There is funny… and then there’s I’m shaking my head in “can you say that?” while hysterically laughing funny. That was Michael Jr. The only thing was that his funny turned into serious. Serious and meaningful.
Deep and thought provoking.
A little shocking.
It stuck.
Problem: What we do in life might be with the wrong mindset and if so, it will produce flat results. Flat results are a problem. This is a problem especially if what we are doing is because we want to see some “fruit”, some results!
Who is he? “Hailed as one of today’s most gifted comedians, Michael Jr. has made appearances on The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Comedy Central, Oprah, and The Late Late Show. He has also performed at Christian venues such as catalyst Conference, Gateway Church, and the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. He’s a man comfortable on any stage, with material clean enough to work in churches and funny enough to work in clubs. It is this versatility that has also enabled Michael to author a children’s book, The Parts We Play, and to be featured in the wildly successful comedy DVD Thou Shalt Laugh.”
What did I learn? I learned that I might be asking the wrong question in what I am doing. Instead of asking “what can I do?” or “what can I get?” it could be “what can I give?”
Why did this message stick? This message stuck because Michael took us in a trail of laughter only to halt us in our gut wrenching breathless shrieks and tell us about a time when he was in a comedy club and realized he had worked so hard for laughs. Then he realized that instead of working so hard to GET laughs, what if he worked hard to GIVE laughs. That paradigm shift says it all. Instead of what can I get? It’s what can I give? This can be applied in marriage, in business, in ministry, and in any area of life!
Why does this message mean something to me? Sometimes I get frustrated when I feel like the dozens of hours I prepare in a message seems to not produce any results. If I don’t get enough book sales, or compliments then I often times feel like a failure. However, when I look at it completely different, I see different results.
Last time I spoke to a small audience of a little under 100 moms. This audience I visited a year prior as I shared a tearful but powerful message on “Unlocking Your Potential.” This time I spoke on “Your Defining Moment.” About 3/4 of the way into the message a beautiful woman raises her hand! To be honest, I didn’t know what she was going to say and I had never had this happen to me before. I stopped and called on her. {Good thing I had been a teacher before! ha!}
Right after I shared about having $184,400 in debt, she raises her hand to tell her own story. She gave a testimony to the entire room {in the middle ofmy message} about how last year’s message I spoke changed her life. When I told my stroller story, it gave her a mindset shift. She went home that day and told her husband they needed to get out of debt. And they did! She said that I had changed her life.
What a compliment! But the truth is that SHE changed her life by the choices she made. I just gave her my experience and my story. The amazing part about this was that I might not have ever known that story. I might have walked away from that message thinking… “well, not enough book sales…guess they didn’t like me.” But it’s not about that! It was about my stories and teachings wrapped up as a gift to GIVE the audience something to inspire them.
So Michael Jr. is right. If we just change our question, we can rest in knowing God will allow us to be vessels for His glory!
Living Intentionally Focused Everday!
Jamye
Resources
You’ll enjoy this 3 minute video story from Michael.
Jamye Sack 
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