- Let me tell you somethin' before you go. Whenever people come see me live, I try to say something meaningful to people. And I'm in the laugh business.
That's my gift. That's what God gave me at birth. Your gift is the thing that you do the absolute best with the least amount of effort.
It's my God-given gift. I wanna tell you somethin' that can help enrich your life. See, how I got to this point, where I have the life I have today, and he ain't even through with me, just like he ain't through with you.
See, God ain't through with you. That's why you keep wakin' up. Because it's a sure sign from God that he ain't through with you 'cause he wakes you up in the morning.
When he's done, you won't wake up no more. (audience voices agreement) But as long as you wakin' up, that means he has somethin' for you that he hasn't been able to give to you, for whatever the reason. I'm gonna help you get to that reason a little bit quicker.
I'm gonna tell you somethin' that I learned that changed my life. I was reading a book one time and it had a quote in there from Albert Einstein. And Albert Einstein said, "imagination is everything.
It's the preview to life's coming attractions. " If you think about that, that's a really, really true statement, because everything you see in this world came from somebody's imagination. Everything.
Somebody was talkin' on the phone one day, on that wall phone, connected to the cord, and tried to walk and it didn't go no further, and he wanted to just go outside and get somethin' out the car. He says, somebody said, you know what, I wish I could take this phone outside. (audience voices agreement) Everybody in here got a cell phone.
(audience voices agreement) It was in somebody's imagination. Somebody imagined that. Somebody imagined everything.
Somebody got tired of walkin'. Somebody got tired of drivin' cars. Somebody said we gonna fly.
You not fixin' to fly. Everybody in here done been on a plane. (audience member laughs) See, your imagination is the evidence of things not seen.
You know why they call it the evidence of things not seen? 'Cause your imagination, you the only one can see it. (audience voices agreement) You the only one can see it.
See, so all this stuff you been imagining was not some hocus pocus. When you imagine stuff, it's actually God showin' you a preview of a coming attraction he has for you. (audience applauding) That's what your imagination is.
Why do you keep imagining yourself with a second home? 'Cause God wants you to have a second home. Why do you keep imagining yourself in a supervisory capacity on another job?
Because God really wants you to have that. Why you keep dreamin' of opening a business one day? That's 'cause that's what God really got for you.
And he put it in your imagination. The problem with your imagination though, is you tell it to the wrong people. (audience voices agreement, applauds) If you wanna kill a big dream, tell it to a small-minded person.
(audience voices agreement, applauds) You can't, aw man. Think about this in your life. How many times have you had this really incredible idea, and you took it to your family and your friends?
You shared it with 'em, and they shot it down. You know why they shot it down? 'Cause they couldn't see it.
(audience voices agreement) Because God didn't put it in they imagination, He put it in yours. It was your evidence of things not seen. See, all this stuff you've been imaginin', you oughta start working on it.
'Cause that's what God really got for you. Your real life is in your imagination. I'm here to tell you that.
You think I'm here by accident? I'm here because he put this in my imagination when I was 10. When I was 10, he showed me I was gonna be on TV.
That's all I ever wanted. The assignment when I was in the sixth grade was everybody write they name on a piece of paper, and write what you wanna be. You know what I wrote on my paper?
I wanna be on TV. (audience member laughs) Now, the problem I had, though, was I used to suffer with a serious stuttering problem. I couldn't talk outside my house.
I stuttered for years. I flunked out of school. I'm on my third marriage.
I lost everything I ever owned twice. I been homeless and lived in a car for three years. But at 10, though, I wrote on a piece of paper I wanna be on TV.
So, the teacher went around the room and read everybody's paper. She had you stand up when she called your name, and the only assignment was your name and what you wanna be. Doctor, lawyer, dentist, basketball player, football player.
I wrote I wanna be on TV. She saved me for last. She said, Little Stevie come to the front.
And I'm thinking, I'm goin' to the front 'cause I got the best answer. (audience members laugh) 'Cause ain't nobody had put that on they paper. She called me to the front, I'm thinking I'm fixin' to get me a gold star, but I was wrong about that.
She called me to the front to humiliate me. First of all, you know I can't talk. I suffered with stuttering stammer so bad, man, I couldn't talk at all.
And that lady lit in on me. "Why did you write this on your paper? " And I'm standing there, I can't talk, "I, I, I, I--" "Who in this school ever been on TV?
" "I, I, I--" "Who in your family ever been on TV? " "I, I, I, I--" "Who in this neighborhood ever been on TV? " "I, I," I'm crushin', man.
I'm standing there, dyin'. She said, "Look at you standing there, you can't even talk. How they gonna put somebody like you on TV?
" So, every Christmas I send her a flat screen TV. (audience cheers) 'Cause I don't want her to miss me. I do not want her to miss not nare episode of me, 'cause I wanted her to see what God had done for me.
- [Audience Member] That's right. - The fact that you couldn't see it, it wasn't for you to see. He put it in my imagination.
But after three years of homelessness, losing everything I ever owned twice, sufferin' through, flunkin' outta school, go home and cut your TV on. - [Male Audience Member] That's right. - That little boy with the stuttering problem, he all over that TV.
You can't cut your TV on, (audience applauding, cheering) you can't cut your TV on not nare day of the week, and you don't see that little boy. That little boy with the stutterin' problem is all over that TV, because God put it in my imagination. All I did was hang on to that thought.
I just kept hopin'. I just kept hopin' that what I had wrote on the paper would come true. I had a lot of times it wasn't 'bout no faith.
I didn't believe it sometimes. When you homeless and livin' in a car, how you see yourself as a TV star? (audience member laughs) But I just kept hangin' on there.
'Cause my mama's Sunday school teacher, I kept hearin' her say, "God. . .
" - [Male Audience Member] It's okay, it's okay. - "God didn't bring you this far to leave you. " (audience voices agreement) God didn't bring you this far to leave you.
Why do you think He keeps wakin' you up? 'Cause he got more for ya. He got way more for ya.
He got plans for ya. But he needs your faith. He just needs you to call on him.
He needs you to dust off your imagination, and just got for it. You got to try. Quit waking up thinkin' you ain't got no say so in your life.
You have a choice in this matter. You can't stop what happened to you, but you can doggone sure do somethin' about what happened to you. Life is 10% what happened to you, it's 90% what you do about it.
Somebody in your family gonna die. Somebody in here gonna get fired. Somebody here gonna get an eviction notice.
Somebody gonna get laid off. Somebody's company gonna close. That's life.
Somebody you love gonna break up with you. That's life. But what you gonna do about it, though?
Since it's gonna happen anyway. Trust me, go home and ask God to open up your imagination. And then pursue it with everything in you, and watch what he do for you.
'Preciate y'all.
