Josh Benner

Tag: Inspiration

  • Heroic story of Arkansas truck driver making the ultimate sacrifice

    The word “hero” is so often thrown around to the point that it is often emptied of meaning.

    One Arkansas truck driver was most definitely a hero.

    Last week, Randall McDougal was driving a truck with ammonium nitrate (a fertilizer which is also highly explosive). While he was driving, there was a fire in his breaks. The truck essentially became a huge bomb as the fire spread. McDougal called 9-1-1, but also decided to drive the truck to a rural area, away from cars, people, and homes.

    Once he was able to get the truck in a safe spot, instead of trying to make his way to safety, McDougal attempted to put the fire out. Tragically, the fire could not be extinguished in time and a massive explosion ripped a crater into the ground, and killed McDougal.

    For the safety of others, he put himself into harms way.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner  has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has served churches in Minnesota and Illinois. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in St. Louis.

  • Incredible story: 13 year-old Jayme Closs escapes abductor, finds help 3 months after parents murdered

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    I’ve read autobiographies of people who have survived the Holocaust and escaped form North Korea. They’re harrowing stories. They’re heartbreaking stories.

    But in another sense, they’re inspiring stories, because in them, you see the triumph of the human spirit. They’re inspiring because you see what people are capable of and what true toughness and grit looks like. (more…)

  • Purdue super fan Tyler Trent passes away

    We don’t control the cards we’re dealt. All we can do is play what we have.

    Tyler Trent passed away on Tuesday.

    The Purdue student had battled a rare form of bone cancer. He had become a sensation in college football and Big Ten circles as being someone the Purdue football team rallied around this season. The hashtag #TylerStrong went viral.

    He inspired and encouraged people. He raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research. He wrote a book that he’d never be able to see completed, but which will also continue to raise money for cancer research.

    Tyler was also outspoken about the importance of his faith.

    In 2017, Tyler’s cancer returned and he began to pray that God would use this journey for His glory.”

    As I think about the impact he had over the last few months, it’s clear that this prayers was answered.

    In an interview with Today, Tyler said: “Waking up day to day is like winning a lottery…I try to rely on my faith in Jesus Christ and figure out how to have a good day.”

    As his battle continued, Tyler took to Twitter numerous time to glorify God.
    (more…)

  • From nothing to a Navy SEAL: David Goggins and mental toughness

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    I’ve been going through the new book “Can’t hurt me: master your mind and defy the odds” by David Goggins.

    I’m about halfway through the book, and I’ve really enjoyed it. Earlier this fall, I saw some interviews Goggins had done, and I was intrigued by his story, but the book gives so much more elaboration.

    (Spoiler Alert)

    In previous interviews I’ve seen, Goggins talks about having been overweight (just under 300 pounds). He had no goals, no accomplishments, and was unhappy with where he had come, while working an unfulfilling job. He had previously tried to join an elite unit within the Air Force but a genetic condition gave him an easy out to quit.

    After one particularly bad day at work, Goggins had a change of heart and decided he was going to become a Navy SEAL. In three months, he trained for the SEALS, lost 106 pounds, and improved ASVAB scores to be able to go to Navy SEAL training (BUDS).

    If you read the book, you see that he didn’t have great advantages. He grew up with a physically and emotionally abusive father. As a young kid, he basically had to work a full time job and he fell far behind in school. He had to resort to cheating to keep passing grades. His mother left his father, and spent years struggling to make ends meat. Later, his mother met a man whom they loved but who was murdered. Spending most of his childhood in a small town in rural Indiana, as a minority, he faced racism.

    He struggled academically and often cheated to get by. This would eventually hurt him as he got far behind academically.

    In the book, Goggins doesn’t believe in using those disadvantages as an excuse.  Instead, Goggins talks about in this book is the importance of taking ownership of our disadvantages, flaws and failures.

    We love to look at people like a David Goggins and think they’re special, and have things the rest of us don’t have. There’s also a lot he didn’t have.

    Goggins doesn’t believe in using those things as excuses. It’s a pretty vulnerable book. He talks of the struggles and fears he battled.

    He talks a lot about mental toughness and how our mental ability to overcome challenges and setbacks is something we are all capable of. He talks about how we all need to find ways to push ourselves. For Goggins, it was joining the Navy SEALs and becoming an ultra marathoner. We don’t all need to go that route. But if we don’t challenge ourselves, we also won’t grow.

    There is a lot of language in the book. Reader discretion is advised.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • When we’re tempted to second guess God…

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    I was going through Lee Strobel’s latest book The Case for Miracles last week. The final chapter in the book was a poignant discussion entitled: “When miracles don’t happen.”

    In that chapter, Strobel interviews Douglas Groothuis who’s a professor at Denver Seminary. In the interview, they talk about the health of Groothuis’s wife Becky, a Mensa member and author who developed a rare form of dementia which impacts the brain’s ability to recall words.

    In the interview, they talk of day to day challenges of seeing his wife taken from him. The interview talked about faith, spirituality, lament, and hope.

    I was particularly struck by one of the answers Groothuis gave. Strobel asked “Do you feel like if you were God, you would definitely heal Becky?”

    “God is perfect and he acts accordingly. If I were God, I’d be perfect – and therefore I’d act in the very same way he does. We might not understand why he does what he does, but it’s folly to think we’d do things better.”

    I found that to be brilliant and insightful. It’s easy for us to look to things in God’s rule of creation and to think it could be done better or should be done differently. But God is righteous and eternal. At times, it can be very hard to see the good in the struggles of our lives. At times, it’s hard to see the goodness of God in the wrongs others afflict on us.

    Groothuis saw a brilliant woman lose her mental faculties and pass away at just 59 years of age. But the faith to trust that God is still good in that. To trust that God is so good that his plan cannot be improved upon in spite of all of the bad, all of the evil, all of the suffering in our world. God still works that for good. God still weaves that into his plans and uses it for his own glory.

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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