To you, it's just a Cracker Barrel parking lot. To me, it's where I gave my life to Jesus Christ.
I was 21 years old. I was working at the Cracker Barrel in Tallahassee after some of the worst years of my life. I'd made mistakes. Real ones.
I grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, raised by a mom who worked hard and didn't accept excuses. But I made decisions that should have ended my story before it ever really started. By the grace of God, they didn't. But every day, I was carrying them.
One afternoon, a church group came into the restaurant, just back from a revival. I served them their meals like I served any other table. But something happened while I was serving them. I can't fully explain it to you. The Lord spoke to me. He said, “Stop running from Me.”
It knocked me back.
I went to find the table, and they were all gone. I could see through their windows that they were getting on their bus, and I knew deep down that if I let them drive away, I was going to keep running. So I went outside. The last woman, just as she was stepping onto the bus, turned to me and asked, “Are you okay?”
I told her, “No ma’am, I’m not okay.” I told her the Lord was telling me to stop running.
That whole bus emptied out, stood with me in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel in Tallahassee, Florida, and prayed over me right there.
I gave my life to Christ that day. Right there.
I still get emotional about it. Because I know what I was before that moment, and I know what He's done since. He gave me a wife who shares my faith. He gave me three sons. He gave me a career, a community, a calling I never would have dared to ask for. He took a kid from Crown Heights who’d run out of chances and gave him a life that doesn't make sense apart from grace.
People ask me sometimes why I talk about it. Why I bring up the parking lot. Why I don't just keep that part private and let folks see the polished version.
I'll tell you why.
Because there's a young man out there right now — maybe in Tallahassee, maybe in Tampa, maybe in Miami, maybe in a small town in the Panhandle — who thinks his story is already over. Who thinks the mistakes he's made disqualify him from the life he could have had. Who thinks God doesn't want anything to do with somebody like him.
I'm here to tell him: that's a lie.
In life, you're not who you are at the lowest point. You're who you choose to become after.
The Lord met me in a Cracker Barrel parking lot. He'll meet you wherever you are.
You just have to stop running.
Elon,
In order to defeat Senator Lisa Murkowski in 2028, we first have to DEFEAT Ranked Choice Voting.
There is an initiative on the ballot this year in Alaska to defeat RCV:
✅ Alaska Ballot Measure 2
A YES vote would eliminate RCV.
“Vote YES to end the MESS.”
By the way, Governor Dunleavy has already signaled he will run against her.
Can we chat?
@elonmusk
My high school math teacher Mr D was known for one thing.
He reused the same exam questions every year. Just changed the numbers. Everyone knew it. He also made a very big deal of collecting every paper back after we reviewed our scores so nobody could pass them to the next year's class.
Of course some of my classmates got their hands on a full set of tests from the previous year.
Within a week everyone had a copy.
Before every exam we'd sit together and work through every problem on the old test until we could solve them in our sleep. When the real exam landed the numbers were different but the logic was identical.
We thought we were geniuses.
Years later I became a teacher myself. Ran into Mr D at a funeral.
Me: I have to confess something.
Me: We had a copy of your old tests the whole time.
Me: Full set. Every exam.
Him: (smirked)
Him: Who do you think leaked them?
Me: (stared at him)
Him: Kids won't study if a teacher tells them to.
Him: But if they think they're getting away with something?
Him: (shrugged)
Him: They study all night.
Me: (stood there)
Me: (replayed four years of feeling clever)
Me: (we were never clever)
Me: (he played us perfectly)
Me: (I became a teacher and I still got played)
Me: (Mr D was built different)
1/ It's 1985.
I just did stand-up on David Letterman the night before. Five minutes. I'm 27 years old and I think I've made it.
My agent calls me the next day and fires me.
Zoomers: “Boomers have all the money.”
Boomers: “Baby, that’s because we’re still eating the same pot of beans we started cooking in 1974 while y’all DoorDash a smoothie with a service fee, delivery fee, convenience fee, and emotional damage fee.”
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@teachthemx3@hrkbenowen Retired h.s. teacher and administrator here. It's discouraging that anyone put you in this position. This should have never moved beyond a conversation about summer school options in an admin's office.