When I was a teenager, I tried to take up roller-skating. I tried to be cool, you know. But it’s hard to be cool when you’ve got all these little kids skating around you, saying, “C’mon, fat boy, you can make it.” I’d get embarrassed. And there was this girl that I was dating, and she was just laughing and skating around, leaving me stumbling.
Cathy and I used to go to a skating rink when we were teenagers, but it wasn’t one of those beautiful skating rinks they’ve got all over the place now. It was an old skating rink with trashy wooden floors. They had big old Masonite blade fans in the corner to keep things cool.
I wanted to be cool when I went skating, but I couldn’t even stand up with skates on. So I put them on and stood there, hanging onto the rail. I was looking good, you know, not doing anything. I just stood there with a big fan blowing through my hair.
Cathy told me that I probably didn’t know how to skate.
“Naw,” I admitted, “but I’ll learn.”
Then this guy with a whistle got up and started blowing, “Broop, broop. Brooop, c’mon, move, broop, broop, get your hand off the rail!”
So I took it off, and wham! I hit the ground.
The man with the whistle didn’t care if anybody hit the ground. There was a storm blowing inside that rink – that big fan was pushing things all over the place, and kids were screaming by. With all that going on, it took me a long time to get back up and grab the rail again.
Cathy came over and asked, “You want me to help you?”
“No, I can do it; I can do it,” I said.
“There’s just one thing I can’t figure out,” I confessed. “How do you stop?”
You see, they had told me to just put my foot forward and that little rubber thing would stop me. Well, I tried that. I put both of those rubber stops down at the same time and waddup, waddup, wham! my body hit those old wooden floors twice as hard.
But I was still trying to get it. The storm was blowing from that big fan, boy. Whooooo. Kids were going around me, laughing: “Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha,” and I started to fall with my arms waving all over the place. I caught one of those kids as I was falling, and I slapped him as I went down. Whack! I still enjoy thinking about that slap, and that’s been over 30-years-ago.
Well, finally, I got going. I started really going – except that I didn’t know how to turn. Just then, some kid pushed me, and I started heading straight for the fan!
Like I said, it was a big old fan with Masonite blades and no screen. It was just blowing to keep the air moving. I ran right into it! I couldn’t stop. I went “Ahhhhyhhhhhhhh!” and caught it by the blades. I had to wrestle with it to keep it from cutting me. I fought that fan, and it was going, arhhh, arhhh, arhhhh. Blue smoke came out, and the whistle guy showed up: “Breep, breep, breeep. Turn it loose!” he said. “Turn it loose!”
“No,” I screamed, “that thing will eat my lunch if I turn it loose, Jack.”
I burned up the fan motor! Errrh, errrh, errrrrh, it groaned. They had to shut down the skating rink for a while just to get me out of the fan. I wanted to get out of there, but I couldn’t. My hands were all cut up.
After I broke the fan, everybody hollered at me, “You burned up the fan! You burned it up!” I should’ve thrown them into that fan.
Just then Cathy came over to me and grabbed my hand. She knew I didn’t know how to skate, but she helped me. We just kept at it, taking those curves slow, and it wasn’t long before I was skating. I just needed a little help, that’s all.
Things will come up in your life that will make you look stupid because you don’t know how to do them. It doesn’t mean that you are stupid; it just means that you haven’t done that thing before. That’s okay. We all have to start out somewhere. The secret is to be humble and ask for help if you need to.
How do you think I got to the place where I am in the ministry now? Certainly not without help. I had to have people show me what to do sometimes. Sure, I prayed and trusted in God to help me, but God also sends people to come alongside and take your hand, just like Cathy did in that skating rink. God will keep sending someone like that until, eventually, you can get out on your own two feet and skate all by yourself.
By the way, I still had to hit the wall a few times to slow down before I went into those turns!
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Jesse Duplantis, minister of the Gospel, motivational speaker, television personality, and best-selling author, has been in full-time ministry since 1976 and is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries, located in the Greater New Orleans area of south Louisiana in the United States of America. With over four decades of sharing his unique blend of humor and faith around the world, generations of believers have been inspired by his messages and countless numbers have come to know Jesus Christ as Savior through his ministry.
Known for his unflinching, status-quo-breaking messages and humorous take on experiences in the life of the believer, Jesse continues to draw large audiences of believers through social media, television, and meetings held around the world. With speaking engagements booked years in advance, Jesse Duplantis continues to keep an intense traveling schedule, flying throughout the United States and the world preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With no booking agents pursuing meetings for him and no set fees imposed upon churches for speaking engagements, Jesse chooses his outreach meetings based on the same two criteria he always has: invitations that come in and prayer over each one. This uncommon way of scheduling in today’s world means Jesse’s many followers may find him speaking in some of the largest churches and venues in America and the world, as well as a great many small and growing congregations, too. No church is too big or small for the Holy Spirit, as he says.
Side by side with his wife Cathy Duplantis, the co-founder and chief of staff of Jesse Duplantis Ministries and the senior pastor of Covenant Church in Destrehan, Louisiana, Jesse continues to fulfill his life’s calling by daily taking up the Great Commission of Jesus Christ: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Through social media, television broadcasts, books, and other ministry products, as well as through many evangelistic meetings, the JDM website, the JDM app, and Voice of the Covenant magazine, Jesse Duplantis continues to see growth in his ministry and expand each year while maintaining his roots. Jesus is the center of his life. The salvation of lost people and the growth of believers is the purpose of his ministry. And for both he and his wife, every day is another day to “Reach People and Change Lives, One Soul at a Time.”