December 1, 2025 • 43 mins
Concentrating on Priorities | Episode #459
This week's show is called "Concentrating on Priorities." Tune in and hear Steve share his heart on what keeps him going every day. For Steve, it all comes down to knowing what is important and a deep commitment to serving others. It all starts with being thankful for each and every day that the Lord has blessed him with.
In this episode, I explore the theme of prioritizing what truly matters, focusing on gratitude after Thanksgiving and the personal significance of this holiday in my battle with multiple myeloma. I share my tradition of sending heartfelt cards to loved ones, fostering meaningful connections, and reflecting on life's purpose through mentoring.
Citing Marcus Aurelius, I emphasize the role of daily habits in character building and the impactful message of unity from "We Are the World." My goal is to inspire listeners to embrace their worth, act kindly, and cultivate a sense of community and gratitude.
https://www.talknetworkradio.com/hosts/right-thinking
This week's show is called "Concentrating on Priorities." Tune in and hear Steve share his heart on what keeps him going every day. For Steve, it all comes down to knowing what is important and a deep commitment to serving others. It all starts with being thankful for each and every day that the Lord has blessed him with.
In this episode, I explore the theme of prioritizing what truly matters, focusing on gratitude after Thanksgiving and the personal significance of this holiday in my battle with multiple myeloma. I share my tradition of sending heartfelt cards to loved ones, fostering meaningful connections, and reflecting on life's purpose through mentoring.
Citing Marcus Aurelius, I emphasize the role of daily habits in character building and the impactful message of unity from "We Are the World." My goal is to inspire listeners to embrace their worth, act kindly, and cultivate a sense of community and gratitude.
https://www.talknetworkradio.com/hosts/right-thinking
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
There must be lies turning brighter somewhere. Got to be birs.
Why I am high tun the sky four of blue.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good morning, welcome to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'm
your host, Steve Copeland, and thank you for tuning in.
Let's have a great day.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Good morning, everybody, glad to be with you. Well. Today's
episode number four or fifty nine Right Thinking with Steve Copelan,
It's very pleased to announce. This week's show was called
Concentrating on Priorities. Tune in and here Steve share his
heart on what keeps him going every day. For Steve,
it all comes down to knowing what is important and
(01:01):
a deep commitment to serving others. It all starts with
being thankful for each and every day that the Lord
has blessed him with. Well. I hope everyone has had
a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know that mine has been absolutely beautiful.
You know, Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year.
(01:23):
It started forty three years ago when I lived in
my first house. I just bought my first house and
we had Thanksgiving under my own roof, and it was
so wonderful waking up and having everybody come over to
my house and at the end of the day, I proclaimed,
you know, this has been so wonderful today that I
(01:44):
am going to celebrate Thanksgiving under my own roof every
day for the rest of my life. Well forty three
anniversaries later, which if you do the math, I guess
that's forty nineteen eighty two. That'd be forty four years
that we celebrate Thanksgiving, that I've been able to celebrate
Thanksgiving under my own roof. And twenty five years ago
(02:08):
when I got my cancer diagnosis, my multi my lomma,
and the expected life expectancy was five and a half
years at the time. Two years later this year, it
would be January twenty five years. Well, the being home
on Thanksgiving. I know it might sound a little selfish.
(02:30):
In fact, maybe about three times Donna said to me, see,
if can't we just accept the imitation, go for my
mother's this year, go over my sisters or my daughters.
And I said, hey, if you really want to, you
go ahead and go and just bring me back am plete.
But I'm going to be here. It's selfish, but all
(02:52):
year long, every day I do my very best out
there in the world, taking care of responsibilities, doing for others,
and I just decided to take this one day and
let it be a complete day of thankfulness to where
I just want to I want to just be reflective
(03:13):
of all the many blessings that the Lord has given
me and just be thankful and just have a day
of rest, no gift giving, just wonderful food, my favorite
meal of the year, and just being with family and
thinking about friends. And so twenty five years ago, in
my cancer diagnosed, this got there. It became even more
(03:35):
important to me for Thanksgiving because not knowing from year
to year if I'm going to be here next year,
it became my marker to celebrate another year that the
Lord has blessed me with by being here. And it's
just been beautiful. And so this year was absolutely wonderful
being with family. And I have a tradition that I
(03:59):
want to share with you. I subscribed to American Greetings
greeting cards twenty years or so ago and just a
few dollars a month, and and they have hundreds and
hundreds of cards for every occasion. But I started on
on Christmas, New Year's uh fourth of July, Easter, Thanksgiving
(04:23):
sending out greeting cards to everybody that I think about
that that I've met along the way, that that I
care about, people that I've crossed their paths and just said, hey,
you know, I'll be thinking about you and just be
looking for be looking for for a card from me,
a text or an email around around you know, around
(04:43):
the holidays. And I've got literally hundreds of people through
my through my life and my travels that I've kept
in touch with and and I don't know if Henry
Ford might be listening, but about four years ago, I
had a pellet gun that that pump action didn't work
and I needed repair and I didn't know how to
(05:03):
get it fixed. So I googled a Crossman pellet gun
repair and I found this this guy in Georgia, Henry Ford,
and I called him on the phone, and uh oh,
he was wonderful, wonderful to work with. I really liked him,
and uh, you know, I meet a lot of people
through you know, contractors and business affiliates and things that
(05:25):
that I just sort of get get close with in
a way where we, you know, just kind of care
about each other. So he fixed it and it cost
like forty five dollars, and uh, I shifted to him
and he shipped back and and he was just so
good to work with. I called him up and thanked
him and and well, I send him a card every
(05:47):
year and he responds, and how are you doing, Steve.
It's good to hear from you. Well, Thanksgiving. My son Josh.
I was going over that I'd done this, and Donna said, yeah,
he does it every year. You know. It takes about
five hours, a couple of hours night four and then
Thanksgiving morning while I'm watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Free Send.
I send uh these cards to people for one reason,
(06:11):
just to let them know I'm thinking about them and
that that you know, they have a good spot in
my heart. And I got to be honest, it's beautiful
because I got about seventy responses of people that like
like Henry Ford, came back to anyone one. But now
I get a lot of beautiful responses, and and I
just like being in touch with people and let them
know that I care about them and I appreciate them.
(06:34):
And so that's that's kind of kind of where I'm
coming from today. I wanted to give a message and
I put a lot of thought into you know, four
hundred and fifty nine of these episodes. These messages I
call them and it's like, why do I do them?
You know who listens to them? You know what do
I talk about? You know? Why do I feel worthy
(06:55):
of putting a message out that people might listen to? Well,
I don't really know who listens to them. I know
that a lot of people do. I get a lot
of responses though, but I'm not concerned about how many
people listen to them. I know this that I have
very many people that I've had one on one relationships with,
(07:17):
like in a mentoring way, of people that have reached
out to me and they got a hold of my
book from the Lip to the Hip or part of
the curriculum that I've done for years and prisons across
the country. I have no idea how many people, but
I know from the hundreds of letters that I get
and phone calls I've had, and people that I've spent
(07:40):
time with that I've been introduced to that a friend
might have said, Hey, Steve, I want you to would
you call this person up because they're going through a
hard time. And that's the most wonderful thing. When I
have somebody asked me to give someone a call because
they need an uplift in their life. And I got
a lot of friends out there, but I want you
to know that every time I get into one of
(08:02):
these mentoring type relationships, it always turns out. And I
let the people that I'm that I'm speaking with, that
I'm that I'm sharing time with, know that, hey, I
get a lot more out of this relationship than you
probably do because you're you're giving me an opportunity to
(08:24):
do what the Lord has has called me to do.
And so I thank you for that. A lot of people,
a lot of people a little bit shy or maybe
embarrassed if they if they're down and someone you know,
is sent to them to kind of try to lift
them up. Like I say, I I'm able to do well,
I'm only able to do it because so many people
(08:46):
have done it for me and and it's like passing
it on. You know, when I was young, there was
an expression that we had when we were hitchhiking around
and young and you know, I live in Norfolk, Virginia,
traveled to California, and there is an expression that I
picked up from someone out there that was just into
the same kind of mindset that I was. What goes
(09:08):
around comes around. Many many people have been there to
have helped me, encourage me and lift me up, and
I'm just so so fortunate, so blessed that I have
an opportunity to do that too. When I wrote a
chapter for a book called Journeys to Success about I
don't know, five six, seven years ago, it's chapter twelve
(09:30):
in Journeys to Success, Volume seven, and the chapter is
called the Journey to write Thinking, and it starts off
with a quote that I've got in there. It's actually
the second quote, but it's under definiteness of purpose. It's
an appalling Hill quote. There is one quality which one
must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose,
(09:53):
the knowledge of what one wants and a burning desire
to possess it. Yeah, that's probably my favorit, Napoleon Hill quote. Well,
right underneath that I make this statement, I've always known
my purpose. God put me on this earth to love
other people and help them to have a better life.
(10:13):
I've just had a lifetime of distractions and setbacks that
have kept me from fully living it. Well, you know,
knowing my purpose at a very early age that that
I was just so blessed to find and my mother
was so instrumental. My mother and I talked hours and
(10:33):
hours and hours my whole life about life and how
hard it is and how we've got to trust God
and give it up to God and things like that.
And so, you know, I had a just a wonderful,
wonderful upbringing, and you know, and that in that early upbringing,
I came to reading all the time. And and when
(10:54):
I talk about what, what what gives me? You know,
it keeps me going every day? You know, where, uh
what what it is that keeps me going? What's my
love for other people? And it starts with my love
for the Lord. And I'm wanting to serve the Lord
and be obedient to the Lord and and and do
as he wants me to do and and and basically
(11:17):
a lifetime of striving to be christ Like to where
I can I can be like Christ and have Christ
in me and be guided by the Holy Spirit. And
and that's that's what I'm here to do. And like
I just read. You know, I've articulated what my purpose is.
And but my life of reading, you know, I just
(11:38):
love I love reading. I read every single day a
lot every day, just because it's not an escape, it's
an education, it's a it's a being mentored by some
of the greatest minds in history. And and I'm so
fortunate to have so many close friends that that that
are people that that that understand that gem Stove all
(11:58):
in particular. You know, Jim stub Ball is just a
man among many, many, many wonderful, great people. But he's
the He's he's probably the most most beautiful person that
I've ever known, possessing as much wisdom as he has
with what his life is and who I just I
just love Jim. And you know, I talked to him regularly,
(12:20):
and I call him up before the holidays and we
have a brief conversation all the time. But you know,
my involvement with a lot of other beautiful people, you know,
I saw him as Chad and Don Green and joey
O and Leffard Fade and and and and Glynn Glynn.
You know, I I have a friend named Glynn that
(12:42):
I was introduced to and and he introduced me to
a friend named Joe. And these two gentlemen I've been
so important in my life. Glenn Hodges from Chattanooga, Tennessee,
and Uh and Joe Wheelis and uh, you know, these
are two gentlemen that I got introduced to. I met
(13:03):
I met Lynnet the polit Hill Foundation at a Napoleon
Hill day a couple of years back, and then he
introduced me to Joe. And it's just a world of
people caring about each other. And I and I think
that I'm gonna I'm gonna introduce now something that I
didn't know what I was going to be doing today.
Like I said, I I put a lot of time
(13:23):
and thought into, you know, the message that I do.
But the only thing that I really try to do
with these messages that I put out these shows is
to put out something that somebody will be touched by.
It's somebody that I'll connect with, somebody that it that
it will make a positive impression on someone. Maybe they'll
(13:44):
take that next step forward, maybe they'll go all the
way in and come forth and get to know get
to know Jesus. I mean, that's really my my ultimate
there is that because that's Jesus is the only answer.
But I've got something wonderful that I want to share
it with you here. As I was doing and been
my praying in preparation for today's show, didn't know exactly
where I was going to go. I came across the
(14:09):
song that was it was written and I guess it was.
I guess been about thirty thirty five or six years
ago in nineteen seventy five. I guess fifty whoa wait
a second, nineteen seventy five? Was that fifty years ago?
I guess not thirty some years ago? Let me what
was nineteen eighty five? Nineteen seventy five? But the song
(14:30):
We Are the World came out because of a famine
in Africa and a group was formed called you know
it was? It was called Africa the USA for Africa
and Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson wrote this song and
(14:54):
it was produced by Quincy Jones. But the message of
this song is probably one of the most powerful messages
that the world has ever received by a bunch of
superstar performers, musicians, songwriters or singers performers. And when I
(15:17):
when I was doing my research on it today, it
came out that this song it basically just said that
it doesn't matter where we come from, who we are,
what color of skin we've got, whether we're young or old,
that we're all humans, that we are all connected and
we're all part of God, and that we can't just
(15:40):
close their eyes to things act like everything's just fine.
The world has a lot of suffering in it and
this song is intended for people to take action and
help to make change, and that we all need one
another and then if we do that, the world will
have a brighter day. I want to I want to
(16:01):
read you some of these lyrics and it you know,
it's about global unity and just that we all have
responsibility with one another, and it's all about you know,
love that we really need love. But there's twenty one
solo performers in this song. There's twenty one chorus background
(16:22):
singers there, and there's eight instrumentalist musicians. And I'm going
to read you the list because as I watch the video.
You got to watch this video now, it's about seven
or eight minute song. It will inspire you. If I
do nothing else today, watch and listen to We Are
the World. Because when it came out in nineteen eighty five,
(16:45):
it had a powerful impact. It's one of the I
think it's the number eight most sold single in recording history.
But it brought together a group of people that are
some of the great musicians and singers that the world
has ever known. Check out this list to who they are,
(17:07):
Lyon l Richie Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rodgers, James Ingram,
Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Dion Warwick,
Willie Nelson, al Gero, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry,
Darryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cindy Lauper, Kim Carnes, Bob Dylan,
(17:32):
and Ray Charles. Each of those performers all did solos
in there. I mean they all did a solo. Now
on this list of the chorus, This is an interesting list.
Dan Ackroyd, Harry Belafonte, Lindsey Buckingham, Maria Kippolina, Johnny Coola,
(17:55):
Sheila e Bob Geldoff, Bill Gibson, Chris Hayes, Sean Hopper,
Jackie Jackson, LaToya Jackson, Marion Jackson, Randy Jackson, Tito Jackson,
Waylon Jennings, Bette Midler, John Ooks, Jeffrey Osborne, the Pointer Sisters,
Smoking Robinson. These are the greatest of the great. All
(18:18):
these people, the instrumentalists, I don't know a lot of them,
instrumentalists like I do singers, but I'll read them and
you might appreciate some of them. There's one or two
that I do recognize. David Posh, Michael Bodeker, Felino Da Costa,
Phil Collins, Louis Johnson, Michael Emerson, Greg fill Gats, John Robinson.
(18:43):
What a group of performers that worked on this song together.
And it's all about, you know, just doing for others.
That's what we're here to talk about today, doing for others.
I'm gonna read. I'm going to read the lyrics on
this on their there are three main verses. Then there's
a chorus that just go on and on and on.
(19:05):
I'm going to read the chorus first because that sets
the tone for everything. We are the world, we are
the children, We are the ones who make a brighter day.
So let's start giving. Okay, the first course, the first verse. Rather,
there comes a time when we need a certain call,
when we heed a certain call, when the world must
(19:27):
come together as one. There are people dying. Oh, and
it's time to lend a hand to life, the greatest
gift of all. We can't go on pretending day by
day that someone somewhere will soon make a change. We
all a part of God's great, big family and the truth,
you know, love is all we need. I'm not going
(19:51):
to read all three. I just recommend to each one
of you that you go in on the internet and
you listen to that song again. It was written by
Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, produced by Quincy Jones. Okay,
so what I'm trying to say right now is you
know what is it that that keeps me going every day?
(20:12):
And my answer to you is just knowing how much
I'm loved, loved by Jesus and doing what he wants
me to do. You know, I got a phone call
about three weeks ago from God and he said, Steve,
you know I'm having exceptionally busy day to day. Would
would you do me a favor? Well time out. God's
(20:33):
telling me that he's having accepted busy day. Well. I said, well, sure, God,
I'm honored whatever I can do. And he said, well,
there's this person over here, but he needs he needs
some he needs some extra loving today, you know, would
you spend some time with him? And I said absolutely, Lord,
thank you for asking me. Okay, well, first of all,
(20:53):
why did God ask me to do that. He could
do a trillion things in a nineo second. So why
because I I believe that God. What makes God smile
is when his children, the brothers and the sisters of
this world do for one another. You know, God could
(21:13):
have a personal relationship with each one of us. We can,
We can go to him and we need to. Don't
don't take me wrong here. We need to have that
personal relationship with God. We need to listen to what
God wants us to understand and to know. We need
to study the Word. We need to be in fellowship.
We we need we need to come closer to the Lord.
(21:34):
We need to understand the word of the Lord. But
when we do, we learn that we want to be
like him. God is love and so when we get
like that, we need to go out in the world
and spread it and do for others. Well, what makes
God smile, like I was saying, is when his children
(21:56):
do for one another. He can do for each one
of us, and he will. We have to trust him
and he will. But what really makes him smile is
when he sees that we're doing for one another and
inside of each of our own families and communities and neighborhoods.
We should be doing for one another, and so so
(22:17):
I think I think that's a beautiful thing. A couple
A couple About two months ago, I was interviewing Henry
smith Smashers and I and I quote it and I
talked about Marcus Aurelius Meditations, and I liked what Henry said.
I said, you know who Marcus Rois is and goes, yeah,
isn't he that guy? You know, like a Roman guy
(22:37):
back there in jul Caesar's day that he just put
out a lot of quotes And that's the way Marcus
Rois is. Well, I well, I made reference to book
five and the his in the sections of Meditations. It
has a series of books, and in book five I
was studying it and it's changed my life about about
(23:01):
two months ago. And here's why I'm gonna read it,
and then I'm gonna explain it. At dawn, when you
have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself, I have
to go to work as a human being. What do
I have to complain of if I'm going to do
what I was born for, the things I was brought
into the world to do, or is this what I
(23:21):
was created for to huddle under the blankets and stay warm.
But it's nicer here. So you were born to feel
nice instead of doing things and experiencing them. Don't you
see the plants, the birds, the ants, and spiders and
bees going about their individual task, putting the world in
order as best they can. And you're not willing to
(23:43):
do your job as a human being. Why aren't you
running to do what your nature demands? So what I
was saying about that is is that the life of purpose.
That's all we all have purpose, you know. And at
the end of that chapter, and it's their number, paragraph
thirty four, it gives Marcus Ariahs kind of does one
(24:05):
of his quotes in the meditation, You can lead an
untroubled life provided you can grow, can think and act systematically.
Two characteristics shared by gods and men and every rational creature.
One not to let others hold you back. Two to
(24:28):
locate goodness and thinking and doing the right thing, and
to limit your desires to that. You're listening to Steve
Here's right thinking, foundation, right thinking, doing the right thing.
Don't let others hold you back. My wife always loves
the quote in the movie Dirty Dancing when when baby's
(24:50):
out there, and I think it's Patrick Swayze says, don't
let baby, don't put my baby in the corner. I
get it all mixed up. My wife will have to
straighten me out on that. But the point is people
will always try to hold you back and put you down.
But if you know who you are, and you get
(25:11):
that confidence in yourself that you know you're doing right,
that you know you're doing right, don't let anybody stop
you from doing what you know is right. The best
way to learn what is right is to get it
from the word of the Lord. So that's just a
clue that I want to give you. Well, when I
read this chapter a couple of months ago, and it
(25:31):
was talking about getting up in the morning. Because of
my multi malma, I have a diagnosis of chronic fatigue.
For twenty some years now. I never wake up any
more rested than when I went to bed. I'm always tired.
It takes me a long time to get up, and
I don't drink coffee as a stimulu, so I get
(25:51):
energy from my mind and my thoughts. So every morning,
when I'm very, very tired in the morning it's time
to wake up, I usually take a half hour to
forty five minutes to lay in bed. And during the
night when I'm up a lot, and I listen to
audio books. Instead of just being there and just wishing
I could sleep, I just plug in my hair and
NAEs and listen to a book. At least I'm getting
(26:12):
educated in my tiredness. Sometimes I fall asleep, and when
I wake up in the morning, I see it. I'm
on chapter seventeen, and it doesn't make a bit of
sense to me, and I keep rewinding, and I fell
asleep at chapter four, which is a wonderful thing. On audio,
you can always rewind and figure out where you fell asleep.
But for all these times, I just got real slow
(26:33):
getting up in the morning. But when I read this chapter,
I decided to start getting up and go into the
exercise room right in the bedroom next to my bedroom,
and I got some exercise equipment in there. I got
a treadmill, and I got two bicycles. One of them
is an incumbent bike. I got to pull up bar.
I got a bowshoe ball, got a sitting a sit
(26:57):
up board. I got stretched rope, got stretch bands. You know,
it's a good room. But I got really good mats
on the floor. And so when I read this chapter,
I decided to stop laying around just feeling tired and
start to taking some change. I had to make a change.
So the best time that stretches when you're relaxed. You
(27:19):
got to be relaxed when you stretch, and so you
got to warm up first. So what I started doing
about a month ago, I started getting up where I'm
really still sleeping, I feel like getting up, and I
usually eat an orange. Then I go in there and
I ride the exercise bike for thirty minutes, twenty to
thirty minutes. And it's a bike that my mother in law, Agnes,
(27:43):
that she passed two years ago, but I missed her
so much. But she had this exercise bike and it's
got these these programs, eight of them. Two of them
are twenty minute programs, and six of them. You can
pedal freely though and just set the resistance time at
all you want. But these are twenty or thirty minutes programs.
And when you're writing, you you pedal, and the and
(28:05):
the secret is is to stay at a consistent pace.
Like when it's when it's not much resistance, it's easy
to pedal faster, and when the resistance gets increased, it's
it's a little more difficult to pedal at the pace.
But it's got these lights and when the lights in
the middle, it wants you to stay at steady pace.
Even when it goes less resistance or more resistance, continue
(28:30):
to pedal at the same pace. So there's a good
cadence as you get and so I ride that every
day and it puts you through the program to where
you know. It starts off kind of slow, warming you up.
You know that it's easy, and it gets a little
more difficult, and then a little more difficult, but then
it drops you back down. It gets real difficult, and
then it drops you back down so you can relax
(28:51):
it for a couple of minutes. Then it picks you
back up to a higher pace. Well, I've been doing
this for about a month, almost every single day, and
then I then I stretch, and I got to tell
you that I'm really really happy right now. Please, Because
I'd lost so much weight and so much of my
body strength, especially in my legs with muscle atrophy, that
(29:15):
I need to put on weight. It's been hard to
put on weight. I'm twenty three pounds below where I
was three years ago because of the daily chemo pills
that I take three weeks on, one week off, three
weeks on, one week off. Yeah, but I lost most
of my muscle tone and my legs. And over the
last month, I've put on three inches of my hamstring
(29:38):
quadrancep area in my leg. I put on three inches there,
And it's just so satisfying to be bringing myself around.
It's a certain discipline that it takes to do that.
So you know, I'm going back to my karate roots,
my martial arts roots here and I'm doing I'm doing
my karate exercises and that I do pull ups and
(29:58):
push ups, and I take that bowsuit ball And for
those of you don't know what a bosuitball is, it's
it's a half of a ball with a hard surface.
And when I used to snowboard with my kids for
a bunch of years, it's a great way to get
your balance point on the ball and you just kind
of can move your legs back and forth and get
your balance. And so now I'm working again on standing
(30:20):
on one leg on the boasuit ball and have them
a knee up on the other leg and and it's
strengthening me. But I'm working at it and I love it.
You know, you gotta work at it, you gotta you
gotta maintain discipline sometimes if you want to improve in something.
So I'm thrilled that that I'm coming around, you know,
And I and I tell people that I have no
(30:40):
idea what I'm ever going to regain with my fitness level,
but I'm gonna gonna go as far as I can.
I'm gonna I'm gonna go as far as I can
and try to find out. I'm not gonna stop trying.
When I've done a lot of speaking for for Luke
Quinlan from a society, my main message has always been
(31:01):
you got to stay as healthy as you can while
you carry a cancer because the cure is coming, and
when it comes, you have to be in really good
shape because you might not be able to take the cure.
It might be too hard for you. And so you know,
for me, I get up every day and I just
(31:22):
thank the Lord for today, and I don't worry about
how long I'm going to be here. But I do
believe that while I'm here, I'm going to live a
life a purpose and I'm going to be thankful for
all the lives that have touched my life and all
the lives that I can touch. Last year, my daughter
(31:44):
in law, Andrew's wife, Stacy, she found a book, I
don't know, some kind of a store, like a like
a thrist store or something. I think she told me.
I'm not sure, but it's called the Treasure Chest. And
I love it that people know me know that I
love books like this, and with this book is a
(32:04):
heritage album containing one thousand and sixty four familiar and
inspirational quotations, poems, sentiments, and prayers from great minds of
twenty five hundred years. That's quite a compilation, you know.
There's there's there's a couple of expressions that I want
to share with you that I've that I've used for
(32:27):
years and years about my attitude toward taking it one
step at a time. The most famous, I guess I
was going to say important, but the most famous quote
ever about one step at a time. It's it's from
the Dowda Jan Laossu a couple thousand years ago, and
(32:48):
it is a journey of one thousand miles begins with
one step. You know, anything really big that you got
to undertake. You got to take that first step, and
you know that Na Paul and Hill thought also is
that you know the best time it started is where
you are. You got to start now. And so you
just take things one step in time and break it
(33:10):
down and move forward and don't be discouraged. And a
real simple way to say that is how do you
eat an elephant one bite at a time? Well, that's
all part of it. When I was in junior high school,
mister sax was my Spanish teacher, and he was just
a wonderful man. And mister Sachs every day he taught
(33:30):
Spanish by putting two proverbs on the board and he
said that Spanish is an idiomatic language. It's a lot
of colloquial expressions and things, and when you can learn
the formal language, you need to also understand some of
these idiomatic and idiom it's just a local way to
(33:51):
say something. And I picked up two of those way
back then in junior high school. Junior high school, I
was thirteen, fourteen years old, So this has been sixty
one or two years ago maybe, And I'm gonna give
the I'm gonna give them to you now, and then
I'm gonna tell you quick little story about it. The
first one was when kob led dos linguas as the
(34:15):
Lord does ambides a man who speaks two languages is
worth two men. The value of communication when you know
more than one language, it's just wonderful. I went to
Switzerland right out of high school on a on a
trip go skiing with the Old Dominion Alumni Association, and
there was the driver for the two and a half
(34:37):
weeks I was there seventeen days from the hotel to
the ski to the ski area. And he didn't speak English,
I didn't speak Italian. He spoke Spanish, and I had
enough Spanish to where we could communicate in Spanish. So
I never knew study in Spanish and junior high school
and high school that I'd use it someday to community
(35:00):
kate with someone in switch them because neither one of
us spoke the same language. But my favorite expression that
I've carried and I've used this expression literally a thousand
or more times everywhere I travel, when I when I
meet people, especially Spanish speaking people. I don't know a
whole lot of Spanish. I'm not fluent right now, but
this expression is a life philosophy, and it's a good
(35:22):
way to connect Poco poco save by a let hosts,
little by little, one goes far. One of my most
wonderful expressions in my life that I've ever learned, and
I've met many many people and connected with them by
by by speaking that. Well, let me just continue by
(35:44):
saying this. You know the expression that I that I
that I use, that I've spoken about even today, what
goes around comes around in California when we're out there
in the world and we try to do good for others,
there's a basic there's a big basic expression that we
learn as children do on the others that comes right
(36:04):
out of the Bible. Well, you know, this life the
idea behind we are in the world just doing for others,
caring for others, Marcus Aurelius giving us instruction on seeking
which good and to always, you know, do for others.
You know, that's what this life's supposed to be. And
so there's an expression here that's attributed to the Dalai Lama.
(36:29):
Just as ripples spread out when a single pebble is
dropped into water, the actions of individuals can have far
reaching effects. That's a good thing for us to do that.
Now to go back to the book that my daughter
in law Stacy gave me the Treasure Chest. What I
(36:50):
want to tell you is is that I just thumbed
through this book and I'm in this one chapter on character,
and what I came across today led me into a
lot of things that I'm going to share with you
right now. But here's where it starts. There's a quote here.
I read a bunch of quotes just to get my
thoughts in order, and I like this one a great deal.
Good habits are not made on birthdays, nor Christian character
(37:15):
at the New Year. The workshop of character is everyday life.
The uneventful and commonplace hour is where the battle is
lost or won. That's a powerful quote, and it's it's
attributed to it a person named malt Me d Babcock. Okay,
(37:35):
so now now I'm just going to tell you where
I get a lot of my enthusiasm zest for life from.
I'm a reader, as I told you, my whole life,
and I come to reading to learn and to discover things.
And so I googled Malti malt Be Davenport Babcock so
(37:57):
I can learn a little more about it. You know,
acquire knowledge is a good thing, and that's one reason
why I read well. Mister Babcock was a preacher and
he lived back in eighteen fifty eight to nineteen oh one,
and he was a phenomenal preacher up in New England Portsmouth,
(38:19):
Rhode Island, to be exact. And he graduated from Syracuse
University and Auburn Theological Seminary. But he was world famous
and he was powerful. And what caught my attention about
him is a quote from his funeral that I want
to get to in a second ear because it was powerful.
(38:41):
I mean, this guy was really, really a great pastor
and he was well sought after. One of the main
things that he did was while he was pastoring at
Brown Memorial, he was acclaimed for his oratory and his
use of colorful metaphors and his sermons. He was a great,
great speaker. He also had a fundraising drive that he
(39:03):
did to assist Jewish refugees from Russia who were victims
of anti Jewish programs. The programs were kind of real
prior to the Nazi stuff. The programs were where they
were they were trying to kick people out of the country. Programs,
you know, rid themselves of the Jewish people. So was
(39:25):
he was quite an individual. But this quote is something
that if each one of you want to live a
life that's an exemporary life, that's a good life, that
you are unselfish and you move to help other people
in this life, if this could ever be said about you,
you've done a good job, a good job. At his
(39:47):
funeral in New York City, the presiding clergyman eulogized him quote,
we do not need a candle to show a sunbeam.
The work our brother had done. The life he lives
speaks for him. I don't think it gets much better
than that. Now. One of the things that I learned
(40:08):
about mister Babcock, Pastor Babcock, he loved, absolutely loved nature
and the creation of the Lord. And his wife published this,
this poem that he wrote after he died, and he
went up to Niagara, up on Lake Ontario and got
(40:29):
this phenomenal panoramic view, and this is what he said,
This is my father's world. And to my listening ears,
all nature sings and round me rings the music of
the spheres. This is my father's world. I rest me
at the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and
(40:49):
seas his hand, the wonders wrought. This is my father's world.
The birds their carols raised, the morning light, the lily
white Claire, their maker's praise. This is my father's world.
He shines in all that's fair. In the rustling grass,
I hear him pass. He speaks to me everywhere. This
(41:11):
is my father's world. Oh, let me never forget that.
Though the wrong seems off, so strong, God is the ruler.
Yet this is my father's world. Why should my heart
be sad? The Lord is king. Let the heaven's ring,
God reigns, Let the earth be glad. I said that
(41:33):
I wanted to do something from my heart today just
to communicate. And again, I don't know if there's one
or two of you out there that connect with when
I'm speaking to today, but this is my life. I
love this life. I love my family, I love my country,
I love my neighbors, I love my friends, I love everybody.
(41:55):
I've been that way my whole life. And I'm so
thankful for the Lord forgiving me the gifts that he
has to be there for other people. And so I'm
going to end it today with a thank you to
each one of you. For listening and just making my
day to give me someone to share myself with. And
I'm here for you. Right dot Org. Give me a call,
(42:17):
I'll write Timmy send me an email, I'll respond to you.
But I want to end it with this because I
think this sums up the end of this Thanksgiving weekend
for where I'm at with my life and how much
I love everyone. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his
courts with praise, Give thanks to him, bless his name,
(42:40):
for the Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations that comes out of
Psalm one hundred verse four five. Well, I thank you
for allowing me to do this today. I'm going to
keep doing it and let me know if I can
(43:00):
be there for you, and I thank you everybody. Have
a wonderful week, and God bless you.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Thanks for listening to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'll
look forward to being with you again next week. And
remember it, don't quit plan ahead.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
It will get better.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
God bless you, and have a great week.
There must be lies turning brighter somewhere. Got to be birs.
Why I am high tun the sky four of blue.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good morning, welcome to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'm
your host, Steve Copeland, and thank you for tuning in.
Let's have a great day.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Good morning, everybody, glad to be with you. Well. Today's
episode number four or fifty nine Right Thinking with Steve Copelan,
It's very pleased to announce. This week's show was called
Concentrating on Priorities. Tune in and here Steve share his
heart on what keeps him going every day. For Steve,
it all comes down to knowing what is important and
(01:01):
a deep commitment to serving others. It all starts with
being thankful for each and every day that the Lord
has blessed him with. Well. I hope everyone has had
a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know that mine has been absolutely beautiful.
You know, Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year.
(01:23):
It started forty three years ago when I lived in
my first house. I just bought my first house and
we had Thanksgiving under my own roof, and it was
so wonderful waking up and having everybody come over to
my house and at the end of the day, I proclaimed,
you know, this has been so wonderful today that I
(01:44):
am going to celebrate Thanksgiving under my own roof every
day for the rest of my life. Well forty three
anniversaries later, which if you do the math, I guess
that's forty nineteen eighty two. That'd be forty four years
that we celebrate Thanksgiving, that I've been able to celebrate
Thanksgiving under my own roof. And twenty five years ago
(02:08):
when I got my cancer diagnosis, my multi my lomma,
and the expected life expectancy was five and a half
years at the time. Two years later this year, it
would be January twenty five years. Well, the being home
on Thanksgiving. I know it might sound a little selfish.
(02:30):
In fact, maybe about three times Donna said to me, see,
if can't we just accept the imitation, go for my
mother's this year, go over my sisters or my daughters.
And I said, hey, if you really want to, you
go ahead and go and just bring me back am plete.
But I'm going to be here. It's selfish, but all
(02:52):
year long, every day I do my very best out
there in the world, taking care of responsibilities, doing for others,
and I just decided to take this one day and
let it be a complete day of thankfulness to where
I just want to I want to just be reflective
(03:13):
of all the many blessings that the Lord has given
me and just be thankful and just have a day
of rest, no gift giving, just wonderful food, my favorite
meal of the year, and just being with family and
thinking about friends. And so twenty five years ago, in
my cancer diagnosed, this got there. It became even more
(03:35):
important to me for Thanksgiving because not knowing from year
to year if I'm going to be here next year,
it became my marker to celebrate another year that the
Lord has blessed me with by being here. And it's
just been beautiful. And so this year was absolutely wonderful
being with family. And I have a tradition that I
(03:59):
want to share with you. I subscribed to American Greetings
greeting cards twenty years or so ago and just a
few dollars a month, and and they have hundreds and
hundreds of cards for every occasion. But I started on
on Christmas, New Year's uh fourth of July, Easter, Thanksgiving
(04:23):
sending out greeting cards to everybody that I think about
that that I've met along the way, that that I
care about, people that I've crossed their paths and just said, hey,
you know, I'll be thinking about you and just be
looking for be looking for for a card from me,
a text or an email around around you know, around
(04:43):
the holidays. And I've got literally hundreds of people through
my through my life and my travels that I've kept
in touch with and and I don't know if Henry
Ford might be listening, but about four years ago, I
had a pellet gun that that pump action didn't work
and I needed repair and I didn't know how to
(05:03):
get it fixed. So I googled a Crossman pellet gun
repair and I found this this guy in Georgia, Henry Ford,
and I called him on the phone, and uh oh,
he was wonderful, wonderful to work with. I really liked him,
and uh, you know, I meet a lot of people
through you know, contractors and business affiliates and things that
(05:25):
that I just sort of get get close with in
a way where we, you know, just kind of care
about each other. So he fixed it and it cost
like forty five dollars, and uh, I shifted to him
and he shipped back and and he was just so
good to work with. I called him up and thanked
him and and well, I send him a card every
(05:47):
year and he responds, and how are you doing, Steve.
It's good to hear from you. Well, Thanksgiving. My son Josh.
I was going over that I'd done this, and Donna said, yeah,
he does it every year. You know. It takes about
five hours, a couple of hours night four and then
Thanksgiving morning while I'm watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Free Send.
I send uh these cards to people for one reason,
(06:11):
just to let them know I'm thinking about them and
that that you know, they have a good spot in
my heart. And I got to be honest, it's beautiful
because I got about seventy responses of people that like
like Henry Ford, came back to anyone one. But now
I get a lot of beautiful responses, and and I
just like being in touch with people and let them
know that I care about them and I appreciate them.
(06:34):
And so that's that's kind of kind of where I'm
coming from today. I wanted to give a message and
I put a lot of thought into you know, four
hundred and fifty nine of these episodes. These messages I
call them and it's like, why do I do them?
You know who listens to them? You know what do
I talk about? You know? Why do I feel worthy
(06:55):
of putting a message out that people might listen to? Well,
I don't really know who listens to them. I know
that a lot of people do. I get a lot
of responses though, but I'm not concerned about how many
people listen to them. I know this that I have
very many people that I've had one on one relationships with,
(07:17):
like in a mentoring way, of people that have reached
out to me and they got a hold of my
book from the Lip to the Hip or part of
the curriculum that I've done for years and prisons across
the country. I have no idea how many people, but
I know from the hundreds of letters that I get
and phone calls I've had, and people that I've spent
(07:40):
time with that I've been introduced to that a friend
might have said, Hey, Steve, I want you to would
you call this person up because they're going through a
hard time. And that's the most wonderful thing. When I
have somebody asked me to give someone a call because
they need an uplift in their life. And I got
a lot of friends out there, but I want you
to know that every time I get into one of
(08:02):
these mentoring type relationships, it always turns out. And I
let the people that I'm that I'm speaking with, that
I'm that I'm sharing time with, know that, hey, I
get a lot more out of this relationship than you
probably do because you're you're giving me an opportunity to
(08:24):
do what the Lord has has called me to do.
And so I thank you for that. A lot of people,
a lot of people a little bit shy or maybe
embarrassed if they if they're down and someone you know,
is sent to them to kind of try to lift
them up. Like I say, I I'm able to do well,
I'm only able to do it because so many people
(08:46):
have done it for me and and it's like passing
it on. You know, when I was young, there was
an expression that we had when we were hitchhiking around
and young and you know, I live in Norfolk, Virginia,
traveled to California, and there is an expression that I
picked up from someone out there that was just into
the same kind of mindset that I was. What goes
(09:08):
around comes around. Many many people have been there to
have helped me, encourage me and lift me up, and
I'm just so so fortunate, so blessed that I have
an opportunity to do that too. When I wrote a
chapter for a book called Journeys to Success about I
don't know, five six, seven years ago, it's chapter twelve
(09:30):
in Journeys to Success, Volume seven, and the chapter is
called the Journey to write Thinking, and it starts off
with a quote that I've got in there. It's actually
the second quote, but it's under definiteness of purpose. It's
an appalling Hill quote. There is one quality which one
must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose,
(09:53):
the knowledge of what one wants and a burning desire
to possess it. Yeah, that's probably my favorit, Napoleon Hill quote. Well,
right underneath that I make this statement, I've always known
my purpose. God put me on this earth to love
other people and help them to have a better life.
(10:13):
I've just had a lifetime of distractions and setbacks that
have kept me from fully living it. Well, you know,
knowing my purpose at a very early age that that
I was just so blessed to find and my mother
was so instrumental. My mother and I talked hours and
(10:33):
hours and hours my whole life about life and how
hard it is and how we've got to trust God
and give it up to God and things like that.
And so, you know, I had a just a wonderful,
wonderful upbringing, and you know, and that in that early upbringing,
I came to reading all the time. And and when
(10:54):
I talk about what, what what gives me? You know,
it keeps me going every day? You know, where, uh
what what it is that keeps me going? What's my
love for other people? And it starts with my love
for the Lord. And I'm wanting to serve the Lord
and be obedient to the Lord and and and do
as he wants me to do and and and basically
(11:17):
a lifetime of striving to be christ Like to where
I can I can be like Christ and have Christ
in me and be guided by the Holy Spirit. And
and that's that's what I'm here to do. And like
I just read. You know, I've articulated what my purpose is.
And but my life of reading, you know, I just
(11:38):
love I love reading. I read every single day a
lot every day, just because it's not an escape, it's
an education, it's a it's a being mentored by some
of the greatest minds in history. And and I'm so
fortunate to have so many close friends that that that
are people that that that understand that gem Stove all
(11:58):
in particular. You know, Jim stub Ball is just a
man among many, many, many wonderful, great people. But he's
the He's he's probably the most most beautiful person that
I've ever known, possessing as much wisdom as he has
with what his life is and who I just I
just love Jim. And you know, I talked to him regularly,
(12:20):
and I call him up before the holidays and we
have a brief conversation all the time. But you know,
my involvement with a lot of other beautiful people, you know,
I saw him as Chad and Don Green and joey
O and Leffard Fade and and and and Glynn Glynn.
You know, I I have a friend named Glynn that
(12:42):
I was introduced to and and he introduced me to
a friend named Joe. And these two gentlemen I've been
so important in my life. Glenn Hodges from Chattanooga, Tennessee,
and Uh and Joe Wheelis and uh, you know, these
are two gentlemen that I got introduced to. I met
(13:03):
I met Lynnet the polit Hill Foundation at a Napoleon
Hill day a couple of years back, and then he
introduced me to Joe. And it's just a world of
people caring about each other. And I and I think
that I'm gonna I'm gonna introduce now something that I
didn't know what I was going to be doing today.
Like I said, I I put a lot of time
(13:23):
and thought into, you know, the message that I do.
But the only thing that I really try to do
with these messages that I put out these shows is
to put out something that somebody will be touched by.
It's somebody that I'll connect with, somebody that it that
it will make a positive impression on someone. Maybe they'll
(13:44):
take that next step forward, maybe they'll go all the
way in and come forth and get to know get
to know Jesus. I mean, that's really my my ultimate
there is that because that's Jesus is the only answer.
But I've got something wonderful that I want to share
it with you here. As I was doing and been
my praying in preparation for today's show, didn't know exactly
where I was going to go. I came across the
(14:09):
song that was it was written and I guess it was.
I guess been about thirty thirty five or six years
ago in nineteen seventy five. I guess fifty whoa wait
a second, nineteen seventy five? Was that fifty years ago?
I guess not thirty some years ago? Let me what
was nineteen eighty five? Nineteen seventy five? But the song
(14:30):
We Are the World came out because of a famine
in Africa and a group was formed called you know
it was? It was called Africa the USA for Africa
and Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson wrote this song and
(14:54):
it was produced by Quincy Jones. But the message of
this song is probably one of the most powerful messages
that the world has ever received by a bunch of
superstar performers, musicians, songwriters or singers performers. And when I
(15:17):
when I was doing my research on it today, it
came out that this song it basically just said that
it doesn't matter where we come from, who we are,
what color of skin we've got, whether we're young or old,
that we're all humans, that we are all connected and
we're all part of God, and that we can't just
(15:40):
close their eyes to things act like everything's just fine.
The world has a lot of suffering in it and
this song is intended for people to take action and
help to make change, and that we all need one
another and then if we do that, the world will
have a brighter day. I want to I want to
(16:01):
read you some of these lyrics and it you know,
it's about global unity and just that we all have
responsibility with one another, and it's all about you know,
love that we really need love. But there's twenty one
solo performers in this song. There's twenty one chorus background
(16:22):
singers there, and there's eight instrumentalist musicians. And I'm going
to read you the list because as I watch the video.
You got to watch this video now, it's about seven
or eight minute song. It will inspire you. If I
do nothing else today, watch and listen to We Are
the World. Because when it came out in nineteen eighty five,
(16:45):
it had a powerful impact. It's one of the I
think it's the number eight most sold single in recording history.
But it brought together a group of people that are
some of the great musicians and singers that the world
has ever known. Check out this list to who they are,
(17:07):
Lyon l Richie Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rodgers, James Ingram,
Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Dion Warwick,
Willie Nelson, al Gero, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry,
Darryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cindy Lauper, Kim Carnes, Bob Dylan,
(17:32):
and Ray Charles. Each of those performers all did solos
in there. I mean they all did a solo. Now
on this list of the chorus, This is an interesting list.
Dan Ackroyd, Harry Belafonte, Lindsey Buckingham, Maria Kippolina, Johnny Coola,
(17:55):
Sheila e Bob Geldoff, Bill Gibson, Chris Hayes, Sean Hopper,
Jackie Jackson, LaToya Jackson, Marion Jackson, Randy Jackson, Tito Jackson,
Waylon Jennings, Bette Midler, John Ooks, Jeffrey Osborne, the Pointer Sisters,
Smoking Robinson. These are the greatest of the great. All
(18:18):
these people, the instrumentalists, I don't know a lot of them,
instrumentalists like I do singers, but I'll read them and
you might appreciate some of them. There's one or two
that I do recognize. David Posh, Michael Bodeker, Felino Da Costa,
Phil Collins, Louis Johnson, Michael Emerson, Greg fill Gats, John Robinson.
(18:43):
What a group of performers that worked on this song together.
And it's all about, you know, just doing for others.
That's what we're here to talk about today, doing for others.
I'm gonna read. I'm going to read the lyrics on
this on their there are three main verses. Then there's
a chorus that just go on and on and on.
(19:05):
I'm going to read the chorus first because that sets
the tone for everything. We are the world, we are
the children, We are the ones who make a brighter day.
So let's start giving. Okay, the first course, the first verse. Rather,
there comes a time when we need a certain call,
when we heed a certain call, when the world must
(19:27):
come together as one. There are people dying. Oh, and
it's time to lend a hand to life, the greatest
gift of all. We can't go on pretending day by
day that someone somewhere will soon make a change. We
all a part of God's great, big family and the truth,
you know, love is all we need. I'm not going
(19:51):
to read all three. I just recommend to each one
of you that you go in on the internet and
you listen to that song again. It was written by
Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, produced by Quincy Jones. Okay,
so what I'm trying to say right now is you
know what is it that that keeps me going every day?
(20:12):
And my answer to you is just knowing how much
I'm loved, loved by Jesus and doing what he wants
me to do. You know, I got a phone call
about three weeks ago from God and he said, Steve,
you know I'm having exceptionally busy day to day. Would
would you do me a favor? Well time out. God's
(20:33):
telling me that he's having accepted busy day. Well. I said, well, sure, God,
I'm honored whatever I can do. And he said, well,
there's this person over here, but he needs he needs
some he needs some extra loving today, you know, would
you spend some time with him? And I said absolutely, Lord,
thank you for asking me. Okay, well, first of all,
(20:53):
why did God ask me to do that. He could
do a trillion things in a nineo second. So why
because I I believe that God. What makes God smile
is when his children, the brothers and the sisters of
this world do for one another. You know, God could
(21:13):
have a personal relationship with each one of us. We can,
We can go to him and we need to. Don't
don't take me wrong here. We need to have that
personal relationship with God. We need to listen to what
God wants us to understand and to know. We need
to study the Word. We need to be in fellowship.
We we need we need to come closer to the Lord.
(21:34):
We need to understand the word of the Lord. But
when we do, we learn that we want to be
like him. God is love and so when we get
like that, we need to go out in the world
and spread it and do for others. Well, what makes
God smile, like I was saying, is when his children
(21:56):
do for one another. He can do for each one
of us, and he will. We have to trust him
and he will. But what really makes him smile is
when he sees that we're doing for one another and
inside of each of our own families and communities and neighborhoods.
We should be doing for one another, and so so
(22:17):
I think I think that's a beautiful thing. A couple
A couple About two months ago, I was interviewing Henry
smith Smashers and I and I quote it and I
talked about Marcus Aurelius Meditations, and I liked what Henry said.
I said, you know who Marcus Rois is and goes, yeah,
isn't he that guy? You know, like a Roman guy
(22:37):
back there in jul Caesar's day that he just put
out a lot of quotes And that's the way Marcus
Rois is. Well, I well, I made reference to book
five and the his in the sections of Meditations. It
has a series of books, and in book five I
was studying it and it's changed my life about about
(23:01):
two months ago. And here's why I'm gonna read it,
and then I'm gonna explain it. At dawn, when you
have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself, I have
to go to work as a human being. What do
I have to complain of if I'm going to do
what I was born for, the things I was brought
into the world to do, or is this what I
(23:21):
was created for to huddle under the blankets and stay warm.
But it's nicer here. So you were born to feel
nice instead of doing things and experiencing them. Don't you
see the plants, the birds, the ants, and spiders and
bees going about their individual task, putting the world in
order as best they can. And you're not willing to
(23:43):
do your job as a human being. Why aren't you
running to do what your nature demands? So what I
was saying about that is is that the life of purpose.
That's all we all have purpose, you know. And at
the end of that chapter, and it's their number, paragraph
thirty four, it gives Marcus Ariahs kind of does one
(24:05):
of his quotes in the meditation, You can lead an
untroubled life provided you can grow, can think and act systematically.
Two characteristics shared by gods and men and every rational creature.
One not to let others hold you back. Two to
(24:28):
locate goodness and thinking and doing the right thing, and
to limit your desires to that. You're listening to Steve
Here's right thinking, foundation, right thinking, doing the right thing.
Don't let others hold you back. My wife always loves
the quote in the movie Dirty Dancing when when baby's
(24:50):
out there, and I think it's Patrick Swayze says, don't
let baby, don't put my baby in the corner. I
get it all mixed up. My wife will have to
straighten me out on that. But the point is people
will always try to hold you back and put you down.
But if you know who you are, and you get
(25:11):
that confidence in yourself that you know you're doing right,
that you know you're doing right, don't let anybody stop
you from doing what you know is right. The best
way to learn what is right is to get it
from the word of the Lord. So that's just a
clue that I want to give you. Well, when I
read this chapter a couple of months ago, and it
(25:31):
was talking about getting up in the morning. Because of
my multi malma, I have a diagnosis of chronic fatigue.
For twenty some years now. I never wake up any
more rested than when I went to bed. I'm always tired.
It takes me a long time to get up, and
I don't drink coffee as a stimulu, so I get
(25:51):
energy from my mind and my thoughts. So every morning,
when I'm very, very tired in the morning it's time
to wake up, I usually take a half hour to
forty five minutes to lay in bed. And during the
night when I'm up a lot, and I listen to
audio books. Instead of just being there and just wishing
I could sleep, I just plug in my hair and
NAEs and listen to a book. At least I'm getting
(26:12):
educated in my tiredness. Sometimes I fall asleep, and when
I wake up in the morning, I see it. I'm
on chapter seventeen, and it doesn't make a bit of
sense to me, and I keep rewinding, and I fell
asleep at chapter four, which is a wonderful thing. On audio,
you can always rewind and figure out where you fell asleep.
But for all these times, I just got real slow
(26:33):
getting up in the morning. But when I read this chapter,
I decided to start getting up and go into the
exercise room right in the bedroom next to my bedroom,
and I got some exercise equipment in there. I got
a treadmill, and I got two bicycles. One of them
is an incumbent bike. I got to pull up bar.
I got a bowshoe ball, got a sitting a sit
(26:57):
up board. I got stretched rope, got stretch bands. You know,
it's a good room. But I got really good mats
on the floor. And so when I read this chapter,
I decided to stop laying around just feeling tired and
start to taking some change. I had to make a change.
So the best time that stretches when you're relaxed. You
(27:19):
got to be relaxed when you stretch, and so you
got to warm up first. So what I started doing
about a month ago, I started getting up where I'm
really still sleeping, I feel like getting up, and I
usually eat an orange. Then I go in there and
I ride the exercise bike for thirty minutes, twenty to
thirty minutes. And it's a bike that my mother in law, Agnes,
(27:43):
that she passed two years ago, but I missed her
so much. But she had this exercise bike and it's
got these these programs, eight of them. Two of them
are twenty minute programs, and six of them. You can
pedal freely though and just set the resistance time at
all you want. But these are twenty or thirty minutes programs.
And when you're writing, you you pedal, and the and
(28:05):
the secret is is to stay at a consistent pace.
Like when it's when it's not much resistance, it's easy
to pedal faster, and when the resistance gets increased, it's
it's a little more difficult to pedal at the pace.
But it's got these lights and when the lights in
the middle, it wants you to stay at steady pace.
Even when it goes less resistance or more resistance, continue
(28:30):
to pedal at the same pace. So there's a good
cadence as you get and so I ride that every
day and it puts you through the program to where
you know. It starts off kind of slow, warming you up.
You know that it's easy, and it gets a little
more difficult, and then a little more difficult, but then
it drops you back down. It gets real difficult, and
then it drops you back down so you can relax
(28:51):
it for a couple of minutes. Then it picks you
back up to a higher pace. Well, I've been doing
this for about a month, almost every single day, and
then I then I stretch, and I got to tell
you that I'm really really happy right now. Please, Because
I'd lost so much weight and so much of my
body strength, especially in my legs with muscle atrophy, that
(29:15):
I need to put on weight. It's been hard to
put on weight. I'm twenty three pounds below where I
was three years ago because of the daily chemo pills
that I take three weeks on, one week off, three
weeks on, one week off. Yeah, but I lost most
of my muscle tone and my legs. And over the
last month, I've put on three inches of my hamstring
(29:38):
quadrancep area in my leg. I put on three inches there,
And it's just so satisfying to be bringing myself around.
It's a certain discipline that it takes to do that.
So you know, I'm going back to my karate roots,
my martial arts roots here and I'm doing I'm doing
my karate exercises and that I do pull ups and
(29:58):
push ups, and I take that bowsuit ball And for
those of you don't know what a bosuitball is, it's
it's a half of a ball with a hard surface.
And when I used to snowboard with my kids for
a bunch of years, it's a great way to get
your balance point on the ball and you just kind
of can move your legs back and forth and get
your balance. And so now I'm working again on standing
(30:20):
on one leg on the boasuit ball and have them
a knee up on the other leg and and it's
strengthening me. But I'm working at it and I love it.
You know, you gotta work at it, you gotta you
gotta maintain discipline sometimes if you want to improve in something.
So I'm thrilled that that I'm coming around, you know,
And I and I tell people that I have no
(30:40):
idea what I'm ever going to regain with my fitness level,
but I'm gonna gonna go as far as I can.
I'm gonna I'm gonna go as far as I can
and try to find out. I'm not gonna stop trying.
When I've done a lot of speaking for for Luke
Quinlan from a society, my main message has always been
(31:01):
you got to stay as healthy as you can while
you carry a cancer because the cure is coming, and
when it comes, you have to be in really good
shape because you might not be able to take the cure.
It might be too hard for you. And so you know,
for me, I get up every day and I just
(31:22):
thank the Lord for today, and I don't worry about
how long I'm going to be here. But I do
believe that while I'm here, I'm going to live a
life a purpose and I'm going to be thankful for
all the lives that have touched my life and all
the lives that I can touch. Last year, my daughter
(31:44):
in law, Andrew's wife, Stacy, she found a book, I
don't know, some kind of a store, like a like
a thrist store or something. I think she told me.
I'm not sure, but it's called the Treasure Chest. And
I love it that people know me know that I
love books like this, and with this book is a
(32:04):
heritage album containing one thousand and sixty four familiar and
inspirational quotations, poems, sentiments, and prayers from great minds of
twenty five hundred years. That's quite a compilation, you know.
There's there's there's a couple of expressions that I want
to share with you that I've that I've used for
(32:27):
years and years about my attitude toward taking it one
step at a time. The most famous, I guess I
was going to say important, but the most famous quote
ever about one step at a time. It's it's from
the Dowda Jan Laossu a couple thousand years ago, and
(32:48):
it is a journey of one thousand miles begins with
one step. You know, anything really big that you got
to undertake. You got to take that first step, and
you know that Na Paul and Hill thought also is
that you know the best time it started is where
you are. You got to start now. And so you
just take things one step in time and break it
(33:10):
down and move forward and don't be discouraged. And a
real simple way to say that is how do you
eat an elephant one bite at a time? Well, that's
all part of it. When I was in junior high school,
mister sax was my Spanish teacher, and he was just
a wonderful man. And mister Sachs every day he taught
(33:30):
Spanish by putting two proverbs on the board and he
said that Spanish is an idiomatic language. It's a lot
of colloquial expressions and things, and when you can learn
the formal language, you need to also understand some of
these idiomatic and idiom it's just a local way to
(33:51):
say something. And I picked up two of those way
back then in junior high school. Junior high school, I
was thirteen, fourteen years old, So this has been sixty
one or two years ago maybe, And I'm gonna give
the I'm gonna give them to you now, and then
I'm gonna tell you quick little story about it. The
first one was when kob led dos linguas as the
(34:15):
Lord does ambides a man who speaks two languages is
worth two men. The value of communication when you know
more than one language, it's just wonderful. I went to
Switzerland right out of high school on a on a
trip go skiing with the Old Dominion Alumni Association, and
there was the driver for the two and a half
(34:37):
weeks I was there seventeen days from the hotel to
the ski to the ski area. And he didn't speak English,
I didn't speak Italian. He spoke Spanish, and I had
enough Spanish to where we could communicate in Spanish. So
I never knew study in Spanish and junior high school
and high school that I'd use it someday to community
(35:00):
kate with someone in switch them because neither one of
us spoke the same language. But my favorite expression that
I've carried and I've used this expression literally a thousand
or more times everywhere I travel, when I when I
meet people, especially Spanish speaking people. I don't know a
whole lot of Spanish. I'm not fluent right now, but
this expression is a life philosophy, and it's a good
(35:22):
way to connect Poco poco save by a let hosts,
little by little, one goes far. One of my most
wonderful expressions in my life that I've ever learned, and
I've met many many people and connected with them by
by by speaking that. Well, let me just continue by
(35:44):
saying this. You know the expression that I that I
that I use, that I've spoken about even today, what
goes around comes around in California when we're out there
in the world and we try to do good for others,
there's a basic there's a big basic expression that we
learn as children do on the others that comes right
(36:04):
out of the Bible. Well, you know, this life the
idea behind we are in the world just doing for others,
caring for others, Marcus Aurelius giving us instruction on seeking
which good and to always, you know, do for others.
You know, that's what this life's supposed to be. And
so there's an expression here that's attributed to the Dalai Lama.
(36:29):
Just as ripples spread out when a single pebble is
dropped into water, the actions of individuals can have far
reaching effects. That's a good thing for us to do that.
Now to go back to the book that my daughter
in law Stacy gave me the Treasure Chest. What I
(36:50):
want to tell you is is that I just thumbed
through this book and I'm in this one chapter on character,
and what I came across today led me into a
lot of things that I'm going to share with you
right now. But here's where it starts. There's a quote here.
I read a bunch of quotes just to get my
thoughts in order, and I like this one a great deal.
Good habits are not made on birthdays, nor Christian character
(37:15):
at the New Year. The workshop of character is everyday life.
The uneventful and commonplace hour is where the battle is
lost or won. That's a powerful quote, and it's it's
attributed to it a person named malt Me d Babcock. Okay,
(37:35):
so now now I'm just going to tell you where
I get a lot of my enthusiasm zest for life from.
I'm a reader, as I told you, my whole life,
and I come to reading to learn and to discover things.
And so I googled Malti malt Be Davenport Babcock so
(37:57):
I can learn a little more about it. You know,
acquire knowledge is a good thing, and that's one reason
why I read well. Mister Babcock was a preacher and
he lived back in eighteen fifty eight to nineteen oh one,
and he was a phenomenal preacher up in New England Portsmouth,
(38:19):
Rhode Island, to be exact. And he graduated from Syracuse
University and Auburn Theological Seminary. But he was world famous
and he was powerful. And what caught my attention about
him is a quote from his funeral that I want
to get to in a second ear because it was powerful.
(38:41):
I mean, this guy was really, really a great pastor
and he was well sought after. One of the main
things that he did was while he was pastoring at
Brown Memorial, he was acclaimed for his oratory and his
use of colorful metaphors and his sermons. He was a great,
great speaker. He also had a fundraising drive that he
(39:03):
did to assist Jewish refugees from Russia who were victims
of anti Jewish programs. The programs were kind of real
prior to the Nazi stuff. The programs were where they
were they were trying to kick people out of the country. Programs,
you know, rid themselves of the Jewish people. So was
(39:25):
he was quite an individual. But this quote is something
that if each one of you want to live a
life that's an exemporary life, that's a good life, that
you are unselfish and you move to help other people
in this life, if this could ever be said about you,
you've done a good job, a good job. At his
(39:47):
funeral in New York City, the presiding clergyman eulogized him quote,
we do not need a candle to show a sunbeam.
The work our brother had done. The life he lives
speaks for him. I don't think it gets much better
than that. Now. One of the things that I learned
(40:08):
about mister Babcock, Pastor Babcock, he loved, absolutely loved nature
and the creation of the Lord. And his wife published this,
this poem that he wrote after he died, and he
went up to Niagara, up on Lake Ontario and got
(40:29):
this phenomenal panoramic view, and this is what he said,
This is my father's world. And to my listening ears,
all nature sings and round me rings the music of
the spheres. This is my father's world. I rest me
at the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and
(40:49):
seas his hand, the wonders wrought. This is my father's world.
The birds their carols raised, the morning light, the lily
white Claire, their maker's praise. This is my father's world.
He shines in all that's fair. In the rustling grass,
I hear him pass. He speaks to me everywhere. This
(41:11):
is my father's world. Oh, let me never forget that.
Though the wrong seems off, so strong, God is the ruler.
Yet this is my father's world. Why should my heart
be sad? The Lord is king. Let the heaven's ring,
God reigns, Let the earth be glad. I said that
(41:33):
I wanted to do something from my heart today just
to communicate. And again, I don't know if there's one
or two of you out there that connect with when
I'm speaking to today, but this is my life. I
love this life. I love my family, I love my country,
I love my neighbors, I love my friends, I love everybody.
(41:55):
I've been that way my whole life. And I'm so
thankful for the Lord forgiving me the gifts that he
has to be there for other people. And so I'm
going to end it today with a thank you to
each one of you. For listening and just making my
day to give me someone to share myself with. And
I'm here for you. Right dot Org. Give me a call,
(42:17):
I'll write Timmy send me an email, I'll respond to you.
But I want to end it with this because I
think this sums up the end of this Thanksgiving weekend
for where I'm at with my life and how much
I love everyone. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his
courts with praise, Give thanks to him, bless his name,
(42:40):
for the Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations that comes out of
Psalm one hundred verse four five. Well, I thank you
for allowing me to do this today. I'm going to
keep doing it and let me know if I can
(43:00):
be there for you, and I thank you everybody. Have
a wonderful week, and God bless you.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Thanks for listening to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'll
look forward to being with you again next week. And
remember it, don't quit plan ahead.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
It will get better.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
God bless you, and have a great week.
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