Sermons on the Side

68 | The Spurs of Service with Special Guest: Jacob P. Kelly

• Richard Moore & Brad Williams • Episode 68

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 55:29

This week on Sermons on the Side, we sit down with Jacob P. Kelly - a career military serviceman stationed at Ft Benning, a man of deep faith, and the author of The Spurs of Service. In this powerful and honest conversation, Jake shares his journey through military service, fatherhood, faith, and the inspiration behind his collection of poetry and writings that explore the raw emotions many men carry but rarely talk about. 

Raised in Texas and shaped by both the cowboy way and the warrior’s heart, Jake opens up about courage, vulnerability, purpose, and what it means to lead with both strength and humility. From stories of service and sacrifice to reflections on identity, manhood, and trusting God through life’s hardest moments, this episode is filled with wisdom, grit, and encouragement for anyone walking through life’s battles. 

As Memorial Day weekend reminds us of the sacrifices made by the men and women of our armed forces, we’re honored to highlight Jake's story and celebrate those who faithfully serve this country. And by the end of this episode, you’ll hear the moving testimony of Jake and Ashley’s daughter - a beautiful story of perseverance, faith, healing, and the incredible bond between a father and his little girl. 

Whether you love stories of faith, military life, Christian encouragement, poetry, resilience, or conversations about authentic masculinity and emotional  honesty, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

Send us Fan Mail

Sermons on the Side Bible Readings

Connect with us on our FACEBOOK page

Connect with us on INSTAGRAM @sermons_on_the_side_podcast

Check out our website HERE

Love the show? If you’re enjoying the stories, laughs, and conversations we share here, we’d be so grateful if you’d consider “buying us a cup of coffee” to help keep things brewing. It’s a simple way to show your support and keep the podcast going strong!

Here’s the link: buymeacoffee.com/sermonsontheside

Thank you for being part of the journey with us!


SPEAKER_05

Welcome to Sermons on the Side. I'm Brad. And I'm Richard. And life can move pretty fast. So we're here to slow down, dig deep, and find the story hidden in everyday moments.

SPEAKER_01

With years spent in ministry, friendship, and navigating real life together, we're all about blending humor, honesty, and faith into conversations that meet you right where you are.

SPEAKER_05

So whether you're brand new or you're back for more, we are so glad you are here.

SPEAKER_01

So relaxed, listen in, and let's discover meaning together.

SPEAKER_05

In the ordinary, the messy, and everything in between.

SPEAKER_01

Sermons on the side, finding meaning in the everyday.

SPEAKER_00

So we begrudgingly got this cat whose name is Pickles. Um by the way. He was so sick. They were like, hey, we can't charge you for him because we don't think he's gonna make it. But it was the cat she wanted. That was the cat. Now, who does pickles sleep with? Me. Who does he crawl under the lap of? Me. So that's why that question. I I love dogs, but this I'm I'm not a cat of dog, I'm a dog person with a pickles caveat.

SPEAKER_05

Buckle up, strap in, and get ready for an awesome episode. We are on the cut of Memorial Day weekend. Dude, is it is there any other weekend in the month or in the springtime that's better than Memorial Day weekend? Come on, man. Gotta love it. I just I'm so looking forward to it. The sun is out, the the pollen is mostly gone. The Braves keep winning. Rickard, how are you, Story?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, doing well, doing well. And because it's Memorial Day weekend coming up, you are sitting here right now listening to a very special Memorial Day weekend episode of Sermons on the Side. We've been promising you guys that this is gonna be a special one. Indeed, it is.

SPEAKER_05

That's right. We've been sitting on this episode, uh, truth be told, for a couple of weeks now, but we're finally excited to kind of release it out into the wild. Our dear friend Jake Kelly, who is now uh just an awesome friend of the podcast. Uh, this is an incredible conversation that we've had. And so we're we're not gonna waste any time. We're gonna dive straight into this conversation. So a little background on Jake Kelly. He is a United States soldier uh who's been serving his country for almost 14 years, and he is still currently in active duty. And uh I just want to read a little snippet of the intro to this book that we're gonna be talking about over the course of this episode, this Spurs of Service. Okay. His life has been shaped by long miles in a uniform and the bonds of brotherhood and the unshakable values of duty, honor, and faith. A follower of Christ, Jacob draws strength from his savior through every trial, and his writing reflects the hope and grace found in him. Inspired by both the cowboy way, which we'll talk about in just a second, and the warrior's path, Jake's writing, he writes this beautiful poetry that speaks to the heart of service, the sacrifice, the loss, the grit, and the faith that keeps a rider in the saddle. Spurs of service is his way of honoring those who have walked beside him, those who still carry the weight, and those who are no longer here to share in the trail while pointing constantly to Jesus who rides with us through every valley.

unknown

Thank you, Lord.

SPEAKER_05

So here is our awesome conversation with Jake Kelly.

SPEAKER_01

Well, Jake, it is great to have you with us. Thanks for giving us some time today.

SPEAKER_00

And thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01

Indeed. Indeed. Listen, let's just jump right in. We'd like to hear a little bit of the backstory. Uh where where you grew up. Uh tell us about childhood Jacob Kelly.

SPEAKER_00

All right, yeah. So I I grew up in uh Texas. I'm from deep east Texas, a little town called Nacadochis. Uh it's where I went to college at, Stephen F. Austin. Um, and that was where my dad was a cop my whole career, undercover narcotics, saw the SWAT team. He did everything that was cool that you could mention. It sounds like it, right? That sounds awesome. Uh he's my he was my hero growing up. He still is my hero to this day. And uh my my mom was a school teacher, public and college. So it was one of those little white picket fence style families in terms of all American jobs. But we grew up in the country playing in the creek, and that was the military kind of moving that way was my way to escape that small town, but still love it and still go back when I hear you. Longhorn or Aggie? Uh Longhorns. Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_01

Just you know, had to check. Hook him horns. There you go. That that's awesome. Now, as you were growing up, did you like when did the the uh thought of I want to be in the military, was that something that was burning in you for a long time, or when did that come into play?

SPEAKER_00

So that answer is unique for my generation. It came into play when 9-11 happened. You know, I I was in uh seventh grade and I watched it on TV. You know, before that, I wasn't sure what I was gonna do. I'd doctor, engineer, the typical things you mentioned as a kid, maybe go be a cop like my dad. Um but 9-11 changed everything. Wow. We all got to see that and we got to see our boys going over there. Um and I wanted to join the military. Now I I first joined the uh Coast Guard actually. Uh I did two years at their academy um and spent some time out in the ocean with them in the summertimes that you did as a cadet, and then I fell in love with the action that I had down in the Caribbean doing uh some operations down there, and then I decided I wanted to do more action life, and I just switched over to the army.

SPEAKER_01

Get out of town, man, with the Coast Guard.

SPEAKER_05

So, like Do you stand for both of the songs during the you know? I've always wanted to, you know, that was that was so long ago.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I've been I'm coming up on uh 15 years now, so that was wow, almost a lifetime ago. I bet it seems like it.

SPEAKER_05

Man, well, so okay, so let me ask you this running parallel with this military journey. Can you can you walk us through your faith journey? When when did you come to know the Lord? And tell us about the Lord pursuing your heart.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I was I was raised in a good Christian uh household. Uh went to church every Sunday, but I do not college does what college does. Um, and I do not look back on with pride, but I fell away from God during college. Yes. Um, and I went through some hard stuff uh coming out of college when I first joined the military. And it wasn't until I met uh my wife Ashley in Texas, and she I want to say it was our second or third date on a Saturday. I said, What are you doing tomorrow? And she said, I'm going to church. So I I wanted to be with her. Let's go. I said, Okay, I will go. And she pulled me back to church. And uh it was about a year after that that uh yeah, I accepted the Lord back in my life. Oh man, that's awesome! Yeah, no, she's the reason I'm uh, you know, what I am today and not in a pit somewhere.

SPEAKER_05

Amen. Behind every strong man is a stronger woman, yes, hallelujah. Well, and I was a thing. Shout out Rhonda, shout out Lisa, shout out Ashley, okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I get I get the feeling before we're done with this conversation, we're gonna realize the real hero of this story is Ms.

SPEAKER_00

Ashley. 100%.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, so in that little, we just need one quick Jake and Ashley story in that in that year and a half kind of herd, you know, sounds like you had a drug problem. You were getting drugged to church a lot.

SPEAKER_00

You know, we we met down in Texas, and uh she she is probably one of the most stubborn women I know. And you know, we'll just go with that story right there. It was I had plans for us. I was, you know, trying to be the good romantic boyfriend. Like, okay, we had a great Saturday. I'm gonna talk to you about what we're gonna do on Sunday, and she didn't care. It's like we can do something after church, but I am going to church. And I asked her, I just looked at her, probably looking back now like a little puppy dog. I was like, Well, can I go too?

unknown

It was like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

She's like, Yes, you can come.

SPEAKER_02

So good.

SPEAKER_00

And uh so I was raised Catholic. Um, and Catholic churches have a very set routine. So you get up, you get down, you say this prayer. Um, and she's Pentecostal. So she takes me that first Sunday church. Yeah, that's like NASB and the message.

SPEAKER_05

You know what I'm talking about? That's you can't give more bullets. That's a good reference. You look at that in here.

SPEAKER_01

So impressed. See, that's how he's so good at what he does there.

SPEAKER_00

So we go into that church, and I'm she I'm just going to church with her. And I don't think she had ever been to that church, but she had found a Pentecostal church in the area because she was new from Texas. My wife's from West Virginia, she went to Texas to work on ranches, she's a horse girl through and through. Wow, cool. Um, and we go in, and I I'm just focused on ham with her, so I'm happy. And all of a sudden, I want to say it was, you know, the first song kicks off, and people are raising their hands up, people are worshiping. There's a lady off to the side dancing, and I just leaned over to her nice and calmly and said, What is happening?

unknown

There you go.

SPEAKER_00

And she's just she still tells that story to this day. And I she said, you know, he remained calm. I was like, Yeah, that's my job. That's my job. But I was just like, Where am I? Oh my goodness. I'm in a third world country.

SPEAKER_02

It's a great story.

SPEAKER_00

But it was uh, it took a year of me going with her. We kept going to that church. I can't remember the name of it for the life of me, because I, you know, I move every three years in a new church every year. But it was a really good church, and a year in after that, um, almost to the day, uh I had been sitting there, hands at my side and everything, not understanding why people are doing what they do. And man, the Lord just broke me down and my hand went up, and I was and I've been all in ever since. That's awesome. Thank you, Lord.

SPEAKER_01

So that is good stuff. So, hey, listen, we want to start talking about the book that you've written. Yeah. And uh, this thing has been out just a few months and is already reaching a lot of people. So very excited about this. So uh, Brad, you want to sure yes.

SPEAKER_05

So we've got two, first of all, I'm super excited about this because we've got two signed copies that we're going to uh we're gonna give away, and we'll talk about that in just a little bit. But I'm I'm holding one of those signed copies in my hand right here. And uh The Spurs of Service by Jacob P. Kelly. I mean, dude, this is this is an incredible book. And when you hear about a career military guy writing a book, I don't think that people's first thought are, oh, it must be a book of poetry. Right. And yet here we are, uh a 14-chapter style book with 53 poems kind of laid out by topic. Can first of all, can you explain the title to us and then dive in a little bit of what on earth is inside this book? I mean, this is incredible.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So the title came from there's a few, there's a whole background to this. So the spurs. So I'm a cavalry officer by trade. Okay. So we actually still wear as part of history, we have spurs that we wear. There's whole spur rides that you have to earn, which is just like three days of you know, just gut punching, getting yourself thrown through everything to earn your spurs. Um spurs are a point of pride. And we I I've this book lays out that we are very proud of what we do. Everyone in the military is. But there is also a lot of hardship, and spurs also have a hard, pointy side to them that is kicking the horse, that is controlling the animal, and spurs are also um, you know, they're even the things in the grass that can stab you. So there is pain and there is suffering behind it, but it's also uh something that you do wear with pride.

SPEAKER_05

The Spurs of Service. Wow, a very appropriately named title for sure. And tell us a little bit about how these 53 poems came about.

SPEAKER_00

So about uh three, four years ago, I started writing. So and the backstory is uh in 2018, which they're mentioned in the book, it was a rough year for me. Um I was operationally deployed out of the country. My daughter was born two months into that, so I had seven months of not seeing her. Um one of my soldiers uh who is not mentioned in the book out of respect for his family, um, but he was one of my best I have best men I ever knew, uh committed suicide right when we were deploying. And then one of my mentors, Sergeant Major Timothy Bolard, who's mentioned in the book, he uh was killed in Afghanistan in September. And then as soon as I came back from that deployment in October and got to see my little girl life, was getting back to normal. Uh one of my closest friends, uh, we'd been we'd known each other since we were lieutenants here at Fort Benning. Um he was killed in Afghanistan. So that was kind of just the straw that broke the camel's back. And uh you know, then we rolled into COVID and everything else going on. So I didn't have um just so much going on, and I decided about four years ago I need to start working through it. Uh, because it was just all being held up inside, which most military do. We hold that inside, we just keep moving on. God can get us through all things, but he's gonna want he is gonna guide you if you're willing and able, but you have to work through things. He's not just gonna when he heals you, he doesn't just take that memory away, like, oh, you'll no longer remember Drew Ross. Take away those emotions, he is there to guide you. Yeah, uh, so I started writing because writing is something I've done since high school. Um I like to say this is my first published when I was in uh like 11th grade. They they did a poetry contest, and one of mine got submitted for some random magazine and I'd about to do that. Hey!

SPEAKER_05

So multiple published decade-long poetry career. Oh, yeah. Decades long.

SPEAKER_00

Since college, since the military, I'd stopped writing. Um, but I still knew how to, and I needed some way to put it. I'm not a musician. Um I don't play music, so I needed some way, some artistic way to get that out of me into words that I could understand. Um, so I turned to poetry, and the first one I wrote uh is in there about Drew and uh Tim. It was just me working through it, and then I just kept writing. And probably about 15, 20 poems in was when Ashley finally looked at some of them and said, you know, you could write a book about this. Uh and that's where it started being created. And I started actually thinking about that, thinking through how this could actually hopefully help others and not just myself. So I started breaking down the chapters and walking through from beginning all the way to the end.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, because when you think chapters, you almost think uh, I don't know, some sort of novel or some sort of you know flow. And although it does have a topical flow, they are 53 independent poems, but they are broken out kind of in these little subchapters by topic, like you just mentioned. And um man, Richard, this is it's such a very it's such a cool and unique piece of art. It just is that and not just art, but the heart behind it, right?

SPEAKER_01

You know, and and that it literally came it's the result of a healing journey that you've been on. Yeah, and we know that that is how God works, correct? Right, in that what we are dealing with, what we're going through, what the old phrase, what what is our mess could become our message if we let God work through it. Uh, our pain, our brokenness can uh and our journey to healing can eventually help someone else. And we're already seeing that through this book in just a few short months that it has been out there. Yeah, but um I I as Brad said, it's so unique, and I think there's just such creative, uh obviously it's a creative experience, uh, you know, putting it out there and for the reader, but you guys creatively laying it out the way you did, as Brad mentioned, broken up into topics that that are very profound things in the life of a soldier, but there's this vibe because of your uh uh passion for you're you're a cowboy and a soldier, and uh you're you're you're married to a uh a cowgirl, you know, and you guys are a cowboy family, and there's just it's fascinating how much parallel there is between the life and journey of a cowboy and the life and journey of a soldier.

SPEAKER_00

And that and that was a point behind it as well, because uh some of it's from personal, you know, my own personality, but I know it can resonate across a lot of not just soldiers, but men in general and blue-collar men out there, whatever they're doing, pouring concrete, picking up a gun, whatever they're doing. We don't like reading about ourselves. We don't like being told by our spouse, by family members, you know, you you need to fix this, or this is a problem. Um, so and it started off with the cowboy linkage because I, like you just described, my family is a cowboy, cowgirl family, and we I mean, heck, we got land in Montana, that's the retirement plan. But uh think about that. That's pretty cool. That's like step one of being a cowboy. Like you gotta have land in Montana. But as I started creating the book, it it that theme stuck with it because if I wrote a poem that said, you are messed up, you're a man and you're broken, and you're or you're a soldier and you're broken, or whatever, or describe those experiences, you may put that book down. If I describe it as some a figure that everyone can associate with as you know, a hero of America, as the cowboy, you know, they won the West, they went it everyone has seen those John Wayne movies. It we have that linkage there, and we have that it's a uh we'll say common ground that everyone can meet on. Um it pulls people in and gets people to read it. And you can see the linkages between the cowboy and the soldier, but you can see it between uh you know, just any man. Yes. Um, I actually had and I love getting success success stories from people. Um I found out recently that a pastor in Mississippi no military background, none of that. And uh he got a hold of the book through someone that bought it from Solid Rock. Um, and the story is that the pastor stole it from the guy who gave it to him, but they bought another copy for their good. Um but he once again, no military background in his entire family. He's a small town pastor, he was reading it, and but he grew up in the country, so he has that country linkage, that cowboy linkage, and he started he used one of the poems. I'm not sure which one in the opening of one of his sermons.

SPEAKER_01

So I mean, that's only God, right? I mean, how does that happen? Uh now, Jake referenced Solid Rock, which is the church I attend here in uh we we attend together here in Columbus, Georgia, and that's actually how we first found out about the book and about your story. Yeah. And uh so I I've got a couple of thoughts, but Brad, are you uh Oh, I'm just looking here at the table of contents while you're talking about this.

SPEAKER_05

And dude, like some of these chapters. So good. I mean, you talk about the truth that really anybody can not only be challenged by, but encouraged by. I'm just gonna read some of these chapter titles that are housing, you know, four or five, you know, different poems kind of within each one of them, is answering the call to those who wait, remembering the fallen, the war within, learning to live again, healing in the wilderness. I mean, like all, I mean, that is those are some incredible topics that I think everybody from any walk of life can aspire to really kind of enjoy and to be challenged by the truth of what you've laid out here, man.

SPEAKER_01

This is cool. I would second what Brad just said previously in our conversation. I mentioned neither one of us have military background. Also, I don't think either one of us could probably survive riding a horse. Am I right?

SPEAKER_05

Coach. You talk about a segment that is you and me on a horse, which one falls off first.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, exactly. So these are these two motifs that are strong in the theme themes of the book, the The Cowboy and the Soldier, that neither of us can personally uh connect with. But I am telling you, my friend, reading the poems in this book was a a serious experience for me. God really was speaking to me and moving me through these. And so I I I echo what Brad just said that it if if you're listening to this and say, Cowboy, no, soldier, no, uh doesn't matter. This book is for you. We really hope our listeners are gonna are gonna pick this up. But I do want to just mention, as Brad talked about, the the layout that Four you know, the the poems are grouped into fourteen sections, fourteen chapters. But my question for you is uh when did you realize that at the beginning of each chapter you wanted to to write a page or two, like a page or a page and a half. I call it an essay, like an introduction to that chapter's topic. And I'm telling you, Jake, there's power in those chapter introductions. Man, I God was moving on you and speaking through you when you put those words down. Y'all, that's worth the price of admission to this book. Uh it's the introduction to the poems themselves. Yeah. Section of poems, powerful stuff, some scripture background for to each of them. And uh so can you tell us a little bit about those?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. The when I first broke it down, you know, those were one of the last things added was as I was breaking out the poems um and getting the groups together, but you give a chapter a title and it goes straight into a poem, and I was like, I'm I'm missing the story. You know, when you think of a song, because what is poetry? It's just a song without musical instruments. What is this what is a song? If you take a song's lyrics and lay them out and you read them, they have rhyme, they have rhythm, they have cadence. That is a poem. Um but a song in and of itself, if you don't know the backstory behind it, a song is going to inspire some emotion in you. It always does. That's what makes a good number one song. But if you know the backstory, like if you think of, I can't off the top of my head right now, but some of those artists that produced songs that were very sad and they just pulled at you, and then you found out afterwards that man, that song was written for you know, because that artist lost his child. And once you understand the backstory, they mean so much more. So having that story up front in front of those chapters, that was the key behind it. Was I don't want someone to go in like, man, this is this poem hit me without knowing my own backstory behind it.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, you know, I I just want you to know you communicated so well in in each of those, wanted to let you know. And I just have to tell you, a couple I want to pull out a couple of things that was that were particularly moving for me. The the the poem uh the the the stuff about your dad was amazing. And you mentioned before that he's your he's your hero. Always has been still is um and always will be. But uh that that was just I just want to say thank you for uh that was just a great example of a man honoring his dad in in in that in that part of the book, man. Good stuff.

SPEAKER_00

I I appreciate so dads aren't recognized much nowadays, they haven't been recognized in the past, you know. We're and and not in a bad way. I'm not saying this as go out there, you know, buy the man flowers, but what men go through in their life to provide for their family, no discredit to the what the women are doing on their side, we have separate, distinct roles. Um but that burden that we do carry as men of we it is our job. Our job is to provide for our families, our job is to keep them safe. Our job is to be a sheepdog, where to the outside world, you know, you don't mess with these people. They are mine, they're under my protection. But to the same time, you can turn around and pick up your, you know, if in my dad's case, pick up his son and he teaches me how to fight, he teaches me how to shoot guns, teaches me how to wrestle, but he also doesn't hurt me. But he also knows those skills because he can use them to hurt people. And to have that role model, someone like my father who, you know, he he tells me more and more stories as I've gotten older and we've had more connection through my life in the military. Um, but I didn't know any of that growing up. I just was told by my mom who was on her side, you know, she was working a full-time job and raising three kids, and my dad's gone for three days. Oh, well, dad's just at work, he'll be fine. Oh, he was out running an undercover narcotics mission or something. No, he was out of state picking up somebody. And my mom, on her 100% credit, and the fact that her kids never saw that, but my dad, the burden he was carrying doing those jobs, hoping he's gonna come home. And he never showed it to us, he never raised a hand at any of his kids. He was just that calm figure that was always there teaching me how to be a man in the future without ever sitting me down, giving me a class on it. He was just teaching me through his actions.

SPEAKER_05

Wow. He sounds like an incredible man. And he's he's had a tremendous impact because I'm I'm also looking at an at an incredible man. And uh folks, I'm telling you, I we cannot sing the praises of this book enough. And so um, if you go over to our Facebook or Instagram page, you are gonna see a picture of the three of us holding up a book. Uh, there's gonna be a really tall redhead and it looks a little awkward, and then you're gonna have Richard and you're gonna have Jake in it, okay? Uh, and listen, if you like that post, okay, that that is that's uh that's got the link of this episode and everything. And if you like it and if you share it, you get an entry for both of those things, okay? A like and a share. And then uh next week on the on next week's episode, we're gonna announce the two winners of these uh signed books. And so make sure you like the post, make sure you share it, get both your entries in. And uh, but but before we go, this is not the end of the episode. We have one more story uh that that we really I'm very, very excited to hear um because I I'm I don't know this story. I just know that I'm supposed to ask you, Jake, about your daughter, Eliza, and about what uh she's been going through. And so so how old how old is your daughter?

SPEAKER_00

So she uh she turns eight or she turned eight on in March.

SPEAKER_05

So wow, that's incredible. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. I've got a five-year-old daughter, okay, and then a uh a daughter who turned one in March. Oh man. And so March is a good birthday month for daughters. Okay, so tell us uh, yeah, yeah. Well, my wife's busy, but you know uh so I'll start off with something, you know.

SPEAKER_00

I I told her story up at a Christian guest ranch in Colorado I go to. Um, everything you kind of mentioned alluded to it earlier. Everything we go through in our life, every struggle we have is a story and that you're just bearing down unless you tell it. And if you don't put God into it, then it doesn't matter. And that's what makes it a testimony. Rather. Yeah. So I can tell you a story in a second about us having a child with a sickness. And you can, you know, go home, say, Man, that's horrible. Or I can tell you a story about a couple that wasn't supposed to have kids, and God said, Here, and a story about a little girl that wasn't supposed to exist or that later on went into a coma and God said, I'm in that fire with you, and pulled her out. I can tell you that story, and that's the that's her testimony. And I I say all that because I've had you know, in past interviews and past just talking with people and past uh telling the story, people go, you know, you're so open to sharing. Like, why not? Why would I keep everything I've gone through, everything she's gone through, everything my family's gone through, if you just bottle it up and no one can learn from it, God's God didn't do this to her, but he wants us to use her stories to help other people. And if you're not gonna do that, you're just wasting not that her sickness is a gift, but you're wasting the gift and the story of his power that could be helping someone else. Yes. So, uh, you know, eight, well, nine years ago, uh, we were told by doctors um after several miscarriages that we were never gonna have a child. That we had, I think they said technically it was two percent chance. Um, and then uh two weeks later we found out we were pregnant with Eliza. Seriously, yeah. God said I'm I'm not listening to that. Um yeah, and we found out we were pregnant with Eliza. And uh so she was born um and first three years were you know just normal, and then about three years old, we were stationed in Pennsylvania in the country in the middle of nowhere because my wife had I owed her a farmhouse because I had she had given birth while I was in uh on a deployment, and then I came back and I drug her out to the desert of California for our next assignment. So I I owned her. Right. We when we found out we were getting stationed in Pennsylvania, she sent me this like 12-acre little farmhouse that was built in the 1800s, and it sounds nice until you realize that it still takes like the ghost skeleton keys, it's falling apart, and I'm just like, I okay. Um, but we were in the middle of nowhere, and that and all of a sudden, I still remember this day. Eliza was eating ice cream and on the back porch, and all of a sudden her face just dropped, and she was just the ice cream was drooling out of her mouth. Like she her mouth, the lights were on, no one was home. And then she collapsed. We didn't know what was happening, so we took her, we called 911, the closest ambulance was like 30 minutes away, so we're racing down the mountain because we were in the Pennsylvania Mountains, and but bottom lines, we got her to an ambulance, then they took her to a children's hospital, and that's when we found out she had a very severe form form of epilepsy. Unlike a typical seizure where you know the person's convulsing and you can tell they're having a seizure, hers are all in her brain. Her body just shuts down. Um and her oxygen drops, her heart rate skyrockets to try to help get more oxygen to the brain. It could kill her, and her seizures don't stop on their own. So, fast forward, uh, we're at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, and uh, she has a bad one, and she had a seizure to last for two weeks. And the doctors could not get it to stop.

SPEAKER_01

I just can't even think about that.

SPEAKER_00

They had her on enough meds that could have probably knocked a horse out, and she was they couldn't, so they had to put her in a coma. Um and though and the coma was about a week long, and they they flatlined her brain activity and then brought it back up. Um and that is where uh so we spent three and a half weeks in the uh in the ICU and the the Kansas City Children's Hospital, which is an amazing children's hospital. I can't speak highly of enough of them. Um and the doctors would come to us every day, and I swore I was not allowed to leave the hospital because Ashley would say, Hey, can you go out and grab this? And every time I left that hospital, a doctor would walk in and tell her something worse. You know, one time I left, they came and said, Hey, we're gonna have to do surgery and she may be blind. Next time I left, the doctor came and said, Hey, she's probably gonna wake up and be a vegetable. And the story just kept coming is you're you're gonna have she may if she lives, you're gonna have a girl that you know will never talk again or walk again.

SPEAKER_01

Was all this during that week that she was in the medically induced coma?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Uh so it was just a hell week, if you could put a word to it. It really was. Um, and uh, you know, one of my favorite Bible verses is Daniel 325, because that's her birthday. 325. And the verse is there's a fourth one in the fire. And my one of my my uh wife's family is a wonderful religious Christian family, and her aunt was praying, and and she for some reason, you know, I I will tell everyone do not flip to the Bible to your birthday and hope to find something good. You may find, like, you know, and then he swallowed them all up in the desert. But if God tells you to, which he told her to, she flipped to uh Daniel 325, my daughter's birthday, and that was the verse. And we there were three of us in that room. It was my daughter, it was my wife and I. We never left that room, and we had been in that room for three weeks, and she sent that to us. And I you want to talk about breaking a man down. Oh man. Yeah, yeah. So that has been God has always been in that fire with us. Um, and you know, so they're waking her up from the coma, and they're still telling us like, hey, she we don't know what she's gonna be like, she may never walk again. Within three days, that little girl was walking, she was talking, she was accelerating, and we walked out of that hospital triumphant. Um, she kept having seizures. So we got here uh in Georgia and we uh talked to the neurosurgeon and they said we recommended brain surgery. So last August we did we went in and they removed a good piece of her brain. Um just like anytime you're about to have a breakthrough, the devil's gonna attack you. She had a horrible seizure right before it. Um and they weren't sure they're gonna be able to do the surgery, but God had it and they did the surgery. Um and they were even then, because it was very close to the area of your brain that you can talk. Um, very close to that portion. And they're like, we don't know if she's gonna be able to speak, if she's gonna be, you know, regressed a lot. That little girl went into that surgery asking for these little little rubber ducks that she loves. And she woke up out of the how the uh you know, they had to put her under. And the second she came out from being under, she looked up at the nurse and said, Ducks, where are my ducks? And that's what they came in and told us.

SPEAKER_05

A couple extra ducks.

SPEAKER_00

And I mean you can look at that and go, I'm not seeing God's touch there, but how can you not? Like every single time that one's not brother.

SPEAKER_05

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

And uh, you know, and and she's she's progressing and she she's still struggling because the seizures were so bad they did brain damage. Uh, she's she's global developmental delays, so she's behind. Um, but you know, she's in first grade now, she's she's pushing through behind her students, but she's pushing through. She doesn't talk as well. But you know, I just I have a hope, I have a belief that God's touch has been on this story too much for that book to end. This isn't the last chapter. That's right. It'd be a horrible book if you did. Um He's been touching her his whole life, ever since the day she was put on this earth. So I I know there's more coming. There's more blessings coming.

SPEAKER_05

What a what a miracle story this already is, but I just know that to be true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And and uh we're we're friends on Facebook, uh Jake and I. And I saw a post a couple of weeks ago, I can't remember how long ago it was. And uh was it a dance recital or something? Can you tell us about that? Not really.

SPEAKER_00

So you know, when you have a kid with special needs, there's there's so many challenges. One, kids are mean, she has very few friends. It's hard to make friends because no one wants to be friends with a girl that can't talk as well as you, um, or that can run as fast as you because of the season where they were, she's also not you know gonna be in the Olympics anytime soon. Um, she's she's getting a lot better. The girls are getting faster, and once again, you're seeing God's touch and healing on her every day. But she's never had something that was hers. You know, I'm not gonna sign her up for baseball. She doesn't care about that, and she also is has the coordination, you know, of a drunk giraffe. She just doesn't, she does not because of that stuff, and also because of her family. I'm not a sports athlete, that's why I'm in the army. But uh she always loves to, she's always loved singing and she's always loved dancing every song. I mean, I've I've done a wedding dance with her because she marries me every day. I've done a marriage dance with her every day. Um, and one day we asked her, it's like, do you want to do dance? Because she has a favorite movie. It's called Leap. I don't know if you girls have seen it yet. Oh, it's about a girl in France that becomes she's an orphan, becomes a ballet dancer. Oh, I'm just making a watch leap all weekend. Your girls will love it. Um I said, okay, do you want to sign up for one? And she said yes, and we're thinking, you know, we're gonna buy you the little whatever ballerina's wearing two. Yeah, yeah. And this may be, oh no, we took her to that class, and it was like love at first sight. And she has a frozen recital uh, you know, that just occurred in May. Um, and I got to go there, and that post you saw was me just sitting there because I always like to look back and come and not meditate, but just take time and pause and be with God and always done. Because otherwise, you can look at the bad things. You can remember that, you know, she's suffering at this, she's behind on this. Oh, I can look at where she's come from. And my wife took that picture. It's a picture of me just standing there while she's looking into the recital class in her tutor in her ballet outfit, waiting for her class to start. Um, and my wife just took the picture when I saw it, just immediately flashed to me that, you know, three years ago, four years ago, I was sitting there. Yeah, I was sitting there um beside her bed looking at her in a coma with the thousand machines hooked up, not knowing if I was gonna ever have my little girl again. And now she's dancing. And yeah, whether whether she does this for two years, one year, she ends after this class, or she does this forever. Having those chances to just if you look back and remember what you came from, a lot of our inability to give thanks is because we forget where we came from before. But if you can remember what you were at a year ago, a month ago, you're you're always gonna be thankful.

SPEAKER_01

Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, we we might need a minute after we'll take a break now.

SPEAKER_05

While you were talking, we're just flashing up the picture. I'm out here just cutting onions.

SPEAKER_00

We're struggling. Golly it's an amazing story. That little girl, I still look at her, which I'm sure as dads y'all do as well every once in while you look at your kids, and no matter how old they are, man, sometimes that just hits you like, man, I am so blessed. I know, so blessed. Golly, dude.

SPEAKER_05

What an incredible, what an incredible story. Thank you so much for sharing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, indeed. And thank you for uh being generous with all your story here in this conversation, you know, telling us a little bit of the background earlier and and that wonderful story about uh about you and your wife uh meeting and uh and all that, but uh the uh the courage that it took for you years ago, several years ago, to say, I'm gonna put pen to paper to try to work out what I'm thinking and feeling and how twisted up everything was in your mind and in your heart. And that was the gutsy moment. That was the obedience moment. And then there were a lot of other obedience moments, like when your wife, again, hero of the story, yeah, says there's something about these poems that could matter. And it could be it could be helpful to people. And hasn't God done that already? Yeah, uh, but but again, and and again, your generosity to tell Elijah's story and uh you you've helped us, you've blessed us, and I know that our listeners are hearing God speak to them through all of this. So we can't thank you enough.

SPEAKER_00

Uh thank you. And I, you know, I'll while you're talking about that, I was thinking of something I talked with someone about earlier. Um you know, you talk about bravery and courage and all that, and and I know that's a huge factor, but you know, I can say the same thing to y'all, you know, you started up a podcast, and how many people have told y'all, you know, like man, it's so brave of y'all, and it's courageous. That doesn't affect me, and maybe it's just because I have so little care about what people think, and I don't say that as, you know, it's a good thing. Yeah. But you know, when people say it's it's so brave and courageous that you even thought of publishing a book, or it's so brave and courageous that you open you start a podcast, and it's like in my mind, that's that was never a thought of, oh, what if, you know, they say no. Oh, they say no. What if you get only one listener to your podcast? You get one listener. And and I don't know if it's just it's such a hard feeling to describe because I'm not trying to degrade anyone that does have that fear of hearing no, but it doesn't ever bother me because and and I have had a lot of people say no when I've reached out about hey, would y'all be willing to look at this book? Would you be willing to consider it for your store, whether it's a church or whatever, or a group helping veterans? You know, I think this could help. And they say no, like, okay, I just move on.

SPEAKER_05

It doesn't we serve an audience of one.

SPEAKER_00

I think no, the fear of healing no, yeah. The fear of he hearing the word no is probably one of the devil's biggest weapons to keep people from talking.

SPEAKER_05

I believe you're right. Yeah, it is. No, I agree with that, and you're right. And because I've I have the same thought about the podcast as if somebody were to say some of that, you know, oh, how brave, how could you know, it's like this is what God's called us to do.

SPEAKER_00

And maybe that's why you're not it's how I worded it that you know, I don't care what people think. You hear that and you're thinking, like, you know, whatever, an 18-year-old punk that and that's why it's hard to describe, but it's maybe if it's God's calling and that's who I'm trying to serve, I don't care if no one else likes it. He said, Yeah, he said y'all started the podcast. If you if one person listening, if one person reads the book and goes, I needed this, that's all that matters. That was it. You don't know his plan. His plan may be you sold one copy or you get one listener, but that one person, that one person is part of a bigger deal that's gonna do something for his kingdom.

unknown

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

That's all right. He's preaching now. Watch out. Um now, Jake. Um, I again this has just been such a blessing to us and I know to our listeners, so thank you. But before we finish, and I don't know, I don't even know how much awareness you have of this, but when we interview our podcast guests, we do something very obnoxious to them at the end. Is we make them answer what we call rapid fire questions. Make them we ask them to answer rapid fire questions. No, we make them. We're gonna make this military man. Yeah, right. Right. So it's uh it's what we call no huddle. Uh you know, the American football meaning we just uh we we throw a lot of questions at you and we ask you to answer them uh you know just off the cuff.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Are you ready?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. And uh I I hate that Brad is making you do this. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It's it's it's me. All right, so Jake Kelly, what is the worst, most obnoxious job you ever held in your life?

SPEAKER_00

Being a waiter.

SPEAKER_01

Boom. Quick, that was quick. And all our all of us who've had that in the world.

SPEAKER_00

The food industry say amen. No, not to degrade the people that are waiters. It is because being a waiter requires you to deal with the worst of human humanity. Oh, dude. Hungry, other hungry humans, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, exactly. No doubt. Okay, second question is a Bible character question, and the only rule is you're you can't answer by saying Jesus in this situation. Okay, so is there a Bible character that resonates the most with you that you feel connected or inspired by most?

SPEAKER_00

I would say Paul.

SPEAKER_01

There you go. And and what is it about the Paul story that grabs your heart?

SPEAKER_00

I did not do the terrible things that he did before when he was Saul. But and anyone can probably relate to this, if you when you if you stepped away, unless you were baptized, you know, you chose Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior at five years old, you've had a point in your life where you stepped away. And during that time, and that was my college years, I pulled people away from God than from him. So I persecuted Christians by pulling them away. And you know, the Bible talks about your words, if you if you think murder in your mind, you've committed murder, if you think adultery in your mind. I did all that. And then when God found me and blinded me and made me a mute, and then opened my eyes and made me preach. I was he put more power in me. You know, I I used to be uh I used to be not like public speaking. I used to like not like walk talking in public. Uh and it wasn't until my first mission trip to Malawi that the Lord opened up my tongue and I I went with a group. My wife and I went after my first deployment. Uh during the deployment, she told me we were going to go on this uh mission trip right back to Africa where I was currently deployed at um a few months later. Can we just stay over here? I'll meet you. Yeah. And we we went with a group, and the whole group, and it didn't click in my mind at the time, was all women. And in Africa, they usually want the men to be the front in public speaking. Sure. So I got there with these women that done this a thousand times, and then we walk into an audience of like 200, and they're like, all right, Jake, you're up.

SPEAKER_04

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

And God opened up my tongue. And ever since then, I've been able to preach and I've been able to talk in public. So, Paul.

SPEAKER_05

Well, I also think that your love for writing also kind of parallels Paul's journey as well. But that's also. There you go, right?

SPEAKER_01

And again, Ashley keeps coming up. Maybe we should be interviewing Ashley.

SPEAKER_05

First of all, Jake's been great.

SPEAKER_00

She's not gonna speak of me as well as I speak of her. You're gonna hear the other side of me.

SPEAKER_01

You are such a good sport. Thank you, thank you. Okay, next question. The world needs to know, Jake. Cat person or dog person?

SPEAKER_00

Oh so no. Oh no.

SPEAKER_01

There's something here. Dang it. Are we getting you into that?

SPEAKER_00

No, no, a year ago, I would have told you a dog person because I've only ever had dogs. Cats were outside for hunting mice. I lived in Texas Country. See?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

A year ago, that so not this past Christmas, the one before that, my little daughter, you know, my world, my princess, demanded for like five months, she was saying, I want a cat for Christmas, and you'd think it would just go away like a princess castle. No, it just kept being a cat. So we begrudgingly got this cat whose name is Pickles. Um Pickles. Name. We got this cat for free because the pound thought he was gonna die. It was so sick. They were like, hey, we can't charge you for him because we don't think he's gonna make it. But it was the cat she wanted. That was the cat.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, see.

SPEAKER_00

Now, who does pickles sleep with? Me. Who does he crawl into the lap of? Me. So that's why that question. I I love dogs, but this I'm I'm not a cat or dog. I'm a dog person with a pickles caveat.

unknown

Pickles caveat.

SPEAKER_05

You're not a cat person, but cat people love you.

SPEAKER_01

And can I say, and I think everybody in the Sermons on the Side universe is gonna agree with me.

SPEAKER_03

If Eliza wanted the cat, we're all exactly right.

SPEAKER_00

And God healed that cat because he's going on a year and a half now. He has gained double his weight, and he is the fattest pickle you've ever seen.

SPEAKER_01

Hey, uh, just a couple more. Yeah. Um, and and you're you were talking before about Eliza. Uh Eliza loves uh music and dance, you know, singing and and dancing. Uh is does she have a favorite song? Or like a like the playlist? There's probably a bunch, but what are some favorites of hers?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, the greatest showman.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, this is the greatest show!

SPEAKER_00

We will be driving down to church on road trips, doesn't matter. I am playing that soundtrack specifically. The uh oh, the one where they're in the middle arena and they're talking about how they they want to be together and they can't be, and she she'll grab on you know the coat hangers in here. The stars.

SPEAKER_05

What if we read that one? You were meant to be mine.

SPEAKER_00

So you know, you know that was for you, Eliza. You know the uh the hooks where you hang your clothes, your you can hang shirts in your car or truck. Yes, yeah. So she reaches up, grabs that, that's her rope, and I'm singing the man part, she's singing the girl part. We're doing duets. Oh, and then the uh the main song uh uh that they start off as kids and he becomes an adult. I forgot the name of that one.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, uh A Million Dreams. Yeah. Look at you. Holy cow.

SPEAKER_00

So we do duets on the those. She she'll make she'll change around on she'll change on different songs, um, which ones are her favorite at the time, but those are a that has been a baseline. That's a fantastic soundtrack to have as well. Oh, it is. That's awesome. That's great.

SPEAKER_01

That's good stuff. All right, last question is sort of an Eliza-centered question as well. And so, what I'm asking you to do is imagine many years into the future, uh sometime as Eliza gets older, she's being interviewed. Somebody's talking to her about her life, and the interviewee, uh interviewer asks her, tell me about your dad. What would you hope would be something she might say?

SPEAKER_00

And I taught her what a man should treat her like. That that's what it comes down to. That is our job as girl dads. You know. Our job is a side job is to spoil them. A side job is to be to treat them like a princess and everything they want, but more importantly, is to be a man that they know they can always run back to, the hero in the story when life gets hard, and to show them what they deserve to be treated as.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you, bro. Those onions again. Brother, that is just so beautiful. Thank you for answering those questions, having a little fun with us and uh and sharing your heart even uh even there in those questions. So, man, that is that is just a beautiful thing. Powerful stuff, brother.

SPEAKER_05

Jake, appreciate you, sir. This was an incredible interview, and uh blessings to you. And and hey, uh, we're really excited to see the the feedback that we get from this book from our listeners. So thank you. It's awesome. Thank you for being here, brother. Thank you again, Jake.

SPEAKER_01

Whoa! Was that amazing?

SPEAKER_05

Uh, we tried to warn y'all what an awesome conversation that was.

SPEAKER_01

You know what? I you know what he's he's this soldier, he's this cowboy guy, but he's all heart.

SPEAKER_05

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And I listen, the dad in me just really identifies with the dad in him. You know what I'm saying, dude? So, anyways, Jake, thank you again, man. We're very, very excited. So, hey, we're excited to get these two incredible books that are signed by the author into some of our listeners' hands. So if you enjoyed this, be sure to head over to our Facebook or Instagram. You can like it and you can share it. Those are the two ways you can get your name in the hat. We'll have a drawing, we'll announce them next week. Oh my goodness, what an incredible episode.

SPEAKER_01

What another awesome Thursday it was for Sermons on the side of Um, so what we will probably do uh because we because it'll be a while before this uh episode drops or it'll be into into May. Um what we'll do is just as we're recording, we'll sort of jump right in and then we'll go in beyond uh after the fact and record an intro.

SPEAKER_05

Is that closer to the time that we'll release this, we'll record a several minute intro and hey everybody. Honestly, why don't we plan on doing like the bio during that read as well? And so we'll we'll just jump right into Hey, our friend Jake's here. Let's just dive right in and we'll go straight into it. That works smart. Yeah. Okay. I love it.

SPEAKER_01

Uh that sounds good. Uh anything else we need to do? Oh, I think that's it. We need to take a take a break and stop for a second. We certainly will and can. Uh why don't we get a mic check or yeah, if you want to like, I mean, uh honestly get it.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, yeah. Here, I'll tell you what. Okay. That way you can get it.

SPEAKER_00

So is that good?

SPEAKER_05

Yes. Okay. Oh, yeah. That's down. I like to, you know, even just give you a little bit of a hmm. Just get a little, in the words of my three-year-old son, a mooch. A little mooch.