Episode #4: From Losing It All to Never Better – Betsy Guerra & Bebo (Faith & Growth Podcast)

Manuel "Bebo" Chavez lost his corporate finance job after joining a fraudulent company, then faced his son Mac's premature birth and cerebral palsy diagnosis while his marriage strained under financial pressure. He rebuilt through aviation work, founded Vero Aviation, and credits an Emmaus retreat with restoring his faith and gratitude.
Questions this video answers
November 10, 2010
January 4 (year implied 2011)
32 weeks
Cerebral palsy (periventricular leukomalacia)
January 1, 2014
Chapters
Good morning, sunshine. Welcome to the Faith and Growth podcast, the space where psychology and spirituality come together to help you rise into the person you were created to be. If you're ready to stop playing small and start living the life God designed for you, I got you. Hi, I'm Dr. Betsi Guerra, psychotherapist, speaker, and author. And I'm here to help you heal, rise, and walk boldly in your purpose. So if you're ready to do that, let's get started. What if losing everything was actually an invitation and an opportunity to rise up into the person God created you to be? Today, I'm sitting with someone who lived that truth. Beowul has a beautiful story he's going to share with you today where he hit rock bottom. Everything he worked so hard to build, he lost, and he was about to rise from the ashes. If you're in a season of loss or uncertainty, this conversation will speak directly to your soul. Manuel Chavez, whom I call Bevo, is a businessman, a father, a man of deep faith who inspires me every day. His story is raw, real, and deeply inspiring. And I'm honored, so, so honored to share it with you today. So can you join me to welcome Bebo? You don't look like a Bebo Bevo, but I cannot call you Manny first.
No, no, no. Bevo started from the moment I was born, so it's been with me my whole life. Thank you, Betsy, for this. I'm the one that's honored and humbled to be a part of your greatness and this incredible journey that you've shared with everybody. It's amazing how life brings you to the present moment. We get so hung up on everything else, but it's beautiful when you get to look back and, you know, hindsight's always 20 20. And what I've tried to do, as life has taught me so many lessons and God's put me in so many places, is to be present and be conscientious of what's occurring at the moment. We get lost in it. When things happen in the way that we don't want them to happen, that's where we get frustrated, where we get depressed, we get sad, we get lost, we get angry. We separate. Wait.
Before you share that, why don't you tell me a little bit about your story? Can you bring us back to those difficult years?
Going back to it all. Life had been. Has been always such a blessing and perfect, you know, married young, married Suli, love of my life. We were married three and a half years and then started Trying for kids in Manuel Antonio. I had a great job at the bank, financial advisor, been there, been a financial advisor 13 years, traveling the world. Had my house dog business that opened up for Suli to manage that, you know, just blessed with infinite experiences and blessings. Two great, healthy, beautiful parents that adored me and have raised me and continue to be with me and give me love and support. Two incredible sisters that have guided me through my youth and through growing and in their experiences have always supported me. Life has always been a constant blessing. When life took a turn and didn't work out the way that I wanted, you know, that's where I found my cliff, or what I perceived to be my cliff.
How did life take a turn?
All right, you keep extracting all that. So working at the bank, phenomenal position, you know, great life, making a very good money, everything. Well, I pursued an opportunity to do what I thought was make more money, you know, and, and be a little more independent and get out of corporate. The corporate world in corporate America, which I got pretty tired of. And what I followed was torment in disguise, if you will. Perceived to be a great opportunity. It ended up being a just a major fraud where I went from going out and doing whatever I wanted to. All of a sudden I'm getting calls from authorities and things that never in my life or my wildest dreams that I think would be happening in that process. We are pregnant with Mac, our first son. Thinking to myself, okay, you know, while I'm going through this entire torment of my professional life, which was upside down, you know, I left the bank, I went to go work for this company, you know, the bomb dropped on this not being what it was supposed to be. I was in limbo. And without knowing it, God provided me an angel which I was unaware at that moment. Sitting down with a friend of mine, we're having lunch. He worked in the aviation industry. I used to work with him in finance. He was actually the financial advisor that hired me as an assistant. So we had long lasting, a long term relationship. A very good friend of mine, I just needed a job at that point because right now I was at zero. Pregnant wife, house bills, the whole thing. And you know, Suli wasn't working at that time, so I took a job with him. I didn't know anything about aviation. All I knew is you got in a plane, when you got off, you were somewhere else, you know, that's all I knew about planes. But I just needed to do something and, and my pride did not allow me to go back into finance and banking. Your husband, a guy that I think you like a little bit. If anybody that knows Betsy knows that she's absolutely obsessed with the line, which I am also secretly. But, hey, my brother, he had gotten me an interview and an office and a job, like, in an instant, without thinking twice about it. But I just couldn't go through with it, knowing everything that was happening in the background. And I would have never wanted for his name to ever be associated with me if something really went south and.
In the background, there were some legal.
Legal issues. Correct. That's what I mean. That's what I meant. Something to ever, you know, stain his name or associate him with me in the event something bad would happen. So I humbly and gratefully turned down the offer and just kept on with this job of making just enough to get by barely in the aviation world. So struggling with that financially. The bill's coming in. Very unpleasant moments in life. You know, things start to weigh on you, and that roof gets heavier and heavier as you try to hold it up and hold it up and hold it up. And being the person I've always been, never been one to complain. Definitely not in my nature to be asking for help for things, figuring I'm going to take care of this. And I would sit and I'd pray and I'd cry, like, begging God, listen, take this away from me. Just let this pass already. You know, I've never done it. I've never done anything that I perceive to be so bad in this world that would cause these things to be a part of my life experiences. And, you know, I kept praying and asking and praying for asking as a little kid. You know, I thank my mom for my faith. I was raised Catholic my entire life. As you get older, you start recognizing and realizing what you do, believe what you don't. And, I mean, I am unapologetically Catholic. I love God, I love Christ, the Holy Spirit, all of it. It's just. It's the truth. It's not that I'm convinced it's the truth, but in that truth, where I said to myself, you know, I've accumulated all these brownie points over the years that I've never cashed in, I figured, hey, look, this is my. This is my petition. I need help. I need you to get me out of this. But I need it now because life is happening. I have a baby on the way, and it wouldn't come, and it wouldn't come. So things continue. Max. Due date was January 4th, which is also my nephew's birthday. But his two day was January 4th. He ends up being born November 10th. Get a call early in the morning. You rushed over, you helped Suli prepare, have her realize that, you know, baby's not coming in three seconds. He's gonna come in a few hours. So get prepared, get ready, take a shower, do all that stuff. When we get to the hospital, doctor tells us, I gave him a story that I was struggling with the car seat, tried to get in the car, get out of the box. And he goes, it's fine that he did all that, but he's not going home today, tomorrow, the day after he was born at 32 weeks and can't leave the hospital day before 35 plus has to meet all these milestones. So there's atomic bomb number two. You know, from my professional financial standpoint, had one bomb drop in April of 2010 and then November, which is the celebration of my greatest gift, which is my son being born. My first child. It came with a lot of anchors on it, or so I thought. And it was overwhelming. And I remember when he was born, we rushed out of the of the delivery room and in the delivery room were like four doctors and nurses. They just grabbed them and just took off to the nicu. I remember just chasing through a hallway, it opened up, the whole family was there and I couldn't celebrate with anyone. I just had to follow them through, intubated the whole thing, the whole story. And I just remember standing against the wall by myself and just sobbing, wondering what is going on? Like, what did I ever do? Like, whatever happened that my life took a turn, that all of a sudden everything's collapsing and nothing is holding up at all. Fast forward. Years go by as we are, well, fast forward and four months later, we find out that Suli's pregnant with Zoe, our daughter, which was greatest angel God ever sent us. Weren't planning for it, mind you. We got home with Mac after five and a half weeks in the NICU with heart monitors and everything. The last thing we're thinking of is, when's that? When are we going to plan for the next child, right? But God sends and we receive. So Zoe comes and was the brightest light that our dark cave of a home needed at that moment. Because as much as I was feeling everything, Suli was feeling everything as well. And you know, for many, many years, I discredited her for having gone through this as much as I have, because I just did. The woe is me, you know, I'm the one struggling. I'm the one whose career is in the shambles, I'm the one who lost my job. I'm the one who has not thinking that she's going through it as well, although she's been my rock the entire time. But I digress. So years continue to go by. Finances didn't get any better. You know, I'm in a brand new industry, don't know how to navigate, don't know really how to make money. It's not my company. That company ends up going under after two years. I get contracted by a client and was with them for about a year and a half. That wasn't going well either. It's not like I was doing fantastic, you know, but just enough to get by. Just enough to get by. When I was never used to just getting by, you know, I was always accustomed to thriving and succeeding and finding, you know, my next challenge and escalating and growing and being on top of my world, not anybody else's, but being on top of mine. And, you know, God served me a lot of humble pie as time went on. So I lost a lot of my faith. I lost a lot of my faith not in belief, but in trust. I believed, still believed in God. I wasn't going to mass, I wasn't praying because I felt all my prayers were falling on deaf ears. It was very disheartening. It was very, very overwhelming to feel neglected and abandoned. And what I learned as years went on is that all those thoughts were just mine. It wasn't reality. It got so bad that my home life was affected by it because it depleted my drive. Why am I working so hard? Why am I pushing so hard if nothing's coming from it? I've prayed and I've prayed and I prayed and I've asked God every single day, just take this away, like, put. Don't let my family suffer because they're suffering directly because of me. Not even indirectly, but just directly. And, you know, it affected everything. It affected my, my relationship with my wife to where, you know, we went through some very dark times. And I would pray and I would pray and I would pray and then, you know, one day we had a very unpleasant conversation, you know, Suli and I. And that was almost like an awakening for me, if you will, because as beaten as I was and as just devastated and I had no gas in the tank, I do thank God for one quality that, that, that I recognize I have in myself, is that I will never quit. And that is, call it the Holy Spirit, call it just the blessing that God's given me. But I will never quit. I can't. It's not in my nature to quit. It's just something that I want and hope, and I pray that my kids have it, that it's instilled in them. Because life's going to come at you. It's going to throw everything at you, but you can't quit. You can't quit, you know, so long as you have a chip in a chair, you're still at the table, you're still playing. You're in the game. And my chip was the lung. They aired my lungs, you know, and the fact that my wife is still at home with me, that my children are still at home with me, that my friends are still around me, that determination to get back what I had lost, what I never realized that what I had lost was myself. I wasn't losing my wife. I wasn't losing my kids. I didn't lose my job. I lost myself. And I lost myself because I lost my focus on God. You know, as years have gone by, you know, I've been fortunate to really stay present and stay focused on my purpose, which is getting to heaven, because that's what I want for my wife, that's what I want for my kids. And in that purpose, it's living the best life I can here on earth. And that best life here on earth is living as Christ like, as I can, living the way Christ taught us. So years went on, and God just started throwing lifelines to me.
Before that happened, I was there during that time when I went with Suli to the doctor with your son, and you got more news. So it was also affecting, like, it also had to do with your family life. And. And there was a time also that, you know, I think you referred to it as that unpleasant conversation with Suli where that was threatened, too. Your marriage was threatened as well.
Well, you know, so the. The beauty of the redemption is you tend to not see those things as negatives. But another. What I thought was a. The biggest atomic bomb in all of this was just that. So a year late, a year after Mac was born, January of 2012, okay, he was born November 2010. So January of 2012, a year had gone by, and he had not really reached the milestones a baby should be reaching, you know, sitting up straight, you know, crawling things of that nature. His pediatrician at the time, which I'm very glad I fired. I won't say his name, because I'm not that guy just chalked it up to the fact that, no, he was preemie don't worry, he's just developing late. It's no big deal. He's just a preemie. He's just a preemie. He's just a preemie. He was doing therapies and you know, a bunch of other services that were, that were net that are provided for children that are born premature just to help them catch up to full term babies. And it was his therapist at that time that suggested to Suli and I to go see a neurologist. So Sudi sets the appointment, goes to neurologist. I am in Russia at that time on a business trip, terrible place, never go. But I was on a business trip and I think this story adds to why I didn't like it as much. And Suli took Mac to the neurologist, they did the CT scans, CAT scans, whatever it was, the MRIs. And they called her in for the results to discuss it being that I wasn't there. You as one of my angels went with her. And the diagnosis was is that he has cerebral palsy. And I didn't know what that was. So much so that I told Suli, listen, you didn't understand what he said. There's no way. What is that? Even so I ended up booking another appointment with the doctor when I landed the next day to go see him to get this clarified. And it was just that I learned the word called, I learned the term periventricular leukomalasia, which is a real word, it's not made up. And what it is just he had a hemorrhaging on the top right quadrant of his brain that affected his extremities and you know, his walking abilities and his muscle strength and his spasticity. To say that life was turned upside down is an understatement, a financially shot, extreme challenges with, with myself and how I'm impacting my marriage and the negative toll I took on my marriage for having this bad attitude and lack of drive. And now my son has a diagnosis which is going to affect him for the rest of his life. So to say I was upset with God is there's a very fair, nice, polite term. I never got mad at God to the extent where like I rejected or refused it. But I just, I said to myself, man, if you're not going to do your part, I'm not going to do mine kind of situation, right? I made love a two way street at that point when I realized that it's in all actuality it's not. But I made love a two way Street. Because why am I giving and why am I praying? And why was I eucharistic minister, and why was on campus ministry? And why am I going to these retreats? Why am I asking? And why am I obedient and why am I doing all of this? For what? And yeah, it got really, really bad for a real long time. Now I am the king of a mask. For the reason being that since I don't want to burden or bother other people with my problems, I always keep a smile on my face and I'm quick to crack a joke. I'm the first one doing shots at the party.
Yes, you are.
Or taking funnels down to the keys or whatever it may be. But call it. It's not escape, because you can't escape something that you know is always there. But I just always wanted to make it a point to distract myself from my unhappiness. I was miserable. Miserable. And I never thought I would be miserable in life, ever. I was always the happiest person. I was never a star athlete. I was never the ladies man. I was never this or that, but I was always me. And me was always happy. Me was always happy. Me, me. It was always, how are you? Let's have a great time. I don't like unpleasant conversations. I'm a peacemaker. I hate arguing with people. I don't like fighting. Even with all this size, if I've gotten into two or three fights in my life, it's way too many. I like peace. It's a good time. I like to smile and laugh. So living a life like that, and then all of a sudden, having it all just pulled away really, really, really changed my life for the worse at that moment, but for the better later on. But staying in that moment. I didn't know which way was up. I had no hope. I was lost. I remember going to your house, sitting in your backyard with you, crying, sobbing. You know, what am I going to do? How am I going to fix this? And never blaming anybody else, because you can't. It was all me. And I had to start realizing, where did I go wrong? Where did I go wrong? You know, my own. Antonio's diagnosis is not. It's not anybody's fault. You know, it's God's plan. But everything else that I did, I'm the one that chose to leave the bank and go work at that company. I'm the one that chose to stop fighting. I'm the one that chose to make myself the victim. I'm the one that chose to separate Myself from God. It was all me. It was all my actions. And in those actions, it took a very, very long time to gain perspective again, because I had zero gratitude the entire time I'm going through all this. God was putting angels in my path, wasn't recognizing it. It was just the next person. This is how life's supposed to happen. Listen, here's a lifeline to cover you for X amount of time. I was almost bothered by the little bit of help I was getting because I shouldn't be in that position. I shouldn't have to depend on anybody else or anyone else. You know, I remember reading something from father Mike Schmidt, and he said that self reliance, it leads to self deprecation. And it resonated with me significantly. So years went by. I got a huge opportunity to do a deal for. For a client of mine, and I got this call from. From a friend. He told me, listen, I need some help with landing gear. Can you help me? I said, yeah, but I'm gonna do. If I do it, I'm doing it under my terms and my company. I didn't have. You don't have a company yet. I'm gonna do it on my own because I don't trust anybody else. Take care of this. He tells me, manny, he doesn't know me as Beowulf. He goes, manny, whatever you say, I trust you. Go. So, you know, that took me back because I haven't anybody. I never. I had not had anybody tell me I trust you in a long time, because when I had a lot of people's trust, I let everybody down. And that happened with the whole banking, financial situation. I let a lot of people down that trusted me blindly. So that weighed on me. But I knew I had no choice. I had to keep moving forward. So that transaction allowed me to open my company, which I so humbly and beautifully and happily named Veronica after our beautiful Fofi Vero. Veronica. Because I said to myself, if I name this company Vero, it can never fail.
Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna cry.
Good. Because that's how I feel about it. Vero can never fail. It won't. I'll never sell it. I'll never close it. I'll never do anything but honor it and strive for it to be as best as it possibly can be if we want to continue. At atomic bombs to my story. Your story, which directly affects me, was another huge atomic bomb for you was a thousand atomic bombs for you and align and the entire family. It was a thousand atomic bombs. It was a Major atomic bomb for me as well. She's been beyond present in my life ever since she was born and never stopped. So a beautiful story about Foffy, which I say with a lot of pride, is that time that Mac was born and he was in the NICU. He was in the NICU for five and a half weeks. Mac was born November 10th on December 3rd, while he's in the nursery in his bassinet, I guess they call it, right? Door swings open and the line and this beautiful little baby pull up right next to us and it's foffy. And I was beyond humbled and grateful and thankful. That we got to share that moment.
Me too.
And that Mac got to lay next to his. His angel. What I perceive as his guardian angel, selfishly, as babies in their first days of life.
So Leah and I had a sleepover so that she could stay there in the hospital when I was staying there. Yeah, thank you for bringing that up. Quick interruption just to let you know that if you too are curious about elevating, becoming a better version of yourself and overcoming a any adversity, you're welcome to join the faith and growth program at the faith based coaching Academy. Just go to faithandgrowth.com and learn more. You can even book a call with me personally. I cannot wait to chat. Now back to the episode.
Silvero Vero. You know, it's funny, a lot of people that I meet, I give my card or, you know, I introduce myself and they say, oh, vieiro. I go, no, no, not Vieiro Vero. Because it's V A E R O.
So a lot of people don't know that Fofi's real name is Veronica.
Right?
Yeah. So Vero comes from Veronica.
Vero comes from Veronica. Pharaoh wouldn't have the same effect. The same. A lot of people don't know Emmanuel. It's Beowulf. So Sophie Fofi's life and experience also was something that added to that. As I would sit in the background and wallow in my own misery. Misery. And seeing you guys overcome your experience, I started to say to myself, you know, at one point, you know, dude, the audacity that you have to self deprecate and woe is me when well, you've lost this nothing. You know, I many a nights, you know, praying over Mac, praying over Zoe, you know, why did you give them these struggles? Why this, why that? A lot of whys. I was the constant why guy. Tell me why. Tell me why. Tell me why. Tell me why. So fast forward getting back on track, I got the opportunity, the opportunity to open up Averro Aviation January 1st of 2014, and got my first client, who thankfully still my client today. They sent me some deals. I thought to myself, I'm out of it. We're perfect. Oh, yeah, it took you a while, but thanks. But you know, landing gears are tricky world because once every 10 years that you take care of them. So, yeah, it's this great deal thinking that God's gonna keep feeding me and feeding me. Well, he fed me, but I wasn't learning how to feed myself because throughout that entire time that I would pray and the entire time, I was begging and asking and pleading, I just wanted the ship to show up, take all the negativity and take off with it. I wasn't doing any of the work. I was expecting a magic wand, a snap of a finger, a miracle to happen. I prayed, literally, and I'd never done it before in my life. I prayed for a miracle. I said, listen, your God, you can do whatever you want, right? Raised Jesus from the dead, you parted the seas. You've done it all. It. I have faith in you that you could do anything, do this. And I look back, I hate even saying that because, like, I'm testing God. I'm not that guy. But, yeah, I called him out. I called him out. And I am a true believer that God is not an angry God. All that Old Testament stuff, it's real. But I don't believe that God punishes. I don't. In order to punish, you have to be upset. In order to be upset, you have to have anger somewhere inside of you. And God is pure love. You can't be something and something else. You either are or you're not. So years went by. I figured how my company, everything's gonna go great. And I wasn't putting in the real work. I had to. I really, you know, I wasn't doing then what I'm doing now. And I wasn't out of the woods. Thought I was, but I wasn't out of the woods because it wasn't about God giving me something. It was about me having to do something myself. Still wasn't going to mass because it just became a habit to not go. I'd go sporadically, maybe once every three or four months because I went. And, you know, the financial situation got tighter and tighter and harder and more frustrating. And I'd get a little bit of a breath of air and then a lot of inconsistencies. So I gets called from a friend, tells me, you know, I'm doing this faith based coaching academy. I'd love for you to do it. I got you. Let's get this done. That was the catalyst that set my life back on the right direction. I don't think you know that. I don't think you know that. You paired me up with a beautiful man named Raul, who was my coach during the process. And every day that I'd go jump off the kids or pick them up, up from school, I'd always park in front of the Blessed Sacrament where they have perpetual adoration. I remember one day sitting with him because I was getting more business and I was trying to expand. I was also handcuffed to this other company that I'd partnered with that was like a financial arm, right? These deals, Atlantic, you're expensive. They're like a million bucks plus. So, you know, when you go from zero, you need to start somewhere. So, long story short, I didn't know how to break away from them. It wasn't working out. But I was also frustrated with myself. I still had my other bit, my other deals from my. From my existing clients, but it wasn't volume. And I remember sitting with Raul and telling him, look, man, I. I'm trying this, I'm trying that, but just anytime I talk to anybody, the fear of me disappointing, the fear of me letting someone down, the fear of me breaking someone's trust just rears its ugly head. And it keeps me from being confident. I lost all my confidence. It keeps me from doing the best I could because that was always a major anchor in my life when, you know, from when everything started happening. So he told me something that changed my life. Like that moment. He told me, bevo, listen, wanting to get rid of your past experiences is impossible. You can never hit. There's no delete button to delete a memory. There isn't to get Alzheimer's. And yet in Alzheimer's, you tend to remember, like, the real old stuff. It's just not the recent things, or so I'm told. He told me, the next time you're in a situation and that fear, which is what it is, and that fear presents itself, don't fight it. Welcome it, acknowledge it, recognize it, say, oh, hey, you're here. My doubt, my. My fear, my insecurity, all of that. Come here. Come here. Sit right here next to me. You're gonna ride shotgun. But you're not driving. And I know you're there. I know you're there. And you're not in control. You're not going away. Now I Know that I don't want you in control of anything in my life. You will not dictate what's gonna happen. You don't go away. But it makes me more aware of what not to do so that this doesn't become present. And that exercise, I did it over and over and over and over to the point where fear went from being the entity that would ride shotgun to in the car seat to where fear doesn't ride with me anymore. And Betsuvius.
Amen to that.
Amen. Which I call Betsy Betsuvius. Can't start calling that because it's our thing because she's a mountain. A Once I did that and I started focusing on what really needed to happen, things started getting a lot better. And then I get a call from your favorite person on the planet that he was going to be leading an Emmaus retreat and he wanted me to do it with him. And March 17th of 2023 I went. Well, eight weeks prior I went on this journey with him to prepare for that retreat. And then that retreat single handedly anchored the wheels on the road of the path that I'm on. Because I found God again. And what I learned, that he was never gone. It was me. I'm the one that separated myself. We all sit around and we wait for God to show up. He's always there. It's us that separate ourselves from him. Perspective, gratitude, appreciation, humility bring so much peace and happiness and clarity that I have never been happier in my life. The blessings God has given me, which is my son, which is my daughter, which is my wife. Because without her I don't have them. My friends, my parents, my sisters, and all of the angels that he put in my path during what I perceive to be my darkest days. I can't think of enough for it. And being able to recognize that is so empowering because it's no longer woe is me, it's thank you. And all those years I spent asking why, why, why, why? I don't ask why anymore. I've never asked why since I had that incredible weekend. I asked what for? So when God throws something, something at me and life happens because life's gonna happen, I say what for? What's the purpose of this? What are we? What am I supposed to learn in this process? What's this all about? And I approach it with such a happier perspective and a positive perspective that what allows me to do is be a bit a better business owner, be better to my clients, be a better husband, to be a better father, to Be a better friend, to be a better son. I'm working really hard to be a better brother because brothers and sisters are brothers and sisters. But I love them. And I. I now walk around with my head held high, trying my absolute best to improve anyone's life I come across, even if it's for five seconds, because that's what we're called to do. We're called to love one another. And loving one another doesn't mean that you have to like one another. Loving, loving someone is willing. The good of them is willing to get in them. Just don't have to like them. You don't have to agree with everything but want the best for them. And man, life has been such a fun and beautiful ride ever since I realized that. That it's been. It's been great. It's led me to here. I'm sitting with you, my God. If I wasn't in that position, I wouldn't be able to speak with Dr. Betiera Bevo.
You made my life better today, and I trust that you blessed you. You blessed them. But I'm now speaking to you. Bebo blessed you today, and I hope you have hope and I hope you have perspective. There are a few things, Babel, that you said that I think I would like to repeat. You said in. I'm going to say it in my own words. You said I was a man of faith. So these things are not supposed to happen to me because I had all these brownie points. And I want to remind you, listening, that faith does not protect you from adversity. God did not promise a life without pain. He promised to be there all along. And he promised to make the pain worthy, worth it, so that it wasn't in vain. And I see that in you, right. Like all things work for the good of those who love him. So what for? If you are going through pain, what for? Because it's not just for you to feel pain. There's a. There's a mission, there's a purpose. There's something that's. That's wanting to emerge from him. God is. God is building you up because you're going through adversity. So. And I remember our friend Anthony in one of our prayer groups, he said that a professor of his, when he went. When he went to the professor to tell him how life was falling apart, the professor would looked at him and he was like, I'm so jealous. How lucky are you? And he was like, this guy's crazy. What's wrong with him? And when he asked why? The professor said, because you are growing for it from this. You are being molded and elevated from this. Not me. I don't get to do it because you're the one going through the pain. So I just. I think you are a reminder and a testament of it's never in vain.
Correct?
And you're also a testament of faith, because even though you briefly lost your way in terms of intentionally going to God, you always allowed him to be there. Even if it was to fight with him or blame him or be like, what the heck? You allowed him to be there. You said yes to coming to the coaching academy. You said yes to going to Emea's. You said you were open to it. And I think that's it. All we have to do is be open. I've heard this before, and I think there's so much truth in it. You know how they say, like, God doesn't give you anything that you can't handle? We tend to think, we interpret that as God doesn't give you a bigger cross than you can carry.
Right?
But the saying is, God doesn't give you anything you can handle. And sometimes what we cannot handle are the graces and the blessings that he has for us, the abundance that you so prayed for, the love and grace in your marriage, in your relationships, the perspective that would allow you to see your son the way you see him. Now, Mac is going to be in my podcast, so I'm not even going to speak about him so that he can just present himself. But, like, you now have all this perspective because at some point, you were ready to receive what God had in store for you. God doesn't give you anything you can handle. And I ask you, listener, is there something you're begging for that God's not giving you? You get to reflect on, what is it? How is it that I'm not ready to receive it? And instead of blaming God for not showing up or not hearing, look at yourself and ask yourself, in which ways am I not ready to receive this and do the work that is required for you to open up to those limitless possibilities that are available for you because you were created for greatness. So, Beow, can you tell us where people can find you and who can. Who. Who can benefit from your services? Like, who do you support? The way I usually say it is, I am your person.
If I am your person. If you run a large MRO that handles private aircraft, Boeing primarily, and if you know any billionaires or multi millionaires that have a private aircraft that will manage all your landing gear, or if you know anybody in the aviation industry that needs landing gear support, that's what I do. I'm sure that the calls are gonna start flooding your switchboards right now, Betsy, because everybody out there has a private plane. Soon, soon, soon, soon, soon, soon. But, you know, there's something really special about what you said, which I'd like to, you know, just put a little more emphasis on. There's nothing more beautiful than redemption. Everybody watch Goes to the Movies because you want the end of the movie to be the happy ending. And the redemption of that. The redemption for all of us is hopefully we get our ticket punched and we go to heaven, right? But while we're here on Earth and we're living on Earth, being able to sit back and take a step and recognize that you've overcome your challenge and your difficulty is such a blessing. It really, really is. It's probably one of the most gratifying experiences I've ever had in my life, because to know that you were down and you were down, but you were never out and you were never alone and you were never abandoned. You know, what's our. What's Christ's greatest gift to us was defeating death. He died. Guess what? He did. He resurrected the greatest redemption of all time. And everything that we go through and everything that we recover from is minuscule compared to that, but it's huge in our lives. So in recognizing that if God could bring back the dead, he can take away your financial situations, he could heal you if that's what he wants. He could take away your sorrow, your anguish, your despair, which are all terms that don't exist with him. And I've learned to truly believe that, because where God is present and your focus is on him, you can't go wrong. Doesn't mean that he's not going to be there. While you're suffering, you're struggling, you're sick, and you have loss. He's there even more when you're going through that. But the beauty and redemption is the recognition of that. It doesn't. Redemption doesn't mean that you got what you wanted. You got what you wanted. Nailed it. It's that your perspective aligned with God's plan.
Amen.
And that is such. That's the miracle I was asking for.
I'm so glad you said that. And I think this is a good way of ending it. The course in miracle defines a miracle as a shift from fear to love. And what you described today, beo was a miracle. You were living in fear and insecurities. And that shifted to love, perspective, appreciation, gratitude. Focus on the blessings. Focus on God. And I always say that the word good is like misspelled or mispronounced in English. It's supposed to be God. God is, you know, good is God with two O's, and everything that's good is God's. So you are a testament of a miracle, a shift from fear to love, and an understanding that God is good and all things work for the good of those who love him.
Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Betsy. Dr. Betsy Gara, everybody.
Love you.
I love you, my dear. Thank you, Manita.
Redemption does not erase the past. It refrains it. And sometimes the deepest fall leads into the most powerful faith. So if you're walking through your own rebuilding season, know that you're not alone and great things await. Love you. That's it for today's episode. I loved, loved, loved spending this time with you. So thank you for joining me. If somebody came to mind while you were listening, bless them with this episode, send it to them. And if you may, please subscribe and leave a review. Those are really helpful to help us spread the message. And if you want to grow in faith and wisdom, join me@faithandgrowth.com thank you for spending this time with me. Love you. Bye.
More from Betsy

How to FIX your RELATIONSHIPS: Understand the attachment styles! #lifelessons #relationship









