Path for Growth

Ben Loy: 00:02

So you just read the bible in a year through the year of 2025. What made you decide to read the bible cover to cover?

Alex Judd: 00:10

I don't know if I've shared this with you before. I I've done this once before, and my experience that year was very different than my experience this year because I did it on an app in my, in my phone, and it was one of those reading plans where it was very It's like you read, you know, a little bit of Genesis, a little bit of Psalms, a little bit of the gospels. Right? And it was a little bit all over the place. And then there was some, some commentary associated with it.

Alex Judd: 00:37

And so it was a fair amount of reading on a phone screen already. I I think I was kind of setting myself up to get it done instead of to get something out of it that year that I did it. And it that let's not kind of demean that year. It it blessed me and was powerful for me in many ways. But my primary goal that year, I would say, and motivation was check the box.

Alex Judd: 01:00

Like, get through it. Mark it off each day. I'm I'm plowing through the bible in a year to the point where I did most of my reading that year on the phone app set up on the StairMaster at the gym while listening to the Avengers Endgame soundtrack. That year, I kid you not, that year, you know how they do the Spotify year end review, I was in the top point 1% of listeners to Alan Silvestri who is the composer of the Avengers soundtrack. And so that soundtrack makes the bible really, really epic.

Alex Judd: 01:32

I say all that to say it was good. It blessed me, and and God can take something even like that where your attention probably isn't all the way where it should be and use it. But I came into this year being like, man, I would love to do that again, and I think I'm at a spot with my spiritual maturity that I can slow down. I can actually focus on the heart behind what I'm doing, and I can start to look at the overarching thread or narrative lens that can be applied to every book of the bible. And I I just have more context to put all of these individual pieces together.

Alex Judd: 02:07

And so it was out of that that I committed at the end of '24 to do this in 2025.

Ben Loy: 02:13

What was most surprising to you, in that experience?

Alex Judd: 02:19

How applicable every day was. Like, I think that genuinely shocked me because I I kind of went into it thinking about it the way, my past experience kind of informed, which is, like, there's gonna be entire swaths of scripture, in Deuteronomy and the latter half of Exodus and portions of Joshua and some genealogies and stuff like that that are not gonna be immediately applicable today but are going to contribute to the whole. Right? It is kind of what I I felt that was not my experience this year. Every single day, there was something that was, in some ways, groundbreaking takeaway or a little bit of a nudge or a conviction or something that needed a shift in my heart posture.

Alex Judd: 03:04

And it's worth mentioning that one of the reasons why that was the case for me this year was the format that I used and the tool that I used, which it wasn't on my phone. It was a physical book, and it was Paul David Tripp's everyday gospel bible. And so it's cover to cover. You're reading Genesis one to Revelation 21 or Revelation 22 22, 21. You're reading to the end of the bible is what I'm saying.

Alex Judd: 03:27

Right? So you're going from beginning to end, and and you're just breaking that up evenly. But what's so cool about his version is every day's reading in scripture is followed by, like, a page and a half devotional that takes a gospel centered principle and, illustrates it, explains it, and connects it to what you just read. So I'm not quite smart enough yet to draw all of those out on my own. He does a great job of saying, hey.

Alex Judd: 03:52

You just read this genealogy. It might not feel applicable to today right now, but here's why it is. And the combination of those two things was so surprising and so helpful.

Ben Loy: 04:02

I mean, many ways or in the way, like, the Bible is the story of God. And as a Christian, you know, you see Jesus woven in and out of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. It's also the story of God's people, and there's a lot of a lot of repeated failure and a lot can be said about human nature and a lot can be learned. What did you learn about human nature when you read the bible cover to cover, and how does that apply to leadership or, leading people?

Alex Judd: 04:35

I love the way you formulated that question. It made me think of, I read George Bush's biography years ago, decision points is what it call it's called. And I I hope I know I'm recounting the spirit of this correctly. I'm not positive the details are all spot on. But George Bush, when he was, George Bush junior, right, when his dad was president, ended up meeting Billy Graham, I I I think, at a a retreat or something like that that their family was having.

Alex Judd: 05:04

So he meets Billy Graham, and he's having spiritual conversations with Billy Graham. And one of the admonitions that Billy Graham gives George Bush is he says, you keep reading the bible thinking it's about you. The bible is not about you. The bible is about God. And George Bush recounts that that was an incredibly powerful thing for him to learn and understand at that stage, and it changed his life ultimately and certainly his spirituality.

Alex Judd: 05:29

So what you said is, like, the bible is the story of God. You kind of brush past that as, like, this is a given. In America, that's not a given. Right. Right?

Alex Judd: 05:38

And I know you know that. Right? Like, it's like, there's a lot of people here that when they think of the bible, they think, oh, the people literally say, this is a a life how to manual. But, like, a how to manual is is literally directed at you, and it's about you doing the thing. The bible is about God and about the universe that he created and, like you said, and the people that he created.

Alex Judd: 05:58

So I just think it's so important to remember what is this actually. Mhmm. In terms of human nature, there are so many places we could go with this. The one that stands out is probably most visibly and and painfully articulated in Judges, at least that's how I experienced it, whenever over and over and over again it says the people did what was right in their own eyes. And it says that phrase in Judges over and over and over again, and the consequences are catastrophic.

Alex Judd: 06:31

But in every book of the bible, regardless of whether it uses the phrase or not, we see people doing what was right in their own eyes, and the consequences are catastrophic and especially consequences over time. Mhmm. And so I think we live under this paradigm or narrative paradigm today where we can start to think people back then were so primitive, and humanity in itself is on this up and to the right trend of total progress where the issues they struggled with are not the issues that we struggle with. And I would say

Ben Loy: 07:13

I think CS Lewis calls that chronological snobbery.

Alex Judd: 07:16

Okay. So what does that mean? Because that's really good.

Ben Loy: 07:19

So uses the term chronological snobbery in the sense that, like, we look back at the people two hundred years ago, and we look at them as, like, we are more enlightened than them and we have advanced farther in our, our theological understanding or our reasoning or, like, the information that we have. And so we we have a better ability or we know more and so we're not gonna make the same mistakes. And it's like, I mean, you you just have to open your eyes and look around and know that, like, we're making the same mistakes that we were fifty years ago, one hundred years ago. Like, human human nature does not change that much.

Alex Judd: 07:53

Chronological snobbery, spoken like a true British man is what I would say. Yeah. I mean, that's so spot on. And the people doing what was right in their own eyes, like, we struggle with that. Mhmm.

Alex Judd: 08:05

I personally struggle with that. And when I submit to what's right in my eyes being my life strategy, the results are always catastrophic. And so, therefore, because I know that I struggle with that every day, the need for repentance and grace is there every single day. And realizing that was just as true two thousand years ago as it is in my life, in my company, in my marriage, in my parenting right now.

Ben Loy: 08:38

How does that apply to leadership or leading people?

Alex Judd: 08:43

Everything. Right? Like, I mean, I'm sure that people listening to this podcast will resonate with this struggle. Oftentimes, one of my greatest challenges in my morning devotional time is not making it all about how does this connect to my work. Right?

Alex Judd: 08:58

Like, it could be really easy to be like, oh, that's gonna be a great principle for the podcast, or that's directly related to my one on one meeting today, or I can bring that up in our team meeting today. Right? And so it can be really hard to not just make it about that. But I guess what I say to that though is, like, when you have a book that is filled with how God created the world and how God created human beings, you'd have to be a fool not to think that applies to what you're doing in your leadership with your team, the way you're driving your business, and all of that. And because the study of business is really the study of human nature.

Alex Judd: 09:31

And I believe that I mean, the best thing ever written on human nature is given to us by the one who created human beings, which is the bible. So the applications, quite frankly, are infinite in that regard.

Ben Loy: 09:43

How how does the, I guess, how does the truth of, like, our our need for grace and God extending that grace, how does that apply to leading people?

Alex Judd: 09:53

The more I grow as a leader, the more I find myself apologizing. And maybe there's seasons where it's because I'm making more mistakes that might be true. In reality, I think a lot of times I'm making the same number of mistakes, but the area that I've grown is self awareness. And one of the things that I've learned to be true about myself that I think is also, made visible in reading the totality of scripture is as a human being, my ability to see and acknowledge the truth never exceeds my ability to receive and internalize grace. Because, what's that Jack Nicholson movie?

Alex Judd: 10:39

A Few Good Men. Right? The the iconic line from that movie is you can't handle the truth. The truth is hard. The truth about where I suck as a leader, about how my disorganization affects other people, about how I can be really selfish, how I can be vain, how sometimes my motives aren't pure.

Alex Judd: 10:57

The truth is so hard. And if I don't believe in grace, I can't handle the truth. And so I have to believe that grace is readily available for me to be able to even acknowledge the things about me that are true.

Ben Loy: 11:10

How does that apply to God's patience with us?

Alex Judd: 12:55

I like that you bring that up because I feel like that's one of the overarching themes. Right? You know, we're kind of referencing what I wrote down after the experience of reading the full bible, which is I I wrote down 15 takeaways on LinkedIn. And, man, praise god for the season that humanity is in right now because I I honestly think I would have written that same post four years ago, and it would have been crickets because I was writing stuff like that four years out. We are in a season right now where it's not like my my following has gone extremely viral.

Alex Judd: 13:28

That post went bonkers. There is a a greater celebration of what God is doing right now about God's truth, and there's a greater acknowledgment of how much we need it than personally since I've been publishing stuff I've ever seen. Right? And so I shared this post, and one of the points in that post was on the topic of patience. And I guess what you see whenever you read cover to cover is just how our timetable is not in any way connected to God's timetable.

Alex Judd: 13:59

Right? For me, ten years is a long time. For God, ten years is a blink of an eye. Right? Less than a blink of an eye.

Alex Judd: 14:06

And I was listening to an interview with someone this morning that they were looking at the early church, and they said when we communicate about the early church, we communicated it was those people at that time in the church of Corinth and and the early church of Acts and all of this, the the church in Rome, they were part of this sweeping move of God, and they just got swept up in the in the power of the holy spirit. That did happen. But what that looked like in Corinth was Gaius seeing his church go from 45 people to 85 people by the time he died. Right? And so just recognizing, like, God does work through generations.

Alex Judd: 14:42

And, certainly, people are in those generations, but God's master plan is occurring over the course of hundreds of years. And he's so patient because people are knuckleheads, and he's willing to wait and work with us while his plan is being accomplished, which is just so powerful. Mhmm.

Ben Loy: 15:02

You you talked about, like, everyone doing what was right in their own eyes. I feel like I feel like our culture in the last decade and a half or so really came came to the, what I would say, like, the cusp of that idea. And I think in this current season, this is all projection, but I would say, like, people are kind of at the end of, oh, like, this actually doesn't doing what was right what is right in my own eyes actually doesn't fulfill me. And it it has an end, and it doesn't really have a purpose. And so I I think it is interesting to see our culture right now is turning the corner on, like, what is truth and, like, where do I go to find it?

Alex Judd: 15:46

Well, and it's also interesting that when we do what is right in our own eyes societally, we see the catastrophic ramifications of that. But then you can boil it down to the level of the individual and say, when I do what is right in my own eyes individually, I see the catastrophic ramifications of that.

Ben Loy: 16:08

Mhmm.

Alex Judd: 16:08

And, really, what is a society that does what is right in their own eyes? It's a bunch of individuals that are doing what is right in their own eyes. And so it can be so easy. That's one of the other themes that I pulled out to look at the nation of Israel and say, man, this is a struggle in the old testament that the nation of Israel forgot God, and the nation of Israel deviated and then came back, deviated and then came back. But in reality, when we talk about the nation, we're talking about people, and particularly the leaders of those people carry disproportionate influence.

Alex Judd: 16:41

And so when the leaders do what is right in their own eyes, you have a bunch of other individuals that follow suit, and that's how you get a society that does what is right in their own eyes. Mhmm.

Ben Loy: 16:50

You've also, in that post, you mentioned remembering and the importance of remembering. I mean, I just think of the Old Testament and, like, how many times God calls His people to remember and, like, how many times you read and it's like, and an altar was built here and a celebration, you know, there was a celebration or a feast or whatever and it's like, it feels like they're constantly either being called to or, like, or or going back to remember what God has done. What did you what were the things that you pulled out of that when reading the bible? And I'd just love to hear your your perspective on that.

Alex Judd: 17:22

It's a it's a slight tangent, but I think it's applicable, and it's front of mind. I I had a a job interview. I was interviewing a candidate for a job opening we have right now this morning. I don't think she would mind me sharing this story. Wonderful young woman.

Alex Judd: 17:36

And we were just talking about some things related to work, and she just said, you know, there's so many times today in my professional work and in my career that I look back and I say, I'm so glad I'm not 20 anymore. And, and, like, I'm and what she was really saying is, like, I had so many and she kind of articulated this. She said, like, I had so many screwed up attitudes and thoughts and and maybe some entitlement whenever I was 20 that, like, I've learned now over the course of several years. Like, that that's not the proper way to approach life. And she said, now I get to have this this unbelievable perspective where I live in total abundance.

Alex Judd: 18:16

I I love the people that I get to do work with. I love the people that I get to do life with. She was just raving about the life that she now gets to live. But in many ways, what she also articulated was the life I now get to live is such a grace. It's such a grace because what I was when I was 20 was such a mess, and I'm the same way.

Alex Judd: 18:35

Mhmm. Right? You could choose any age. When I was 29, I was a mess. When I was 25 compared to today, thanks to God's grace and sanctification, I was a mess.

Alex Judd: 18:44

And I never wanna forget that God was patient with the mess version of me to bring me to where I am now. And then I also wanna remember there are parts of me right now that maybe I can see them and maybe I can't that are a mess right now. And I need to remember that everything good that I experience, I do not deserve, but I do get to experience because of what? Because of grace. Mhmm.

Alex Judd: 19:07

So I think those terms of remembrance and grace really go hand in hand because it's all grace.

Ben Loy: 19:12

Yeah. I was just talking to a friend this morning. I ran into him at at the coffee shop, and we haven't seen each other in a while. And I think the last time we talked, I was maybe maybe less than six months into, like, my role here at Path for Growth. And so it was cool to, like, run into him again and and start to catch him up on all the things that have been going on.

Ben Loy: 19:32

But one of the things even I said to him was, man, like, you look at my resume and I'm, like, this doesn't like, the dots don't really connect here and I don't really know why. But then I was, like, but I I really enjoy the work that I'm doing and and it's it's fun and it's life giving and it aligns with my gifts and, like, it was just really funny to acknowledge, like, yeah, I mean, there's a clip from the movie, The Emperor's New Groove, where they're, like, they're, like, in the lab at the end of the movie and and, like, Yzma pulls down the sign and they're pointing at this map because somehow they got to the lab before, Kuzco and, and Pacha or whatever. And he's like, Kronka just goes, by all accounts, it doesn't make sense. And I just, like, I think of that all the time. I'm like, by all accounts, it doesn't doesn't really make sense.

Alex Judd: 20:15

By all accounts, it doesn't make sense.

Ben Loy: 20:17

Right. I mean, Grace, right? Like, that that is that is the answer. It's like, oh, I like, I don't deserve this, but, like, God has God has created, like, and caused this to be a reality because of his his love for me and the way that he designed me. And I think just acknowledging that is really important.

Alex Judd: 20:35

Yeah. I mean, there are things right now that in my life, if I'm not careful and in my business, can feel like problems that if I look back five years ago, they were prayers of mine. And it's like and it turns out that those prayers were answered, and with those answers came responsibility. But it's like, if I don't remember, then I just see the problem, and I don't see the prayer being answered. And we miss out on the entire canvas of God's faithfulness.

Alex Judd: 21:00

Right? Which in the biblical narrative, right, like, the Israelites got exactly what they wanted for hundreds of years, which is to get out of being under the tyranny of Egypt, and they get out. And and, I mean, within a couple pages, they're like, can we just turn around and go back? Which I'm starting to think Moses should have called their bluff and been like, yep. Let's turn around.

Alex Judd: 21:21

Let's do it. Like, you really want that. Right? Because it's so easy to forget and and that affects our attitude. It affects our approach.

Alex Judd: 21:29

It affects everything.

Ben Loy: 21:30

And and it affects our ability to see, like, the purpose and and mission of why we started something in the first place.

Alex Judd: 21:36

That's right.

Ben Loy: 21:36

Think from a leadership perspective, like, what are what are some practical ways that someone could incorporate remembering into their own life and then also into their leadership of other people? People?

Alex Judd: 22:51

It's such a good question. In your own life, if you don't write your prayers, I would recommend it, so that I mean, in this closet right over here, I can go in there and, like, there's notebooks from 2014 that I can go look at, and I can just be like, I can't believe you were praying for that, first of all. But but also, like, just see, man, God has answered so much, done so much, and and that's a helpful practice for remembering. I I love to park on the organizational standpoint. Dave Ramsey did this as well as anyone I knew.

Alex Judd: 23:25

And the reason why I think he did it as well as anyone I've ever worked for or worked with is because he had to because the organization, I was, like, hire 520 something, right, in in the organization. By the time I left, four and a half years later, it was a thousand people. And and we look at them and say, oh my gosh. That's amazing. Such growth.

Alex Judd: 23:44

It was amazing, and it was incredible to be a part of. One of the things we don't understand, though, if we're not careful, is you're hiring 500 people in four years that don't have any of the organizational context of how it started. Mhmm. And they just look at Dave as CEO of a $250,000,000 business, and they never saw the guy set up tables and chairs at 7PM in a little local church for a session with 20 people where he had a projector screen and went through the slides of Financial Peace University. And if no one tells those people about that, they're never gonna learn it.

Alex Judd: 24:17

Yeah. And so he and the organization, I would say the leadership team there also did a wonderful job of this, would constantly tell stories of the, quote, unquote, good old days of, the shoulders of the giants that we are standing on so that the 520 year olds that had just come in the building didn't walk around with this sense of entitlement that, oh, stuff like this just happens. Like, you just show up, and there's this building here that does all this wonderful work. And so I I've really I've taken that and tried to apply that to my leadership. And we've only been around for five years, but we did a session a little bit before you were hired where we just walked through the team some the team through some pictures and old documents of what it was like year one, and we all laughed.

Alex Judd: 25:01

But then we were also like, praise God it's not like that anymore. Like, we're better. Right? And it was so good for me, and I think it was really good for our culture too.

Ben Loy: 25:09

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there, like, a car on the Ramsey property? I feel like that's,

Alex Judd: 25:15

like, a good example. To sell books out of the trunk of or something like that. Yeah.

Ben Loy: 25:19

Is it just kind of immortalized, like, somewhere on the on the property?

Alex Judd: 25:23

Yeah. And and, you know, what stands out to me about that is culturally, it's proven that organizations that have artifacts, physical objects that represent the cultural, value that you're trying to help people remember, it it's really helpful, and it's an indicator of a really strong culture. Sometimes we can get this idea that, oh, once I'm a thousand person company, that's when I start investing in things like that and, like, having stuff like that and making it into, like, monuments and museum and stuff like that. But what I would suggest and argue that I've learned is you don't get to a thousand people without having that stuff. Mhmm.

Alex Judd: 25:58

And so you're probably not gonna have a car. Right? I'm certainly not gonna park a car outside my house to remember like, I'm not gonna go go buy the original, Ford Sport Track that I was driving around when I started Path for Growth. Right? But but there are small artifacts that we can have that represent who we are, what we stand for, where we've come from, and the time to start investing in that is now.

Alex Judd: 26:20

Mhmm.

Ben Loy: 26:20

Is there anything else you wanna hit on this whole idea of reading the bible in a year, things that you saw or or lessons that you learned?

Alex Judd: 26:29

I would just tell people that you do not have to read the bible in a year is what I would tell people. Maybe you get really inspired from this episode, and you're like, I want to do exactly that. And and if so, more power to you. I cannot recommend Paul David Tripp's everyday gospel, the actual bible, more highly. I I just got so much value from it.

Alex Judd: 26:50

But whether you read the bible every day and you finish it in a year or you just read the bible every day, read the bible every day. Like, I there there are a lot of things in path for growth that I am less bullish in being prescriptive on because I'm like, man, people have different wirings, different pathways. Like, people grow in different ways, and I've seen that over time. This is one that I am more bullish on than I have ever been. I have never seen someone read the bible every single day and get better at reading the bible every single day.

Alex Judd: 27:22

That's key. Like, you're getting better at it over time. I've never seen someone do that and it not have massive ramifications for the person they are, their relationship with God, their relationship with other people, the way they think about their business, the health of their I've never seen it happen. And so if we're like, there's this one thing that if you did it every single day, it would have a massive positive ramification for every area of your life. Who wouldn't do that thing?

Alex Judd: 27:49

We just get so distracted that we don't. And so just say, line in the sand, I'm going to start now scripture every single day would be my challenge out of this episode.

Ben Loy: 28:02

Yeah. Richard Foster, in his book, Celebration and Discipline, he makes a delineation between meditation of the word versus study. Would you have categorized, like, that experience of reading the bible in a year more study or meditation?

Alex Judd: 28:16

There's days where I would consider it meditation.

Ben Loy: 28:18

Okay.

Alex Judd: 28:19

There's days where I would consider it study, and there's days where I would quite frankly consider it reading. Mhmm. So so I would say study was there would be times where I had a little bit extra time, and I was like, this was so dadgum fascinating Mhmm. That I'm gonna spend more time on this after reading it. There would also be times that, you know, especially in the Psalms or or, yeah, the book of Job really stood out in this regard, the gospels, the sermon on the mount.

Alex Judd: 28:43

Right? Romans in particular, Revelation in particular, where it's like you finish reading in it, and you're like, I just need to sit with that for a bit, and maybe I have the time margin to be able to do that some days. There were also days where it was just like, I'm gonna read that. But then one of the things that I I guess I I didn't really think about this before the episode that was so helpful for me is every day at breakfast, Aspen would just ask me, what'd you read today? And that was so helpful because now it's almost, she wasn't doing it for accountability purposes.

Alex Judd: 29:13

She's genuinely interested. Right? Hopefully. But but it provided a lot of accountability because if I'm not actually reading for the purpose of understanding, I'm not gonna be able to answer that question. Yeah.

Alex Judd: 29:25

And I certainly wasn't perfect. There were some days where I'm like, I'm gonna have to get back to you on that one. Like, let me go chat. But but I think as I started to get into that rhythm and started to expect these questions coming, I grew in my ability to read for understanding. And I would put that as a different category as well.

Alex Judd: 29:39

Mhmm.

Ben Loy: 29:40

If someone's maybe made the decision after listening to this that they want to do the bible in a year, what's a piece of advice that you'd give them in under a minute?

Alex Judd: 29:48

In under a minute. I like the constraint there. Do it is what I would say. You can think about whether or not you should do it for weeks and then forget about it altogether. So if you're thinking about doing it, the worst that could happen is you do it and then you stop doing it.

Alex Judd: 30:05

I don't know, but you'll still at least get one day and that's better than nothing. So I would say do it. Establish a sense of resolve in yourself that you're going to do it. Tell people that you're doing it. Try and get someone to do it with you, and then make sure you have rhythms for talking about it.

Alex Judd: 30:19

And, I don't think I've used all my sixty seconds, but I'll get my back my time elsewhere.

Ben Loy: 30:23

Alright. Perfect. Well, that's all I have today. So thanks, Alex.

Alex Judd: 30:27

Thanks, Ben. Yep. Well, there you have it. Thanks so much for joining us for this episode. If you want any of the information or resources that we mentioned, that's all in the show notes.

Alex Judd: 30:38

Hey, before you go, could I ask you for one quick favor? Could you subscribe, rate, and review this episode? Your feedback is what helps our team engage in a sequence of never ending improvement. We wanna amplify what's valuable to you and obviously reduce or even remove the things that aren't. Also, you leaving a positive review is what helps us connect with, build trust with, and serve other leaders around the country.

Alex Judd: 31:04

So thanks in advance for helping us out on that front. Are you a leader that wants to grow your business in a healthy way, serve people exceptionally well, and glorify God in the process. Go to pathforgrowth.com to get more information about our community of impact driven leaders and schedule a call with our team. Hey, thank you so much to the Path for Growth team, Kyle Cummings and the crew at Pod Circle, and the remarkable leaders that are actively engaged in the Path for Growth community. Y'all are the people that make this podcast possible.

Alex Judd: 31:37

Y'all know this. We're rooting for you. We're praying for you. We wanna see you win. Remember, my strength is not for me.

Alex Judd: 31:43

Your strength is not for you. Our strength is for service. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.