God's Diamonds In The Ruff Podcast
Welcome to our uplifting podcast, where we aim to guide you on a journey to see yourself through the eyes of God and empower you to navigate life with this perspective. We wholeheartedly believe that you are as precious as a diamond, and it is our mission to constantly reinforce this truth.
God's Diamonds In The Ruff Podcast
#146 GDITRP S5 EP 20: Unconventional Christianity: Embracing Selflessness and Authentic Worship with Nico Lagan
What does it mean to practice Christianity in a world that often strays from its principles? This episode is a compelling exploration of "Unconventional Christianity" with our guest co-host, Nico Lagan. Nico brings a fresh perspective, having recently transitioned from a non-religious background with Buddhist influences to embracing Christianity. We engage in a powerful conversation about the state of modern Christianity, the importance of adhering to core Biblical teachings, and the challenges of maintaining one's faith amidst societal pressures. Nico emphasizes the need for accountability within the Christian community and shares his insights on staying true to Christian values.
In our heartfelt segment on "Serving God Through Selflessness," we discuss the transformative effects of forsaking material wealth to follow God's call and serve others. Through personal anecdotes, including supporting a 14-year-old boy in the system and providing shelter to a young man living in his car, we highlight the profound impact of selflessness. Finally, in "Embracing Authentic Worship," we celebrate the beauty of diverse expressions of faith and encourage listeners to embrace their unique styles of worship. This episode is a testament to the power of living a life rooted in faith, selflessness, and authenticity.
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Hello, hello, and welcome back, God's diamonds in the rough. Amen. I hope all is well with you. I hope that today has been a good day for you. I hope that this past week has been a good day for you. Y'all know who I am. I'm your host, Catherine, and Michael is not here today, but we have a guest with us who is going to be chatting along co-hosting, I'd say, with me. I am interviewing him, but y'all know how it goes when Michael is not here, whoever I'm interviewing, they're my hosts alongside me. So, Nico, his name is Nico Lagan. Am I saying it right?
Speaker 2:You're bang on.
Speaker 1:All right, would you please say hello to all of our listeners.
Speaker 2:Excuse me, Hello, good evening. How are you guys doing? Happy New Year, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I guess it's still okay to say it we're the second.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so, before we get into the conversation, we're just going to quickly pray and then we'll get it in. So, father, we thank you so much for your grace and your mercy. Thank you for allowing us to come together one more time. I pray that you would bless this conversation, bless your people as we bless your name. Father, just have your way. We thank you. We praise you In Jesus' first name. We do pray, amen, amen. So, niko, I'm getting my words just toe up. I rebuke the devil now.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you I rebuke the devil, but tell us a little bit about yourself before we get into the topic of conversation.
Speaker 2:That's a long loaded question. It takes me hours to explain this on one portion of my life. So right now I would say that I'm just following what God has for me. That's if that would be the easiest way to describe what I'm doing right now.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. Well, I know that on this platform that we have been connected by you, describe yourself as not your typical Christian.
Speaker 2:Can you tell us what that means? Yeah, no, absolutely. I'm Canadian from origin. Right now I'm in the US, but I don't come from a religious family at all. Like I was baptized under Catholic I don't want to say rule, but belief, while my family doesn't believe. There's just something that 40 years ago, that's just something people did. So I don't come from a religious background at all. Until about a year and a half ago I went. I can probably count on one hand the amount of time that I stepped into a church and over the past few years, my like I was a buddhist for a very long time. Like I I I was very spiritual, very buddhist minded. Until about a year and a half ago, maybe two years, that changed.
Speaker 2:I have been spending a lot of time reading the Bible, obviously attending church, especially over the past 14 months as we're traveling. And I say I'm not your typical Christian because I swear I don't talk, I'm not, um, I don't want to insult anybody by saying this, but I'm not a goody two shoe Christian, like I'm not somebody that goes to church on Sunday because I have to. I go there really to be around other believers and I'm there to especially talk with the pastors where I go to. So I'm there to especially talk with the pastors where I go to. So I think that Christianity has gone soft. I really, really think that the average Christian does not have the balls to stand up for what the Bible say. We tend to reinvent Jesus Christ as per us, like we want Jesus to be like us, not the other way around, and this is a big fallacy. I just this is what I mean by I'm not your typical Christian, cause I am there to call I'm going to try to watch my language I'm going to. I'm here to call all, to call out what we're doing wrong, because we're allowing a lot of things right now that are just simply incorrect, while still thinking that we're christians.
Speaker 2:And I think it's easy, it's easier for me, as an outsider, to come in and say you know what, guys, this is wrong, this is not what the bible say, that this is not what the bible says and this is not what the Bible says and this is not how we're supposed to act. But we're trying to cater to non-believers, to make Christianity more accessible, but at the same time, coming from a very spiritual background, I can tell you that, after studying most of the religions out there, christianity is the hardest religion to follow. It is hard. It is not easy to be a Christian. If you follow what the Bible say, it is extremely hard to be a Christian, and this is exactly why people are very turned off by it. This is why people want to make themselves feel better by going to church on Sunday Sunday, because they know that they fall short during the week. Right, they're almost trying to make themselves feel better.
Speaker 2:I think it's the best way to do it, to say it is really we don't live by the principles of Christianity anymore and we don't have anybody in power that's ready to call us out on it. Because if you look everywhere right now like, look at the pope even the pope now is is saying that gay marriages is okay, and now the lgbtq community is also accepted in christianity. When call a spade a spade, that is not what the Bible says, right? So I think it's time I don't think I know it's time for people to stand up and say what Christianity is supposed to be about. And I don't claim to be a pastor, I don't claim to be somebody that has all the answers, but I am somebody that is always searching, I'm always reading, I'm always trying to find new understanding, as per the gospel, and unfortunately it's not something that people are ready to do.
Speaker 2:So I think that, as an outsider, it's easier for me to say so because I don't have that background. Outsider, it's easier for me to say so because I don't have that background. And if you look at my content and God knows, I create a lot of content Everything I say is not politically correct anymore, right? Common sense is no longer common. So whatever I say is not is not acceptable. So I I think I have the proper background to come in and just say you know what? No, this needs to stop.
Speaker 2:But I also want you know. At the same time, I also want to help a specific amount, a specific group of men. I want to help men that have a similar background to me, that were drug addicts, that come from a drug dealing background, that come really from a bad part of society, and I want them to understand that there is God still loves you. If you're ready to repent, you know there's nothing. There's nothing that God won't forgive you if you're truthful about it and you really repent, like. I've met some incredible people that spend one in particular that spent 10 to 15 years in federal prison and now he's a born again Christian. He found God, and he found God in prison. And now man he's a changed man.
Speaker 2:So and this is one story of many so those are the guys I want to help. So this is why I say not your typical Christian, because I don't go after people that's been in the church their whole life, because my message is not going to resonate with them, and the way I deliver my message is not going to resonate with them either, but they're not my target audience, if you will.
Speaker 1:Right, so you typically speak to men. That's where your audience is. It's just anybody and everybody is 100.
Speaker 2:Well, you know it's interesting because it used to be a good 90 men, 10 women. But over the past few months my audience keep growing, is always growing, growing, growing. But now it's interesting because my split between men and women is mostly 68% men, 32% women, so my female audience has tripled over the past few months, which is very interesting. I did not see that one coming. So now it seems I speak to both sides. All right I was going to say.
Speaker 1:I was going to say. It seems that for me, when I look at it, if you want truth, then you know, however the Lord sends it, I feel like you'll be ready to receive it in that way. That's the audience we want to reach. We want to reach people that are tired of the pretend, tired of you know, like the tired of not getting the truth, tired of not getting the word of God.
Speaker 1:And you know, I think, that when you give true, that's the label you carry. You're not the typical Christian. You know you're that. When you give true, that's the label you carry. You're not your typical. You're not the typical Christian. You know you're the one that's out of the box, You're the one that is out of the ordinary. You know you're the one that. You know that you're not in church all the time. You haven't been in church all your life, and so you know we say all of that to say that, diamonds, you're unique in who you are and that god wants to use you where you are. You know what I mean. You don't have, it's not a status quo that you need to fit.
Speaker 1:you just need to be able to be used by him where you are, whether you are in the slums or the streets, or you're you know, know you done, been to college, been to college, you didn't you know, you've been all kinds of situations. Wherever the point is, he wants to use you, and so Nico.
Speaker 1:I just I just saw. I saw a lot you have a lot in regard to your about in pot match, and what I thought and took notice was is that you have an array of things that God has used you to do, and I saw purpose and I saw success, and so I have two questions that I think that you can answer. I know you can answer, but it's two questions and we're going to try to bring it into one answer just for time's sake. But one of the first question was how would you describe success? And the second question is what does purpose have to do with it?
Speaker 2:so, if you can come up with an answer that kind of answers both questions, you know, that's a good question, because we do tend to try to make our life about successes, while we don't understand what success is. I think it comes down to what your goals are, because your success is always dependent on if you achieve your goals or not, which is how I've been for 20 years now. This is why I've evolved so much over the past 20 years, but I can tell you that over the past few months, I've come to realize that I don't necessarily need to set goals the way I used to. Once you give yourself to your purpose, we all have a purpose, right. Everybody's meant to do something. Now, it doesn't mean that it's going to happen because you're meant to do it. If you don't do the work, it's not going to happen. It takes effort to go after your purpose, but your purpose at the end of the day is first to believe that you have a reason for being here, because no purpose is possible if you don't have a reason for being here. And this is why I think that so many people Are depressed and I say that I don't believe in depression, I just believe that people lack purpose. But how can you find purpose If you don't first believe that you were put here for a reason, and how can you be put here for a reason If you don't believe that there's a higher power? So it's very easy to find purpose once you give yourself to a higher power, and this is what it comes down to. So, but but can you really measure success if your goals are no longer selfish goals? Because for me to say, okay, my goal is to make X number of money during the next year, this is a very, very selfish goal. I choose to do that for me.
Speaker 2:So over the past year, my goal I've completely. I used to. I even written a book about it on how to set goals properly, and you know what? Now that I look at it, it still makes sense. But now my goals are just to follow God. If you learn to listen, if you learn to communicate with God, you learn to see, to look around you and see how he's working in your life. I don't need to really understand what the end goal is. I don't have an end goal anymore.
Speaker 2:I, just a year ago a year just over a year ago I completely gave myself to God to just say you know what? I quit my, my high paying corporate job, refinance my house, cashed in all my investments and I said you know what? Let's do this. I have no idea where this is going to take me, but all I'm going to do is to listen to what you're telling me to do, and this is how I've found purpose.
Speaker 2:And now is it easy? Absolutely not. This is the hardest thing I've ever done, because it's easy to believe that you control everything around you. It's easy to say those are my goals and when I achieve those goals, I'll be successful. The problem with that is that, again, they're selfish. They're selfish goals. So those are not the reason you were here.
Speaker 2:If you want to find purpose, you're going to discover that purpose is serving. You need to serve God as a man. I need to serve my family. I need to serve my community. I need to serve the people around me. So the only way to find real purpose is by becoming selfless. Only by becoming selfless will you accept to serve others before serving yourself. It makes life very interesting. It makes life extremely hard because you have to think about others before you think about you. That means you have to put yourself out there.
Speaker 2:You know the content I create on a daily basis is not necessarily what I want to talk about. It's what I'm supposed to talk about. I don't enjoy being called names on a daily base. I don't enjoy being called all the names that you can think of, day in, day out, thousands of thousands of times every month. It's not something I enjoy doing. It's not something I enjoy doing, but every single time I do it, I open conversations with certain people and we get to talk. They get to be challenged. I get to challenge, even if it's one person a day. Even if I get to challenge one single person a day, my job's done. So hopefully, that answers your question, but I don't have a barometer for success anymore outside of that God. I think I'll know if I'm successful when I stand in front of God. Right, I think this is what I'm going to know that I was actually successful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that.
Speaker 2:But I don't think you can lose when you give yourself to a higher power, though Right At the end of the day, how can I ever lose if I choose to do God's work, because let's say that God doesn't exist? I lived a great life by giving myself to others, and if God exists, I may displace a better place. You know, at the end of the day, that's all. I hope is that I can make this, that the world will have been a better place with me in it than me not in it.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, it is definitely one of those things, because we live in a better place with me in it than me not in it. Right, yeah, it's definitely one of those things, because we live in a world where, you know, everybody wants to be bigger than somebody else. But at the end of the day, you're right, it's, it's, it's about the impact. It's really about the message and the impact that we leave, not about ourselves, but about jesus, because at the end of the day, we leave everything and every achievement that we do here. We leave it here. At the end of the day, we leave it here the only thing that we really Go ahead. You go ahead, sir, go ahead.
Speaker 2:Well, all I was going to say is that, you know, this year, my girlfriend and I did not buy each other anything. Instead, we took that money and we gave it away to a 14-year-old boy that doesn't have any parents. He's in the system. The church where we go actually do a lot of events with charity events, if you will. So instead of buying ourselves gifts, we decided to give it away to somebody else that needed it more. And you know, it's just that simple. Last year, that was last Christmas yeah, that was last Christmas. That was a week ago.
Speaker 2:Last year, we were in Austin and we met a guy at the gym that worked at the gym, a young man that didn't have a place to like. He just arrived in Austin. He was working at the gym. He was we. I came to learn that he lived in his car, so I knew that he was alone on that day because he's nowhere close to family. So we invited us. We invited him to come with us. We're in an RV, we don't have a lot of space, but whatever we had, we shared with him and he ended up spending two, three weeks with us.
Speaker 2:So this is my point. It takes nothing to do this. Simply be aware. Simply be aware of what's around you. Ask yourself the question do I really need this, do I really need that, or could this be given to somebody that needs it more? I'll probably never meet that 14 year old kid that we gave gifts to, but you know what. I would do it every time If you ask me to. What do I really need? At the end of the day, what do I really need that I don't have right now, and he doesn't have anybody in his life because he's in the system. His two parents are not. We don't know the full story, so, for all we know, the two parents are dead or they're just not there at all. But how much better can this be than to give it to somebody that really needs it? That you can change the life of somebody, even if it's just for a few hours, a few days, however long he enjoys those gifts for right.
Speaker 1:Amen. So, y'all, this is how we impact the world, this is how we do it and you know it ain't about the money. It's not about all of the things that the world says it's about. It really is about the money. It's not about all of the things that the world says it's about. It really is about serving God. This is the awakening this season that we are in. It is entitled the Awakening, and we are super excited about what God is doing here through God's Diamonds in the Rough and through the men and women that he sends here. So, nico, I thank you so much for being here with us. Can you give our audience your final message and what it is that God has brought you to say, outside of everything you've already said? Just kind of capsize what it is God is saying through you, to give us?
Speaker 2:You know there's, the two biggest problem in society is a lack of accountability and selfishness. So be responsible for your actions, understand that what you do has an impact on others and, at the same time, maybe start thinking about others before you start thinking about yourself. You know, it's really that simple, amen.
Speaker 1:Amen. So, nico, would you pray us out real quick, and then we're going to get out of here, out of the way.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You know it's going to be simple. Just thank you for having me on. This is God's work, right here. I thank him 10 times a day and he knows it. So all I'm going to say is thank you for bringing us together. Thank you for what you do. Continue doing what you're doing. Thank you for allowing me to speak, because God knows religious people don't like me on their podcasts. So, yeah, thank you. Just thank you for taking the time. Amen, amen.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. Thank you so much. Diamonds will be here for being here. Nico, we just absolutely love it absolutely. You hear me, we love authentic um, I'm gonna call it authentic worship. We love how people yeah, because people serve god in all different ways. You know, there's no defined way. You got to serve God this way and you got to talk like this. You got to do this. You know what I mean. You do it the way God tell you to do it. I love it. I put my hands together because I love it Absolutely. You do it the way God has called you to do it. You be encouraged with that. You heard me. Come on somebody. Y'all know what time it is. Y'all remember you are a diamond in the rough. Amen, amen and amen.
