BEFORE IT WAS A SHIRT, IT WAS A DECLARATION.
One encounter with God's Word began a lifetime of learning to trust Jesus—even when life didn't make sense.
Hear it in his own words
WATCH MY STORY.
Sometimes a story means more when you hear it from the person who lived it.
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01 / The founder's story
THE SEASON THAT BROKE ME.
There was a season in my life when everything I thought was secure began falling apart.
I went through a divorce. I lost my home. I lost the stability I had known. I went from driving my Jaguar S-Type to sleeping in it.
But what people couldn't see was what was happening inside me.
I was hurting.
And I'm not talking about the kind of hurt you can simply shake off, put a smile over, or pretend isn't there.
I was carrying pain, disappointment, frustration, and the overwhelming feeling that my life had become something I didn't recognize anymore.
I was tired of struggling.
Tired of trying to understand why everything had happened.
Tired of trying to figure out how to put the pieces of my life back together.
I was emotionally exhausted.
And eventually, that exhaustion became something much darker.
I reached a place where I no longer wanted to live.
I want you to understand what I'm saying.
I wasn't just having a bad day.
I wasn't simply discouraged.
I attempted to take my own life. You heard me.
That's how dark that season had become.
I was in a friend's guest bedroom, carrying the weight of everything I had been going through. I had reached a point where I was hoping I wouldn't wake up.
And after taking steps to end my life, I laid down.
Defeated. Ready to die in my sleep.
I had no idea that what happened next would become part of a testimony I would one day share with the world.
02 / The founder's story
THEN THE PHONE RANG.
While I was lying there, transitioning, the telephone rang.
I don't know how long I had been lying there.
But the phone rang.
And it interrupted that moment.
I've often described what happened as being "Saved by the Bell."
But here's what I want people to understand.
The ringing telephone interrupted what could have been the end of my life.
After I got off the phone, something happened that would begin changing the direction of my life.
I asked God to show me something in His Word.
Because I was tired.
Tired of hurting. Tired of struggling. Tired of trying to understand how my life had gotten to that place.
I needed something.
And when I opened my Bible, I randomly landed on Proverbs 3:5–6.
03 / The Scripture
THE WORD THAT MET ME THERE.
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
PROVERBS 3:5–6 (KJV)
04 / A continuing journey
IT WAS A BEGINNING. NOT AN ENDING.
I wish I could tell you that everything changed overnight.
That the pain immediately disappeared.
That everything I had lost was suddenly restored.
But that wasn't what happened.
I didn't immediately return to that passage and begin building everything around it. I didn't fully understand what that encounter would eventually mean in my life.
What happened in that guest bedroom was the beginning of something.
The beginning of a journey of discovering Jesus.
A journey of learning who He is, deepening my relationship with Him, and discovering what it means to trust Him through different seasons of life.
Because I've learned that trusting Jesus isn't something you only need to do when you're at your lowest.
You need Him when life is going well.
You need Him when you're uncertain.
You need Him when you're disappointed.
You need Him when the answers aren't coming.
And you need Him when life takes you somewhere you never expected to be.
Through the years, I've continued discovering Jesus through different encounters, experiences, challenges, and seasons.
I've had moments when I needed to be reminded of the very thing that began in that guest bedroom.
Trust Jesus.
Not just when I understand.
Not just when things work out the way I planned.
Not just when life feels good.
Trust Him, no matter what.
I didn't learn everything about trusting Jesus that night.
That night was when the journey began.
05 / The founder's story
THEN CAME THE T-SHIRT.
Somewhere along that journey, I began thinking about those two words.
TRUST JESUS.
I remember thinking, Man, I can make this a T-shirt.
And that's what I did.
I started putting the declaration on apparel.
At first, I saw an opportunity to create something people could wear. Something that expressed the faith and the decision that had become so important in my own life.
I began selling T-shirts.
But as I continued, something began happening.
I started realizing that those two words could do more than identify what someone believed.
They could start conversations.
Think about it.
Someone could walk into a grocery store wearing a Trust Jesus shirt, and a person they had never met could read those words.
Maybe that person was struggling with something.
Maybe they were trying to figure life out on their own.
Maybe they had stopped trusting God.
Or maybe they had never really considered what it meant to trust Jesus.
And then they saw those two words.
TRUST JESUS.
For one person, it could be a declaration.
For another, a reminder.
For someone else, an invitation.
And sometimes, it could become a question.
Trust Jesus?
What does that mean?
Why do you trust Him?
Now a T-shirt has created an opportunity for a conversation.
And that conversation has created an opportunity to share Jesus.
That's when I began realizing something.
This was bigger than selling T-shirts.
06 / The heart behind the movement
I REALIZED IT WAS BIGGER THAN A T-SHIRT.
I knew what trusting Jesus had meant in my life.
I knew there was a story behind my declaration.
But then I started thinking about other people.
If I had a story about why I trusted Jesus, surely other people had stories too.
Somebody had experienced deliverance.
Somebody had experienced restoration.
Somebody had gone through a painful divorce.
Somebody had lost everything and had to begin again.
Somebody had watched God make a way when they couldn't see one.
And somebody was still in the middle of a difficult season, learning to trust Jesus one day at a time.
Their stories mattered too.
I began thinking about what would happen if people started sharing those stories.
Not just telling people that they trusted Jesus.
But telling them why.
That's when I started developing the Trust Jesus journal, looking for ways to help people deepen their relationship with Christ, and encouraging people to share their testimonies.
Because the Bible reminds us in Revelation 12:11 that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
Our testimonies matter.
Somebody needs to hear what Jesus has done in your life.
Somebody may be facing something similar to what you've already walked through.
And hearing your testimony might give them the encouragement they need to keep going, turn to Jesus, or begin trusting Him for themselves.
I realized something about the apparel.
The shirt could start the conversation. But the testimony could help someone understand the declaration.
And the declaration could point someone to Jesus.
That's when I understood that these clothes had an assignment.
They weren't simply something to wear.
They were another opportunity to become a living witness.
07 / The vision
THE THOUGHT THAT BECAME A MOVEMENT.
Then I began thinking even bigger.
What if we could inspire 50 million people to publicly declare:
I TRUST JESUS.
But not stop there.
What if those same people started sharing why they trusted Him?
What if they told their stories about what Jesus had done in their lives?
And what if those stories encouraged other people to make that same declaration and share their stories too?
What kind of impact could that have on the world?
Think about it.
Fifty million declarations.
Fifty million opportunities for someone to hear those two words.
Stories being shared across communities, generations, backgrounds, and circumstances.
People encouraging people.
People reminding people.
People pointing people toward Jesus.
Not simply 50 million T-shirts.
Not simply 50 million people recognizing a brand.
But 50 million declarations pointing people toward Jesus.
That's the vision behind Trust Jesus Movement.
We want people to declare their trust in Jesus.
We want them to live that declaration.
We want them to share why they trust Him.
And we want their testimonies to encourage other people to do the same.
Because this isn't just about something we say with our mouths.
It's about how we choose to live our lives.
08 / The founder's story
EVERYTHING WE CREATE HAS AN ASSIGNMENT.
When I look at Trust Jesus Movement today, I don't simply see an apparel brand.
I see a way to reach people.
I see conversations that haven't happened yet.
I see testimonies that haven't been told.
I see people who may be searching for answers, who might encounter those two words at a moment when they need them most.
Our shirts have an assignment.
Our hoodies have an assignment.
Our hats have an assignment.
Our journals have an assignment.
Our testimonies have an assignment.
And that assignment is to point people toward Jesus.
The clothing isn't the destination.
It's one of the ways we carry the message.
We're called to be witnesses. We're called to let our lives testify to what we believe.
And sometimes somebody may never walk into a church building, but they might encounter a person wearing a shirt that says:
TRUST JESUS.
Those words might start a conversation.
That conversation might open the door for a testimony.
And that testimony might encourage someone to begin a relationship with Christ.
That's why we do what we do.
We wear the message so we can share the message.
09 / The journey continues
MY STORY IS STILL BEING WRITTEN.
I've been on this journey for years, and I'm still learning what it means to trust Jesus.
There are still things I don't understand.
There are still circumstances that challenge my faith.
There are still seasons when I have to remind myself of the decision that began in that guest bedroom.
But that's what makes the declaration so personal to me.
It isn't simply something I put on a T-shirt.
It isn't just the name of a movement.
It's a decision about how I choose to live my life.
I trust Jesus with my past.
I trust Jesus with my present.
And I trust Jesus with my future.
I didn't know when I opened my Bible in that guest bedroom that those two words would one day become something I wanted to share with millions of people.
I was simply a man who had reached one of the darkest moments of his life and desperately needed something to hold on to.
And in that moment, the Word of God spoke to me.
Now I want to spend my life encouraging other people to discover what it means to trust Him too.
Not because their lives will suddenly become perfect.
Not because they'll never experience disappointment.
Not because they'll always understand what God is doing.
But because Jesus is worthy of their trust.
10 / Now it's your turn
MY STORY BROUGHT ME HERE. WHAT WILL YOUR STORY INSPIRE?
I share my story because somebody needs to know that their story doesn't have to end in the season they're facing.
I don't know what you're going through.
I don't know what you've lost.
I don't know what you're carrying.
And I don't know what tomorrow looks like for you.
But I know what it meant for me to encounter God's Word when I couldn't see a way forward.
And I know why I still choose to trust Jesus.
Now I want to hear your story.
Why do you trust Him?
What has He brought you through?
What are you learning about Him in this season of your life?
And who might be encouraged if you shared it?
Because this movement doesn't end with my story.
It continues with yours.
I TRUST JESUS.
Timothy T. Luckett
Founder, Trust Jesus Movement
Those words spoke to me.
There I was, in a place where I couldn't make sense of my life anymore, and the Word was telling me not to lean on my own understanding.
To trust God.
To acknowledge Him.
To let Him direct my path.
Think about that.
I had been trying to figure everything out. Trying to understand every disappointment, every loss, every decision, and every circumstance that had brought me to that place.
I was leaning on my own understanding, and my understanding had left me overwhelmed, exhausted, and without answers.
Yet here was the Word of God telling me to trust Him with all my heart.
I didn't know how my circumstances were going to change.
I didn't know what tomorrow would look like.
I didn't know how I was going to rebuild my life.
But something about those words reached me in a place where I desperately needed something to hold on to.
And I made a decision to trust Jesus.
Not because I suddenly understood everything.
Not because everything had been fixed.
Not because the hurt had disappeared.
But because I had reached a place where I could no longer depend on my own understanding.
And that moment became the beginning of a journey.
Not the end of my struggles.
Not the end of my questions.
The beginning of learning to trust Jesus.