President’s Corner & Notes

September 4, 2026 The Mustard Seed at the Brook Besor This morning at the prayer breakfast at The Brook Besor in Pell City, a man with Church of the Highlands disaster relief asked a question that stopped me cold: after the corporate years are over, what are we going to do? Do we retire, go home, and slowly fade away, or do we take whatever God has left in our hands and grow the mustard seed for the Kingdom? I have been thinking about that question ever since. The Brook Besor

Twenty-five years have passed since the morning of September 11, 2001, but time has not erased the images, the names, or the meaning of that day.

August 31, 2026 I wasn’t at Bio-Rad long enough to know where to order the paperclips. Ninety days was about all it took for me to realize that sometimes the most important things a man learns in a job are the very things that will never appear on his resume. I came from red dirt in Northeast Alabama, right up against the Georgia line, where the Coosa River bends around the land near Cedar Bend Road and the foothills of the Appalachians begin to rise. My father raised about a

Some stories make sense when you look back at them. This one still does not. Fifteen years later, I can point to the programs, the veterans, the families, the footballs, the wheelchairs, the homes, the meals, and the hundreds of former athletes who answered the call. I can tell you that Lettermen of the USA has now impacted more than 1,700 veterans and family members.

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope” (Psalm 130:5). If I had kept the Psalms closer to my heart and read Proverbs the way a man is supposed to, I probably would have been a much wiser man. Maybe a wealthier one, too.

July 17, 2026 Every Friday morning I leave my Coosa River Bridge home at exactly 4:56 to catch the men’s breakfast in Pell City. Not 4:55 and not 5:00. It is 4:56. I cannot point to a particular verse establishing 4:56 as the biblical hour for men’s breakfast, but Ecclesiastes does say there is “a time to every purpose under the heaven,” so until somebody produces a better interpretation, I am sticking with 4:56. This morning I pulled out and discovered the Honda mad dash al

I do not have the Ten Commandments memorized. I do not know all the Beatitudes by heart. Next to the Lord’s Prayer, these are two of the most important things every Christian should know. They are the bedrock of the faith. And yet here I sit, a man who has been striving, since my mechanical valve replacement surgery in 2019, to become a better, more faithful follower of the Nazarene.

July 26, 2026 Every night, I pray the words found in First Kings. When God offered Solomon anything he desired, Solomon did not ask for long life, wealth, or victory over his enemies. He asked for “an understanding heart” so that he could lead with wisdom and discernment (1 Kings 3:9). That is also my prayer. I ask God for an understanding heart to lead Lettermen of the USA, not for myself, but for the brothers who played that flag football game on August 13, 2011. Those men

July 16, 2026 A Young Linebacker on Capitol Hill Washington first entered my life during spring break in 1977. I was twelve years old, standing on the steps of the United States Supreme Court with my father and my older brother, David. I was wearing a blue windbreaker from Lyman Ward Military Academy, where I was finishing my last year. My father, Robert Frank Fuhrman, stood beside me. He was a Korean War Marine, cattle farmer, factory worker, and vice president of the Etowah

July 11, 2026 The Lust of the Heart: My Story My second marriage ended, in part, because of a woman from my past. She was someone I had been involved with before I got married, and toward the end of my marriage, I was no longer faithful. That relationship became a contributing factor in the breakup, and the consequences hit me hard. This morning, the subject at our men’s prayer breakfast was lust, and the message cut straight through me. One of the brothers shared a humorous

The Importance and Significance of Food for Heroes: A Lettermen of the USA Initiative Food is one of humanity's most basic needs, but it is also one of the most meaningful expressions of gratitude, compassion, and community.

June 10, 2026 Sobornost at 3 a.m. Sobornost is a profound Russian spiritual concept that speaks of deep, organic unity, the living communion of all believers joined together as one in Christ. It is not mere togetherness, but a mystical oneness in the Holy Spirit. Fyodor Dostoevsky explored this longing for true spiritual unity in The Brothers Karamazov. I believe I have tasted something of that unity. What began as a small mustard seed of obedience has grown into something fa

Independence Day 2026: One Yard at a Time As Americans gather across our great nation this Fourth of July, we celebrate far more than fireworks, parades, and family traditions. We celebrate the enduring spirit of freedom, the courage of those who secured it, and the responsibility each generation carries to preserve it. Two hundred and fifty years ago, brave men pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to a bold idea—that liberty was worth fighting for and that a free

June 6, 2026 When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He began with words that remain as beautiful today as they were two thousand years ago: "Our Father who is in the heavens." Matthew deliberately uses the plural—tois ouranois—echoing the Hebrew shamayim. To the people of Israel, the "heavens" were layered: the sky above, the realm of the stars, and the transcendent dwelling place of God Himself. The phrase held together two seemingly opposite truths: God is infinitely exa

Most people only see the pictures, the parties, and the glamour. They see the bright Crimson helmets with the white stripe down the middle and the white numbers on the side. They see the Crimson jerseys, the white pants, the packed stadiums, the television cameras, and 80,000 people screaming on Saturdays. They see the tradition, the legends, and the trophies.

June 5, 2026 A Divine Canvas at Dawn This morning, as I made my familiar drive from Southside toward Pell City for our weekly men's prayer breakfast, the Lord greeted me with a masterpiece. The sky was alive with layers of soft grays giving way to brilliant oranges and golds. The sun, just cresting the horizon, cast its warm light across the water, still and reflective like a mirror held up to heaven itself. A gentle mist rose from the surface, dancing along the tree line and

May 17, 2026 Don't Let Yourself Be Distracted from the Celestial City In The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan portrays the Christian life as a pilgrimage toward the Celestial City. The road is narrow, the journey is difficult, and the destination requires perseverance. Along the way, Christian encounters dangers, temptations, and enemies that seek to turn him aside from his goal. Some confront him openly. Others appear harmless. One of the most dangerous is a place called Vani

In every generation, a nation is measured not only by its strength, but by how it cares for those who once stood in defense of it. Across America, countless veterans have sacrificed their youth, health, peace of mind, and sometimes even their families in service to this country.

May 25, 2026 This Memorial Day, we pause to remember the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice defending our nation. Their courage and sacrifice secured the freedoms we enjoy today. We also honor the veterans who returned home, many carrying the visible and invisible wounds of war. As Scripture reminds us, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 Lettermen of the USA (LotUSA) is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit th

May 13, 2026 Title: Water in the Granite: The Broken Road That Built Lettermen of the USA In the spring of 2011, I was a broken man trying to hold my life together while everything around me was falling apart. My marriage to Renee was already dying. We had spent years in counseling, trying to repair something that had been wearing down for a long time. The patterns ran deep. Control. Criticism. Disrespect. Constant conflict. I was not innocent in it. I made my own mistakes. I