: Welcome to the aggressive life. After a long drought, it's exciting to be a Cincinnati sports fan again. That's me. Yes. Cincinnati is my adopted hometown. I love the city I live in. The Bengals have been darlings of the NFL the past two seasons, and seemingly out of nowhere, the Reds, Cincinnati Reds have begun to turn things around. It's too far from the playoffs to know how things are going to shake out, but man, the Reds have been in contention and I am totally. rooting for them. And I want to go on record saying the new roles of Major League Baseball may have saved baseball as we know it. So a few weeks back, I got to be on the field for a post-game Q&A with three Reds players, Jake Fraley, Graham Ashcraft, and TJ Friedle as part of quote unquote Faith Night at the Great American Ballpark. That's right, besides being Major League Baseball studs for the Reds, each of these guys are men of faith. They're willing to make the aggressive move to sit in front of a stadium of fans and talk about it, which I thought was incredibly brave. Jake Fraley is an outfielder and he's a major contributor to their batting lineup. After being sidelined with a foot injury, he's making the choice to delay season ending surgery so he can get back on the field with the team he loves. Aggressive. And I love, I love when he hits a home run. He wears a viking hat and puts sausages. around his neck and wax people in the dugout with sauces. I love that. Graham Ashcraft, he's a right-handed starting pitcher, only in his second season with the Reds. He's been steadily improving over the season and he's looking to push the Reds into the postseason. You're gonna hear from him and TJ Friedl, who's an outfielder and fan favorite. He's stuck with his dream of playing professional baseball even after going undrafted. He spent time with five different minor league teams. And then he made his Major League Baseball debut in 2021. And the dude is not looking back. It was a treat to get to spend some time with these guys. And I'm honored that the Reds gave us permission to share the audio of that short conversation with you. So let's get down the field for a little Q and A with my new favorite players and let's go Reds. We ask that you direct your attention to the field as we welcome senior pastor of Crossroads Church, Brian Tome. Under Brian's leadership, Crossroads has become one of the largest churches in America. A man of God and a philanthropist, Brian has started a number of other nonprofits. He's passionate about eradicating poverty in Cincinnati's urban core, empowering entrepreneurs feeding and educating children in Nicaragua and much, much more. Brian has authored four books and hosts The Aggressive Life, a nationally recognized podcast. We are thrilled to have Pastor Brian Tome with us today to lead us in a special conversation about faith. And now we send it down to the field. Take it away, Brian. Welcome Cincinnati to Faith Night. How is everybody tonight? Great. We've got three players here who are people of faith who are going to share their faith and how it impacts baseball. If you don't know them, I'll introduce them. Would you like to introduce yourselves? Jake Fraley. Thank you everybody for coming. Graham Ashcroft. TJ Friedl. TJ people are still warm around that home run in the sixth inning. I thought that is the gift of God. The man who's putting his faith on the line is going to pull the game back from the dredges almost. We grieve for you guys. So why don't we start with this? When a game doesn't go very well, doesn't end very well, does your faith inform how you react to that and how so if so? It's a great question. And I think it's very easy to be able to relate to everybody, right? Because everybody here in the stands has a job, has a family, and there's a lot of things that each of us go through every single day. And for us, that's our experience, right? If a game goes bad, if performance wise, it's going well for the team. It's something that can easily get out of hand, right? Because you get so lost in your reality and what's going on in front of you. I think it's awesome to be able to have that relationship with Jesus. You know, it's about an intimate love relationship with our father. And part of developing that relationship is going through life. It's experiencing. all of these ups and downs that come along with our day to day and understanding that the one constant that doesn't change is Jesus. And when we're able to understand who Jesus is, right, the character of our Father, getting in our secret place, alone place to be able to learn and understand who our Father is. it makes those times easier because we know who He is, right? You have that intimacy with Him. So when you do go through those tough times, you can lean on a Father who you know is loving, who knows for you, and everything's going to work out for the good of you. Jake, you've been pretty open about your struggles with depression. How does your faith, your walk with Christ, help you go through that? Yeah, it's pretty fresh to sitting here in a boot. Having to go through the very similar thing of what I went through last year. It doesn't make it any easier. You know, when you go through these things, they get thrown at you in life. You want to be in a place where you almost feel bulletproof, right? Right, it's okay. Whatever gets thrown at me, I can go through it. I can get through it. I can deal with it. But at the end of the day, none of us are bulletproof. But Jesus is. And when you're able to have that relationship, you have Holy Spirit in your heart, right? Holy Spirit lives inside of us. So I know where my strength comes from, right? I fall short every single day, and that's the whole reason why we needed Jesus on the cross to die for our sins. So when we understand that, again, going back to what I was saying before, and I'm going to continue to harp on it every chance I get, when you know the character of our Father. It allows you to tap into his strength, right? His grace is sufficient for us, right? His grace is sufficient in our weaknesses, right? So it allows us to be able to seek him out in those times of stress and those times of sadness and those times of frustration. And it allows us to pull from the very source of life with who our Father is. So it doesn't make the situations any easier, but he gives us the strength to be able to get through that. Graham, you've got a pretty unique embossment on your baseball glove. It's a Bible verse. They told me what it was and I thought he must have just texted me wrong. He said it was Jeremiah 20, 11. Many of us may know Jeremiah 29, 11. that God has good plans for us, plans to prosper us. But no, it wasn't a typo. What does Jeremiah 20, 11 have to do with you as a pitcher? So I started using this verse because it's a warrior verse, because every time I'm taking the mound, we're going into battle. And so I look at it as God's gonna be with me no matter what. Jesus is gonna be. in my corner the whole time. So for me, like the verse I used last year was take your quiver and your bow and hunt for me. And I just wanted to change it up because you know I'm not, I'm hunting but I'm not hunting in that way when I'm on the mound. and so i wanted to just have a verse that's going to keep me connected with the lord and be able to keep me in the right mindset of okay hey we're at war here keep out on your side but i thought people of faith was fuzzy softies who just rolled over and let people have their way like turn the other cheek who what do you decide aggressive why would you have that on your glove it kind of faith you have brother I mean, it's not in a bad way, you know, it's not in a negative way. It's just the way I go about my life and the way that God leads me is I want to attack every detail that He lays in front of me, everything that He gives me to challenge myself. I want to go out and attack it and do the best that I can to get after it. That's excellent. I think that's maybe one of the reasons why Peter was arguably Jesus' favorite disciple. He was always attacking. He was the one who was walking on water. He was the one who was pulling out a sword and hacking a guy's ears off, even though Jesus didn't like that. He was the guy who was following Jesus, and yes, he denied him three times, but he was there. He was following. He was moving. So I love that. Thanks for building unto us. Today's episode is brought to you by AG1. I gave AG1 a try because I was feeling a bit sluggish, not confident I was getting all the nutrients that I felt that I needed. And I thought maybe this is an easy solution. So I drink AG1 in the morning. I love doing the morning. I do it on an empty stomach. It forces me to get 12 ounces of water into my system. I love doing something proactive and aggressive to make me feel better and at least give me peace of mind. AG1 is designed with this kind of ease in mind so you can live healthier and better without having to complicate your routine. 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So this includes a repackaged edition of the original. along with updated artwork and a new preface, and an all new tactical guide designed to be used with a group of like-minded dudes giving you challenges, prompts, discussion questions to work the marks into your life. Take my word for it, this isn't your grandmother's fill-in-the-blank guide. It's unlike anything you may have experienced before in written form. Pre-order either book and you'll get access to a limited edition five marks poster. Get all the details and claim your poster over at bryantome.com slash five mark. That's bryantome.com slash five marks. Now back to the show. TJ, when you step into a box like that, when we're down, what were we down at that point? Six nothing, okay? Is your faith on your mind when you step into the box, or is it just, I'm a baseball guy thinking what the stitches are gonna look like? So, it's kind of crazy today was one of the... biggest examples for me, I had that ball in center field, the ground ball, made a tough play on it, came up and made an error and instead of getting frustrated as I would in the past in my minor league career beforehand, like I just I understand that God has a plan for me. I'm here for a reason each and every day. He has a plan for me far greater than anything I know and I knew when I stepped in that box in that situation that he was with me. And I didn't have to be anyone I wasn't. I didn't have to try hard to do anything that I couldn't do. I knew that he was with me in that box, in that moment. And that's why when I run the bases, every time I do anything, I point to him, because he's watching over me and he's with me. And so in that moment, rounding home, before I hit home plate, I point and I look up to him, because without him, I wouldn't have been in that situation. I wouldn't be here right now. That's great. Well, we're glad that all of you are here as a Cincinnatian for 28 years, whatever it is. We're all as Cincinnatians enjoying the gift and the run you are giving us this year. It's really, really good. It's almost like the Spirit of God or the grace of God is on your clubhouse with the attitude you have the way you guys are bound together. Or am I just reading into things? How does it feel in the clubhouse? Do you sense, I don't know, that there's kind of the X factor of God's presence? And it's OK to say no as well. Yeah, it's no surprise to everybody that we have very good culture in that clubhouse, a very great group of guys. We've been very vocal about it. We have a handful of believers on the team, obviously, with us being out here, but there's also quite a few others in the clubhouse that are believers as well. We are able to, and fortunate enough with having chapel as we travel, being here with playing every day, playing on every Sunday, and being able to utilize those times to be able to get into the Word. And then we also have... a lot of conversations amongst each other, as we're going through stuff, dealing with stuff. So being able to have that fellowship as teammates and fellow believers is, it's awesome. And with playing a game like baseball that's so tough, being able to have teammates like that, brothers like that, it's a huge deal for us. And I would a thousand percent agree that it. plays, you know, when we go out onto the field and it shows out there in a lot of ways. Well, thank you for opening up your hearts for all of us, pushing us in our faith, encouraging us in our faith. So I just want to thank you guys on behalf of all of us. Thank you for being great role models with us, for being very articulate in your faith, and for giving our city a great baseball team. Thanks for joining us on this journey toward aggressive living. Find more resources, articles, past episodes and live events over at bryantome.com. Pre-orders for my new books, a repackaged edition of The Five Marks of a Man and a brand new Five Marks of a Man Tactical Guide are open right now on Amazon. If you haven't yet, leave this podcast a rating and review. It really helps. Get this show in front of new listeners. And if you want to connect, find me on Instagram, at Brian Tome. The Aggressive Life is a production of Crossroads Church, Cincinnati, Ohio.