In our little Catholic Kansas family, I think everything really started when I was 10 years old. The Disney version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe had just been released and after reading the books, we watched the movie as a family. What happened in that dark theater was little less than God wooing my heart.

I grew up in Mobile, AL, in a Catholic family. I went to Catholic school, participated in youth groups, was an altar server, and from the outside I was a model Christian. However, for much of my life I struggled to fully accept my place in God’s Kingdom.

We’ve been blessed to share our music with a growing national audience through uplifting songs and nonstop touring. Our sound blends modern pop production, big harmonies, and electronic textures, but at the center of it all is a simple message: hope, perseverance, and the goodness of God.

That question changed everything. Jesus changed the direction of my life and transformed my perspective. I was becoming a follower of Jesus with a mission to share Him with others.

I got kicked out of college my freshman year. I moved back home to Dallas, defeated, certain I had wasted everything. And it was there, in that failure, that I opened a Bible and read words that cracked me open.

I grew up a cradle Catholic, attending all the Bible studies, retreats, conferences, and camps you can imagine. I believe it is what began to form me into who I am today.

Raised in a Catholic household, my spiritual life felt a bit more handed down than a lived reality for many years. Although I was familiar with the liturgy and recited the prayers, I had yet to experience the profundity of a personal conviction.

This was my conversion, where the scales fell off of my eyes. I had realized I have been living a life of sin. Recalling it now still amazes me how wonderfully God works. From that moment on I stopped living for the world.

Looking back, every step has come from the same place: meeting the Father with complete trust. And every time, He has done something bigger than I could have imagined.

My story isn’t about having it all figured out, nor is it the one I would have chosen. But it shows that God loves to work through ordinary people and everyday moments. Even the mundane moments can become a story of wonder when surrendered to God.

My heart continues to be on fire, and through photography and filmmaking, I feel called to share my story and faith with others. My fiancée and I also started a small candle business, hoping to spread joy and hope through faith-centered living.

Those next two years transformed my life forever and healed me in places I didn’t know were bleeding. I was so impacted by the richness of living in community that I applied to be an SPO missionary.

God never abandoned me. Instead, He led me on a journey to rediscover Him, myself, and fall into an alignment with His will. I said “yes” and this is my story. One step, one day, and one yes at a time all for His will and glory.

I encountered Jesus powerfully during a time of Eucharistic Adoration in the summer of 2009, and the years since have been a wild and amazing adventure following God’s call for my life.

My story is one of ongoing conversion. And that, ultimately, is authentic Catholic masculinity: daily surrender to Christ for the good of our families and the Church.

That Good Friday, I wandered back into a church for the first time. In the dark by candlelight the choir sang: O vos omnes, qui transitis per viam: attendite et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus.

I went from a “frat star” at the University of Delaware to a husband and father of two in the Catholic Church. For years I was a cultural Catholic chasing the dream—money, status, luxury, the finance-mogul lifestyle I thought would make me happy.