To Tell the Truth

When Clay Shiver was inducted into the Florida State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001, here’s what his alma mater had to say about his skill as the starting center for the Seminoles’ 1994 and 1995 football teams:

Shiver perfected the shotgun snap. He gave up just half a sack in more than 700 snaps to help lead Florida State to its first national championship. By the 1995 campaign, Shiver had become one of the top linemen in the country. He was a dominating blocker with quickness to pass block in FSU’s intricate offensive system.

During his FSU years, Clay was named a first-team All-American by the Football Writers Association and Scripps Howard. He was a three-time all-Atlantic Coast Conference selection, received numerous ACC Player of the Week honors, and was awarded the prestigious Jacobs Trophy in both his junior and senior years. He was drafted by Dallas in 1996 and played for the Cowboys and the Carolina Panthers until 1998, when his NFL tenure ended due to injuries.

With a long list of football accolades, it’s a bit ironic that in a conversation about his college days, one of the first memories Clay shares has nothing to do with the gridiron.

On one of many team road trips, Clay says, “I remember I had a teammate that I roomed with, and he walked in the room, and I not only had my Bible out, but I had a notepad next to my Bible. He said, ‘What are you doing?’ And I said, ‘I'm just kind of studying the Bible a little bit.’ He said, ‘Man, that's crazy. I knew you read your Bible, but you study it?’”

‘My introduction to Moody Radio started’

Clay grew up in Tifton, Georgia, a small town about 90 miles north of FSU’s Tallahassee campus. His father was a diesel mechanic, and during his high school and college years, Clay drove the parts truck for his family’s business. That’s when, he says, “My introduction to Moody Radio started.”

“I would time my parts run for around 10:00 or 10:30 a.m. because it was around that window that Tony Evans was on Moody Radio. He was such a phenomenal teacher, and I was just gripped by this idea of the Urban Alternative, of connecting young people from different races. I had no idea that somewhere in the distant future I would meet and connect with Tony Evans because he would be doing chaplaincy work with the Dallas Cowboys.”

Making an impact

At FSU, Clay married his college sweetheart, Ty, and the couple has four children. When an injury ended his NFL career, he and Ty began focusing on developing young leaders. At Florida State and later at other college campuses, Clay and Ty mentored student athletes to reach their highest potential.

Clay then spent 13 seasons coaching football at Boca Raton Christian High School, where he remains their all-time winningest coach, leading the school to its only playoff appearance. He is currently the president of Palm Branch Advisors and the co-founder of Forge Weekend and UYL Retreat, three-day events that help businessmen grow in their leadership skills.

Hungry for biblical truth

As Clay walked through the many doors that the Lord opened for him over the years, Moody Radio’s mission to bring “the Word to life” has continued to ring true for him. In his presentations at men’s gatherings and his work with business owners and executives, he’s seen a renewed desire for authenticity and for the truth.

“We are questioning what is authentic and what's real, you know?” Clay says. “I'm sure we've all seen videos where you’re asking yourself, ‘Is that real?’ I even have to ask my kids, ‘Hey, is this real?’ And they’ll say, ‘No, Dad, that’s AI!’ I think people are starting to appreciate the authentic more, and that may increase as we move forward because it will be so hard to tell what's real and what's not.”

For Clay, the real truth of God’s Word is the best possible food for the soul, and he believes a hunger for spiritual nourishment will ultimately draw us closer to the Lord. “I equate it to food,” he says. “When I was a lineman, I was pretty heavy at one point. Now I have to restrict my diet so I'm hungry for the right things. I think that's the challenge in the West because it can just become a buffet of garbage.

“We can begin to feel like, spiritually, we’re not hungry for vegetables, or we’re not hungry for stuff that's spiritually good for us, not hungry for the meat. Well, it's because we're full of candy and treats and desserts and worthless garbage. If we intentionally cut some of that out and say I'm going to eliminate this, then it makes the spiritual food like Moody Radio just so much more valuable.”

Immersing his mind and heart in God’s Word

Clay draws a parallel between learning God’s Word and learning a new language. When he began travelling to speak in South America, he knew he needed to understand at least some of the language and the culture.

“I was making regular trips to Peru and Colombia, and my Spanish got immeasurably better. I got to a place where I was very good at ordering in a restaurant, probably because my motivation was a little different,” he says, grinning. “They say if you really want to learn the language and learn it quickly, then you need to immerse yourself in it.

“Looking back all those years ago—that time where I was attempting to immerse myself in the things of God—Moody Radio became an integral part of that. If you immerse yourself in those (spiritual) things, you learn God's vocabulary, God's language. The Bible was given to us so we can begin to understand these things, grow closer to God, and express that to the world.”

For more than 30 years, Clay has used Moody Radio to help immerse him in biblical truth.

“That’s my hope, even today, that God would help me in whatever time I have left to express that to the world. But it needs to be real in me if it's going to be transferable to someone else. That's why I would say (Moody Radio) is a great tool to further immerse yourself in the language of the things of God through teachers like Alistair Begg and others.”

“I work with a lot of businessmen that are legitimately busy,” Clay adds. “But in their vehicle as they’re driving from place to place, they have those windows of time where they can get some good teaching and preaching. For me, there's no better place for that than Moody Radio.”