Chad shares an update about his life and Redemption journey with lessons God has been teaching him. This is an update to an article he shared back in September 2024.
Introduction:
Close to two years ago I wrote an article entitled “The Confessions of a Redemption Family Man” which you can find here. In that article I confessed some wrong pursuits I had regarding the game of Redemption in light of the family and ministry responsibilities in my life at the time. My wife and I had three kids with a fourth on the way at the time I wrote that article. Additionally, I was serving as Youth Pastor at our church. I formally set aside the goal I had of placing top 3 in Type 1 at Nationals at that time and passed Land of Redemption off to Tim Estes at the end of the article. I explained that moving forward my involvement in Redemption would be limited to running the local play group here in my town in Oregon, playing one game of Redemption a week online, and working on deck building when I can when my wife and kids are otherwise occupied.
During the 2024-2025 Redemption season I stuck with all of that quite well. I did not sacrifice time with my family or ministry responsibilities excessively for Redemption. Everything was in a better place. My wife gave birth to our fourth child in December 2024. Then two things happened that changed some things and I believe I deviated off course again in my heart into having an unhealthy interaction with the game of Redemption. Today I will be sharing what has gone on in that regard and I hope it may be of help to others who may be husbands/dads and also Redemption players.
Change #1- Nationals 2025 Result:
I went into Nationals 2025 with low expectations. I had stuck well overall to my resolution to only play one game a week online of Redemption and to work on deck building just when my family was occupied. I still gave my best though with the limited time I had. I did not expect to place high per se in Type 1 at Nationals in 2025. However, I ended up placing 4th in Type 1 my best result I had ever had in a large field of players. It was a really fun experience and I was thrilled to say the least. I was particularly happy since this result happened without me compromising on the conviction of putting my family and ministry responsibilities above Redemption.
As I moved on from Nats 2025 though what began to happen is that in my heart I pondered the possibility that perhaps I could indeed accomplish my former goal of placing top 3 in Type 1 at Nationals. After all I was so close and I had not compromised the resolutions I had made of one game a week online and limiting deck building to when my family was otherwise occupied. So going into the 2025-2026 tournament season I gradually developed a desire against to place top 3 at Nats in Type 1. That desire grew into a goal even though I had previously publicly said I was going to set that goal aside. I can confirm I did not play more than one game a week online and did limit my deck building to when my family was otherwise occupied. Yet the goal of placing top 3 at Nats in Type 1 loomed over me the entire season. And while I developed this goal in my heart again a big change in my life occurred.
Change #2- Associate Pastor Position:
In October 2025 I became the Associate Pastor at my church upon the retirement of our former Associate Pastor. I retained all of my responsibilities as Youth Pastor still overseeing the youth ministry at our church yet gained additional responsibilities in our church including overseeing the young adults ministry of our church, men’s retreat, family camp, preaching in main service once a month, and additional pastoral counseling responsibilities. Before I moved into the Associate Pastor position my wife as well as my senior pastor and I had talked about the possibility of cutting some things out since I was adding more responsibilities and not losing any. I decided to wait and add the new responsibilities in and see how things went without cutting anything out. After a period of time I planned to evaluate if something needed to be cut out based on how life was going.
With this considered my Redemption involvement did not change when the new responsibilities were added in October upon becoming Associate Pastor. I still aimed to play one game a week online, run our play group meetings every other week, and host about one tournament a month from September-April. And as I was doing this all the while I had in my mind the goal of placing top 3 in Type 1 at Nats in 2026.
The Outcome:
All of this happened and the months went by and I arrived at May 2026. At that point I had been Associate Pastor for 8 months. The pace I was going at was too much. I was gone too much from my wife and kids. I could feel that in my heart. I missed my family and felt it just was not sustainable. Due to this I sat down with my wife and we considered what I could cut out in life so that things were more sustainable. What we came to was that the first thing I needed to cut back was the amount of time I was engaged with the local Redemption play group here. I have already in the past cut so much out in terms of my involvement in Redemption. I used to play many games a week online, I owned and ran Land of Redemption, I also used to help play test the game. All of these I had moved on from by the time I wrote my last article in September 2024. All I have had left in terms of Redemption involvement is running the local play group, playing one game a week online, and deck building when I can.
Yet what my wife and I realized is in running the local play group I was gone quite a bit from my family. Our play group here had been meeting every other week. Beyond that I was hosting about one tournament a month for the play group. The Redemption play group here is important but compared with my family and other ministry responsibilities at the church it is not as important. Due to this the first change I decided on was that our play group would move to meeting once a month. Also I decided to host tournaments less frequently. I announced the changes to the play group members here and made them effective as of May. It was quite hard to do this yet necessary. I also moved a bi-weekly game night (not Redemption related) I was doing for the high school boys at the church and made it once a month to free up more time as well. My hope is that these two changes will make things more sustainable in life and ministry.
Yet as I made these changes I still had in mind my renewed goal of placing top 3 at Nationals in Type 1. Yet what I did not account for is just how little time in May, June, and July I would have to dedicate to Redemption. With our play group moving to being once a month I was playing Redemption less in person. Also summer time is quite busy for ministry and I had little time to work on my deck builds. I did my best though and went into Nats hoping for the best since the season before I had more time for sure to prepare for Nats but still not that much more. At Nats I placed 15th in Type 1 a worse result than 4th the season before to be sure. I was disappointed.
After Nats I reached out to my two mentors in the game: Gabe Isbell and Tyler Stevens for advice on how I could improve. In the advice they gave two things stood out to me. Tyler said this, “You are a husband, a father, a pastor and a playgroup leader. You might not win a Nationals, but you are doing so many more important things.” Gabe said this, “Often times the guys winning Nationals are the ones who put in the most work/time/games. There’s a cost to that which doesn’t seem fitting to your season of life, calling and responsibilities.” Gabe also said this, “Put God first, honor your family and calling by giving them your best. Enjoy Redemption with what is left over after that. That may never lead to a higher placing than 4th. Then again God may honor your sacrifice and empower you to excel with less. Either way, when you look back on your life, you won’t regret having sacrificed family or ministry to be “the best” at “Bible cards”.”
These pieces of advice are excellent and led me to realize that I needed to change my mindset to just doing the best I can with the time I have to commit to the game which is less than ever before and to enjoy the game and whatever results occur. I have less time than ever before for Redemption and that is just fine as the other things in my life occupying my time are more important. I decided to set aside the goal of placing top 3 in Type 1 at Nats. And then as I pondered all of this I recalled the article I wrote in September 2024 “The Confessions of a Redemption Family Man.” I re-read the article and saw in it that I had already set aside the goal of top 3 in Type 1. As I read the article that I wrote I realized that God had taught me the same lessons before yet as time went on I lost sight of those lessons. I am thankful that He reminded me of them and used Gabe and Tyler as instruments to do so.
The Lessons:
What new lessons have I learned from all of this? Well the first one is how forgetful we can be as people of the reality of who God is and the lessons He has taught us. Psalm 106:13-15 describes the forgetfulness of the people of Israel, “But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel. 14 But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; 15 he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.” (ESV). The Lord had displayed His greatness to the people of Israel in delivering them from slavery in Egypt. They had seen how wonderful the Lord is. Yet as they were in the wilderness they forgot the Lord and His wonderful works. They forgot the lessons He had taught them. They had a wanton craving in the wilderness. They started to crave worldly pleasures. This led them astray and had consequence. In a sense this is what happened with me. God had taught me an important lesson back in 2024 of the importance of setting aside selfish ambitions in the game of Redemption that were not healthy with the stage of life I am in as a husband, dad, and pastor. Yet as I experienced some success at Nats 2025 the craving for greater success crept into my heart. This craving took over and I forgot the lessons God had taught me. From this I see the great importance of remembering God and the lessons he teaches me. I need to pray that He helps me to remember.
Secondly with this another lesson I have learned is the importance of contentment. Philippians 4:11-12 says, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” (ESV). Over the past year I was not content. I was craving success at Nats in a specific manner. During the 2024-2025 season I was content with however I might do at Nats and when I placed 4th at Nats it was an unexpected blessing. However, this season I was craving success at a higher level beyond what I did the season before. I am thankful that success did not happen and now moving forward I will strive to be content with however I do at Nationals. I will still put in my best effort in deck building and playing Redemption and try to be as competitive as I can be. There is nothing wrong with that by any means as long as I am not sacrificing in my relationship with God, family, and ministry responsibilities. Yet I will also seek to be realistic that with the time I can devote to the game the odds of competing at the very top level are not the highest. Doesn’t mean it can’t happen there might be a surprising result yet I will aim to be content with whatever result I have at Nats having put forth my best that I can.
The final lesson is seeking to make sure my heart is right before God. Psalm 51:10 is helpful with this, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (ESV). This is my prayer to the Lord that He would renew a right spirit within me that my heart would me right before Him. If you would pray for me in that regard I would greatly appreciate it.
Anyhow these are the updated confession of a Redemption family man. I hope that these reflections on lessons God has been teaching me are helpful to you.
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