December 6, 2023 • 53 mins
https://www.columbuscody.com/videos/Columbus Cody.
Equipping, and Elevating minds to live the abundant life.
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Email: columbus.cody3@gmail.com
Website: www.columbuscody.com
Yotube Channel https://www.columbuscody.com/videos/
Author Speaker and Encourager
Columbus Cody III. is a devoted Christian, a husband, a father, a teacher, the creator of The Living The Life Show on YouTube, and the author of Recap and Too Many Toys In The Tub.I was born in Chicago, Illinois but I had the opportunity to grow up in numerous places throughout the United States (Mississippi, Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Tennessee). Living in so many places exposed me to many different cultures which made me a much more well-rounded person with a genuine love for people.I joined the US Navy immediately after graduating high school. My military service helped to mold and shape me into a man of discipline and honor. After being honorably discharged I earned a Bachelors degree in Health and Physical Education from Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. After graduation, I began teaching Physical Education and Lifetime Wellness and coaching Girls Basketball and Volleyball (one of the reasons I have no hair) in the Metro Nashville Public School District. For the past 15 years I’ve continued to strive to engage the minds of the young people that enter my classroom each day. Some days I feel more successful than others.My greatest joys are spending time with my family and serving in my church. I have two sons and a wonderful wife. I have the opportunity to teach Sunday School at my church each Sunday and this is one of my greatest passions! I love God and I love teaching the people of God about the things of God.I have written and published two books. My first book, Recap, is a book that was written to help others experience the same excitement that I have for the Bible. Many people won’t read or stop reading the Bible because they say that it’s too difficult. The reason I wrote Recap is to show my readers just how interesting and fun the Bible really is. My second book, Too Many Toys In The Tub, was inspired by my two fun loving sons. Every night, bath time becomes an adventure. I never know which toy(s) will make an appearance and become part of the next adventure. This book makes my boys smile and laugh. I’m certain it will be a hit in many homes that are experiencing the same bath time adventures.My desire is to talk to as many people as possible about Jesus and His saving grace. God has given me a gift to teach His Words in such a way that they make sense to others and they can see how they can apply His Words to their daily lives. I intend to use that gift to lead as many people to Christ as possible.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
You know, the thing that youhave a passion for is what you're going
to talk about. And I thinka lot of people want to be better
at witnessing and want to be morelet their light shine more. They just
feel intimidated. And I always sayit like this. My thing is this,
don't share what you do know,don't feel bad about what you don't
(00:20):
know, but let what you don'tknow motivate you to want to know more.
Right So, instead of being satisfiedon the surface with your relationship with
God, want to go deeper becauseI promise you that the Bible tells us
no good thing will lead withhold fromus. If you're chasing after him with
your whole heart, He's going toexpose a lot to you. Marcus really
has said what we do in lifeechoes through Eternity. What is your life
(00:44):
echoing through eternity? Welcome to Echoesthrough Eternity with doctor Jeffrey Skinner. Our
mission is to inspire, engage,and encourage leaders from across the globe to
plant missional churches and be servant leaders. So join us and here are the
stories of servant leaders reverberating lives asGod echoes them through Eternity brought to you
(01:06):
by missional church planting and leadership developmentin dynamic church planning International. Welcome into
Echoes through Eternity. I am yourhost, Doctor Jeffrey D. Skinner.
What is God that going through yourlife today? I am joined in the
STEO day by Columbus Cody. Heis head of He's not head of school.
(01:29):
He is a teacher at Head School, Head Magnet School in Nashville,
Tennessee. I ran across his profileon LinkedIn. He and I began to
talk, and I knew you almostimmediately after. I began to listen to
some of his speaking engagements and readsome of his content. This was a
guy who God was using in powerfulways in the marketplace, in the workplace,
(01:52):
a teacher in public school, andjust sharing the word of God,
not overtly, not holding, youknow, sermons, doing sermons in the
middle class, but just simply livinghis life and then outside of class writing
books. He has a book calledRecap that he's written. He's a speaker,
he's chief encourager. He just he'stelling me this morning, his son's
(02:15):
thirteen years old and he's taking himout for driving lessons, just to have
some father son time there and thoseare the types of people we like to
have on that customer Attorney is thepeople that may not be into church and
are just serving God and that anempty oftentimes, but are being faithful and
in doing so God is using themin powerful ways. And I think that's
(02:38):
something that today in this culture weneed to learn, is that ministry doesn't
just happen inside the church walls.Ministry is happening as we live our life.
And that's the theme of this seasonof that goes through Attorney is how
God is equipping people and using themin all walks of life. So Cody
(02:59):
will welcome in. Brother, It'sgood to have you here today. Oh,
thank you so much. I'm honoredto be a guest on your show.
Yeah. So, so tell usa little bit now, you how
did you get into kind of tellus about your story, your journey,
how you got to heard you sayyou grew up in Louisiana and even had
a brief football career and very brief. Tell us a little bout. Tell
(03:20):
us a little bit about your journeyand how you got there and journey of
faith and then and then where youare today and what you do to spread
the love of God. Awesome,all right. So I was born in
Chicago, and when I was abouttwo or three, my father and my
mother they divorced and we moved toMississippi and I lived in the down in
the Delta Anguilla, Mississippi with mygrandmother for a few years. And then
(03:44):
we moved to Arizona and I livedon a small Navajo reservation in Arizona called
Chinley, Arizona. I lived therefor a few years. We moved to
New Mexico, which is just astate next door. Then we moved to
Louisiana. All right. Now,I lived in Louisiana for six months,
just half of my freshman year,and it was probably the roughest six months
(04:06):
of my life. It's like everybodywanted to fight, like it just made
you like it was almost like itwas a training ground to make sure you
can handle hardship in life. Iguess that's how I could think of it,
because it was right outside of NewOrleans. It was Metie Louisiana.
Then we moved back to New Mexico, and then we moved to Tennessee.
(04:26):
So I moved to Nashville, Tennesseemy junior year, second semester my junior
year in high school. I graduatedhere in Nashville, and then I went
I joined the US Navy after graduation, served three years, and the Navy
came home and started my college careerand I attended Tennessee State University, and
I was majoring in physical therapy atfirst because I wanted to be in the
(04:48):
sports field and I want to bean athletic trainer. So I worked in
the athletic training training room for onesemester and realized, I do not want
to do this. They worked fromsun up to sundown, and we really
don't get paid much, you know, unless you're the head trainer of a
big university or something like that,you're not getting paid a lot. And
so the beauty though, and Ithank God for this, I was.
(05:11):
I was talking to the head trainerone day. He said, you know,
you don't have to major in physicaltherapy to be a trainer. You
can change your degree to physical educationand it might be a little easier.
And so I changed my major tophysical education. And to this day,
I'm so grateful that he told methat. You know. And then as
I started refereeing basketball, I waslike, you know, I kind of
(05:33):
like basketball. I love basketball.I think I'm making coach this game,
you know. So I asked byhead at referee. I was like the
leading referee, the one who trainedall of us, If you were to
send me to someone who would mentorme on how to be a basketball coach,
who would you say? And withoutblinking, he gave me a name,
And so I called that gentleman who'sin the Hall of Fame at Tennessee
(05:57):
in the state of Tennessee as abasketball coach. He tells me to come
over that evening to their basketball andthey have a game that night. He
interviews me in his office and hejust says, won't you stick around a
night and stay for the game.And I was on the bench as a
volunteer assistant for the next two years. And then I finished college and I
started, you know, student teaching, and I became the freshman girls coach
(06:19):
at Glencliffe High School. Now I'mteaching elementary pe. Best job on the
planet, right, there's no jobbetter than elementary PE. All the kids
love you. You know, You'vegot the ideal job. And I realized
I want to be a head coach, head varsity coach, and in order
to do that, you have tobe in the building. You got to
(06:40):
teach in the high school. Sowhen the position opened for me to teach
at the high school that I've beencoaching at Freshman for so long, I
took that job. And then Ibecame the head girls basketball coach at Glencliffe
High School. And my first sonwas born, and as soon as he
was born and I held him on, I knew I was gonna have to
(07:00):
quit coaching. And I mean,I just said, there's no way I
can give my family one hundred percentand give my girls one hundred percent.
And I hate losing, so Ihave to give one hundred percent. And
so I told my wife. Iwas like, I'm going to resign coaching,
and she she didn't believe it.You know, she said, until
(07:21):
the moment you actually made it official, I thought you would back out because
she said, I know how muchyou love basketball, and I said,
sweetie, don't know. All Ilike basketball a lot, I love my
family. There's a difference. Andso I resigned coaching and I've been,
you know, on daddy duty eversince. And it was a blessing because
not long after I resigned, mymother in law who would keep my son
(07:44):
she had a stroke. And whenshe had her stroke, it totally changed
the way we live as well,you know, like two to three nights
a week, my wife doesn't evenstay in our home. She sleeps at
my mother in law's house, andso she rotates with her siblings who gives
the evening care and me not havingto be pulled away from the sport out
of necessity later it was my choicefrom the beginning, I think caused there'll
(08:09):
never be resentment or anything like that. And you know, and it's hard
to even think that someone having astroke would be a blessing, but me
having to take care of my sonsin a different way than most fathers do,
because like I said, two tothree nights a week, daddy had
to give the boys a bath,Daddy had to read the bed type of
(08:30):
story. It probably made our bondthat much stronger, you know, So
I think it forced me to stepup as a dad as well, to
be a better dad. Like Iknew, I want to be a great
dad. But I mean I think, you know, I think I'm a
pretty decent dad. My wife wouldprobably say, you know, better than
decent. Hopefully, my boys willgrow up and they will say, man,
(08:52):
my dad was awesome. You know. Now, my greatest desire in
this world is for my sons togrow up and know God from an early
age. I've told them that notchurch membership, not church attendants, but
to actually know God. And so, as you mentioned earlier in the bio,
I strive to be that living example, especially for my sons. You
(09:13):
know, if I can't lead anyother kid to Christ, I need to
at least lead my own too,you know. And so I try to
shine my light and be that positiveexample for them. And so, you
know, I haven't coached in whatthirteen years? Everybody asked me, are
you going to get back into it. I'm like, I'll be honest with
you. I love my family timeso much. I don't. My identity
(09:37):
wasn't as a coach. You know. I know a lot of people who
that's their identity. I'm coach Cody, you know. And everybody caused me
coach Cody still, you know,because I'm gonna pe teacher, Hey,
coach Cody, and so I don't. But that's not my identity. I
didn't. I don't get my valuefrom telling somebody else's kids what to do
on a basketball court, you know. And so you know, I hadn't
(10:00):
been teaching. I mean, Ihadn't been coaching forever, just been teaching.
And I was, as we weretalking about earlier before the interview started,
I was so close to quitting teachingbecause I was burned out to not
because of the teaching. It's allthe other stuff, you know, all
the other stuff that's not teaching.You know, most people don't recognize that
when you're a teacher, you're notjust a teacher. You're a you're a
(10:24):
social worker, you're a counselor,you're a like you're pulled in so many
directions you're exhausted, and so I'mlike, Lord, I can't, I
can't do this anymore. And youmentioned my book Recap. That was the
first book I wrote. The firstbook I wrote, Recap was written,
and it was again it just showsyou how good God is. I was
teaching a Wednesday night Bible study andI taught a lesson that I titled Recap
(10:46):
of the Word. And so Iwent from the beginning and it started with
rebellion. Adam and even rebelled againstGod. So the first thing was rebellion.
So I took them through principles thatyou finding the Bible. So because
of the rebellion, they needed redemption. In order to have redemption, there
must be repentance. So everything wasread, re re re read, So
(11:09):
I titled it a recap of theBible. So I'm driving to work one
day and I hear this audible voicein my head that said, you need
to turn that Bible study lesson intoa book to let other people have access
to it. And so I kindof dismiss it because I'm like, that
(11:30):
definitely ain't God talking to me becauseI don't even read. So, I
mean, the only reading I dois my Bible. You know, I
don't read for enjoyment. I readfor enlightenment, right right. So I'm
like, yeah, that can't beGod. So a few days goes by
and I hear it again so clear, it's like loud in my ear,
You've got to turn that Bible studylesson into a book. And I'm like,
(11:52):
okay, Lord, if that's youspeaking to me, I will do
this, but you have to helpme. I don't know anything about writing
a book. I don't know anythingabout publishing, and low and behold you
know, a year later or whateverrecap was published, right, And it's
crazy because I would write a littleand take off two months and then write
(12:13):
a little, and I could haveliterally written this in a month, had
I had to just sit down andwrite. And there would be nights where
Guy would wake me up at liketwo in the morning and I could not
sleep, and it was like,I'm gonna go downstairs and write in the
book a little bit. So Igo downstairs and I write, and I
promise you every time I did that, I was like, oh my god,
I don't know what this is gonnasound like in the morning because I'm
(12:35):
tired. This probably is not gonnamake any sense. It was always the
best parts of the chapters, right, So I'm like, Lord, this
is beautiful. And I hadn't evenkept up with the sales on it,
you know, because that wasn't mymotive. But every time I get an
email from someone who's read the bookand told me how much you know the
chapter, which chapter blessed them themost, and it's like that was like
(12:58):
the greatest fulfillment of knowing that oneI honored God's request of me, and
two it has encouraged someone else.Right, So fast forward. Now I'm
writing a book for teachers, right. I wrote a book called The Tired
Teacher Eight Tips, Eight Tips tobeat burnout right, And that book,
(13:20):
I can't tell you how many teachershave emailed me and concerning that one to
let me know, Man, youhit it on the head because it's a
very quick and easy read. It'sfun, and it's encouraging because there's a
lot of good teachers that are hangingit up. And that was my motives
was to encourage the good teachers tosay, these kids actually do need you.
I know that your mental health islike on the brink. I know
(13:43):
that you've been pulled and you feellike you have literally nothing left to go.
But you're doing greater than you thinkyou are. Right, Your light
is the reason why several of yourstudents come to school. So you got
to keep shining even though there's aweight to this. There's a heaven is
to this. But no matter wherewe go, you're gonna have to deal
(14:05):
with some weight somewhere, you know. So I wrote that book, and
then I wrote a book called TooMany Toys in the Tub. It's a
children's book. So when my sonswere small. I came upstairs and I
was getting ready to give him abath, and my son, I think
he literally had every toy in thehouse in the tub. And I said,
son, there's too many toys inthis tub. And as soon as
(14:28):
I said it, it was likethe Holy Spirit said, that's your next
book. So I wrote a littlecute children's book called too Many Toys in
the Tub. And that's that's beenone of my favorites, you know,
just just because it's it's such itjust even like now I'm smiling saying it
because I could still it takes meback to that day. And every parent
I've talked to has had that experience, like, oh, yeah, yeah,
(14:48):
when you said the title, Iwas like, I know exactly what
you're talking about. Yeah. Andwhen my oldest was about i want to
say, maybe two or three,he was in day care and he got
in trouble for hitting. He washitting other kids. And so I was
at school when I was teaching highschool still, and I wrote a book
(15:09):
called hands Aren't Made for Hitting,and I asked one of my high school
students to illustrate it from me.So I bought these little blank books and
they drew pictures from me, soI could read it to my son at
night, right instead of me spankingyou to tell you that you can't use
your hands to hit people, andI'm here using my hands to hit you.
(15:31):
I had to figure out a wayto teach it in a to positively
reinforce what I was trying to showhim. So I'm reading him this book
every night. Hands aren't made forhitting, Hands are made for eating,
hands are made for high fiving.Hands. Are you know all these things?
And again I was just like,you know what, I have this
book that's been hand illustrated by myformer students. I could take my same
(15:56):
idea and now make it a littlebit more professional for you know, everyone
else whose children are going through thesame cycles like my son did. And
so I published that one as well. So now I have four books that
are published, and God has placedI think I got about four ideas in
my spirit now that I started twoof them, and I'm like, Lord,
(16:18):
I just I need you because Ifeel overwhelmed. There's so much I
want to do for you, butI'm like, I can't get my mind
and my body to sit down andwrite. You know, I take discipline,
like I said, I've written one. I'm in the process of writing
a second one. I'm still workingon the title. I think it's called
mentor Me Shaping the Christian Idity ofthe Next Generation. I think it's one
(16:44):
of the title I'm working with.At least that's what I told the publisher.
I was gonna call it the butas I also hired writing coach,
can of work with me a littlebit, just because I'm a perfectionist and
I just like to make sure thatwhen I'm putting out there is good quality
the content. And she keeps say, trying to encourage me to change the
title a little bit. So we'llsee. But but I know what you're
(17:07):
talking about, just, you know, having the discipline to sit down and
write, and yeah, it's tough. And then when you do sit down
and write, you have in yourhead what you want to communicate, but
what comes out on the paper isnot always it. So then you're rewriting
and typing, and sometimes I writeit out like I'll just be sitting waiting
at a softball game and I'll writesome in my on my phone, you
(17:30):
know, and I'll come back tothe laptop and sit and work on the
laptop there. So if you've writtenfour, brother, I'm congratulations. I'm
just on my second and the sameone should be easy for me because it
was a topic of my dissertation,which was shaped, which was, you
know what creates a Christian identity inadults? You know what? And so
(17:51):
I looked at three different things,and I was telling you earlier I couldn't
remember the third one or two ofthem was experience and relationships. And experiences
were a small part of it,but overwhelmingly, relationships were the primary point
of impact. If you want anadult to have a meaningful Christian identity,
(18:12):
if they've got a mentor, andI don't mean a pastor, and you
know, Christian homes, you knowthat environment was the other or so if
they grew up in a Christian home, that was good, but it doesn't
guarantee that, you know, they'regoing to become a Christian. I said
this way, I can live ina garage. I'm not going to grow
(18:32):
up to be a car So,you know, growing up in that environment
doesn't guarantee a Christian identity because itjust it's just they for some reason,
they take I'm a pastor. Mykids take it for granted. But when
they have other people, and Ihave always been intentional by having other people
pour into them the Christian faith inaddition to us, and we reinforce even
(18:53):
what the others say, and theyreinforce what we say. It's such an
important thing there, and I thinkit's so awesome what you're doing there and
pouring into your children, but alsopouring you know, taking the experiences of
your life and in putting those intoa book form. And tired teachers.
Show me a teacher. My wifeis a teacher. Show me a teacher
(19:15):
who's not tired, and I willshow you a teacher who is not a
teacher. Right, right, thatthose two words are synonymous, right,
that's right. Tired teachers and especiallyyou and I were talking before after COVID,
you know, they're just you know, as they you guys had to
add nurse, you know, medicaland you know social worker. You know,
(19:38):
you're seeing into some of these kidshomes and and when they're doing these
zoom classrooms and you know, andyou're seeing Okay, now, I think
I understand why they struggled in school. I mean, you get surprised.
When I was teaching online, youwould hear the parents have their their music
up really loud in the background,or the the TV's on, like Scott
(20:02):
like, and I'm like, youknow, obviously you might be in a
position where you can't go to anotherroom. Maybe you know, you don't
know the child's situation. But asa parent, for these few hours,
I'm gonna give my baby that timeof uninterruptions so that they not But not
everybody thinks that way, and it'slike, you know, is there.
I used to tell my students,see if you can find you even if
(20:23):
it's the closet, you know,go to the closet and sit in there,
and that way you can have nointerruptions, you know. Because for
us, again because I'm pe,when we met as a class, we
had a rule where we couldn't gradethem on like the class participation, because
anything could happen, right, technologywas technology, they could lose their signal,
(20:47):
couldn't get in there. So theynow they're taking a F because they're
not in the class. So allof your grades would come from the work
they submit. So what I didfor my class when we joined the class,
we would always do physical activity together. I would either lead you know,
an exercise, do they could seemy screen and we're exercising together.
Or I would do like a yogavideo and they follow that, or a
(21:07):
quick you know, low impact cardioand that they could do in their room,
right, no equipment, none ofthat, but their assignment. I
would explain the assignment to them andthen we do our exercise. And that
way, if a student wasn't there, we had to record it. They
could go back and watch and gookay. That's how I do the actual
written assignment. And that's how Istructured my class. Well. Like I
(21:29):
said, I'm sitting there talking toa kid and their mic comes unmuted and
you can hear the loud movie inthe background, and it's not them watching
a movie, it's their parent behindthem. I'm thinking, Mom, come
on, position your baby to besuccessful, you know. And at first
it was like, wow, theseteachers are heroes that I didn't realize what
they had to do till I wasstuck with my own kid for three six
(21:52):
months. And then they were likeCOVID man, they'll be all right.
They need to let their kids goback to school. So we were for
being heroes to being the goat insix months because now I'm tired and I'm
tired of being in this house withmy kids'll y'all. And I tell people
all the time, I worked harderonline than I did in person. So
(22:14):
a lot of people thought they're lazy. They don't want to go back to
work. No, no, no, no, I'd rather be back at
work, but I want to beback at work when I'm safe. I
don't want to be back at work. And it's hard for me to do
my job because I'm terrified of yourson sniffling today. I don't want to
mistreat your baby, but I needhim to be on that side of the
jail. I don't know what itwas sneezing on me, you know,
(22:37):
but you know, just even whenwe came back, because we still had
to wear the mask, I hadto totally change I did in my class,
so even our activities were so lowimpact because it's hard to breathe behind
that mask. So I think teachersare probably some of the most resilient people
on the planet, very creative,very flexible. You got teachers who,
(22:57):
especially just say a very seasoned teachers, she's she or he's been teaching twenty
five thirty years. Most of thoseteachers do not like technology. They're fearful
of it, right, And sonow you're having to learn how to do
a video conference and you're you're asixty five year old teacher, like I
don't know, now you're panicking andfreaking out. And now this teacher is
(23:18):
fluent with it, right, She'san expert. He's an expert. And
it's because again the never say quitmentality that teachers have, you know,
and I think if people really understoodthat, they would do everything to help
their child's teacher everything. Yeah,well, my wife and I have the
(23:41):
discussion often because you know, he'sa teacher. I don't know what it
is, but it seems like teachersare everybody's favorite punching back. Education schorls
in the United States are the worstever, you know, reading, Your
kids don't know how to read,they don't know how to write, you
(24:02):
know, and it's just all y'all'sfault. Every time, every time a
child fell the test, it's it'syour fault. You know, it's a
child, us, a stump toeat school, it's your fault. It
doesn't matter what it is. Andso we have this discussion, you know,
because the average person out there doesn'trecognize Okay, we're we're training.
(24:25):
My wife works at a school whereEnglish ninety five percent of the student population.
English is her second language, andso then she comes she teaches science.
She's trying to teach teachers life science. So she's trying to teach,
you know, basic human life principlesto people that don't even speak English.
(24:49):
And then they take the test it'swritten in English, and then they fail
that test. Well, if Idon't care how smart I I am.
If I got to Mexico and takea test, or somebody hands me a
test here in America written in Spanish, I'm probably gonna fill it. So
(25:11):
you know, we're educating everybody,regardless of who they are. Regard.
We don't check their legal status,we don't check their passports, we don't
check, you know, where theycome from. We don't check their family
environment. We don't even check itif it's their real mom and dad when
they walk in the door, droppedoff at school, or when they catch
that bus. You know, that'snot the teacher's responsibility. Teachers responsibility is
(25:34):
supposed to be to teach, butas you said, they have to do
so much more than teach. Hey, our test scores might go up if
the children had a home environment wherethey could study. Our test scores might
go up if the children weren't havingto deal with whatever they're dealing with at
(25:55):
home sometimes. And so I thinkcontextualizing that is in hoard at because we're
educating everybody whereas you know, Chinaand Japan and some of these others that
are way at the top up therethat we get compared to. If at
twelve thirteen years old, you hasnot shown an academic efficiency or proficiency,
(26:18):
you get a job, right You'reyou're working at twelve or thirteen. And
so if you will each type offuture you're you're as a child, you
know the day you're born, themotivation is that's right, that's exactly right.
The motive the state motivation, that'sexactly right. Funny story, my
son, I told you he startedcollege last year, and I don't mean
(26:41):
the air dairy laundry, but hedidn't do the best in the world that
he could do his first year ofcollege. And so I told him,
in fact, this year, Isaid, a son, I said,
we paid that first year of college. But because the class that you failed,
you got to pay for those.So you know this is this is
on you? And I said,you know, he says wants to be
an entrepreneur. I said, that'sgreat, but entrepreneur, you've got to
(27:03):
have a skill. You know.You don't just show him I'm on my
own business one day. That's all. Entrepreneur means. You own your own
business. It's not a profession.And so you gotta you know, if
you're gonna be it starts your ownsports coaching thing, then you're be a
that's an entrepreneurs You have to beskilled as a coach to do that,
and in that particular sport. Ifyou're gonna do a be an entrepreneur to
(27:25):
own your own mechanic shop, wellyou gotta be proficient and fixing cars.
So you got to have a skillthere. What's your skill? Uh,
he's just not ever other than sports. He's never really shown a big,
huge interest in any specific thing.I said, So you've got to be
in college to get an experience,to get some some breadth of knowledge there
to find out what your interest willbe. So if you don't do well
(27:48):
this year, I don't know whatyou're gonna do, because you're not gonna
live in my basement. Number one, I don't have a basement, so
you can't live in something that harmietic, right, And so he's doing really
well this year. And so Isee him a message the other day and
I said, buddy, I'm reallyproud of you. I said, you're
working hard this year. And Isaid, I haven't seen you out late
(28:11):
or anything. I told him.I said, to key for you is
getting rest you can't get, youknow, stay up to three o'clock in
the morning and wake up for classat seven am and expect to comprehend what
the teacher's teaching you there. Andjust you know, everybody goes through it
to the freshman year. I wentthrough it. And so I just told
him I was proud of him,and he replied back, I don't won't
(28:33):
be poortation. I said, hey, that's good. You know, whatever
it takes for you to get today'sand bees up there, you latch onto
that truth, brother, and youyou hold on to to the end.
So there's something about poverty. There'ssomething about knowing, you know, back
to what we were talking about magicatingthe mess, there's something about knowing that
(28:56):
that gives you some motivation, youknow, And sometimes I think it's the
kids that come from some of theharshest environments that perform the best. And
some of these kids that come froma you know, well managed, middle
class home, sometimes they're the onesthat that's getting into most trouble because they
(29:17):
sometimes have this attitude. And thisis I'm not talking all of them,
this is some They have this entitlementattitude. You know, I'm entitled here,
and I don't know how we dothat, how we can instill in
our kids in education is a privilege, not an entitlement. We have turned
into an entitlement in the United States. And that's you know something that's some
(29:40):
kind of what happens in Christian homes. We turned God into an entitlement somehow
another. We're entitled to this graceand mercy and salvation that we have and
and you know we didn't earn it, but we certainly need to appreciate the
gift. But so how do theyhow do they buy your books? They
buy on Amazon or uh, well, you can go to my website www
dot Columbus dot com. Www dotColumbus like Christopher Columbus cod c O d
(30:06):
Y dot com and you know allmy books are on there as well.
Also created what I call witness whereyou know, it's clothing that sparks the
conversations. So I've T shirts andhoodies that you can buy that are Christian,
Christian statements or Christian that what's theword I'm looking for? Like,
the themes are Christian themes and thatway. You know, when person sees
(30:29):
your T shirt, they're like,hey, what does that mean? It's
like, oh, thank you foropening that door. It's time for me
to witness to you, you know. And it's a general way of witnessing
because I think a lot of peopleare terrified of speaking just about Jesus to
random people, which is funny becausewe'll talk about the football game to a
random person, we'll talk about youknow, the thing that you have a
passion for is what you're gonna talkabout. And I think a lot of
(30:52):
people want to be better at witnessingand want to be more let their light
shine more. They just intimidated.And I always say it like this,
My thing is this, don't sharewhat you do know, don't feel bad
about what you don't know, butlet what you don't know motivate you to
want to know more. Right So, instead of being satisfied on the surface
(31:15):
with your relationship with God, wantto go deeper because I promise you that
the Bible tells us no good thingwill lead withhold from us. If you're
chasing after him with your whole heart, He's going to expose a lot to
you. And then our motives isnot to know more so I can argue
more or put more people in theirplace. My goal is to know more
so I'm more equipped to debunk allthe barriers the enemy is going to put
(31:38):
in the way from I'm trying toshare this gospel with you. But you
have a preconceived notion of who Godis, and so you keep fighting me,
fighting me, fighting me. Whereasbecause I filled my heart with the
Spirit of God and fill my heartwith well with the word of God,
and then the spirit of God says, okay, well share that verse that
you read seven months ago and didn'tknow why you were putting that in.
(32:00):
Now you share that verse and thatperson like, oh, I see what
you're saying. I get it.And you know, my wife sent me
a video the other day, aTikTok video, and I saved it and
it was with the idea of itwas well, it was a lady who
she was talking to, this Satanist. He was a Satanist, and he
(32:22):
said, he kept on going on. She never said a word. He
kept on talking about you know hisyou know how he became a Satanist and
all this stuff and all this.And when she got up, she just
embraced him and hugged him. Thankyou for sharing your journey with me.
Something like of that nature, shesaid. And he said, when she
embraced him, he felt something.He didn't know what it was. He
(32:45):
felt this like overwhelming warmth. Andso he was like, what in the
world was that? And then heI don't know how it triggered in him,
but he found that that was Jesusembracing him, and so he became
a Christian. Right. And Itold my wife, I said, I'm
gonna tell you the beauty of thatvideo is this most of us. The
(33:06):
moment we meet a person that saysthey're a Satanist, we want to set
them straight so bad, we wantto hit them with the right left combo
of the Word of God. Andall she did was she listened. She
showed him love in spite of whathe thought he was. And the enemy,
now who better? Who better tospeak God's word than someone who used
to be right. As Paul wouldsay, I'm chief, I was the
(33:30):
chief center, right. I mean, who better to encourage the masses to
come out of the darkness than onewho used to dwell in the darkness And
will openly admit it, most ofus don't want to tell everybody in the
darkness we used to be it likewell, I was never in that much
darkness, you know, And likeyou mentioned earlier about the entitlement of being
(33:52):
a follower of Christ, we justfeel like, you know, God owes
us something, and God is like, I think you owe me. While
that is such uh so well,said Cody. That's such an important point
there, that we don't have tobe theologians. We don't have a have
to have a doctorate in theology orphilosophy in order to engage in conversation with
(34:15):
someone. Sometimes a lot of times, truthfully, I've never known I've never
argued anyone into the Kingdom of God. Let me put it that way.
You know, I can stand thereand yell at somebody and tell them and
and just completely dismantle their argument froma from an an intellectual point of view,
(34:42):
from an academic point of view therethat doesn't convince them. It's not
knowing. When the Bible talks aboutknowing God, it's not brain, he's
talking about his heart. It's infact, for the for the for the
Hebrew, the soul. We thinkabout her heart really is the gut was
(35:04):
the center of thought even for theGreek, you know, the gut and
the Near East, and the Christianityis a kind of a Near East religion.
We forget that born in the MiddleEast, not the not the United
States. But that's a different topicfor a different time. But so is
when we talked about this feeling isit's I mean, it's comes from that
(35:28):
gut there. And I found itinteresting that the more well, I've heard
a lot of conversations these days aboutbrain and gut connection as far as health
goes, right, and so youknow, I think that the more we
learn intellectually, the more we endup finding that spiritually what the Bible says
(35:50):
is and the way they understood itsometimes before they had all this education,
they they had good at good instinctsthere. So that's so important that well
we just love people, you know, just kind of live authentically, and
that's true That's what I found inmy research for my doctor. My dissertation
was that you didn't have to havea Bible study. If you're mentoring someone
(36:13):
into the Kingdom, it's not abouta Bible study. Is those most happened?
I mean, I remember as apastor a lot of times I would
I'd go breakfast at Chick fil Amand there'd be a couple of college students
there and there'd be one college student, you know, discipling another college student
there. And I love that theywere going through the Bible. And I
think it's important. But the thingthat had the most meaningful impact on on
(36:38):
the what my station. The thinghad the most meaningful impact was that relationship
that they had, not the knowledge, had knowledge that they poured into someone
and so such a when I waspastoring, we had a young lady in
the church who was a witch.She claimed her she claimed to be a
witch, and uh, just aartwith She's been very abused, grew up
(37:01):
in the foster care system, andso she was, you know, just
very guarded to begin with. AndI met her at I used to do
my sermons at Dunkin Donuts, SoI met her in Dunkin donuts, and
we just began to have a conversation. And I didn't approach things from an
intellectual point of view. I justjust met them where they were, you
(37:22):
know, listened to them like yousaid. And then she wanted to come
to church, so we'd pick herup and bring her church. And so
after about a year of coming tothe church she wouldn't know. She said,
Pastor Jeff, can I and getup and give a testimony? And
I said, well, yeah,sure, what you what you because she
had not, to my knowledge,accepted Christ or anything like that, and
(37:43):
I want to be sure what she'sgonna say got us, And so she
said yeah. And so she toldme she I just want to talk about,
you know, the appreciated the church. And I okay. So I
said, well, you guys saidbefore I do us this morning, I
said, you know, called hername. That's something she wants to say.
(38:04):
And she got up and she said, I just want everybody to know
that I'm a witch. And Isaid, oh my goodness. And she
said, but I love Jesus.And she said, and you guys are
the ones that taught me to loveJesus. And she said, I still
call myself a witch. I won'tcall myself a Christian, but I'm not
(38:27):
quite there. But I do loveJesus. And she said, I hope
that was okay, Pastor Jeff,And I said, that's absolutely fine.
And I said, Jesus loves youtoo, exactly how you are, and
he's waiting for you when you finallyclaim him as your central identity instead of
(38:49):
a witch as your central identity.For her, it was and I understood,
as you know, psychologically, andthat's the only thing, only connection
she had to her mom. Shehad been in foster care. Her mommacclaimed
to be a witch, and soyou know, it was not something that
she could really hang on to thereand so which was the only vestige of
(39:09):
her personal connection identity that she had. So you know, when she but
I remember the day she finally letgo, she said, you know what,
Jesus is my dad. You know, God is my father. I
can if I've got that, thenwhatever else has happened in my life.
And so anyway, just and itcame from love. You know, I
(39:30):
didn't argue her into the kingdom.I didn't give her three points of salvation.
She hadn't, you know, sayhere, you got to say this
sinnerced prayer. It was just amatter of and I wasn't to hear of
that story. I mean, itwasn't me, It was God through me.
It was the congregation that loved onher. I had an associate at
the time who was training and trainingto be a pastor, and she just
(39:52):
had this incredible way of connecting ona deep level with other people that were
in in deep, deep, deeppain and suffering and sin and you know,
just offer them grace and mercy beyondanything that they can And she,
she really was the primary person thathad a relationship with that. With that
(40:15):
lady, I kind of brought himin and and I let her love on
him a little bit. I lovedhim. But but you know, it's
difficult as a guy. You know, when it's a female, you have
to be very careful and how you'reinteracting and things like that. But but
like you said, just the factthat you had an associate that understood that
(40:37):
the role that they played was youknow, valuable, so valuable. And
now who knows that this this ladythat first identified as a witch will become
like the next female, the greatestevangelist for the Lord ever. You know,
what I'm saying, like, she'sthe female Billy Graham, you know
what I'm saying. It's like,and it's because you chose to love her
(40:58):
in spite of what she spoke withher mouth, you know, because you
think, you think that's who youare until God shows you himself for real.
And when you see God for real, you see who you really are
for real, you know, andyou see yourself as a broken vessel that
he sees still as valuable. Andit's like I will take the scraps of
(41:19):
your life and turn you into somethingthat it will be called a masterpiece if
you will allow me. That's sogood, Cody, It's great, haven't
you, brother. I could goon all day with you. We just
we're just we got this connection here. We love love Lord, and I
love your philosophy of life and howyou connect with people. And so you're
a speaker as well, and I'massuming they can book you to speak on
(41:40):
your website as well. Yeah,so again www dot Columbus, Coody dot
com. And there's a contact formon there, and my contact form serves
several different purposes. There's a prairierequest. There's a link there click for
prayer requests, if they do withthey if they would like to book me
as a speaker or for their engagementor their conference or whatever that that is
(42:02):
also in there, they click thebooking and then it'll ask them a few
questions and then I'll be able toget in touch with him to fine tune
all the details of the event andto make sure that I'm available. And
then you know, again, mymy thing is this. I always want
to let God use me to encouragethe heart of someone else, right,
(42:23):
you know. And the thing thatI love the most is that I grew
up in church like a lot ofpeople do. But I didn't like church,
right, And it's because there wasnothing for kids, per see,
it was nothing for us. Andso I mean, as as we talked
about earlier, a lot of timesa child will veer away. But because
the foundation has been said, Proverbsis telling us the truth, train up
(42:45):
a child in the way they shouldgo when they're old, they won't depart.
We're gonna come back, you know, But we got to the training's
got to be there, though,you know what I mean. You can't
expect them to come back if there'snothing, no foundation has been laid so,
and I'm Nazarene as well. Ididn't tell you that as well.
But I go to Christ Church ofthe Nazarena in Nashville, Tennessee. And
(43:05):
when I the first moment I walkedinto Christ Church, the first moment I
came home from the Navy, mymom invited me to go to church with
her, and I'm like, Idon't want to go to church, you
know what I mean? So Igo to church and the spirit, the
love in that building is that goesright back to your dissertation relationship. Right.
The love in that building was like, I knew from that moment,
(43:28):
I'm where I'm supposed to be.Right. And so God has continued to
use my pastor to mentor me,to show me things, and to put
me in positions where I have toserve in a way that I would have
never How you go from being akid that doesn't like church to one who
can't wait to teach Sunday school towhen your pastor asked you to speak in
morning worship, You're like, ohmy gosh, yes, I will definitely
(43:50):
do that. You know, youdon't even have to give me much of
a notice, Just tell me Sundaymorning, I'm read. You know what
I mean, It's like the loveis there, and it's because you see
what is done in your life,and you know it has nothing to do
with how good you were, youknow. Like I said, I was
in the navy, So the termcousin like a sailor, that's true.
You know. I came home oneday and I was talking to my mom
(44:14):
and her kitchen table, and shehad this look on her face that was
like, I'm like, why areyou looking like that? Mom? She
said, do you hear the wordsthat are coming out of your mouth?
I'm like, what do you mean? Every other word I used was a
profanity and I didn't even recognize Iwas talking that way. And I'm like,
you know what. When she saidthat, I said, you know
what, I'm not going to talklike this anymore, you know. And
(44:37):
so I started monitoring the words thatI speak. And I tell my students
that, like you said, Idon't say hey, Jesus said, I
would say what if we valued everyword we spoke, you know? And
they're like, well, you know, cause a lot of students, again
to them, in my family,if you're not loud, you get overlooked.
In my family, you know weI mean, that's just how everybody
(44:59):
talks. I said, Nah,everyone doesn't talk like that. I don't
use profanity. Please don't use itin my classroom, you know. And
then the kid I had a kidyears ago, he said, hey,
y'all stop gussing. You know he'sa Christian. Now, I've never said
anything about being a Christian, buthe understood. He could see my spirit.
Right. And that same kid askedme a question I'll never forget it.
This was he was a sophomore inhigh school. He said, coach,
(45:22):
what if you die and find outthat God is not real? Right?
The whole class was quiet. Nowhe asked me that question. I
didn't open up no Bible in myclass, but if you open that door,
I walk it in, right,I said, I said, Now
that is an outstanding question. Isaid, but what if I lived my
(45:44):
life the way I want to andI don't do things the way God is
told and I find out that Heis real? Yeah? And he was
like, I can accept that,because the thing is, what have you
really lost? If you live accordingthe way God has told you, maybe
you don't go to all these placesthat the world tells you. So fun.
(46:06):
But I have a lot of funin my life without going to those
places, right I mean, AndI do live the way I tell people
on Sunday to live. That's whoI am when I'm not at church.
You know, I'm the same person. You know. I'm silly, I'm
goofy. I love Jesus and Ilove people, you know, and I
(46:28):
joke around a lot. But that'sauthentically me. I'm not trying to be
double O seven. I'm fake,fake person here and then somebody real here.
You know. I'm who I ameverywhere I go. And because it
makes life so much more simple whenyou don't have to be a different person
around different people, you know.And but when he walked, when he
said that, I was like,man, that is thank you for asking
(46:49):
me that question, you know.And so you know, I just think
about how like you said, whenit comes to speaking, my biggest goal
is to help people also grow closerto God. And so every opportunity I
get a chance to speak, Ijump on those opportunities because I want to.
I want people to walk away andgo. I want to be close
to God so bad. You know. I think it was Joyce Meyer.
(47:13):
I think I was listening to herbook years ago, and she said,
we are as close to God aswe want to be. Yeah, and
that has stuck with me. Weare as close to God as we want
to be. There's nothing stopping thisexcept us, you know, you know,
And I just thought that was beautiful. Remember what's your pastor's name up
there, Rollin Coleman, Rollin dComn. I couldn't. I know several
(47:38):
of them up there, but Icouldn't remember if he was one, I
don't know him that. I'll alsotrain pastors to plant churches and church planting,
and even lead pastors. I will. They'll come in and take the
training Dynamic Church Planning International company Ivolunteer with, and so we do the
(47:59):
trading onlines videos and then we'll havesome one on one coaching sessions with me
or one of our other coaches,and anyway we'll train existing papsages or pastors
of established churches. Because the mosteffective form of vacialism is church planting.
There's something about an established church.After ten or twelve years, they just
(48:21):
get more internally focused. It's justit's it's almost like a family. And
nothing wrong with the family, exceptthat families tend to be closed. I
don't walk out on the street andinvite new people into my family every day.
Hey, co join my family today. It's a good way to go
bankrupt real quick. You look likeyou did a good family. You go
(48:43):
and you know, nothing wrong withinviting a guest in time, time and
caring for them, but you know, don't live with you. So but
that's what we're asking people to dothe church. Sometimes when we get that
mentality is hey, why won't youcome be part of our family? So
it becomes counterintuitive to them. Sowe tell the pastor, look, you
know, if you if you launcha new church out of your church.
So rather than trying to grow yourchurch into this megachurch, what if you
(49:07):
were to take twenty of your strongestmembers, pray for God to send you
or even raise up a church planterwithin your congregation, a Cody or somebody
like that who has a passion forthe gospel. Your church sponsors them to
be you know, that new church, and so you mentor him, you
(49:29):
you pour into that pastor church plantingpastor just be a church planter. I
mean for years in Church of Nazarene, lay people are the ones that planted
churches and then the church would sendand call a pastor. So and that's
really you know, if you reallywant a strong church, have the lady
plant a church. Now, Idon't mean get mad at the pastor and
(49:52):
say they're gonna go somewhere else,flitting and start saying I'm gonna split,
past would and give me but onecommunity you could, I'm out of here.
That's right. So that's that's thetype of training we do because it
is it's just so effective, youknow, it just it really builds a
kingdom. I mean you leave thestatistics and a new start church may have
(50:13):
one hundred salvations in a year andan established church may have twenty. It's
just the effectiveness of evangelism as faras building the kingdom goes. It's such
better, so much better and strongeras a church plant. So we'll we'll
plant. We'll train church established pastorsto plant churches. And I'm just curious
if your your pastor had been throughit. But I don't recognize his name.
(50:36):
I'm sure he's familiar with it becauseDwight Gunner, who is the DS
up in that area, is verypassionate about church planting. You know,
who's had a lot of church planterscome through or training from up there.
But I have to reach out tohim and get him involved because you used
to like you'd be a good oneto be planning some churches up there.
But but what caused me to dowhat I would? Obe? There?
(51:00):
You go? There you go.But you know you're you're certainly planting seeds,
you know, sewing seeds within yourschool. I'm not saying you've got
to be a professional clergy to beeffective. You're doing you're doing great work
ministry where you are. But anyway, Cody, great having you brother again.
The Columbuscody dot com is a website. He's a speaker, he's an
(51:21):
author, he's a teacher, head, head incourager, chief encourager you know
and father and husband and so anyway, please check out the website. You
can be a co creator with Godby helping to echo our voices, share
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(51:43):
Give us positive five star reviews.The more positive reviews we have, the
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(52:06):
good kingdom leader, that's enough.We do not do what we do for
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(52:30):
and family and on your own socialmedia accounts. Those reviews will eventually lead
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(52:52):
those voices that God is echoing throughAttornity. There
You know, the thing that youhave a passion for is what you're going
to talk about. And I thinka lot of people want to be better
at witnessing and want to be morelet their light shine more. They just
feel intimidated. And I always sayit like this. My thing is this,
don't share what you do know,don't feel bad about what you don't
(00:20):
know, but let what you don'tknow motivate you to want to know more.
Right So, instead of being satisfiedon the surface with your relationship with
God, want to go deeper becauseI promise you that the Bible tells us
no good thing will lead withhold fromus. If you're chasing after him with
your whole heart, He's going toexpose a lot to you. Marcus really
has said what we do in lifeechoes through Eternity. What is your life
(00:44):
echoing through eternity? Welcome to Echoesthrough Eternity with doctor Jeffrey Skinner. Our
mission is to inspire, engage,and encourage leaders from across the globe to
plant missional churches and be servant leaders. So join us and here are the
stories of servant leaders reverberating lives asGod echoes them through Eternity brought to you
(01:06):
by missional church planting and leadership developmentin dynamic church planning International. Welcome into
Echoes through Eternity. I am yourhost, Doctor Jeffrey D. Skinner.
What is God that going through yourlife today? I am joined in the
STEO day by Columbus Cody. Heis head of He's not head of school.
(01:29):
He is a teacher at Head School, Head Magnet School in Nashville,
Tennessee. I ran across his profileon LinkedIn. He and I began to
talk, and I knew you almostimmediately after. I began to listen to
some of his speaking engagements and readsome of his content. This was a
guy who God was using in powerfulways in the marketplace, in the workplace,
(01:52):
a teacher in public school, andjust sharing the word of God,
not overtly, not holding, youknow, sermons, doing sermons in the
middle class, but just simply livinghis life and then outside of class writing
books. He has a book calledRecap that he's written. He's a speaker,
he's chief encourager. He just he'stelling me this morning, his son's
(02:15):
thirteen years old and he's taking himout for driving lessons, just to have
some father son time there and thoseare the types of people we like to
have on that customer Attorney is thepeople that may not be into church and
are just serving God and that anempty oftentimes, but are being faithful and
in doing so God is using themin powerful ways. And I think that's
(02:38):
something that today in this culture weneed to learn, is that ministry doesn't
just happen inside the church walls.Ministry is happening as we live our life.
And that's the theme of this seasonof that goes through Attorney is how
God is equipping people and using themin all walks of life. So Cody
(02:59):
will welcome in. Brother, It'sgood to have you here today. Oh,
thank you so much. I'm honoredto be a guest on your show.
Yeah. So, so tell usa little bit now, you how
did you get into kind of tellus about your story, your journey,
how you got to heard you sayyou grew up in Louisiana and even had
a brief football career and very brief. Tell us a little bout. Tell
(03:20):
us a little bit about your journeyand how you got there and journey of
faith and then and then where youare today and what you do to spread
the love of God. Awesome,all right. So I was born in
Chicago, and when I was abouttwo or three, my father and my
mother they divorced and we moved toMississippi and I lived in the down in
the Delta Anguilla, Mississippi with mygrandmother for a few years. And then
(03:44):
we moved to Arizona and I livedon a small Navajo reservation in Arizona called
Chinley, Arizona. I lived therefor a few years. We moved to
New Mexico, which is just astate next door. Then we moved to
Louisiana. All right. Now,I lived in Louisiana for six months,
just half of my freshman year,and it was probably the roughest six months
(04:06):
of my life. It's like everybodywanted to fight, like it just made
you like it was almost like itwas a training ground to make sure you
can handle hardship in life. Iguess that's how I could think of it,
because it was right outside of NewOrleans. It was Metie Louisiana.
Then we moved back to New Mexico, and then we moved to Tennessee.
(04:26):
So I moved to Nashville, Tennesseemy junior year, second semester my junior
year in high school. I graduatedhere in Nashville, and then I went
I joined the US Navy after graduation, served three years, and the Navy
came home and started my college careerand I attended Tennessee State University, and
I was majoring in physical therapy atfirst because I wanted to be in the
(04:48):
sports field and I want to bean athletic trainer. So I worked in
the athletic training training room for onesemester and realized, I do not want
to do this. They worked fromsun up to sundown, and we really
don't get paid much, you know, unless you're the head trainer of a
big university or something like that,you're not getting paid a lot. And
so the beauty though, and Ithank God for this, I was.
(05:11):
I was talking to the head trainerone day. He said, you know,
you don't have to major in physicaltherapy to be a trainer. You
can change your degree to physical educationand it might be a little easier.
And so I changed my major tophysical education. And to this day,
I'm so grateful that he told methat. You know. And then as
I started refereeing basketball, I waslike, you know, I kind of
(05:33):
like basketball. I love basketball.I think I'm making coach this game,
you know. So I asked byhead at referee. I was like the
leading referee, the one who trainedall of us, If you were to
send me to someone who would mentorme on how to be a basketball coach,
who would you say? And withoutblinking, he gave me a name,
And so I called that gentleman who'sin the Hall of Fame at Tennessee
(05:57):
in the state of Tennessee as abasketball coach. He tells me to come
over that evening to their basketball andthey have a game that night. He
interviews me in his office and hejust says, won't you stick around a
night and stay for the game.And I was on the bench as a
volunteer assistant for the next two years. And then I finished college and I
started, you know, student teaching, and I became the freshman girls coach
(06:19):
at Glencliffe High School. Now I'mteaching elementary pe. Best job on the
planet, right, there's no jobbetter than elementary PE. All the kids
love you. You know, You'vegot the ideal job. And I realized
I want to be a head coach, head varsity coach, and in order
to do that, you have tobe in the building. You got to
(06:40):
teach in the high school. Sowhen the position opened for me to teach
at the high school that I've beencoaching at Freshman for so long, I
took that job. And then Ibecame the head girls basketball coach at Glencliffe
High School. And my first sonwas born, and as soon as he
was born and I held him on, I knew I was gonna have to
(07:00):
quit coaching. And I mean,I just said, there's no way I
can give my family one hundred percentand give my girls one hundred percent.
And I hate losing, so Ihave to give one hundred percent. And
so I told my wife. Iwas like, I'm going to resign coaching,
and she she didn't believe it.You know, she said, until
(07:21):
the moment you actually made it official, I thought you would back out because
she said, I know how muchyou love basketball, and I said,
sweetie, don't know. All Ilike basketball a lot, I love my
family. There's a difference. Andso I resigned coaching and I've been,
you know, on daddy duty eversince. And it was a blessing because
not long after I resigned, mymother in law who would keep my son
(07:44):
she had a stroke. And whenshe had her stroke, it totally changed
the way we live as well,you know, like two to three nights
a week, my wife doesn't evenstay in our home. She sleeps at
my mother in law's house, andso she rotates with her siblings who gives
the evening care and me not havingto be pulled away from the sport out
of necessity later it was my choicefrom the beginning, I think caused there'll
(08:09):
never be resentment or anything like that. And you know, and it's hard
to even think that someone having astroke would be a blessing, but me
having to take care of my sonsin a different way than most fathers do,
because like I said, two tothree nights a week, daddy had
to give the boys a bath,Daddy had to read the bed type of
(08:30):
story. It probably made our bondthat much stronger, you know, So
I think it forced me to stepup as a dad as well, to
be a better dad. Like Iknew, I want to be a great
dad. But I mean I think, you know, I think I'm a
pretty decent dad. My wife wouldprobably say, you know, better than
decent. Hopefully, my boys willgrow up and they will say, man,
(08:52):
my dad was awesome. You know. Now, my greatest desire in
this world is for my sons togrow up and know God from an early
age. I've told them that notchurch membership, not church attendants, but
to actually know God. And so, as you mentioned earlier in the bio,
I strive to be that living example, especially for my sons. You
(09:13):
know, if I can't lead anyother kid to Christ, I need to
at least lead my own too,you know. And so I try to
shine my light and be that positiveexample for them. And so, you
know, I haven't coached in whatthirteen years? Everybody asked me, are
you going to get back into it. I'm like, I'll be honest with
you. I love my family timeso much. I don't. My identity
(09:37):
wasn't as a coach. You know. I know a lot of people who
that's their identity. I'm coach Cody, you know. And everybody caused me
coach Cody still, you know,because I'm gonna pe teacher, Hey,
coach Cody, and so I don't. But that's not my identity. I
didn't. I don't get my valuefrom telling somebody else's kids what to do
on a basketball court, you know. And so you know, I hadn't
(10:00):
been teaching. I mean, Ihadn't been coaching forever, just been teaching.
And I was, as we weretalking about earlier before the interview started,
I was so close to quitting teachingbecause I was burned out to not
because of the teaching. It's allthe other stuff, you know, all
the other stuff that's not teaching.You know, most people don't recognize that
when you're a teacher, you're notjust a teacher. You're a you're a
(10:24):
social worker, you're a counselor,you're a like you're pulled in so many
directions you're exhausted, and so I'mlike, Lord, I can't, I
can't do this anymore. And youmentioned my book Recap. That was the
first book I wrote. The firstbook I wrote, Recap was written,
and it was again it just showsyou how good God is. I was
teaching a Wednesday night Bible study andI taught a lesson that I titled Recap
(10:46):
of the Word. And so Iwent from the beginning and it started with
rebellion. Adam and even rebelled againstGod. So the first thing was rebellion.
So I took them through principles thatyou finding the Bible. So because
of the rebellion, they needed redemption. In order to have redemption, there
must be repentance. So everything wasread, re re re read, So
(11:09):
I titled it a recap of theBible. So I'm driving to work one
day and I hear this audible voicein my head that said, you need
to turn that Bible study lesson intoa book to let other people have access
to it. And so I kindof dismiss it because I'm like, that
(11:30):
definitely ain't God talking to me becauseI don't even read. So, I
mean, the only reading I dois my Bible. You know, I
don't read for enjoyment. I readfor enlightenment, right right. So I'm
like, yeah, that can't beGod. So a few days goes by
and I hear it again so clear, it's like loud in my ear,
You've got to turn that Bible studylesson into a book. And I'm like,
(11:52):
okay, Lord, if that's youspeaking to me, I will do
this, but you have to helpme. I don't know anything about writing
a book. I don't know anythingabout publishing, and low and behold you
know, a year later or whateverrecap was published, right, And it's
crazy because I would write a littleand take off two months and then write
(12:13):
a little, and I could haveliterally written this in a month, had
I had to just sit down andwrite. And there would be nights where
Guy would wake me up at liketwo in the morning and I could not
sleep, and it was like,I'm gonna go downstairs and write in the
book a little bit. So Igo downstairs and I write, and I
promise you every time I did that, I was like, oh my god,
I don't know what this is gonnasound like in the morning because I'm
(12:35):
tired. This probably is not gonnamake any sense. It was always the
best parts of the chapters, right, So I'm like, Lord, this
is beautiful. And I hadn't evenkept up with the sales on it,
you know, because that wasn't mymotive. But every time I get an
email from someone who's read the bookand told me how much you know the
chapter, which chapter blessed them themost, and it's like that was like
(12:58):
the greatest fulfillment of knowing that oneI honored God's request of me, and
two it has encouraged someone else.Right, So fast forward. Now I'm
writing a book for teachers, right. I wrote a book called The Tired
Teacher Eight Tips, Eight Tips tobeat burnout right, And that book,
(13:20):
I can't tell you how many teachershave emailed me and concerning that one to
let me know, Man, youhit it on the head because it's a
very quick and easy read. It'sfun, and it's encouraging because there's a
lot of good teachers that are hangingit up. And that was my motives
was to encourage the good teachers tosay, these kids actually do need you.
I know that your mental health islike on the brink. I know
(13:43):
that you've been pulled and you feellike you have literally nothing left to go.
But you're doing greater than you thinkyou are. Right, Your light
is the reason why several of yourstudents come to school. So you got
to keep shining even though there's aweight to this. There's a heaven is
to this. But no matter wherewe go, you're gonna have to deal
(14:05):
with some weight somewhere, you know. So I wrote that book, and
then I wrote a book called TooMany Toys in the Tub. It's a
children's book. So when my sonswere small. I came upstairs and I
was getting ready to give him abath, and my son, I think
he literally had every toy in thehouse in the tub. And I said,
son, there's too many toys inthis tub. And as soon as
(14:28):
I said it, it was likethe Holy Spirit said, that's your next
book. So I wrote a littlecute children's book called too Many Toys in
the Tub. And that's that's beenone of my favorites, you know,
just just because it's it's such itjust even like now I'm smiling saying it
because I could still it takes meback to that day. And every parent
I've talked to has had that experience, like, oh, yeah, yeah,
(14:48):
when you said the title, Iwas like, I know exactly what
you're talking about. Yeah. Andwhen my oldest was about i want to
say, maybe two or three,he was in day care and he got
in trouble for hitting. He washitting other kids. And so I was
at school when I was teaching highschool still, and I wrote a book
(15:09):
called hands Aren't Made for Hitting,and I asked one of my high school
students to illustrate it from me.So I bought these little blank books and
they drew pictures from me, soI could read it to my son at
night, right instead of me spankingyou to tell you that you can't use
your hands to hit people, andI'm here using my hands to hit you.
(15:31):
I had to figure out a wayto teach it in a to positively
reinforce what I was trying to showhim. So I'm reading him this book
every night. Hands aren't made forhitting, Hands are made for eating,
hands are made for high fiving.Hands. Are you know all these things?
And again I was just like,you know what, I have this
book that's been hand illustrated by myformer students. I could take my same
(15:56):
idea and now make it a littlebit more professional for you know, everyone
else whose children are going through thesame cycles like my son did. And
so I published that one as well. So now I have four books that
are published, and God has placedI think I got about four ideas in
my spirit now that I started twoof them, and I'm like, Lord,
(16:18):
I just I need you because Ifeel overwhelmed. There's so much I
want to do for you, butI'm like, I can't get my mind
and my body to sit down andwrite. You know, I take discipline,
like I said, I've written one. I'm in the process of writing
a second one. I'm still workingon the title. I think it's called
mentor Me Shaping the Christian Idity ofthe Next Generation. I think it's one
(16:44):
of the title I'm working with.At least that's what I told the publisher.
I was gonna call it the butas I also hired writing coach,
can of work with me a littlebit, just because I'm a perfectionist and
I just like to make sure thatwhen I'm putting out there is good quality
the content. And she keeps say, trying to encourage me to change the
title a little bit. So we'llsee. But but I know what you're
(17:07):
talking about, just, you know, having the discipline to sit down and
write, and yeah, it's tough. And then when you do sit down
and write, you have in yourhead what you want to communicate, but
what comes out on the paper isnot always it. So then you're rewriting
and typing, and sometimes I writeit out like I'll just be sitting waiting
at a softball game and I'll writesome in my on my phone, you
(17:30):
know, and I'll come back tothe laptop and sit and work on the
laptop there. So if you've writtenfour, brother, I'm congratulations. I'm
just on my second and the sameone should be easy for me because it
was a topic of my dissertation,which was shaped, which was, you
know what creates a Christian identity inadults? You know what? And so
(17:51):
I looked at three different things,and I was telling you earlier I couldn't
remember the third one or two ofthem was experience and relationships. And experiences
were a small part of it,but overwhelmingly, relationships were the primary point
of impact. If you want anadult to have a meaningful Christian identity,
(18:12):
if they've got a mentor, andI don't mean a pastor, and you
know, Christian homes, you knowthat environment was the other or so if
they grew up in a Christian home, that was good, but it doesn't
guarantee that, you know, they'regoing to become a Christian. I said
this way, I can live ina garage. I'm not going to grow
(18:32):
up to be a car So,you know, growing up in that environment
doesn't guarantee a Christian identity because itjust it's just they for some reason,
they take I'm a pastor. Mykids take it for granted. But when
they have other people, and Ihave always been intentional by having other people
pour into them the Christian faith inaddition to us, and we reinforce even
(18:53):
what the others say, and theyreinforce what we say. It's such an
important thing there, and I thinkit's so awesome what you're doing there and
pouring into your children, but alsopouring you know, taking the experiences of
your life and in putting those intoa book form. And tired teachers.
Show me a teacher. My wifeis a teacher. Show me a teacher
(19:15):
who's not tired, and I willshow you a teacher who is not a
teacher. Right, right, thatthose two words are synonymous, right,
that's right. Tired teachers and especiallyyou and I were talking before after COVID,
you know, they're just you know, as they you guys had to
add nurse, you know, medicaland you know social worker. You know,
(19:38):
you're seeing into some of these kidshomes and and when they're doing these
zoom classrooms and you know, andyou're seeing Okay, now, I think
I understand why they struggled in school. I mean, you get surprised.
When I was teaching online, youwould hear the parents have their their music
up really loud in the background,or the the TV's on, like Scott
(20:02):
like, and I'm like, youknow, obviously you might be in a
position where you can't go to anotherroom. Maybe you know, you don't
know the child's situation. But asa parent, for these few hours,
I'm gonna give my baby that timeof uninterruptions so that they not But not
everybody thinks that way, and it'slike, you know, is there.
I used to tell my students,see if you can find you even if
(20:23):
it's the closet, you know,go to the closet and sit in there,
and that way you can have nointerruptions, you know. Because for
us, again because I'm pe,when we met as a class, we
had a rule where we couldn't gradethem on like the class participation, because
anything could happen, right, technologywas technology, they could lose their signal,
(20:47):
couldn't get in there. So theynow they're taking a F because they're
not in the class. So allof your grades would come from the work
they submit. So what I didfor my class when we joined the class,
we would always do physical activity together. I would either lead you know,
an exercise, do they could seemy screen and we're exercising together.
Or I would do like a yogavideo and they follow that, or a
(21:07):
quick you know, low impact cardioand that they could do in their room,
right, no equipment, none ofthat, but their assignment. I
would explain the assignment to them andthen we do our exercise. And that
way, if a student wasn't there, we had to record it. They
could go back and watch and gookay. That's how I do the actual
written assignment. And that's how Istructured my class. Well. Like I
(21:29):
said, I'm sitting there talking toa kid and their mic comes unmuted and
you can hear the loud movie inthe background, and it's not them watching
a movie, it's their parent behindthem. I'm thinking, Mom, come
on, position your baby to besuccessful, you know. And at first
it was like, wow, theseteachers are heroes that I didn't realize what
they had to do till I wasstuck with my own kid for three six
(21:52):
months. And then they were likeCOVID man, they'll be all right.
They need to let their kids goback to school. So we were for
being heroes to being the goat insix months because now I'm tired and I'm
tired of being in this house withmy kids'll y'all. And I tell people
all the time, I worked harderonline than I did in person. So
(22:14):
a lot of people thought they're lazy. They don't want to go back to
work. No, no, no, no, I'd rather be back at
work, but I want to beback at work when I'm safe. I
don't want to be back at work. And it's hard for me to do
my job because I'm terrified of yourson sniffling today. I don't want to
mistreat your baby, but I needhim to be on that side of the
jail. I don't know what itwas sneezing on me, you know,
(22:37):
but you know, just even whenwe came back, because we still had
to wear the mask, I hadto totally change I did in my class,
so even our activities were so lowimpact because it's hard to breathe behind
that mask. So I think teachersare probably some of the most resilient people
on the planet, very creative,very flexible. You got teachers who,
(22:57):
especially just say a very seasoned teachers, she's she or he's been teaching twenty
five thirty years. Most of thoseteachers do not like technology. They're fearful
of it, right, And sonow you're having to learn how to do
a video conference and you're you're asixty five year old teacher, like I
don't know, now you're panicking andfreaking out. And now this teacher is
(23:18):
fluent with it, right, She'san expert. He's an expert. And
it's because again the never say quitmentality that teachers have, you know,
and I think if people really understoodthat, they would do everything to help
their child's teacher everything. Yeah,well, my wife and I have the
(23:41):
discussion often because you know, he'sa teacher. I don't know what it
is, but it seems like teachersare everybody's favorite punching back. Education schorls
in the United States are the worstever, you know, reading, Your
kids don't know how to read,they don't know how to write, you
(24:02):
know, and it's just all y'all'sfault. Every time, every time a
child fell the test, it's it'syour fault. You know, it's a
child, us, a stump toeat school, it's your fault. It
doesn't matter what it is. Andso we have this discussion, you know,
because the average person out there doesn'trecognize Okay, we're we're training.
(24:25):
My wife works at a school whereEnglish ninety five percent of the student population.
English is her second language, andso then she comes she teaches science.
She's trying to teach teachers life science. So she's trying to teach,
you know, basic human life principlesto people that don't even speak English.
(24:49):
And then they take the test it'swritten in English, and then they fail
that test. Well, if Idon't care how smart I I am.
If I got to Mexico and takea test, or somebody hands me a
test here in America written in Spanish, I'm probably gonna fill it. So
(25:11):
you know, we're educating everybody,regardless of who they are. Regard.
We don't check their legal status,we don't check their passports, we don't
check, you know, where theycome from. We don't check their family
environment. We don't even check itif it's their real mom and dad when
they walk in the door, droppedoff at school, or when they catch
that bus. You know, that'snot the teacher's responsibility. Teachers responsibility is
(25:34):
supposed to be to teach, butas you said, they have to do
so much more than teach. Hey, our test scores might go up if
the children had a home environment wherethey could study. Our test scores might
go up if the children weren't havingto deal with whatever they're dealing with at
(25:55):
home sometimes. And so I thinkcontextualizing that is in hoard at because we're
educating everybody whereas you know, Chinaand Japan and some of these others that
are way at the top up therethat we get compared to. If at
twelve thirteen years old, you hasnot shown an academic efficiency or proficiency,
(26:18):
you get a job, right You'reyou're working at twelve or thirteen. And
so if you will each type offuture you're you're as a child, you
know the day you're born, themotivation is that's right, that's exactly right.
The motive the state motivation, that'sexactly right. Funny story, my
son, I told you he startedcollege last year, and I don't mean
(26:41):
the air dairy laundry, but hedidn't do the best in the world that
he could do his first year ofcollege. And so I told him,
in fact, this year, Isaid, a son, I said,
we paid that first year of college. But because the class that you failed,
you got to pay for those.So you know this is this is
on you? And I said,you know, he says wants to be
an entrepreneur. I said, that'sgreat, but entrepreneur, you've got to
(27:03):
have a skill. You know.You don't just show him I'm on my
own business one day. That's all. Entrepreneur means. You own your own
business. It's not a profession.And so you gotta you know, if
you're gonna be it starts your ownsports coaching thing, then you're be a
that's an entrepreneurs You have to beskilled as a coach to do that,
and in that particular sport. Ifyou're gonna do a be an entrepreneur to
(27:25):
own your own mechanic shop, wellyou gotta be proficient and fixing cars.
So you got to have a skillthere. What's your skill? Uh,
he's just not ever other than sports. He's never really shown a big,
huge interest in any specific thing.I said, So you've got to be
in college to get an experience,to get some some breadth of knowledge there
to find out what your interest willbe. So if you don't do well
(27:48):
this year, I don't know whatyou're gonna do, because you're not gonna
live in my basement. Number one, I don't have a basement, so
you can't live in something that harmietic, right, And so he's doing really
well this year. And so Isee him a message the other day and
I said, buddy, I'm reallyproud of you. I said, you're
working hard this year. And Isaid, I haven't seen you out late
(28:11):
or anything. I told him.I said, to key for you is
getting rest you can't get, youknow, stay up to three o'clock in
the morning and wake up for classat seven am and expect to comprehend what
the teacher's teaching you there. Andjust you know, everybody goes through it
to the freshman year. I wentthrough it. And so I just told
him I was proud of him,and he replied back, I don't won't
(28:33):
be poortation. I said, hey, that's good. You know, whatever
it takes for you to get today'sand bees up there, you latch onto
that truth, brother, and youyou hold on to to the end.
So there's something about poverty. There'ssomething about knowing, you know, back
to what we were talking about magicatingthe mess, there's something about knowing that
(28:56):
that gives you some motivation, youknow, And sometimes I think it's the
kids that come from some of theharshest environments that perform the best. And
some of these kids that come froma you know, well managed, middle
class home, sometimes they're the onesthat that's getting into most trouble because they
(29:17):
sometimes have this attitude. And thisis I'm not talking all of them,
this is some They have this entitlementattitude. You know, I'm entitled here,
and I don't know how we dothat, how we can instill in
our kids in education is a privilege, not an entitlement. We have turned
into an entitlement in the United States. And that's you know something that's some
(29:40):
kind of what happens in Christian homes. We turned God into an entitlement somehow
another. We're entitled to this graceand mercy and salvation that we have and
and you know we didn't earn it, but we certainly need to appreciate the
gift. But so how do theyhow do they buy your books? They
buy on Amazon or uh, well, you can go to my website www
dot Columbus dot com. Www dotColumbus like Christopher Columbus cod c O d
(30:06):
Y dot com and you know allmy books are on there as well.
Also created what I call witness whereyou know, it's clothing that sparks the
conversations. So I've T shirts andhoodies that you can buy that are Christian,
Christian statements or Christian that what's theword I'm looking for? Like,
the themes are Christian themes and thatway. You know, when person sees
(30:29):
your T shirt, they're like,hey, what does that mean? It's
like, oh, thank you foropening that door. It's time for me
to witness to you, you know. And it's a general way of witnessing
because I think a lot of peopleare terrified of speaking just about Jesus to
random people, which is funny becausewe'll talk about the football game to a
random person, we'll talk about youknow, the thing that you have a
passion for is what you're gonna talkabout. And I think a lot of
(30:52):
people want to be better at witnessingand want to be more let their light
shine more. They just intimidated.And I always say it like this,
My thing is this, don't sharewhat you do know, don't feel bad
about what you don't know, butlet what you don't know motivate you to
want to know more. Right So, instead of being satisfied on the surface
(31:15):
with your relationship with God, wantto go deeper because I promise you that
the Bible tells us no good thingwill lead withhold from us. If you're
chasing after him with your whole heart, He's going to expose a lot to
you. And then our motives isnot to know more so I can argue
more or put more people in theirplace. My goal is to know more
so I'm more equipped to debunk allthe barriers the enemy is going to put
(31:38):
in the way from I'm trying toshare this gospel with you. But you
have a preconceived notion of who Godis, and so you keep fighting me,
fighting me, fighting me. Whereasbecause I filled my heart with the
Spirit of God and fill my heartwith well with the word of God,
and then the spirit of God says, okay, well share that verse that
you read seven months ago and didn'tknow why you were putting that in.
(32:00):
Now you share that verse and thatperson like, oh, I see what
you're saying. I get it.And you know, my wife sent me
a video the other day, aTikTok video, and I saved it and
it was with the idea of itwas well, it was a lady who
she was talking to, this Satanist. He was a Satanist, and he
(32:22):
said, he kept on going on. She never said a word. He
kept on talking about you know hisyou know how he became a Satanist and
all this stuff and all this.And when she got up, she just
embraced him and hugged him. Thankyou for sharing your journey with me.
Something like of that nature, shesaid. And he said, when she
embraced him, he felt something.He didn't know what it was. He
(32:45):
felt this like overwhelming warmth. Andso he was like, what in the
world was that? And then heI don't know how it triggered in him,
but he found that that was Jesusembracing him, and so he became
a Christian. Right. And Itold my wife, I said, I'm
gonna tell you the beauty of thatvideo is this most of us. The
(33:06):
moment we meet a person that saysthey're a Satanist, we want to set
them straight so bad, we wantto hit them with the right left combo
of the Word of God. Andall she did was she listened. She
showed him love in spite of whathe thought he was. And the enemy,
now who better? Who better tospeak God's word than someone who used
to be right. As Paul wouldsay, I'm chief, I was the
(33:30):
chief center, right. I mean, who better to encourage the masses to
come out of the darkness than onewho used to dwell in the darkness And
will openly admit it, most ofus don't want to tell everybody in the
darkness we used to be it likewell, I was never in that much
darkness, you know, And likeyou mentioned earlier about the entitlement of being
(33:52):
a follower of Christ, we justfeel like, you know, God owes
us something, and God is like, I think you owe me. While
that is such uh so well,said Cody. That's such an important point
there, that we don't have tobe theologians. We don't have a have
to have a doctorate in theology orphilosophy in order to engage in conversation with
(34:15):
someone. Sometimes a lot of times, truthfully, I've never known I've never
argued anyone into the Kingdom of God. Let me put it that way.
You know, I can stand thereand yell at somebody and tell them and
and just completely dismantle their argument froma from an an intellectual point of view,
(34:42):
from an academic point of view therethat doesn't convince them. It's not
knowing. When the Bible talks aboutknowing God, it's not brain, he's
talking about his heart. It's infact, for the for the for the
Hebrew, the soul. We thinkabout her heart really is the gut was
(35:04):
the center of thought even for theGreek, you know, the gut and
the Near East, and the Christianityis a kind of a Near East religion.
We forget that born in the MiddleEast, not the not the United
States. But that's a different topicfor a different time. But so is
when we talked about this feeling isit's I mean, it's comes from that
(35:28):
gut there. And I found itinteresting that the more well, I've heard
a lot of conversations these days aboutbrain and gut connection as far as health
goes, right, and so youknow, I think that the more we
learn intellectually, the more we endup finding that spiritually what the Bible says
(35:50):
is and the way they understood itsometimes before they had all this education,
they they had good at good instinctsthere. So that's so important that well
we just love people, you know, just kind of live authentically, and
that's true That's what I found inmy research for my doctor. My dissertation
was that you didn't have to havea Bible study. If you're mentoring someone
(36:13):
into the Kingdom, it's not abouta Bible study. Is those most happened?
I mean, I remember as apastor a lot of times I would
I'd go breakfast at Chick fil Amand there'd be a couple of college students
there and there'd be one college student, you know, discipling another college student
there. And I love that theywere going through the Bible. And I
think it's important. But the thingthat had the most meaningful impact on on
(36:38):
the what my station. The thinghad the most meaningful impact was that relationship
that they had, not the knowledge, had knowledge that they poured into someone
and so such a when I waspastoring, we had a young lady in
the church who was a witch.She claimed her she claimed to be a
witch, and uh, just aartwith She's been very abused, grew up
(37:01):
in the foster care system, andso she was, you know, just
very guarded to begin with. AndI met her at I used to do
my sermons at Dunkin Donuts, SoI met her in Dunkin donuts, and
we just began to have a conversation. And I didn't approach things from an
intellectual point of view. I justjust met them where they were, you
(37:22):
know, listened to them like yousaid. And then she wanted to come
to church, so we'd pick herup and bring her church. And so
after about a year of coming tothe church she wouldn't know. She said,
Pastor Jeff, can I and getup and give a testimony? And
I said, well, yeah,sure, what you what you because she
had not, to my knowledge,accepted Christ or anything like that, and
(37:43):
I want to be sure what she'sgonna say got us, And so she
said yeah. And so she toldme she I just want to talk about,
you know, the appreciated the church. And I okay. So I
said, well, you guys saidbefore I do us this morning, I
said, you know, called hername. That's something she wants to say.
(38:04):
And she got up and she said, I just want everybody to know
that I'm a witch. And Isaid, oh my goodness. And she
said, but I love Jesus.And she said, and you guys are
the ones that taught me to loveJesus. And she said, I still
call myself a witch. I won'tcall myself a Christian, but I'm not
(38:27):
quite there. But I do loveJesus. And she said, I hope
that was okay, Pastor Jeff,And I said, that's absolutely fine.
And I said, Jesus loves youtoo, exactly how you are, and
he's waiting for you when you finallyclaim him as your central identity instead of
(38:49):
a witch as your central identity.For her, it was and I understood,
as you know, psychologically, andthat's the only thing, only connection
she had to her mom. Shehad been in foster care. Her mommacclaimed
to be a witch, and soyou know, it was not something that
she could really hang on to thereand so which was the only vestige of
(39:09):
her personal connection identity that she had. So you know, when she but
I remember the day she finally letgo, she said, you know what,
Jesus is my dad. You know, God is my father. I
can if I've got that, thenwhatever else has happened in my life.
And so anyway, just and itcame from love. You know, I
(39:30):
didn't argue her into the kingdom.I didn't give her three points of salvation.
She hadn't, you know, sayhere, you got to say this
sinnerced prayer. It was just amatter of and I wasn't to hear of
that story. I mean, itwasn't me, It was God through me.
It was the congregation that loved onher. I had an associate at
the time who was training and trainingto be a pastor, and she just
(39:52):
had this incredible way of connecting ona deep level with other people that were
in in deep, deep, deeppain and suffering and sin and you know,
just offer them grace and mercy beyondanything that they can And she,
she really was the primary person thathad a relationship with that. With that
(40:15):
lady, I kind of brought himin and and I let her love on
him a little bit. I lovedhim. But but you know, it's
difficult as a guy. You know, when it's a female, you have
to be very careful and how you'reinteracting and things like that. But but
like you said, just the factthat you had an associate that understood that
(40:37):
the role that they played was youknow, valuable, so valuable. And
now who knows that this this ladythat first identified as a witch will become
like the next female, the greatestevangelist for the Lord ever. You know,
what I'm saying, like, she'sthe female Billy Graham, you know
what I'm saying. It's like,and it's because you chose to love her
(40:58):
in spite of what she spoke withher mouth, you know, because you
think, you think that's who youare until God shows you himself for real.
And when you see God for real, you see who you really are
for real, you know, andyou see yourself as a broken vessel that
he sees still as valuable. Andit's like I will take the scraps of
(41:19):
your life and turn you into somethingthat it will be called a masterpiece if
you will allow me. That's sogood, Cody, It's great, haven't
you, brother. I could goon all day with you. We just
we're just we got this connection here. We love love Lord, and I
love your philosophy of life and howyou connect with people. And so you're
a speaker as well, and I'massuming they can book you to speak on
(41:40):
your website as well. Yeah,so again www dot Columbus, Coody dot
com. And there's a contact formon there, and my contact form serves
several different purposes. There's a prairierequest. There's a link there click for
prayer requests, if they do withthey if they would like to book me
as a speaker or for their engagementor their conference or whatever that that is
(42:02):
also in there, they click thebooking and then it'll ask them a few
questions and then I'll be able toget in touch with him to fine tune
all the details of the event andto make sure that I'm available. And
then you know, again, mymy thing is this. I always want
to let God use me to encouragethe heart of someone else, right,
(42:23):
you know. And the thing thatI love the most is that I grew
up in church like a lot ofpeople do. But I didn't like church,
right, And it's because there wasnothing for kids, per see,
it was nothing for us. Andso I mean, as as we talked
about earlier, a lot of timesa child will veer away. But because
the foundation has been said, Proverbsis telling us the truth, train up
(42:45):
a child in the way they shouldgo when they're old, they won't depart.
We're gonna come back, you know, But we got to the training's
got to be there, though,you know what I mean. You can't
expect them to come back if there'snothing, no foundation has been laid so,
and I'm Nazarene as well. Ididn't tell you that as well.
But I go to Christ Church ofthe Nazarena in Nashville, Tennessee. And
(43:05):
when I the first moment I walkedinto Christ Church, the first moment I
came home from the Navy, mymom invited me to go to church with
her, and I'm like, Idon't want to go to church, you
know what I mean? So Igo to church and the spirit, the
love in that building is that goesright back to your dissertation relationship. Right.
The love in that building was like, I knew from that moment,
(43:28):
I'm where I'm supposed to be.Right. And so God has continued to
use my pastor to mentor me,to show me things, and to put
me in positions where I have toserve in a way that I would have
never How you go from being akid that doesn't like church to one who
can't wait to teach Sunday school towhen your pastor asked you to speak in
morning worship, You're like, ohmy gosh, yes, I will definitely
(43:50):
do that. You know, youdon't even have to give me much of
a notice, Just tell me Sundaymorning, I'm read. You know what
I mean, It's like the loveis there, and it's because you see
what is done in your life,and you know it has nothing to do
with how good you were, youknow. Like I said, I was
in the navy, So the termcousin like a sailor, that's true.
You know. I came home oneday and I was talking to my mom
(44:14):
and her kitchen table, and shehad this look on her face that was
like, I'm like, why areyou looking like that? Mom? She
said, do you hear the wordsthat are coming out of your mouth?
I'm like, what do you mean? Every other word I used was a
profanity and I didn't even recognize Iwas talking that way. And I'm like,
you know what. When she saidthat, I said, you know
what, I'm not going to talklike this anymore, you know. And
(44:37):
so I started monitoring the words thatI speak. And I tell my students
that, like you said, Idon't say hey, Jesus said, I
would say what if we valued everyword we spoke, you know? And
they're like, well, you know, cause a lot of students, again
to them, in my family,if you're not loud, you get overlooked.
In my family, you know weI mean, that's just how everybody
(44:59):
talks. I said, Nah,everyone doesn't talk like that. I don't
use profanity. Please don't use itin my classroom, you know. And
then the kid I had a kidyears ago, he said, hey,
y'all stop gussing. You know he'sa Christian. Now, I've never said
anything about being a Christian, buthe understood. He could see my spirit.
Right. And that same kid askedme a question I'll never forget it.
This was he was a sophomore inhigh school. He said, coach,
(45:22):
what if you die and find outthat God is not real? Right?
The whole class was quiet. Nowhe asked me that question. I
didn't open up no Bible in myclass, but if you open that door,
I walk it in, right,I said, I said, Now
that is an outstanding question. Isaid, but what if I lived my
(45:44):
life the way I want to andI don't do things the way God is
told and I find out that Heis real? Yeah? And he was
like, I can accept that,because the thing is, what have you
really lost? If you live accordingthe way God has told you, maybe
you don't go to all these placesthat the world tells you. So fun.
(46:06):
But I have a lot of funin my life without going to those
places, right I mean, AndI do live the way I tell people
on Sunday to live. That's whoI am when I'm not at church.
You know, I'm the same person. You know. I'm silly, I'm
goofy. I love Jesus and Ilove people, you know, and I
(46:28):
joke around a lot. But that'sauthentically me. I'm not trying to be
double O seven. I'm fake,fake person here and then somebody real here.
You know. I'm who I ameverywhere I go. And because it
makes life so much more simple whenyou don't have to be a different person
around different people, you know.And but when he walked, when he
said that, I was like,man, that is thank you for asking
(46:49):
me that question, you know.And so you know, I just think
about how like you said, whenit comes to speaking, my biggest goal
is to help people also grow closerto God. And so every opportunity I
get a chance to speak, Ijump on those opportunities because I want to.
I want people to walk away andgo. I want to be close
to God so bad. You know. I think it was Joyce Meyer.
(47:13):
I think I was listening to herbook years ago, and she said,
we are as close to God aswe want to be. Yeah, and
that has stuck with me. Weare as close to God as we want
to be. There's nothing stopping thisexcept us, you know, you know,
And I just thought that was beautiful. Remember what's your pastor's name up
there, Rollin Coleman, Rollin dComn. I couldn't. I know several
(47:38):
of them up there, but Icouldn't remember if he was one, I
don't know him that. I'll alsotrain pastors to plant churches and church planting,
and even lead pastors. I will. They'll come in and take the
training Dynamic Church Planning International company Ivolunteer with, and so we do the
(47:59):
trading onlines videos and then we'll havesome one on one coaching sessions with me
or one of our other coaches,and anyway we'll train existing papsages or pastors
of established churches. Because the mosteffective form of vacialism is church planting.
There's something about an established church.After ten or twelve years, they just
(48:21):
get more internally focused. It's justit's it's almost like a family. And
nothing wrong with the family, exceptthat families tend to be closed. I
don't walk out on the street andinvite new people into my family every day.
Hey, co join my family today. It's a good way to go
bankrupt real quick. You look likeyou did a good family. You go
(48:43):
and you know, nothing wrong withinviting a guest in time, time and
caring for them, but you know, don't live with you. So but
that's what we're asking people to dothe church. Sometimes when we get that
mentality is hey, why won't youcome be part of our family? So
it becomes counterintuitive to them. Sowe tell the pastor, look, you
know, if you if you launcha new church out of your church.
So rather than trying to grow yourchurch into this megachurch, what if you
(49:07):
were to take twenty of your strongestmembers, pray for God to send you
or even raise up a church planterwithin your congregation, a Cody or somebody
like that who has a passion forthe gospel. Your church sponsors them to
be you know, that new church, and so you mentor him, you
(49:29):
you pour into that pastor church plantingpastor just be a church planter. I
mean for years in Church of Nazarene, lay people are the ones that planted
churches and then the church would sendand call a pastor. So and that's
really you know, if you reallywant a strong church, have the lady
plant a church. Now, Idon't mean get mad at the pastor and
(49:52):
say they're gonna go somewhere else,flitting and start saying I'm gonna split,
past would and give me but onecommunity you could, I'm out of here.
That's right. So that's that's thetype of training we do because it
is it's just so effective, youknow, it just it really builds a
kingdom. I mean you leave thestatistics and a new start church may have
(50:13):
one hundred salvations in a year andan established church may have twenty. It's
just the effectiveness of evangelism as faras building the kingdom goes. It's such
better, so much better and strongeras a church plant. So we'll we'll
plant. We'll train church established pastorsto plant churches. And I'm just curious
if your your pastor had been throughit. But I don't recognize his name.
(50:36):
I'm sure he's familiar with it becauseDwight Gunner, who is the DS
up in that area, is verypassionate about church planting. You know,
who's had a lot of church planterscome through or training from up there.
But I have to reach out tohim and get him involved because you used
to like you'd be a good oneto be planning some churches up there.
But but what caused me to dowhat I would? Obe? There?
(51:00):
You go? There you go.But you know you're you're certainly planting seeds,
you know, sewing seeds within yourschool. I'm not saying you've got
to be a professional clergy to beeffective. You're doing you're doing great work
ministry where you are. But anyway, Cody, great having you brother again.
The Columbuscody dot com is a website. He's a speaker, he's an
(51:21):
author, he's a teacher, head, head incourager, chief encourager you know
and father and husband and so anyway, please check out the website. You
can be a co creator with Godby helping to echo our voices, share
our episodes and friends and family,and on your own social media accounts.
(51:43):
Give us positive five star reviews.The more positive reviews we have, the
more visibility we have, and themore voices that are echoed through eternity.
We often invite guests who are servingfaithfully year after year, often anonymity in
their respective roles in ministries. Godsees them and reality is as for a
(52:06):
good kingdom leader, that's enough.We do not do what we do for
the accolades of humanity. We doit because we're called by God. But
I believe that God uses people likeyou and I to continue those reverberations and
echo them throughout eternity. You canpartner with God by liking and subscribing and
writing a quick positive, five starreview and again sharing those voices with friends
(52:30):
and family and on your own socialmedia accounts. Those reviews will eventually lead
to other guests who have larger platformsthat have more listeners, who will then
in turn listen to the show,and again it further echoes those voices,
which is the whole vision of theechoes through Attorney Podcast here is continue echoing
(52:52):
those voices that God is echoing throughAttornity. There
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