The annual 90-day challenge for men requires a daily holy hour, cold showers, and no snacks between meals — among other sacrifices — from January until Easter.

“Oh, I’m not that disciplined,” he told himself. “And I don’t think I ever will be.”

But this year, Guardado, a 28-year-old parishioner at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Parish in Spring Hill, reconsidered.

A lot of life is “wake up, go to sleep, repeat,” he said. But Exodus 90, he realized, is “an invitation to so much more.”

Accepting the Challenge

During the Christmas season, Guardado paused to pray while home alone.

“Lord, I’m here,” he said. “What do you want from me?”

Then, he thought of Exodus 90.

In addition to praying for an hour a day, taking cold showers, and forgoing snacks, Exodus 90 participants agree to sleep at least eight hours a night, exercise three times a week, and fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. There’s no unnecessary screen time, no sweet drinks, no sweet treats, no alcohol, no meat on fasting days, and no unnecessary spending.

“I realized it would help me build discipline in my prayer life, in my personal life, in my health,” Guardado said. “It is a call to discipline and discipleship.”

According to Doyle Baxter, Exodus 90’s head of product, “there’s the cold showers, the holy hours,” but those are just means to an end, he said: “Transformation in our Lord.”

Exodus 90 is a “brotherhood of men that are striving shoulder to shoulder to uncommon freedom in Christ Jesus,” Baxter said.

As Guardado thought about it, he saw that participating could refine him.

“Am I actually going to do it?” he asked himself. “Am I actually going to throw myself into the fire for refinement?”

He made the commitment. But he wouldn’t have to do it alone.

Building a Bond

Participants can use the Exodus 90 app to find and connect with each other, Baxter said.

“There’s a community there,” Guardado said. “There’s a lot of men in the United States, and maybe the world, who are doing it with you.”

This year, Baxter said, 40,500 people registered via the Exodus 90 app to start the challenge when Guardado did.

Some of them are in the Diocese of Saint Petersburg, including Aidan Walraven, 26, a parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Ybor City.

When he decided to do it, he “grabbed up about seven other guys,” he said, who also signed up.

They meet Sundays before Mass to talk about how the challenge is going. Each Exodus 90 participant has an accountability partner to talk with daily.

“It really is like a brotherhood, where we’re all in this together, and we’re all growing in Christ through this,” Walraven said.

Creating Space for Christ

Once you stop scrolling on your phone or streaming on your TV, you notice how much time you had been wasting, said Guardado.

Jordan Schumacher, 26, a parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, is doing Exodus 90 alongside Walraven. He agrees with Guardado.

Starting the challenge alerted him to something he hadn’t noticed before: “I have way more free time than I realize,” he said.

An important part of Exodus 90, all the men said, is using that time to connect with Christ.

“As a youth minister, I tell all my kids prayer is essential,” said Guardado, who works as middle school youth minister and confirmation coordinator at St. Paul’s in Tampa.

“To actively follow the Lord is not an easy thing to do. You have to deny yourself, take up your cross, and move forward.”

Exodus 90’s self-denial is making an impact.

Walraven said that before Exodus 90, he prayed on “autopilot.” He would say the rosary while taking a walk, but distractions around him got in the way of actually meditating on the words he prayed.

Now, he prays for an hour a day in a quiet room, where distractions are limited.

“My prayer life has not only significantly improved, but it’s become more meaningful,” Walraven said.

The sacrifices men make as part of the challenge allow them to focus more on Jesus, he added. But the sacrifices aren’t easy.

A Difficult but Worthwhile Change

“No one looks forward to a cold shower,” Walraven said.

But the challenge’s ascetic disciplines lead to the freedom Baxter says Exodus 90 fosters.

For Schumacher, that includes freedom from his attachment to YouTube, he said. He won’t necessarily quit YouTube for good, but the challenge will change how he uses it.

“I should be more mindful of how much time I spend on it,” he said.

Guardado also envisions lasting change once the challenge ends.

“My biggest hope is that on Easter, I don’t pick up my phone and re-download TikTok and Instagram and Facebook,” he said. “The bad habits that we’ve built have to be destroyed.”

While difficult, Exodus 90 helps men do that.

“The hardest part,” Walraven said, “is starting.”