One80 Podcast Episode 28
Air Date: November 8, 2022
Jorge Valdes, Drug Lord to Lord of All
Transcript – Part 2
This transcript may have errors that do not reflect the audio found in the show.
You know, I, I was the guy that’s created the entire drug, cocaine, drug trade in America.
So all of that is I moved outta Miami.
Hmm.
And, uh, so I went to my ranch. My desperation was so enormous that, so I’ll give you this just a minute The moment that I made that phone call I’m out,
I knew I probably had 30 days.
So in the movie that we’re making this event with, my daughter becomes my rebirth where I’m willing to die to save her because we didn’t have a very good retirement program in the cartel, you know, with no 0 1.
Okay. And walking off into
right like people think, you know, because I think for them, look, there’s no indictment, there’s no investigation. Jorge is just gonna walk away a million dollars a month for doing nothing. Something is there.
And when they can answer that unknown, that’s what they would do.
And it was also the same time that we were, we had just begun to go to war with the Kelly cartel. So it was, it was horrible period, but you know, I didn’t care.
I died. didn’t matter to me. I had no fear of death, you know?
Right. Right. What, what was your, what was your view and your perspective of God in that time?
None. None. Still Yeah. But you knew something had to even my mom, even though my mom every day was like, what you doing? Doesn’t please. God son, what you doing? Doesn’t please. God, I ran one time. So again, doing very, uh, time, there was a group of, homicide detectives from Miami team up drug dealer.
They were kidnapping parents or drug dealers, and would kidnap your mom.
And then they would call your, your dad and say, Hey, we know that that, uh, bill just, just took a million dollars, just brought in a low, we want X amount. We gonna kill her.
So, and they were kidnapping in police cars.
With that going on. I had a lot of security outside my mother’s house. Now my mother had the statue of the Virgin Mary. Right. And she wanted to come out and pray to the statue outside the door one o’clock in the morning. So my bodyguard was trying to convince her that they would take the statue inside the house.
She could pray. They would bring her back out. Not, not my mother, not my four 11. mother
So one night I get a phone call and it looked like you thought you were invading Iraq. I can tell you what it looked like, because they’re like, I get a call from the health security thing. He’s like, come right now.
So I’m thinking shot my mom. They took my mom, you know, I don’t know, but I mean, we literally invaded my, my parents’ neighborhood.
And then when I go to and what happened was she came to pray and they tried to convince her. And then what did she do? She took a gallon of painting. Just dropped it on the, on the windshield.
I went, the room. Wow.
And I’m like, mom, don’t you realize that what you’re doing is gonna get you killed, or it’s gonna get me to kill a bunch of people. And she’s like, son, if I die, you kill me because what you doing? Doesn’t please, God. And then I lost it. I said, mom, what God? There ain’t no, God!
Hmm.
What can God do? Have anything he wants? So can I. Can God have the power of life and death? So do I, mom. You wanna know who God is. I’m God. And I stormed out and what’s really sad in retrospect is I really believed that I was God.
But I didn’t believe I was God as this God that we know today is the same thing we do with athletes that we do with celebrities.
We, we make them feel, yeah, that they’re guys, the top of the top, God do no wrong.
Right. Yeah.
And then once they do wrong, then we love to shop ’em down.
Mm-hmm
Well, this all happened. Like literally during this time stormed out. when I knew that that most likely I’d get killed, I move outta Miami, I thought that the sun rose and, and, and settled in Miami.
You know, I had, yeah, I was extremely well known.
And then I decided to move. I didn’t go back to Miami for three years and I’m only 90 miles away. And then, uh, I decided I wanted to do karate. I lived in this multi-million dollar ranch, so I built a karate studio. And then I hired this guy to teach me karate. And I remember the first day he came, he’s like, I’m gonna teach you about the sword. And I’m. Man, I’m smart. I love weapons. I pick a guy we’re gonna get into weapons.
Forget about throwing punches and kicking. We’re gonna do weapons right off the bat. he, uh, he turned around, we’re putting our uniform. He turned around and he’s got a Bible with his hands before he opened his mouth. I looked at him and said, dude, I don’t believe in that stupid book I don’t believe what book that fairy tales in that book. I’m paying you a lot. Teach me karate. So tomorrow you bring the real sword and you leave that stupid sword home. And he got within little inches of me and it was the first man that had the guts to do that. And he’s like young man, what I got to give you? He got no money to pay.
Well, I realized he seven degree black belt and I’m like,this dude is gonna whoop Jesus into me and I’m gonna pay now.
I said, whoa don’t get excited, buddy. take a break. I’ll make a deal with you. While this steam room is heating up. After two hours of karate, go ahead, your time. But I’m telling you right now waste, you’re gonna waste your time. Cause I don’t believe any of that.
Mm.
And, uh, he did, he witnessed to me for almost three years Mm. Every day
He had thousand square foot home. guest house was 5,000 square feet. He had an old beat up car, had a million worth of cars. You know, I lived in a 60 million ranch. Uh, he had nothing, he was married to same woman. That was shocking to me. When I found out that he was married to this woman for 20, so odd years, male in love. And she was in her forties and I’m like this, guy’s gotta be on some type of a drug.
And are you crazy? You gonna Love a 40 year old? Are you out of your mind?
because the around me, women,I hate every one of ’em. Oh man.
it was everything that he did see. No matter how bad I did
Mm-hmm
He never told me, you’re gonna hell, this. Not what he did is he showed me Jesus, wow. marriage, in their life, in their walk. And listen, I was lookingwith a magnifying Glass man. I wanna see him fail so bad. I did horrible things to make him fail, man. I mean, I did.
And uh, so when my book came out, I remember we were in Miami and random house, had a, a big, uh, book release party and she come up to me and she said, you know, it was about three years that Tim had been going there. Cuz he said he will get up at five o’clock in the morning. He leave at six to be in your farm at eight o’clock he would teach you cry from eight to 10. And this day he couldn’t sleep. And I was like, Tim, what does the matter? And he’s like iCal, I can’t go back there anymore. And she said, I didn’t know what to say. All I kept saying. Tim listen to the holy spirit. And he’s like, I am TECO. I’ve been witnessing to a guy. He goes from bad to worse. Tim, listen to the holy spirit, TECO, the holy Spirit’s telling me to get out right now. If the anti-crisis cover is Cuban in that ranch overthere, he’s here.
And,
uh, and she’s like, listen to the holy spirit. And he drove, he said, he drove tell me that, Hey, this was the last lesson he wasn’t coming back.
And he said that when he entered into my ranch, his car stopped. And he said it was the first time in his life that he heard the voice of God said, Tim, who are you to give up with Georgia? I have not. it would still be years before I would become a Christian.
So he did.
And then, uh, it was July 1st, 1990, about 11 o’clock, 1130. My divorce was final from my ex-wife. Dragging the little girl out and, uh, and she’s screaming for me. And I remember I went into my room and I mean, I got on my knees and I’m like, God, number one, I don’t believe you exist. Number two, if you exist, you’re looking at me and say, George, you so bad, stay down there and gonna stay up here. But number three, that man’s [karate teacher] got something I don’t have and I can buy anything anybody has. Change me or kill me. You know, we think that, uh, that it says that, uh, when sins convert that there’s bells in heaven.
Well, not for Cubans because the only bells I heard was
handcuffs. my life from that day, July 1st for the next five years, went from bad to really bad. At this time I was already retired. I. Making millions of dollars breeding, quarter horses. And I can tell you, I would spend three months skiing. I would spend four months in my beach house. I go to and do the quarter horse circuit, then do the same thing all over again.
I single. I did the Playboy life. I had millions of dollars and, I thought life was great, but I was miserable.
So September, 1990, I’m at a horse show and I get arrested and I had no clue what I was arrested for. And then, uh, I get brought in to, to the.
I get arrested Illinois, brought in, get brought into mobile. I mean, to, uh, mobile Alabama never in my life. I got indicted and convicted in two cities that never stepped foot in my life or never thought I would ever again. But no. So anyway, I get brought in no clue what the heck I’m arrested for.
mean, what the heck? And then, uh, so Allen Ross met me and he’s like, look, they’re gonna charge you with eight life sentences.
Hmm.
I’m like what he said, count one conspiracy to import, even though no import, no nothing. Conspiracy to import life conspiracy to possess what you were gonna import life conspiracy to distribute what you were gonna possess, that you were gonna import life three life sentence per count for counts.
I had no clue. But I looked my attorney and, uh, he’s like, don’t worry. Just go there. Say you’re innocent because the only witness against you just died yesterday while he was a government witness, he was still smuggling with a DEA airplane. And, uh, I looked at him and I’m like, Alan, I’m gonna tell you something here.
You are a good Jew that I’ve known for so many years that I love and telling me I’m gonna go home.
but I’m gonna follow this other Jew that ain’t telling me nothing. And I don’t even know if it’s real or not, but the thing is I can’t fight these people anymore. I gotta come clean.
Mm-hmm
I gotta, I gotta ask forgiveness for, for what I have done.
And he’s like, but if you do that, they’re gonna give you a life sentence. I said, look, if, if my life doesn’t change, I don’t give a damn. If I die in a prison or outside of prison, I’ve been dead for many, many years already.
Wow. uh,
so we went in there and, and, and say, Hey, I’m gonna tell you real simple little money, lots of time, lots of money, little time.
And I’m like, do you know how much I got? And, uh, I said, and they’re like, no, but I know who does get up. Open up a door for agents, FBI, DEA, IRS, and customs came in and they knew how much toilet paper we consumed. And they’re like, we wanted.
all.
I called my dad. And I said, you know, how how long it takes to go from being worth 60 million to not having a dollar about 35 minutes of signing over everything.
Wow. But I went back into cell and it was really weird because think about it now I’m in a prison you know, at this time I’m 36 yearsold.
Uh, I find out in this process that my father was diagnosed with cancer. The men, I love the most on this earth, that my ex-wife disappeared with my children. And here I have no idea how long I’m gonna be in prison or if I’m ever gonna get out.
Give it to you voluntarily without not fighting it. I’ll plead guilty in exchange four, give me 10 years. My first sentence was 15 back then minimum mandatory was if, if I was the first offender, you’d do five maximum.
You could do. And then you had 10 years on the parole. I said, give me the 10 years, I’m gonna plead guilty and incriminate myself that I was dealing drugs while I was on the parole. So give me that 10 years as a violation of parole.
I remember going in in of the judge and, uh, amazing judge.
He looked at me and said, Mr. Valdez, before you reach an agreement with the government, I wanna tell you, I reject any agreement you reach with them today or ever number one, number two, it is my intention to sentence you to a life. Young man, you will die in a federal prison. I looked at him. I said, your honor, with all due respect, I’m only gonna die where God wants me to die.
And in my life don’t change. I don’t give a damn where I die. I’ve been dead already.
Hmm.
So I went back and I remember going into cell and, and I, I see this so clearly today there was this guy screaming, Milky way, Milky way. And I’m like, dude, what is all this milk? I turn around to this other guy say, Hey man, what’s all this fuss about Milky way. He says, oh man, they only sell it like every two, three months. And that’s what you need to buy to supplement the crappy food. They’re gonna feed us here at the county jail.
And
then it just hit me like a
sledgehammer an
hour earlier.
I was worth 60 million. I don’t have a dollar to buy candy bar now, but you know what?
It was really the beginning of my change. The beginning of my life taking.
Hmm.
lay, I laid that cell and it was just literally, I mean, like those pressing mattress, just, I don’t know, nylon,
And I lay there and
can imagine how many days
mm-hmm I have no idea what’s
in my life,
my world,
and this
little verse there’s little page out of a pocket Bible just literally fell on my chest.
Now, remember, I don’t believe in
the Bible. I don’t
believe in God or any
of that.
Hmm. All I ask God,
he
was real to change me,
mm-hmm , I’m not like I’m gonna
you.
I’m gonna follow you. None of that.
And, and, and it was highlighted
to Hebrews rejoice
the confiscation of your goods, cuz I got greater riches
for you in heaven.
Wow. Wow. And it was, it was like,
I began to weep and it was like
had no, I
didn’t even know that I don’t, I,
never read the Bible.
Yeah. So I didn’t
even know that that
outta the Bible.
outta What
it was. And, uh, did you ever find out where that came from?
No. It was just,
you know, pocket Bibles are all over the county
jails.
Yeah. And
people tear up pages in,
Wow. It was just, wow. Well, I’ll ask Jesus
when
I get up
there.
That’s amazing. So did that, did that get you to start reading the Bible? No. There was just no other book to read. Okay. so
I, I just began to read the Bible literally as a historical book,
you know, the old Testament
you
you talk about nice war stories.
Mm-hmm man,
I didn’t have a
very good impression of that God or that old
Testament.
Mm-hmm I was
man, thank God. I don’t follow
him. Mm-hmm he would’ve killed me long time ago. Yeah. So yeah, but you know,
it.
know, it’s just
how God works in people’s
lives.
Mm-hmm
You know, the first process is
to realize
that you, that, that, that you void
mm-hmm
that you empty or meaning. And And,
to realize that,
Hey there’s something
greater in this world.
And I began to read the Bible.
I say
historical book, there was nothing else to read.
And
then after I began to read a historical book, I began to read it as a book of morals
and
then my life began to change, but it was the happiest moments in my
life.
I had meaning
I had purpose.
I knew I was created
for something greater
than any of this. And my physical existence at X or Y place did not, have any, uh, say so on my purpose and my meaning and my life began to change. And I, I started to, uh, I got a bachelor’s degree in prison.
I started my
master’s from Wheaton, got out, finished my master’s. Then I went for a PhD at Loyola university in Chicago, became 1 0 5 Hispanic with a PhD in the nation. And.
uh,
Still, it
was struggling for many, many years
So
and, and the thing about it is, we can choose who we follow. It’s a choice, right?
But at the end of the day, we, that follow Christ are told very clearly how to follow him. Real simple, love God with all your heart spirit. And so, and love you brother. As I have loved you, how unto death? I know what to love someone death. I laid in the floor with jail being tortured day and night, cuz I was willing to die for those that I knew would betray me as I’m sure that Christ laid there knowing that we would betray him.
Right. Mm-hmm
But yet what happens.
What
Christ do we show the world We
show the world the ugly
Christ,
a divided Christ,
a Christ
that demeans people that lies, that talks harder about people that, that demeans women, you know? And, and then we wonder why, but, for me, my mission is, I did a program and they asked me, are you a Christian? I said, I don’t call myself a Christian anymore. And they, well, what do you call yourself? I said, I call myself, I’m gay. And they looked at me pretty much the way you’re looking
at me. they’re like what I
yeah, I’m gay.
I
mean they didn’t know where to go with it.
Yeah. So finally,
when I thought the guy was already sweating enough, I’m like, look, I fell in love with a Jewish carpenter that changed my life. that changed my heart. Yeah. And I will die for that. I said and that’s, and that’s simply my witness. Who’s my brother, everyone created by God. Doesn’t matter whether he’s Republican
mm-hmm
year is not eight years. He’s my brother. And I believe that unconditional love the love of Christ. The love of Christ can transform the most hardened of all hearts. And how do we know that God is love? What easy definition, why God is love that we know his love.
Yeah.
Because a perfect God can love imperfect
Mm-hmm,
that’s how God’s love is
Perfect’s so good.
God that can love us imperfect
people.
Hmm.
So can we change the world? Yeah. We better. We better rethink about, how we follow
we do.
Yeah.
and what witness we give to people, because the thing about it was really hurts me the most is. Our children today, your generation, this young lady’s generation is a lot smarter than
us Mm-hmm
Number one has a lot more actions than we do.
Mm-hmm
there’s a lot of stake here.
Mm-hmm,
There’s a lot of stake, you know, it is the soul of
Mm-hmm It is
whether someone spends eternity with Christ or eternity
now
or, or what, you
know,
it’s whether someone becomes a good husband or a bad
husband, good
father or a bad father,
when
someone becomes a good coworker, a bad coworker, there’s just a lot at stake in how we
walk mm-hmm yeah. How we talk?
Yeah. It’s so good.
good.
You know? I
don’t have anything. People get astounded. I, I, I told the other day I was done this friend of mine that I was coming to bring my daughter back to Wheaton said I’m having lunch with a good friend. And he’s like, yeah. Who that I say, well, he was the first da agent under covering my case.
And he’s like, why would you ever have lunch with someone like that?
I said
never had enemies. I said he wasn’t my enemy. Yeah. He was my adversary.
Yeah.
His job was to catch me mine, not to get caught.
he won. I lost. Why would
be my enemy?
I don’t have enemies. Yeah. You know? Yeah. and, and
that’s how, if we look at the world that way,
And,
and
and if we quit this division that exists.
in the world. I mean, the mission that your generation has is, is immense. Listen, I’m doing this interview because I believe in, because Thomas told me so much about your young people, because I’m not supposed to do no more interviews until my movie comes out.
I turn,
I turn away interviews every day, but I believe in what you all doing.
And I believe that that’s gonna take a generation. That’s gonna stop this hatred,
man. Mm-hmm
And it’s not gonna bite into this politics, how we have divided ourselves
Yeah. Yeah. Over issues. Yeah. Showing Christ in how I treat people. We send books to prison out on my money. We don’t ask people for donation. We send a hundred thousand books to prisoners
to show
people that
wow, there is a God.
Yeah, amen. And the risk forgiveness that there is redemption your life.
change the life of one individual, you’ve
changed the world. Mm-hmm . Wow. That’s so powerful. So good for us to hear that too, because it’s so many times the simple things, you know, being a karate instructor and sharing faithfully, the gospel with somebody, you know, even though you might not see immediate response, you know, I mean, just being faithful to that it’s is so good.
Um, could you talk to us about, I think you had mentioned, maybe I heard it before about you kind of pretended that you were in a monastery. Oh,
and that’s when I came outta prison. Yeah. Well, I was gonna become an oblate, me and another friend at Wheaton
college.
Look, I came outta
prison. Yeah.
And I was, so this is another thing for you, young men to hear out there.
So
I stayed celibate for seven years.
Mm-hmm
Now this is a guy that went to bed with two women or more every night of his
life. Mm-hmm
When I decided to follow God, I became, and I stayed celibate
for seven years.
So when I got outta prison, I said, okay, marriage, ah, doesn’t work out for me. I’ve had two fail ones, but check that box done that
Okay.
Oh, I got four more than I ever wanted.
So check that
box. Yeah.
And I wanna be the greatest steel in the world. So we went and we looked into the, there was a professor , that was an oblate and oblate is a religious order where they teach at the universities like everybody. And then they go in the summer to the monastery and do spiritual exercise until I met my wife.
Mm-hmm how because there wasn’t
that many Hispanics, you know, we got to talking and one thing led to the other and she said to me, she said, look, my dad is a waiter. My mother cleans houses for a living. I got nothing to give a member. What God gave me. If that’s the woman you want fine. If not, I’m not. And, uh,
for
two years, for for two years that we dated pure,
Right?
I never even let her come over into the house. Every time she came over to, to my house, cuz I lived off campus. I made sure that it was with a group of
Mm-hmm
A lot of the student, cause I was a TA for the Greek department.
Okay.
uh, so I didn’t get anybody a reason to ever, ever, uh, point a finger or something. And for two years, my prayer was God, can I have intimacy with just one woman?
Can this young girl
never
been with any other man satisfy
my,
natural desires,
Hmm.
You know,
I’m telling you straight out and you know what?
I have the greatest marriage in the world. I wake up every day, madly in love with my wife and I thank God for her every day. So how you, I tell my kids how you do things and, and you wait on God for who he has for you.
Mm-hmm
I know what it is.
Look,
I don’t blame my ex-wives, One day I tried to find the common denominator, my both divorces and I found out it was that I kept bringing myself to the
mm-hmm so that was, that
the common denomin. That was the
the problem. But when
I decided to do, we decided to do things differently. And when we decided to put each other first and not second, and when she became the priority of my life, uh, our life changed and we
have
kids
the other day, my daughter said to my wife, she said, mom, you know, I was really thinking about this.
How did, what did dad do? That he’s got six children, 10 years of their life. She was in prison. Two of them were divorces and we’re all very successful today.
Hmm.
Very successful. All my kids have graduate degrees except the one she’s about to graduate and
Hmm.
she’s gonna be unbelievable. But I, and her mom said to him, real simple, cuz we invested in your lives.
Mm-hmm
We invested you and your father had a vision for what each of you all were gonna be.
So my
middle daughter loved to argue the heck outta me. So I knew she’d be a lawyer
she’s a lawyer with
the, with the education department in DC.
Wow. You know, things like that. Yeah. Yeah.
You
know, you invest in the life of your children.
That’s the greatest gift. God gives
you yeah.
Money. It ain’t gonna buy you happiness. You think that he does. Right. But it really doesn’t because if it did, then you would need more and more and
more mm-hmm yeah. You know, and then you
can do it again. Listen, my father died and he was, I adore my father.
My
father used to love to watch movies.
And my father would watch a movie with me and he would look at the clock and he would like, son, you have a busy day tomorrow. Now thinking I’m running a major drug cartel and six, seven companies. And I’m like, yeah, dad, I I’m busy to him. He says, well, it’s 10 o’clock. I think you need to go to.
and
I
to bed. My bodyguard would laugh.
Like,
dude,
precedent’s bow to you. You know, the world has enormous respect for, and your dad sends you to bed.
Are you afraid of him?
I
said,
yeah, I’m afraid of my dad. He said, he gonna whip you? I said, no, I’m afraid of letting down the men. I love the most on dessert.
Yeah. And it was just, it’s all about respect and how you looked at it. What did it bother me to go to my room?
Mm-hmm
you know, I could still do a lot of stuff anyway, but it made him those few days that he was with me. Happy that he was my
father.
Yeah. Wow. So
when he
When he died,
when he died and I was recruited by every university, cuz I was named a Hispanic doctoral student in America twice by the pew foundation.
And uh, I quit because I realized here I’m missing my dad tremendously. He never gave me anything, but he gave me his presence. And, uh, I, I moved to Georgia where my four kids lived and, uh, I moved within three miles of them because I thought that was enough safe distance between their moms and me. So I moved within three miles of them and I didn’t know how to, what to do, but, uh, I was friend with the, uh, former Carlos can do the former CEO of, uh, service master, cuz I served on a ministry called house here. And uh, and we both love the same artist who was a good friend of mine. He called me up and says, you wanna start a little carpet cleaning company?
Hmm.
I’m like, I got four kids. I don’t know. I don’t have a job. I need to support my family. Sure. In 10 years I built it into a multimillion dollar national international company.
And then, wow.
and then one. Retired.
I said, look, all I can do is just add zero to my bank account. I said, you know what? But my kids are not gonna remember that. I wanna be a full-time dad. I want to take him to school. And we had created a foundation from the beginning. Uh, when we, when I started the company, we said, we’re gonna give 10% off the top to a foundation
Hmm.
because we felt that what made a great company that was not technology employees or customers was a company that gave back and we did.
And then, so we create a lot of different programs to
Yeah
yeah. Change kids.
That’s amazing,
we send books.
That’s amazing. How can you talk to us? Uh, just about the moment, if it was a moment, I know everyone comes to Jesus and a different way. Sometimes it’s more of a gradual thing. Sometimes it’s a very momentary thing, but when did you finally make that decision? You know,
so, this is important because you’re gonna have people listening and you’re gonna have people that say the prayer. Yeah. Right, right. And nothing in their life changes. Mm-hmm I had Chuck Colson come to prison and very dynamic speaker, very inspirational later on he and I became friend and said the prayer and I did too.
But So did my life really change? Because I said the prayer, you know, I think that it’s a process
in my opinion,
can it be instantaneously? Yeah. I think that, that we can go through a process or we can say the prayer, but I think that God looks into our heart and knows when is genuine, when it’s real.
And when we are really ready
mm-hmm
you know, for me. Man. It was literally, I made, I,
I,
would say July 1st, 1990 was my first profession, but it wasn’t like, uh, Jesus, you’re my Lord. And my savior, you know, it was just, more of a bargain with God or a statement to God or a challenge to God to change me or kill me.
Mm. But
the process for me was when I began to take the focus off of me and began to put the focus on others.
Mm-hmm
When I began to realize that life was not about me, that yes, I might be in prison. Yes. I might not get out, but I’m still more blessed than many, many more people. and then I began to read and the more I read the Bible, like I tell people, if you wanna start your faith walk, just read the gospel of John over and over again
Mm-hmm
one year, don’t read nothing else.
And what, what kind of truths were you getting from that? Like, what were the first couple things that you realized when you were reading so
that it was very, very intriguing about this love for now. Look, I’m an accountant, right? That was my first degree. So I’m very analytical. Yeah. So I, I would have a lot of problem with a lot of different things. Why number one, I thought the smartest guy was Judas.
You know, Hey, Judas was, you know, he was a treasure, pretty smart guy. I, I thought the restaurant were all knuckleheads. I mean, they walk this guy steal this miracle. I was, I would say to my man, if that’s all true and I saw that,
how
I ever doubt?
But it was more of a, of a process of seeing this unbelievable love this, this guy washing defeat.
And this guy that’s supposed to be a king. This guy that everybody’s expecting is doing things so contrary to everybody else. And, and when he’s there, he’s not there to defend himself.
And yet he knows that the Roman Hemper has no say so over his life, I was with Chris rock recently, right? And I will tell Chris,
And I said, and I have tremendous respect for, I said, but you know what, Chris? I said forever, never. No matter how many great movies he has made and what a great actor he was. People are gonna remember him as the guy that slapped you. And you’re gonna be remembered as the guy that had a lot of class. And, you know, and, and when I started to see all this about Jesus, how he didn’t care about prostitutes, right?
Because at the beginning you think that,
oh,
people that are Christians or religious, they’re holy, you know, here’s another go back in prisonHmm. Well,
guys are out there and you, and you, because I didn’t see that, like I saw with that GRA instructor, you
you know,
and, and how I saw that, no matter how bad I wanted to do, he would never say to me, oh, George, you’re gonna go to hell, no matter he was always very, it was always. Tremendous love and tremendous
peace.
And then when I started to read about Jesus, I started to correlate him with a lot with him in that sense. And, and like, man, if I was, you I’d be striking down every one of them studying with the 12, you know?
And
so it was a process, but then, then. I get transferred to prison, to another prison, to from the county jail and this what happens. So, and, and what’s really important is for those, that doubt, that conversions are not real or that if you really wanna change your life and you’re giving your life to God, or you wanna give your life to God, but yeah, you see that you do things that are just contrary.
And you’re the one where you say, wow, who am I fooling? Because I heard that so many times. So this is what happened to me in prison. So I became really, really close friend with a guy named gene Lawson. And to me, he was the ultimate Christian. I mean, African American young man loved him to death. Uh, tremendous guy, always showing a lot of when we were out there exercising in the yard, he was out there preaching Saturday.
Saturday was the only day that we would get to be locked down in the TV.
From 10 o’clock to one o’clock, you know, normally they turn out the TV room at nine something, you go to bed for the 10 o’clock hour. So it was like a big privilege day. So everybody’s
locked down
in the TV room at one, take soda, the candy bar, whatever.
But what was
it,
program
they put on during that time Howard stern, when he was at his rounds of all rounds.
Hmm.
And guess what? I went to see Howard stern, Jean did not.
Hmm. And
I kept saying to myself, am I fool myself? Am I really a Christian? Is Jean a real Christian? And I’m just a fake Christian because this time I consider myself a Christian, by this time I prayed, I, I loved Christ.
I, I believed in God. I wanted him to change my life. I mean, everything, and it was a transformation. And then I had that, struggle,
Yeah. You know? Yeah.
But,
but the, the grace and the beauty is.
just like, he
didn’t give up on me when I was the scum of the earth. He didn’t give up on me in my journey
and he
was patient and he waited and waited and that’s the most amazing thing about a relationship with what I consider a living, God, not a spirit or nons spirit, but you know, it’s gotta be all about love, man.
It can be nothing about hatred But loving everybody. And his love is sufficient to transform everyone because at the end of the day, I believe every human is hungry.
It doesn’t
matter how much money you make. It doesn’t matter how look I coach famous athlete.
I coach very high net worth people. None of that matters, man. If I was to say every single one has the same problem. When they come to me, they got marriage problem. They got children problem and they got meaning problem. They have no idea what their
meaning.
Like I asked John Multz one day. I said, John Multz, what are you? When I, I was working with the Atlanta breaks I said, what happened when you came to a hundred mile hour festival? What are you then?
I said?
you know, I just think that you are child of God, given a tremendous
gift to
make
a hell of a living, playing a game. And he’s a very strong Christian and amazing.
I love John waltz a lot. And, uh, and that’s what it is, man.
I love that. That’s so good. And I, I literally was just having a conversation today with somebody about how everything flows out of that revelation that we are.
A child of God, you know, and it, because like you said, what happens when you, you know, you can’t throw that fast ball anymore, then your whole identity, you know, falls away. And so we have to be rooted in that. That’s, that’s amazing. Um, I, I would love to ask you one final question. this has been really amazing and just, uh, man, just the grace of God, uh, in your life is so beautiful.
But if you could, if you could go back to Jorge in the, uh, Perta Del soul, grocery store, knowing what you know now, what would you tell him? If you could go back and tell him something,
you know,
I struggled, you know, when you write a book, it becomes very retrospective, very retrospective. Like for example, I found the reason why I treated women the way I did. And then it dawned on me when I came to Cuba and we were poor and kids are mean,
mm-hmm
and I remember girls telling us, like, for example, one that I never forget. I remember this girl telling me when they are you coming to the party tomorrow. And I was so excited, I was being invited.
And I’m like, I’m sorry. I don’t know what, when, what party? Sure. I’d love to come. She’s like, oh, I’m sorry. We don’t invite people like you. And you know what, to me, that was a defining moment where every other woman from their own, I was gonna get even.
mm subconsciously. Yeah.
- So I’ve asked myself if, if I get to relive my life again, would I do it again or not?
And I choose not to even worry about it. Why? Okay. So I won’t go to jail, but what could have happened
could I impact the world the way that I’m impacted today? so
would
that have happened? Had all this not happen. So what I choose to do is not worry about it.
Why number one, because why play Monday morning quarterback as to myself now, what would I tell a young man.
today? The
same thing that I told Johns Mo that I will tell older people, the only important thing in your life is to find meaning and purpose is the only thing that will give you satisfaction.
The day you find meaning and purpose. And I’m here to tell you is that ain’t gonna be in money. It ain’t gonna be in power. It ain’t gonna be in women. It ain’t gonna be in nothing this earth has to offer
you. Yeah. Yeah.
I said, because
Hmm,
I reach a height
Hmm.
of wealth empowers that very few people ever do. And I can tell you very few people will ever get there.
And if they get there, they’ll realize just not there. Mm-hmm it’s just not there.
Yeah. blessings So many that don’t
the problem is
we’re so focused on what we don’t have versus being focused on what we do have. And if we can breathe, if we can walk, if we can eat even if, how little it is, and if we can make a difference, somebody else’s life we’re richer than the wealthiest people in the
Wow. Wow. That’s so powerful. Praise God amazing. Um, I, I just want, thank you so much for your time. And actually, um, our listeners might not even realize this, but we actually have a live. Here with us today and in, and in that live audience, it includes the very DEA officer who is responsible for bringing Jorge to justice.
So, uh, live audience, let’s give Jorge a big round of applause here,
and we wanna say, thank you for your story for your witness and for your time and for joining us. And, and, and just, yeah, I mean, just praying that this story would be just continuing to bring glory to God. Thanks so much for being on the show.
awesome. Uh, go show people. Jesus. Don’t tell ’em about him. John. Show him
amen.
Everybody wants
to meet him.
Amen. That’s awesome. That’s so good.