In a world where bad news in reporting is the norm, a single piece of good news can feel like a rainstorm in the desert.
I recently came across an encouraging piece of news in the form of a YouTube channel called Dude Perfect, and it’s good timing for parents with the disappointing news about Mr. Beast.
With almost 60 million subscribers, Dude Perfect is a popular YouTube channel revolving around five guys – Tyler, Cody, Coby, Cory, and Garret – with occasional cameos from editors or other staff. The Dudes perform trick shots, break world records, compete in friendly (and insane!) competitions, laugh at stereotypes, and more.
It’s a high-energy, high-fun channel that caters mainly to middle school/high school boys, though it boasts fans of all ages and both genders.
The Dudes are also Christians, and in the last couple of years, they’ve started to proclaim their faith on a bolder scale.
Three months ago, Tyler Toney (the unofficial leader of the Dudes) and his wife, Bethany, appeared on I Am Second , an organization focused on telling the stories of people who put Jesus first.
Bethany and Tyler share their testimony, which includes Dude Perfect’s uniquely fast rise to fame, miscarriages, jealousy, loneliness, a broken marriage, struggles with sin, the realization that a relationship with Christ might be missing, fixing that, putting Him first, and watching God completely turn everything around.
I highly recommend watching it. You can find part one here, part two here, and part three here.
Dude Perfect has also been proclaiming their faith through their YouTube channel and on the road.
In one of their more recent videos, Dude Perfect broke the record for the world’s highest basketball shot (from 856 feet!) and gave all the glory to God. Quoting from this video, they say,
It’s really cool to see [that] this platform is given to us for more than just our own successes. The amount of control we have over things, over Dude Perfect, over the world, over our circumstances is very low, but whatever God blesses us with and whatever successes that we do have, we’re going to continue to point back to Him and give Him the glory for it, and that’s the way we’re going to look at it for as long as Dude Perfect is a thing.
In a time when standing for Christ is unpopular, seeing the Dude Perfect Dudes (and especially Tyler Toney) not only proclaim their faith but also do so with seemingly increasing boldness is such an encouragement, exemplifying Paul’s words in Romans 1:16:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
As the world darkens around us, it’s heartening to see little pockets of light left in places like the Dude Perfect YouTube channel.