Why This 19-Year-Old Thanks God For His Wheelchair | Jamey Carrington (EP 208)

This episode is brought to you by Welch's Fruit Snacks. Back-to-school season can be tough on parents, but choosing a snack you and your kids can both get behind doesn't have to be. Stock up on Welch's Fruit Snacks, made with whole fruit, and now made with no artificial dyes. It's a snack kids already love, and one you can feel good about giving them. Go back to school with Welch's Fruit Snacks, now made with no artificial dyes. Now at Lowe's, faster quotes start at the Lowe's Pro Desk. Got a material list handwritten on a sticky note or saved as a photo? Perfect. Bring it to us and get a quote in minutes. And if you don't see what you need on the shelf, we'll help you get it. You can access thousands of products beyond what's available in-store or on Lowe's.com, right from the Lowe's Pro Desk. Build quotes faster and source the materials you need to keep your jobs moving. Just like that, at Lowe's. What do you mean when you say that? Jesus can heal my body, but if he doesn't heal my heart, what good is it? I see this as protection, not limitation. You lit your wheelchair on fire. That's kind of an exaggeration. That's not really an exaggeration, the wheel is completely on fire. I make that video, it's like super viral. 5 million likes. 145 million views. If a man busts through that door right now with a 9mm and decides he has beef with you, I got two words for you, good luck. But I can pray for you. I am quite literally forced to my knees. I need to be humble. Does God need to make calmer waters or does he just need a better sandwich? You might say, "God feels so distant right now." Where is he? I'll tell you where he's at, he lives inside of you. How close do you want him to be? It takes two seconds and it helps us keep putting these conversations in front of people who need them. And the second thing, this one I've honestly been really excited to say, I'm officially announcing our ministry's biggest live event to date, Open Heaven Live Podcast Tour. It's happening November 8th this year at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Texas. This is going to be a night centered around worship, faith, real conversations and genuine community. I believe God is going to move in a powerful way and I would love for you to be in the room. Tickets are on sale right now, you can head to BryceCrawford.org/tour or just click the link in the description. And please, only get your tickets through my official site or that link below. I recommend not buying from random resellers online. I believe this is going to be a really special night and I hope to see you there. All right, let's get into the episode. What's going on guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford Podcast. I'm Bryce and today I'm with a special guest, we got Jamie Carrington here. How you feeling? What's up, man? I'm doing great. Dude, thanks for coming on. Before we get into your story, I want to kind of know, who is Jamie outside of the wheelchair? Who are you? I don't get very far outside. I love it but, physically speaking, but I don't know, man, I'm a pretty normal guy. Like, I mean, we've been here for, I don't know, 30 or 40 minutes. You know by now, I'm a very normal, normal guy. I like Star Wars, I like creativity, I like messing around. I think at heart, I'm a servant. I'm a servant, not only to Christ. I'm a servant to people because servitude is such a big part of my life because it's centered around me and my family. My entire family are servants to me and for people who aren't Christian, that sounds really weird but it's not and it's a beautiful thing to be servants of one another. I'm sure you've had to learn about that in your marriage, like serving one another. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, I mean, I think I'm funny, casual, I like to serve people, be as nice and be as closely resembled to Jesus as I possibly can. Yeah. That's amazing. Well, obviously, you know, from being around you and your family and your friends, I mean, you guys have the heart of Jesus and I love when you laugh and the jokes you make and things like that. So, obviously, we get an inside peek to your life. I mean, what was fate like for you? I mean, what was your relationship with God like growing up? Well, it wasn't what it is now. It was very, you know, back and forth. Like, okay, you say you love me, you died for me, you gave me this beautiful earth to live on, you say that your love is everlasting, well, so is my chronic disability. That's pretty everlasting, too. Yeah. Which is it? You gave this to me and people tell me it's a gift, well, you give terrible gifts. I never want to play Secret Santa with you ever again, so why am I in this chair if you love me? And I grew up in Southern Baptist churches. Same. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Georgia boy. So I'm not, I'm not a Southern Baptist. Yeah. Yeah. But growing up around that, it's very, um, people love to, I think everyone has a heart of gold behind, uh, when they say this, but it, it, it makes, they, they make your problems feel small when they're like, God is just using you and, and you're, uh, you have such a gift. I mean, while I'm nine years old and like, it doesn't feel that way, you know? Um, and that was hard for me and it's hard for anyone. And so I didn't really understand God. I don't know why God would do this to me if you loved me. And so I kind of just saw him as a culture as we all do in the South. Right. Uh, God, guns, trucks, all of the above. Right. Yeah. It's like Jesus is going to return on a white horse with a shotgun and a, right. Like he's singing. Yeah. I mean, God was just one of the things we do, one of the things we talk about at the dinner table. And you were born, you were born with SMA is what it's called. And so, so for people that don't know you, you haven't been able to walk since you were born. No. Yes, absolutely. So, um, I've never walked that army crawl, but that was as far as it went, uh, the telltale sign. It was, I was diagnosed at one, um, telltale sign was I couldn't sit up straight for very long. I would fall over, um, my tongue twitches. Um, so like that, that's another telltale sign, um, in children with SMA is really weird. Uh, so we went through all the tests, doctors tested me, parents went, you know, from doctor to doctor trying to figure out what this thing was. And finally, one doctor comes back after all the tests, big piece of paper list of conditions that I could have. And he says, well, you could have this, you could have this, and you could have this. And he gets down to the very last condition. He's like, you definitely don't want this though. This is worst case scenario, SMA, don't want it. That's the one I had. So I'm like, I don't want it. I don't want it. I don't want it. I just got the short end of the stick with it, but I've always had it and I've had to learn how to deal with it. And it, and so you, you rededicated your life to Jesus in middle school. What was the turning point for that? It was feeling very hopeless. I think I, I felt similar to you, not in a way where I wanted to take my own life because I already felt like my life had been taken from me. I felt like I was. I felt like I was deprived of the things. Why, why does Bryce get to walk around? Why does Bryce get to play on the monkey bars? Why does Bryce get to run around with his friends and play tag? Like, why can I do that? I felt like I was deprived of being a normal human being. So at that point, um, I felt like I was just gonna stay in my hometown for the rest of my life. Um, maybe go to college, get a job that I hate. Maybe doing it or something. Yeah. Uh, not everybody in a wheelchair is like Charles Xavier. So we're not like super geniuses. So if I was able to walk, I probably doing something in my hands. Um, so that was hard to, I mean, what more is there to say? I felt like I was deprived of everything a human being should have. Yeah. So is that where like the, the real dedication to Jesus started was in middle school. Mm-hmm. And when, so was that, when did it, when did you go from knowing about God? To knowing God himself? I knew God in early high school because at middle school it was about knowing about God. Mm-hmm. So I knew about God in middle school, but I didn't know God until early high school. The reason for that was, uh, I was very sucked into theology. Mm-hmm. Um, it started with the rapture. I feel like that's where it starts with everybody, which I don't believe in the rapture. I haven't publicly came out and said that yet. - Well, maybe not in the way that most people think like that you know you meet you meet jesus in the sky like your perspective yeah i know i i said that and everyone's like you don't believe in the rapture and i'm like well like not not the way that most people think about it right it's i i believe in the second coming yep i believe jesus will return judgment day will happen but i don't see us leaving and then god having people left behind which is also a very new theological idea that came out yeah it's younger than mormonism yeah it's very kind of scary so are you are you um are you like a millennial or uh do you you know do you know those yeah yeah i talked about it with um my uncle who's a um he's a pastor he's been a pastor for many years um i don't know the exact terminology um but i believe we will go through the tribulation i believe that we will have to suffer i believe that we will have to hold back the gates of hell as the church jesus says the gates of hell will not prevail against my church and if we're the church then we are the gates of heaven and the gates of heaven surround earth i firmly believe that so i think we have to be here and we have to go through trials i think too many people use it as a scapegoat to be like i don't want to go through hardship poof i'm gone yeah and how many people are going to lose their faith when the rapture doesn't happen it's really scary to me i would rather be pleasantly surprised and severely disappointed i think that's going to be very hard for some people but i could be wrong and i'll see you guys in heaven if i am wrong so so what do you say i guess the people that are like you know talking on the suffering part people that say well you know we're gonna have to suffer we're gonna have to endure do you view the sma and the wheelchair now as suffering or are you kind of used to it now because you're 19 right so or is it just like this is all i've known so i'm just i don't view it any differently i i told my friend the other day i was like um i have a pretty easy life is what i said over the phone and it's true the hardest thing i do is i have to pee in a cup but other than that like that's that's about it yeah so i mean no like i have a pretty easy life but i see that that way because of jesus i have an easy life because i have a savior and so i found that there is salvation and suffering and i thank god for my body all the time wow i'm so thankful for this broken little body that i have because it's taught me so much i've gotten to know god in ways that people don't because i'm quite literally forced to my knees to be humble yeah i don't really have the choice to be prideful because if i want to be prideful then i have to ignore the people who give me a sip of water the people who put a shirt on my back the people who you know you just lifted my wheelchair into this house not easy by the way but you didn't and if i was to be prideful to you and if i was to back up to you i'd have to ignore that yeah and i'd have to be ungrateful for you so i don't get to be prideful there's no room for that in my life so how did you come to terms then with god allowing you to have sma it first started with reading the book of job which i think is very essential and i think that's one of the most important things in the book and i think it's very important to read the book because it's very important for us to understand that everything is very essential for anyone who's going through suffering um we see there the theological idea that there's kind of this cosmic gamble going on between god and the devil and we realize that god permits suffering but it doesn't cause it and it doesn't permit something unless it comes from god and that's why we see he lost suffering because in the end job was a mouthpiece for god he was an instrument for god because he allows his suffering to be used by something bigger than himself and to me i saw that as okay i was born in a fallen world i was born in a fallen womb but i wasn't originated from a fallen kingdom i didn't come from a place of of accidents i'm not an accident i was ordained like every other child of god um and so i started with like a theological understanding um and then it became more of a heart thing for me what does satan try to tell you about the pain that you struggle with and the suffering that you struggle with probably that i'm a burden i would say you're one of the first people i told him i'm telling you about this but my sister just had her first child so he's like three months old and um he was crying in the other room and i'm sitting there and he's crying he's crying he's crying a little baby in the crib like i can't do anything and i just like start to cry because i can't pick him up or like just do anything um and like it even gets me a little emotional now because it's like um if a man busts through that door right now the nine millimeter and decides he has beef with you i got two words for you good luck because i'm no help to you at all but i can pray for you i can call upon angels to cover you i can call upon the blood of jesus to protect you yeah but i can't throw hands if i wanted to right now yeah um that makes me feel like a burden as a future husband future father um even a future minister so that's that's probably the biggest thing that i feel like i'm i'm fed but you know what gives me so much hope is i know that right now if a dude busted through that door the nine millimeter and you had time to run in front of me you would all right and that's that's the heart that matters because you have people that are six foot six that are all muscle and that look like they could defend you and then when times get tough they run i'm totally gonna out one of my best friends josh but when we started the ministry he was videoing our videos and sometimes we'd be in the street and people would get rough and when they'd get rough he'd run opposite direction i'm like josh like i know if i'm going if i if like something's about to go down i'm not calling you you know you were not on the and we always laugh about it because he's just he's i don't know what to do so he'd turn and run and uh but you know i know that about you and you can tell that about you that that's your that's your heart's desire and you can see that in so much of the videos that you make and the way that you talk about jesus it's so evident so when when satan then speaks to you that you're a burden how does god reframe that for you people see it as a privilege for you to be a burden in a way um my friend uh my best friend his name is braxton and me and braxton have been friends since fourth grade and he's the only one of my friends who's showered me and has taken care of me intimate level like that wow and a few weeks ago i was down because uh a friend of mine basically told me that it it's a lot to take care of you it just is and um i talked to braxton about it and he was like i've never saw it as a burden to take care of you i saw it as an opportunity to give you i saw it as an opportunity to give you i saw it as an opportunity to give you as much as a normal life as you can possibly get i see it as being a servant and i get more out of it than you do so to me this just exemplifies even more why it's so important for us to be servants of one another if the son of god if the messiah if the creator of the universe if god himself is a servant of man why can't we be servants soon why can't we put weight on our shoulders for other people why can't we bend over backwards for someone why can't we do things for people when we don't want to your god died on your cross for you go help that person move out of their house yeah hope that person that crossed the street push their wheelchair carry their groceries like do what you can yeah because there's there's sanctification in that there's sanctification in that and i don't i don't think for a second and i don't i don't think for a second and i don't i don't think for a second that that that god will look upon us as as as his children god will look upon us as as his children god will look upon us as as his children would favor if we neglect servitude i would favor if we neglect servitude i would favor if we neglect servitude i just don't just don't just don't you've said in the past that jesus has you've said in the past that jesus has you've said in the past that jesus has healed you what do you mean when you say that jesus has healed you yeah jesus has healed me he's healed me in so many ways and it is a disservice for us to think that healing is only in the physical because jesus can heal my body but if he doesn't heal my heart what good is it yeah if jesus only healed my body i can't imagine the type of sinner i would be i can't imagine how many sins that i would commit if i had hands to move if i had legs to run i cannot imagine the type of person i would be and so i see this as protection this wheelchair this body that weighs 60 pounds i see this as protection not not limitation so you jesus healed my heart instead because he knew that that was a core issue that's what needed to be fixed he didn't need my problems to go away it's like does god need to make calmer waters or does he just need a better sailor what does he need from you that's the question we have to ask ourselves wow i love that i i can't remember where i was reading in a book i think it was pastor joey martin he said that he would always pray um for god not to lighten the load but to broaden his shoulders and uh and then my my pastor from back at home pastor james he griffin he always says uh god give me thick skin but a soft heart you know thick skin to take the blows of what people say like a soft compassionate heart and i always think that mindset of what you said like do we need calmer seas or do we just need to be a better sailor i think that that perspective is so powerful so so you know you've you've opened up in the past about struggling with porn you've hinted at your depression not wanting to exist or be here potentially taking your own life and stuff like that a lot of men that struggle with that i used to struggle with all that stuff right you want to bury it you want to hide it so how did you get to a place where you could bring that stuff to the light and talk about it i mean i talked about it in high school i was still there Wow. So I made a video talking about like my porn, lust addiction, um, in high school. And to me, I didn't feel like I was losing much because my social life was kind of not that great. So, uh, it didn't really matter to me. I mean, I knew that I wasn't going to date anyone there. I knew I wasn't going to, you know, go to parties or anything like that. I knew who my people were and who my people weren't. So making a video saying that, yeah, I struggled with porn wasn't a big deal for me. Because I knew it would help at least someone there. And it did. Someone came up to me and was like, you have no idea how much that helped me. And I was like, man, you just made my day. Wow. I know. And I like. God gave me the boldness to talk about those things, to not bury them. Um, I was very open about it and it helped people so much. And, um, I just, like, why would I be so selfish to hide my problems when, when it could help someone else? Yeah. How can I be so selfish to, you know, remain in my chains? Remain in the chains. That keep me down when I could break the bonds that other people are held in. What does a dark day look like for you? I think the darkest days for me are when, um, I just feel really lonely. Um, I have a tendency to be, feel like a very lonely person. Um, all my friends kind of moved away, which is a total of like four. So. Um, I don't really get out much. Um, I'm always at home working on ministry. Um, just doing what I can to keep my mind sane. Uh, but I don't really get out much. I don't really, uh, socialize too much. Like Luke over there behind the camera is always like, come out, man. Like, let's go to this event. Like, let's go to this youth group. And I'm like, ah, like I just, yeah. It irks me. And I just, uh, I, because I've had those experiences with youth groups that like just really turned me off. And I think I'm getting to the point now where like, I want to go back, but it's, it's just hard, especially in like group settings. Um, and I think some of it is self-inflicted upon myself. Um. Um, but it's just, it's again, one of those days where you feel like a burden, you feel alone and you feel like, um, you bring people down more than you lift them up. Back to school season can be tough on parents, but choosing a snack you and your kids can both get behind doesn't have to be. Stock up on Welch's Fruit Snacks. Made with whole fruit and now made with no artificial dyes. It's a snack kids already love and one you can feel good about giving them. Go back to school with Welch's Fruit Snacks. Now made with no artificial dyes. Now at Lowe's. Faster quotes. Start at the Lowe's Pro Desk. Perfect. And if you don't see what you need on the shelf. We'll help you get it. You can access thousands of products beyond what's available in store or on Lowe's.com. Right from the Lowe's Pro Desk. Just like that. At Lowe's. Do you feel like that you're just afraid maybe to get introduced to new people because of that maybe struggling with feeling like a burden sometimes? Like you don't want to, I don't know, like reset. Because you're. Friend Braxton that you said is like your best friend. You have so much history with him. You know, so you could not see him for two months, I bet. And then you guys could call and it'd be like you guys just hung out the day before. You know, whereas like you meet new people. And I can, I can understand that on some degree of like, wow, maybe it is hard to make new friends. Is that the aspect or you're just more like I'm kind of used to being at home. So I like. It's that like feeling like. Like weird. When you, you know, roll out of a wheelchair van or maybe sometimes I have to ask for a certain thing. It's like, hey, cross my legs or whatever. But I think it's also. Like, I just feel like a misunderstood person a lot. I was like, I just had a falling out of a friend group that basically said, hey, we don't like the jokes you make. We don't like. The person that you are a lot of times. And we're disappointed and we're worried you do what you do for the wrong reasons. And that hurt a lot because I thought I found like a really great friend group. And so I feel like being an evangelist and doing what I do. And I love being. I love being a servant of the Lord. But if I'm going to be a servant, a man, I wouldn't be a Christian. So it feels like a trade off. Yeah. Follow the Lord and be misunderstood. Follow a man and be understood. Yeah, it's and that is something I say, okay, with tears in my eyes. Yeah, I just have to accept it, bite the bullet and move on. I think you understand that to run some like I know for a fact that. You are not a perfect person. I know that people think you are, but you are not. And I know that it hurts you when people expect you to be a certain way. And you just know you can't ever live up to that expectation. Yeah, I know it hurts you. Yeah, absolutely. I think being misunderstood is one of the hardest things because like, oh, wait, would that hurt? Oh, I didn't mean to know. Like, I just I thought that was funny. Like, or like, oh, well, I didn't. Well, no, I said that. Because I meant this, not because I meant, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't, you know, and I, I, it's easier said than done. You know, I think about Jesus was the most misunderstood man on the planet by his own hometown. Literally, it said a prophet's welcome anywhere except for his hometown. And that's hard. Yeah. And then you, you know, and then you go, well, okay, yeah, Jesus understands me. But then sometimes that is hard to accept. You know, it's easy. It's easy to hear and it's encouraging to hear and then, you know, you experience something hard like that and you're like, I don't, I don't know, you know, I think, I think for me, trusting people is like, is the hardest thing, because when I first got into ministry, I would serve at these conferences and I wanted to like a mentor. bad so I had friends that would like be mentored by people or like leaders that they would trust and I would be serving at conferences and trying to introduce myself to people and no one would give me the time of day and so it kind of broke my heart and then now sometimes those same people come back and they act like that we're all friends and that we know each other and that we're super close and so that's hard for me to trust because I'm like well I have friends that trust you but I'm like we haven't talked in like four years and now now it's like we're all of a sudden talking and so I totally understand the being misunderstood thing but like you have to love those people anyways absolutely and sometimes them having a misunderstood idea about who you are helps them more more than it does actually understanding you if you think I am this way and that helps you sleep at night and that helps you be a better person a better believer and that helps you follow Jesus more fervently then I'm going to let you have that opinion and I'm going to give you grace and I'm going to love you and I'm I don't have to let you see me behind closed doors sometimes that's really the best option um because if if if it helps you someone I believe if it helps them be a better leader uh sorry a better follower of Christ and it helps them follow him in a way that is honest and genuine to have that opinion about someone to look up to someone in that way um I think I think it would be harmful for us to put all take all our skeletons and just throw them out of the closet yeah so everybody can see you know what I mean yeah I know exactly what you mean so you dropped out of bible college to go ministry full-time I didn't think you were going to talk about that you did your homework I where did you what made you pull the trigger on that what made me pull the trigger was number one I don't think that they were operating in a way that the church should be operating so for example uh women pastors were a very big thing there and biblically I don't think scripture supports it I don't think the church has supported it for thousands of years um and I remember on a Tuesday we had um every Tuesday would be our young adult gathering so it'd be 18 to 28 year olds and you could come and you would have church service and worship and all that and it was for the people that couldn't come to church on Sundays because most of them were working um so when it was time for Tuesday night almost rolled around the corner uh they said we're going to change it to a fellowship night and we're going to have a nerve war I was like you know like some of these guys have beards like we're grown men um so I put one of the guys aside I'm like hey uh what do you um what do you think about this like are you cool with it and he was like oh I'm not really cool with it but um like it's up to the pastor it's not really up to me um so I actually talked to the dean of the college and the college was under the church so the church started their own college gotcha and it was a very big church and so I I talked to the dean and I'm like hey I know this is gonna sound harsh but like I think you guys are worshiping yourselves right now I don't think this is good I think that we are training people to get something when they come to church rather than give I think that we are doing a very big disservice to God right now entertaining ourselves at church and he was like well you know we see it as Fellowship we see it as like a team building type of thing and I'm like I think that's great I think we could do that on a day that's not meant for church service but this is not good and we are adults we are not children we have different standards um so that was I think the first nail in the coffin and then the second one was just um I don't think I fully mess with the people there that's more of a me thing than is them um and then the third one was I I thought it was weird how the money was handled pretty much um like spending money on things I didn't think needed to be spent on um and so that was that was kind of it for me and then I was like uh this is causing me to resent church because I had to volunteer so I'm having to volunteer and I don't even want to come to this church and I feel I dread Sundays now and I don't want to feel that way about church so it'd be better for me to just drop out wow then uh then to feel that way about church so I I wanted to go online from that one nice and then and then you started 99 Ministries so tell me about that and what made you want to start it so the thing about 99 Ministries is I've always felt um that you know we love to help the masses but not the one um I saw what you did for uh breast cancer awareness um that one woman that you helped that's basically 99 Ministries it's finding people who've had the past 99 days like hell but giving them one day that's unlike the other 99 um whether that's taking somebody who's you know a child in the hospital taking them to like Lego land or Disney World um raising the funds for to you know have these people to have a day unlike any other uh to have a place where we can say we're gonna leave the 99 and go after the one essentially um to spread the word of Jesus to inspire people to encourage people and show people hey it's okay to be a servant pretty much yeah that's amazing yeah are there still days that you still ask God God why did you allow this to happen to me no no I really don't um I think I think I asked more so questions like why can't it be a little easier you know what I mean like why can't I have a easier life um why do you have to make things so difficult why do you make me bump my head on the wall so many times in a row um but you know somebody told me there was like uh do you know how Muslims view disabilities I was like no it's everyone in Islam if you have a disability and you are a Muslim uh God will look upon you with more favor he will look upon you with more favor uh because he has pity on you he feels sorry for you and he will give you um kind of an easier route in life and he asked me I said do you find that attractive I'm like no I don't find that attractive at all like that's just a pity party that's just God throwing a pity party like what you really mean so I didn't see that as something that was um I wouldn't want my Creator to be that way I want my Creator to put pressure on me if he thinks I can handle it yeah and I want him to give me a hard life if he thinks that I'm strong enough to take it yeah and strong enough to give it to him yeah um so I think those are kind of my questions yeah um I'm sure you could probably relate to that like you don't question your depression but your questions are probably more complex now like God like like why does it have to be this way like you you freed me of this but you won't free me of that you know what I mean yeah I I've asked myself that a lot and I've even asked myself like I prayed this prayer on Waffle at Waffle House where you took away my anxiety and depression with like little to no faith but then I pray that same prayer for other people that I love and that I'm close with with what I believe is more faith yeah you don't take it out of their life do you ever get tired of people using your suffering for a lesson for themselves no um I just don't want you to chop me down to just that you know what I mean like I want to be more to you than the guy who's super inspiring um I just want to be Jamie you know I just uh I want to be known for uh being a good steward I think uh I think about my own death a lot and not in like a you know pessimistic way but almost in a a fantasization where like I want to leave things better than when I found it And so I think about that a lot. I think about what will I leave behind when I'm gone. 'Cause that's really important to me. I want to leave behind a life where people can look and say, yeah, he was super inspiring, but he was also a really, really kind person. And he was a masculine person and he was a gentle person. That's my strife. - Have you ever felt pressure to always be joyful because people may expect, oh, the guy in the wheelchair has the perfect testimony. So he's always gotta be joyful. - Yeah. - Do you feel that pressure? - Yeah, because I mean, I was told by another big creator, like, you are the perfect podcast guest. And I was like-- - What does that mean? - I mean, it's not wrong though. In the sense that you have a story, you catch people off guard. People stop when they look at you. They stop when they hear you speak. And so it does set this expectation to be this person that people want to listen to you. Quite frankly, you don't want to listen to me when I'm talking about something stupid. Something that-- - I would, I would definitely. I personally would. Maybe I'm the 1%, but I definitely would listen to you. - You're my favorite 1%, man. - Thank you. - I mean, you know, it is hard sometimes. But it's like this, Bryce. So there's this parable in Matthew 25, where there's a master and he gives a lump of money to three of his servants. Now two of those servants, they get the hustling. They go out, they stretch that money, they build it. They come back with it tenfold to give to their master when he comes back. But that one servant, he played it safe. He didn't stretch it. He didn't build it. He comes back with even money. And the problem wouldn't be if the servant lost money because he would have stepped out in faith. The problem is they didn't do anything with what was longed in. So you and I are living on longed ideas, longed creativity, longed passions, longed talents from God himself, because we are made in his likeness. So everything that we have, I believe every single human being possesses at least one quality that God also possesses that is longed. And so because we are walking every day with longed qualities that are not ours, he expects us to grow out. To step out in faith. To build that up. To stretch it. And to come back with tenfold. And let's say you do do that. Let's say you do step out in faith. Well now you have an even bigger problem. See in that parable, every one of those servants had to give the money back. They couldn't keep it. They had to give it back to the master. So can you give something back that has your fingerprints all over it? That you built in God's name and say, "You know what, this is never mine to begin with. Here you are." That's the real struggle for people. - Wow. - So that's what we have to do with our lives, is give something back to God that was longed to us from the beginning. It's really easy to give him nothing, but it's really hard to give God something. - That's powerful. Very powerful. All right, I've just got to ask you. - Uh-huh. - I'm going to catch you off guard here. I'm going to catch you off guard here. Have you ever done a crazy stunt in the wheelchair? - Oh, you don't know? - No. - Does he not know? - Am I supposed to know? - Does he not know? - I don't know. - Can somebody show him? - You have a video? - Show him. Show him. We got you. - When did this happen? - A year ago. - Okay, so this is fairly recent. What made you want to pull a stunt? - My mom wasn't at home. - Do you know about this? - I knew after. - What do you think about it? - I didn't love it. - You lit your wheelchair on fire. - Well, that's kind of an exaggeration. - That's not really an exaggeration. The wheel is completely on fire. - Well, it's not the whole thing. It's like 20%-- - Dude, that is insane. Who told you to do that? - My brain. - Your brain? No one else told you? - No. - Who did that for you? Who lit it on fire? - Well, actually, no. There was someone. My high school physics teacher. - Okay, your physics teacher? - Yeah. - It was like, "Hey, Jamie. "Yeah, light your wheelchair on fire." - Well, not exactly like that. I asked Mr. Helms. I said, "Hey, let's say, hypothetically, "if I'm willing to light my wheelchair on fire, "how would I do it?" So he's like, "You just get rubbing alcohol "and you just spray it." - So you like sprayed it on the ground and lit it on fire. - Yep, you put it on the ground and put it on the wheels, you light it, and then off you go. And he was like, "Yeah, let me know how it goes." I came back. I showed him. He was super, super impressed. - You know, Mr. Helms is the reason for your fire addiction. And did it look gangster? Absolutely, it looked gangster. - Oh, it looked so gangster. - Could your wheelchair have completely blown up in the moment? - Yes. - Also, absolutely, that could have happened. - But like, you know, this is like, again, I think one's creativity. So. - Dude, there's like, there's no way you can pull that back into the parable from Matthew 25, there's no way. - I'm sure you can. I've learned creativity, so I'm gonna use it. And here's the thing. I make that video, it went super viral. - Five million likes. - 145 million views. - Are you serious? - People see that and then they get funneled into the rest of the content. And then they say, "Oh, this guy, "the reason he's able to do this is because of Christ. "That he's able to have a smile on his face "and go through all this." So it's really also weird. Like, I'll go through Reddit threads of people who also have SMA, and. - Are they like, doing the same thing? - No, it's actually really depressing. It's like, not all of them are very happy people. And it makes you feel weird as someone with a disability to like, live a joyous life when there's people also in wheelchairs that have it so hard. - Yeah. - Just because the things are out of their control. - Yeah. - Just because they don't have a caregiver, because they don't have people in their life that are willing to bend over backwards for them. And so you feel like guilty in a way. You know what I mean? - Have you ever like, dropped that video in on like, a Reddit thread of maybe some people that struggle with SMA, they're like, "I don't even know what to do, like I'm bored." And then you're just like, "Yo, check this out. "Like, go do this." Have you ever done that, or? - No, I got rid of Reddit a long time ago, 'cause. - It's intense, it's a dark place. - It's a pretty pornographic place, too. That's why I got rid of it. - I never had Reddit, like, on my phone. But I know that people, I've seen Reddit threads before of like, you can create like a conversation topic, and then people come. It's kind of like Twitter, honestly, in a way. - Yeah, but I mean, I liked Twitter in a sense. Like, I could watch fights on there and stuff. Like, I know dudes just say that that's why they use Twitter, but then they go and like, choke the chicken for like five hours. But like, I'm being really serious when I say I only used it for that. - No, I believe that. Yeah, I mean, Twitter's a great platform 'cause you need platforms that will let you use freedom of speech. - Right. - Yeah, but Reddit is a really dark place, so I think that's, man, that's so interesting. Yeah, that video's hilarious of you riding in the fire. - Thank you. - Yeah. - Have you ever done anything like that? - Yeah, I've accidentally lit my neighbor's lawn on fire by accident. I did a fire, I launched a firework, but I stuck it too deep in the grass, so instead of it shooting up, it like, tilted and shot across the grass, and when it blew up, it lit the lawn on fire. - That's pretty cool. - That was unintentional, though. Yours looked very intentional. - I mean, sure, but I mean, the lawn on fire is pretty cool. Was the neighbor like, upset, or was it cool? - It was actually one of my best friends from here at home, so, but I had a history, unironically, of breaking stuff at their house. Like, I had broken their coffee table, they got it replaced, broke their second one, fell through their ceiling, like, lit their lawn on fire. So, by the lawn, they were just kind of like, alright, it's bound to happen at this point. - Are you still allowed over there, or no? - I am, they are great family friends. - Wow. - And I love the Barfields to death, so they are amazing. - That's awesome. Wow, that's really what Jesus looks like. - Yeah, yeah, letting me come over and still love it on me and being friends, that is. - Wow. - Even though I've done collateral damage to their house multiple times, it's okay. - That's impressive. - So, if someone were watching this right now, they feel limited, forgotten, overlooked, what would you tell them? - I would tell them that God does not see what man sees. God does not gaze upon us with human eyes, but divine eyes. God looks at your heart, and He looks at your heart in such a way unlike any other person in a way where He measures everything about you. And there is no misunderstandings with God. There's no misunderstandings with God. You might feel so far from him. You might say, God feels so distant right now. Where is he? I'll tell you where he's at. He lives inside of you. The Holy Spirit lives inside of you. God is dwelling within your body. How far do you want him to be? How dare you ask that question? You move, not him. So it's a matter of us being able to recognize that I'm not too far gone. I was the one that stepped away. But he's willing to be with me. Somehow I'm thousands of miles away from him, but he's still right here. And it's weird, but it's beautiful. And he looks at you with the eyes of a father. And not just that, but the eyes of a friend. Scripture says God calls his friends. And there's no personal relationship like that that you can find in any other religion. So you're not too far gone. And there is hope for you. And you are created in the image of God. And you're a beautiful human being. Would you pray for everyone as we close out? Absolutely. Father God, I thank you for brides. I thank you for air in my lungs. I thank you for blood in my veins. I thank you. I thank you for this body that I have and the body that everyone has, Lord. I thank you that you have given us the ability to praise your name. And I thank you for giving us a new heart that desires you. Not a hard heart, not a heart of stone, but a heart made of flesh that is soft for you, God. God, please let us be good stewards. Please let us pursue you endlessly. Please allow us, convict us, break us down if we need to be broken down, Lord, in order that we are true followers of you, God. Do not look away from us, Father, but keep us in your hands. We love you. We praise you. We thank you. And in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Fall is the perfect time to refresh and reorganize your space. At The Home Depot, find power tools and tool sets starting at $50 to help tackle DIY projects, home updates, and more. Whether you're drilling brackets to support new shelving or sharpening your hedge trimmer blade with an angle grinder, The Home Depot has the tools you need to check projects off your list. Shop Labor Day Savings at The Home Depot and gear up for fall projects with the right tools to keep your projects moving. Now at Kroger, your points add up to more ways to save every trip. Use them your way to take dollars off groceries at checkout or save at the pump. You can even save up to $35 on your next fill-up. Same points, more choices. And with low prices on fresh, quality food, plus digital and personalized offers tailored to how you shop, your dollar goes further. Redeem your points online or in the app. Kroger, fresh for everyone. Restrictions apply. See site or store for details. Amen.