They're trying to see that punch coming. But, you know, one of the best ways to combat anxiety is to recognize logically, if there's a way bad things can happen to me that I didn't expect, that logically tells me there are good things that will come into my life that I'm not expecting. It literally means, if I don't know tomorrow, and that scares me, I can also say, I don't know tomorrow. And that excites me because anything can happen. Hialeah can be celebrating at midnight a hockey championship. Nobody would have ever thought five years ago that with a soccer stadium being built, our soccer team's not doing great, but our Hockey team is killing. Baseball team hasn't been doing the great. It just shows that there's. There. You can't possibly think all the good is in my past, because if there's a potential for bad in your future, there's a potential for good, too. Yeah. You know, you look like a hockey player right now. So it's the hair. It's the hair and the facial beard. Only thing that's different between you and them are tiny teeth. Ears are actually real. Boy, those hockey players, they take a beating. Well, Kachuk had had a muscle torn off, a ligament torn off the bone the whole time. Holy moly. And yet it's phenomenal. And yet they come out and they win. Chris. That is a part of life. Look, we're in the middle of this, this war. People get nervous. It can't get any worse. You know, it's the end of the world as we know it. And people that are in, you know, Christianity get ready. It's, you know, end times. The end times. The rapture is coming and all those things, man, whatever it looks like, politically speaking, people are like, oh, my gosh, our party didn't win. It's terrible. You know, we got this, this anti Trump, the anti king march that's going on across. We've got riots that are happening in LA and other major cities and the immigration crisis. It's horrible. Come on, you're going to get shipped back to your country. What's going on in our country? Look at financially, you know, the tariffs were putting such a stress strain on everybody's finances. It's not going to get any better. And yet we still wake up every day and we go to work. What happens so far away in life doesn't always touch us where we live. Guess what? Gas prices are down in Miami. Tariffs were going to blow us all out of the water. Gas prices are down. We're going to go on vacations this summer. People are already gone. The economy is so bad, but people are already gone on vacation, taking time away. Yes, some things happening around the world are bad, but, but, you know, we're still able to move on in life. Yeah. And, and I think that's, that's the kind of mindset we need to adopt. We had friends just went on a birthday trip celebrating. One of our dear friends that we know. Yeah, they have had a great run at life. 70 years of age, you wouldn't know it. She looks great. She's. She, she has retired. So her family, 30, like 35 of them got together to celebrate and they went out to Seattle to spend a couple days before they then jumped on an Alaskan cruise. She's a beautiful girl. It's beautiful. They went to Mount Rainier, and they first were just enjoying the mountain. On the way down, one of the members of their family died instantly. It's actually. It's pretty amazing that there wasn't more carnage. Carnage in this, because he was driving the car when he just dropped dead. And they're not sure what happened and so on, but an aneurysm possibly pulls to the side of the road. His daughter is a paramedic. She's in the backseat, jumps out, tries to revive him. Can't. Well, we hear about it the next morning, and the family is dealing with, what do we do next? Because all the family members are coming in to Seattle. They're going to go on this cruise together to celebrate. Do they cancel it all, or do they go forward? And, you know, the family made a decision to go on with the cruise, and I thought it was a smart decision. I know some people are like, are you kidding? How can you do that? Where's the fun in it? You're going to be consumed with the death of this individual. And you're right, there's that aspect of it that had to be processed and overcome. But the family said, in the midst of this, what would he want? And he happened to be the kind of person that loved going to the mountains. He always told his family, when I die, I want to be cremated, and I want you to throw my ashes in a mountain. I just want you to release them while you're in the mountains, because that's my peaceful place. That's my happy place. Well, the guy just had his happy place. He just enjoyed the time. He actually told family he, as he was driving, this is, like, one of the happiest days of my life. And he had had some health complications early on, and it was sad that he had to go through all of that, but he's like, this is one of the happiest days of my life. So if you gotta die, why not die on the mountain of being happy? It was the happiest day of my life. Meaning, life's not gonna get any better. Now I got to come down from this mountain and go back to dealing with some of the stuff that my health issues are causing me and so on and so forth. So they go up and they choose, let's go on the cruise. Anyway, one of the family members went on the cruise early. Before they all got there, they found a Room that they were able to put aside so that all the family, when they wanted to, at the end of the day, they wanted to talk about them. They can come together in that family, in that room, and they can do so. Of course the trip is going to be different. There's no way you can get on that cruise to go celebrate a 70th anniversary and a retirement, and they'll then think, oh, my gosh, but we. Come on, we lost somebody. There's no way you're going to be that celebratory. But. And this is what I think is so beautiful. You made the best of a bad situation. Yeah. That is a great analogy about our life, because if you do that enough, you make the best. Try your best. Even in the middle of something that's so bad, you just had a bad argument with a family member, and the two of you aren't talking to each other. Well, what's the best situation you could do? Can you at least text each other? Can you. Can you try to maybe just let the situation exhale and then think about, how do we get back on the same page? How does things work? How can you make the best of a bad situation for us as a family? We just. What was the option? To quit? We couldn't quit. We had a church to run. We had a family that we were growing 18 years ago. How old were you? I was 15. Fifteen. That meant Stephanie would have been, what, 11? She and Lauren. Lauren is nine. Gabby's seven. Yeah. We had no time to quit. We had to make the best of a bad situation. And gratefully, thankfully, we did. And 18 years later, look what has been birthed. Crazy. So, yeah, life's bad, but, man, we got to make the best of it. And you and mom actually did that because none of us kids realized what was going on until we were substantially older. Yeah. So even looking at it, like, oh, you know how it's gonna affect my kids. Like, we've used this story here before, but like. And you even put it in the book. But like, there's a night that our cars are broken into, and you just made us laugh after that. That should have been a scary night. It's not. It's a funny one now. We laugh at that now. Yeah. And it's because of that. So. You know, dad, I've been watching the show with Rochelle. It's so funny. I've been watching the show with Rochelle. It's called man on the Inside with Ted Danson. Oh, no, it's great. Hey, he's great. He's great. He's also 77 years old, by the way. Y. He's great in that. But there's a. There's an episode where, like, the president. I can't believe you're watching that show. Okay, to be fair, I love the. The writer of the show, and I love Ted Danson because they did the Good Place together, and I loved that show. So if they work together, he wrote the office. He wrote Parks and Rec. Say nothing else. There you go. But, okay, so to that point, there's like a president of this. The association of the Old People's Home. You know, like, she's hilarious, and the whole time she's crying about security, security, security. We need security to be better. And it's so funny because she. She comes to this, you know, the private investigator that, you know, and she's like, something very valuable has been stolen from my room. So they go into the room and they start talking, and she's like, what was stolen? My coins. My gold minted coins. And she's like, so wait, hold on. There's cash on the table right here. You have a bunch of jewelry. But somebody broke in to take these worthless coins. And the lady starts realizing, okay, I'm caught. So she goes, susan, where are the coins? They're in the drawer. It's so funny. But the private investigator steps up and goes, susan, you have to stop watching the people on TV that are trying to scare you. Because she's so afraid that someone's gonna break in and steal her stuff. She makes this funny comment. In these untrying times, bullion's the only way to protect my retirement. So funny because of all the commercial sheet to see all the commercials. And so, you know, it's funny because the joke is that sometimes the elderly might fall for that, but it's not the elderly. It's everybody. We fall for the videos we see on social media. We fall for the lies that we can even feel and hear in our own head when we're going through the hardest of times. And. And that is that doom and gloom are my only options. Yeah. And it's kind of like this lady where there's cash on the table. Yeah. And yet, you know, there's jewelry all over there. And all she's got her mind on are these little crappy coins. And I was reading in Daniel this morning, like, the back half of Daniel's weird. I don't even like it. It's a bunch of, like. It feels like revelation language. And in the middle of all of this Weird. This king and that king and this king and that king, and they're fighting and it's all over, and it's the end of days. It just says, but those that know the Lord, their God will stand firm and take action. And it's like, you know what? Like, that's. Well, if you're going through the worst of the worst, you know, God. So stand up, stand firm, take action. Yeah. And that's what you and mom did. Like, I love when I'm reading the story, you didn't sulk. Like, you really didn't. You. You. I know you. You say that. For in the book, you say that you didn't dream for a while. Yeah. But the truth is. And mom, you're in the back there, so you should hear this. Well, she's ready. Bring her in. But you talk about how you didn't dream for a few years, and then finally you wanted to take the wall down. Your mom will know this, dad, that's always been your personality. He's always been that way, which is nothing. Nothing, nothing. I'm processing it, praying about it, processing it, praying about it. Nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Take the wall down now. No, no, no. It happened. No, no, no. You're crazy. No, we're never doing that. Don't even say it. It's not happening. No, no, no, no, no. Yeah. Weren't you. Yeah, I know. We were like, we shouldn't be doing it. There's 60 people have come in their flip flops, like, why are we doing this? Why are we doing this? Why are we doing this? And I felt like for years, and we were processing it, and then all of a sudden, one weekend, you go, yeah, we're done in two weeks. I know. And it's just. So I bring that up because even. Even looking back on the most traumatic time where you felt like you weren't dreaming, the reality is that you stood so firm, you took action. True. You went. You wanted to play golf. You could have sulked around, but you were like, nah, let's go play golf. Yeah. You looked at a cigar and thought, man, I wish I could have one. I mean, you were really. You were really living your life, even in the midst of all that. So I just think, you know, with all the stuff you mentioned, like, we just gotta stop believing the lies. Yeah. Stop being so afraid of the stuff we're watching on tv. You know, yesterday we have friends that work on a sports show. Yesterday, a guy came in saying, this is. This is bad for the Panthers. This is bad. The way They've set themselves up. I know they're winning three to two, but I'm telling you, this team's not gonna win the championship. Yeah. Yeah. You can't believe everything you hear, especially. The stories you're telling yourself, Chris. Exactly. Oh, my gosh. We're. Mary has just come into the booth today. I have a lot to say. She's got a lot to say. Yeah. We're talking about how. How as bad as things can be, you know, Chris is wearing his jersey. It's a memorial to the champion. The book is really a jersey in itself to not just the story, but to how we come out on the other side. That as bad as life is, there's still room to keep fighting. Keep your head up, because one day you'll be on the top of that mountain with your hands held high. You know it's true. So what is it that you want to be able to. Well, you know, I think that we try to. I like your glasses, by the way. Thank you. I can see a little bit when I look down. This is part of getting older. Your eyes are the first to go. You're not older? No. Your neck is the first to go. What? Yeah. And then it all starts to fall down for you. It's your memory. But, you know, I couldn't remember that. Well, that's that, too. There's a lot that starts happening. Can I tell a funny, funny story real quick? Yes. So, unfortunately, her mom might forget what she was. I will forget it. No, no, no, go ahead. It doesn't even matter. I'll tell. By the way, I'll tell something else. While you're in this. I'm going for a night owl. I just want cookie. I just wanted our. Our audience to know how funny dad was. A couple weeks ago, I'm having to deal with an issue with. With a medical report. They came in and. And a lab tech wrote something down that I don't have. It's called encephalopathy. Encephalopathy. Encephalopagus. Isn't that like a Sesame street character? It was encephalopagus. The tech wrote down I was having mucus. I wanted to get tested. Okay. And so earlier, it was for Rochelle, and so I end up finding out, like, our insurance isn't happy about it, but it was a lab text mistake. So I'm calling Dad, and I'm just, like, complaining about it. And so that's, like, what they say you have. Is that encephal. Encephalopathy. You know, apparently there's like mood swings and like severe memory loss and dad's like, that's crazy. Did you tell him your dad has it? Didn't know there was a term by the way. Do you follow up on that? Yeah, because I heard from the insurance guy. Yeah. So proud of my dad. I'm like, that's such a great joke. It is a great joke because instead of being afraid and. And automatically assuming, oh my God, Chris has something which. Can I just say. And I love all of your age bracket in your age, your generation. They're wonderful. They have some amazing things. You're laying it on thick for what contributing to them. But. But there's some. Hypochondriac. No. What is it? Hypochondriac. Hypochondriac. When you like. I feel like this next. The season that we're in like this world that we're in. If you get diagnosed with something, you feel better. No, but that's not just this generation. That's every. That's every generation. No. Yes it is. No, no. Hypochondriac is my grandma Alessi who was thought everything every day. She was sick of something. But there was one in a 10, 000 people that you knew. They were like hypochondriac stood out because we didn't take a lot of pills. We didn't. We. Nobody was on prescription anything as they are today. Logical thing. That's not. Okay. So it was. Now he's going to go to his master's degree. My masters was in theology. Not this. But psychologically, if you're taking a pen you a pill, you feel like you're doing something. And the only like if not, then you don't know what to do about yourself. Okay, well, whatever I'm saying, that's a. This generation. Yeah. I was going to say. Wait, let's get back to it. No, when you interrupt me, it's over. I'm moving on to something else. No. So no. We were talking about when you get a diagnosis. Okay. No, that was the story you interrupted with. I can't go back that far. That was like four minutes ago. Put on her phone so she could. This is actually a sign of it. So one of the. No. 1 of the encephalopathy. This is encephalopathy right now. No, but one of the things that they say is one of the easiest, simplest cures to somebody who feels depressed is to start thinking about something in the future that would bring them joy. Something simple. And so think about the moment we just had where we just started dying, laughing. Or a couple weeks ago, when we were in the. In the booth with Gabby, we were trying to film a video for our church, and you and I just kept yawning and we started breaking out laughing. We had to stop the video because. Y' all couldn't stop yawning. Couldn't stop. You were boring yourselves. Yes, boring ourselves to sleep. This is what. It's weird, like, because I brought this. I brought this up at the beginning. If there's anxiety is trying to prepare yourself for something bad that can happen tomorrow. Right? You can't. You don't know what it's going to be. Even that. That inside out, too. Trying to, like, anxiety was trying to prepare the kid for something bad that might happen in the next moment or the next day. But the truth is that that is proof that there's unexpected joy in the future, too. So that's what I think I was trying to go to about mental toughness and mental strength. You know, my mother, who has had zero degree, she's got a real estate license, but she. You mean Dr. Faith. Frederick. Dr. Faith, who has a theological degree now, but back in the day, the one. Who ran a school. And this is why. This is why I never can't get my thoughts. Go ahead. She has them now, but when we were growing up, she didn't have any. Go ahead. She graduated from high school, then went full time into ministry with my dad. Okay. And see, just this trail can make me forget what I'm trying. Where I'm trying to go. Hey, blondie. Go ahead. Dear Lord. You guys, I don't want to do this with y' all anymore. No. She would say. She would say when I would have, like, being younger, that 10, 11, 12, where the mind monsters start naturally coming in because your brains rewired and changing. I remember she'd say, okay, girls, if you can't sleep because you're having bad thoughts, think happy thoughts. She would just throw that out. Think the happiest thought. Well, you know what my happy thought was? Oh, no, I'm not kidding. I'm not. This shows my age. My happy thought was Donny Osmond. Who is that? Don't tell Michelle. It might be her. It might be Michelle's happy thought. Sorry, it's my encephalopathy. No, I think in his 70s now. And he dances on Vegas. In Vegas. But back in the day, he was Donnie and Marie Osmond. You don't know who they are? I'm a little bit Country Marie's hot. I'll tell you. She's 80 years. She looks great. She's selling Weight Watchers. Weight. No. Something like that. No. Weight Watchers. But in the day, in the 70s. What if weight Watchers was a bunch of people who just sat around you and watched you. That's basically what happens. That's. But that's been my wife. The entire People that'll just keep an eye. That's my wife. Baby. That's your mom. Six ounces, two pounds. Do you know what was for me, there was a time where I, I. Just, I wanted to finish my Donny Osmond condom finish content. Can I please finish? See, go away. You've interrupted me three times. Have you noticed? Your father has not, but you have. You are young in this game. I'm a champion. You are young in this game, sir. Go. No. So the happy thoughts I would insert into my mind the things that made me happy. And within minutes the bad thoughts would go away. And the truth is we've replaced medication and prescription drugs. I was trying to go serious and y' all are still trying to stay, you know, funny. But the truth is there's mental toughness and going back to your scenario, it's survival. It's survival to think happy thoughts because you know you've got to rewire your brain away from fear and yes, faith, but really back into I can't control what happens to me tomorrow anyway. And there's something about you that the mental toughness and the person that you become when you really do have to let go of what happens to you tomorrow that you do give your life over to. I don't know what's going to happen. I have to enjoy this every day. And it's not something that you do because culture tells you or it's a thought. You've had an experience in life that now is. Oh, my sister's calling me. Sorry. Yep. It's okay. Sorry, Martha. She knows all about this, but I think that that's what it boils down to. There's two kinds of people. There's two kinds of ways you can think and be a type of person. Right. You can be somebody that is always thinking about the worst possible situation or you can be more positive Pollyanna, which you become anyway if you're going to have peace of mind. You know what I mean? Yep. I think, I don't mean this self serving right now. And I don't, I don't because I don't like to talk about myself. Right. I really don't I know it's hard to believe. It's very hard. But I was reading this book. All right. So we were with the staff recently in Georgia. We were in the middle of camps, so it was just some of the senior leadership that was there. So we were around the table, and it was like a serious moment. I started to talk about this book that I was reading. And so I said, because we're dealing with some issue around the table. And so in this serious moment, I said, you know, and in this book, I'm reading on mental toughness. As I said that, like, three of them just broke out in laughter. It was like automatic response of laughing at you for saying that they were laughing at me. And I'm like, why are they. What are you all doing? You know? And they're like, of all the books you should be reading, you don't need to be reading one about mental toughness. Exactly. You're one of the mentally toughest mental person people we know. Yeah. I was like, okay, but that was. Nice to have automatic reaction. First off. It is. And I had, to be honest, I said, well, I'm not reading it for me. I'm reading it for the staff. I want to teach them some things. Listen, it's hard to be around you and not. And be mentally weak, for one thing. All right. Where does mental toughness come from? All right. Well, it does come from going through our time. Yeah. And. And if. If you're going to go through something and you pull yourself up and you get the support of other people around you, it does temper you a little. It makes you a stronger person, which is why you shouldn't run from hard times. You shouldn't run from hard decisions. You shouldn't run from having to make a hard call. I mean, right now, we're making a hard call in our business, in our church, because we're going to a full stream environment, live stream environment in both locations. That's true. And the location that no longer has a live speaker in it because it's live stream. They're. They're having a hard time with. Wait, we're not going to see our pastor anymore. He's not going to be in flesh. We're going to be hearing it like a recording. I can stay home, all that stuff. So hearing it makes me sit back and think, well, maybe it's a mistake. Maybe we shouldn't. But deep down, I know it's the right thing to do if we're going to expand our influence and touch as many people as we can. And so therefore, that's where mental toughness has to come in. I'm knowing what I'm doing. We got to keep moving forward. We're. We're got the good support, the wisdom, the counsel, the training. We know what we're doing in order to change. So there has to be mental toughness. But here's what I ultimately took out of that reading, and it came down to the conversation you're having with yourself. All right? You have to change the narrative. What makes you afraid, what makes you weak, what makes you feel hopeless and helpless is the narrative. What's the story you're telling yourself? Broken heart. I'll never love again. Right, right. Financial, you know, I'm breaking. I lose all my money. I'll never have enough money again. There's always health. Mental, physical health. Getting attacked. Oh, my God, I'm going to die. This is going to be in my. My future. I. I'm not going to have long life. It's. It's the narrative that you're telling yourself. You're dealing with somebody that's very hard and controlling, and you keep looking at them and you're thinking, they're just controlling. You know, they're. They're ridiculous. I can't get along with them. What you have to ultimately do is flip the switch. Yeah. Okay. Why is this person talking to me? Why do they feel like they've got to control the narrative? Why do they always have to control the situation? You know what? Maybe it's because they've been hurt or they've been disappointed, or maybe they're afraid. The moment I change my narrative in my mind about what's going on about the person, about the events and so on and so forth, I can then get stronger and not run from the person, run from the situation, but instead be able to embrace it and say, wait a minute. This sickness is not unto death. I can. I can get back up on my feet. I got to go to the doctor. I've got to make sure I'm on the right meds. I got to make sure I'm working out. I'm eating right. I can change this story. Yeah, but it starts with the story you're telling yourself. Yeah. When you have a spouse that you think, man, they just don't treat me right. Well, change the narrative in your mind. Maybe if I start treating them differently, they'll start treating me differently. Maybe if I say, I love you more. Maybe if I say, I'm sorry. Maybe if I. I'm the one that initiates dialogue and conversation. Maybe if I flip it, this, the script here, things can change. It's changing the narrative in your mind. That's the thing that I took out of that. Mentally tough. Yeah. Yeah. Because ultimately, whatever you tell yourself is truth. Yeah. Well, our coach actually said it. Chris said, steve, for real, whatever you tell yourself is true. Yeah, if I can do it, I will do it. Yeah, if I can't do it, I won't do it. And you're stronger than you think you are. God put that within each other. You were saying. No, our coach said that your thoughts lead to your. The thoughts you have lead to the words you speak, which lead to the. The actions which create your habits, which create your results. So if at any point I don't like the results of my life, I have to go back to the thoughts that I'm thinking. And I can remember a time walking in Disney World as a family, and mom looked at me and because of the words I was saying, she looked at me and said, I don't think you should preach to anyone else until you've started preaching to yourself again. And I remember thinking, oh, my gosh, I'm showing up on these Monday nights with all these young adults preaching to them. Yeah, I wake up every day and I. I just live my life. I don't even go through what I have to tell myself. And there was. How did you take off, by the way, when that happened? What do you mean, you stopped preaching for a little bit. It was about a month. About a month? I was going to preach to myself. I think. I think it was a little longer than that. I think it was about six months all summer. I was. We were very proud that you gave into that. I don't know if you remember me telling you this, because one of the. I don't want to say it was like an overshadowing fear, but it's definitely a learned behavior. Is one thing about my father was that he could preach it, he could sing it, he could write it in a song, and he couldn't do it. Could never do it. And that's one of the most dangerous things, not just for pastors and preachers and communicators. That's dangerous for people, period. Don't be a know it all boss and everybody around and you're not living it. Live it first. That's why people laughed out loud at you, that I need this book like you don't need this book. You live mental strength, mental toughness. You look what you've overcome. That's what you want people to say about you, not that you're just preaching some information. There's so much knowledge. Oh, my gosh. There's so much knowledge. But what really impacts and influences and transforms is. Is knowledge that is implemented, that's lived. Yeah. And you were. Hello. You must have been what, 20? No. So we're thinking about two different times. I was. This was. I was older. This was 18 seven years ago. I was like 26. Yeah. And I just, it was just I had let my. I had let a bitterness take hold because I just, I, you know what my thoughts were? I deserve more than I'm getting. Yeah. And that was it. I just, I had thought that had infected so many things. So she goes, I don't think you should preach until you start preaching to yourself. We're walking around Disney, remember? We're just having a good time. And that started a practice in me where I started something called a sermon to myself. And I'd wake up every day. It took me 20 full minutes outside of reading the Bible, where I'd have to tell myself, this is what I'll think this day. Yeah. And you know what was crazy? During that time, I was a little depressed because there were just things that I wanted to see in my life that I weren't seeing. And do you know what suddenly started to become a cure for depression for me? The Miami Miracle. Do you remember the Miami Miracle? I don't Remember filming in 2018. In 2018, the dolphins. The Dolphins were going up against the Patriots in the final game of the season. Oh, Lord. And it ended up being, I believe, like Tom Brady's last game for the Patriots. And it was in Miami and we were losing like crazy. And our team stormed all the way back. I think it was to keep them out of the playoffs. And in, on the, in the last play, they kicked the ball to us. And we do the only multiple lateral play in NFL history to get all the way to the end zone score and win the game in a walk off touchdown. Nobody thought we'd win. The Hurricanes had done it years before. We're on a kickoff return to end the game with two seconds. We take it all the way to the house against Duke and we win. There were moments where I remember this overwhelming joy because my sports team won. And it's like, wow, when you start to get upset, depressed, thinking the wrong thoughts, you really forecast nothing but doom and gloom into your future. Yeah, that's true. But then when you can remind yourself that something as stupid as a sport can bring me overwhelming Joy. Yeah. It's like, wow. It's almost like the sun starts to just break through all the gray sky. And you're like, there will be good in my future, too. And that was one of the. You know, so you change the thoughts you're thinking, which means now the words I'm saying are. Are shifting. Which means my actions are different, which habits and results. The results of my life are different. Yeah. And you wrote some cards down you used to have. Oh, yeah. Up on your mirror. Oh, yeah. You would read those things. I had thoughts. So the sermon in myself started with four or five. Just like three by five cards. Yeah. Where I'd write down something and I'd put in my back pocket and I'd pull it out. And it's crazy because ever since then, I have never needed them again in their fullness. But I have always had. I know the practice I have to bring out if I. If my mind ever starts to go somewhere it shouldn't. I know the practice I have to bring out that helped me a lot. When Rochelle was pregnant and we spent three days in Israel while Marino stopped moving because Rochelle had got. Remember this story? Oh, yeah. Rochelle got baptized in the. In the cold, crazy cold Jordan. And Marino stopped moving. He was six, seven months in the womb at that point. Yeah. I even come and tell Mom. I'm nervous. It was. It was the practices back then that helped me know. Okay. No, I know how to be mentally tough here. And then it was great. You know, right. At 32 weeks, someone comes and tells me a terrible story about what happened to their co worker when she was 32 weeks pregnant. Yeah. Always. Always. It's the worst always. But you're going to bed and you're like, wait, no, I know how to control my mind here. And so it keeps you. Because you just. You develop the practice and you can pull on it whenever you need it. Yeah. I think if we could see our brain under, I don't know, not necessarily a microscope, but maybe through the images. The images to see what happens to our brain when we feast on fearful thoughts and the anxiety. Well, I know anxiety shows up. Oh, they've demonstrated that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And depression. Yeah. And especially if it comes out in your words or you're a person that internalizes either way. I think if we really could see the reaction that our brain has to us constantly staying in a state of either fear, fight or flight or just doom or the worst possible scenario, are always considering those things instead of protecting ourselves and staying in a place of wait A minute, I release that. I'm not going to stay in that place. I think if we could see what would happen on the inside and to our brains, it would automatically cause us to be more afraid of letting that happen. Yeah. So we would practice more positive talking, thinking and even Christians. I mean, we know we're surrounded by a lot of Christians. And just because you call yourself a Christian or you have faith doesn't mean you have the ability to practice or put into practice positive thinking and meditating and thinking on these things. And I love Philippians 4, 8. Whatever is true, whatever is pure, whatever is good, all the good stuff, just think on that. You know, it never leaves a contingency plan for. But be careful, don't think too many good thoughts, because what if the worst happened? You know, leave room to be practical here. You don't see that anywhere in the Bible you say you hear. This is where you think. You think on what's true. Okay. What's honest, what's noble, what's a good report, what's lovely. If there's anything worthy of praise, think on. Put your brain on that and stay there. Is that what you talked about on the Morning Devo recently with Gabby? No, we talked about the acronym for submit, what it means to submit, because in a time of S, U, B, M, I, T. But we had to do six instead of five. You put a bonus in there for tea. We put a bonus for T. Yeah. I love when people submit. It's really great. By the way, when is that Morning Devo? Every day. How do they get to it? When does it come out? When does it launch? It's like 5am yeah. Every single day. It's out before you wake up, I can assure you. How do you get to it? Spotify, Spotify, Apple. It's easy to just grab it and yeah, there's a link every episode and they do put it on the Instagram, on their Instagram page. We'll link it to this episode, too. Every one of our Family business podcast. Because what's great about that is again, positive affirmation. And it's five minutes every morning. It's the time frame of it. It's five minutes. Lessy girls have made it longer. No, I'm not. No more than six or seven. Stop talking. Right, Alan? No more than six or seven. A little bit. Maybe ten. Especially Gabby. Well, anyway, you can give God ten minutes. Oh, goodness. Actually, it does help you start your day right. No, you're totally right. Get your brain going in the right direction. Thinking on the right stuff. You know, this is funny. Over the last seven or eight days, there have been moments where this question has just crept into the back of my head. What would God want my mind on right now? Yeah, that's a good question. What would God want my mind on? Because we were talking earlier about all this stuff going on in the world. Your kids still want to spend time with them, your kids still want you to be around. So there are, you know. Yes. Is there a lot at stake in the world right now? Is there a battle for our country's morality? Probably. Is there a battle for the life of your six or seven year old who's like, I want to be with my dad. Yeah. And I wanted to be fully present. Absolutely. Yeah. And so it's like, you know, what does God want my mind on? These big political things. Obviously a part of my life has to be dedicated to that, but not at the expense of my family, not at the expense of my own community. So what does God want my mind on right now? And I want to add to that really quick something that I've, even in recent years, I've really processed. I don't want to do anything or be motivated by fear. I don't want anything. Any decision that I make, that fear is what's behind it, which is what's driving me to do it. And I really stopped and asked myself, is that a trauma response or is that a fear response? And I hate the trauma response term because I think those things, when you say them too much, gets watered down. And people that really haven't gone through trauma throw that out. And people that have really gone through trauma don't ever use that term. But I. I know from my own childhood and listening to our podcast, you can hear my story, your story, all that we've been through. But I. I want to take captive every thought. And as you get older, it doesn't get any easier. You. You have to be mindful because you have more at stake. You've wait till Marino gets older, you know, and then you have a little girl and you have more kids. You really need to get into a practice of thinking on good things and staying in a place of. Of believing the best rather than believing the worst, because you can't control the worst anyway. But in this day and age, it's like we heard this week, you. You had a friend who didn't wake up in your age this week alone. Yeah. And in the same day on social media, I think her name's Anne Burrell. She's a Chef on Food Network. Famous chef just didn't wake up. She's my age, 55. Well, it's like you're hearing that constantly. It would be easy at our age to close our eyes at night and go, what if I don't wake up? Well, are you kidding? I'm young, I'm healthy. Why would I even think that? Because everywhere around you, you're hearing this barrage of the worst scenario. Part of that is because of access to information. That's really all it is. We're just saturated with. We're hearing about people. We don't even know who they are. But we're seeing it on social media, we're seeing it on the news, wherever we get our information. So we've got to put barriers up. We've really got to put some guardrails up to protect our minds in the morning. And I think at night from those thoughts that come and not. Not feed on too much information. But for me, something that I really even have in grandkids, some of those old fears when the kids were little will start come knocking at my door again, and in the middle of the night wake up thinking about our pool and the kids and the babies being in the pool and having these nightmares and thoughts. And I had to overcome that once. So I know what I've got to do to overcome that again. I'm going to put guardrails in place, I'm going to put defense mechanisms in place. But I will not let fear be a motivating factor because it leads to anxiety. So good. No, all this is so good. You know, I would say two things to that. The, the, the biggest of which, and we're very fortunate. Okay. And I think, for one thing, I say if we're fortunate because we're in a community of faith. Yeah. So when we're in a community of faith, there's two things that are constantly happen. Number one is faith, which faith is actually a vision for somebody's life. Right. I think people, when they have a vision, they're forced to look forward, not look where they're at or look where they've been. Yeah, it's good. That's where I think coming out of 42, the heart attack and so on, having this church and what I knew my role was and realizing that I wasn't taken out because I still have a purpose for being and living was my family and this ministry. I was looking forward. So when you're looking forward, you're pursuing a vision, you don't have time to get caught up in the present. Too much. Yeah. You don't have time to let your mind dwell on these things here. We know that life is not easy in the moment, but vision is always saying, it's going to get better because I've got someplace, I have somewhere to go. And over the years, as a young man, vision was so important. Right. Especially as a pioneer, I needed vision to go forward. And in your generation, as Chris trying to control his yawns, he's going to make me laugh. So don't look at what's so important in your generation is picking up a vision to now say, all right, I'm given an opportunity at this season, but I know when the baton is passed, and then me and my peer group is running and leading. What's the vision for us? What's the vision that we have for our day and our season that's so important? Because it keeps you from getting caught up in, oh, I'm not the guy yet. I'm not the leader yet. I'm still the son and my dad could be in my way, you know, and the. All those things, you. You have to fight those thoughts. But a vision helps you. It's really. Stay out of this. The second thing that's so cool about this community of faith that we are in is the community. Yeah, the people. Right. There's stories. Wanting to stay by yourself, wanting to stay secluded, wanting to be alone keeps you trapped in your own thoughts. And you can't, you know, veg yourself on Netflix and Hulu and Amazon and think you're going to get out of your negative thoughts. You can't. It just keeps you there. Right. But the moment you start connecting with other people, you get around there. I hate to use this term, their vibe, their energy, you know, but it's true. But we know in our realm, it's faith. When you get around their faith, when you get around what they're doing, their vision, how they're living their life, you get out of your living room, go sit in their living room, get out of your dining room and go sit in a restaurant somewhere, that whole dynamic of that begins to change the way you think. So you put the staff on an assignment this summer. Chris and I think this is so cool. We have a practice here within our staff to go to coffee as often as you can go to have coffee with them, at least three if you can. So you and Armando, Gabby, that I get your weekly agenda from, you'll put on there. Same with John. He'll put on there. My goal is to take Three people connect with three people, and the church supports that financially. We reimburse because we. It's. It's worth it for us to get out and really connect with people that we work with or only see on Sunday. So we want to have that. So you wanted to take it up a notch this week, this summer, and you said, all right, go. Go take people out. So they're doing it during the day. So your wife Rochelle and Melanie, when we were starting, I wanted my coffee. They're not here to give me my coffee because they're having coffee with somebody, which is cool. That's what it's about. Right? So we got a picture from Armando and Anna, who went to one of the family at Dadeland, their home, today. Now, this gentleman and his wife have just recently, since the beginning of the year, started coming to our church. He's sharp. I know him from somewhere. I just can't figure out where. But he's sharp, and his wife is beautiful. Works out she's fighting cancer, so she's completely shaved her head, and she's going through treatment and fighting cancer. I'm undoing Anna, go to their house today to have coffee and just chill with them. And he sent the picture and the beautiful testimony about how they are metro lifers. Just their whole spirit about them is metro lifers, which means they. They share our values of Christianity, but yet they share the value of fighting and. And enjoying life. Their life filled, even though they're going through hell right now. That's right. Their life filled. Their faith filled. That moment with Armando in their room, in their home, sharing conversation and connecting is elevating both. So much joy. Yes. Mind so true set. That's their thoughts. Because you've got this couple who's surrounded by our campus pastor and his wife down there that are sensing faith. Yeah, that's right. In their home. And it's a great place to go. Go to the home where the battle is at the most. When they're at home in the home, they're. They're feeling that that battle take place. So the faith is elevated. Then our pastors, Armando and Anna, are sitting there saying, wow, look how we're bringing this. We've got to stay focused on what God's called us to do and what this ministry is doing. It's keeping their thoughts elevated. And in keeping their thoughts elevated, they're able to fight the good fight even more and think on those things that are more positive and conducive to a winning mindset, because you're going to have to fight the good fight. You're going to have to lose a game or two. You're going to have to get knocked off your feet every so often. You're going to go through a hard time because that's life. Life was never meant to be easy. You don't coast through life and really get anywhere. Okay. You can't live in neutral. You can't live in park. You got to be going forward, not backwards. And if you're going to do that, you're going to have some challenges that come your way, but you're going to fight it. And you'll put the jersey on, you'll read the book, write the book. Your story is going to sell it, be celebrated by others, because you're going to encourage them, because that's how life is, and that's how you should make it. Anytime I'm around people that are going through a fight for their life, a health battle like that, it always makes me want to be stronger. It always makes me question my own ability to go through something like that. And I just look at them with this sense of awe, of wow. You talk about mental toughness when you're young and you're going through a battle for your life. And the husband's right there with her, and she's lost her hair, and they're both as healthy as could be physically fit from the outside. And yet this attack has come. And the mental. We know the mental struggle that that is, to have to accept those words, accept the news and just somebody ever saying the C word over you, and to see them fight and come to church. And then I could imagine Ann and Armando sitting in the home with them today. They're getting as much out of it, that's what you're saying. It's feeding them and their soul as much as Ann and Armando are feeding this couple's soul. Who needs it? But I just. I admire people that have really been in the trenches with their health, and they've overcome hard things because it's a reminder that we all can do harder things than we're doing right now, and we will respond and we'll live. And every day we lose gets redeemed. You know, that's a thought that I've had recently. It was so funny because I was thinking about the youth and how many years you did youth on Friday nights, right? Friday nights were youth. Every Friday night, we couldn't go anywhere because Christopher led youth on Friday night, right? So we had Friday night youth, Saturday night youth. And this is just a Petty thought, but it really is, it's profound if you put it in the right places at the time. We started out with, this is better. It's a sacrifice. Then after several years of Friday nights became, really became a sacrifice and we stopped and went back to Wednesdays. It's funny how now we can't even remember the sacrifice of Friday nights because you have thousands of more Friday nights that you're not doing what was a sacrifice. And it's so easy to think that the struggle that you're in right now, it's all there is. And you forget you've got days, weeks, months, years ahead of you to live without this sacrifice or without this battle or without the struggle. And it is okay to project into the future. Yep. It is okay for somebody to walk into your hospital room and say, I know it feels this way right now, but you're going to get better. It's not going to feel this way 30 days from now. It's going to be. And surrounding yourself with people that speak positively, that is so valuable. If you're going through a dark time, if you're going through a difficult space or a health crisis or even an emotional crisis or a loss where you're grieving, being around people that have been through it and are now on the other side of it, get around those people and ask them, feed off of them. What is this going to feel like a year from now? Well, it's not going to be easy, but I promise you the sun is going to shine again. When people tell you that grief has a three year pattern, it has a three year process. That is a fact, Jack. Three years. Something happens in that third year where the sun starts to shine again. The wife that lost the husband decides she wants to start dating again. The husband that lost the wife decides he wants to get remarried. Men get married a little quicker than women, whatever. That's holding a podcast. But things do turn around. Things do get better on their own. So you might as well start speaking that over your life, even when you're going through a dark situation or a fearful time, to not get bogged down in the constant sacrifice of the season or the difficulty of the season, because it is going to get better. I like it. I got to go to the potty. So we got to start to bring this thing down because, you know, we're on the road, we're traveling and we're enjoying these summer long plays. Anything you want to say on the way out, Bubs? I love the idea that community is part of the boundaries you were talking about because you can always go, you know. Yes. Story of one 55 year old not waking up is horrifying. But I know tons of 55 year olds who woke up this morning. That's right. Yeah. And so no health problems? No, they're fine. I know tons of 75 year olds who woke up. We know a guy right now at the gym. Everybody just signed a birthday card for him because he's turning 100 today. He turned 100 and he is a military veteran. He fought, I think in World War II. Something. I don't know. Anyway, he's 100, so do the math on that. And he's on the bike every day. He drives himself to the ymca and he's an inspiration to everybody in that space. And you know what? He was at the gym today and I wasn't. There you go. Okay, quick. I better make friends with him. Connor Tripp did that to me. Connor Tripp, after going through the battle for his son's life for years. There you go. Gave his son his kidney and six months later ran an ultra marathon. 50 miles. Tell me how easy it is to make an excuse to get up and not take a run. Oh, boy. When your buddy. Especially when all you got to do is walk across the street to your gym. All right, so here. Here's what I would say. You know, we have buddies that are in our profession, and I've heard this from some of them. Oh, my God. It's just so hard to be a pastor because all we do is hear negative stories and we're carrying the load of our people who are dealing with challenges in their lives. And Mary and I are sitting over here. All of us are like, are you kidding? Yeah. It's the greatest joy. Sure. Is to be surrounded by winners that go through hard times. Yeah. But come out on the other hand, other side. With their hands raised. Well, that finished well. Yep. We are so fortunate we are doing what we do. We love our job. Mary, 40 years I've been doing this. Wow. I did not know. Come on, man. 84. I came out of college immediately, started working in the ministry. Wow. Steve, this past May, it would have been 41 years that I've been doing this. Does it feel like it it? No. Isn't that crazy? This is great doing what we do. And when you had the heart attack, you didn't blame the ministry? Oh, my gosh, no. You blame McDonald's. Total. You did too many cheeseburgers all the way up. No, not good. But really awesome. The people of this of course, in this room, my family, my wife, who was right there the whole time, you know, praying through and calling everybody else to pray, and the people of this Metro Life church that were here at the time jumped in and worked hard by faith, took over the ministry. You all right, son? Stay with me, okay? I'm boring. You took over the ministry while Mary and I, you and I were out for about 90 days. They stepped in, took care of business for us, and here we are all these years later, able to celebrate beautiful birthday, incredible and wouldn't have it any other different. You are the strongest mentally tough person we know. Oh, well, I gotta push those night owl cookies away because they've been getting baked since 2012. Great tagline. All right, man, I'm done. I gotta go to potty. I'm out of here. Pump the brakes. Let's get off at this rest stop and we'll see you next time on the Family Business with the Alessas. 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