107. Andy Dooley: Experiencing the Architect of You!

Lead with Faith, Play with Purpose: A 100-Day Devotional for Athletes
Andy Dooley on TikTok
Andy Dooley on Instagram

God created you out of love, to be loved for love. He made you on purpose for a purpose. Andy grew up a PK (Pastor's kid) so the love and life of Jesus was inbred in him beginning at an early age. It wasn't until later in life where Andy made Jesus Lord and King. When this happened, testings and temptations confronted him head on. It was during these seasons where Jesus made Himself for real to Andy and began discovering his life's calling and purpose. In this episode, you will hear firsthand the truth and reality of knowing and experiencing the true Architect of YOU- Jesus Christ, the Living God!

Transcript

Jack: [00:00:00] Jesus in my life, episode 107. 

Andy Dooley: I really believe that if you understand that Jesus created you, he's the architect of your life. He's the one who is leading you. Why wouldn't you want to go to the person who created you? He has all the secret sauce. He has your book written already. Why wouldn't you want to go to the person who has your life in his hands?

And find out more about him, learn about him. So then you learn more about yourself and how you can be the best version of yourself.

Jack: Welcome to Jesus in my life, a podcast with Robin Jack, where we interview everyday people like me and you about their extraordinary experiences with our savior, Jesus Christ. Welcome to another episode of Jesus in my life podcast is your host Jack with my co host Rob 

Rob Lane: Hey everybody glad to be with you today and Jack really excited about our guest in studio today 

Jack: Yeah, we have [00:01:00] a really special guest.

They're always special, but his name is Andy Dooley and he, uh, does a lot of different things. Uh, he's a fitness professional. He's the in game entertainment stadium host for the Seattle Seahawks. He's a social media creator. He has a lot of Tik TOK videos, Instagram reels, and he's also has the calling of a pastor on his life.

He's actually done that as a career a few times, but you know, Pastoring isn't necessarily a job. It's a calling and it's clearly on Andy. And one of the ways it's most evident to me is that he's actually authored three Christian books. One is called walk in faith. It's a five minute devotional for teen guys.

Another one called building a family of faith and his newest one, which drops today on July 30th, it's called lead with faith, play with purpose, a hundred day devotional for athletes. So very prolific person, Andy, welcome to the show. 

Andy Dooley: Wow. Thank you guys so much for that great intro. I'm honored to just be here.

[00:02:00] Thank you. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Well, we're 

Jack: honored to have you, man. And one of the things that we do on our show, Andy, is we really love to hear about the role that Jesus played in people's lives. Mm-Hmm, . So let's go ahead and maybe let's start at the beginning. Andy, where are you from and what role did Jesus play in your early life?

Andy Dooley: Well, yeah, I was born in Hawaii, Oahu, my mom's from Trinidad, my dad was in the military, and we moved to Ohio. And so we went from Hawaii to Ohio, and my mom That's a drastic cultural change. That's cultural shock. That's cultural shock. Talk about Wow. Yes. Culture shock for sure. But you know, you just adapt, right?

Yeah. Yeah. That's 

Jack: right. 

Andy Dooley: Yeah. So we moved to Ohio and my mom and dad were both pastors and my dad was also in the military. So you can imagine the discipline at the house. But the cool thing is, was my dad never made it so cold and rigid. [00:03:00] He made the Christian walk fun. We always saw my dad as cool. He was fun.

He'd crack jokes. He was athletic. It was just a cool guy, just that loved Jesus. And I always felt like that stuck out to me a lot, but we were always in the church. We were PK, you know, you know.

And so, so, My brother and I were at church all the time, any event, all the time. And during those times, church can last for hours. I just remember in fifth grade, there was a pastor who spoke and preached. And I felt the calling of God to tell me to come up and give my life to Christ. And so at fifth grade, that's when I gave my life to Christ and I'm learning and trying and growing, but I didn't really make it my own until high school.

And that's when I was really tested and tried to like, you know, I was always asked to [00:04:00] come to these parties, drink, do that. Thank goodness for sports because that was my main focus outside of schooling. So I stayed busy. I was playing football, basketball, track, boxing. So I really didn't have time to waste to do all these other things.

And once I graduated high school, got a scholarship, I'm playing football in college. I'll never ever forget this feeling where it's like a fantasy world. You are. In college, you're still taken care of, but you're still on your own. So I started to experience things for the first time because normally at home, I'm in bed at nine o'clock lights out at nine 30 and it was just, everything was clockwork.

Now I come out of football two days and I'm moving into my dorms and there's no one telling me I had to be in bed [00:05:00] at nine o'clock or, you know, Having this structure other than structure when we get to the stadium, you know, 

Rob Lane: and 

Andy Dooley: so I remember my first night walking and going out to a club uptown and experiencing that nightlife 

Rob Lane: and I'm like, Wow, 

Andy Dooley: what is this?

What are they doing over? Yeah, then I like I looked at the time and it's four in the morning. I'm like, what? I got to hop on the bus, go back to my dorm. And I just was just, I walked into the dorm and no one's asking me, where were you? It was crazy. That was a crazy feeling. It was cool. But then also parents, kids really want to have structure in their life.

They're not going to tell you that, but they really do. They desired on the inside. And I just remembered thinking to myself like, man. As it kept going on, I craved that structure and [00:06:00] college time is when I started to venture out, you know, live life the way I wanted to, but at the end of the day, in the back of my mind, I kept hearing that voice telling me, no, don't do that.

Yeah. Don't do that. Or I went to a Bible study. So I have my Bible in hand. I'm on campus and I'm walking past one of like the hangouts. It's like a club. Why do I do? End up going in there and then I'm sitting in the club with my Bible, just watching like how weird and corny is that? You know, like, but I was like, it was that tug of war the whole time.

You're like wanting to be there, see it, be a part of it. But then you're there and you're like, ah, I don't feel right being here. And I've crazy stories about just that internal struggle. I'm sure everyone's dealt with that. Yeah. And, yeah. To be honest, after that, I stayed in church. I was [00:07:00] connected. But once I got out of college, It got serious.

It was like almost a rededication. I got rebaptized. I did everything over again. So I knew it was my decision. It wasn't secondhand Christianity from my parents. It was just my decision to do this, my walk. And I immersed myself. In scripture, reading it, I had it playing in my car, audio everywhere. I was listening to scripture, scripture, scripture, and I'm watching Bible project every chance I had it, my life completely changed.

Rob Lane: Andy. That's so good. Thank you for sharing that. There's something that happens as you're describing what's one foot in, one foot out, one foot in the world. One foot out. Right out and what we could call maybe sanctification that happens, that brings a sense of righteousness and holiness, not out of obligation, but out of like true and deep relationship with Christ as you're expressing.

What was it like for your friends that you were hanging out with and [00:08:00] doing the things did they kind of notice and were they kind of like, okay, he's maybe just kind of a Jesus freak now or what? 

Andy Dooley: Yeah. Well, no. Yes. They noticed, but they noticed I was different when I came in. So got it. I would encourage for athletes, you know, know yourself and be confident in your relationship with God.

Because if you come in, yes, they may call you a Jesus freak or make fun of you for it, but they know where you're at and they know where you stand. That's good. And then when they have those moments, Guess who they know to come to you. But if you are vacillating and going back and forth, you're trying to be like them.

And then you're trying to be a follower of Christ. It confuses them. So then you even look worse in those situations because you don't come across as, You're genuinely a, a lover of Christ. And when I [00:09:00] need to know more about Jesus, I'm not sure I can come to you because I see you doing this and that, but then you want to read the Bible or you want to pray or you want to talk about Jesus.

Yeah. So, and we're all human beings, so we're not going to be perfect, but it's a big difference between. Temptation and having an unrepentant like an unrepentant heart versus having a repentant heart doing things and being like, Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. God, you repent for it where you can get yourself to a place where you don't even care anymore.

And you're doing things. And you are attracted and drawn to sin and that's a terrible place to be. So, yeah, my friends noticed, but then they also would see me. You can see a lot of people have that internal struggle, but you can see my internal struggle on the outside because it was like they could visually see his heart is really to be like Christ and live that [00:10:00] life.

But he's also wanting to be a part of what we're doing over here. You know, and that's a tough place to be in. I mean, to be honest, it comes across as lukewarm and you don't want to be lukewarm. 

Jack: Exactly. Out of curiosity, you're talking about your college experience, and I think this is every good Christian parent is what's going to happen to my kid once they leave.

So reflecting on your own life, your own upbringing, what have you learned? Cause I think you got kids yourself, right? Like what have you learned to prepare your kids for the same experience? Whether they go to college, you go to the career and they leave the home, right? What's your life lessons for us to best prepare our kids for the onslaught of the temptations of the world that will come their way when they leave the shelter of our homes?

Andy Dooley: Well, first modeling it is, It's caught more than it's taught, you know, like I can tell them over and over to Jesus, this Jesus, that, you know, like, but if they don't see us [00:11:00] praying on a regular basis, they don't see us reading our Bible on a regular basis. If they don't see us talking about scriptures on a regular basis, it won't stick.

It won't be something they see as a way of life. My kids know. My wife and I go to the gym six out of the seven days a week. They know they tell their friends. Yeah. My dad's at the gym. My mom's at the gym. They know we read our Bible. My mom and dad reads their Bible. They know that we pray at night, every night before we go to bed to the point where my kids will not go to sleep.

If we haven't came upstairs yet to pray with them, it's just part of the lifestyle. It's a structure. It's a routine that is built. Baked in. And so what I would say for parents, the goal is to show it, model it, let them see it, and during the training ages, [00:12:00] you're teaching them and telling them it's on us, we can't rely on the youth pastor to be the one to teach our kids, right?

Because you don't even know. To be honest how much that youth pastor is actually spending time in a word and with the Holy Spirit and Really like how pure is his heart? You just never know at the end of the day. It's on you as parents to Invest in your kids and make sure you're giving them word and scripture and showing them and relating it to real life.

Because if you're not listening to your kids when they come home and tell you what's going on, how are you going to be able to connect it to the Bible? Yeah. And so being able to connect it to the Bible that way is going to be, Money. 

Rob Lane: Yeah. Bro. Now you're preaching. That's so good. Andy. I mean, you know, I often say this is that the first church is the home and man, that is so epic and huge.

When you talk about the [00:13:00] call to bring Christ and train up your children in the ways that they should go in the ways of the Lord. And that is in fact a very huge mantle that God's called us to do. So that's awesome. 

Andy Dooley: It's an honor, I mean, to help steward these little young people who are going to impact our world.

You have a huge part in that. Amen. 

Jack: Amen. I love it, brother. You've gone from college, you've rededicated your life again to the Lord. What does that look like? How does that take shape in your life? Like what are you doing for Jesus at that moment? What does that look like? 

Andy Dooley: Well, in that moment, I, like I was saying, I was immersed in reading the Bible.

I was. Listening to it, reading it, listening to it, talking about it. And what's crazy is just when you are connected that way, it's just who you are and you see things different. Your discernment's heightened, your decisions are [00:14:00] different. You are responding rather than reacting. There's so many different things you don't realize is going on when you are tethered to Christ and you're just living a life where I'm not reading the Bible and I'm a, I'm not a Christian.

Because I wanted to follow these rules and it's all about, you can't do that. You can't do that. No, I'm just turning my back on sin and like running after Christ and me running after Christ. I don't have time to like really be trying to like, no, I can't do that anymore. No, I can't do that anymore because.

It's harder. It's weird. But the more you're thinking, like, do not steal. What do we want to do? I'm gonna steal. Like, you started a diet on January 1st. You're like, I am not gonna eat that pizza anymore. Everything in you wants to eat that pizza. 

Rob Lane: You 

Andy Dooley: know, it's just like, no, just turn your focus on, I'm gonna eat better.

I'm gonna eat [00:15:00] these foods. And then take 1 percent one day at a time. And over time, you just realized I don't even have a desire for that Chinese food, those bagels, whatever those cookies, because you've just been focused, your focus is. Elsewhere. Same thing with our walk. You focus on, you know, Christ, what is we're in getting to know him.

You just notice like the desire, not that you won't be tempted. The devil is here to kill and destroy. He wants to rob us and like catch us at the wrong time when we're in the weakest points. But the desire is just there. different. Your lifestyle is different. You just don't want those things in the world anymore.

Jack: You just reminded me of something I heard recently, and I forgot who said it, but they said you're the average of the five people that you hang out with the most. Right. And so you put that spiritually, if you hang out with Jesus. You become like him, right? Like you are influenced by him. Just like all our [00:16:00] friends.

Like if I hang out with Rob a lot, I'm going to start picking up things he does. He's going to pick up things I do. You're going to become a nighter's man. Yeah, exactly. Had 

Rob Lane: to throw that in there, Andy. Sorry. We can talk about that 

Andy Dooley: later. Sorry, viewers, listeners, I'm sorry you had to hear that. 

Jack: I bet you there's some people who are like, what are they talking about?

You know, Andy's, uh, diehards. Seattle Seahawks fan and Rob is a diehard 49ers fan and I'm kind of a, I'm a fair, fair weather fan. I grew up in San Francisco, so I'm kind of a fan because I grew up there. 

Andy Dooley: Oh my goodness. I 

Rob Lane: can smell it. It stinks 

Jack: over 

Rob Lane: there. Sorry, Jack, for interrupting and being a distraction.

Love you, brother. We're going to get you 

Andy Dooley: guys some counseling. I'll make sure

Jack: Well, Andy, you also got really into social [00:17:00] media. You got a ton of Instagram reels, a lot of TikTok videos. What was your inspiration? Well, 

Andy Dooley: actually, I am a creative person. I love art. My first love was sketch arting. I was a sketch artist. And so, As a kid, I drew a lot and I looked at social media as a way to be creative.

And I use YouTube as like YouTube university and learned how to shoot photos, videos. And I got into it way back in 2016, really a little bit before then, but I became the face of Reebok in 2016. Oh, wow. So before that. I was just recording like my workouts and posting online and people are like, why are you doing that?

Cause I like it. You know, I'm like one day I'm like one day I may be able to be paid doing something I love working out. You never know. Yeah. I was just like, that's before it was like, [00:18:00] A thing. And next thing you know, I won a huge worldwide competition, became the face of Reebok. And then that's some of the stuff they wanted me to do.

I was already doing it. So it kept building on that. And then in 2020, obviously the pandemic hits I'm training. I'm working at a gym called lifetime fitness. We get furloughed. I'm sent home. Wow. The same Week. My Instagram gets hacked. I lost everything. No way. Yes. And I had, I think at the time I had 22. 3 K followers.

Yeah. Community members at that time. And then I got hacked. I also lost brand deals. It was crazy. Wow. And I, it was so hard trying to get a hold of Instagram. Yeah. Everything was gone. And so finally someone was able to connect me to someone up there. I [00:19:00] was able to at least get my name back. And then I started over.

I started over on Instagram late in 2020. And then I jumped on Tik TOK. So all that started all over during that time, and I just approached it just the way I'm talking to you guys myself. Yeah, I just went to social media and next thing you know, I just kept growing, growing, touching people. And on Tik TOK, it was growing by the 10, 000.

It was the weirdest, craziest. I was posting every single day. I told myself I'm going to treat it like a TV show. I posted every single day over a year, within one year, April to April 17th, I hit a million community members. It was insane. 

Jack: That's awesome. 

Andy Dooley: And my biggest thing is to be able to be the CEO of [00:20:00] empowerment, elevate, encourage others on the platform, but add value.

I always try to add value. That's my mindset is to try to add value to whoever wants. To see my stuff on social media. 

Jack: That's awesome, man. Yeah, right on. That's great. And so you've done really well on social media, but you've also written some books. That's no small task. What spurred you to, to become an author, man?

Andy Dooley: What's weird is as a kid, I would draw all these scenes and then I would write. And tell stories. I'm seeing my daughter do that. Now. I started doing that when I was a kid and I always said I was going to write a book. I didn't know how I was going to do it. I didn't know how I was going to approach that, but I did.

I would make sure I did my own versions, but I saw it in my head and believed it. And then I had a publisher reach out to me and say, Hey, we've seen some of your stuff online. We've seen some of your interviews. Would [00:21:00] you be? Yeah. Interested in authorship. I thought it was fake. So I didn't even respond to it at first, to be honest.

They reached out to me again. They wanted to have a FaceTime conversation. I'm like, Oh, at least I get to see these fake people's faces.

And they were legit and they had me do some sample writings. And then from that point on, we started to process. I wrote my first book, walk in faith in six weeks. And then that turned into a bestseller on, on Amazon. And then it just went crazy. And then I got a literary agent and I wrote building a family of faith.

And then here we are with lead with faith, play with purpose. And it's an intense journey, but I love it. I truly love it when I'm in it. Is this a mindset shift? Because I know this can be able to [00:22:00] bless other people down the road way past my time here on earth. 

Jack: Yeah. 

Andy Dooley: Yeah. 

Jack: I love it. That's leaving a legacy.

Andy Dooley: Right? 100%. Yeah. 

Jack: I had a chance to read a couple of the chapters in Lead with Faith, Play with Purpose, and that one of the things I really love is that you put a lot of personal stories in there. Yeah. Like really relatable things. And I know you're, you know, The book is geared towards athletes and I'm not an athlete, but I'm gaining a lot from these devotionals, you know what I mean?

And I really appreciate that you present yourself as an open book, right? I think sometimes in Christianity, we have the feeling that we need to present ourselves in a certain way. When the truth is we were supposed to be real people with real problems and real struggles. Right. And you lay those out your first devotion that you talk about attention with a teammate, right?

Like you guys, you were about to go to blows with him and you know, that's where your faith [00:23:00] becomes real. That's when the rubber meets the road, right? And so I really appreciate your approach in that. The question I wanted to ask you is that you really wish you had this book when you were a college athlete.

Why specifically? 

Andy Dooley: Because I had to figure all this stuff out that I'm putting in this book on my own. People don't realize For athletes going into it, you're never prepared when you go into the next level. You can have people in your life that can help you, and a lot of times they're preparing you physically, but they're not preparing you spiritually or mentally.

And sometimes they can help you with the mental aspect of the game, but no one's telling you the depths of the game. The temptation and they'll give you the surface version of like, beware of the girls coming at you. Beware of the guys coming at you, but they don't tell you about your best friends who will try to stab you in the back or all the politics of your sport.[00:24:00] 

And. Jealousy that you would deal with amongst teammates and they don't tell you about all of the internal dramas that happens amongst friends and teammates. I mean, there's so many different stories. And I used to say, I really wish I had that. I had a lead with faith, play with purpose because then I can like, okay, let me scroll to my book and see what, okay, I'm dealing with this right now and I can look at lead with faith, play with purpose and see what God says about it and then be able to understand.

Wow. He went through that too. And then you can take your teammates or whoever threw it with you. And you guys can talk about the same stuff and the issues that you're going through. I had Proverbs. I went through Proverbs, try to go through it every month to try to keep giving myself wisdom to be able to make the right decisions.

Rob Lane: So good, Andy, [00:25:00] you know, what I love most about sports, I played a little bit and then into college play a little basketball and moving forward, I'm a hardcore fan. As I alluded to earlier, God bless you. I'm a, I'm a San Francisco 49ers diehard fan. And, uh, but, but just generally sports. All the way around, you know, and my son played college baseball and what I love most about sports is it's such a metaphor of life and when you think about like the aspect of team and you hit the ground running in your devotional book about addressing unity and disunity.

I just had a question for you. I just would love to hear your take on this. We're obviously living in a culture where it's very disunified. I mean, just lots of division because there's so many various opinions as to. I just say getting along and, and within the locker room, what would you say is the embodiment of unity within [00:26:00] a locker room?

I mean, when you think about biblical foundation, biblical principles, is it just a kind of a, an imagination or a dream to say that true unity can exist within the division and varying opinions in a locker room? 

Andy Dooley: I wouldn't say it's an imagination at all. It comes from chemistry, but I feel like it starts with you.

Know yourself, be confident in who you are, and then be the authentic version of yourself because now your teammates get to see who you are for who you are. And then I can work with that. I know. That Jack is this way. I know Rob is living a depressed life as a 49er fan. That's just cause division, brother.

So 

Rob Lane: good. I was a drive by zinger, man. That was good. 

Andy Dooley: But I, I'm saying that because I'm like, you know, [00:27:00] the highs and lows about your teammates. And so, you know, how to. Connect with them and relate to them. So I know if you have those issues, I'm not going to try to highlight those or make you feel worse about it.

I am going to try to bring unity by finding a common ground. Our common ground initially coming in for whatever sport you're playing is the sport as a freshman coming in or a rookie coming in. We, the first thing is, is whatever sport it is. If it's tennis, if you're on a tennis team or you're on a track team, football, basketball, That team, the sport that you play, that's one common ground.

So the goal should be, we're going to do our best to be the best version of ourselves playing this sport, but allow yourself to be open because you know yourself and connect with your teammates. The more, you know, your other [00:28:00] teammates, the more you're comfortable with them. And you start to learn what things can I say to get you motivated?

To be the best version of yourself while we're playing and on the combat field so that we can win, you know, it takes time, but there can be unity and chemistry in a locker room. You can look at the teams that have that kind of chemistry. It's so blatant. It's crazy. Like they can finish each other's sentences.

They know where that person is going to be. I know he's not as fast when he's going laterally, so I'm going to make that up on the back end. I mean, there's all these little things that when you are in sync like that and connecting and doing in the heat of the battle together, you just grow tighter. It's when you don't want to, I'll say this, drop ego.

You drop your ego, you will help build the chemistry of your team way [00:29:00] quicker than the teams who don't. have all these individual egotistical people who are just arrogant and about themselves. 

Jack: You know, it's so funny when you're talking to Andy, you could be talking about church right now. Totally. You could be talking about corporate America right now.

You could be talking about family right now. Right. All these lessons that come from the, like to Rob, right. Sports are an analogy of life, right? And we are stronger together than we are divided. Yes. You know, and I keep thinking like this book is geared towards athletes, but it's geared towards everybody, brother.

Yeah. It really is. 

Andy Dooley: I told my publishers, I'm going to make this book geared to leaders and athletes. Yeah. If you are a leader, Which you are. Everyone's a leader. You may not think it because the reason you don't think you're a leader is because you're comparing yourself to everyone else, but comparison breeds doubt, which delays your purpose.

So if you're looking and comparing left and right, I am now [00:30:00] comparing myself to you and someone else's journey. Where no, you just focus on who God's created you to be and your gifts and talents and you're a leader and you can be able to lead. Hence the word lead with faith, play with purpose in the book.

So this is definitely, I'm glad you guys picked that up without me even having to say it, that anyone could get anything out of this book. If you can see yourself as a leader. 

Rob Lane: Well, I guess I could say, I'm glad to say that I'm learning from a Seattle Seahawks fan. Yeah. And that's, that's epic. I mean, the heavens are declaring, the angels are singing that, that we would be unified in this way.

But with God, there is a God with God. All things are possible. All things are possible. This is 

Andy Dooley: epic. 

Rob Lane: Oh man, there's a theme that's just kind of laced throughout this episode, which is all good, man. It's all good. It's all [00:31:00] good. I love it. Hey, I can say that I have a really good friend now who is a Seahawks fan.

That's a first for me, 

Andy Dooley: man. I mean, there is a guy, I would have never thought that other than it being family because it's family. You're like kind of forced to still love them. Right. But another person? outside. This is God. This is 

Rob Lane: definitely God.

Oh, man. Our listeners are like, what is going on? There's a lot wrong with them. Yeah, I don't know if this is chemistry. We can laugh about it and be unified. Yeah, it's all good, man. Love it. The 

Jack: truth is we are family. Yeah, 

Rob Lane: that's right. 

Jack: Right. We've all been adopted into a greater family through Jesus. And the cool 

Andy Dooley: thing to be yourself.

I mean, I just met these guys. Jack and Rob, they're awesome. And I'm being myself, Rob's being himself. We're going back and forth there. We're jabbing, but it's all in love. You know, I love [00:32:00] that so much more. 

Jack: Awesome. You know, another thought I had about your book and I, and I really love it because it's a problem within, I think our western civilization is the separation of, we start in our government, separate separation of church and state.

Mm-Hmm. . And then we bring that to our personal lives. Separation of my faith from my jobs separation, yeah. Of my faith, from my habits. Separation of faith, from everything else. We do our faith in a silo. Mm. But your book is. Lead with faith, play with purpose, you marry the two, right? And you share the benefits of having Jesus be part of your sports career, or even weekend warrior, right?

Kind of speak into that. Tell our listeners why it's so important to include Jesus in everything that we do. 

Andy Dooley: Include Jesus in every aspect of your life is because your identity is not the sport that you're playing or the job you're working Yeah, or the corporation you're a part of or the weekend flag football team you play [00:33:00] on Especially for athletes right now Yes.

You're in the thick of it. You're playing your sport. People seeing you on campus and like, Oh yeah, there's the baseball player. Oh, that's that football player. And you roll with it as part of your season. But if Jesus is in the center of all the different aspects of your life, then what happens if you're not playing the sport anymore?

And you're not the baseball player. Who are you? And that's the part you need to understand. I really believe that if you understand, That Jesus created you, he's the architect of your life, he's the one who is leading you. Why wouldn't you want to go to the person who created you? He has all of the secret sauce.

He has your book written already. Why wouldn't you want to go to the person who has your life in his hands and find out more about him, learn about him. So then you learn more about yourself and [00:34:00] how you can be the best version of yourself. I don't want to speak for anyone else, but I would say. I want to be the best version of I, of myself.

I want to be in God's perfect will, but the only way I can do that is having him at the center of my life and him being in the driver's seat. So I get out of the metaphorical vehicle and go sit in the passenger seat and just be along for the ride because it makes those nose in life more palatable. And what I mean by that is how often are we looking for a job or doing something and we don't get it?

And we're down and depressed and mad, and we're upset. Like, why didn't that come through? Why didn't that happen? Because God has a better situation for you. But we want to lead it. We want to control it. But if it's a no there, there's a yes down the road that exceeds that. But you just got to be patient.

But it's how you view God. And so I always [00:35:00] look at my life like a pie. If it's an apple pie and all the gooey goodness in the middle, If I slice up that pie, one slice is the gym, one slice is Seahawks, one slice is speaking. All those slices still have the gooey goodness in the middle, which represents God.

And it's always going to be in the middle of every aspect of my life. I tell my The wife and the kids, I leave God out of nothing. I don't care if it's me trying to find a parking spot. I'm like, Lord, you're going to give us princess parking. Yeah. Unless we're trying to get steps or I mean, our, our family, this is how we relate things back to Christ.

Okay. We collect cards, we collect football, basketball cards, and we would do like box breaks and stuff like that. I really believe like God's going to help me get the cards. I would, you know, like, um, it's just my mindset. I leave God out of [00:36:00] nothing in life. And I think if we adopt that mentality, that will change our perspective on life.

Jack: I love that. And I'm sorry to steal your thunder here, Rob. I think you were going to say something and I want you to not forget that. But I think there are so many people who don't think God is interested in the little aspects of our life, right? You think, Oh, God's God only is going to come through for me when I'm going to go preach the gospel on the street, or I'm going to open my Bible.

God wants to be part of every part of our lives, right? If Jesus said that he counts how many hairs we have on our head, he's Interested in the most minute details of our life. So why not just live life with him, you know, right? Yeah. And I just want people to follow your example on that. I mean, I'm preaching to myself here.

God should be involved when I'm cooking dinner. God, what should we make today? Right? 100%. Yeah. Right. 

Rob Lane: Yeah. That's good. 

Jack: And there's a, there's an ancient book. I mean, I think it's probably like 200 plus years old now. It's called [00:37:00] the practice of the presence of God by brother Lawrence. And he was a Catholic monk and his whole thing was whatever I do, Jesus is involved.

If I'm gardening, Jesus is with me. If I'm cleaning the floors, Jesus is with me and whatever, even the most mundane aspects of life, I'm practicing it as if Jesus is doing it with me right now. So, you know, I mean, it's just life is so much more rich because Jesus was in everything. 

Rob Lane: Yeah. So good. Andy, we've had some guests, some particularly some athletes on our podcast and a recent one who I have to say it again, he was a former San Francisco 49ers player.

He was sharing some things and I just had this question for you. Well, first a comment. It seems that within professional sports there seems to be somewhat of a, I don't know if this is the accurate word. I don't certainly want to. Over embellish it, anything, but there seems to be like a renewal or a, like this resurgence of athletes who are just kind of tired of [00:38:00] using God as like, well, if I win, I do a good play or whatever, then I'm going to praise him, but then go off the rails when the opposite happens.

But, but, but specifically, cause you addressed this earlier, brother, like this issue of. Or this, this true reality of Luke warmness. And that seems to be somewhat, uh, the line seems to be getting clear. When you see these athletes in their press conferences, they're preaching up, they're sharing like this platform that God's given them.

And this platform is to give glory. To Jesus. And I would say that probably social media has contributed because cameras are are literally accessible 24 seven. I think that's probably a part of it. But would you say that there's somewhat of a resurgence of athletes that are just like, I'm just going to tell you the truth.

Like this is Jesus is in every aspect of my life. Would you say that's been kind of happening [00:39:00] to? 

Andy Dooley: Absolutely. I think we're living in a time right now where you Everything is so in our face, you're seeing the good, the bad, the ugly people are getting exposed and you're seeing the fake for fake and people are craving authenticity.

People are craving a real. I'm just like, I'm sick and tired of fake period. I just want real. I want a real relationship with friends. I want a real relationship with God. And I just watched the episode of Jake Paul really digging in to a pastor asking biblical questions because he's really trying to figure it out.

There's so many people out there because it went to a place where the Bible literacy just dropped. No one's reading their Bible. I mean, you could be in church school. Working at a church and then ask a coworker. So what did, [00:40:00] what did you read today? Or what did you read this month? That's like stuck out to you that God's speaking to you, bro.

I didn't read my, I haven't read my Bible in six months. This is a real conversation I had and we're working in ministry, not to mention. People who are out there dealing with mental issues and dealing with things. And they just people and athletes are at a place right now. I just want real. So I want a real relationship.

So I'm going to ask real questions and I want real answers and I am going to stare down through your soul and like, know that I'm talking to someone who really has a heart for Jesus or really has a heart for people and wants to make change. If that's not you next, I'm moving on and you are seeing guys who are fed up with what the world is bringing, because at the end of the day, [00:41:00] they lift you up to just bring you down.

And it's all this glitz and glam is like a bunch of sugar and no good whole foods at all. And all that sugary glitzy stuff out there is making us sick spiritually, mentally, physically. We're going through it where we want whole foods that can heal us from the inside out. And you're seeing Christians, um, these athletes seeking out people who really care and want to tell everybody about it.

They're experiencing God, they're experiencing Jesus for the first time in their life, and they're on fire about it, because, like, I've never felt this feeling before, and I think that's the state of where athletes are right now, because it's, like you said, the line is getting clearer. You're either hot, or you're cold.

Or you're either cold and no one likes lukewarm, no one likes lukewarm food. No one likes lukewarm [00:42:00] anything, you know, like either it's hot or cold. And I think the athletes right now are standing up and realizing I have a lot of influence and I can influence our world in a positive way and a real way.

Because it could be also this internal. Um, I would say there's this internal drive to get the word out for whatever reason and for it to be this in our face and this blatant, there's a real reason this is happening because the devil's out there really trying to show out and bring people down and Christians are standing up like, no, we're not going to let you in.

Rob Lane: Yeah. Amen. Wow. Jack, you've been fired up, man. This has been so good, man. Wow. 

Jack: Andy, it's been a real pleasure to talk to you, brother. I'm [00:43:00] excited to go through the rest of your book, but maybe for our guests, like, let us know, how do we get ahold of this book? Where is it available? 

Andy Dooley: Yeah, it's available everywhere.

All the bookstores from Barnes and Noble to some of your local bookstores. If you want it quick, if you're not walking into a store, you can go right now. Right to Amazon. Type in lead with faith, play with purpose, Andy Dooley, and it'll get to you. All my social media has a link in my bio, and I've kept it very simple.

It's Andy L Dooley, D O O L E Y on all my social platforms. 

Jack: Cool. What I'll do is put a link to some of your social media pages, as well as the link to that Amazon page. So our guests, you can go to our show notes and that'll be there. 

Rob Lane: Great. Awesome. Well, Andy, thank you so much, brother, for being on our show today.

and it's been an honor and a privilege. And again, I mean, I'll say I have a really good friend now who's a Seahawks fan. I'm [00:44:00] proud to say that. I really am. I'm proud to say that. 

Andy Dooley: This is true. This is true. I mean, to see how God is working in our lives is powerful. 

Rob Lane: Amen. You know, the The foundation of our podcast comes from Luke chapter eight.

It's a story of Jesus who is, uh, approaching this man who is literally demon oppressed and demon possessed. He's been kicked out of society. He's been thrown out. He's been unsaved, unsafe to himself and to others, chained up literally. And Jesus comes to him, approaches him and literally. I mean, just delivers him and saves him, heals him.

And he comes out of his right mind and he says something to Jesus. He says, I want to now follow you. I want to, I want to physically follow you. And Jesus turns to him and says, what I want you to do, I want you to do something different. I want you to go back to your family and tell them all that I've done for you.

And, uh, we say this, I mean, this is really the foundation of this podcast is this man, he goes [00:45:00] above and beyond, like he goes to the family, he goes to his family, goes to his relatives, but the text says that he goes to everyone. To share all that Christ has done for him. And I can't wait to meet that man in heaven someday, man, Andy, in so many ways, you have shared the love of Christ in your life with those who are listening.

And we're so appreciative, man, that, that you came on and you sh you shared your story and all the things that God's done in your past, in your present and in your future, and really the best is yet to come. 

Andy Dooley: I truly appreciate it. Honestly, guys, you guys were awesome. I feel honored to be on this podcast with you guys and being able to just have a conversation.

It was fun. It was great. It was powerful. And I'm looking forward to hearing how this impacts people. 

Jack: Awesome. And we are too. It was a privilege meeting you today. Everybody else stay tuned for new episodes every Tuesday. God bless.[00:46:00] 

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