03 Jul My faith has always kept me grounded

It’s definitely not a popular subject to talk about amongst creatives and entrepreneurs, but I’ve been going to church for as long as I can remember and my faith has always played a gigantic role in my beliefs, my decision making and my business plans.

Growing up with my faith

Growing up, mom “forced us” to go to church (The Church At Our House now called Mililani Community Church) every Sunday. Once we reached high school, she decided to let us choose whether or not we still wanted to attend weekly service. When I got to high school, I was excited to finally have the freedom not to attend church every Sunday, but a friend of mine encouraged me to continue going. Throughout high school, I attended Youth For Christ events, played ukulele on our worship team, joined church volleyball leagues and spent a ton of time skateboarding and fellowshipping with other believers. It’s safe to say I had at least one “Jesus thing” happening every day of the week. My faith became my life.

maturing in my faith

College was a difficult and trying time for my faith. I was the kid who never drank at parties, in fact… I would bring along my backpack with BBQ Fritos and Snapple Iced Tea to all our Hawaii Club parties at LMU. I was the guy who never said bad words, tried bad things or did bad deeds… yes I was that kid. But as I journeyed through college, I learned about all these new systems of belief from atheism and agnosticism to Hinduism and Taoism. My monotheistic world view was criticized, mocked and challenged in countless ways. Through it all, I learned to think critically about what I believed, why I believed it, and how to live harmoniously with friends, family and colleagues who disagreed drastically with my ideologies.

After graduating from college, I pursued seminary-level training at Biola University in their Master’s of Apologetics program, learning to defend what I believed from the attacks of others. It was a fun and awesome time to invest in and investigate my philosophies of God and man. I was regularly sharing what I learned with high school and college ministries at my church (Del Rey Hills Evangelical Free Church) in Los Angeles and at a college ministry (CCF: Campus Christian Fellowship) I helped to start during my time at LMU. It was at CCF where I eventually met my (now) wife Joanne. She was just getting started with her undergraduate program at LMU while I was in my graduate program at Biola. Joanne and I both being from Hawaii, naturally had some commonalities, but it was our common faith and commitment to God that connected us then and holds us together until death.

my faith in practice today

My Faith is still a huge part of my life and influences how I treat others, how I operate my business and what kind of an impact I want to make with my short time here on earth. Many of the things I’ve learned about grace, humility, service and honesty are rooted in my biblical worldview, and will forever guide my life. I am still actively involved in my local church startup (Harbor Church West Oahu) and am so thankful to be a child of God.