No Arms, No Problem! Overcoming Obstacles with George Dennehy | Ep. 19

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Hi friends, my name is Casey Rankenberger and I am so excited to welcome you to the Instruments of Worship podcast.
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This is a podcast dedicated to encouraging and equipping classical musicians to apply the name of Jesus with their instruments, but also their lives.
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Today we have the opportunity to talk to George Dennehy.
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You actually might have seen him in a video that has recently gone viral.
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This is a video of George singing and playing guitar, but he's playing guitar with his feet because he was actually born without arms.
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George has an incredible story and an incredible testimony.
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He is a Christian, musician, motivational speaker, husband, and father, and we get to hear all about it today.
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So, I am so excited, and you will not want to miss episode 19 of the Instruments of Worship podcast.
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Well, hi, George.
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Thank you so much for being willing to come on the show today.
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Yeah,
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absolutely.
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Thank you, Casey.
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Thanks for having me.
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Yes, I'm so excited.
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So can you go ahead and just tell us who you are and what you do?
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Yes.
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So my name is George Dennehy.
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I live in Richmond, Virginia, and I travel the country as a speaker and a musician, leading worship at different churches and speaking at schools and just wherever the Lord calls me.
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So that's what I've been doing for the past 12 or so years.
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Yeah, that's so incredible.
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So I'd just love to give you the floor for you to just kind of tell us your story.
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Take us back.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So my story kind of began in the not so great of circumstances.
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I was born without arms and born in a small little Romanian village.
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And because I was born this way, I was given up to an orphanage straight from birth.
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So I was in this orphanage for the first couple years of my life and I was malnourished and not cared for and really cast aside because of the disability aspect of it.
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So that was the first couple years of my life and thankfully the Lord had other plans for me more than just being in this Romanian orphanage.
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God ordained my steps into being adopted into a very loving home here in the U.S.
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and a very loving family who saw my life as something of worth and not just something as a disposable disability.
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And they brought me into their family and gave me a home and a future.
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And really, I'm a big advocate for adoption because, well, of course, because of the reasons why it saved my life, but really just that whole It's a trajectory change for a child's entire future.
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And so I'm just so thankful that I was given that second chance and that God had other plans for me.
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What age were you adopted?
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I was just about two years old when I was adopted.
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And at that point, I was sick and I only weighed nine pounds at two because of the just malnourishment that I had and just the conditions of that country and of that orphanage.
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But God rescued me and God saved me from that place.
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Have you ever been able to meet your biological parents?
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Yeah, yeah.
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So I was able to reconnect with them right about after high school.
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And it was kind of a very unique story.
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And, you know, I always say that so much of the things, so many of the things that have happened in my life and the way that things have played out with music and the doors that have opened up in my life have all been God, have all been the Lord.
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Because I can't take any credit for anything because I'm not...
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I'm just not smart enough to be honest.
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Um, but, but God, God really has opened up so many doors.
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And, and, and one of those doors was reconnecting with, with my birth family.
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Um, when I was about 18 or so, there was a, a video of me, uh, performing at a, at a local just festival.
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And that video went, went viral.
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Um, it went viral for, uh, for 2012 standards.
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Yeah.
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So when YouTube viral and, um, Um, there was, uh, there, there were people in Romania that, that caught onto that video.
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And one of those people happened to be one of my biological sisters.
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Wow.
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Who is older, a little bit older than me.
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And she reached out to me just through social media because, you know, they, that country had come a long way since 1994.
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And, um, so she reached out to me and just introduced herself with a message that, that just said, I'm sister.
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And, uh, and I knew right away, you know, I knew, um, knew right away exactly who she was.
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And it didn't take long for me to realize like, Oh, this is my biological sister.
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And we began to, we began to talk and just chat a little bit.
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And, and I always knew that I was adopted growing up.
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So this is something my parents were always open about with me and my siblings.
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I have nine other adopted siblings as well.
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Wow.
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I come from a pretty, pretty large, large family.
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So I always knew, and I was always curious about my, my family, my, my biological family.
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And, and, In my mind, it was always if those doors opened up, then I'd walk through them.
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But for me, I never had a, I guess, a dire need to reconnect or a desire to find out where I come from, like other adoptive children do.
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And some don't have any desire at all.
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Some don't even want to.
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So it just all depends.
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Sorry, I'm getting off track.
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No, I know it.
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So she reached out to me and then about a week later, another group from Romania reached out to me too.
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And they were a TV show in Romania and invited me to come to Romania and be on this TV show.
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And it was basically like a talk show.
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And then they asked me if I had any connection to my birth family.
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And I was able to tell them, actually, yeah, as about a week ago, I do.
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Wow.
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those dots all connected and it all worked out.
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And I was able to go to Romania and be on this TV program and meet my biological family.
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And it was all compensated and taken care of.
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And it was just such a unique opportunity.
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Yes.
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Wow.
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That's incredible.
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I know that, you know, technology can have its pros and cons, but I mean, look how incredible for you to be able to be reunited, at least get to meet them through that way.
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That's incredible.
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Yeah, yeah, it really was.
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And I think for everybody, you know, because I grew up knowing my story, knowing that I was abandoned and knowing that I was in an orphanage, but I never harbored any anger, maybe, or I didn't really have much resentment.
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I may have had moments, especially as a teenager, but overall, I understood just how much better off I am here as opposed to being over there.
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So I know for my biological parents, They spent all these years just with guilt and shame, giving me up.
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So it was really, it was really nice to be able to go back to where they live, go back to the house I was born in and just remind them that I, I forgive them and I love them and it all worked out for good.
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Yeah.
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Wow.
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That's an incredible testimony.
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Even just to say like, I know that God had a plan in this and I forgive you.
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Like, I'm sure that spoke just perfectly.
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tons to them.
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I can't imagine.
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So that's really cool.
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So then moving on from that, when you were adopted, can you take us through then your family and what that was like growing up?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So growing up in my family was so special and so unique because we all came from so many different countries.
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And my parents, they have three biological children that are older than me.
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And then I'm the next oldest.
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And then everyone else nine more, I have to keep count, nine more below me are younger and from five other countries
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with
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different challenges and differences and things like that.
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So it was so unique growing up in this family, but my parents always made sure that we wouldn't make any excuses for ourselves and I wouldn't make any excuses for myself.
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So growing up, they really pushed me to persevere and just learn how to navigate this life with no arms.
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Even though my childhood mindset was to immediately assume that I couldn't do certain things or immediately assume that I needed help or that I was never going to be independent or I would never be able to do X, Y, or Z, but my parents really pushed me into changing that mindset from assuming that I can't to figuring out how I can.
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And
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that's all it took, really.
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That's all it took was for me to go about each challenge and just find my own way of doing that thing.
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And over time, I began just doing that.
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I began to just do everything that my siblings did and do everything that I could had to do just for daily life.
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And I'm just thankful that my parents, and I'm sure it was hard for them, you know, because I have two kids of my own.
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I have a 10-year-old and a three-year-old.
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And even for me, I kind of want to just do things for them, but I can't always.
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And I shouldn't.
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So I'm sure it was hard for them, especially having a child like me with no arms and just keeping that mindset of we got to help build him for his own future.
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Yeah, I love that.
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The idea of persevering and working through something that's hard.
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I think anybody can relate to that, you know, of just having to build that resolve to just not give up and to just keep pressing on because life is hard for sure.
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Can you think of like what maybe growing up would have been one of the hardest things that you had to overcome or one of the biggest hurdles?
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Yeah, I think one of the biggest hurdles Just regular challenges that I had to figure out on my own was getting my clothes on.
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Yeah.
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And especially kind of harder or more complicated things with clothing, like a button-up shirt.
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Right.
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It's just something so simple.
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Well, it's not simple, but it sounds simple to say, oh, you've got to button your shirt.
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But for me, I had to figure out that buttoning a shirt...
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with it, with it on me with, with one foot, isn't exactly the right way to do it for me.
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So I found out that if I just button it on the floor first and then throw it on that, that works much better.
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So, and that was kind of the pattern that I, that I found was sometimes trying something a certain way just wasn't working or didn't work that way.
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So I had to Just be a little more creative and think outside the box a little bit.
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And sometimes ask for help, not for help doing it, but help finding some other ways to do it.
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You know, finding some outside perspectives from my parents or whoever it might be.
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And that translated far into other aspects of my life, too, with music and school and education.
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just being independent as an adult, all those things.
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It's that same mindset that we use in all those different areas too.
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Yes, problem solving.
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Exactly,
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yeah.
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Yeah, so I'm curious, you mentioned music.
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Can you tell us how did you start playing music?
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Did you always want to?
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Was that something your parents encouraged you?
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And can you tell us what instruments you play too?
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Yes, yeah, absolutely.
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So music for me wasn't necessarily...
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on the forefront of my mind.
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It's something that I always enjoyed and I always loved.
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But it was really my parents who kind of noticed some kind of musical gift in me before I did.
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I think they share a story of me being six or maybe five or six years old.
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And I used to, for fun, I used to watch watch a movie, like a Disney movie or like a Star Wars movie.
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And then I'd go to our piano that we had and I just play the music from the movie from here.
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And that was enough for them to kind of realize, well, maybe there's some kind of musical ability there.
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And we had a teacher at our church who kind of taught private lessons for a lot of the kids in the church including my older siblings and that was just kind of something they did and just kind of a good kind of character building thing just to take private music lessons so Now my parents thought maybe this is something that George could do too.
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They had no idea where to start, but if anybody could have an idea, it would be this teacher.
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And her name was Jennifer Petrie.
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And so they ended up going to Mrs.
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Petrie and asking her about this idea of me playing music.
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And she didn't really quite know how to answer at first because as far as she knew, nobody played an instrument with their feet.
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Right.
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especially a classical instrument.
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Um, and she, and she taught classical music, so string, stringed instruments and, and everything.
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So, uh, she ended up taking some time before giving them an answer.
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And, uh, she came back to them a few weeks later and, and, uh, shared with them that she took these past couple of weeks and, and thought about what could maybe work for, for using only feet.
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And, uh, she took out a cello and she put it on the floor and she sat on a stool and she, uh, Wow! Okay.
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just like those other things in my life over time, I, uh, just learned how to play this instrument, learned how to play the cello and got better and better and, and excelled pretty, pretty quickly and went through the Suzuki books and
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was,
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was in these orchestras throughout middle school and high school and all state and, uh, just really, uh, found a love for music as I, as I grew.
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Yeah.
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But that, so the cellos on the floor.
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And so, uh, Did it, like, if you were in school orchestra, how did that work?
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Can you kind of explain for us?
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Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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So basically, at first, when I began playing, at first, the cello was on the floor, and it kind of laid almost on a pillow.
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Okay.
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And that's how I started to first play, but that wasn't sustainable, and it wasn't...
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It wasn't the greatest setup because the cello kind of rocked back and forth.
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The sound was suppressed because it's on the floor.
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So there was a guy at our church who's an engineer, and he took a look at the way I played and saw the struggles I was having with it, and he came back a few weeks after watching me, and he had built this custom-made stand.
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So it was a custom-made stand that allowed the cello to be propped up off the floor through wooden blocks and wooden cylinders and...
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It was a very intricate thing.
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Yeah.
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And so I began using that instead.
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So the cello actually ended up laying on the stand that had three different size variations that could be easily adjusted based on how I grew.
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And, you know, eventually I went to a middle sized cello and then eventually now a full size.
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Wow, that's incredible.
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It sounds so technical, but I'm so happy that it worked out.
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I know your parents instilled in you this can-do attitude, but was there still a time with the cello or music in general where you just thought, I just want to give up, this is too hard?
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Oh, yeah.
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I mean, especially those early years of learning, I think for me, and I'm sure a lot of musicians can relate to this, there comes a point where I think, or especially when I was little, and sometimes even still today, playing guitar and whatever else, where I think this is my limit.
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Like
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this is as good as I'm going to get
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kind
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of thing.
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And maybe with singing or writing songs, I can get in that mindset, but I can, I can especially remember being, being a child and playing cello and thinking, oh man, this, this song right here, this is the last song I'm going to be ever, ever be able to learn.
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This is advances I'm going to get.
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But, you know, I always prove myself wrong.
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And every time I got in that mindset and my teacher pushed me and my parents pushed me, eventually, I went to the next song and the next scale.
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And that's
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just
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the way it went sometimes.
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So I think sometimes we just have such a habit of selling ourselves short.
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And we need people around us who can push us and believe in us when we don't believe in ourselves.
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Absolutely.
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It's so important.
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I, myself as a teacher and having had so many teachers throughout life, it's so important to be believed in even by somebody, somebody else for sure.
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So I know that you also play guitar and piano and sing.
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Are those instruments, did they come later on?
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Was that kind of worship music?
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Did that inspire some of that?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So I, I started to pick up other instruments later on in my, in my childhood and I, Really, you know, I'll admit that picking up a guitar for the first time was kind of for a selfish reason.
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I, you know, I was in middle school and middle school and high school were very hard years for me.
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It was just a tough time emotionally and just being different.
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And, you know, it was kind of a reset for my life.
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the way I saw myself, you know, I had spent my childhood overcoming all these challenges and being confident and being able to just do everything with my feet.
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But now doing everything with my feet brought on all this attention from all these other kids at school and not good attention, a lot of just teasing and mocking and just bullying at school.
00:18:35.229 --> 00:19:07.109
So the physical challenges were, were, overcome and those were those were i was confident in those but now came the just the emotional toll of not having arms and being different and not fitting in with everybody um so i picked up a guitar because i wanted to fit in because i wanted people to like me i wanted to have friends and i wanted you know i just wanted to to felt like i belonged and felt like i mattered and yeah At that time, so I'm 31, and when I was in middle school, Guitar Hero was the big thing.
00:19:07.131 --> 00:19:07.951
Okay.
00:19:08.311 --> 00:19:08.792
Like the game.
00:19:08.873 --> 00:19:10.895
So everyone was playing Guitar Hero.
00:19:10.997 --> 00:19:15.483
Everyone was learning electric guitar and playing whatever those songs are.
00:19:15.804 --> 00:19:16.404
Smoke on the Water.
00:19:16.444 --> 00:19:17.247
Okay.
00:19:17.686 --> 00:19:22.674
Everyone was learning all these just kind of Guitar Hero songs and had their garage band.
00:19:22.734 --> 00:19:24.238
So I just remember clearly...
00:19:25.089 --> 00:19:53.103
one time at school i i made an effort to try to fit in you know they were talking about music they're talking about being in a band and i told them that i'm a musician too and and they said really what do you play and i told him well i play the cello and uh that just made me get made fun of even more that's that's that's cute oh that's that's that's pretty you play the cello so i kind of right then i said okay i'm gonna i'm gonna get a guitar and i'm gonna i'm gonna learn And I did.
00:19:53.786 --> 00:19:56.762
I had an electric guitar sitting around.
00:19:56.782 --> 00:19:58.553
I think it was my brother's.
00:19:59.650 --> 00:20:00.431
that he got one year.
00:20:00.471 --> 00:20:03.554
I don't remember how I got one, but I had one.
00:20:04.034 --> 00:20:04.994
It didn't have an amp or anything.
00:20:05.035 --> 00:20:12.142
So I just played this electric guitar and, and it was hard to hear because you can't really hear very well when you're playing an electric without any amplification.
00:20:13.644 --> 00:20:19.249
But I learned, you know, I learned how to hold a pick and I learned to do the chords and do the notes.
00:20:19.388 --> 00:20:25.996
And, and, and it was very important for me to learn how to play it without changing anything and to see if I could.
00:20:26.076 --> 00:20:27.596
So it's all in standard tuning.
00:20:27.738 --> 00:20:33.085
It's not, you know, in any open tuning, unless I want to open tunings, uh, can sound really nice.
00:20:33.326 --> 00:20:42.740
Um, but I learned in standard and, uh, it took, took a couple of months and I felt kind of comfortable and began to sing a little bit too.
00:20:42.859 --> 00:20:48.528
And, and, and, uh, yeah, it was ever since then guitars and singing has been my, been my main, my main thing.
00:20:49.108 --> 00:20:53.476
Going back to what you were just describing that, that hard time in middle school and high school.
00:20:53.875 --> 00:20:57.521
Can you tell us when did Jesus come into the picture for you?
00:20:57.890 --> 00:20:58.830
Yeah, yeah.
00:20:58.891 --> 00:21:01.234
So I grew up in church.
00:21:01.815 --> 00:21:10.166
So, you know, I grew up in this small little church with the music teacher and the hymns and Sunday school and all that stuff.
00:21:10.807 --> 00:21:34.654
And going through this time in middle school and high school really, really affected my faith and really almost put a doubt in everything that I grew up hearing about and learning about because I didn't just kind of realized, I said, wait a second, you know, why was such a loving God create me without arms?
00:21:35.435 --> 00:21:39.861
And that was kind of the question that had me doubting, the question that had me so angry, to be
00:21:39.901 --> 00:21:40.201
honest,
00:21:40.241 --> 00:21:52.376
is this God that I grew up hearing about and hearing all these verses about and singing about during service, why would he create me without arms?
00:21:52.436 --> 00:22:02.271
And then I got in this mindset of just why me, you know, and this kind of self-pity season, basically, where I just was so angry.
00:22:02.291 --> 00:22:03.775
And I said, God, how could you do this?
00:22:03.835 --> 00:22:06.420
How could you make me without arms?
00:22:06.881 --> 00:22:07.603
That's not fair.
00:22:07.623 --> 00:22:09.086
It's not loving.
00:22:09.145 --> 00:22:09.686
It's not good.
00:22:09.747 --> 00:22:10.307
It's not right.
00:22:10.327 --> 00:22:15.057
And eventually, the Lord just kind of stilled my heart.
00:22:15.136 --> 00:22:38.505
And I believe it was a mixture of him kind of breaking through my barriers and then also a mixture of him allowing me to just grow up a little bit and mature a little bit and realize that maybe I'm asking all the wrong questions, that I'm spending so much of my time in these challenges with this victim mentality of just asking, why me, God?
00:22:38.585 --> 00:22:40.027
How could you do this?
00:22:40.748 --> 00:22:44.634
Where maybe instead I need to ask the question, God, what can you do through me?
00:22:45.335 --> 00:22:48.364
Or God, what can you show me through this season?
00:22:48.784 --> 00:22:51.388
Or God, how could you use someone like me?
00:22:51.429 --> 00:23:04.112
And it was really kind of beginning to ask those questions where I began to feel just have that peace and really just that contentment that Philippians talks so much about.
00:23:04.894 --> 00:23:13.415
Philippians is my favorite book because it's just all about just being content, knowing that God is in control, knowing that he's He's in charge, not me.
00:23:14.196 --> 00:23:19.383
And realizing that whatever circumstance we're in, we can have joy.
00:23:19.522 --> 00:23:24.890
We can have peace because at the end of the day, he is God on the throne and we are not.
00:23:25.451 --> 00:23:26.632
And that's a good thing.
00:23:26.692 --> 00:23:28.434
We should be happy about that.
00:23:29.015 --> 00:23:34.762
I'm certainly happy that I'm not on the throne or I'm not in charge of everything because everything would fall apart immediately.
00:23:34.782 --> 00:23:50.564
So it was really kind of in this season where I began to just surrender, surrender my will and surrender my life and surrender my heart to, you know, I don't know all the reasons why I don't have arms.
00:23:50.743 --> 00:23:52.707
I certainly don't know the biological reasons why.
00:23:52.728 --> 00:23:58.236
But I have to trust that maybe God has a plan and a purpose for my life.
00:23:58.856 --> 00:24:00.980
And whatever that looks like, that's where I want to be.
00:24:01.961 --> 00:24:06.788
And I may not know the full extent of it until I see him face to face.
00:24:06.909 --> 00:24:08.771
And I have to be okay with that.
00:24:10.018 --> 00:24:23.391
So I'm curious what you would say just from your perspective and all that the Lord has just taught you and sanctified in you throughout life, what you would maybe say to a classical musician who's maybe struggling, like, God, why does my life look like this right now?
00:24:23.611 --> 00:24:25.692
Or what are you doing in this season?
00:24:25.873 --> 00:24:27.755
Can you maybe give them some encouragement?
00:24:28.855 --> 00:24:30.498
Yeah, yeah.
00:24:31.238 --> 00:24:39.326
I can definitely relate to just feeling that imprisonment in whatever season you might be in, whether it's an emotional thing or something.
00:24:39.425 --> 00:24:47.720
physical thing with dealing with music or lessons or just the stress of it all, because music can be very stressful too.
00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:53.609
And yeah, I would say just keep leaning on just that fact that it is a season.
00:24:54.672 --> 00:24:58.096
It is just a chapter in a much larger story.
00:24:58.818 --> 00:25:20.883
And when we I guess when we accept that we are only human, and when we accept that we are so limited by what we see in the here and now, when we accept that, but then also trust and know that God sees the bigger picture, that He sees the entire painting, that He's the one writing our story.
00:25:20.923 --> 00:25:33.143
Even if the moment is hard, even if the season is hard, we can have faith and know that God is working all these things out for good and that this season that we're in now is not always going to be like this.
00:25:33.804 --> 00:25:41.715
And that's really what helped carry me through the rest of middle school and the rest of high school is realizing, okay, well, this is all not good.
00:25:41.796 --> 00:25:47.805
It doesn't make everything better circumstantially, but it makes my heart better.
00:25:48.105 --> 00:25:53.153
And having that faith and trust in God makes my heart better and in turn makes my character better.
00:25:53.232 --> 00:25:58.681
It makes the way I present myself better, which kind of began to change my circumstances even a little bit.
00:25:59.781 --> 00:26:10.576
It's hard to explain how, but when my faith grew and my trust in the Lord grew, the way I expressed myself and the way I carried myself changed for the better.
00:26:10.636 --> 00:26:19.909
And then in some kind of way, it changed my circumstances around me for the better in school, where people began to talk to me more.
00:26:19.989 --> 00:26:26.278
People began to notice that I was walking around with a smile instead of walking around feeling defeated.
00:26:26.882 --> 00:26:38.260
And I began to make friends and I began to fit in in different places and began to encourage people at my school and play more music and eventually just be who I am today.
00:26:38.842 --> 00:26:39.202
Wow.
00:26:39.784 --> 00:26:40.023
Wow.
00:26:40.104 --> 00:26:42.929
So that was kind of in high school, after high school.
00:26:43.289 --> 00:26:48.258
Did you go straight into motivational speaking or how then did you get into all of this?
00:26:49.339 --> 00:26:49.681
Yeah.
00:26:49.760 --> 00:26:50.000
Yeah.
00:26:50.080 --> 00:26:56.326
So Just the way the Lord has worked out everything in my life, again, just goes back to it's all been Him.
00:26:56.688 --> 00:26:56.768
It
00:26:56.788 --> 00:26:57.147
has all
00:26:57.950 --> 00:26:58.451
been Him.
00:26:58.871 --> 00:27:08.327
I wasn't exactly sure what my future would look like getting out of high school because I didn't really know exactly what I was going to do for a living or where I was going to go to college.
00:27:09.108 --> 00:27:11.772
And my plan was to go to Liberty.
00:27:12.226 --> 00:27:13.907
was to go to Liberty University.
00:27:14.028 --> 00:27:17.991
I live in Richmond, and Liberty's two hours away from me.
00:27:18.573 --> 00:27:23.638
And I had been there a couple times and went to college for a weekend, and it was really awesome, really fun.
00:27:24.420 --> 00:27:25.621
And that was my plan.
00:27:25.661 --> 00:27:38.694
I went through this transformation time in middle school and high school and was really serving in church a lot more, serving in youth group, playing on the worship teams as much as I could, and just doing all that youth group stuff.
00:27:39.856 --> 00:27:40.738
And so...
00:27:41.218 --> 00:27:50.736
Just like most youth students, when they really are on fire for the Lord in high school, I thought full-time ministry.
00:27:51.056 --> 00:27:54.983
Full-time ministry is what I'm called to, you know, and that's worship ministry.
00:27:55.003 --> 00:27:56.286
I want to be a worship pastor.
00:27:56.306 --> 00:27:57.087
I want to be a worship minister.
00:27:58.150 --> 00:28:08.640
And I applied to Liberty, got accepted, and my plan was to go to Liberty and study it and then and find a church to plant and serve at.
00:28:09.561 --> 00:28:10.143
That was my plan.
00:28:10.343 --> 00:28:14.269
But things changed pretty quickly in that summer.
00:28:14.288 --> 00:28:15.971
You know, that video went viral.
00:28:16.031 --> 00:28:22.301
And that video was of me singing and playing the song Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls.
00:28:23.022 --> 00:28:28.090
And it was just at this local fair, this local outdoor festival.
00:28:28.172 --> 00:28:29.913
And that video went viral.
00:28:29.953 --> 00:28:35.326
And then the fallout from that video ended up just changing my life forever.
00:28:35.366 --> 00:28:36.107
Wow.
00:28:36.208 --> 00:28:37.150
Very, very quickly.
00:28:37.170 --> 00:28:48.688
I received so many invites to go to different places and different invites for TV shows and news shows and podcasts and churches and schools.
00:28:48.768 --> 00:28:51.632
And that's kind of when the ball started rolling on this whole thing.
00:28:51.672 --> 00:28:53.855
So that summer was very, very busy for me.
00:28:53.875 --> 00:28:59.884
And one invite I received was from the Goo Goo Dolls, was from the
00:28:59.924 --> 00:29:00.326
band.
00:29:00.385 --> 00:29:00.445
Wow.
00:29:00.705 --> 00:29:03.750
to join them at a concert in Pennsylvania.
00:29:03.910 --> 00:29:26.402
And so that was a huge moment for myself and just for my, even for my own emotional state too, being at this giant venue and this giant concert and playing Iris with one of my favorite bands and receiving this just love from the crowd was huge.
00:29:26.961 --> 00:29:31.279
It was very instrumental in me realizing maybe I could really do this.
00:29:31.420 --> 00:29:33.643
Maybe I could really show the world who I am.
00:29:33.663 --> 00:29:42.153
I remember in the midst of all this, walking down to my dad's office and just kind of, this must have been two weeks before I would have moved into Liberty.
00:29:42.173 --> 00:29:43.796
I said, I don't know.
00:29:43.896 --> 00:29:50.605
I think maybe I want to put college on hold because these doors keep opening and these opportunities keep coming up.
00:29:50.685 --> 00:29:52.768
And I think this could become something.
00:29:53.469 --> 00:29:54.951
And he said, I completely agree.
00:29:55.791 --> 00:29:57.054
College will be there forever.
00:29:57.185 --> 00:29:58.326
whenever you're ready.
00:29:59.769 --> 00:30:04.373
And yeah, so here I am and college is still waiting.
00:30:05.233 --> 00:30:05.694
Yeah.
00:30:05.835 --> 00:30:06.214
Wow.
00:30:06.315 --> 00:30:07.256
That's incredible.
00:30:07.717 --> 00:30:12.662
So was it hard during that time when your life has just done a 180 so fast?
00:30:12.821 --> 00:30:15.263
Was it hard to still stay close to God during that?
00:30:15.324 --> 00:30:16.164
What was that like for you?
00:30:17.165 --> 00:30:24.794
Yeah, I would say it was mostly hard for me to, I guess, just be so busy and
00:30:25.185 --> 00:30:26.069
Maybe.
00:30:26.210 --> 00:30:28.579
I think my faith remained very, very strong.
00:30:29.163 --> 00:30:33.361
And I'm very thankful because even as an 18-year-old, I never really...
00:30:34.657 --> 00:30:49.935
had a big head or, or, you know, got too, uh, too confident in, in myself or, or think, think of myself at any, any higher or anything like that, because, because this all just happened so much out of the blue and so randomly, and it was really nothing that I did.
00:30:49.955 --> 00:30:51.877
I, I didn't put that video online at all.
00:30:51.897 --> 00:30:53.159
And even in the first place, it was somebody
00:30:53.299 --> 00:30:53.700
else,
00:30:54.401 --> 00:30:58.465
uh, kind of similar to this other one that kind of recently blew up.
00:30:58.665 --> 00:30:59.125
It wasn't me.
00:30:59.165 --> 00:31:00.047
It was, it was somebody else.
00:31:00.468 --> 00:31:00.887
Yeah.
00:31:01.689 --> 00:31:12.298
So, um, Thankfully, I feel like I really leaned into my faith because all these doors kept opening up and I just kept being so thankful to the Lord and just realizing He's opening up these doors.
00:31:12.317 --> 00:31:22.915
I'm going to listen and obey and go where He calls me and also be discerning of where I'm not called to and realizing that some doors may not be from Him.
00:31:22.976 --> 00:31:28.305
And I had to deal with a couple of those as well, me and my dad.
00:31:28.325 --> 00:31:28.826
My dad really...
00:31:29.410 --> 00:31:31.853
walked alongside me and he still does.
00:31:31.952 --> 00:31:37.779
He still manages a lot of what I do and handles a lot of the booking aspects.
00:31:39.782 --> 00:31:52.758
So emotionally, I felt definitely a sense of I had to grow up quick and learn how to talk to people and learn how to talk on stages and learn how to just be a vocal person.
00:31:53.358 --> 00:31:55.000
Yeah, because you did a TED Talk too.
00:31:55.060 --> 00:31:55.741
What was that like?
00:31:56.513 --> 00:31:57.255
Yes, yes.
00:31:57.375 --> 00:32:07.405
I was able to do a TED Talk a few years ago now, and I loved being able to do that because that's a very unique scenario.
00:32:07.826 --> 00:32:09.667
It's not a typical talk.
00:32:09.728 --> 00:32:19.518
It's not a church, and it's not a school, and it's not this hour-long thing that I get to just get up and tell jokes and share my story and share what the Lord's done.
00:32:19.557 --> 00:32:22.942
It's a very particular 11-minute talk.
00:32:23.298 --> 00:32:27.103
thing that I have to squeeze everything into 11 minutes and including a song.
00:32:27.563 --> 00:32:29.746
So that was a great, great challenge.
00:32:29.786 --> 00:32:34.792
And I love being able to do that because it is just another step of growth, I feel like, for me.
00:32:35.292 --> 00:32:35.574
Yeah.
00:32:36.054 --> 00:32:46.887
Do you feel like because of all this, there have been open doors to be able to even talk at venues like TED Talk that isn't necessarily the church or people who already know Jesus?
00:32:46.948 --> 00:32:51.554
Like, have you been able to maybe even evangelize some through all these opportunities?
00:32:52.130 --> 00:32:52.790
Yeah.
00:32:52.971 --> 00:32:53.192
Yeah.
00:32:53.392 --> 00:33:00.284
I, I'm really thankful with, with all the doors that open up because, because a number of them are, you know, not faith-based.
00:33:01.164 --> 00:33:21.707
Um, so whether they're Ted talks or corporate gatherings or sales meetings and, and I'll get kind of invites from, from all over, but I, I feel like no matter where I am, I am myself regardless, you know, the, the, the message might, alter here and there, depending on the group.
00:33:21.886 --> 00:33:33.464
And sometimes they're explicitly, you know, we understand that, you know, you're a Christian and you speak a lot of churches, but, you know, here at our school, at our public school, you can't, you know, and I understand that.
00:33:33.566 --> 00:33:49.692
But one of the coolest things that always happens is afterwards, or when I do a Q&A, because I always love doing Q&A with people, most of the time they catch on to my, most of the time they can catch on to you know, who, who I'm with and then, and who I serve.
00:33:50.513 --> 00:33:57.481
And, uh, so I'll, I'll get questions and say, uh, are you, are you a Christian or, uh, do you, what's your faith journey?
00:33:57.501 --> 00:34:03.028
And, and when they, when they ask that question, then I can share, you know, cause they asked first, I didn't just, I didn't just share.
00:34:03.868 --> 00:34:06.230
Um, so I love anytime that happens.
00:34:06.270 --> 00:34:15.240
It, it, it shows me that they, they can see my faith, uh, you know, even if I'm not explicitly laying it all out.
00:34:15.701 --> 00:34:15.981
Yes.
00:34:16.481 --> 00:34:17.043
Absolutely.
00:34:17.103 --> 00:34:18.105
That's so cool.
00:34:18.605 --> 00:34:24.114
But on the other hand, you do get to go to a lot of churches and also you write worship music.
00:34:24.193 --> 00:34:24.855
Is that right?
00:34:25.735 --> 00:34:25.976
Yes.
00:34:26.137 --> 00:34:26.637
Yes, I do.
00:34:26.657 --> 00:34:26.737
Yeah.
00:34:26.998 --> 00:34:28.000
How did you get into that?
00:34:29.021 --> 00:34:35.371
Yeah, I started to write music right around high school time and especially after.
00:34:35.411 --> 00:34:47.434
So in the midst of all this busy life, In the midst of this busy season I was in, I wanted to make sure I could write music and hopefully get music out there.
00:34:47.454 --> 00:35:00.146
So I was able to write and release a couple of songs through some people in Nashville who just another door that had opened up and a few songs were able to be released and eventually an album.
00:35:00.206 --> 00:35:06.414
And then, and now just a few songs here and there throughout the years, I haven't really done a full album in a while.
00:35:06.454 --> 00:35:28.121
I should, but a couple of songs here and there and yeah, you know, some of it's just worship music that could be, that's could be sung at church and other times it's just music that, Is worship full, but it's about my own life or story or different themes that we all can relate to?
00:35:29.021 --> 00:35:35.472
They definitely point to the cure that we're all looking for, which is Jesus.
00:35:36.534 --> 00:35:45.547
That's my hope, is that people can listen to my music and they can relate to it and then kind of search then, what next?
00:35:45.806 --> 00:35:47.208
Where can I go next?
00:35:47.713 --> 00:35:49.536
Yeah, yeah, that's incredible.
00:35:50.217 --> 00:35:53.400
So you did mention your video that did just go viral.
00:35:53.820 --> 00:35:57.045
Was that a complete shock to you or were you expecting it?
00:35:57.905 --> 00:36:01.490
No, I was not expecting that in the slightest at all.
00:36:02.931 --> 00:36:05.536
This was at a church about an hour away from me.
00:36:05.576 --> 00:36:08.278
And it's a friend of mine who's the pastor of this church.
00:36:08.318 --> 00:36:13.545
And he invited me if there was a Sunday that I was available to come and share at his church.
00:36:13.625 --> 00:36:17.028
And yeah, they maybe have 100 people.
00:36:17.634 --> 00:36:20.757
And it's a very old, historic church in the country.
00:36:20.838 --> 00:36:22.659
And I was excited about it.
00:36:22.719 --> 00:36:27.306
I love being able to do that, especially if I can just stay here in town.
00:36:28.086 --> 00:36:30.670
Because I travel maybe a few times a month.
00:36:32.853 --> 00:36:34.213
But being able to stay here.
00:36:34.914 --> 00:36:36.918
So that was really nice, being able to do that.
00:36:36.938 --> 00:36:40.121
So the church doesn't have this big following.
00:36:40.141 --> 00:36:41.884
He doesn't have a big following.
00:36:41.903 --> 00:36:46.429
At that time, I had a decent following, but it wasn't big.
00:36:47.297 --> 00:36:52.827
And he just, he just shared me, uh, shared my song, not, not abandoned.
00:36:53.548 --> 00:36:56.293
Um, and I don't, again, I don't know how, I don't know what happened.
00:36:56.835 --> 00:37:00.300
Um, so just yet again, God just does what he's going to do.
00:37:00.461 --> 00:37:08.797
And, you know, we, we should always be prepared, uh, because he's, he can use us in bigger ways than we could ever come up with ourselves.
00:37:09.338 --> 00:37:10.500
Yes, absolutely.
00:37:10.519 --> 00:37:19.885
I think, um, something that I just keep hearing is he, he just keeps opening doors and though you're faithful to just continue to walk through them and be obedient.
00:37:20.184 --> 00:37:30.599
And you never know the story that God's going to write, you know, and we don't get to see the big picture, but we, we just take it moment by moment, day by day, sometimes trying to be faithful.
00:37:30.639 --> 00:37:34.224
And he will do more with that than we could ever imagine.
00:37:34.264 --> 00:37:38.329
You know, the two loaves and the fish, we just offer faith.
00:37:38.753 --> 00:37:41.297
our humble offering and he, he will multiply it.
00:37:41.336 --> 00:37:43.840
He will do much greater with it than we ever could.
00:37:43.860 --> 00:37:43.880
I
00:37:44.762 --> 00:37:49.907
love the way you, you said that, you know, it's what, what, what he's done with, with this, with this video.
00:37:50.108 --> 00:37:56.978
And it's been, it's been seen by so many people and I've, I've heard so many stories too of how it's affected people.
00:37:56.998 --> 00:38:04.947
And it's just not at all what I expected from, from me going to this church, but I just, I just had a good feeling about it.
00:38:05.007 --> 00:38:31.177
You know, it's, it's a small thing, small church in in the country and you know i i just wanted to go i just felt like i wanted to go surf there yeah and um you know god used that and used that time uh and has just blown it up and and being able to see the way it's reached people and hear how it's here's some stories of how it's affected certain people has has meant has made the whole thing so i'll do it again anytime
00:38:31.746 --> 00:38:32.327
Absolutely.
00:38:32.387 --> 00:38:33.847
It's gotta be an encouragement for sure.
00:38:33.907 --> 00:38:34.668
Yeah.
00:38:34.929 --> 00:38:35.168
Yes.
00:38:35.349 --> 00:38:35.670
Yeah.
00:38:36.190 --> 00:38:39.313
So just kind of to close out some fun questions for you.
00:38:39.333 --> 00:38:42.936
I'm curious what now in this stage of life for you is bringing you joy.
00:38:42.956 --> 00:38:42.976
I
00:38:44.657 --> 00:38:56.449
would say right now what's, what's, what's bringing me the most joy other than being able to still do what I get to do and being able to still travel and share across the country and meet all kinds of different people.
00:38:56.530 --> 00:39:00.614
I love, I love being home and being able to just slow down too.
00:39:01.121 --> 00:39:02.202
Yeah, I'm sure.
00:39:02.463 --> 00:39:10.735
With my family or doing things that I like, like just being able to write more music or write more songs or serve at my church.
00:39:11.916 --> 00:39:21.489
So when I'm home, I lead worship at my church here in Richmond and still be able to have that home church that I can call home.
00:39:21.530 --> 00:39:47.492
And that's always special to me when I get to be home on a weekend and be able to do that because that was my first– passion in high school I wanted to be a worship leader I wanted to lead worship at a church and now I get to do that and have the flexibility too because I'm not the only one who's leading I'm you know certainly not the only singer up there or guitar player up there so it's it's nice to have the flexibility and
00:39:47.532 --> 00:39:48.072
yeah
00:39:48.512 --> 00:39:52.838
so that that's been bringing me a lot of joy being able to to be a part of this church family
00:39:53.338 --> 00:39:56.541
yes that's so cool how it came full circle for you
00:39:56.833 --> 00:39:57.215
Yes.
00:39:57.715 --> 00:39:58.376
Really cool.
00:39:59.036 --> 00:40:07.568
And then lastly, I'm just curious, are you listening to any music or maybe even podcasts or audio books right now that you would say, Hey, I think you should check this out.
00:40:07.588 --> 00:40:08.309
This is so good.
00:40:10.012 --> 00:40:10.472
Oh man.
00:40:10.512 --> 00:40:13.297
That's, that's a, that's a good, that's a good question.
00:40:13.317 --> 00:40:18.764
I, I've been listening to, to definitely more, uh, Josiah Queen.
00:40:18.804 --> 00:40:19.786
Okay.
00:40:20.347 --> 00:40:20.567
Yeah.
00:40:20.728 --> 00:40:29.195
I've, I've been getting into him and I love his writing style and I love his, Every one of his songs really tells such a great story.
00:40:29.215 --> 00:40:35.552
To me, it's a very deep style of music and a deep style of writing.
00:40:35.612 --> 00:40:38.661
That's one that I would say a lot.
00:40:39.106 --> 00:40:40.849
Yeah, that's so awesome.
00:40:41.309 --> 00:40:48.463
Well, thank you, George, for spending part of your day with us today and just being able to share your incredible testimony and your story.
00:40:48.483 --> 00:40:50.867
I know that it's really going to encourage a lot of people.
00:40:50.949 --> 00:41:01.929
And I just hope that the Lord keeps opening doors for you to walk through, that you can just share more of who he is, you know, let him speak through the life that you have and the stories that he's written.
00:41:02.210 --> 00:41:04.699
So, yeah, thanks so much.
00:41:05.442 --> 00:41:05.943
Absolutely.
00:41:06.023 --> 00:41:11.364
And thank you for having me and for the time to come share and witness to everybody.
00:41:11.425 --> 00:41:11.726
Thank you.
00:41:12.577 --> 00:41:15.682
Well, thanks so much for spending part of your Monday with me today.
00:41:15.702 --> 00:41:18.286
I hope that you were super encouraged by George's story.
00:41:18.306 --> 00:41:19.849
I know that I certainly was.
00:41:20.371 --> 00:41:26.501
Just a reminder to check out the description for some discussion questions that you can reflect on on your own or with a group.
00:41:27.081 --> 00:41:34.514
And if you think of someone you know who might be encouraged by this podcast, please send it to them and make sure to download, follow, and subscribe wherever you are listening.
00:41:34.894 --> 00:41:36.077
And I'll see you next Monday.