When life throws curveballs, how do we find strength in vulnerability? Jonathan Lewis, a man wearing many hats as president, author, and podcaster, joins us to discuss this very journey. His story, marked by the early loss of his father, showcases a remarkable transformation from grief to purpose-driven leadership. Jonathan shares his life, revealing how personal margins and vulnerability aren't just buzzwords but vital elements for success across the professional and personal spectrum.
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Click here to take the LeaderImpact Assessment and to receive the first chapter of Becoming a Leader of Impact by Braden Douglas.
Remember, impact starts with you!
When life throws curveballs, how do we find strength in vulnerability? Jonathan Lewis, a man wearing many hats as president, author, and podcaster, joins us to discuss this very journey. His story, marked by the early loss of his father, showcases a remarkable transformation from grief to purpose-driven leadership. Jonathan shares his life, revealing how personal margins and vulnerability aren't just buzzwords but vital elements for success across the professional and personal spectrum.
Thanks for listening!
Click here to take the LeaderImpact Assessment and to receive the first chapter of Becoming a Leader of Impact by Braden Douglas.
Remember, impact starts with you!
Welcome to the Leader Impact podcast. We are a community of leaders with a network in over 350 cities around the world dedicated to optimizing our personal, professional and spiritual lives to have impact. This show is where we have a chance to listen and engage with leaders who are living this out. We love talking with leaders, so if you have any questions, comments or suggestions to make this show even better, please let us know. Best way to stay connected in Canada is through our newsletter at LeaderImpactca or on social media at Leader Impact. If you're listening from outside of Canada, check out our website at LeaderImpactcom. I'm your host, lisa Peters, and our guest today is Jonathan Lewis.
Speaker 2:Jonathan is the president of Eastport Financial Group. He authored two books Deep Water in 2018 and More Than Money in 2021. His More Than Money podcast speaks to the stewardship of all our assets, from our time and talent to our agency, purpose and responsibility. He is also the founder of Father for Fathers, a faith-based organization targeting men with the goal of giving them the tools to succeed in the world we are called to lead our families in today. He is the dedicated husband to Sarah and the father of two beautiful daughters From his home in Nova Scotia, canada.
Speaker 2:Jonathan's vibrant drive to further his faith, family, community, philanthropy and entrepreneurialism has been constant through his life. At any given time, jonathan and Sarah are invested in at least one or two startup enterprises, keen to boost the mindsets, lives and potential of others. He also volunteers, raises funds and advocates for charities and community ventures that model strong Christian values locally, nationally and internationally. As an accomplished public speaker, jonathan delivers a message of compassion, challenging other entrepreneurs and business owners to never settle for average outcomes but to step outside the ordinary for greater personal and professional impact. Welcome to the show, jonathan.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Lisa. It's so good to be here.
Speaker 2:Reading your bio and I'm like two beautiful daughters so children, but they are a little older girls. You're an author, you're a president at Eastport Financial, a podcaster, involved in the community philanthropy. Where do you have any downtime?
Speaker 1:So it's funny fathers, for fathers is about helping men, and this man needs help with being a workaholic. So I preach to the choir every time I interview someone. Yeah, no, I'm a driven individual and the constant juggling act for me is to make sure that I'm listening to those around me that love me and say hey, jay, you've left the pack behind, and not in a good way. So, yeah, as a leader, definitely driven, always on the go, but constantly trying to make sure I've got my margins set. So if I don't do my 415 workout EST to 515, I already know that I've lost equilibrium somewhere during the day. It's actually a really good barometer at the end of the day if I get my workout in. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you said all that, because I think sometimes people look at people and we think they have it all right. I've read your bio it's perfect, it's wonderful, it's like nope, you got to work hard and there are people in your life that keep you on track and go yeah, no, yeah. So thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1:No problem. Yeah, I think you're right. Very often in the world we live today, there's this we talk about fathers for fathers, but the false narrative or the imposter syndrome and social media only portrays the image we wanted to portray. And we're in such a consumerism society. It's very easy to fall into the trap of putting out there what we know people want to see, but I think increasingly what people want is vulnerability and authenticity and to realize that people stub their toe or, worse, the same as them, and really that's what we're trying to accomplish with fathers for fathers. But I actually realize that's actually what has caused our business to have such tremendous success as well is being vulnerable and authentic with our clients and allowing them, giving them permission to, in turn, be vulnerable and authentic with us.
Speaker 2:So I could get into a whole conversation about vulnerability, as I'm just reading Daring Greatly our group by Brene Brown, but we won't go there.
Speaker 1:We just recommended that book to a lady yesterday. Yeah, yeah it is.
Speaker 2:it is a hard conversation, so what a great book. All right, we're going to jump right in and we want to hear a little bit more about your professional story and how you got to where you are today, and I don't know if you have a couple snapshots that were pivotal turning points in and along that journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my story is not a secret at this point. I mean, I have been interviewed a lot so I will give you the 30,000 foot and then obviously people want to watch other interviews or whatever they can. But my dad was a very successful developer in Eastern Canada and Halifax during the 80s. You know, I grew up really not wanting anything other than his time and affection. And just after my 15th birthday the week after Father's Day, actually in June 23rd 1991, my family and I had planned to spend a day at the beach, like many Nova Scotian families, when the weather starts warming up and my dad and I got into trouble scuba diving and I lost my dad. I got him to the beach but I wasn't able to save my father. Hence the book Deep Water.
Speaker 1:And even though that book was 20 years later, I was instantly faced with fatherlessness, coupled with the guilt and regret that somehow it was my fault and that I had failed my family and not been able to save my dad from the North Atlantic. That kick started really my life. So I always think of it like when two celestial bodies collide right At just remarkable speed. There is tremendous unleashing of energy, but there is also a very destructive blow that ensues, and so the impact of my family was destructive there's just no other way to describe it For me. I did not know how to reconcile it.
Speaker 1:I've been raised with tremendous work ethic, as we've already touched on by my parents, and very quickly work became my dopamine fix. It became my coping mechanism. I've been raised in a culturally Christian family where we had a lot of workspace, theology probably not a really great understanding of the gospel that it's by grace, you know propitiation we're already justified because of what Christ did and it's by faith that he brings us into our identity in him. And so I didn't know what my identity was in Christ. And so the only way I knew how to cope was to work. Because I knew doing drugs or sleeping with girls or any of those things were bad, because I'd had that drilled into me by youth pastors and Sunday schools and everybody else. But nobody had ever said work was a bad thing. So I was not like any other kid in high school and my wife would say you are not like any other kid we have ever met and you have to stop projecting on our own daughters.
Speaker 1:So high school for me was socially withdrawn, even though I'm a very sociable outgoing guy. Anybody who knows me knows like Jonathan, when he walks into the room knows everybody in the room before he gets there, even if it's the first time ever being in that city and I don't know if that is an exaggeration, but it's not far off. And but in high school I worked three jobs. I did not, you know, go to high school dances. I did not socialize. I did play on some high school sports teams but ultimately didn't even have time for those. I basically went to school, went to work, went to sleep and went to school and went to work and went to sleep. And I didn't know any other kids that worked full time like 60 hours a week in high school. But I did and I still went to high school.
Speaker 1:So basically I developed a very bad work-life balance at a very young age. That later on caused me a lot of heartache. It cost me a marriage. My two daughters are not from my current marriage. I walked away from the Lord for almost 20 years. I could not reconcile where he was in the cataclysmic fallout to my family after my dad died financially, spiritually and otherwise, and I really went on a Luke 15 pilgrimage, but without a third of my father's inheritance.
Speaker 1:So I was very transient slept in my car, slept on coaches, slept in tents, ended up in the Rocky Mountains planting trees for two years and my poor mother a lot of the time didn't know where I was and if I was alive, other than and then this is, I'm aging myself here. But when she got a note from the postman, because it was back in the day when you actually wrote letters and mailed them home when you came out of the woods, which for me sometimes was weeks or even months in between. So somehow by the grace of God and it is by the grace of God I ended up getting an entrance scholarship for a couple of universities, ended up going to St Mary's because it was the only one I could afford to go to and live and join the Canadian Armed Forces, did my officer training with the artillery, which probably also further kept me out of jail, but did teach me how to drink very well and I thought I had never had it so good. I literally, looking back now it was almost like an officer and a gentleman, if anybody remembers that movie, and I had no place to go. So failure was not an option and I literally couldn't believe that on Fridays we would come in and get all cleaned up from training and being out in the woods and hit the bars and then have a warm sleep and a warm bed. I can remember a Canadian Dragoon, sergeant Boudreau, had it in for me. He wanted to break me down. He was like I'm gonna break this kid, he's not gonna be an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces. And he later said to me I don't know where you get your internal strength from, but it was pretty clear we weren't gonna break you. And I said to him I said, brother, with all due respect, I think the Canadian Armed Forces was a cakewalk compared to living in the Rocky Mountains plant trees. So yeah, that was my early years.
Speaker 1:Fast forward, I started Esport Financial Group, my investment brokerage, and it's hard to believe it was 24 years ago. Wow. And we are now growing. As I mentioned to you, lisa, before, we got online into the US and just have really had an amazing journey with the Lord. So obviously, like the prodigal son, you have that moment where you're like, wow, this is really hard doing it on my own and I miss my dad, so I'm gonna go home now.
Speaker 1:So I had that forest gump moment at 34, which was 13 years ago, and really, whether it was recommitted my life to the Lord or just ran back into his arms, but one way or the other, that was a pivotal moment at 34 years old, and since then he's just absolutely transformed my life. But the old man does not die easily, and so work, and working too much and not having balance continues to this day to be a challenge for me, mostly because I'm so passionate about going to work with and for my dad and for the first time in my life, I know that the work I'm doing is actually for his glory, and it's so rewarding that I have to constantly remind myself and trust others around me to remind me that I'm just the one who has the privilege of going to work to glorify him, but he actually doesn't need me to do the work. He could do it without me. So, yeah, it's been quite a journey for sure.
Speaker 2:Wow, you know when you share your story and I think of and first off, I'm sorry about your dad. You were a young man you could have chose a different path At 15,.
Speaker 1:You could have been angry, I was angry, but he it's like Psalm 91, he just snatched me from the fallow snare every time, despite myself, I honestly think I was running towards the fallow snare and it was like he literally would body check me away from it. At times, like when he says he'll be a father to the fatherless, he means it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. I wonder if some people listening are thinking whatever their life was and you have shared yours at 34 years old, is it too late?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Is it too late for me to go back?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and or they've never had that foundation and they're like is it too late to start?
Speaker 1:Yeah and the answer is no.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:I mean, obviously, lisa, if there's, if there's any guys in particular, that's where my heart is. But it doesn't matter who you are a guy or a gal. If you're listening to my voice right now, chances are God wanted you to listen to this podcast and it also means that he's pursuing you. And here's what I know about my dad and I say my dad because I have a very personal relationship with my heavenly father. I know what my identity is in Christ and it's very clear to me that our dad loves us. Whether you know him or not, or whether you know anything about him, there is a heavenly creator that had you in mind when he created. You know, and I can remember to rewind, when Madeline, my oldest, was born, she was 10 weeks old and I wasn't a Christian at this point. This was 2000,. So I was born. I think this was 2006.
Speaker 1:Someone had given me Rick Warren's book A Purpose Driven Life and in there Rick references in Jeremiah, and I can't remember the passage exactly, but many of us know it. But he says I knew you before time. I knitted you together in your mother's womb and Rick was talking about how every one of us God actually had in mind to be born when we were born, to be in relationship with him for a purpose. And so it really hit me that there was an actual creator, a God who actually thought about me and cared about me, to the point where he was knitting me together in my mother's womb as my 10 week old daughter was lying next to me, having just come out of her mother's womb, and it was the first time I ever felt the Holy Spirit, and I really in a very tangible way, and I wrote it in my journal. I felt the Spirit say Jonathan, I've given you a long leash to run from me.
Speaker 1:So I'm 30 years old at this point. So we're talking 15 years from when my dad died Very angry, hardworking military guy, you know, already had successful companies, my business was already booming and I had been on several vacations in the first 10 weeks that Madeline was born. I think that kid's passport had more stamps in it than most Canadians would have in a year. And she you know she was 10 weeks old and he said I've given you free reign, but you need to understand that you are gonna stand before me and you're gonna have to give an account for this little girl Like I'm gonna hold you responsible for her, and if she doesn't know me, not only are you gonna have to give an account for you, but I'm gonna ask you to give an account for her, and that wrecked me.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like it really wrecked me because I realized as a new dad that I had a dad who was checking in to say enough's, enough, young man, it's time for you to grow up. So I was 30, it took me four more years. So the other thing I would say to the people listening is he says ask, seekin' Knock. If you respond, if you pursue him, you don't have to worry about whether he's pursuing you. And four years later, I had an amazing moment where I my prayer literally was Lord, I've tried to do it on my own and I'm really sorry and I am a sinner. And if you are there, if you really are there, would you please just graciously reveal yourself to me, Because I don't wanna do this alone anymore. And he did, and it's honestly that simple.
Speaker 1:So for the Calvinists out there right now, they're struggling, but I think that's why I've constantly struggled. Am I a 3.5 Calvinists or a 4.75 point Calvinists? And I believe in unlimited atonement and maybe it's like limited, unlimited. But at the end of the day, here's what I know about my dad is he is pursuing every one of us and the only question is are we gonna respond? Yeah, so I'm gonna say, and the only question is are we gonna respond?
Speaker 2:I think we could do a whole podcast on pivotal moments with Jonathan.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Yeah, our next question is give us your best principle of success and if you have a story that illustrates that, yeah, for business leaders, I'm known for talking about lifestyle cap versus lifestyle trap.
Speaker 1:In 2018, I was seven years into my journey as a believer. I had built a very successful financial services business that was still growing but was having tremendous difficulties like cultural, pr, personnel conflict, tension. I was like, oh, this is just a nightmare. I was the only believer in my own firm that I had started, so I was struggling with how to reconcile and bring my faith to the workplace with partners that knew me before. I was even a Christian and, although they respected the changes in me, didn't understand why it would be important to thread that into my nine to five dialogues and interactions, especially in Canada, as we all know right, and we had a real massive disruption. I was away at a conference. Actually, this time it was February of 2018. I was at a conference I'm attending next week with a ton of my employees and partners. Ironically now, but at the time it was just me.
Speaker 1:I went down. I wasn't sure what to make of it. It was very suspicious. I didn't even get a room at the hotel. My wife and I air beat a room and I said look if it's the shearing of the sheep, and these guys are all just Jesus, alucard and Jesus on our terms and they're all going. Joel, steam, live your best life now, foolishness. Then I'll be back in a Jiffy and we'll just hang out by the pool and get a suntan. And I walked into this room and it was 1,200 accounts, lawyers, brokers, investment professionals, with Charles Billingsly leading worship at eight in the morning and I could feel the Holy Spirit and I ran out and I called Sarah and I said get your bathing suit off. I just registered you for this conference, I'm coming to get you.
Speaker 1:And my wife was not happy. We did this conference and meanwhile everything was going wrong back in Halifax, like everything. And it was like literally that moment where you know God's leading you in one direction and the only way you're gonna be able to go in that direction is if you go deeper with him. Sometimes it's confessing sin, sometimes it's submitting to his authority. For me it was. I want you to give me my business back, because it was never yours in the first place and it's mine, and I want you to really recognize that you're a bond servant and that you are an employee of mine in my vineyard that I put you to work in.
Speaker 1:So for five weeks I was in this just terrible, tumultuous phase from that conference until I literally said to my wife I gotta get away. So there's a place that we got married that we always love to escape to Direct flights from Halifax almost all the time is Tulum, mexico. We always ran to the same cabana with no power, no air conditioning, no windows, just mosquito nets, like grunging it little backpack, two bathing suits in a book for a week and we camped out there for a week and I wrote in my journal and I prayed the entire time and at the end of the week Sarah was rooting for me that I would sell the company and that we would move to Guatemala and be missionaries. It was like a William Tyndall moment where, if you know his story, he was in politics, got saved, he was 23, didn't know what to do with the rest of his life, went into a deep depression and funk and ultimately realized God had him in politics, basically to bring about the end of slavery in the British Empire. So I really felt the Lord say no, I've got you where I want you and it's in financial services, but you need to do it my way, not your way. So I announced this to my wife, which she already admitted she knew in her spirit was coming. So we had spousal consent.
Speaker 1:We went back to Hello Facts and, literally from that moment forward, my company changed. You fast forward to today, and we are a force of nature when it comes to marketplace ministry, gospel patronage, discipling our employees. To my knowledge, we're one of the only companies in Canada with a chaplain that's on staff for our employees and our clients. We're really basically saying, okay, there is no. How do you incorporate Jesus into your life or into your nine to five year business? It's just Jesus is my life. He's not even a center of my life, he is my life and so he's in every facet of my being, all day long, including nine to five. And so that's really the change that took place from 2018 until today, and I could tell you story after story. But if you read more of the money, like I talk about how my chief investment advisor or a chief investment officer showed up at our company from South Africa, I'm like praying Lord, I need a born again.
Speaker 1:Ses, jesus freak Navy SEAL, certified financial analyst. So, like, surely there's like a dozen of those kicking around Nova Scotia not? And, and you know, along comes Matt Jenkins Right and we hire him. And it's been like that with almost every one of our hires. My chief financial officer same thing. She was literally a ram and a thicket. We were down to 48 hours with six great candidates and I wouldn't hire any of them. And my entire leadership team are like what is he doing? And 48 hours before D day, lisa comes walking through my door and I only had to interview her once to know that she was God's lady for that role. And yeah, yeah, I stress a lot of people out Lisa, including myself, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think. I think you're just so strong in your faith it's. It can be scary for people. Well, like your leadership team, who's like what is he doing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Like well, it's scary for me. Oh, you know, my, my wife. We'll say Jonathan is like Peter and that he will be the first disciple out of the boat If Jesus says, come, great, I'm coming. But she said, like Peter, you're still trying to find your identity right now in him and that you are certain of who he is. But you still will take your eyes off him and start to sink below the waves because what you've stepped into is totally beyond your capacity, like you are out of your comfort zone. And so she'll often say I find it remarkable your courage in your faith, and yet how then, when the storm really starts battering you, you also still waiver.
Speaker 1:And she said, and I know it's, I know it's God developing your character and I know it's him teaching you to be bolder in your faith and trust in him. But she said, as your wife, it's very stressful to watch and she's like, if you ever do a disc profile, like I'm like a high I, low D and Sarah's like a strong S, low C, and what that means is like she's super steady and I'm like leaving it left to my own devices. I'm like an Irish setter who, like runs around the field and everybody's my friend anyway, so thank God for his matchmaking abilities as well when it comes to our spouses right.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, that's funny that you say that I'm my husband's the even guy and I'm just whoa, we can do this, We've got this.
Speaker 1:And then it's like, oh dear God, what have we done?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, not alone Good.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We want to talk a little bit about your failings and mistakes, because we know that we learn more from them than our own successes.
Speaker 1:Do you?
Speaker 2:have something you could share, a greatest failing or mistake and what you learned from it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I've done my David pilgrimage. Psalm 51 is a big one for me. So when I wasn't serving the Lord, when I wasn't pursuing him in my life, I chose my major decisions in life, which included my partner, the mom of my two girls, and she's an amazing woman, an amazing mom, a hard working and smart lady as well. But she wasn't the person God had picked for me. It was the person I picked for me, and neither one of us were Christians. I was a full on workaholic and, needless to say, that marriage came under tremendous duress and, without getting into the details, despite me getting saved during that season and really wanting to keep our marriage together, I was unsuccessful and it was extremely painful, very hard. So, to get you inside my head, at the time my dad drowned and I had experienced fatherlessness basically from the start of my 15th year on. And now, all of a sudden, I was in a battle to have shared custody for my daughters, with this tremendous anxiety of oh my gosh, what if something? And they were three and two, what if, god forbid, something were to happen to me? And my daughters didn't know this amazing truth that I've discovered through Christ because they're too young to understand it. And so it was a terrible season of contrition, coupled with anxiety, of you know, lord, what do you want me to do? I've committed my life to you and I found you, but now I'm stuck in this place where I'm living in, you know, my ex's hometown, trying to be a dad, joint custody, co-parenting, not wanting to pursue my career as a workaholic and move back to Halifax or Toronto where it would be easier to do so. And I really, really, really had to get very humble before the Lord and really as a brand new believer, and say I trust you, I trust you with really the most important thing to be. And let's also rewind the tape this is 2010 and 26. He said I'm gonna hold you accountable for this little girl. So that was not lost on me.
Speaker 1:And so I played a Gideon card because I was reading judges at the time and, as a new believer, I'm trying to get my head around this. I would not recommend testing the Lord in this respect, but at the time I think, like any dad, he respected where I was in my journey of sanctification and I put a fleece out before him and I, like Gideon, did not accept that the first round was necessarily his response. So I kept testing him. So it was very evident, in no uncertain terms I've talked about this in the past that it was God. And if I were to not stay in that town and bunker down and be the best dad I can be in the wake of that divorce, my dad was not gonna be happy with me. And so that's what I did.
Speaker 1:I, like David, owned my sin and the consequences of it. You know, in Psalm 51, he says cleanse me with Hissop, which they would use for dead bodies and a purification. He said my bones are crushed within me and he said restore under me the joy of my salvation. He recognized that he was separated from the spirit. And then, of course, as we know, david, his house, was never free of the sword.
Speaker 1:Like Absalom, his kids, like his family, had to live with the consequences of his choices. And so that's the burden that I carry. But, ironically, that's what's led me to start fathers for fathers, and why I'm so passionate about it, cause I realize men need to re-engage, they need to step up, they need to own their sin. And you know, I'm often heard saying you can be a victim, a villain or a hero. You gotta choose one, and if we're gonna follow the Lord, there's only room for heroes, there's no room for victims and villains, and so that's the call to action, and that came as a result, like David, of me crying out and saying cleanse me, with Hissop, and restore unto me the joy of my salvation.
Speaker 2:Thank you for sharing Good. We have two final questions for you and we're switching the little bit of a direction. So leader impact is about having leaders having a lasting impact. So, as you continue to move through your own journey and sharing and I hope you continue to share your journey with everyone have you considered what you want your faith legacy to be when you leave this world?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean back in 2010,. I set up the Jonathan Dave Wayne Lewis Foundation. I know that my girls, you know, could easily be an idol to me. Every one of us has an idol and, by the way, if you don't know what your idol is, just think about what you would spend money on the easiest, and therein lies your idol. By the way, that's a free financial tip from your financial guy. So if it's fishing gear, hello, it's going fishing. And if it's clothing, and if it's your family, hello, that's your idol.
Speaker 1:And so, obviously, we're called to love our families, we're called to honor our parents, we're called to lead our families, but we're not called to love them more than God. And so our kids have heard us say many times it's God, marriage, kids, everybody else. And that's very important to me because I got it wrong the first time. So my legacy is fathers for fathers. It's following him and doing it his way, not compromising, not disobeying. When the spirit leads Even if I can't understand my frail human mind where he's leading me to nonetheless obey and step forward. There'd be no fathers for fathers, there'd be no expansion of the US, there'd be no thriving esport, there'd be no podcast with leader impact If I did not step out and obey him. I'll give you an example In the fall of 2022, the Lord really impressed upon me to write a letter to the girl's mom and to apologize to her for any anger or resentment that I had towards her.
Speaker 1:Like this is like 12 years ago after the fact right, trying to compare it and, of course, I mean, I don't care who you are. Our human response is not a chance. She owes me an apology. But I really felt the Lord saying no, this isn't even about you and her. This is about you and me and the basic tenants of forgive our debts as we forgive those who trespass against us. Jonathan, I can't believe I'm saying this. Jonathan. I cannot use a man who has not been broken and is also contrite and you've been broken and I know you're contrite but this is an act of obedience where this letter is for me, not her. That was a very hard letter to write and I posted it.
Speaker 1:The mailbox is literally on my ex-in-law's street, four doors down from our house where we still live, and I'm sitting there and my wife calls me and the phone rings in my ear pods and I'm staring at this mailbox and the truck is idling and she goes what are you doing?
Speaker 1:And I said well, I'm just wondering what the criminal charges would be for dismantling a Canada Post mailbox to get a letter out of it.
Speaker 1:And she said I love you, I'm proud of you, our father's proud of you and you obeyed him and he's gonna bless that. So come home, and I can honestly tell you that had there been no letter, of which there was follow-up letters, there would be no fathers for fathers, there would be no interview with leader impact, there would be no expansion to the US, there would be no thriving financial services firm that's discipling its employees, there would be no Jonathan who is in check, subservient to his father, leading this charge. And so it could seem very random that the two are not connected, but I know in my spirit my father said well done, my good and faithful slave bond servant. Now go home to your wife that I have blessed you with, because Sarah is a blessing, and carry on. And so that would be my encouragement and call to action to anybody listening is God really asks a lot, but it's not more than he's done and he's prepared to give.
Speaker 2:You ever have one of those moments like Jonathan was sent to Lisa today to tell her something. Having a moment there, jonathan? Yeah, gather it together. My final question for you is what brings you the greatest joy?
Speaker 1:Going to work with my dad. Yeah, so I'll tell you a story to finish up. When I was six or seven years old, my dad, wayne Lewis, had his construction and his development company and I wanted to be with him. So bad it's going to be hard for me to tell without crying that as a six or seven year old I don't remember how old my mom would probably remember better I was somewhere between six and eight.
Speaker 1:Basically I was big enough that I could go out to his big Ram 1500 pickup truck and I could get on the side rail and I could press the. Remember the old truck? She had to press that button in on the old four dodges. It wasn't like today where you just pull this handle, you just press the back button in and so on. This kid and I press this button in and then the door flings open. I'm hanging from it because now I'm not on the guard rail, I'm hanging from the handle as the door swings open and I literally let go and fall to the ground. So that's how short I was. I closed the door but not so it latches, and I left the door just like precariously open but not visibly.
Speaker 1:And the reason why is I wanted to be with my dad so bad that Saturday morning and go to work with him to the construction sites. And my dad, being a type A driver, would have I knew what he was going to say. I don't have time for you to try and keep up. You stay home with your mom and your sisters, so what son wants to stay home with all the sisters? I had all sisters of my mom. Like not a chance man you can only watch, like GI Joe from seven to eight before they take over the TV and it's Barbie the rest of the day, right.
Speaker 1:So I'm in the house pleading with my mom and my dad. Please, dad, let me come with you. I won't get in the way. I'll clean up the construction sites, I'll do whatever you want. I'll do any kind of work you want. I just want to come with you. And he's looking at my mom and he's given me all the excuses and he doesn't have time today and they're behind on this project and he can't have me underfoot. And finally my mom, like any good mom, guilt, trips my dad and convinces him to let me go.
Speaker 1:And so out we go, you know, kid under his dad's arm, proud as a peacock, red hair, dennis the menace. Here comes Opie, marching like knees as high as his chin, out to the driver's side of the car. My dad opens the driver's side door, ushers me in. I slide across the bench sheet of his pickup truck. I'm sitting there as proud as a peacock going to work with my dad. He backs the truck up I'm playing with the knobs on the radio already.
Speaker 1:My dad puts the car into drive, hits the brake, hits the gas. I lean on the handle of the door on the passenger side. Out goes the toddler door, flings open. I'm under the tire of the truck my dad. The last thing I remember seeing is my dad like his look on his face as he reached to try and grab my ankle, which he didn't get me, and I hear the screeching of the tires and I am literally sitting under the tire, the back tire of the truck, and my dad had literally stopped that truck within inches of driving over top of me. And of course, my dad is panicked. He comes running around. My mom comes running out of the house.
Speaker 1:It's like what's going on? Jonathan fell to the truck. I don't know Well what happened. I don't know and I know that it's because I opened the door and so I tell my dad I wanted to come to work with you. So bad. And so my dad is wrecked and he just hugs me. And so what gives me the most joy, even at 47? Going to work with my dad. But now it's my heavenly dad and I don't have to coax him into it. He wakes up every morning and he says okay, my son is awake. And, as Tony Evans says, the enemies of our God, our father, the gates of hell go. Oh no, he's awake. And so I love going to work with my dad every day. I love going to work with our dad, lisa, and he's a great dad. That's it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's quite the. I don't think I've heard that one before. Thank you for sharing. Yeah, there's a lot of nuggets here. I have wrote a lot of notes but I'm just going to take away. It's like sometimes it's just a counseling session for Lisa. That's why I show up in the arena. I just show up Lisa, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Sometimes that's all we have to do. Yes, he's just show up.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so it is an act of worship, like someone said to me, jay and this is common knowledge at this point, but we're having a difficult time with our teenage daughters and we're currently estranged from them right now. And someone said, like how are you, how are you managing? And I said, well, to be honest, fathers, for fathers is an act of worship. It's an act of worship. I am praising him in the storm, knowing that, just like every other story that we read in the Bible, I know the ending, because his word is true and I trust his word. I trust my dad, and so sometimes, lisa, we just got to show up and trust that our dad is going to do the rest. Yep.
Speaker 2:Thanks for sharing that. All right. Well, I want to thank you for spending the last almost 45 minutes with us. I know you're a busy guy and just thank you for sharing your stories and your little nuggets. I have written my own notes and I'm going to walk away today and I got a lot to think about. So thank you, Jonathan. It has been a pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 1:You're welcome. Let me pray with you offline.
Speaker 2:All right, all right. I'll end this podcast. So that does end our podcast. We hope you enjoyed our time together and if our listeners want to engage with you, Jonathan, how can they find you?
Speaker 1:Well, it depends on what they're looking for. More than money you can get on Amazon. Same with Deepwater. Deepwater is about fatherlessness. More than money is about stewardship. There is the More Than Money podcast. Admittedly, I haven't been active on that because I've been very focused on fathers for fathers. Fathers for fathers is extremely active. We just launched the ministry in November, but we already have a 1-800 number up and running for men to call. We are building an inductive study. We're on YouTube, facebook, instagram. You can go to fathersforfathersorg.
Speaker 1:We're in the US and Canada. I'm actually driving up next week to meet with JD Greer. I hope he listens to this podcast and I'm really believing JD Greer and his ministry is going to get behind us. I just interviewed Tony Evans last week. We've got Tony Dungey, hilary Swank and tons of others coming on. You can join us on our podcast where we just talk about all things men and nothing's off limits Pornography, drugs, infidelity. We are getting raw and real with men. I don't care if it's Denzel Washington. I had Tony Evans on the verge of tears. We just want to get really honest. You can obviously find Esport. That's our company and that's my 9-5 job. We are coast to coast in Canada. Now we've got about half the US state's covered with our US partner. Our goal is to really just challenge our clients and their worldview of money and who owns it. That's where you can find us Esport Arcos. Fathers for Fathers, more Than Money and Deepwater.
Speaker 2:No one can say if they don't try, they didn't find, you know exactly, they will find you yeah. Yeah, all right. Well, thank you again.
Speaker 1:Okay, bless you All right.
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