FGR regularly invites inspirational speakers to share stories of faith and achievement with students. The goal is to inspire students to reconcile their thoughts, feelings, and desires for worldly success with the lessons of faith we emphasize here at FGR. Worldly success does not have to come at the expense of heaven and heaven does not have to come at the cost of worldly success.
This year’s speaker was Brig Sorber, president and CEO of Two Men and a Truck, who gave a talk to the student body based on his book, Moving Forward: A Stickman’s Journey for Hope and Meaning. Telling the story of both his financial success and his spiritual conversion, Sorber encouraged students to “be comfortable where you are.” Accepting where you are on your faith journey will allow God to work in you and enable you to grow according to His plan.
“God has a plan for you,” the retired executive told the FGR students. He admitted that before his conversion, he felt Christians were “weak,” – that they needed a God to help them because they couldn’t handle life, – but that while his journey to faith was long, looking back he can see that his Heavenly Father was there for him in every situation, giving him strength and leading him. Sorber used the analogy of King David tending his sheep in the field, waiting to be anointed king.
Ultimately, Sorber would gain success in the business world before he found his Catholic faith. Starting with very little, he married his college sweetheart and lived in poverty, driving moving trucks for his fledgling business. After many years of hard work, Two Men and a Truck took off and Sorber discovered that the financial success he’d been seeking was less fulfilling than he expected. He realized that the material wealth he had accumulated did not give him the peace or satisfaction he had hoped it would.
Speaking frankly to the group of high school students, Sorber described how the Left Behind books led him to reading the Bible, and then to what he said is “the most important thing you can realize”: the reality of God’s love for him. That realization – and his resultant embrace of the Catholic faith – did not cause him to reject his success in business, but to contextualize it properly. “Don’t let your ego drive you,” he urged the students, “but understand that God directs the story of your life and cooperate with him.”
“Pray over everything,” the CEO said. In his hour-long speech, Sorber painted a moving and personal picture of a life full of hard work and its payoff, juxtaposed with an even more personal and vital account of his conversion and God’s work in his life. His inspiring story illustrates well that a truly successful and satisfying life is one in which love of God and love of others plays a central role in the pursuit of excellence.