October 16, 2025 • 19 mins
Ever felt trapped by a story you didn’t write? In this powerful episode, L Fitzgerald Stills reveals how to break free from shame, rewrite your narrative, and embrace a future filled with hope and purpose. Discover the real-life journey behind It’s Time to Rewrite Your Story and learn how faith, resilience, and honest reflection can transform your life. Don’t just read your script—become the author of your next chapter.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey, this Benji col Son of Alcohol from CBS Radio
and host of the syndicated talk show People of Distinction.
Talk gives you an in depth view of some of
the most dynamic, intelligent, and successful people on the planet.
Run to our website Alcohol Enterprises dot com for more info.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Email me through.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Benji at Alcohol Enterprises dot com if you'd like to
get involved with what we have going, and as always,
please continue to like and follow our broadcasts. People of
Distinction is internationally syndicated solely due to the love and
support that you all continue to give. We're available across
all major distributors, and as long as you keep following,
we're going to continue to put out the content. Now
(00:47):
sit back and strap in because on the line with
us today we have the impressive L. Fitzgerald Styles. Now
we're going to be discussing Jerry's incredible book. It's time
to rewrite your story. It's Amazon, it's Barnes and.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Noble, it's a lot of other places. Man, type it
into a search bar. You're gonna be greeted with all
of them. And I promise you, once we begin today's discussion,
you're gonna understand why say that people Listen, I got
a question for you, man, dial in right now. How
many of us feel like we are just we're just
(01:25):
reading a script that we didn't write. We're trapped by
a story of shame, of expectation or even past mistakes.
What does it actually look like to change that narrative.
That's a great question, and I know it's one that.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
We've all thought of. A lot of us are stuck.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Living in the past, decisions that we have made, and
we're finding it hard.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
To see forward.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Today we're gonna be sitting down because listen, Jerry, he's
here with his book. It is time to rewrite your story,
which is going on to give you a fresh perspective now,
the idea that we are God's ambassadors. We're tasked not
with condemning the world, but with tenderly pleading with it
(02:16):
to embrace a whole new plot. And listen, it sounds
revolutionary at first glance, but really, when you get down
to it, it's something that we've all thought about. I
know I have, but it's something we haven't quite been
able to put the pieces together to figure out. And
that's what makes Jerry's book so powerful, man. Not only
is it gonna.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Help you rewrite your story.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
But it's gonna do it in a way that's gonna
really help you embrace it. We're gonna cover a lot
of things today, okay, but we're only gonna scratch the surface.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
By the time we've concluded.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
You're gonna run and purchase your copies because you're gonna
realize the journey has just begun. But it starts with
page one in this amazing book. Sit back, strap in,
have your notebooks ready, because listen, Jerry's gonna be dropping
some wisdom. He's gonna give you a fantastic education, and
he might just take us all back to church for
a minute as well. Here we go, Jerry first and
(03:09):
foremost man, Welcome to people of distinction, and thank you
for being with us.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 4 (03:15):
I'm doing absolutely great, and thank you so much for
having me.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Listen, Jerry, it is a pleasure, man, I think now
more than ever, given where we currently are in our world. Listen,
I think there's just a lot of confusion. There's a
lot of division, of course, but when it comes internally,
a lot of people can really use this wisdom that
you're talking about here in your book and through your
ministry and your talks. So we're looking forward to this discussion.
(03:42):
Let's start off at the foundation though, before we even
go into anything, let's start by learning more about you.
Tell us about your background.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Great, absolutely my background. I've been in ministry for over
thirty years now, I've worked just retired a couple of
years ago. It was in the airline industry for over
twenty two years, had a great career there, and before
while I was actually in the airline industry, I had
to start of what would my life look like when
I retire. And so when I retired, didn't realize that
(04:13):
I had actually had the insight that I wanted to
write a book. And I just really thank the Lord
for the Holy Spirit for me to be to help
me to be able to write this book. This is amazing.
Never had never wanted to be an author, but when
this process came, it's like it was just almost second nature,
and it was so easy for me to begin to
put my thoughts together with it.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
That's without further ado. It came so easy to you
like second nature. Like you said, tell us more about it.
It is time to rewrite your story.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Let us know sure about a couple of years ago,
when I retired my retirement gathering, I had an interview
with the young lady that was doing my actual video
for the thing, and one of the questions she asked me,
she says, what would you tell your seventeen year old
self at this time? That was a question that was
on there and it hit me and at that moment,
(05:02):
I just thank the Lord the Holy Spirit gave me
the insight on it, and I thought about it. I said,
if I had put the things that were I was
thinking at that particular time, and had I done a
lot of things that I would doing choices that I've made,
Had I redone and just stayed on that, my life
I believe would have been a lot different. But as
we know, we all make choices and we go through things. Well,
(05:23):
the thing that brought me to the title of this
book from that was that I went and looked at
a familiar scripture that we look at all the time.
We hear Jeremiah twenty nine. Ain't eleven about remember the Lord.
For God to give you the me he allows you
to get to the mindset to where He's already set
this life for us, a life that's good in that
(05:44):
harm he hasn't expected in for us, and I realized that,
you know what, there are a lot of things that
we just be true. I did not really asked the
Lord about in my life. I made choices about what
I wanted to be, what I thought I wanted to be,
and didn't really look at it from this perspective, knowing
that here it is in the Bible scripture telling me
that your life has already been preordained. I already know
(06:07):
the thoughts that I have towards you. They're good and
not harm. So he's letting me know. And that generated
the title of this book. I'm like, you know what,
Lord you, I'm made in your image and in your likeness.
So who knows me better than you? Who knows any
of us better than you do? If that's what we
believe in. So by me believing in that, I say,
you know what. I decided to come to that. And
(06:28):
the verse that never really sticks out much is the
later verse at thirteen verse it says, when you seek
him with your whole heart. And that's something I have
really come to do and been doing it for many years,
and it's been a great blessing for me.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Jerry Thank you very much for that, man.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
And listen, what I love about this and really why
I was so excited to sit down with you to
talk about this book is right there in the title.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
There's one word in particular, re write.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Now that's profound, right because because rewriting implies that there
was a first draft to our particular journey, and of
course there is. Right, you just brought up the fact
that we all have a past. We've all had decisions
that we had made that maybe weren't necessarily the best decisions. Ultimately,
when you see the ripple effect of those decisions, and
(07:20):
sometimes man, it takes years, but it could bring shame,
It could bring pain, It could present a lot of
things in our past that we otherwise would rather sweep
under the rug. I think this gets to the heart
of your book, and I want to go to it next.
How do you guide readers to look back at the painful,
(07:41):
the broken quote unquote chapters of their lives not with shame,
because I think that's key to all of this is
shifting the perspective. So looking back not with shame but
actually as almost a redemptive source of material.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
That's a great question. One of the things that I
have come about. I consider myself I strive to be
a student of the Word of God, now just to
be a casual reader, but to be a student. And
what you said, this is something here that I'm going
to read. This will it causes us for your mind.
You really have got to meditate on this, because this
(08:18):
is not just something you can just read and it's
just oh, it's just a casual thing that you blow over.
But just check out this quick little statement. It says
that we have become His poetry talking about God for
each and every one of us individually, a recreative people
that will fulfill the destiny that He has given each
of us. So that means He gave each and every
(08:39):
one of us a destiny already before we were born,
he says. Well, we are joined to Jesus, the anointed One.
It says even before we were born. Wow, it says,
God plan in advance our destiny, he says, And the
good works that we would do to fulfill it. What
you're doing right now, it's a great work what you're doing,
(09:00):
being able to share and get individuals and get them
matures and get their workout. So He has a destiny
that was said for each and every one of us
before we even do it, before we was born.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
I'm telling this is powerful stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
You gotta head on over to Amazon, Barnes and Noble
typing into a search bar. As I mentioned before, the
book is entitled it is time to rewrite your story.
And by the time you turn that last page, Man,
you're gonna be doing just that, all right, Jerry continuing
on now, we touched up on it a little bit
right when you were talking about your past, and I
(09:35):
also oftentimes think it's very beneficial, especially on this platform,
that we're not simply paying things forward in a sense
of offering advice, but understanding that advice oftentimes comes from
wisdom that we have accrued over the years through our
own actions. I'm curious to know, Man, walk us through
(09:57):
as a way of paying it forward for our listening audience,
but talk to us a little bit about some of
your journey that you had gone through and how you
were able to rewrite your story now as a way
of shining light and offering hope for others out there
that are looking to do the same.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Thank you. A couple of things. I want to point
out that a lot of times a lot of people
don't know about me, and they usually get a chance
to find out. Is at the age of twenty seven
and the age of forty nine two very important chapters
in my life that I'll never forget. I almost committed
suicide twice at those times, and I realized, every forty
(10:34):
five seconds, somebody commits suicide. So when I think about
that opportunity that the Lord has given me, and both
times I can remember the first time, I was at
the airport in Houston where I live at and I
wanted to commit suicide there. The second time, the age
of forty nine, I was working in the airline industry.
I was in my studio apartment up there and contemplated
(10:57):
and had real battles and just thank God for the
grace and the mercy of the Old Spirit to help
me to get through those because it was just so
many things that were coming at me, so many personal things,
and I was really ready to just give up at
both times. But both times I really have to say
that I can speak for my end to help somebody
to know that though I really found each and every
(11:19):
time for the Spirit of God to really be real
to me as never before, and it was the main
thing that I need to help me to get through
those very trying times. We look at our life and
we look at a lot of mistakes, and there's a
lot of things the past that we go through. A
lot of my past is helps to be a lot
of what my messages is what I've done in prisons
(11:42):
and other things that I've been able to do.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Jer I think that's key.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Man Like so often, more often than not, when I'm
speaking to authors on the network, a common thing that
we hear is listen like when they're writing their books,
whether it's a novel, whether it's a memoir or whatever
it is, they're writing from a perspective of experience and
you write what you know. And I think that is
so key and we're going to be able to be
better because of it. Like I've often said, I'm very blessed.
(12:08):
I come from a very large family, but I'm the
youngest and I remember growing up and there were so
many things that I had. I was very I've mentioned
a number of times that I've been very fortunate to
learn from my older brother's unfortunate decisions, and again, it
just comes down to perspective.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
But a lot of times like watching certain things that
they had.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Gone through gave me the wisdom to avoid certain paths
that otherwise I would have gone down. But you're able
to witness that through someone else's journey and through someone
else's eyes. And I think that's what you're talking about here,
and it's just another reason on why your book is
so powerful.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So thank you a of course.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
For writing the book, but being brave enough and vulnerable
enough to share some of these aspects of your life
because people, of course are going to be able to
benefit because of it. Jared, I want to switch gears here, man,
as we start to tie out of the interview. Upon
doing your doing research with you, one of the signature
topics that I know that you often go into you
(13:15):
is entitled developing the mindset of an eagle, and I'm
really curious hey about the categorization, but also I want
to know a little bit more about that. So as
we start to close out, talk to us a little
bit more about that. How does one develop a mindset
of an egle? And what does that even mean?
Speaker 4 (13:35):
There are two different distinct breaches that usually their metaphors
is used. We're described as lions, and he also says
that our strength can be renewed like the debt of
an eagle. Some of the researchers I realized from looking
at it eagle is that an eagle has to if
he gets to a certain age up so many years.
They can do things to read, have to pick, to
(13:57):
redo their accouents on their chands, different things they have
to do to preserve their life if they want to
continue to last a little longer. This process with us.
There are times in our lives that we can do
certain things and when we look at the reference out
here renew us like an egoist that our life. We
look over a lot of things that we've done, a
(14:18):
lot of things I've looked at Benji, I thank the Lord.
I look at that analogy because one thing about it
ego lives. One of the things I found was very
interesting about an ego, and ego looks at a storm.
It is the only bird that sit on a high
cliff and it looks at a storm and it can
spread its wings that it locks with the opinions and
his wings that God may it is the only bird
(14:40):
that will fly to a storm. Nor the bird is
going to do that. And so in order for us
to be able to go through the journeys, to fail
things in our life. We have to have the strength
of that from the Lord to be able to go
through to tackle the things that we went through, failures
that we've had and all those things and I have
been able to overcome. I think about a really little
(15:00):
quick commercial that Michael Jordan made. He says, I have
failed over and over again, and that's why I succeed.
With us, we all a lot of times in life,
but God gives us the grace to be able to
mound up, to have strength as an ego to move forward.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Jerry, listen, man, my last question here for you. We've
spent a lot of time talking about your book. It
is time to rewrite your story and rightfully is the
anchor for today's interview. It was definitely something that we
wanted to really highlight.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
But take us out.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Man, either a focusing on the future, what's upcoming for you,
or tell us a little bit more about your ministry,
some speaking engagements, or some other projects that you also
have in the works.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Sure, thank you very much. My cousin and I we
are developing a podcast is called because I have a
cousin is in Shreveport, Louisiana, and it's going to be
focused on being straight up giving straight up answers with
our ministry is not going to be a lot of
things going to be very serious context. I have a
belief five of the books that I'm also have that
I'm looking forward to be adding and on my book
(16:05):
for those that purchase that, you'll know two things I
like to bring out my book has is on their
called Book on the Go because it's usually under one
hundred pages, so it's comfortable to take with your trips
doctor's office. Then it says on their spiritual content that
is very important. I rated the book spiritual and content
is what I was inspired to write to put on there.
(16:25):
And the reason I put that on there is that
a lot of times I find Benji. The reason that
people misunderstand a lot of things when it comes to
the Bible, even though we have a lot of different
translations and things now, is that we got to realize
that John six sixty three tells us that it is
the spirit that quickening, not the flesh. And we got
to realize that even though we smart, we have degrees,
(16:48):
we have a lot of things we may accomplish down here.
We have to understand that we've got to have the
Holy Spirit to reveal to us to be able to
understand the spiritual nature of what the Bible is. If
you don't understand the spiritual nature, you can go to
college and everything all you want to, but it's not
going to give you to the definition. And one of
(17:08):
the scriptures tells us that. In I believe his first
Corinthleans two and fourteen tells us that you can learn
a lot of these things, but it is it is
the Spirit that revealed, Thanks to you, good for us
to have our natural knowledge. Good supposed to be very
small in all those things. But if we're going to
understand God's work, we're gonna have to count all that
and move it aside to take a deeper dive into
(17:30):
what He has to say to us. And to do that,
got to meditate, focus on these scriptures.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
People.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
I mentioned it before, and I'm going to close out
by saying it again. We've barely scratched the surface. Pick
up your copies. Man, it is time to rewrite your story.
That's the title of the book. But that is a declaration.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
That I'm making to all of you today. Don't forget.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Of course I've been calling them, Jerry, but the name
on the book is El Fitzgerald's Styles.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
This is one that needs to be added to your shelf.
And I'm just listen.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
I'm gonna say it how it is like we can
either continue highlighting the painful sentences in our past, or
we can finally step up and let God help us
rewrite our story. This book is going to assist you
in that process. It's going to help you become a
(18:20):
true ambassador side by side with God, writing your.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Story with him.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
The invitation is on the table.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
And trust me when I.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Tell you your story, man, it won't write itself.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
You need to be an active participant. But the positive
note of all of this is you have it within
your control to do it.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
I don't care how dark your past may appear. The
road ahead is brighter than ever before, and it starts
with this book. Jerry, this has been an absolute honor, man.
Thank you once again for being a guest on People
of Distinction.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Thank you so much for having me, and you'd be
blessing to take here
Hey, this Benji col Son of Alcohol from CBS Radio
and host of the syndicated talk show People of Distinction.
Talk gives you an in depth view of some of
the most dynamic, intelligent, and successful people on the planet.
Run to our website Alcohol Enterprises dot com for more info.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Email me through.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Benji at Alcohol Enterprises dot com if you'd like to
get involved with what we have going, and as always,
please continue to like and follow our broadcasts. People of
Distinction is internationally syndicated solely due to the love and
support that you all continue to give. We're available across
all major distributors, and as long as you keep following,
we're going to continue to put out the content. Now
(00:47):
sit back and strap in because on the line with
us today we have the impressive L. Fitzgerald Styles. Now
we're going to be discussing Jerry's incredible book. It's time
to rewrite your story. It's Amazon, it's Barnes and.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Noble, it's a lot of other places. Man, type it
into a search bar. You're gonna be greeted with all
of them. And I promise you, once we begin today's discussion,
you're gonna understand why say that people Listen, I got
a question for you, man, dial in right now. How
many of us feel like we are just we're just
(01:25):
reading a script that we didn't write. We're trapped by
a story of shame, of expectation or even past mistakes.
What does it actually look like to change that narrative.
That's a great question, and I know it's one that.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
We've all thought of. A lot of us are stuck.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Living in the past, decisions that we have made, and
we're finding it hard.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
To see forward.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Today we're gonna be sitting down because listen, Jerry, he's
here with his book. It is time to rewrite your story,
which is going on to give you a fresh perspective now,
the idea that we are God's ambassadors. We're tasked not
with condemning the world, but with tenderly pleading with it
(02:16):
to embrace a whole new plot. And listen, it sounds
revolutionary at first glance, but really, when you get down
to it, it's something that we've all thought about. I
know I have, but it's something we haven't quite been
able to put the pieces together to figure out. And
that's what makes Jerry's book so powerful, man. Not only
is it gonna.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Help you rewrite your story.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
But it's gonna do it in a way that's gonna
really help you embrace it. We're gonna cover a lot
of things today, okay, but we're only gonna scratch the surface.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
By the time we've concluded.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
You're gonna run and purchase your copies because you're gonna
realize the journey has just begun. But it starts with
page one in this amazing book. Sit back, strap in,
have your notebooks ready, because listen, Jerry's gonna be dropping
some wisdom. He's gonna give you a fantastic education, and
he might just take us all back to church for
a minute as well. Here we go, Jerry first and
(03:09):
foremost man, Welcome to people of distinction, and thank you
for being with us.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 4 (03:15):
I'm doing absolutely great, and thank you so much for
having me.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Listen, Jerry, it is a pleasure, man, I think now
more than ever, given where we currently are in our world. Listen,
I think there's just a lot of confusion. There's a
lot of division, of course, but when it comes internally,
a lot of people can really use this wisdom that
you're talking about here in your book and through your
ministry and your talks. So we're looking forward to this discussion.
(03:42):
Let's start off at the foundation though, before we even
go into anything, let's start by learning more about you.
Tell us about your background.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Great, absolutely my background. I've been in ministry for over
thirty years now, I've worked just retired a couple of
years ago. It was in the airline industry for over
twenty two years, had a great career there, and before
while I was actually in the airline industry, I had
to start of what would my life look like when
I retire. And so when I retired, didn't realize that
(04:13):
I had actually had the insight that I wanted to
write a book. And I just really thank the Lord
for the Holy Spirit for me to be to help
me to be able to write this book. This is amazing.
Never had never wanted to be an author, but when
this process came, it's like it was just almost second nature,
and it was so easy for me to begin to
put my thoughts together with it.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
That's without further ado. It came so easy to you
like second nature. Like you said, tell us more about it.
It is time to rewrite your story.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Let us know sure about a couple of years ago,
when I retired my retirement gathering, I had an interview
with the young lady that was doing my actual video
for the thing, and one of the questions she asked me,
she says, what would you tell your seventeen year old
self at this time? That was a question that was
on there and it hit me and at that moment,
(05:02):
I just thank the Lord the Holy Spirit gave me
the insight on it, and I thought about it. I said,
if I had put the things that were I was
thinking at that particular time, and had I done a
lot of things that I would doing choices that I've made,
Had I redone and just stayed on that, my life
I believe would have been a lot different. But as
we know, we all make choices and we go through things. Well,
(05:23):
the thing that brought me to the title of this
book from that was that I went and looked at
a familiar scripture that we look at all the time.
We hear Jeremiah twenty nine. Ain't eleven about remember the Lord.
For God to give you the me he allows you
to get to the mindset to where He's already set
this life for us, a life that's good in that
(05:44):
harm he hasn't expected in for us, and I realized that,
you know what, there are a lot of things that
we just be true. I did not really asked the
Lord about in my life. I made choices about what
I wanted to be, what I thought I wanted to be,
and didn't really look at it from this perspective, knowing
that here it is in the Bible scripture telling me
that your life has already been preordained. I already know
(06:07):
the thoughts that I have towards you. They're good and
not harm. So he's letting me know. And that generated
the title of this book. I'm like, you know what,
Lord you, I'm made in your image and in your likeness.
So who knows me better than you? Who knows any
of us better than you do? If that's what we
believe in. So by me believing in that, I say,
you know what. I decided to come to that. And
(06:28):
the verse that never really sticks out much is the
later verse at thirteen verse it says, when you seek
him with your whole heart. And that's something I have
really come to do and been doing it for many years,
and it's been a great blessing for me.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Jerry Thank you very much for that, man.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
And listen, what I love about this and really why
I was so excited to sit down with you to
talk about this book is right there in the title.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
There's one word in particular, re write.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Now that's profound, right because because rewriting implies that there
was a first draft to our particular journey, and of
course there is. Right, you just brought up the fact
that we all have a past. We've all had decisions
that we had made that maybe weren't necessarily the best decisions. Ultimately,
when you see the ripple effect of those decisions, and
(07:20):
sometimes man, it takes years, but it could bring shame,
It could bring pain, It could present a lot of
things in our past that we otherwise would rather sweep
under the rug. I think this gets to the heart
of your book, and I want to go to it next.
How do you guide readers to look back at the painful,
(07:41):
the broken quote unquote chapters of their lives not with shame,
because I think that's key to all of this is
shifting the perspective. So looking back not with shame but
actually as almost a redemptive source of material.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
That's a great question. One of the things that I
have come about. I consider myself I strive to be
a student of the Word of God, now just to
be a casual reader, but to be a student. And
what you said, this is something here that I'm going
to read. This will it causes us for your mind.
You really have got to meditate on this, because this
(08:18):
is not just something you can just read and it's
just oh, it's just a casual thing that you blow over.
But just check out this quick little statement. It says
that we have become His poetry talking about God for
each and every one of us individually, a recreative people
that will fulfill the destiny that He has given each
of us. So that means He gave each and every
(08:39):
one of us a destiny already before we were born,
he says. Well, we are joined to Jesus, the anointed One.
It says even before we were born. Wow, it says,
God plan in advance our destiny, he says, And the
good works that we would do to fulfill it. What
you're doing right now, it's a great work what you're doing,
(09:00):
being able to share and get individuals and get them
matures and get their workout. So He has a destiny
that was said for each and every one of us
before we even do it, before we was born.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
I'm telling this is powerful stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
You gotta head on over to Amazon, Barnes and Noble
typing into a search bar. As I mentioned before, the
book is entitled it is time to rewrite your story.
And by the time you turn that last page, Man,
you're gonna be doing just that, all right, Jerry continuing
on now, we touched up on it a little bit
right when you were talking about your past, and I
(09:35):
also oftentimes think it's very beneficial, especially on this platform,
that we're not simply paying things forward in a sense
of offering advice, but understanding that advice oftentimes comes from
wisdom that we have accrued over the years through our
own actions. I'm curious to know, Man, walk us through
(09:57):
as a way of paying it forward for our listening audience,
but talk to us a little bit about some of
your journey that you had gone through and how you
were able to rewrite your story now as a way
of shining light and offering hope for others out there
that are looking to do the same.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Thank you. A couple of things. I want to point
out that a lot of times a lot of people
don't know about me, and they usually get a chance
to find out. Is at the age of twenty seven
and the age of forty nine two very important chapters
in my life that I'll never forget. I almost committed
suicide twice at those times, and I realized, every forty
(10:34):
five seconds, somebody commits suicide. So when I think about
that opportunity that the Lord has given me, and both
times I can remember the first time, I was at
the airport in Houston where I live at and I
wanted to commit suicide there. The second time, the age
of forty nine, I was working in the airline industry.
I was in my studio apartment up there and contemplated
(10:57):
and had real battles and just thank God for the
grace and the mercy of the Old Spirit to help
me to get through those because it was just so
many things that were coming at me, so many personal things,
and I was really ready to just give up at
both times. But both times I really have to say
that I can speak for my end to help somebody
to know that though I really found each and every
(11:19):
time for the Spirit of God to really be real
to me as never before, and it was the main
thing that I need to help me to get through
those very trying times. We look at our life and
we look at a lot of mistakes, and there's a
lot of things the past that we go through. A
lot of my past is helps to be a lot
of what my messages is what I've done in prisons
(11:42):
and other things that I've been able to do.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Jer I think that's key.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Man Like so often, more often than not, when I'm
speaking to authors on the network, a common thing that
we hear is listen like when they're writing their books,
whether it's a novel, whether it's a memoir or whatever
it is, they're writing from a perspective of experience and
you write what you know. And I think that is
so key and we're going to be able to be
better because of it. Like I've often said, I'm very blessed.
(12:08):
I come from a very large family, but I'm the
youngest and I remember growing up and there were so
many things that I had. I was very I've mentioned
a number of times that I've been very fortunate to
learn from my older brother's unfortunate decisions, and again, it
just comes down to perspective.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
But a lot of times like watching certain things that
they had.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Gone through gave me the wisdom to avoid certain paths
that otherwise I would have gone down. But you're able
to witness that through someone else's journey and through someone
else's eyes. And I think that's what you're talking about here,
and it's just another reason on why your book is
so powerful.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So thank you a of course.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
For writing the book, but being brave enough and vulnerable
enough to share some of these aspects of your life
because people, of course are going to be able to
benefit because of it. Jared, I want to switch gears here, man,
as we start to tie out of the interview. Upon
doing your doing research with you, one of the signature
topics that I know that you often go into you
(13:15):
is entitled developing the mindset of an eagle, and I'm
really curious hey about the categorization, but also I want
to know a little bit more about that. So as
we start to close out, talk to us a little
bit more about that. How does one develop a mindset
of an egle? And what does that even mean?
Speaker 4 (13:35):
There are two different distinct breaches that usually their metaphors
is used. We're described as lions, and he also says
that our strength can be renewed like the debt of
an eagle. Some of the researchers I realized from looking
at it eagle is that an eagle has to if
he gets to a certain age up so many years.
They can do things to read, have to pick, to
(13:57):
redo their accouents on their chands, different things they have
to do to preserve their life if they want to
continue to last a little longer. This process with us.
There are times in our lives that we can do
certain things and when we look at the reference out
here renew us like an egoist that our life. We
look over a lot of things that we've done, a
(14:18):
lot of things I've looked at Benji, I thank the Lord.
I look at that analogy because one thing about it
ego lives. One of the things I found was very
interesting about an ego, and ego looks at a storm.
It is the only bird that sit on a high
cliff and it looks at a storm and it can
spread its wings that it locks with the opinions and
his wings that God may it is the only bird
(14:40):
that will fly to a storm. Nor the bird is
going to do that. And so in order for us
to be able to go through the journeys, to fail
things in our life. We have to have the strength
of that from the Lord to be able to go
through to tackle the things that we went through, failures
that we've had and all those things and I have
been able to overcome. I think about a really little
(15:00):
quick commercial that Michael Jordan made. He says, I have
failed over and over again, and that's why I succeed.
With us, we all a lot of times in life,
but God gives us the grace to be able to
mound up, to have strength as an ego to move forward.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Jerry, listen, man, my last question here for you. We've
spent a lot of time talking about your book. It
is time to rewrite your story and rightfully is the
anchor for today's interview. It was definitely something that we
wanted to really highlight.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
But take us out.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Man, either a focusing on the future, what's upcoming for you,
or tell us a little bit more about your ministry,
some speaking engagements, or some other projects that you also
have in the works.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Sure, thank you very much. My cousin and I we
are developing a podcast is called because I have a
cousin is in Shreveport, Louisiana, and it's going to be
focused on being straight up giving straight up answers with
our ministry is not going to be a lot of
things going to be very serious context. I have a
belief five of the books that I'm also have that
I'm looking forward to be adding and on my book
(16:05):
for those that purchase that, you'll know two things I
like to bring out my book has is on their
called Book on the Go because it's usually under one
hundred pages, so it's comfortable to take with your trips
doctor's office. Then it says on their spiritual content that
is very important. I rated the book spiritual and content
is what I was inspired to write to put on there.
(16:25):
And the reason I put that on there is that
a lot of times I find Benji. The reason that
people misunderstand a lot of things when it comes to
the Bible, even though we have a lot of different
translations and things now, is that we got to realize
that John six sixty three tells us that it is
the spirit that quickening, not the flesh. And we got
to realize that even though we smart, we have degrees,
(16:48):
we have a lot of things we may accomplish down here.
We have to understand that we've got to have the
Holy Spirit to reveal to us to be able to
understand the spiritual nature of what the Bible is. If
you don't understand the spiritual nature, you can go to
college and everything all you want to, but it's not
going to give you to the definition. And one of
(17:08):
the scriptures tells us that. In I believe his first
Corinthleans two and fourteen tells us that you can learn
a lot of these things, but it is it is
the Spirit that revealed, Thanks to you, good for us
to have our natural knowledge. Good supposed to be very
small in all those things. But if we're going to
understand God's work, we're gonna have to count all that
and move it aside to take a deeper dive into
(17:30):
what He has to say to us. And to do that,
got to meditate, focus on these scriptures.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
People.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
I mentioned it before, and I'm going to close out
by saying it again. We've barely scratched the surface. Pick
up your copies. Man, it is time to rewrite your story.
That's the title of the book. But that is a declaration.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
That I'm making to all of you today. Don't forget.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Of course I've been calling them, Jerry, but the name
on the book is El Fitzgerald's Styles.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
This is one that needs to be added to your shelf.
And I'm just listen.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
I'm gonna say it how it is like we can
either continue highlighting the painful sentences in our past, or
we can finally step up and let God help us
rewrite our story. This book is going to assist you
in that process. It's going to help you become a
(18:20):
true ambassador side by side with God, writing your.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Story with him.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
The invitation is on the table.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
And trust me when I.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Tell you your story, man, it won't write itself.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
You need to be an active participant. But the positive
note of all of this is you have it within
your control to do it.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
I don't care how dark your past may appear. The
road ahead is brighter than ever before, and it starts
with this book. Jerry, this has been an absolute honor, man.
Thank you once again for being a guest on People
of Distinction.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Thank you so much for having me, and you'd be
blessing to take here
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