Plays On Word Radio
An in-depth look at the Word of God, the Plays On Word community, and the Plays - with original music - we perform, that are based on the Word of God. New episodes drop Fridays at 7AM EST! To find out how Plays On Word Theater can perform 'LIVE on YOUR STAGE' and to support this missionary & podcast visit: https://playsonword.org/
Plays On Word Radio
Ep 121: From Broken to Director of Fun - How Christ Transforms Lives (Part 2)
"James Serpico continues to share his journey from addiction to redemption, revealing how God transformed his heart, after completing their recovery program, and gave him purpose as the Director of Programming at America's Keswick."
• Started experimenting with alcohol at age 15 to alleviate social anxiety and fear
• Found painkillers in college which "killed" both physical and emotional pain
• Maintained weekend use for 10 years before progressing to daily dependence
• Eventually needed substances just to feel normal, not to get high
• Had a life-changing car accident on the NJ Turnpike after using contaminated drugs
• Called 911 and admitted his addiction, marking the beginning of his recovery
• Entered America's Keswick recovery program two weeks after the accident
• Transitioned from colony member to staff to Director of Programming
• Experienced significant loss including his father and mentor Robert Hayes
• Discovered that vulnerability and dependence on God are his true strengths
• Now uses his experience to help others find recovery through Christ
If you're struggling with addiction or know someone who is, James's story demonstrates that recovery is possible. Reach out to America's Keswick or another Christian recovery program to find the help you need.
Addiction Recovery at Keswick - https://addictionrecovery.org/
Barbara's Place - https://addictionrecovery.org/barbarasplace/relaunch/
America's Keswick - https://americaskeswick.org/
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Lord, you know you will now listen to Plays on Word Radio. It's the best If God stopped there. Took me from here to here. Here's you before Keswick and here's you at Keswick. And I just hung out at America's Keswick in Whitey, new Jersey, in the Pine Barrens. That'd be enough.
Speaker 2:Trust me, that'd be enough.
Speaker 1:But he has not stopped anywhere close to there. This is deep. This is not environment. This is not environment. This is not a location. This is a heart set and a heart location and a heart condition, and so he has not stopped at my physical location. He is working on my heart.
Speaker 2:You're the only name. You're the only name. You're the only name. Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we discuss, analyze, work and play on the Word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion. Today let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr, the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.
Speaker 3:Okay y'all. Thank you very much, josh Taylor and Katie Kenny, for that introduction. We're going to continue our interview with the James Serpico of America's Keswick. Come on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, about 15 years old, I was definitely taken by got its hooks in me by alcohol and really it was like a substance thing. The alcohol was just, I think alcohol is convenient, and so it was around and it was something as lighthearted as playing ping pong with my brother and drinking my parents' wine and saying, man, this feels pretty good. The next few things, next few experiences were being in a social environment and saying, oh I don't, I don't have those fears anymore.
Speaker 1:This has alleviated, um, the fears of being around people.
Speaker 1:I don't really care about what they think of me, I'm just gonna say what, what comes to mind, and I was probably a fool a lot of those times because I didn't care, yeah, but that's what I felt and it alleviated those fears and those stresses and the anxieties, and so I think at that point I was really hooked in the idea or thought of if a substance can give me, um, the experience, the feeling of being alleviated, of anxiety, then I'm gonna, I'm gonna check these things out.
Speaker 1:That was a big reason for me to continue going down that road of of substances, of exploring and experimenting with substances, and pretty much each one that I found I was like okay, and there's a fun aspect to it too. There's a peer pressure aspect to it, there's a hanging out and social acceptance aspect to it, um, but for me, I think the big thing that led me down that road and I continued down that road was because I was so anxious around people and it just took that. It took that fear away I was into. I got into a different headspace, different mindset. I found some that I didn't really like, but at least it was still something that was different from just me, just James, being scared and anxious and sober. And then eventually, I found one I really did that clicked, and it was painkillers.
Speaker 3:That's a big deal with a lot of people.
Speaker 1:It became huge right around that time too. I was probably a freshman sophomore in college, and so that was probably around 2002, 2003, when we didn't know how bad they were and how addictive they were, and there was a lot out there as well.
Speaker 3:Doctors were prescribing it like it was a candy or whatever yeah, take they flooded the market so you could get them everywhere. And uh, oh, yeah, man that's a, that's a.
Speaker 1:that's a documentary out there. That's the number of documentaries. But for as far as my personal story, they were out there, they're available and they when you talk about pain killers, they definitely kill physical pain, but they also do a lot to emotional and mental pain and they did that for me. They I didn't have any, I didn't have a broken bone, I didn't have a hurt back, I didn't have a bad knee. I was in good shape, but I was in really bad shape. I had a broken heart and it felt like it healed. It felt like it administered pain relief to my broken heart and it did that in a way where it took away the anxiety really significantly and I felt more like me than I had ever felt. But I was on this pill, I was on this drug. It was an opiate and all it was doing was releasing dopamine, but in an unnatural way.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I was really, really hooked and I did that for a number of years only on the weekends. I said I got this under control, I can handle it, but it was just messy story. You know, once a month, twice a month, messy story, messy story I'd still be drinking. One thing led to another. I, I held that. I held that lifestyle together for about 10 years and most people that's that's amazing, that's really people are like what?
Speaker 3:that must have been a lot of work it's very tiring.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I bet, but the thing is too a lot of my friends are doing the same thing. So you get, you hang out with a, you hang out with a certain crowd and you're just. It's the norm, that's how it is. But the fact that I didn't get hooked, uh, on a daily basis, I think is the surprising thing but that was just part of my routine was I'm gonna use on the weekends and have fun, I'll go and I'll go to work during the week. But that even was tearing at me and I eventually started using on Thursdays.
Speaker 1:And then the big turning point was I lost my job because I wasn't showing up on time, because I didn't want to be there. I hated my job, I didn't like my life and I wasn't using up on time because I didn't want to be there. I hated my job, I didn't like my life and I wasn't using, but my sobriety was miserable. Okay, and so eventually I got fired and I was a good worker, but I was doing stuff that wasn't good. I was showing up late and I was leaving early, and that's plenty to get someone fired.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right there, those two things, that those are pretty crucial you know.
Speaker 1:And so I got fired and that I mentioned that because at that point I I started being a personal trainer and I had my own schedule, yeah, and I had my own apartment and didn't really have anyone looking after me or over me and I said, yeah, let me use. On a Monday, I'll have a few beers tonight, let me use. And I think that first, like what I considered a weekday of using, was like it just opened and I remember thinking I said, if I do this, I think in like five or six days in a row, it's not going to be good, because then you got withdrawal to deal with and I was absolutely right. I started using and for the next five years probably, I was using every day If I had it, for the next five years, if I had opiates in the pill form and and eventually heroin, if I had heroin in powder form, I never shot anything into my veins, thank the lord, because I know that's really dangerous.
Speaker 1:But at this point today, if you you could be around fentanyl and you can have a reaction that might kill you, wow, oh yeah, and so even just snort. Yeah, there's cops that have touched it and they have a reaction that they have to go to. They have to go to the hospital literally, and they're putting all kinds of stuff in it. These days it's so dangerous. But if I didn't have pills or heroin, some sort of opiate, in my system, I was withdrawing. And if I did have it, I was using it as as quickly as I could, um, to feel good. I always wanted to feel high, but eventually got to a point where I was just feeling normal oh man, wow, so you weren't even getting high anymore, you're just like can I just get into the baseline?
Speaker 1:oh man, just to, just to be able to function.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness, there's probably, there's probably a lot of people not hopefully not listening to this right now, but if you are, I'm gonna give you james's contact please do.
Speaker 1:I hope, I hope, I hope. A lot of people are listening yeah, yeah, yeah that's.
Speaker 3:I mean that's, I know what you.
Speaker 1:I know what you mean, because you hope that people aren't going through that.
Speaker 3:That's what I mean. But if they are, if they are right, there's a place where they can.
Speaker 1:Oh Lord, there's a place and there's a time, and it is now to stop it's not easy.
Speaker 3:So continue with this, because you were just trying to break, just trying to get your head to the above water, not even trying to be high, just to get. Okay, can I function? I'm gonna have to take this to function. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:Yes and so I I was thinking about this recently because I was sharing. I'm married today. It's just god has done so much. Uh, it'll be two years married in august. Amen, praiseth, amen, praise the Lord, praise God. I still counsel, I still go to—I counsel myself. I go to a counselor yeah, hopefully, I'm counseling others, but I still need counseling. So I go to Pastor Noah who works here at Keswick and we still process through things I was saying.
Speaker 1:And just bringing up some old stories and war stories are never good if that's all you talk about, but they are good to remember where you came from, what god has brought me from. And right, it got so desperate that I mean just the lies alone, because I was trying to hold my life together. I was trying to be one person in front of my parents, some of my friends. I did eventually start so really quickly. I want to say I grew up going to church. My dad would bring us to church on the weekends. My stepfather's a pastor to this day. From when he married my mom, he was a pastor and he's a pastor to this day. We have a wonderful relationship.
Speaker 1:But I say that to say that I didn't know jesus. I was just kind of following the leader and I was talking to Pastor Noah about the desperation of driving to go and pick up the dealer, not having anything that day. Surprise, surprise, someone saying they do have something and never showing up just the lifestyle of a user and a pusher. And I'm not even judging them, I'm just saying there's just that's what it is. It's just what it is. It's just a chaotic.
Speaker 1:You know, my life was already chaotic and I said all right, here we go, let's dive in the deep, deep end of chaos and just trying to get by in the worst possible way. And if god stopped there, if he stopped there took me from here to here and said here's a, here's you? Here to here? And said here's a here's you before keswick and here's you at keswick. And I just hung out yeah, america's keswick and whitey, new jersey, in the primaries. Yeah, that'd be enough. Yeah, but he has not stopped anywhere close to there. Yeah, yeah, this is deep. This is not environment, this is not a location, this is, this is a heart. Yeah, set in a heart location and a heart um condition. Yes, and so he has not stopped at my physical location. He is working on my heart and, uh, but it was rough. It was rough for a long time. Um, I got, I was already isolated. Yeah, I got more isolated.
Speaker 1:Dangerous, it's part of the story is I started going to AA. So much of it was for appearances. Right, I'll go to aaa because it looks good, sounds good. Right, I'll stop drinking because it looks good, it sounds good, I'm not drinking anymore. Didn't really talk about am I using heroin anymore, because people didn't really know that I was doing that. I went on suboxone. If you don't know what that is, it's a drug to keep you from withdrawing right. So if you go off of opiates, if you go off of the pills or the heroin, you're gonna feel sick yeah it's just what happens.
Speaker 1:So you need there's methadone or there's Suboxone. You go from one drug to another drug. I was just a captive to this other. I was in bondage to this other little orange pill that didn't even make me feel all that good.
Speaker 2:I was like, if I'm going to be, taking a pill.
Speaker 1:Let me at least feel good. That was part of the reason I was taking it, because I wanted to feel better. Yeah, now I'm just taking this pill, paying for it, going to doctors visits, and what I did was I made the decision now I'm gonna take suboxone and I won't be sick, but I will still go and drive and meet my dealer and pick up as often as I can because I want to feel high too. Yeah, yeah. And so I think about the last three years. That's what I was doing.
Speaker 1:So there's five years of using every day, the last three because I got caught for stealing, because I it takes money to pay for drugs. I got caught, came out to my parents, went on Suboxone and for like the next three years, I don't know how I made this stuff last. I don't know how I made this stuff last. I don't know how I prolonged this lifestyle. But man, time just rolls, tells me something that I can do. That's like in my sobriety, that I'm perseverant, that I can like push through things if I really dedicate myself to it.
Speaker 1:That even speaks to me, where I was dedicated to my drug use and I was dedicated to my addiction. If I can take that dedication and put it towards the Lord, what's the possibilities are really big time.
Speaker 3:He built you a certain way, man, and it's good. Now you're realizing your fullest potential in him realizing your fullest potential in him.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people, when they uh, get sober and I don't mean I don't mean that specifically to substances or or pornography like sobriety is across the board. Yeah, it is. If we have an idol, um, you can. You can get sober from tv, you can get sober from food, you can get sober from people. And so when, when people get sober, I think they think sometimes that they have to change entirely. But, like you said, god made me a certain way and he's a God that uses everything. Yeah, yeah. And so if I found a way to be dedicated, if I can think in my mind I did all that to get drugs, well then, now I care about this, that I can take that experience and say, no, I'm going to turn it this way and refocus it and really dedicate myself to the Lord, and it's something that I truly believe in.
Speaker 1:And so I was on Suboxone for about three years. I was thinking I had everyone fooled. The only one I had fooled was myself. And uh, eventually I picked up a, um, I guess like a dirty bag, whatever you want to call it. Oh no, and I I used it. I used to use because I drove about an hour to pick up and I used to use on the drive home and I used and it went right to my system, oh no, and I crashed my car. Whoa yep what happened?
Speaker 3:you, you like, passed out, or it was?
Speaker 1:uh, the, the reaction I had was like a whiteout. I wouldn't call it a blackout, it was like a whiteout, like I couldn't breathe, at the extreme of a panic attack. Oh man, and I crashed my car on the new jersey turnpike, going from the Turnpike to the parkway. Oh, exit 11?
Speaker 3:Up there.
Speaker 1:Exactly yes.
Speaker 3:I know it.
Speaker 1:Right on the connection, whatever they call that.
Speaker 3:Oh no, you crashed your car over there.
Speaker 1:I hit the curb and in my mind I thought I told them my car Never even got out of the car. I tried to think of ways that I could get out of it and eventually car I tried to think of ways that I could get out of it and eventually I had the peace that goes beyond understanding. Oh, because in that car probably the worst position condition I've ever been in in my life I said no more like this is not gonna go any further. I took the rest of the drugs I threw them up.
Speaker 1:No, I didn't even throw out the window, I left them in my middle console and I called 911. And they came and a cop came and he came to the door and I told him what I had done, what I had used. They put me on a gurney, they put me in the ambulance, took me to the hospital. I handed the drugs to the cop and I do remember, throughout this, like this, what was going on. I don't remember being completely naive or ignorant to the truth of it, but they asked me to take a blood test and a urine test and I did that. So they had everything on me to make sure that I was guilty of what was actually taking place.
Speaker 1:And the next morning so I was in the hospital in, uh, uh, I believe, like raritan medical center, something like that, right up by the twin bridges there, by like woodbridge, oh yeah, rattan bridge, and, um, I remember the nurse, I think I the next morning I was, I was really desperate and crying and I believe she either prayed with me or told me God loves me. I remember that. Wow, very kind nurse, and hospitals these days and some of the nurses are not so kind it can be very routine and very businesslike, but I remember one in particular. She definitely comforted me.
Speaker 1:It's amazing you don't remember like the physical medicine that eases pain, but you remember somebody saying you know god loves you no doubt about it and that was better than, like probably any physical medicine they could have given you and she said that right before I had to call my parents to tell them what happened, and they were on vacation. Can you imagine that they were on vacation? Can you imagine that they're on vacation? And they already knew three years prior that I had a problem and my life was really in a bad place, but they were hopeful that I was moving in the right direction. They were praying for you too, weren't they? They were praying. Oh my goodness, my parents are prayer warriors.
Speaker 3:So you can see God's hand in this whole thing here.
Speaker 1:Look at my family. Parents are prayer warriors, so you can see God's hand in this whole thing here. Look at my family.
Speaker 3:I say, man, it's held together by prayer. Amen, amen, oh man. This should encourage any of you parents out there that have a child that's maybe not walking with the Lord at the moment. Do not stop praying, don't stop.
Speaker 1:Do not stop.
Speaker 1:And so I called them and told them for the second time I told them, actually for the first time really what was going on. And I told them everything that was going on. And I remember talking to my stepfather, pastor Al. He said you got to do something bigger than go on a pill or go into meetings. You got to do something serious. And I called, called, I called around. I probably had the most intentional few weeks of my life, my the diligence of calling and saying, yeah, this is the, this is serious. I called every rehabilitation center. I wrote down notes, I took notes. I probably have the notes somewhere in one of my uh storage things but I eventually got to a place where there was two options team challenge or america's keswick and I talked to four people, uh, who had been through either or and one that had been through both, and I landed on america's keswick to come here April and two weeks after the accident I was in the doors.
Speaker 3:Okay Room 18, top bunk. So wait a second. So two weeks, and possibly within two and a half weeks or maybe three weeks after. That's when we met After the accident, so the accident was fresh when I met you.
Speaker 1:Probably within a month of the accident.
Speaker 3:I did not know this. This is amazing, wow, oh man. Hey, you know. Just another little backside story on this we prayed me and Katie, and I want to say Roy but we prayed for the colony members and we prayed for the people that the Lord would bring out and we prayed for the things that the guys are going through. And there were some distinct prayers that were, you know, just, and we always do that.
Speaker 3:But I remember I don't know if that's where it started, but I remember praying distinctly for the that's where it started but I remember praying, uh, distinctly for the, for the calling members and the ones that are struggling, and that the lord would really break through and then not only bring them back to, to baseline of of zero, of being free from everything, but then go forward to take them, to elevate them and use them. Uh, that's one of the prayers that I continue to this day that the Lord would. When I pray for somebody, the Lord would not only save them, but don't just save them, save them and then use them mightily, give them a ministry that impacts multitudes. Yeah, praise the Lord, you know. So I anyway. It's just amazing to be on this end of the timeline hearing your story and seeing how the Lord had us play a small part in that man, that was fantastic. So continue.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry, I just wanted to insert that In response to that.
Speaker 1:thank, you, amen, amen. I think what's left of the story is we already talked about some trauma stuff, but so I was here, I was hired, and I was hired as a staff member, coming out of internship in January. Let me make sure I got my math right 2021, I believe Okay, and it, I believe Okay, and it's 2025 right now. So it was four years as a staff member, this most recent January, and I was hired under the direction of Robert Hayes.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yep, he's with the Lord. He was the director of programming here prior to me and he was the artist in residence spectacular piano player. Oh my goodness, his wife is a wonderful singer, yes, and man, it just even makes me think. I just want to even rewind a little bit back because I remember hearing people tell me like when you become a Christian, it gets hard, it gets difficult. I didn't know what that meant. I think it will be different for everyone because everyone's life is different. But in terms of experiences, I started to experience some significant loss where I had two friends pass away in really devastating ways, I want to say, before I was hired, maybe the one was just after I was hired. So those were really difficult and really painful experiences. And to be sober and I was sober from my father's death, but to be sober and with the lord, uh, through death, uh, is, is it's different.
Speaker 3:It's a different thing. Yes, different.
Speaker 1:I don't even want to put the pretty words on it. I mean it's very good. God is so good, he makes everything good but it's different from just being alone.
Speaker 3:And we have hope. We have an indestructible hope. We have a hope that's.
Speaker 1:That is not that the world doesn't have. Amen, that's right. And so so I mentioned that because robert, my boss and my friend who took me under his wing from basically the start and had me dressing up as the time traveler during the summer conference season that's where it all started in programming for me, and he was diagnosed with cancer shortly after I was hired. And I say to myself what is happening? Wow, how could this be right? And I still ask myself that. But the next, the following October, he passed away of pancreatic cancer. And I know you and I we're sitting here mourning that right now and we miss Robert. You know as much, as as much as when he left us the first day and they named me the director shortly thereafter.
Speaker 3:Wow, they said what? And some days.
Speaker 1:I still say what, but I don't know if I've ever been more comfortable in this position and I say comfortable, meaning confident in the Lord, yes, knowing that he has me in the right place at the right time for the right reasons, in the right place at the right time, for the right reasons, and that's to share his love with everyone that I come in contact with. And uh, robert's in a good place, my dad's in a good place. They're both believers, amen. And for those of you that might question, well, my loved one wasn't a believer. What's up with that? First of all, I'm sorry. Second of all, I don't know exactly, but I do know God is good and fair, right, and he has answers that I can't give you outside of the general statement, but it's a beautiful statement that he's good and he loves you right now, right here.
Speaker 1:I was praying this morning for my aunt who is pretty much days away from passing from cancer. Okay, I said god, help her. She has breath in her lungs, help her, yeah, and so that's all. That's all we have, and that's all we need is our father, who's good, who's done everything on His end to send His only Son for our sake, to save us from our own brokenness and sinfulness and selfishness, and all the brokenness and sinfulness and selfishness that exists around us, that he did all that for our sake.
Speaker 1:Man that's a good reason to talk to Him and pray to him.
Speaker 3:Amen to that. You said something interesting. You said you know you're feeling confident in this position. You know, I find the weaker that we understand ourselves to be, the stronger and more confident we actually become.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And it's because the source of our confidence is not from within us, but it's from within, it's him. And so the more dependent on him, the weaker we recognize that we are. Exponentially, our strength increases because our strength, uh, is powered by him, not us, and it's almost as if we, uh, we, can hinder the power of him by thinking that we are something greater than than we actually are, you know, and so a lamp is pretty.
Speaker 1:A lamp is pretty weak if it's not plugged in, right.
Speaker 3:Well, there you go, there you go. That's it. It's got to have the power.
Speaker 1:If the light thinks that it is shining light but it's not and it's not plugged in, then it's kind of bad. Yeah, there's a scripture that says if your light is dark.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how dark is that darkness in you?
Speaker 1:oh, yeah, yeah, I was um, I was yesterday, this, the earlier this week. I was very stressed um life in general. I think can be strut, can be stressful, um, but there's, as the programming director and even just anyone really working at keswick, there's just a lot going on and I couldn't pinpoint it exactly.
Speaker 1:But I'm like man, I'm feeling stressed yeah and I reached out to my administration team and I said I'm really feeling stressed. This is what's happening at work a little bit, this is what's happening in family life a little bit, but there's I'm sure there's other stuff. Can you please pray for me? And they did, and I had a few people say, man, I can relate. So that's nice that you have other people saying yeah kind of going through the same thing.
Speaker 1:That helps, but just their prayer. You ever, you ever ask for prayer and you can feel it. Yeah, yeah, you can feel the weight. Yeah, be lifted, and it's not always immediate, sometimes it is. But, man, it was like, it was like the weight just started and I looked around. I was like man, I'm still a little tired, I'm still a little bit stressed, but not anywhere close to what I was. And I made it to the end of the day yesterday and a woman, one of our guests, had locked her keys in the car and I hung out for about half an hour, whereas if I'm stressed, man, I'm like, good luck with that, I'm out. So praise the Lord for prayer, um, for the fellowship of the saints and for like, for, like you said, like you said, when I'm weak, then I'm strong.
Speaker 3:That's it, man. Yeah, that is it we have. You know, we, we fight spiritual battles, uh, and I think not that every, not everything, is from the enemy and not everything is a spiritual battle. You know, if you run out of gas on the road, that's not that Satan didn't drain your gas tank. That means you didn't fill it up, you didn't put any gas in your gas tank.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, we blame the enemy for a lot of stuff, but, having said that, there is absolutely an element of spiritual warfare that's going on and we're told to put on the armor of God and, at the end of it, praying in the Spirit, man and prayer is firing the winning shot. Prayer is the first and the last thing that we should be doing and, uh, many times the agitation and stress and worry and concern and fear, even fear, can cripple people. The even the fear, uh is is coming from the opposite team in order to disrupt our walk and our peace and our joy in the lord, and uh, so they have a vested interest in that, and that's why, when you find yourself in a stressed out position, not even sure why, it's paramount that you get somebody to pray for you to get into the spiritual realm of firing some spiritual missiles back. How it all works, we don't know, but it's artillery man, and so I'm a big fan of requesting prayer when I'm feeling a little bit stressed or feeling.
Speaker 3:But that's not natural. The natural, my natural default is no, I got this, I'm just going to get by myself and book up with it. You know what I mean. I'm going to pull up the bootstraps, that's it, and but that is the wrong way to go about it. So I have to, I have to resort to my training my, you know my practice in this spiritual warfare rather than my default natural setting of no.
Speaker 1:I got this. I'm just going to get alone for a little bit. One of my friends told me that my superpower is vulnerability.
Speaker 3:I love it.
Speaker 1:Wow, it's true, I mean half the time I preach at the colony, which has been an honor because Keswick is so amazing to have invited me and allowed me to preach the word of god at the colony of mercy chapel. Yeah, I mean half the time I end up crying yeah, yeah, yeah, I believe it.
Speaker 3:It's important, man, I mean, and the the vulnerability is, is a superpower, and that goes against everything the world will tell you that's right.
Speaker 1:counter, cultural, counterintuitive, which is such a good thing, because most of the stuff I think and do, or at least want to do, is not good. I need a counter, amen.
Speaker 3:Amen to that. Thank you for being on Plays on Word Radio. This is not the last time you'll be on. We're going to get you back on. We absolutely love this interview with you and it's been a long time in the making, going back to 2019, april 2nd 2019. Amen, amen, that's right. So, yeah, we're interested in hearing the rest of the story and whatever the good Lord is doing, because we didn't even get into the fact you got married, right.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:Yep, praise the Lord man. That's a whole life change. There's more where that came from. We're going to have to continue this interview at some point, but thank you. Why don't you close us in prayer, bro?
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you for having me. Yeah, let's pray Father, thank you, lord, for this day. God, lord, you're a God of one day at a time, while also being within yourself, lord, a God of eternity, and that is mind-blowing, lord, it's so awesome that we don't have to be concerned, lord, with eternity. God, the Lord with eternity, god, we can be comforted that that you exist and you're concerned and you, lord, are in control and sovereign and provide for eternity, god. And so that gives us the opportunity gives me my friend, pastor Kenny Lord, to to be present, lord, to live in the moment, live one day at a time, or to not worry. And so thank you for that. Lord Jesus, you give every good Father, and help us to have eyes to see the gifts. Lord, even just recently in my life, lord, just walking in nature and breathing fresh air, lord, and it's not just nature and fresh air, Lord, sometimes just going to the supermarket and just being alive, god is such a gift, and it's all because of you, lord, because in the past I was trying to have everything else, god, and all I was doing was killing myself. And so thank you for that, for both of us, lord, and our listeners.
Speaker 1:And Lord, I pray that, if there's anyone listening, lord, and even for those that aren't, god, your prayers, our prayers to you go beyond what we can fathom, lord. So I just pray, god, for those that are struggling, lord, for their hearts to be touched. Lord, for a seed to be planted and for it to start to grow in them. Lord, a conviction, lord, an idea, a thought, belief, faith, truth. Lord, that you're good within all the badness of the world, lord of each day, that you're good and you're the only hope that we have. You're the only thing we can hold on to, the rock that we can stand on and build our lives upon, lord.
Speaker 1:And when any sort of storm comes, lord, that it stays true, lord, and that we can do that, beginning with ourselves. Lord, that we can do that for others, lord. And so thanks for this time, god, we bless you. Lord, your word says I bless the Lord O my soul, and so we bless you with our souls, lord, because you're worthy of blessing and honor and praise. Lord, we love you. God, bring people to Keswick, lord, whether it be to the Colony or Barber's Place or through the Conference Ministry, lord, so that your name can be a bigger and greater and glorified Lord on this earth that you created. We love you and thank you In Jesus' name amen.
Speaker 3:Amen, amen. Thank you, my brother, thank you.
Speaker 2:This program was made possible by the Plays on Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at playsonwordorg.
