#85 Your Priorities Become Your Life: Set Them Intentionally, Love and Serve People Well, Let the Rest Fall in Line, and Build Something That Lasts — A Conversation w/ Neal Mayo

And just, you know, humbled by a lot of the things that you just you said, hey, listen, first off, and I think you'll start to hear this as a theme today.

If there's anything good about Neil Mayo, it's all due to Jesus, period.

Okay.

But I'll try to answer your question in a little more detail.

You know, look, bottom line, I want people to know how much I genuinely care for and love them.

I mean, I can't tell you, Matt, how much I loved soldiers and those like you, Matt, who served and led them so well.

You know, I know you appreciate this, but leading was such a privilege in that environment because I had the opportunity to do it along such awesome people.

And because of that, I loved, not to sound awkward, but you, Matt, and them deeply, and my family loved them deeply.

Now, I want to be very clear here.

Loving people doesn't necessarily mean coddling them.

It doesn't, okay? Amen.

It can sound very soft, right? But it's not, okay? It oftentimes means leading them through hardship, right? It might mean punishing them at times.

It might mean forcing them to operate outside of their comfort zone.

But you do all of that because you know it will make them better.

And so I'll tell you this, though.

Loving them always means, in my mind at least, that you are sacrificing for them in some way, shape, or form.

So hopefully, Matt, you and the soldiers that I had the opportunity to lead over 26 years in the Army knew how much I loved them.

And I feel that same way about the amazing people that I get to lead here at Samaritan's Purse.

But I want to transition for a minute and talk about sort of the why behind that, right? Because that's not sort of the end of that part of the story.

The reason why behind that love, and Matt, hopefully you know that faith is an incredibly important part in my life.

And in the Bible, it talks a lot about love.

You know, in the New Testament, Jesus says, I give you a new command, love one another, just as I have loved you.

And later in the New Testament, it says, we love because he first loved us.

And then finally, I know this one will ring very clearly with, you know, sort of our military audience, but greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends, right? This is really the why about, you know, why I want people to know that I care for and love them.

And so that leads us to the greatest example of love.