The world tells you to chase the next win, but what happens when you finally get it and it still doesn’t feel like happiness?
We sit down with Dr. Jack Groppel to talk about the moment achievement stops working and the deeper shift into significance, faith, and relationships that actually last. Along the way, we unpack the “mountains within” that fuel high performance, and the wounds that can quietly sabotage trust, intimacy, and peace.
Jack shares the origin story behind his drive, the career highs that followed, and the rock-bottom wake-up call that pushed him back toward Christ. We also explore the surprising intersection of science and belief through books and evidence that helped move faith from the head to the heart. Then I share my own near-death medical crisis, what surrender looked like in real time, and why identity and self-love have to be rebuilt from God’s love first.
One of the most powerful parts is Jack’s adoption story: flying to China alone, being handed a terrified four-year-old who doesn’t speak his language, and learning connection through presence, patience, and obedience to God’s prompting. We close with practical steps for “letting go and letting God,” plus what it looks like to make amends at home and create a legacy through everyday moments.
If you’re searching for a faith podcast about purpose, overcoming fear, and learning surrender without losing your strength, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find the message.
To connect with or purchase Dr. Jack Groppel’s book connect with him on LinkedIn Jack Groppel PhD, FACSM, FACN or Instagram @jackgroppel1 or visit his CTA: https://noboringbooks.com/books/mountains-within/
To download a free chapter of host Sylvia Worsham’s bestselling book, In Faith, I Thrive: Finding Joy Through God’s Masterplan, purchase any of her products, or book a call with her, visit her website at www.sylviaworsham.com
Transcript:
If you’ve ever struggled with fear, doubt, or worry and wondering what your true purpose was all about, then this podcast is for you. In this show, your host, Sylvia Warsham, will interview elite experts and ordinary people that have created extraordinary lives. So here’s your host, Sylvia Warsham.
Hey Lightbringers, it’s Sylvia Warsham. Welcome to Release Out Review Purpose in today’s Jack Grapple. We have so much alignment between our stories. It’s eerie, actually. And as we know, the Lord has a very interesting sense of humor, doesn’t he, Jack?
Oh my goodness. So many, so many stories to tell about how God can laugh. We plan God laughs, right?
Oh, we know he does. In fact, this morning, the uh scripture, I was like, you’re kidding. This is it goes to be my disciple, you gotta carry your cross, you know, and follow me, and I’m like, you’re hilarious. And and then I get to see your biography on Pogmatch, and I just burst out laughing because you’re talking about achievement. You’re talking about letting that go and stepping into significance, and that’s a different gig. People in first acts are so caught up with success, so caught up with getting that next checked off box, if you will, that next higher achievement. I know that when I stood on stage in front of 300 of my peers at Pfizer, having just won the number one spot in the region and number two in the country, but I was the top saleswoman, the top position went to a man, and I was the top saleswoman in the country in hospital division for Pfizer. And Pfizer, as we all know, is a pretty big company.
Oh, yeah.
And um, that’s a pretty high achievement. And yet, as I stood on stage, the very first thought that popped in my head was, is this what happiness feels like? And kind of like, this isn’t what I was expecting. I guess what I was expecting was we were journeying to somewhere when in fact the life that we’re on is preparing us for the eternal, eternal chapter in our next life. Like the things that we achieve here, we can’t take with us. The things we can take with us are the stuff that both Jack and I have struggled with over time, our relationships. We’re master higher achievers. I mean, we were we’re really good at it. We’ve God is part of us, but now he’s like, meh, we need to have chat now.
And if anybody’s looking, I mean, I know we got listeners and viewers, but the viewers can see that this is my son. He was only 12 years old. We were at the summit of Kilimanjaro. Wow. And at 12, he made it to the top. And I have artificial knees. So the two of us here we are holding our hands up high at the summit of Kilimanjaro, and we both looked at each other and went, and it was amazing to see have this conversation with your 12-year-old son. That buddy, you know, we didn’t conquer this mountain. This mountain’s gonna be here way beyond when we’re gone. But we conquered ourselves to get to the top of this. It was hard. Oh, I bet.
I bet. And you know how what a blessing to share that with your son, Jack. That is incredible.
Modern day night kind of stuff.
And and how interesting that the title of your book do show the audience the title of your book.
Well, it’s called Mountains Within. And it got that title, it’s over my shoulder for the viewers, Mountains Within. And the reason is that we’ve got mountains inside of us that we have to deal with. You know, a lot of us we see everything outside, and this is what I did earlier in my career, and I think you did too, Sylvia. You know, early in my career, my father was a hard charger. My father believed spare the rod, spoil the child. And after one particular beating, when I was six years old, instead of, and I don’t know why this happened, maybe God put this in me just to as the beginning of my life lesson, but instead of cowering, I said, I’ll show you, I’ll show you how good I am. Oh my gosh! And what happened was I got involved in Boy Scouts. I was six years old in Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, and then Boy Scouts. I was an Eagle Scout at 13. Who does that? That’s absurd. Most kids are Eagle Scouts at 17, you know, but I I was just gonna show him that it could be done. And then I then I taught myself to play tennis and I walked on the tennis team at the University of Illinois. I played in the Big Ten as a walk-on. My dad thought I was nuts. Made me because our family were farmers. On paper, I should have been a farmer, Sylvia. But but that did that wasn’t what God’s plan was. So I I made the team and I get a degree in wildlife biology, but I can’t get a job. Of course not, because wildlife biology, really. All the hippies got all the forest service and the park service jobs. So I start grad school, right? But what do you start grad school in? Population genetics. I’m gonna study this is I’m 22 years old, and I’m I’m totally lost. Your readers are and viewers are gonna understand, listeners and viewers. I mean, I’ve I’ve become a pioneer in the science of human performance, yet my undergraduate degrees in wildlife biology, I start grad school in population genetics. You know how you study population genetics, Sylvia? No, you have to study. You have to study species of animals that breed very quickly, so you can study generations. So my role, my job as a research assistant was to go to the lab several times a week and change the flower in test tubes. So these little beetles called tribolium beetle, flower beetles, could procreate more rapidly, and we could study generations. So my job at 22 years of age was creating a romantic environment for beetles to have sex.
Sorry!
My goodness. Now, at 22, are you kidding me? I’m crying myself to sleep at night. And my sister, God bless her to this day, she’s 10 years older than I said, Jack, why are you doing this? And I said, kind of dad, you know, and she says, Well, you’ve been an athlete your whole life. Why don’t you go talk to the people in physical education? And I said, Dad’ll kill me. She says, just go talk to him. You don’t know. So the department head, Dr. Rollin Wright, accepted a meeting with me. Within 10 seconds, Sylvie, I knew that God had me in the right place. And he said, All right, I’m gonna admit you to the Masters of Science program. You’re gonna take human cadaver anatomy, exercise physiology, and kinesiology, your first three hardest courses. You gotta take those because you’ve got to figure out if this is where you need to be. And he says, How does that sound? I said, Well, it sounds wonderful. I just don’t know how I’m gonna pay for it because I knew dad was gonna cut me off as soon as I called that night. And he said, Well, you played tennis here, right? I said, Yeah, he says, I need somebody to teach my activity classes in tennis. I’m gonna waive your tuition and fees and I’m gonna pay you a small stipend. Will that work for you? Wow. And I just said, Thank you, Jesus. And I called Dad that night. I called dad that night, he cut me off that night. I knew he would. And he said, You know, I’m not paying for this. I said, You don’t have to, Dad. I’ve got it figured out. He goes, How’d that happen? I said, Don’t worry, Dad, I’ve got it. Well, God’s got it, right? Yeah, well, it was but I did, I thank God all the way. I mean, I knew that was the first time though that I ever stood up for myself and did something, and then I fell in love with the field, and then a mentor said to me, Dr. Charles Dillman, at the end of that first semester, one so the words we say have such impact on people. He said 17 words to me. He said, If you, if you if you plan, if you prepare hard, you could one day become a pioneering leader in the science of tennis performance. That’s all it took. That’s all it took. I became the founding chairman of the sports science committee for the United States Tennis Association, and and God was on me all the way. But the problem is I never learned relationships. So struggled and struggled and struggled and struggled and struggled in relationships. Hugely successful professionally, wildly successful life in public speaking, in business, in tennis and science, wildly successful, but at what cost? With relationships.
It happens, Jack, it does, and that’s where God steps in.
And God stepped in when I hit rock bottom. I almost got it in 1996. Here I am in a hospital, got a pick line into my heart, I’ve got a staph infection, and I’ve got I’ve in 15 days, Sylvia had one person outside my family come to visit me. And I detail all this in the in my memoir in the book.
Staph infections are I used to sell products for Pfizer in the ICUs for staph infections, for resistant staph infections. So here were MRSA?
Yep, that’s what it was. And they couldn’t find an antibiotic. So here I am, but alone, and I said, What the heck? I don’t want to live my life this way. And that got me on my path to really recommitting to my faith in a very deep way. I I mean I I I talk about this pathway, it’s my story. I read two because I’m a scientist. So I read two books, The Science of God and God the Evidence, written by theoretical physicists, and one of them is a maybe both, but one of them for sure was an atheist.
Right.
Because they found probability theory that the probability of going from a big bang to organized biological creatures like us is ten to the minus like twenty-fourth power of impossibility. And then I read Lee Strobel’s case for Christ, and then I recommitted myself to the Lord. Who is the first author? Uh Patrick Glenn is the author of God the Evidence.
Okay.
And the one the science of God, just give me one second. Because I quote this the science of God had the statistics on the probability theory.
And the reason why I ask is there is an astrophysicist that came to Gateway North here in Austin who talked about him being an atheist and wanting to disprove God and actually becoming a believer. He just couldn’t disprove it at all.
Like based on science. Exactly. The science of God was written by Gerald Schroeder.
I think that’s him.
And here’s the quote: one constant has to do with the energy of the Big Bang. If the energy of the Big Bang were different by one part of 10 to the 120th power, there would be no life anywhere in the universe. I mean, you can’t what do you say to that?
You can’t, because it’s science, right? I mean, you and I both there’s the alignment piece, right? I was a walking miracle in 2012. I shouldn’t have I should have died mid-flight, didn’t I? For a crawfish boy in Louisiana. We were supposed to land in Houston and drive overnight from Houston to New Iberia, Louisiana, with my little boy and me and Toe. And when he saw me, he’s like, You don’t look good. And I think, in all honesty, I’d have to interview my husband on the podcast and just say, Did you feel a prompting from God to stay in Houston? Because I’m glad you did get that prompting and we stayed, because I was now positioned in the best medical center, among the best in the world, and St. Lucas Episcopal Hospital is among the best for pulmonary embolism or any heart-related issues. And when on Saturday of Easter weekend, I get six doctors to my room, and they’re like, We are we’re racing against time. They were baffled that number one, I didn’t have major pain in my abdomen, considering that I had what was known as Bud Carrie syndrome, and I should have been doubled over a pain. Yeah. And for those listening, I know some of you guys know because I’ve explained it on the podcast before, but it’s basically the vena cava B, it was clotted and and it only allows uh a very small amount of blood coming out of the liver, and I was about to go into acute liver failure and require a transplant and die because we know that that I would have been on a list and I don’t know that I would have made it. They were racing against time. I had multiple pulmonary embolisms, and the night before I’d been jolted out of bed at 3 a.m. and heard a prompting to lean forward so I could breathe. Well, what I didn’t know at the time, couldn’t have known. I’m not a doctor. I come from a family of doctors, that’s beside the point. Two blood clots, very large ones were passing through my heart to get to my left lung, and they should have stopped my heart.
Yeah.
And in those moments, of course, we don’t know, right? What’s on the other side of this diagnosis? I surrendered to the Lord. I closed my eyes, I they were going through the whole gamut of what they were gonna do to me. They were scientists, they were experts in their field, and they had told my dog, my dad, who was a physician, to prepare himself that I was likely gonna die on Saturday night. That they they did not anticipate any good coming out of this. They were gonna do their best. Uh, I didn’t know this because they were trying to protect me, I think, from emotionally not giving in to the possibility of death. I was 37 years old. I had a little boy, he was six or seven at the time. And I remember begging God from the telemetry room that they had admitted me in the day before to ICU. As they were rushing me, I was begging them. I said, if you give me a second chance, I will devote my life to you. Yeah, I will submit to your will. I know this is not my life. I am getting that idea in my head now.
Right.
And um, and the next morning, Easter Sunday morning, was the most profound morning of my whole life. God made Himself very known in the ICU and a peace and unknowing washed over me. And he said, You have your second chance. I mean it it’s not something you ever forget, ever. Uh now I wish, Jack, I I wish I would have just twitched my life around like that. But you and I both know that if for those struggling with relationships, the first relationship you struggle with is with yourself. With your identity, with your identity, and that has got to go first. That’s the whole concept of self-love for me was defined as I was writing my first manuscript in 2020, where he said, self-love, Sylvia, is how I see you and how I love you. Because when you love me first from that space, then you can love yourself. I mean, love others as you love yourself. Right. But you gotta love me first. You don’t if you don’t know what that love looks like, how can you give it to someone else, including yourself? And that concept is so foreign, Jack. I tell tell us more how God guided you. Well, to this concept.
Yeah, the the the thing that God did, God knew, God equipped me, so he knew how he had equipped me. So he made it, he had me follow this intellectual path, and then he had me, when I read Lee Strobel’s book, The Case for Christ, then it’s then it got into my heart and he softened my heart to really receive him. And then David Lovelace was the senior pastor at uh Discovery Church in Orlando, and that’s where I got baptized and recommitted my life to the Lord. David, for unknown reasons to human beings, took me under his wing and invited me as part of his men’s leadership ministry. Now, these are with men that had been with Christ for years and years and years, and here I am. I’m kind of a newbie. And why? I mean, it’s kind of a risk. I mean, I I can’t memorize scripture, you know, and and but I I just dug in like I do everything else. But David took me under his wing and really helped me, shepherded me, you know, with God’s guidance to get me, and then and then the big the big kahuna was going to China by myself to get my son. Uh I went by myself, and this is where God has a sense of humor, because he’s gonna say, Okay, dude, you’re in your 50s, you’ve never had children, your wife can’t travel with you, she broke her ankle, she has to have surgery, you’re going by yourself, and they’re gonna put this four-year-old, a screaming four-year-old boy in your arms who hates your guts. He’s gonna be screaming that he’s being kidnapped, and we’re gonna teach you both how to love each other in two weeks, and he can’t speak English and you can’t speak Mandarin. Enjoy. And it was the most significant two weeks of my life. Because you figure it out. All we had was touch, tone of voice, and facial expression. That’s all we had. And this little guy’s personality comes out. I have a whole chapter devoted to this in my book. I mean, I mean, the second week, there was a there was a phrase they taught us in Mandarin. They said, because you’ve got a toddler, you’re gonna have to like get him to settle down because they’re really wired, and at some point, and here I’ll just say it. It’s called Bo Yatzar Yang, which means stop doing what you’re doing. Um, so I apparently had been saying it way too much the two weeks we were there. So in the second week, he was jumping up and down on the bed or something like that, four years old, full of energy. And I said, Shen, his name was Shen. That was his last name in Chinese. We made that his first name when he became an American. And I said, Shen, Bo Yat’s are young. He gets off the bed, and this little cocky four-year-old with a swagger like this starts walking to me, going, Bo Yat Tsar, imitating the old white man. And I mean, it I started laughing so hard, I think I doubled over laughing. I could not stay. I mean, I’m just going, you go, big boy. I’m so proud of you. The personality plus comes out, and then he I’ve got pictures of the book, he’s got his sunglasses upside down, and he started. I mean, we just became playful with each other even though we couldn’t communicate. That’s awesome. But that’s awesome because how God worked with us. Connection at his finest. That night we got back to the hotel room, he’d been crying for three or four hours, and the trans there’s a translator with us, walks in, shows him a toilet for the first time. He’d never seen a toilet before. All he’s seen is a flat receptacle in the floor. We walk out, and the translator said he has to leave. Now the human side of me said, You can’t leave. I’ll pay you how much money. I said, I’ll I’ll go to the ATM. I don’t care. He says, No, I have to leave. He says, But there’s two things you have to know. One, the door, he’s four years old, he knows how to unlock the door. He will run on you tonight, he’ll bolt. And I’m going, What do I do with that? I said, Well, what’s number two, for goodness sakes? He says, Don’t give him a bath, whatever you do. And I said, Well, he’s filthy. He says, Yeah, but it’ll push him further away. So we we he leaves. I order room service. While we’re eating, there’s a crib in the room. You don’t the hotel doesn’t know how old your child is. So I’m I’m becoming an escape artist. I’m gonna try to get him. So we’re gonna put so we put the tray outside, put the tape, the crib in front of the room, in front of the door. I’m thinking, okay, if he tries to run, he’ll move the crib, it’ll wake me up. I’m a light sleeper, I’ll catch him before he gets out the door. And then so I we do that, and then I put him on the end of the bed, I put cartoons on on the TV, just a bet, it’s just a hotel room. I go sit at the desk and I’m looking at my son. And I prayed, God, what do you want me to do? Because this poor kid’s grieving. We’ve pulled him from everything he knows that’s safe. He’s four years old. What do you want me to do? And I felt by my heart, you gotta give him a bath. And I’m going, I actually said it in English. I look up at the ceiling, I said, Did you hear what the translator said? I said, He said, Don’t give him a bath. I’m gonna ask you one more time, what do you want me to do? And I was quiet, and I felt definitively, you’ve got to give him a bath. And I went, Okay. So I take now he starts screaming again. He’s scared. Of course. All and no private parts. I’m only gonna wash his shoulders and his feet. That’s all I washed. I got him out, put him in a pair of pajamas that I brought, sippy cup of apple juice, Sylvia not another tear, and he slept right next to me the entire night.
Aw, good chiquita, I love that story.
Why do I have to wait? That’s a good book.
Yes. Yes, and because here’s the thing, and this is what he shared with me this morning at four in the morning, because since I had a very packed morning, and I don’t like to rush, I like to take my time with the Lord. And uh he said, I want not just your heart, I want you to depend solely on me. Dependence on the Lord for someone like us is. A tough commission. It’s a tough commission because we’re not used to that at all. And the other thing that he’s been very clear with me on is you’ve got believers and unbelievers. Be very careful who you allow to influence you right now.
That’s so good.
Because the enemy twists things around and he appears as angel of light. And even though they may have this light message, be very aware of that. He’s gonna get very, very cunning with you because your mission is strong. And so I need you to be on the lookout, be on guard.
And the human side of us, we grow up in difficult situations that we have to be in control. And God says, No, you don’t. No, you don’t. I am in control. But we feel that we have to be. And when we’re out of control, we’re very unsafe. There’s no trust. I mean, because we’re out of we’re not in control. But it’s when we can give up that control and truly realize that he is in charge. Yes. He’s got it. Whatever it is, he’s got it.
I mean, he took us out of the toughest challenges of our life, both you and I. Right. Really tough situations that for it’s interesting that your book is called About the Mountain, The Mountain Within, because the very first manuscript, one of my very good buddies who is a believer, Carmen De Vela, she wrote the foreword to my first book. She says, So you went right through the mountain. You didn’t scale the mountain. You went right through it. That’s tough to do. That is tough to do. Um, because that’s the mountain he had me go through. He said, You’re gonna sit with these feelings. Because the whole purpose of the first manuscript was to heal me. Right. It wasn’t for other people to be healed, it was for me to be healed first because I needed to go first a student. If I don’t go first, I cannot guide others that are going through the similar journeys through that mountain because we know what’s gonna come up. The trails, the choices, the attitude, all these things that come up. Tell us more about that for you. Tell us more about that journey from that moment with that boy onto how he led you through that mountain of relationships.
Well, what he taught me without knowing that he taught me this, with what God did through him was love. I mean, I think I really had a hard time putting my guard down. I didn’t trust people. I didn’t trust, I mean, I really didn’t trust people. Yet I’d been married before, but I still didn’t trust people. It wasn’t about that. It was about, you know, I’d never been role-modeled, a good relationship between a man and a woman before. My father was verbally abusive to my mom. He obviously was abusive to me. Um, I love my dad, by the way. I don’t throw my dad under the bus because my dad is both the hero and the villain of my story. I think that’s really important. Mine too. The first movie’s great, mine too.
He was the villain at the beginning and uh and the hero at the end.
Yeah, he’s the villain and the hero in my story. So I don’t want to just make it sound like he’s all he’s totally under the bus on this, but I was never role-modeled good relationships. And through my son, and even though it’s a man and a boy, I learned about what really love is being selfless and giving and owning your own actions and being able to give of yourself in the cause of love to someone else, and yet, and he learned the same back toward me. Now, how does this perpetuate itself? We come back to the United States, he’s young, he’s learning English, but now he’s interested in taking up sports. Well, I’m very involved in the tennis industry worldwide. I’ve I’ve traveled all over the world, and I’m and I say this humbly, but I say it to create the the the why of what I’m gonna end up with. I’m in three tennis coaches halls of fame. Okay, but I taught myself to play. And I’m not saying that to be egotistical, because here’s why I’m saying it. When I told my son if he wanted to play tennis, I would hire a tennis teacher and a coach to teach him to play. I wasn’t gonna be his tennis teacher.
Yeah.
I was gonna be his dad.
Yeah.
And that lesson was really huge. And then after we climbed Kilimanjaro, I saw a side of him that I didn’t know was gonna happen. You don’t know what’s what what what is gonna come out of this. Two years after this, well, one year after this, he’s in karate with his friends, and he’s in kata, which is forms, and it’s double elimination at the national tournament. And he loses in the first round, but it’s double elimination. So he’s at the end of twelve a line of twelve. He has to win twelve matches to get back into contention. And I’m looking at this and he starts he gets one, he gets two, he gets three, and all of a sudden I’m going, Oh my god, this is just like Kilimanjaro. Everything’s against him, everything’s against him, but he’s he’s still winning, and he gets a silver medal. He he does get back into medal and gets a s gets second in the United States. The next year, he’s a brown belt, his best friend is a black belt, and says, Do you want to fight in team Kumite, which is team fighting, tag team fighting, where the coach tags you in and out, and they’re gonna do it as a lark. Now they’re good fighters. Their coach was a world champion, their sensei is a world champion. They win the state tournament. They qualify in Illinois, they qualify for nationals. So we fly to Fort Lauderdale, and they’re in the nationals. They win the first round, they win the second round. I’m going, what is going on here? My son’s a brown belt. You know, well, short long story short, they get to the finals. They’re gonna fight for the national championship that night in the Broward County Convention Center under the lights in front of several hundred to a thousand people. And my son walks up to me before the fight. He says, Dad, I just want you to know that I’m starting the fight tonight. I’m going, What? You’re starting the fight? I said, Buddy! The other thing I knew the other the kids on the other team. They’re all three US national team members. All black belts. You’re gonna start? W why? He says, and he literally looked at me. 14 years old, and he says, I’m not afraid, Dad. They’re not gonna bully me. I’m gonna be fine. And the fight starts. Now I’m videoing this fight. And at one point, this is the typical thing of a parent. He’s kicking this kid’s butt. I mean, he’s he’s legally knocking him down, legally, and I went like this. And for your listeners, I’m looking around the side of the phone like, who are you, and what have you done with my son? Prisoners. And my son’s a believer, by the way. This is really key. The but he took over and they won the national championship, 14 and under AAU in Team Kumite karate. And I that all came from Kilimanjaro. It all came from the lessons God taught us being together. And when we after that match, there’s a picture of he and I hugging, we are just weeping at the pressure that was just released. We’re just both weeping.
That release is key for those listening. It’s the release of the cage, it’s the release of how you’re the ones operating versus how you’re operating from. You’re operating from the freedom, you’re operating from the joy, you’re operating from the surrender, operating from knowing that your heavenly father is in control, he protects, he provides, and he will lead you to your greater joy if you let him, if you get out of his way, and it sounds like he did in Kilmondaro, and then look at all the lessons that follow.
I’d say the one lesson we had to let go. Yes. We had to let go. Yes. Let go and let’s let go let God, you know.
Of course, but here’s the thing, let’s break it up for the listeners because you and I have lived this. But the people listening maybe at the beginning of their journey with God, like you and I once were. And letting go is such a foreign concept. It’s scary, it’s terrifying. Can we break it down for them in baby steps? Could you do that for us right now?
Um, yeah. I think when you first let go, understand that it’s normal to be terrified and afraid. Um, trust God. You don’t trust anybody else. Maybe you don’t trust any, maybe you’ve been abused like I was as a child. I didn’t trust anyone. It was just I in those days I knew I was in control of me. And and it was like I was was I hesitant? Of course I was. Was I scared? Of course I was. But I just for for whatever reason, and I just encourage people, do your part in what God has given you as a talent. If you can read, read really well, read a lot. If you can speak, speak a lot, practice it. If you can write, write a lot. People want to know how do you become a writer? You practice. Whatever skills, whatever talent God has blessed you with. If you’re a coach, be the best coach you can possibly be. If you’re a teacher, if you’re a technician, if you’re an engineer. See, so whatever it is, one step at a time to become the best you can be. And watch what happens. Because if we do our part, God opens doors. Doors will open. And when those doors open, will you be ready to walk through those doors? I’m just a big believer.
Yeah.
That doors will open, but trust that door, but it might be a while.
Oh no, no, no. It could be a while. Yes. The waiting part, I think, even for the believers like you and I, this is the part that we all struggle with. You don’t wait.
I don’t I don’t view it as waiting.
I do it as we guide me here because this is the part where I’m at right now.
I’m not worried about waiting. See, I don’t worry about waiting. I know at some point God’s gonna do what he wants to do. Whatever it is he wants to do with me, he’s gonna do it. So I’m just gonna do my part. So let’s say today I have an interview with you. I need this to be the might need to do the best job I possibly can. So today, my job is to be prepared and be articulate and be clear of thinking, to be the best I can be for your interview. Now I don’t know where that’s gonna lead. You see what I’m getting at? It’s not what am I waiting for? Why would I do that? Because this is what I’m admonished by God to do: to be whatever he’s given me, be the best at it that I can be. And then when you and I hang up, I’m giving a tennis lesson this afternoon to my ladies’ league team here at my community. 3.5 ladies team. I need to be the best I can possibly be when I show up for them. Why? I don’t know. Because that’s what he’s tasked you with. That’s what he has tasked you with.
So we have talents, we have money, we have what do they call it? Talents, um time and tithing. And that those three are what he asks of us, right? So he’s given us skill set. And we don’t know where it’s headed, and that’s why you and I don’t compete, even though we’re both authors and we’re both speakers, and we both don’t know John personally, John Maxwell, we don’t compete because your message, the way he’s given it to you, the way he’s revealed it to you, is the way that you’re meant to give it to people that are just like you, that receive information just like you. And what he’s given me, and the downloads he’s given me, is he’s put me as a student first, just like he put you through it first. And then our understanding, we put stuff in a book and we release it, and the people that are meant to read it, he will reveal what they need to be revealed. You know, in that message. It’s it’s interesting how he does that.
In 1987, this is almost 40 years ago, I left the University of Illinois, a tenured faculty position, and became the director of player development for the Terry Hopman Saddlebrook Tennis Camp. So I gave up tenure at a big tenure. My father turns over in his grave every time I say this because he just felt that it was impossible. Why would you give up tenure at Illinois? But I will tell you, and the reason I’m saying this, I got a I got an email this week from a person that read my book. You know what the email said? No, I was one of your tennis students at Saddlebrook in 1987, and I always remember the lessons you taught me. And that just warmed my heart. Yes, the impacts you have on people. And I’m not saying yay for me. I really want you to review it. I’m not saying yay for me. I’m saying you never know when you’re gonna say impact somebody’s life, and that’s why you owe it to God that whatever He’s tasked you to do, you do it well. Yes, because it comes back. Whatever it is, do it well, and don’t expect anything in return. That’s part of what we that’s part of the grace we’re given.
Yeah, don’t expect anything when we didn’t expect anything in return per se, right? He gave us, he gives us his mercy every day, whether we serve it or not.
Unmarried favor. Unmerited favor.
That’s what grace gives us grace here. And actually, one of the stories, and we’ll sign off with this, and you’ll give me your final comments, was last week I had a minor conflict with my 11-year-old. And I repented to God that morning. I slipped up as a parent because I didn’t hear her. I did not hear her side of the story. I was so caught up in being a parent and guiding her that I forgot to let go and let God, right? And just allow. And and so the very next day it was Friday, and we always have hot chocolate in the mornings. And this is my routine with my daughter, I wake her up because I still like to wake her up because she wants me to wake her up to have that connection in the morning with her mother instead of her getting up. She’s been able to get up and get dressed on her own for a long time, but this is just something she’s asked of me, and I want to have that time with her. So I got up, I had my two cups of cocoa, and I read scripture to her and devotionals from what I just chatted with God about. And that morning was profound. It was a profound message that went to the to the root, to the heart of the conflict she and I had. So for those listening, they’re the most important people that you need to connect with first. And yes, the impact you have on others, they’re they be your child. Like you had the most profound impact on your son. That first story you you shared about the the you know, batto, right? Right. You listen to God, and God told me that morning, Sylvia, you need to reconnect. This you you messed up here. You need to you need to make amends. You need to let her know that she is the most important connection. Aside from me, obviously, and and teach her that, right? Like, hey, you put God first, and then others, right? Any last words of encouragement, Jack, that you want to leave the listeners with? And if people wanted to purchase or connect with you, how do we do that?
Well, to connect with me, LinkedIn is probably the great best place. I’m on Instagram as well as Jack Ropel1, but my name on LinkedIn, my book is available Mountains Within on Amazon and anywhere books are sold. But I’ll leave you with this and I’ll come back to my son again. You know, we’ve talked about the most important impact, and you never know when you’re gonna do something. I’ll just share a quick story that just really touched my heart this year. During the pandemic, uh, we were quarantined, my son was with me, and I taught him to cook. So we did a lot of cooking together. We would cook whole turkeys, we would cook prime ribs, we would cook, I mean, things that really were project kind of cooking. And I want to, now this is several years later, I want to fast forward to this past New Year’s. My son is 21 years old. It’s gonna be his first New Year’s Eve that he can go out and party, if you will. And he’s here visiting me in Florida, and I said, Buddy, what would you like to do on New Year’s? I mean, you can I can our communities have and I don’t live in a retirement, I’ve live in a very young community. I said, they’ve got this big party going on, we can go up there and we can do whatever you want to do. We can go over to watch fireworks over at Fort Myers Beach, whatever you want to do. And he, you know what he said to me? Dad, could we make a prime rib together?
Aw, I love that.
And I went, yeah. My 21-year-old son wants to cook with me on New Year’s. Yeah, I’ll take that. Any day, any day, every day of the week. Yes, any day. And I just think that that I didn’t know it was gonna lead to that when we were cooking together back in the day. I’m honestly, I’m trying to fill time. We’re quarantined, we don’t know what we’re doing, but it was whatever you’re tasked to do, do it well and enjoy doing it. And suddenly it comes back four or five years later. Can we do this together? Because it’s meaningful to me. And that’s that student back when I was teaching 40 years ago. I remember the lesson you gave me, I remember the talk you gave. You just my my part, my parting words would be you never know when you’re gonna touch someone’s life and influence them forever, for eternity, possibly. So keep doing whatever it is God’s given you talent to do, whatever He’s wherever you are in your place, do the best you can at what you’re doing.
Jack, it has been so meaningful to have you on the podcast. I really like I’m full with emotion. I can’t even speak right now. I can feel the Holy Spirit like from head to toe. Um, so I know that whatever you said, whatever we said together collaboratively needed to be said for someone to listen to this message and make a decision to move forward and allow the Lord to guide them. That’s right. And so for that, I’m eternally grateful for our connection. I will definitely be connecting with you on LinkedIn. I will be purchasing your book. This is what I do for the people that I have on my podcast because it’s not because of room wins or any business concept, it’s because I felt it so deeply in my heart that the messages that you have to share and so so much to the alignment of what he’s sharing with me currently in this chapter that I’m about to embark on, that I know will be also fulfilling, but the initial steps of this can be rather daunting, much like Kilmanjaro was for you. So I know I’m gonna learn a great deal from you and your wisdom. And I thank you so much for joining us here. And for the listeners that have released that reveal purpose, remember Matthew 5.14 to be the light, be that bright, shining essence. Step into it with so much confidence. Remember, the Lord gives us not a spirit of timidness, but a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. You’ve got what it takes to get out of this dark chapter you’re in. If we can do it, if Jack and I can do it, so can you. There’s nothing that stops you. Just let go and let God have a wonderful and safe rest of your week. Love you all. Bye now.
So that’s it for today’s episode of Release Doubt Reveal Purpose. Head on over to iTunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week who posts a review on iTunes. We’ll win a chance the grand prize drawing to win a twenty-five thousand dollar private VIP day with Sylvia Worshaw herself. Be sure to head on over to sylviaworsham.com and pick up a free copy of Sylvia’s gift and join us on the next episode.