Titan

Last year, I remember sitting across the table from a man I lovingly refer to as the “Titan”; a special forces veteran who went on to become the CEO of a multi-billion dollar international company. In his career, he’d sit across boardroom tables with the likes of Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys.

Now, he sits across the table from me; a single Dad who looks to him for guidance, love and support.

He once told me a story about a conversation few people will ever be privy to; the end-of-quarter discussion held by CEO’s and high-ranking officials, where they talk about what they’re going to buy with the millions they just made. One man shared photos fo his new property in France, another showed pictures of his new yacht.

“So, what are you going to spend your money on?” one of the suits asked him.

“Me and my wife are building an orphanage in Honduras.” he responded.

A pin could have dropped in that room and left an echoing roar, he recalls. Everybody shut up.

I call him the ‘Titan’ not because he built empires of concrete and steel, but because he stood high above the men that did; holding not the keys to a new Ferrari, but the hand of a child who just lost their parents to gang violence.

During our regular breakfast sit-downs, I’m the benificiary of a lifetime of experience, mistakes, hardship and perseverance when I listen to the words he serves. Each time we sit down, he shares another chapter of this experience with me, and I walk away challenged – often having a lot of difficult questions to process.

He told me something one morning that has challenged me ever since I heard it:

“Aaron, one day you will have to stand before God and give an account for how you raised Atlas.”

Those words were as haunting as they were challenging. In a lot of ways, I think that most of us ‘know’ we’re one day going to have to look back and give inventory of our lives, but little time is spent reflecting on that truth and making a conscious decision to live differently.