What Really Matters? | Guests: Justin Barclay, Monica Sparks, Jessica Anne Tyson, Don Piper, Taya Kyle & Adam Davis | 12/24/19

I

don't even know

what to say today, other than Merry Christmas.

I just got some news that I'll share a little bit later.

But I got to tell you, I am absolutely floored at this opportunity to talk to you today on a day

that's very important.

On a day that we get a chance to do something different, and

for all the right right reasons.

We get a day to focus on, I think,

because of the quiet, because of the peace, and because of the calm on this silent night,

we get a chance to unplug from the noise

and to focus on what matters most.

I'm excited to do that with you today.

I'm Justin Barkley in for Glenbeck today on the Glenbeck program.

Good morning.

This is the Glenn Beck program.

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All right, back in.

It is Justin Barclay filling in for Glenbeck today and the Glenbeck program.

The Merry Christmas, a Merry Christmas Eve.

Again, we got a chance to do something different today.

When I first got the call, about this show and

what we might do today and the fact that it would be today.

I mean, there are all kinds of things that went through my mind, but the most,

the one that stood out, I think, the most was the fact that we get a chance to get together and we get to connect

and we get to talk about things that matter most.

Look, there's a lot happening in the news.

In the past several years now, it's been a constant feed.

And a lot of it really noise.

I always say like it's

really like drinking from a fire hose.

It's constantly coming at you.

And how do you make sense of what matters?

And

what really is

garbage, what the junk is.

I think we're getting better and better at that, but I also

think that the better we get, the more of it is coming at us and literally non-stop.

I think some of this started in the beginning with the advent of the 24-hour news network.

I mean, we could follow it all the way back to see

some of the roots.

It used to be that we got our news in a different way.

It used to be that we had conversations with each other in a more personal way.

And we had a lot more time to really sit and digest

what was going on in the the world and maybe the issues of the day, right?

We had time to really kind of

think through it all, make sense of it all.

Nowadays,

there's no time to think, there's no time to really process, it's just

simply reaction.

And this causes all kinds of things.

We react,

everything's outrageous.

And I'm here to tell you that the sky is not

really

falling.

Although, boy, it feels like it.

At times, because we're being told that the sky is constantly falling.

There's reasons for that.

There's a reason why we want to be plugged in and we want to stay informed.

The simple human reason that we want to know where the threats are coming from.

We wake up every day because we want to check the news and find out, okay, what do I need to protect my family from today?

It's very simple.

We're hardwired that way.

Not much has changed, really, from the days of,

oh, I don't know, cavemen waking up, tracking their club around and

just taking a peek out the cave.

You know, I'm being funny here, but

we still do that today.

Now we wake up and we grab the phone and then we scroll through our notifications to see what happened while I was sleeping.

What do I need to know about?

What do I need to be on alert for right now?

And they know that.

I say they, I'm talking about the folks who are constantly feeding us this noise.

Oh, and the folks who,

you know, profit from us being

in that constant state of

alertness.

What does that do to us?

What does that do to our families?

There are chemical reactions that constantly happen, by the way,

when you're at that constant state

of awareness.

The adrenaline, the overload, all those things can happen.

You're constantly in fight or flight mode.

And so we're not making maybe the best decisions.

So that's why I think today is an opportunity and really a gift because we get a chance to slow down.

We're going to come together during a holiday

with family, with friends, with loved ones, to really take a step back

and a pause.

And I think these pauses have gotten fewer and further between, and also

a lot shorter.

Because people used to take, you know,

weeks off during the holidays at one point.

Just kind of turn everything off the news cycle.

The folks would leave Washington.

The news cycle would slow down.

But I guarantee everything picks back up tomorrow or Thursday.

We're starting the slowdown process now.

And so, why I think today is an opportunity for us to have this conversation to talk about what really matters most, but not just what really matters most.

Why?

A chance for us to have the conversation so that we can be intentional

throughout this time.

We can take that pause.

You had a great conversation with a man who I respect.

His family is

one of the leading families where I am,

my hometown in West Michigan, where I live right now in Grand Rapids.

And these folks are

philanthropic.

They are very generous.

They are very giving.

They had a great upbringing.

And there's a great atmosphere and a great culture of that here.

A foundation that was laid many years ago, many years ago, before even the folks that live here came to this country.

And I think rooted in that

was faith.

And as we talked about faith and we had a conversation about their holiday gathering around Thanksgiving and the dinner table, he told a story about how one of his brothers, as they all got together as a family,

took a pause.

A pause

they prayed on Thanksgiving.

Everyone gathered around the table, the turkey, the mashed potatoes, the stuffing of dressing, no matter what you call it.

Because if you're southern, I think it's dressing.

Or whether the cranberries are there or not, it does not matter.

But they paused

before they prayed.

And his brother made the point that

we want to pause before we pray so that we don't just rush through it.

Because in the world that we live in today, where they're constantly feeding us

all of the information, all of the news, most of it noise,

and every single alert popping up on our phone.

There's a tendency that we just want to run through or rush through what it is that we've got to do, and we really lose sight of the magic that happens in those moments.

Oh, there are monumental things that happen

in

the many,

many

moments.

It doesn't take much,

but just our focus, maybe redirecting it.

And that's what I'm excited about today, to stop.

And take a look at that.

Because when this man said that his brother stopped and said, we're going to focus just on taking a breath before we pray, we're not going to rush through it.

Before we say grace, before we give thanks for the food that's on our table,

let's just take a pause and

focus on why we're here, why we're doing this,

and

why it matters.

So,

this Christmas,

on this very day,

I'm so excited to be here with you because I think we have an opportunity.

We have an opportunity to come together in so many ways with friends, with family,

with folks all across this country, not just across the dinner table.

And remember the real reason why we're all here

and why

it matters.

Talk more about that here in just a second.

A quick pause.

I'm Justin Barkley in for Glenn Beck today on the Glenbeck program.

Back right after this.

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Merry Christmas.

It is Justin Barklay.

I'm live from Wood Radio in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and an opportunity to talk with you today in for Glenn Back on the Glenn Back program.

And Glenn's taking some time off.

Smart guy.

A little time to,

and by the way, well deserved.

No matter what patents do say, he works hard.

And a chance to really just take a pause and remember what matters most, whether that's with your family,

spending some time thinking about

your faith on a day like today, I think most of us

will take a little time to do something or maybe things a little bit differently.

No matter whether you're working today or not, if you're working or you're going over the woods and over the river and through the woods to the grandma's house, or maybe you're preparing the food where you are right now, I'm just grateful that we get a chance to talk to each other.

It's not lost on me.

All of the things that I said earlier, and I mean that we do have an opportunity today in such a world where we're filled with chaos and noise and everyone yelling, fighting, and screaming at each other.

We're constantly outraged about everything because they told us that we have to be.

In the world that we live in today, it's great that we have a chance, no matter if it's just a moment here or there, to really

re-center and refocus and think about what matters most.

It may be different things to you, and it may be something completely and totally different to me.

Some of the biggest things in my life, faith and family, and the friends.

And of course, I just got some news

about someone who I consider family, very close to me,

in the hospital right now,

who could use some prayers.

So I'm going to selfishly ask for that.

Not necessarily what what I had planned to talk to you about right now, but I'm going to selfishly ask for some prayers for that person without saying who it is or

telling what they need.

If you're the praying kind, she could definitely use them.

But this is a moment that we can come together.

And again, whether it's around the dinner table or whether it's around the radio, no matter where you are, you're listening on your phone.

It's a chance for us to really refocus on what matters most and think about those things.

In a world where everything is moving a million miles a minute, it feels like we are out of control.

And maybe that's because we are.

But maybe somebody else is in control.

I'm going to think about that today.

And we'll have a moment to really maybe share

some of

the things that are happening.

Because as wild as it seems,

and boy, it sure does,

there's a saying in the news business

that I find often rings true.

If it bleeds, it leads.

And if it bleeds, it leads, means if it's a story that is negative, if it's a story that scares people, if it's a story that is about tragedy, well,

that's the greatest

gift you can get in the news business.

Because this is a story

that will draw people in, that will attract people, and that will keep people listening.

I don't know if you've noticed in the past

few years, decade, two, maybe, the constant drone

about weather.

Yeah, some of this is talk about climate change, and

some of this is talk about

just regular everyday weather events.

But I've had conversations with meteorologists, a really good one here locally,

who have a really common sense approach,

a really sensible way of talking about things and dealing with things and putting things into perspective historically when it comes to weather.

We tend to get these weather reports like the sky is falling.

And I guess in some cases, when it is the weather, the sky is literally falling.

But we tend to get these weather reports delivered to us in such a way,

they hype it up.

I don't know if you've noticed this, but they hype it up in such a way that

has to

keep you listening.

They've got to keep you on the hook.

They have to constantly reel you in

because you've got to stay tuned to the TV.

You can't turn away because it makes you feel that, like, if you do, the same way with that news,

that your very survival depends on it.

Well,

I'm not telling you to put your head in the sand,

but I'm just asking you to think about it intentionally and maybe differently.

And one of the ways I'll do that today is we'll show you some of the things that are happening.

Because these are some stories that you're not hearing.

Let me just read you some headlines, literally off of drudge right now.

Stocks on a high.

More records smashed.

Feds quietly making efforts to calm market because the market

is on fire.

I read a headline the other day that said that we've had the greatest decade in the history of

whatever.

So there are

stories that

make you squirm.

There are stories that certainly scare you, and the way they're delivered can too.

But our economy is on fire, and I think there are more good things happening in the world today than there are bad.

There's certainly no shortage of bad things.

Don't get me wrong.

I'm not Pollyanna, right?

I'm not overly optimistic.

I'm just telling you, the reality is

there's plenty of good.

We don't hear about the good

because we're too busy focusing on the bad.

And they're too busy focusing on the bad.

How about this?

$34.4 billion,

the biggest shopping day in history.

Just headlines.

I'm just reading you some of the headlines here.

I don't even have to go into great detail.

And honestly, yes, there are major things happening on a large scale.

But I think

even

great things are happening

all over the world and certainly closer to home than you would even imagine.

And they would lead you to believe.

In fact, one of the things that I like to say and I talk about on a daily basis, because I do a local show where I'm at, we talk really about the local things that are happening, the things that are happening.

right here in our community.

And for you

and me,

I think what's happening here in your own backyard, wherever you may be, far more important than what's happening to C.

And we'll talk about that.

And how to come together with each other.

Coming up next, a unique situation.

Two twin sisters completely opposed politically, but how do they get along if they can do it?

We'll tell you how you can too.

Coming up next on the Glenn Beck program, it's Justin Barkley in for Glenn today.

You're listening to Glenn Beck.

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And Merry Christmas.

It is Christmas Eve Day.

Justin Barklay,

you can get to me, by the way, at Mr.

Justin Barklay on Twitter, Justin at Justin Barklay, B-A-R-C-L-A-Y.

Justin at Justin Barklay.com.

If you go to justinbarklay.com, just click on the comment there down and below, and that message will go straight to me.

Weigh in, join the program at any time.

That's what this is all about today.

And Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve, a very special Christmas Eve, filling in for Glenback today on the Glenback program.

And it's my pleasure as we get to kind of focus on the things that really matter most and the things that we get to share with each other.

I think an opportunity to take a break and a pause from all the noise and the chaos that's normally coming through the speaker on TV.

And of course, through the screens on the internet, scrolling Facebook.

You know, it's funny because they say, you know, most of folks have gone home from Washington and the cameras are gone and things are taking a break.

But Twitter is still open 24-7.

So we'll take a pause from that, too, at times, and maybe focus on what matters most.

And here to help us kind of do that today, I've got a couple of folks.

These two ladies, you may have actually seen on shows like Fox and Friends, and they've been highlighted in a couple of different places.

They're sisters.

They're twins.

But they, as as much as they have in common,

couldn't disagree more when it comes to the issues.

Politically, they're completely opposite on the ends of the spectrum.

And here to talk a little bit about how that works for them.

And, of course, how you can come together during the holidays, no matter your political affiliations or your ideologies.

Two twins, Monica Sparks and Jessica Ann Tyson, and both politicians as well.

Welcome in and Merry Christmas, ladies.

Absolutely.

And Merry Christmas.

Mary,

Monica and Jessica are here.

Monica Sparks and Jessica Ann Tyson.

And these two are twins.

They're identical twins.

Now, you could tell them apart because their outfits are different, but they both have on Christmas-themed outfits.

So you guys have a lot in common with each other.

We do.

That too.

But, you know, everyone asks, how do you tell?

Like, the older we get, I think we look a little more different.

But how can you tell, mole Monica?

I have a mole in my face, but I'm not a mole.

Oh.

Just I have a mole in my face.

I.e., Beauty Mart.

I love it.

And everybody has, my wife is a twin too.

So

not identical.

But there's a very close bond with twins, is what I've come to realize.

And I mean, you've always been with each other.

You've never known a day that

you weren't, you know?

Wombmates.

Yeah.

That's what she called it too.

Yeah.

So it's really fascinating.

But

what makes me think about this is that these two are

not just twins, but they also have similar interests in similar fields, but disagree in some ways.

And one of that might be politics and policy and issues and certain things.

Oh, yeah.

Just a slight difference.

And Monica here.

Monica, you heard, is the Democrat, and then Jessica.

Proud Republican.

Which is interesting to me.

How does this happen?

You know, you both had many of the same experiences growing up.

You're, you know, a lot of ways, almost practically the same person, right?

Genetically and things like that, right?

Science.

I feel that way many days.

Yeah.

It's wild, but somehow, in some way, you split in these ways.

And I want to talk about this because I think it's fascinating.

And I think a lot of people do.

Matter of fact, you've been featured all over news

nationally, all over the place.

Internationally, eventually.

People, it's just as fascinated as I am.

What is going on here?

But, and you've run for office and currently are county commissioner in Kent County and in the state of Michigan and serving now.

And

this is, I'm sure you have people walk up to you on the street and say, Monica, what is your sister up to?

What's going on?

That too.

Yeah.

You do.

You ever get an earful from some people?

Oh, man, do I ever.

Do I ever?

Sometimes I say, just stop.

Listen, listen.

I listened a a little bit, but I'm like, okay, well, how can we turn your sister?

Because if we could just turn your sister back to the right way, and I'm like, I don't think that's going to happen.

If you've got a better plan, let me know.

Do you guys know where you're where the path split?

Like what it was?

Was there a certain time or something that happened

through the years?

I don't know.

I think that our parents may have sent mixed messages because she could have sworn that our dad thought that he was Republican based on some of the ideology that our parents have.

I'm a teenager, and our father taught us how to, you know, rifle,

shoot guns.

You know, our parents taught us how to make sure that we were self-sufficient, took us to the farmer's market so we could, you know, make sure that we learned business structure and so many different things.

And not that Democrats can't do those things, but they're very, very ideology of a Republican.

And

that's how I grew up.

And I swore my parents were Republican.

They were very active politically.

But as a kid,

if you remember back in those days, it's been a little while.

You never talked about whether you were Republican or Democrat.

You never talked about that.

You never talked about whether you were Protestant or Christian.

You never talked about anything.

I was a religion.

Yeah, you never talked about those things.

But we would see them.

They would take us to the voting

polls.

And it was just very interesting.

And they would entertain everyone that came to the door, anything about an election.

Everybody gather around.

Everybody come and sit.

And we're going to talk to this individual because we need to know what they stand for.

And our parents were always about that.

So they taught us our rights and responsibilities, you know, being African Americans for voting.

Wow.

And that's a powerful thing.

Very powerful.

Probably a big reason behind that, too, is that this is something that historically they probably talked about the significance of this, too.

And our parents are seniors.

You know, they're in their 80s, going to 90s.

So

they've seen a lot of things.

You know, they've seen the opportunities where they didn't have the opportunity to vote.

And then they've seen the opportunities come their way that they have the voice.

Yeah.

So they've been through a lot.

And you can imagine what that

was that last fan's like.

Purple Heart, Korean War veteran.

Wow.

Mom was a school teacher for 37 years.

37 years.

I taught in an international classroom for all of those years.

Wow.

Students that were coming from different countries, couldn't speak English.

So we've seen a lot in our life.

So what makes me think about this is that even though you have differences in opinions on things, I always feel and see when I have interactions with people that I believe we have a lot more in common with each other than

what's talked about on the nightly news.

Let's be honest.

Agreed.

Agreed.

And you come together and you two certainly have a lot more in common with each other.

But there's so much to learn too, because as your parents were teaching you about voting and maybe issues, and allowing people to come and talk, and you were seeing those things, you learned a lot probably too by watching them and their interactions.

They may have disagreed politically, but you just didn't know because they were so agreeable with each other.

And you're right about that because just the other day we were at the house, and mom says, Jess, your president, she refuses.

She says he is not my president.

And she refuses.

I remind her, she lives in America.

Yeah, she reminds her that.

But we, Jess is the butt of a lot of our jokes, our family jokes.

Sorry about that, but hate it for you.

Real talk.

So she's the butt of a lot of our jokes, but she only became the butt of our jokes during this administration because before

we just kind of thought, okay, that's her choice.

That's her decision.

We didn't think much about it, but now everybody, everyone's so polarized and everyone is just so opinionated that it's hard to remember that we are in a democracy and you have the right here in America to live your choice and to have your choice as to who you want to represent you as a president.

So I want to give folks maybe some tips because I know you two are very,

yeah, you're very

into this, but not only that, but you're into helping other people as well.

So absolutely.

What can we do, especially around the holidays, Christmas Eve now?

Break out the list, girlfriend.

Yeah, people are going to go and be with family, and that's tough any time of year for some folks.

Yeah.

But especially when we have these heated political discussions.

Oh, yes.

Well, I think it starts with the hostess or host.

Let's get some of those tips.

Hang on for a second.

We'll take a quick pause and be back right after this.

I'm Justin Barkley, in for Glenn.

This is the Glenn Beck program.

Merry Christmas.

You're listening to Glenn Beck.

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It's Justin Barkley in for Glenback today on the Glenback program.

We're just talking with Monica Sparks and her twin sister, Jessica Ann Tyson.

They're twins, identical, but they're on opposite ends of the spectrum politically.

And talking about how you can get together and get along for the holidays with family.

And you said it starts with the host.

You have to know the players of the game, the people that you are actually inviting.

And you have to make allowances within the event.

And Jessica is excellent at planning events, so she could probably speak to that a little better.

I'm excellent too.

But not as excellent as I.

Just a little competitive.

But she could probably speak to that as far as I think we put together a post and we were talking about that before.

Well, you know, if you are the host or hostess of the event, one thing that you should do is, like Monica said, who are the players?

Is it Uncle Bob and he's coming and he's just got the biggest, boisterous, loudest voice?

Then we need to kind of talk to Uncle Bob before he gets there and let Uncle Bob know that, listen, you know, we're trying to do something different.

We're trying to make sure that all opinions are heard or don't even go down that path.

So, Uncle Bob, can you not make mention that XYZ, whatever?

Don't wear your NRA lifetime membership jacket, you know, that kind of thing.

Yeah, and then put, and then put pictures up.

Let everyone know when they come in the tone of the house or the room.

Put pictures up.

Things that remind them of home, things that remind them of back in the day where things were gravy, if you will.

Remind people of that.

Remind people of...

stories, you know, if you're into scripture, Bible stories, things of that nature, so that you can direct conversations.

And you can make it really fun, too, you know, by handing everyone some information when they first come in.

Let's talk about family.

The rule and the ground rule is set, the guideline, only family.

We only talk about family and things that matter to us.

Turn off the television, turn off the radio, but not the Glenn Beck show.

Not that, not that.

We want to keep people.

But make sure that you don't put things out there that can start those immediate conversations or spark those feelings that individuals have so they won't be guided to those conversations.

But there are some times though that families do want to get into political conversation.

When we're Thanksgiving, again, like Monica said, I was the butt of all the jokes.

There came a point that because I'm a little bit stronger of an individual, I was like, okay, we're good.

We're good.

And my mother said, I said I wasn't going to say anything, but I have one question.

Why did President President Trump, la la la la la?

And that was an opportunity for me to actually enlighten everyone in my family because I'm a little bit more informed.

But it was the way that I did it in a very respectful way because I knew that everyone else in the house was against me besides my husband and my daughter.

But there is a way against you.

They are.

But there is a way to, there is a way to do it.

Right.

You know, there's a way to not

put it in their face.

I think one thing we have to remember is: are we adults?

Like at the end of the the day, are we adults?

And children are looking at us.

And we are creating a culture and many of us just want to throw our words around without the, we want the right to throw our words around, but not the responsibility that comes after we've said and what happens after we've said these damaging things.

Have consequences.

And so do our words.

Yeah, that's a great point.

And I'm just reminded, thinking about this, too, that there are going to be other families that are more aggressive with each other.

And that traditionally they're fine with having the back and forth.

So you know your family.

get into that.

Yeah, I mean, you know, your family.

There's some families like they thrive on it.

Like, there are some days that I'm with some of my friends, and wish it was good to just let it out and let it rip and tell them all that I know.

And then they tell me what they don't know.

Uh, but you know, but at the end, you know, like if we all agreed with her, we'd all be wrong.

Okay,

she's crazy.

But let me tell you this.

So, you know, if you, if you, if you have your family and they are about that kind of, you know, um, camaraderie, that's fine.

But then don't serve impeachment pie.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, think about what you're actually doing.

Don't spark a flame to make it grow, but just spark the flame so that they feel comfortable enough to be able to be themselves and to say

what is on their mind.

But like Monica said, and that's so good, sissy, responsibility.

You have to be responsible with your words.

Are you agreeing with me, the Democrat?

Are you

agreeing with that point that you said?

Because it's true, sissy.

She's agreeing with her sister.

And think about that.

As we look at what's happening in your family and in each of our families, what if we do our best to make sure that little pieces of that are planted throughout our country?

And as a nation, we can come together because we're all Americans.

And at the end of the day,

we all want.

a successful America.

We all want a successful place where our citizens can thrive, where people who live here and come here can thrive, our new Americans, where they can thrive.

I heard one person, Mayor Kepley, last night was talking about the refrigerator policy.

Have you ever heard of that before?

What's the refrigerator policy?

The refrigerator policy is when you go to my house, maybe the first, second, third time, I get what you ask.

If you ask for a glass of water, you're not going to just go into my refrigerator.

I'm going to get it for you.

But after a while, that maybe that third, fourth, fifth time, hey, you go get it yourself.

And that's where the sense of belonging happens and you get it yourself and you're able to take care of yourself and you're able to uh understand

absolutely not

thank you ladies

take care of yourself and and help out and add and contribute as we know many immigrants and refugees add much

much to our economy you know it's interesting because we hear this story and i hear you talking when you say this and i appreciate the lessons we're learning here we gotta unfortunately we're out of time so we have to wrap up Jessica Ann Tyson and Monica Sparks.

We focus on what matters most when we focus on our connections, and those bonds

last because they're bigger.

You're listening to Glenn Beck.

The fusion of entertainment and enlightenment.

This is the Glenn Beck program.

Coming up,

you're going to hear from a man

who's not supposed to be here.

Not because

of his political views or

maybe who he is, but

because of what happened.

About 30 years ago, he had a horrible accident on the road

and was pronounced dead.

And yet, he'll be on the program

coming up.

What happened?

This miraculous moment we lived

and the story that changed his life

after he came back.

It's what he saw when he was gone, but more importantly, what he experienced

when he came back that I'm certain you're going to want to hear

It's Justin Barkley filling in for Glenn today on the Glenbeck program.

Back right after this.

This is the Glenbeck program.

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Welcome back.

It's Justin Barkley today, and a special opportunity, as I mentioned at the beginning of the show, here we are.

Merry Christmas, Christmas Eve,

and a special opportunity as

the hustle takes a break.

I know folks are out maybe finishing some shopping, and maybe your finishing touches on the family get-together or the gatherings that you'll be having tonight, maybe going to church or maybe getting together tomorrow morning throughout the day.

But it's a special opportunity for us to come together as a people,

take a pause, and

really focus on what matters most.

Not the news, or in most cases, noise.

Not what's happening in Washington, D.C.,

but maybe what's happening in your own backyard.

And even more importantly, at your own dinner table.

And

most importantly, maybe in your own heart.

Our next guest is Don Piper.

He's got an incredible story.

I'll let him tell it.

But he's the author of 90 Minutes in Heaven.

He died,

and yet he's on the phone with us today.

Don, welcome in and Merry Christmas.

How are you?

Well, Merry Christmas to you.

Yes, I am alive.

I wasn't, but now I am.

And,

you know, the death rate here is 100%.

That's kind of a difficult thing to talk about on

Christmas Eve, but it means that we need to be ready all the time for for what happens next.

So I am excited to be here another Christmas.

This will be 69 Christmases for me, and I'm still here, and so are you.

And why don't we make the most of it while we are?

Because

indeed.

You've got an incredible story, Don.

I'm going to let you talk about some of this, but there's a chance for us as we celebrate the birth.

in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago, a chance for maybe, yeah, we'll talk about death, but maybe a chance to talk about a rebirth that can happen.

New life.

I have been to that church there, Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on a number of occasions.

It is a very special place.

It's a very humble place,

a very unlikely place for the Son of God to be born.

But when you're there, obviously there's a presence and a knowledge of the fact that nearly 2,000 years ago

the Son of God came to dwell among us.

I was a pastor in 1989, still am, and I was on my way to church

to lead a Wednesday night service, and I didn't make it.

I was in East Texas, a very rural area, because I had been at a conference at a retreat center, and about 10 minutes out of the front gate, In January of 1989, an 18-wheeler tractor-trailer truck crossed the center stripe of a narrow bridge and hit me head on.

I never saw it coming.

It was a rainy, cold day, and it was just a horrific collision because he hit two other cars after he struck me.

Amazingly,

miraculously really, none of those people were injured, the truck driver or the other two drivers of the car.

They were treated and released in this area, rural area, when finally first responders got there because it was really remote.

And they discovered

the four paramedics who were now working on me, since there was no one else to work on, that I had been killed instantly.

They did try everything they could to try to revive me, resuscitate me.

They were unsuccessful, so I was the body, which was hideous,

was covered up with a a tarp, and they were waiting for a medical examiner to come and do the appropriate paperwork to take me away.

And

so I just lay there for quite a while and behind me were lots of other ministers.

One of them came up from the bridge, felt God say

to him to pray for me, even though I had been declared dead by several professionals.

And they discouraged him not from praying, but from getting even near me because of all the wreckage and the danger.

He finally prevailed, got in the wreckage of the car,

put his hand on my right shoulder under the tarp.

I obviously didn't have any knowledge of this.

I was absent from that body and present with the Lord at the time.

In fact, the moment the car, the truck struck me.

But he was praying because he was being obedient, and that went on for an hour and a half.

from 1145 when he arrived on the scene until 1.15 in the afternoon, still waiting for the medical examiner.

He began to sing hymns over the body in the car.

And he was singing a great old hymn of the faith called What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

And suddenly under the tarp, as he sang that song, I began to sing the song with him.

And he got out of the car very quickly, ran over to the

EMTs and said, the dead man is singing.

Okay, so we've got to pause here, Doc, because people are just maybe tuning in and they're hearing that thinking, what, okay, now what happened?

This guy was dead.

Yeah.

And you were gone for, as the book says, 90 Minutes in Heaven.

You were gone.

And yeah, and it may be more appropriately titled, you know, book publishers,

they want to get a hook out there.

But

I was really not here for an hour and a half because in heaven there is no time.

It's a timeless place.

I could have been there for 90 years or 90 seconds.

There's no el it's linear.

It's it's propelled forward, but there's no elapse of time.

So I was away from here for that length of time.

And

he and a lot of other people, now, granted,

they attempted to contact my family that morning when they found my identity.

They were unsuccessful because my wife is teaching school and our children were in school.

It was a Wednesday morning.

And so

they called my church.

They did find my business card in my wallet.

They called the church, told the church that I had been in a terrible accident, but not that I was a fatality, because my next of kin had not been notified yet.

So the church, of course, started praying after they heard I was a horrific wreck.

And they called other churches.

They called other people.

Actually, by the time that I returned,

thousands and thousands of people were praying because they'd heard I've been in an accident, but not that I had been killed because they did not want to tell that on the phone.

but the man in the car knew it and he had some medical background himself so he was praying and and he sang the song and suddenly I found myself in the dark because we were covered up with a tarp

singing that song without knowing who he was or why I was singing or anything having to do with what had happened to me in in the wreck.

It took me hours to be filled in on the the collision of the 18-wheeler and I was transferred eventually to a level one trauma center in Houston and so consequently it was

it was just a it was just an incredible experience for everybody involved when I got hit by the truck my family got hit by the truck my church got hit by the truck everybody who knew me and I got asked about it so many times because it is such an incredible story.

I decided to write a book.

And in the book,

one of the first things things I say is I wrote this book in self-defense and by that I meant well if I write it all down can can we just move on in my life I you know talking about this wreck and I was hospitalized for 13 months and I had 34 major operations to reattach an arm and a leg and and overcome a lot of other injuries that were just

life-threatening.

And so I just wanted to put this behind me.

But God put it in front of me and he does that sometimes.

This time of year is a good reminder because it is about new beginnings.

So I had a new lease on life at that point.

38-year-old man, married, three children, pastor of a church.

Things were going well, and I felt like I was making a difference.

And then one day, on the way to church, I got killed by a truck.

Don Piper's on with us right now, author of 90 Minutes in Heaven, and what you just heard him describe.

And in a very condensed way, because I'm sure, you know, Don

talks about this now, and usually when he talks about this, and when you read the story, and matter of fact, they made a movie about this.

It takes a little more time to develop, but boy, you know, we don't have as much time on the radio, so we're going through it.

But what you just heard was that first miracle.

And you know what they say when you're watching infomercials, but wait, there's more, because there literally is.

That's the first miracle.

Don is in an accident, horrific accident, where an 18-wheeler rolls over his tiny car, and

the pictures that I've seen in the wreckage

is absolutely unthinkable when you see this.

It's very gruesome to think about what he went through.

His body lay lifeless inside of that car.

And the folks, the paramedics, the first responders there, took him a while to get there, but they did respond and found when he was there that he was no longer breathing.

He didn't have a pulse.

He was done.

Yet one man walked up upon that scene and said, I want to, I just feel the urge.

This was another pastor that I feel the urge.

I want to pray for Don.

And the police said, no, we don't, you don't, you don't want to do that.

You don't want to go up there.

Trust me.

They didn't want to let him anywhere near him, but

let alone inside that car, inside the wreckage, to lay his hand on you and pray for you.

And Don, I want to take a break here and we'll come back and talk about because as he began praying,

eventually not only do you wake up, but you start to sing

the hymn that he was singing while he was praying for you.

Yes, I did.

And what happens next, I mean, that was the first miracle in a line of many, but what happens next is

just, it's absolutely.

Unbelievable.

If you're listening to this now, it did happen.

This has been recorded.

And, of course, the book is 90 Minutes in Heaven.

We'll be back with Don Piper right after this.

It's Justin Barkley in for Glenn Beck today on the Glen Beck program.

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He died, but yet he's on the phone with us today talking with Don Piper, author of 90 Minutes in Heaven.

And we just heard about how that horrific truck accident there on the highway in Texas, I guess about 30-some odd years ago now, left him dead inside that car.

Yet he's here with us on the phone.

And Don was just talking about that moment where he woke up.

I want to talk about what folks want to hear about because I'm sure many have questions about heaven, but we'll save that for a little bit later.

Don, first, I want to talk about

the next steps because when you come back,

you're not all out of the water yet.

I mean, you have quite a bit to go through, and much of that starts at that moment when folks realize this man is alive.

Right.

It does.

The reason I was singing with him is because he was making me sing.

He kept encouraging me, and he was trying to keep me conscious.

He was trying to make sure that

I didn't lapse again.

And

the collision was in excess of probably 100 miles an hour ahead on collision.

So

anyone would have lost their life in this accident.

This is before airbags.

And so the steering wheel had become horizontal and went into my chest.

The dashboard collapsed on both of my legs.

My right leg was broken at the knee.

My left leg was severed just above the knee.

And

four and a half inches inches of my left femur.

We all know that's the largest bone in the human body.

That part of my leg was ejected from the car and not found.

My left arm, which I apparently had raised, maybe I did see the car, the truck out of the corner by don't remember that, but it took my arm, separated at the shoulder and it just went over me into the back seat.

And from the middle of the left forearm

was just twisted and broken and missing.

And so I missed all the bones, the muscles were gone, the skin was gone.

Anyone would have bled out in this accident in a matter of minutes, maybe five minutes or less, had their heart been beating, but mine was not.

So I did not.

I did have blood coming out of my eyes and ears and nose.

very obvious brain damage.

And so it was just, it couldn't have been, it could hardly have been more horrific than it was.

And I was dead.

But

people prayed, and God said yes.

He doesn't always say yes when we pray for those kinds of things.

In my case, he did.

But I did come back to

an incredible amount of

operations,

even some experimental surgeries and devices were placed on me to try to save my arm and leg that had never been used before in this country.

And so I went through a lot of,

well, 13 months in the hospital bed and many operations and infections and isolation ward situations.

And it was just a roller coaster ride for almost three years before I walked into my own church on my own, unassisted, and began to resume ministry, which I was told would never happen.

So I do believe in miracles.

I don't feel very miraculous, but it is a miracle that I am alive today

on every level that one can possibly imagine, and that I have had any functionality at all.

So I believe in miracles.

I b I you know, I I believe that God is still in the miracle business.

And really, Christmas is all about miracles.

It it a a baby uh born in a uh an area that has had not distinguished whatsoever, uh but that was predicted to happen.

Uh the Bible says so.

All those things happen.

And so this is the time of year when we remember uh a mir a miracle occurred,

and some other incredibly brilliant people had heard about it, and they were looking for him also.

We call them kings.

And so many things happen that makes this story unparalleled in human history.

And so that's why this is such an amazing time of year.

If we focus on the Christ at Christmas, it certainly is.

And I'm reminded, I'm here for another

Christmas.

I made another one.

it is something and each day is a gift and we look at that and think about the things if we really refocus on what matters no I think this is a great time of year to do that and today because we have a pause in our our day-to-day we get a chance to see some of those things that don't I'm I'm here this I don't want to just completely just just brush right over this

because some folks may think, well, this is great.

This is, you know,

sure,

maybe that did happen for you,

but I haven't seen any miracles in my life.

People are listening right now that are really hurting.

Yes.

And I want to make sure that we address, because you went through a long period of rehabilitation where you

maybe even asked the question of, why, God, why?

Oh, sure.

Yeah.

I want to talk about the hospital bed asking that question every day.

Don,

we've got to take a break here.

Hang on.

I got to take a break, unfortunately.

We'll come back and answer that question.

And also, folks want to know, wait a minute, you went to heaven.

What was that like?

I don't want to miss that because, boy, that's a big piece of the story as well.

Don Piper, author of 90 Minutes in Heaven,

what was that hell like

on earth after he came back?

We'll talk about that next

when we're back on the Glenn Beck program.

888-727-BEC

is the number you can join us.

888-727-B-E-C-K.

I'm Justin Barkley in for Glenn today on a very special Christmas Eve edition of the Glenn Beck program.

Merry Christmas.

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Welcome back.

Merry Christmas.

A very special program and a time to, well, to do something a little different.

You know, every now and then we need a break

from the chaos, from the insanity, the hustle and bustle, and a chance to sort of re-center and focus on what matters most

this time of year.

Our guest, Don Piper, author of 90 Minutes in Heaven, just talking about the story.

He died 30 years ago or so in Texas on a highway.

But yet he's on with us today and talking about how that happened,

how his life was saved, what happened, the miracle that took place in the wreckage.

Boy, what a metaphor for each of our lives.

As I say that,

I'm struck by the fact that miracles can happen in our wreckage, in our mess, no matter where we are, no matter how bad off we think we are.

Things can happen, and they do every day, Don.

They do.

If you can get killed in a car wreck on the way to church, you'd better be ready all the time.

Accidents do happen.

I never thought for a minute that this was some kind of...

I mean, I know this man didn't get in a truck that morning and say, I'm going to go out and kill somebody.

So it, you know, it just happens, and it's not what happens to you.

It's what you do with it.

I lay there in the the hospital bed for all those months and I really became profoundly depressed you say oh well you're you're a Christian pastor would you know that they don't become depressed well they certainly do

maybe talking to some right now

it

I didn't I was given very little hope.

I mean, they didn't think they would be able to save my leg.

They didn't think that they would be able to save my arm.

I was going to be

really maimed for the rest of my life.

As it turns out, they were able to do it through some very experimental procedures, but I really descended into depression.

I wanted to talk to somebody who understood what I was going through, and the devices they installed on me, external fixators, had never been put on somebody on a femur before.

So I was in a unique situation where there was literally no one I could talk to about this because no one had experienced this.

And

that really sent me back a great deal.

And so, one morning while I was really talking to God, there was nobody in the hospital room

but me and him.

And I said to him, why can't you send someone here who understands how I feel?

If I could just talk to somebody that could give me some hope about the future, whatever it is, I can handle it.

But I'm living in such a period of uncertainty.

And I think Christmas time is a time when we reflect on that.

Maybe we've lost a loved one this year.

Maybe we are not in a financial situation where we could really provide for our family the way we want.

A lot of things may be going on, bankruptcy, divorce, all sorts of things.

And so I found myself in a, not a hopeless situation, but a helpless situation.

And God spoke to me that morning and said, it's not about you.

It's about what I can do through you now that I could not do before the truck hit you.

You need to turn your test into a testimony and your mess into a message and reach out to other people.

Instead of, you know, pleading with me, God speaking, about how I can help you, you need to help other people because now you're equipped in a better fashion than you ever were before the truck hits you.

You need to take the same hand you're shaking at me and reach out to other people and help them up.

And that changed my life.

I'm not a particularly outwardly emotional person, but I began to weep at that point and continued to do it until the sun came up the next morning.

And that was the first day of the rest of my life and so what I've been trying to do ever since is trying to get people into heaven but also help them have a better trip on the way and we can all do that we could take our sum total of experiences instead of having a pity party which I was having and reach out to other people and help them through and then we'll understand why we went through that

It was in preparation for ministering to other people.

So that is what I gathered out of a lot of things that happened to me, including get hit by

head-aud by an A-Twheeler, was to realize that we're really here to help everyone else get there.

And that's what I do every day of my life.

That's what I'm doing right now.

It sounds like you found your ⁇ you really found and discovered your calling and your purpose.

I did.

I had to get by a truck to figure that out, but I mean, I did.

And listen, God forbid that any of us have to get hit by a truck to figure that out.

But thankfully, you did, so you could tell us about it.

No, I wouldn't wish it on anybody, really.

But as I said earlier, it's not what happens to you, it's what you do with it.

And so a lot of people have had a lot of things happen to us as we come to the end of another year.

And it's about the future.

It's about what we can do now to be a blessing to other people.

And

if we focus on that and we determine to do that, God will help us do that.

And then we'll know why we went through the things that we went through in 2019.

And hope for a better 2020

beyond.

And that's something that I think

that's missing a lot from maybe our

conversation these days.

You watch the news, you turn on the TV, and everything seems like the sky is falling, but there is hope.

You're right, Justin.

It can seem like an awfully dark night.

And I went through a long series of dark nights even during the day.

And so I do understand what it's like to be,

you know, hit the bottom.

There's one good thing that can happen when you hit the bottom, you can push off.

And I did hit the bottom.

And,

you know, if I needed to, I know now why I'm here every day.

And

it is to help people get to heaven.

And on a day-to-day basis, help them have a better life now.

That really is what Christmas is about.

And as we turn the page on another year, and they are relentless,

maybe this is the year where

we can leave a lot of that stuff behind, the things that just bind us and

capture us and beat us down.

I believe in that.

I think it's crucial.

And hopefully, for a lot of people who are listening, this will be a turning point.

I want to talk about what it was like in heaven for you.

But first,

Don, I hear you saying that one of the keys that you learn to having a better life now is shifting your focus from you, your mess, and your wreckage, and shifting it towards others in a way to serve and maybe help other people.

Is that what I'm hearing?

It absolutely is.

We can concentrate and focus on the wrecks in our life.

And let's face it,

there are going to be some.

If there haven't been any, there will be.

And I'm not trying to be pessimistic.

I want to be realistic.

But

it's not that.

We can be devastated and we will be, and we can be hurt, and we will be, and we can have a lot of things happen.

But if we stay there, if we live in that kind of condition, then that is no life.

That is not a life.

But when we start looking beyond ourselves, when we start looking at other people who have similar situations and hold their hand and say, I understand how you feel, they found somebody who gets it.

And that's all I ever wanted.

I just wanted to find somebody who get who who

understood what I was going through.

We all go through terrible things, but it's it's th that's not the point.

The point is getting through with the terrible thing and then looking around for opportunities where you can help someone else do the same thing.

And and then you'll kind of understand, okay, now I know why I went through that.

It was p to prepare me to help these people get through to the other side.

And when you do that, it'll put a whole new,

it'll be a whole new chapter in your life.

It'll be a discovery that will give you hope.

And hope is really all we have in life is hope.

Hope that tomorrow will be a good day, that hope that we'll get the job that we're trying to get, hope that we'll pay the bills,

hope that we have a healthy existence.

There's no guarantees.

I mean, the one guarantee in life is this ends and you need to be ready for what happens next.

But we can have a meaningful life on the way, even though it always won't be perfect.

It is, if we have a goal and we're trying to look beyond ourselves and reach out to other people, then we really can make a difference when it's all over.

Don Piper's on with us right now, author of 90 Minutes in Heaven.

And that book, you can read more about the story and in doubt.

They actually did a movie about it as well.

But what was it like in heaven?

We talk about making this trip there a better place and how you can make this life a better trip on the way back.

Let me talk about that and what he experienced maybe in heaven, Don, when we come back.

We're going to take a quick break.

We're back in just a few minutes here with Don Piper, author of 90 Minutes in Heaven.

He died 30 years ago, but yet he's on the phone with us today.

He'll share the rest of his story right after this.

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Hey, Merry Christmas.

It's Justin Barkley in for Glenn today on the Glenbeck program and a special day, a special Christmas Eve edition.

of the Glenback Program.

And we're talking with Don Piper, author of 90 Minutes in Heaven, DonPiper Ministries.com.

Well, we've talked about how he died on that road in Texas all those years ago and how he came back, what that road was like before him after he came back, and

all the pain and

the wreckage he went through.

But the most important part is that God brought him back.

And now, Don, you know, people really want to know what it was like in heaven.

So I don't want to waste any more time.

We've only got a few minutes to describe this.

Can you give us five minutes in heaven?

Five minutes in heaven.

See, there's another book

for someone out there.

Well, I came back so I could be on the Glenn Beck show today with you.

I immediately, the moment the truck struck me, was standing at the gates of heaven.

The Bible tells us in Revelation that there are 12 gates in heaven, and we will be at one of them.

And

I was there.

I didn't go down a long tunnel to win the bright light at the end of the tunnel.

I do think that's an authentic experience, but I think when you're in a 100-mile-an-hour collision, you're just there.

And I was surrounded by people I had known and loved in life and had preceded me in death.

I was somewhat shocked by that.

Not that they were there, but they knew I was coming.

I believe everyone in heaven knows who's coming.

The Bible says that

when we trust the Lord, when we give our hearts to him, our names are immediately written in a book up there, like a registration book that they call the Lamb's Book of Life.

And so the people in heaven are expecting us, and they were.

And I was greeted by the people who actually helped me get there.

There were people who took me to church when I was a kid, before I was a believer.

They gave me a Bible when I didn't have one.

They certainly lived a Christian life in front of me, so I knew what one was, even though I wasn't one yet.

And so their influence on me, their witness to me, caused me to be in a position where I knew one day that's what I needed to do, and I made that decision to go at the age of 16.

I just wasn't planning to die at 38 on a lonely highway in East Texas.

Who knows when that day is?

We don't.

Jesus had the Last Supper.

We're going to have one one day, too.

We just won't know what it is.

So I wasn't planning to die that day, nor were any of the people who greeted me, but they were were prepared when the time came, no matter whether they were 80 or 18.

And some of them had been those ages when they were

tragically killed or died of an illness or old age.

So above them was this magnificent gate.

It looks like the inside of an oyster.

It is made of pearl.

Truly, it is a gate made of pearl.

I could see inside the gate, there seems to be a boulevard leading to the center of the city, and it is a city with high walls and

thick walls, as a matter of fact.

And I could see through this, down this golden boulevard, to a pinnacle high and lifted up.

There are thrones at the top of that pinnacle.

The brightest light I have ever seen is emanating from that throne.

I went through angels.

They're everywhere.

I could not only hear their voices, I could hear their wings actually flapping above me.

I believe they're the ones who bear us up to heaven.

I heard music unlike any music I've ever heard here.

And there was a lot of it, thousands of songs at the same time without chaos, because they were symbiotic.

They all fit together.

I experienced colors I've never seen before.

Heaven is a sensory explosion.

It is simply the most real thing that's ever happened to me.

And

I wasn't thinking about Earth.

I didn't miss people down here.

I expected them.

And so you don't miss them.

And since no time is passing, they'll immediately arrive for us

because

decades may pass here, but there are no decades in heaven.

So people in heaven don't miss you.

They expect you.

It was a glorious experience.

They greeted me.

We exchanged love for each other, sometimes verbally and sometimes without even speaking.

We did move forward because I obviously wanted to go inside.

That's That's what I was there for.

And I did go inside.

I approached the gate, which is not, the portal is not very big.

It's really just big enough for one person, and that is how we get into heaven, one at a time.

And so I'm going in.

The wall is very thick and emerging on the inside and thinking, I want to move down this boulevard as fast as possible.

I want to approach that hill and fall at the feet of the great God of all creation and try to verbalize, if I could, thank you for letting me come.

But I

got a chance.

I know that there's far more to this story.

And if folks want to read the book, they should get it.

It is a fantastic book.

90 Minutes in Heaven.

They made a movie out of it too.

DonpiperMinistries.com.

I just want to thank you for being here with us today, Don.

Honored.

And sharing some hope with us.

Thank you.

My very best to Glenn.

And I'm delighted to be here.

Merry Christmas to everyone, and certainly a wonderful new year.

Merry Christmas, Don.

We're back next with more of this very special Merry Christmas,

Christmas Eve edition of the Glenbeck program.

I'm Justin Barkley in for Glenn.

Listening to Glenn Beck.

The fusion of entertainment and enlightenment.

This is the Glenbeck program.

It is Justin Barclay in for Glenn today on the Glenbeck program, a very special Christmas Eve edition.

And we've talked all morning about the opportunity we have to pause, to take a breath in this moment, to clear the hustle and the bustle and focus on what really matters instead of the news that's off the noise.

Coming through our speakers, watching on TV, and of course, out of Washington, D.C., enough hot air

to

really to pause and take a moment on what matters most

or reflect.

So I want to give you an opportunity to weigh in, too, because I think that's an advantage we have.

We talked about all the great things that are happening, the economy and all of the major things, the resurgences.

We've seen the jobs reports, the amazing things that are happening.

We were told would never come back.

All these things we were told life is just going to be different.

But we have...

an amazing way of life these days.

And if we focus on the good, I think we'll find more of it.

And I'd like to do some of that.

I want to share some good news.

And if you've got some, we'll give you a chance to do that right after this.

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Yeah, it's Justin.

Justin Barkley back on the Glenback program.

Merry Christmas.

And like I said, I want to focus on some of the good things because

when you look for it,

you'll find it.

There's something interesting that happens in our brains.

Matter of fact, this is kind of a biblical thing.

They talk about seek and you shall find in the Bible.

But scientists have found something to confirm this.

There is something inside of our brain card, the RAS, the reticular activating system.

It's kind of like the new car effect.

So what happens is you go shopping for a new car and you find that beautiful

machine that you want.

If you've ever had a chance to do this.

You look at it, you look at all, maybe a bunch of different models, but you find the one that you land on, right?

And you're in love.

And you sign the paperwork and you're ready to drive off that lot.

And the minute you do,

something interesting happens.

Let's say you got a bright web Volkswagen beetle.

You drive that bug out and then you're driving down the road.

And, you know,

you are feeling pretty special, but you start to notice

well there's another one

and there's another one and there's another one and I could if you've seen them everywhere I look

that's a reticular activating system it's a pattern recognition

system

that happens inside of our brains so what you look for

you'll find more of

That's why I choose to focus on the good.

And matter of fact, I'm going to give you a chance to help us all do that today and focus on the good.

I think we are stronger together here.

We can do great things with the help of each other.

And I would love to see what's good and what's happening

in your life or in your neck of the woods.

You got something magical, something miraculous, or just something special that you want to share with us?

Here's the number: 888-727-BEC.

That's 1-888-727-B-E-C-K.

I'm going to go to the phone lines.

I'm going to give you a chance to share.

But first, I want to welcome in a couple of guests who are doing some great things, a chance to shine a spotlight on some amazing things that are happening because there is no shortage.

Sure, we hear a lot about the craziness, but there's no shortage.

of good things that are happening right here on a daily basis.

probably right underneath your nose if you only look for them you'll find them taya kyle the wife of chris kyle you probably remember and saw that film

american sniper chris kyle foundation is the foundation taya joins us along with adam davis from the chris kyle foundation today welcome to the program we appreciate you guys being here with us and merry christmas merry christmas thank you justin

Oh, Taya just dropped off.

We're going to try and get her back on.

Our elves are working behind the scenes.

But Adam, we want to to give you...

It's a Christmas miracle.

We'll get her back on.

I want to give you a chance to talk about what is happening, of course, maybe some of the things

that you all are working on right now and some of the great things that you do

with

the Chris Kyle Foundation and where it got its start.

Tell us a little bit about who Chris was.

Hey, it's Taya.

I just jumped back on.

Hey, Taya, how are you?

You know, we got you back, and then we lost Adam.

So they're going to get Adam back.

But I think you're probably best to tell us.

Yeah, yeah.

No, it's good to see you to see how well you can jump around this morning and wake you up a little bit.

Yeah,

and Chris is obviously such a great guy and had a tremendous sense of humor.

He was a loving father.

He's a great husband.

And I think part of what people are finding they really relate to is that he really had this desire to be just himself and not the picture of what maybe everybody would want him to be.

And he didn't get affected by notoriety.

I think that's the coolest thing about him is that he was just himself.

You saw him on TV the same way you see him at the house.

I mean maybe

you know I don't think people got to see as much of his humor except for maybe a the Conan O'Brien interview I think is on YouTube and that one I think people got to see him laugh a little bit more but he was always laughing and had that sparkle in his eye and I think that's a part of him that I wish more people got to see.

What is the Chris Kyle Foundation?

Yes, it's the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation.

And the reason there's the word frog in there is that Navy seals are also known as frogmen, land and water.

And so

that fallen seal is represented by a skeleton of a frog.

And that was near and dear to Chris's heart.

So it's a horrible business or marketing thing to do to have named it the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation because nobody knows what that is really but but it was a sentimental thing and we started it after he was killed because Chris and I had discussed and we're working toward trying to start something to help more families originally we wanted to help a couple of families and then as we started down that process we just realized that the mission was much better if we could serve more families with proceeds from the book and anything else that we got in that way so

we have this foundation now that is to honor and serve the marriages of those who serve and we realize that there's this missing puzzle piece people want to have understandably they want PTS to be treated properly I do too we're not going to find that in the VA typically and we want to decrease alcohol and drug addiction we certainly want to decrease suicide and what studies are showing is that 80% of the suicides are relationship related in this community.

I feel like that's a really important thing for people to realize because they see see more evil in the world than others.

The world is not a safe, beautiful place a lot of times when you're fighting evil consistently.

And so they need a safe place at home, perhaps even more than other people do.

And when that's in peril, and it often is because it's a difficult lifestyle and there are no, previously there have been no tools for them to deal with these marriages differently than you would a civilian marriage.

But we've...

At the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation, we've been able to work with Baylor University and develop a curriculum for these couples as well as for civilian counselors who can now come get continuing education credits through Baylor University and learn about the service marriage because it's just different.

I'm just super excited about it.

I feel honored and blessed to be able to lead the charge.

And

we've got some conversations that are going to happen nationally to highlight this as the missing puzzle piece, right?

You can help all of these issues if you can get the couple at home on the same team to be healthy and whole, right now they're both just depleted and isolated even within the marriage.

And that's not, you know, that's not going to work for healing.

You know, we're talking with Taya Kyle right now, wife of Chris Kyle, Chris Kyle Frog Foundation.

And we'll tell you a little bit more how to help here in just a moment.

But Taya, refresh our memory and let me know exactly

how did Chris lose his life?

What happened?

Yeah, so, you know, he was always helping people.

And I think that's another part of him that he just, it was part of him.

He did it quietly.

He did it on the side.

He didn't do it for any fanfare.

And so whether it was a storm and he just went out and started helping neighbors, truly

driving around looking for people to help, knowing people were in need, that was just a part of his personality and his heart.

So when he was dropping our kids off at elementary school, there was a mom who came out and tearfully said that her son needed some help and had PTS.

So of course, Chris went out of his way to go talk to her in a manner that would be comfortable for her and find out more.

He

had no idea that this guy who eventually murdered Chris and his friend, Chad, had the issues that he had.

The mom, to my understanding, didn't express any of those things, which would have been really important information, life-saving information for Chris.

She communicated that her son had PTS, PTSD.

Psychiatrists in the murder trial testified that he did not have any traumatic event in his life.

He didn't have PTS.

He never saw combat.

It was even outside of the military, according to them, he didn't have trauma.

So

it appeared to me, in my opinion, this guy was using it to get out of trouble and to get things handed to him.

And so Chris unknowingly went and did what he'd done with hundreds of other veterans.

He took him out to a peaceful place and he said, hey, do you like to shoot?

The guy seemed really excited about it.

And so he went through great effort, left his family.

Chris left our family on a Saturday morning, took his friend Chad Littlefield.

They went and drove an hour.

It was supposed to give the guy time to talk and just be at peace and kind of unwind.

And then they would go shoot.

They brought some different guns like Old West, replicas, and just some things that would kind of be guys outdoors able to focus on some things instead of sitting across a table, you know, with eyes piercing into each other.

So this works really well.

for people all the time.

And this guy just made a choice for evil, in my opinion.

I mean, that's, that's, I don't know any other way to describe it.

He waited for a brief window of time.

And he, if not simultaneously, then back to back, killed Chad and Chris multiple gunshots, you know, up and down their bodies.

And he had to wait until a perfect, I mean, there was like one second, two second window that he would have had to do this, and he did it.

You know, he said later he sold his soul for a truck.

I mean, you know, he took Chris's truck and

took off.

So, and then was making a run for it.

I mean, you know, you can't even say really

insanity because insanity means you don't know right from wrong.

And he clearly did at this point when he made these choices and then left.

So anyway, long story short, or I guess, yeah, he died doing what he lived doing, which was helping people.

We lost a hero.

We lost a brave man and one of the best of us that day.

But

what's fascinating to me is that he lives on and his spirit lives on.

And what you've chosen to do, pick up the pieces and move forward.

And Tay, I want to share more about that because that's the important part here.

Tay have Kyle joins us, the

Chris Kyle Frog Foundation.

Quick break, and we're back right after this in 90 seconds.

It's Justin Barkley in for Glenn today on the Glenn Beck program.

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Got to give you a chance to join in and give us some good news today.

Share some of those bright things because I believe there are plenty of them to go around in our world today.

888-727-BECT.

That's 888-727-B-E-C-K.

It's Justin Barkley in for Glenn Back today on the Glen Back program.

And on the phone with us, Taya Kyle, Chris Kyle's wife, the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation is the name of the foundation.

Just talking a little bit about who Chris was and his legacy living on today.

I'm going to share a little bit more about how that's happening and some of the positive things that are happening as she's chosen to move forward this way.

Adam Davis joins, too, a good friend and author Behind the Badge and Bulletproof Marriage.

And I know Adam working closely with the foundation now and Taya to do some great things.

Welcome back on, guys.

We appreciate you being here.

Thank you for having me, Justin.

So let's pick up now where folks are seeing some major.

I mean, you just go to the website and you can read more about what's happening.

But some major things are happening, some people.

Lives being restored, families being brought together and saved in a lot of ways because of the work you guys are doing.

Yeah, it's been really an honor, and I'd love to let Adam talk a little bit more about his experiences.

But it was cool when I felt like it was this divine intervention where Adam and I met and had this shared mission.

I know, you know, Justin, we talked a little bit about the fact that...

Marriage is this missing puzzle piece that most people don't see the importance of, but they're starting to.

We're starting that national conversation that it's the missing puzzle piece to so many issues that our veterans and their families are facing so when I met up with Adam and saw that he was already on that same page he had written Bulletproof Marriage which is this incredible devotional makes it simple asks questions of these couples I could see that he was on the same page of diving into how do we make this simple for service couples when marriage is a complex issue but you know how do we do that and help them save themselves and their families so Adam you know tell them a little bit more i guess about how you got down that journey and what brought you there

You know,

it really was born out of a place of need.

As a former law enforcement officer,

I would go and search for resources and wanted to provide something that was really relevant and applicable and easy to implement.

And that's what Bulletproof Marriage is.

I co-authored it with Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, and

he introduced me to my friend Marcus Luttrell, and Marcus introduced me to Taya, and we had a few conversations, and she narrated the audio version of Bulletproof Marriage so graciously.

And it comes packed with about three hours of bonus discussions.

So you basically have an audio book and podcast all in one, which is very unique.

But it was really born out of a place of need.

That's where it came from.

I know that I was in a very dark place, and had it not been for a strong marriage, I don't know where I'd be today.

And it's not always easy, but it's something that if you put the work in and if you put together some very practical tips and some daily work,

you can really make it work.

And it will not just survive, you can thrive.

And you can have the best life, a better life you ever dreamed of if you're willing to do the work.

And so a huge honor to be able to work alongside the team at the Chris Cowl Frog Foundation with Taya and to be able to sort of multiply the efforts.

And I mean, we are truly better together.

You know, I was just thinking the same thing.

And we're stronger with each other.

We need each other.

And we step up and take care of each other.

Especially these folks have gone on and served.

They deserve our service when they come back.

No matter whether that be here at home or overseas, we've got to step up and do the right thing.

I know that you are making these things happen, Taya and Adam, by folks stepping up and doing some things together to help.

ChrisKyleFrogfoundation.com or is it.org?

Which one is it?org.

CKFF.org.

Yeah.

So if you want to go, you can help out.

Tell us a little bit how we can help out and what we can do to make maybe take a stand and say, look,

we're going to make sure that we take care of these folks who've served us.

Yeah, we have a couple of different ways.

If they go to the website, as you said, it's ChrisKyleFrogFoundation.org.

One of the unique things that we did is we created a Warriors Club, and that's something that people can sign up for monthly.

They get different perks with different levels of sponsorship, but it can be as low as $1.99 a month and it goes up from there.

But I feel like that's the one easy way to just monthly donate a little bit.

And

we've really done some hard work to try to figure out how we can get the best bang for our buck.

And when we help these married couples, we stay with them for two years.

And so these families are staying together with longevity from us, a commitment that we're not going to just one and done leave them.

And I think that makes a big difference and certainly is one of the ways that we're very, very unique.

So funding tends to be our biggest issue since it is a long-term project.

I think that's that's one way.

And then aside from what we're doing with the foundation, and there are other ways, you know, buying our merchandise and all that stuff helps.

But I think the other part of this is to spread the awareness that marriage is the issue.

I know a lot of people in the civilian world think that, you know, marriage is just marriage.

Some work, some don't.

Yes, we see the impact on the family, but it's so different for these service couples.

They either get stationed to another state and don't see their kids anymore, or they don't have treatment for issues related to stress.

And they are more, I think, you know, prone to some different addiction things because they're trying to escape the evils of the world that they see.

And they're evils we can't really imagine.

The things that they see with domestic violence, child abuse, overseas and at home, the terrorist murder.

I mean, you know, the worst of the worst is what they face, and they need our support.

They don't know if they should bring it home to their spouse and connect, or if they should not bring it home.

I mean, the issues facing them are much different, and so they need our help.

So, awareness is a big deal to be a friend to their marriage.

If you know somebody that is in the service community,

you know, find a way to be a good ear and to encourage them to keep their marriage and

find them either help that

is around for them.

Either, I mean, there just aren't that many options though.

There are sacred spaces which.

Taya and Adam, there is an option that folks now are being able to plug into, and that's the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation.

ChrisKyleFrogfoundation.org is where you can go to help out.

We're back with more good news you can share right after this on the Glenn Beck program.

You're listening to Glenn Beck.

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Oh, man.

I just,

I want to say this.

It's wild to me to be here with you today

on such a special day

in so many different ways.

And

I will share with you why it's so special to me here.

It's Justin Barkley, M for Glenn, on the Glenn Beck program.

It's pretty wild.

Let me tell you,

it is

much as I can in the most condensed way what has happened to me in my life

and the dramatic change and transformation that's occurred in the last nine months.

I am truly grateful to be here, but in more ways than one.

And as I look back, it is no doubt to me that the dots

connect.

In the last nine months, I've lost 82 pounds.

I have reunited

with my birth mother and biological father and the families

of both

after 40 years

and throughout this entire process,

a fire has been lit inside of me,

reignited

and restored, a deeper meaning and deeper purpose.

A revealing of my identity, who I am, and what

I'm supposed to do.

And why does that matter?

And why should you care?

It's because

it directly affects you and who you are.

And I'll share more about this at some other time.

And I share more actually on my website at justinbarklay.com.

If you ever want to email me or just reach out and say hi and talk about anything, Justin at Justin Barklay, B-A-R-C-L-A-Y dot com.

That'd be a great place to do it.

But I started in radio because it's all I ever wanted to do as a kid.

I started in radio

23 years ago today.

My first job

was on Christmas Eve at a country radio station.

I had to play the Christmas country music.

And boy, I was excited to do it in high school.

I think the only reason they gave me this job is because they needed somebody then.

This is before they had the computers running everything.

They needed somebody then just to keep the radio station on the air.

Yeah, we'll trust this kid to do it.

He can't screw up much.

And I did.

I was thrilled to do it.

One of the greatest gifts.

And And today ranks up there.

Right there with him.

But I've had so many great gifts throughout my life.

I've really been blessed.

It would take me a full hour to go through everything that's happened in my life.

I'll tell you that I was adopted, and the story is very simple.

The family that adopted me tried and tried to have kids, my mother and father, through multiple miscarriages.

They just couldn't have a child of their own.

And so they decided they would adopt

and they would give

another child a home.

They got the word that they were going to get me, and this is amazing.

And the miraculous fact that the dots connect is not lost on me because I look back and see that God had a plan.

This is fascinating.

That I, and I just learned this, maybe a couple of months ago,

I came home to live with them.

Yep, they picked me up

a day

after my mom's birthday.

She had been through a lot watching other friends and family and folks have children.

I can't imagine the pressure, and of course, the thoughts that were in her head,

the questions she might have had for God,

and possibly the anger.

But there was

a gift for them, a little baby boy.

Now I was given a gift because I was given a home.

Can you imagine that if I told you all of these things are connected, these things that I've been telling you about, because they are,

can you imagine that my brother was born

a year later, their

biological son?

Now, this is not uncommon.

This does happen quite a bit.

Usually, when the pressure comes off, things like that.

But God has a funny way of working things out, doesn't he?

He's got a plan.

There were so many ways, and in so many instances throughout my life that I look back now, seeing that everything has led me here to where I am today, and I think everything has led each of us to where we are

when we look back we will focus and find that the dots do connect

one of the things that's important and able to see that happen

is to develop and cultivate a spirit of gratitude

And so I start each day with a very simple thing.

I thank God for three things.

Usually I just make a little note, write down in a little journal, the three things that I'm thankful for now.

And it could be anything.

In America, I'll tell you this much.

It could be everything, but simply the fact that we walk into the bathroom in the morning, flip on a light switch, and we have electricity and light like that.

It could be that when you walk over to the shower and you turn on the water, you have hot water.

Oh, and it's clean.

Many places in the world where they don't.

So looking for those things, as I said earlier, focusing on the good good makes all the difference.

It's allowed me to see the dots have connected.

Giving thanks for the blessings has led to more blessings.

Back in March, on March 1st, there was a letter in my mailbox.

It was from the Department of

Health from the state that I was born in.

I knew immediately what it was because earlier the previous year, they had just passed a law where they could unseal the records and adoptees could go find their birth parents.

Now, I wanted to know who I was, where I came from, medical information, history, things like that.

But I really wanted to know

the story.

I had bits and pieces of it, but it turned out not much of it was true.

Some of it was.

One thing,

my birth mother had requested I be raised in a home where they would bring me to church.

And as I said,

he had a plan.

The dots

connect.

So, 40 years later, when I'm ripping open this piece of paper and tearing into the envelope, and I stare at it for the first time, I see, there it is, my birth mother's name.

I see who she is.

I give it to a friend of mine who's a private investigator in Ohio.

and he's able to find her and get her on the phone within an hour.

I find out I have a brother.

They have a very close relationship, as I can imagine they would.

She wants to tell him the good news, and then she'll get in contact with me the next day.

So I go to bed that night, heartful, very happy, optimistic, and hopeful that the next day I'm going to learn some more things, some new information.

But I wake up in the middle of the night because I think God just woke me up like about 3 a.m.

And I do what I probably shouldn't do.

Well, what I normally would not recommend, but I reach over and I grab that phone.

I just think to myself, not having any more information, just her maiden name.

I wonder if I put that into Facebook if I can find her.

And sure enough,

I do.

She pops right up.

There she is.

My mama.

For the first time, I'm looking at somebody and a picture of someone

who looks like me.

Now, I know you may take that for granted because you probably grew up like this has always been your life, but I have never been able to look at someone else and look into the eyes of someone staring back at me who looked just like me.

So I scrolled through pictures, I looked at other folks, family members, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, you name it.

And for the first time, I saw saw folks who looked just like me.

And a thought popped in my head.

At 355 pounds at this point, I'm scrolling on Facebook, looking at my phone in the middle of the night, thinking to myself,

hmm.

These other folks are average or

fit or

normal looking.

Maybe I don't have to be heavy.

See, I've been always heavy throughout my entire life, even as a kid.

But the next thought, I think, is the thought that changed everything.

It went from maybe I don't have to be heavy to maybe

I'm not supposed to be.

In that very moment, I didn't realize it, but that single thought set off a chain reaction, one after one, where the dots connected, leading even to this day.

Losing 80 pounds, reuniting with these folks, rediscovering and reigniting a purpose, a fire burning deep inside of me that wasn't quite there before.

I've been through some really dark nights.

I'm just here to tell you today

that there is a bright shining light, and that hope is a real thing.

Share some good news with you, and I'd hope you'd share some good news with me.

888-727-BEC.

888-727-BECK.

I'm going to give you an opportunity to do just that today

as we put the wraps on the very special Christmas Eve edition of the Glen Beck program.

It has been an honor, it has been a privilege, a sheer joy to share this moment and this day with you.

We're back right after this.

It's Justin Barkley.

In for Glenn today on the Glenn Beck program.

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Hey, it's Justin Barkley.

Get more good news, JustinBarkley.com.

I'd like to share that, and I'd love to share some of your good news.

If you've got some, 888-727, B-E-C-K.

That's 888-727-BEC.

Let's go to James in Ohio, who's up first on the Glen Beck program.

Merry Christmas, James.

How are you?

Merry Christmas.

It's an honor to be here.

I just was driving in my car, and I heard the story of the gentleman who'd been to heaven for nine hours, and then, I mean, for an hour and a half, and and then you sort of called in if you had a Christmas miracle.

Well, I'm 75 years old, and 38 and a half years ago, when I pastored the

Tiffany Assemblies of God's Church here in Ohio, I had a heart attack that lasted 13 hours.

That's a long time, 38 and a half years ago.

And coming into Sunday morning,

We had a guest speaker from Columbus come in and speak for me because I was in the midst of the heart attack.

And about about nine o'clock Sunday morning or so they told my wife there wasn't much it could do.

I was not responding to the medication.

They had a blood thinner back then called heparin and so it was all in God's hands.

A long story short the guy who came in had the church pray for an hour and a half instead of preaching and my heart attack stopped during that hour and a half.

Then it was a long recovery.

It was a year before I even got to preach again.

And

the Lord brought me through it.

And my doctor, 10 months after the heart attack, my family doctor, good Christian Catholic man, said, Jim, we believe there was faith in God and prayer that kept you alive.

Wow.

And

I said to my doctor, Bella Jongala, I said, can I quote you?

And he said, why?

And I said, well, because our church prints things, you just gave God credit.

for something you couldn't do.

And so he wrote the medical.

So I had to have the lady in my church who wrote for Reader's I just some articles and Christian Jim that that's an incredible story buddy I mean that that's something else and that is a Christmas miracle AJ in Michigan I gotta I appreciate your call I'm gonna run through some of these if I can AJ you're up next hey Justin how you doing you're live on the air buddy we only got about 30 seconds okay real quick I think well first of all my one of my big gifts I think I receive here is I'm like you I got down a little bit in my weight.

I'm 40, a little over 40 pounds.

And that, sir, is partially due to you.

You get some credit on that one, so that's kind of a Merry Christmas to you.

Wow.

But also,

you've been talking about the things that are making these things real.

I think part of it is realizing that God is real, and he's in control.

So whatever happens throughout our day, throughout our life, the news, we just have to realize that.

We also need to be...

gracious and give gratitude.

I think not realizing even the little things we anticipate these big holidays and big major things in our life, we miss the little things from day to day.

Yeah.

That's right.

Well, AJ, and I appreciate your phone call.

Thank you, buddy.

That means a lot to me.

I want to tell you right now, it's not lost to me.

There are little things, just the fact that we can be here with each other today and

you're taking breaths, drawing them in and out.

I have a friend right now who has

family, like family, brother whose mother's in the hospital, and

I really would would appreciate your prayers for them in this time.

I wish you all the very best.

This Merry Christmas.

JustinBarklay.com.

It's a pleasure.

Thank you.

Glenn Beck program.

You're listening to Glenn Beck.