Love Fort Wayne June Podcast: Restoring Hope, One Opportunity at a Time featuring Tony Hudson, CEO of Blue Jacket

There’s no better way to kick off our countdown to this year’s Global Leadership Summit than with a conversation featuring community leader Tony Hudson, CEO of Blue Jacket.

Tony shares how faith, purpose, and a deep love for people have shaped his leadership journey and Blue Jacket’s mission of creating pathways to employment, dignity, and hope for those facing significant barriers. From prison reentry to homelessness, Tony reminds us that leadership is about seeing value in people and helping them discover it for themselves.

This is a powerful conversation about second chances, courageous leadership, and trusting God's direction even when the path forward isn't always clear.

Learn more about Blue Jacket at www.bluejacketinc.org

Transcript

Fear, Faith, And The Call

SPEAKER_03 0:00

And it doesn't it doesn't shake us. Um those those things don't rattle us because we know we're carrying out our call. And in carrying out our call, I've seen a lot of people lead initiatives and organizations and programs that do have the element of fear, like, what is the liability behind this? Or I don't think we're we can be liable for that decision. We've never had that in our mouths, ever. It's like, let's okay, is this gonna provide jobs? Let's go do it. Is this gonna serve that person better? Come on, man, let's let's make it happen. And so I think um that is that has been the fruit of the Holy Spirit being involved, is that we just don't have fear.

Tony Hudson And Blue Jacket Origins

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Man, I'm doing so good today. Uh, man, I'm excited because we've got a friend with us. Oh, sure do. Uh, CEO of Blue Jacket, Tony Hudson. Tony, how you doing? I'm wonderful. Yeah, man. It's it's so good to be here with you. Uh, folks, you know that we love to have conversations with folks in our community that are making a difference in our city, uh, that are loving people, that are serving people, whether that be in business or nonprofit or ministry. And so this episode is no different than that. We've had a a great lineup this year in 2026, and it's it's only getting better this summer. And so, uh, Tony, we're glad uh that you're able to join us today. So we just want to start it easy, man. Right on. Yeah, we want to we want to start with just a little bit about you. Let's have you introduce yourself for folks that don't know who you are, a little bit of life story. And even can you tell us about Blue Jacket, Jeff?

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Well, no, I don't know if I want to talk about Blue Jacket, my my life's cause. No, I have to tell you, I'm I'm moderately uh distractable. Uh there's uh my ADD is an overdrive. I'm trying to focus on this handsome guy in the middle, but there's traffic behind you, and I see birds flying by, and it's gonna be it's gonna be a difficult podcast here, Jeff. Uh Tony Hudson, and I've been the um the CEO of Blue Jacket for 21 years now. Yeah. And uh I'm honored to have been called to that mission. And uh I am a Fort Wayne kid. I uh was raised at St. Paul Lutheran down on Bar Street, and then I went to Concordia Lutheran and went to undergrad in in uh middle of the state uh and was going to uh major in psych and uh in religion, and I knew that I wanted to serve people, but my gut was telling me that I uh wanted to go into law enforcement. So um my uh my grandfather was a prosecuting attorney, and uh my mother was um uh studying in law school um in our middle school years uh to then become a criminal um judge. Eventually that was her life goal. She ended up working in criminal justice in another realm. She had to drop out of law school to care for my grandmother who lived with us um battling cancer. But uh all these play a part in in how Blue Jacket was born. And so uh I'm I'm grateful that those were all woven together to eventually in 2003 create this independent nonprofit that was created to serve people coming home from prison uh in employment and and uh career training. So that's the core of it.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Yeah, sometimes it seems like God goes whoosh and it's like, oh my goodness, he just laid this on me and now I I get it and I see and I'm ready to go. How was the beginning and the vision that came from God? How did all that go together for you?

SPEAKER_03 3:55

Well, Mitch, uh frankly, I didn't acknowledge it. I, you know, it was uh my own arrogance, thinking that it was my hard work and all the connections of the people that were putting this beautiful nonprofit together. Uh, I wasn't attending church until I met my wife. So we uh we started going together in a very similar church to Jeff, uh actually the same church uh 25 years ago. And uh and that is where uh uh he met me again. I walked him welcomed Christ back into my heart. Uh and I was a rebel. And to be honest, um, I went to college for psych and uh religion, as I mentioned, but it was to argue against religion, which is crazy. Um there was a uh Dr. Pebbles, uh Peebles, I'm sorry, uh was uh Pebbles. Dr. Peebles uh um uh softened my heart for that entire thing. But I became a fine art major, came back, got a master's degree in fine art, which is where I met my my wife, by the way, started going to church, and uh didn't realize that this vision, this it wasn't really a whoosh moment until uh four years in when God brought me to my knees. And he had to recognize, I had to recognize, hold on a second, this vision was never yours. I called you to Blue Jacket uh in your arrogance. It it wasn't that I was not authorizing you to walk forward and make this thing happen, but this is mine, and my provision is going to help you move forward and serve the people who I want you to serve, who are destitute, those individuals who need hope and confidence and uh the courage to get back on their feet. You, Tony, get back on your feet and serve, period. And um, so those stories, uh, there were some pretty incredible miracles that happened along the way. And I've told my board and my staff these stories multiple times, like God got my attention. And every now and every now and then I get sleepy at the wheel and I hate myself for it, but I realize that uh when I don't put him first, I don't ask the Holy Spirit to walk in uh into meetings before I do. Um then you know, of course, I'm more I'm working on my own.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Yeah. Uh I I just gotta ask if fine art, what were you gonna do with that? Um I love art, yeah, and I'm just really curious.

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Uh thank you. So I was a studio artist and I I loved painting and drawing. And uh that's kind of manifest that blue jacket a little bit. We have uh Annette the Tall Rabbit and iterations throughout the community. You'll see my love for fine art and um what aesthetics and storytelling do for our community. So I'll tell you that uh maybe if time allots, but uh I was uh I was teaching at St. Francis, so I graduated with my master's degree. I worked directly for the chair as a graduate assistant, and three semesters in I realized, man, I I I really don't like this job. I was an adjunct faculty teaching uh three classes, and and uh I just either I I it wasn't good or uh or I just didn't like it, and I I didn't. I I love teaching. And in fact, facilitating our Blue Jacket Academy, I love and I'm really good at. Uh, but uh facilitating the uh uh advanced figure drawing and advanced painting, it was it was not in my DNA. Uh but at that exact same time, God was kind of pricking my heart. I didn't know it was him, but it was like, hey, uh over here, you have been called at community corrections, where I was working full-time because three three classes a semester as an adjunct faculty doesn't pay the bills. I was living on my own. I was doing, I I own my own home, um, and I was trying to do it, you know, the right way. So I ended up working at community corrections where my mother, who I mentioned uh worked in criminal justice, she was a director at the time. So uh not a big fan of nepotism in county government, so I worked really hard. And in working hard, I I got the attention from a local judge who was innovative in bringing to our county the um the Allen County re-entry court. And my commission was to develop programs for this initiative to help men and women coming back from prison to reintegrate so they don't, it's a buzzword, recidivate or go back to what they were doing before. That was my goal. Family reintegration, housing, and employment were the two three biggest indicators, and employment was the easiest one to lick. At the same time, I'm kind of reporting to Mayor Graham Richard uh because he had this initiative through the National League of Cities on creating transitional jobs for people who are disadvantaged in the marketplace. So these things blended together, like what do we need to do in our in our community? Holy cow, let's create an independent nonprofit that will transitionally hire these individuals, and then they find careers after uh getting back up on their

Building A Reentry Jobs Nonprofit

SPEAKER_03 8:48

feet. That's what gave birth to Blue Jacket.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Wow, what a story. I mean, I I love it. Uh and his wife is a bomb artist, by the way. She is. Thank you, Jefferson. There we go. She needs to hear that more often. Yeah, yeah. She's the best. They're they're great. So you I mean, 21 years, Tony, faithful stewardship of the the leadership of Blue Jacket. I I want to ask kind of like a two-parter, like, what have you learned on the leadership journey as you've stewarded Blue Jacket? And then also over the years, you guys are doing so much in the community for these men and women as they as they step into re-entry. Can you break that down a little bit too? So kind of personal first, like what have you learned? And then as you've been learning stuff about leadership, what type of areas of outreach and impact and uh and and opportunity have you guys opened up? Uh and and and yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Yeah, you're welcome, man.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

Well, I've learned I'm an idiot. I I learned I'm an idiot and I know nothing. I'm not an idiot. I I I don't have that kind of self-talk. Uh however, uh God brings really smart people around me and uh board members, uh staff leadership, I think it's really incredible. I have a lot of grit. Um and I and I don't know if that's kind of my rearing. Uh I was a long time, Jeff, you know this, a wrestler for a long time. And uh and I can take a beating, and uh nonprofit CEOs take a beating. You know, you know how this feels, right?

SPEAKER_04 10:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:13

Uh so over time I realize that what I've learned in leadership is that as a servant, uh I often acknowledge when I'm not right and it's okay to not be right. And I also acknowledge that my gifting is in vision casting. When I step into vision, then I'm doing the right thing. Uh when I start to manage things or processes or people, man, I just get in the way. Tony, get out of the way. So uh they're very smart people that do that. I mean, you you've met Lindsay on multiple occasions, our chief operations officer. She she's operations, she's she's the process person. Yep. So Tony, get out of her way. And I do. So uh I've learned that uh you though we cut our teeth serving people criminal backgrounds in 2012. We've always been on the south side of town. Uh Calhoun Corridor, we basically, well, we live on it and have for 14 years now. We'll never move. Uh we are sinking our roots deeper and deeper. In fact, there's some big news that will be coming out in the next uh two quarters, perhaps. Uh we're very excited about this news. And it's about our love for South Central Fort Wayne, but also the love for our clients. Um, but we we open up the doors to anyone with a barrier to employment. And the beauty behind Blue Jacket are there's two things. Uh I'm honored in leadership to be able to work alongside our client testimonies. Like the management of our organization, 73% of the key decision makers of our organization are clients themselves. So they went through our process, they had a they were in a position of needing uh employment training through Blue Jacket, and then they became uh they were hired on for whatever reason and have climbed through the ranks. So um we also opened the doors, as I mentioned in 2012. It wasn't just people with criminal backgrounds, it's anyone that uh walks through that door, we don't turn them away. So if they have like 17 barriers that they list on a piece of paper and say, Oh, by the way, I have I have no address because I live out of a tent. I can't read the side of a bus because I'm illiterate. I haven't graduated from grade school. Oh, and I've never had a job. Will you help us or help me? And uh, and of course, the answer is always yes. So uh we did some very difficult things, and part of that humility or humbling, not humility, the humbling that I received from God was the acknowledgement that federal grants and state grants weren't a good match for our um philosophy and how we carry things out because uh we were Department of Labor, Department of Justice funded, and there was a lot of um requirements that our clients had to participate, they had to acknowledge to be able to enroll in our program. So uh we hated that we had to turn people away because of those grants. So we said, let's get rid of the grants. And that was hard. We turned the ship into the wind, it was incredibly hard financially, structurally, uh, through governance. And I realized that the organization had something that I never heard of, which was called founder syndrome. And uh, and so we had to die to that. We had to pick up our own crosses and say, How are we gonna make this work? And God showed up every time. That's so good. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

You turned the ship in the wind and had to reset your sails so the wind can draw you.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Um, I can tell that the Holy Spirit is everything to you and He draws you. Uh can you talk about how that uh integrates into how you lead, how you serve, uh this is the overall passion that you have for Blue Jacket.

Servant Leadership And Culture Without Fear

SPEAKER_03 14:00

Thank you for that question because I think we all lead. Well, this morning we uh we have our weekly Wednesday Zoom meeting uh because the organization has gotten to a point where we have six, seven different locations and it's hard to keep uh the heartbeat and the culture strong without connecting once a week. And everyone let in this morning with like mission moments. And it's just a coincidence that uh many of them are the mission. And uh so I think uh when uh we ask Jesus to give us the eyes uh and the ears and the heart to be able to see what he wants to see, we don't we have no fear. It's crazy. There have been many instances where someone walking up and down the street will kick in our fence for whatever reason, dealing with a mental uh uh health scenario. Uh and it doesn't it doesn't shake us. Um those those things don't rattle us because we know we're carrying out our call. And in carrying out our call, I've seen a lot of people lead initiatives and organizations and programs that do have the element of fear, like what is the liability behind this, or I don't think we're we can be liable for that decision. We've never had that in our mouths ever. It's like let okay, is this gonna provide jobs? Let's go do it. Is this gonna serve that person better? But come on, man, let's let's make it happen. And so I think um that is that has been the fruit of the Holy Spirit being involved, is that we just don't have fear.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Wow, yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Yeah, yeah. From fear to faith, from fear to faith. Yeah, yeah. It's a cliche until you actually hear the stories of people that are actually walking in it, and you're reminded that there's a truth that we're supposed to stand in when it comes to fear and faith and the reality of the fear not, of the fear not. So it's it's really good. I mean, Tony, you've talked about like why the mission means so much and even how you were called to it and your posture of surrender in it. Um what keeps you energized? Yeah, what keeps you energized after 21 years? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

When you when when I am able to witness a person who says to themselves, there's no way someone's gonna hire me because of and fill in the blank. And you see that person becoming employed, and then you see that person uh uh holistically changing everything at home because they're productive again, they feel empowered, they feel um there's a calmness inside their home, their kids are happier, everything's happier. You know that it's because there was a two-week training they went through where someone loved them enough to say, you can do it, you can make it happen. It's just two weeks, it's not a six-month program, and we're not it's not a boot camp by any stretch of the imagination. We got to get adults into employment relatively quickly. And uh every walk of life, if you can imagine, comes to us. And what energizes me is watching that happen over and over again. Well, Jeff, the first time I I was responsible, I was the job placement person. I've done every job in the organization, and in fact, you'll probably see me cleaning the toilets at Tall Rabbit tomorrow. But that's that's the way the organization is, and I'm and I'm happy to be able to serve an organization that's like that. But when I placed a gentleman who was convicted of murder 28 years down, and he came home, and he there's no way anyone's gonna hire me. And this was this was 18 years ago where facial tattoos were not a thing. Yeah. And and I thought, yeah, dude, you're right. No one's I no one's gonna hire you. I'm not gonna hire you. But I there was this this angel that and I want to say angel, but there was this gentleman who owned his own landscaping company. He needed one person who was gonna be there on time every day. And so statistically, someone who sees a lot of time like that for a big crime, they're not gonna go back. And uh there's like a 3% chance that someone's gonna commit a new crime when they when they see that much time in prison. So I placed this guy, and uh, and I didn't realize the amount of emotional energy that provided me and the whole company when there was a there was an employer partner that said, you know what, the redemption story, I can play a part in that. I'm gonna give this guy a chance because he's gonna be here and he's gonna have gratitude in his heart for the opportunity I gave him, but he ended up becoming the hardest working person he offered the company to this gentleman. I don't know where either of them are today, but I remember that was transformative uh for me many years ago, 17

Proof It Works Through People

SPEAKER_03 18:55

years ago.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Man, that's incredible. That's incredible. Um, could you share a couple more stories of restoration? These are unbelievable.

SPEAKER_03 19:03

Yeah. Well, yeah, uh, well, I'm I'm going to this morning's uh to this morning's Zoom call. Uh the we had a uh the Tall Rabbit Cafe is one of our social enterprises. We have five of them. So we have a cleaning business, a cat a coffee shop, a clothing store, and a kind of a furniture uh furniture store thrift store. Uh the Fantasy Alights uh kind of serves as an enterprise. It's a full-time thing year-round. But um this coffee shop called the Tall Rabbit Cafe, Seven Blocks North Blue Jacket, had a cafe manager. She was hired in-house to do uh our career development uh because that's what she went to school for. So we've been without a manager until a week from now. We're hiring a new person. So we're real excited about that. Nonetheless, she mentioned Aaron, and Aaron came to us. Really, the only barrier was that he was introverted and shy. He was fresh out of high school. No one would hire him because he couldn't look anyone in the eye. And he did uh he did possess a uh a lack of self-confidence. But we told him, hey, you're gonna work, and you may have met him, Jeff. Yeah, you're gonna work at the tall rabbit as a barista. And the more he worked as a barista, the more he came out of his shell. Then he started laughing, he started smiling, cut his hair, grew his hair, cut his hair, and he was just a really good looking kid, but he ended up getting um the attention from one of the uh one of the patrons that, hey, I want to go into architectural design. She said, wait a second, I'm a landscape architect at the parks department. You're gonna be an intern for me. And it happened like that. Next thing you know, he enrolls at Ball State as in in the architectural program, and he was gonna come back and work for us as a barista, but instead, he was just hired on as the lab technician, where he's gonna work directly for all the professors in the architectural department. Wow. Yeah, and so you know that's one story. Uh, and we're very proud of Erin. She told me that this morning. It it it blew me away that here's this kid who's gonna be making 17 times more than me in five years, which is great, but that's kind of like the story we like to see. Yeah, but uh there's so many other stories of redemption with someone who's struggled with addictions or struggled with that that that evil lie in their mind that you're not worthy, you're not gonna make this happen. And uh we told the story of Cindy. Uh, and I'd love for you, if uh any of the listeners here today or viewers on this podcast, to visit Cindy, who uh she was in the wrong place at the wrong time 19 years ago. And uh she was uh she had a child by a gentleman who ended up uh convincing her and another guy to go in and um burglarize a home. And the law states that if there is a a homicide at the in the in the Act of home invasion, then everyone's charged with homicide or murder. So here she is. She's kind of the driver. She's at the front door and she's convicted of murder. And um so she sees 18 years in prison, never been in trouble, wrong guy, uh, and she was pregnant with her second child. And uh, we told the story of how she walked into prison with that metal door clanging behind her with not a hope that everything, anything will change, suicidal for many years. And she came home acknowledging that no one ever is going to hire me. When she went through the Blue Jacket Academy, she had uh no no confidence, no self self-worth in her mind that she was going to be able to uh to become uh productive again. She ended up being hired as a transitional employee, accepting donations at Renew, and has since climbed to an associate salesperson, assistant manager, and then she's now gonna be promoted to manager uh at the renew by Blue Jacket Store, overseeing another 14 employees. So she has done everything right, and her story is beautiful because um she started uh in prison working with the dogs, the uh the canines for care unit or whatever. Uh, and so now she has a canine that she um kind of a uh shelter dog that she rescued uh in the back of Renew. And so it's this beautiful dog. And I know there some patrons don't like having dogs there, but that's Cindy's story as well. Yeah, amazing. There's there's 7,000 stories out there.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Yeah, yeah, easy. It's so cool. Uh you know, I think about this, Mitch, uh like Tony, like I know Aaron, um, because a lot of people in our community, if you're listening outside of Fort Wayne, um, folks that are in outreach and service work, uh, we frequent tall rabbit. It's a great place to connect. It's near downtown, so it's central. And so I know Aaron, and I've had the opportunities to talk with Aaron, and more than any, I know Aaron's parents. Um, and so their prayer for him, their support of him, their celebration of him. I did not know the end of his story because a part of the work that you all do, you may see some folks placed at Renew or, you know, at the cleaning service or at a tall rabbit, but they'll transition to different parts. I did not, and I went to Ball State School of Architecture and Planning. Like that's part of my story. The fact that he gets the opportunity to work with the professors, just so dope. Like, I had a tingle when you did that. Like, that's a story. And I will you you don't know this story, and I won't share her name, but I there was a barista that worked at Tall Rabbit Mitch for a really long time. And uh I befriended her. I would talk to her and ask her how how I can pray for you. And she was nice to everybody. And a couple weeks ago, I was in a local store, and um, I could hear a voice that I knew. And I kind of like went around the corner and I did the peek, and it was her. And she was like had with her family with her kids and had them back. And what used to celebrate like her son and how smart he was. He was graduating from school. You know who I'm talking about already. And I was just like, oh my gosh, she made it. She made like, you know, I get emotional thinking. I'm like, she made it. And I didn't go mess with her. I think, hey, you know, it's Jeff or anything, but like she was with her family and like living her life and graduated and moved forward. And that's the power of the work that you've talked about, and your story is connected to that all the way back 21 plus years ago. And I wanted you to at least hear that story, that testimony that I got a chance to experience one random afternoon, you know, at a store one weekend. And so thank you, guys. Yeah, thank you and the team for the work that you're

How Fort Wayne Can Help

SPEAKER_02 25:45

doing. So, I mean, there's there's so many different ways that people in the community, churches, businesses, organizations, individuals can support the ministries, the outreaches, the organizations in our our community. Like, how can folks in um Greater Fort Wayne continue to support uh Blue Jacket and all that you all do?

SPEAKER_03 26:03

Thank you, Jeff. Um, I think first covering us in prayer. I think that'd be great. Uh praying for our clients and uh names that you'll you may never know, but I I think that'd be great. We love having volunteers in our uh Blue Jacket Academy, people who may have hired and fired and want to give of their time to be able to mock interview or provide employer roundtable experiences. Uh, that's very valuable to our clientele. We have a few people that come in literally every week to assist with uh resume writing and and uh helping the production of that because that also is very important, filling on online applications. We uh we love your donations of business professional clothes, uh furniture housewares. We could love those, we we would love those donations. And we accept those. Blue jacket clothing company at Lima, renew by Blue Jacket in Georgetown, as well as our offices on South Calhoun. Uh, those are great. Or just be a patron. Go shop there, be a patron at Tall Rabbit, be a patron at Fantasy Alights. Fantasy Alights is our major fundraiser that changes a lot of things for us. We employed 38 people uh this year who are Blue Jacket clients. And uh, you know what, Mitch? We have three minutes left. I have one last story. A gentleman, he's on our field team and he's changed everything for us. In fact, if you go down to Calhoun, you'll see him working on our parklet, the patio outside of the tall rabbit right now. And I'm not gonna say his name, but uh he he was intersecting when some donors, big financial contributors of Blue Jacket, were donating some chandeliers to us. They heard we were looking for recycled chandeliers in our event space. And uh, and so they were talking. He uh came to Blue Jacket after living at the rescue mission, and he was volunteering for us at the Fantasy Lights, and he said, God, God told him audibly, this is going to be your mission field, surrender to it. And he said, Five minutes later, Tony Hudson came up to me and said, Hey, do you want a job working for us in our maintenance team full time? Oh my god, and everything changed. He was like, I audibly heard God's voice, and he was crying when he was telling this donor this story. Man, and uh, and and I just wanted that that was a whoosh moment. That was that was a whoosh moment. Yeah, like I didn't know this story. He told it last week. I never heard this story before.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

Wow, yeah. I bet you're a blow-up when you hear that story the first time.

SPEAKER_03 28:28

Like, you're kidding me, you never told me this story. You're telling this random donor.

Hope For The City And Final Advice

SPEAKER_01 28:32

You talked about your roots being uh deep here. Um what gives you hope about the future of Fort Wayne where everyone sees the value uh with everyone with whom they lock eyes?

SPEAKER_03 28:45

Well, look look who I'm sitting with. There is so much weight behind gathering not just Christians, but gathering people to love one another. And uh Love Fort Wayne is is uh it's not just a movement, it's a it's on a pedestal moving us forward for Fort Wayne. I see the celebration of us being able to talk about people who've been to prison or not, and this same amount of love is given to them, just like you were admiring from afar or even close individuals who are wanting to prove their value, but to feel the love and embrace that you matter one-on-one, that's happening all over the place. And I see churches doing that, I see people in churches doing that, but I also see so many nonprofits and for-profits putting their money where their mouth is, making that happen. I have so much hope for Fort Wayne, not just because I'm sitting next to Studley Jeff King. Thank you, Tony.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

Yeah, about not the latter Studley, but the the former. And you know, we see you as a friend and partner, obviously, and we're we're grateful to be in the work with you. And as you mentioned, so many others in this community. It's a unique place. It is people fly here all the time, drive in and say there's something different. Sometimes we're in it and we don't recognize it. So I appreciate you sharing what you recognize from your hopes of just seeing others uh that we're able to collectively partner with in a lot of things. So we we got time for uh a real quick bonus question, and we asked this, and you kind of you set the stage for it when we began, but we all mentioned I always like to ask folks if you could go back at the beginning and tell your a younger self something different uh or or something fresh or something new, what would you tell your younger self? What would you tell Tony uh beyond even that 21 years ago?

SPEAKER_03 30:46

Well, I wasn't prepared for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um having the spiritual discipline I have today. Always invite him in. And I wish I I wish I was inviting him in more often uh in the younger years. Twenty-one years ago, thirty years ago. I hate saying it, but forty years ago even. Um I uh I would say that to myself. Always invite Jesus in to the meetings, to the decisions, to where he wants you to be. So I fight this call. You fight with exhaustion. You wake up and you think, I'm beat up. Do I want to do this? And you ask the question, Lord, where do you want me? And he wants me here. He made it clear. I'm grateful for that.

SPEAKER_02 31:39

So good. Yeah. It's a good reminder for all of us. Yep. He speaks, he knows where you're supposed to be, he knows your calling, and he knows your assignment.

SPEAKER_03 31:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

Um, and so walk in that. What do you think, Mitch? Love it. Yeah, love it.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

It's a good one. I'm I'm so inspired by you and your story and your life. And I know anyone who's tuned in today is as well.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Yeah. Tony, thank you. We appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_03 32:07

Thanks for the shout-out for my wife, Angie, too. She's a stud stud artist.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

That's my girl. Yeah, she's a great artist. So, folks, I hope you enjoyed uh this episode, this dialogue, this conversation. Uh, as we all often say, there's this a part that grabbed your attention, rewind it, uh, write some things down and be encouraged as you listen again. So, again, uh thanks for joining us, and we look forward to being with you on the next Love Fort Way podcast.