On this Good Friday, Glenn delivered a deeply personal monologue about the ability to overcome obstacles and start fresh. “This is the weekend to change your life,” Glenn said as he discussed his own journey and a vivid dream he had in 1996 that changed his entire way of thinking.
Below is a rough transcript of the monologue:
Have you ever gotten to the point you just wish you could start over? ‘Like man, I just can't get there from here.’ That's the most amazing thing. And I still think many times, my first response is: You can't get there from here. How? I've got this going on in my life or this happening. I can't get there from here.
That is one of the biggest lies. I think there are a few things that are huge lies that our society teaches us now. That is: You're not capable. You're not able. You just won't be able to make it. You need somebody else or some other thing to complete you – whether that is another person in your life, a spouse, a boyfriend, girlfriend, children; whether that is a new job, a new car, a new house, a new career. Whatever it is, it just will not complete you. When Tom Cruise came in and said, ‘You complete me.’ No, no. She really doesn't. She was hot, and it was great. She helped. She was a great soul mate. But she doesn't complete you. Nothing completes you. You are born complete. The weirdest thing is that a baby is born with everything they need. A baby is born with the ability and the road map already in them. The plan's already there. All they have to do is start activating it. But somehow or another we get lost.
Today there's a lot of Christians around the world that are marking Good Friday. This is Passover week. I have been praying all this week that the destroyer, the Angel of Death would pass over our house – meaning not just our home, but our country – that the destroyer would not visit here, that they would see the mark on our door.
I was reading some things this week, and I wondered: What is the difference between faith and courage? A bunch of us talked yesterday afternoon, we got together after work, and I said, ‘Is faith and courage the same thing?’ And we went back and forth and debated that for a while. I don't think you can have courage, real courage, without faith in something – faith in yourself, faith in your ability, maybe misplaced faith, faith in God.
You have faith in God. You don't sit down. You don't stop because you know, no matter what, you're an unarmed 80-pound weakling. It doesn't matter. I watched the first Captain America with my son this week. We watched it, and here's the 80-pound weakling getting beat up in the alleyway, and the bully says, ‘You never give up. You don't give up.’ He said, ‘No. I could do this all day.’ And the reason why is because he had faith in something. He believed in something bigger. He didn't like bullies, and he wanted to stand up against bullies, and he had faith that there was such a thing as justice. And he got pummeled in the alleyways over and over and over again, but because this is a cartoon, because this is a Marvel comic, what happens to him? He's put into a machine, juiced up with serum and becomes Captain America. That's not the way real life works, unfortunately. Real life is a little harder than that.
So what is the difference between faith and courage? Is there a difference? I think there is, actually, as I have been thinking about it. I asked my daughter – just trying to work off that college education because she took ancient studies and Greek and Latin – and I said King James translates faith, hope and charity, but the last word is actually love. And I called my daughter and I said, ‘Could you translate this for me?’ I said, ‘What is the actual Greek word?’ She said, ‘It's agape… It is the highest form of love.’ There are different words in Greek for ‘love,’ but ‘agape’ is the highest form of love. It is love of God.
Then I realized, faith and courage are not the same thing because I could have faith that I'm going to win. I could have faith in my country. I could have faith in the principles. I could have faith in God, and I'll fight hard. But if I have love, I don't ever stop. If I love my country, if I love my family, I never give up. I never stop. There's never any question. I love it. I defend it. I think love and courage go hand in hand. Without faith, there is no hope. Faith gives you hope. Love gives you courage.
How could one guy, a normal guy change the world with faith, with hope, with love? And the greatest of those is love. And so today we mark the day that one man was given his cross to carry, but we look at this story always as just one guy who was the savior of the world, just that. He's just the savior of the world. Saves all of us. Wildly important, but why were they calling for Barabbas? When Pilot came out and said we have a custom where we can release one person… so who do you want? You want this Jesus guy, who I can't find any fault in, or do you went Barabbas? Why were they screaming for Barabbas? Why would people scream for a murderer? Because he wasn't a murder. That's not what they saw him as. They saw him as a liberator. They were looking for revolution. They were looking for a guy that would topple the government, the oppressive government. They were looking for a guy named Barabbas because he promised vengeance was his. He would kill them, and he would lead a squad to kill them.
Barabbas was released. Did he change the world? Barabbas was released. Did he topple the government? No. No, he didn't. Jesus was not released, and Jesus died on that day. Did he topple it? Oh, yes, he did, with faith, hope and love.
You can't get there from here. Yes, you can. ‘I made too many mistakes in my life.’ No, you haven't. ‘I'm not worthy.’ ‘You don't know me.’ Yes, I do. You didn't know me. Takes five years to really change a man's life. If you're like me, done so many things and had all those moments back, you would change, but you don't think you can. And then you start to, and then something happens, and you fall into a pattern. And it takes five years to truly change, to really wash yourself clean of those patterns. And it takes five years of every week bathing in that water again and saying, ‘Okay, one day at a time, one week at a time.’ And when you really change is when you really love.
Pat will tell you my slogan I used to say it all the time? Pat, what was my slogan, when you first met me?
PAT: I hate people.
GLENN: Any part of me now?
PAT: No. Not even close. I would say it's the total opposite now. Yeah, it was pretty sincere then.
STU: To the point you like people you should hate. You came to the point --
PAT: And have been very forgiving of people who have done you wrong. It's a total change.
GLENN: There's only one reason that that has happened, and it wasn't that I needed it. It wasn't that I wanted it. It was I was given that. I worked for it, but I could never earn it. And I was given that because of the one guy who died 2000 years ago.
If you happen to be struggling, ‘Well, nobody knows me.’ Listen to me: I do. I know how hard it is. I know how dark it is. I know how alone you feel. I know how insignificant or how guilty you might feel. How tired you are. I get it. There's no such thing as a coincidence, and you are listening to this broadcast for a reason. This weekend is the weekend you're supposed to change your life. This is the weekend that you are supposed to say, ‘Okay, I'm starting all over.’
I had a dream in 1996. I changed my life in 1994. In 1996, after I had done so much work – remember, it takes five years – I had done so much work, but I still hadn't really looked into everything. I wasn't going to look into my family, any of that stuff, because I was comfortable. I had a dream, and an old man came to me in a dream. In this dream, I'm standing in a broken corn field that is gray and brown and everything was seepy and dirty, and it was snow and the corn stalks were broken on their side. And I was standing on the black top that was broken and crumbling and gray. And the sky was gray. And as far as I could see, there was nothing but destruction. Everything was dead, dead of winter. And I started turning around in a circle there, trying to figure out where I was going to go, and I saw behind me was this storm, this massive storm. And it was black and undulating and almost a black hole, drawing me in. And I looked at that, and I turned from it.
That's when I heard the voice of an old man. And he said, ‘Where are you going?’ And I said, without looking at him, ‘I don't know. Anywhere but there.’ That's when I turned to him and looked at him. He had like a beard, but it was all like the smoker color, all yellow, and he was all tattered and dirty, wearing tattered clothes. He looked like a bum. And he said, There's nothing to that.’ He said, ‘That's all in your making. There's nothing to that. There's nothing there.’
And I said, ‘That will kill me.’ And he said, ‘No, you have to go through the storm. Let me show you what's on the other side.’ He reached out his hand. I don't know how we got there, but we had gone through the storm and on the other side we were flying. We were up above everything. I could see the other side of the road that I couldn't see because the storm was blocking it. We were now on the other side of the road. Everything was in technicolor. I had never seen a dream so vivid as this, and the grass was super-green, and the flowers were reds and purples and yellows and the blues, deepest, most beautiful blue I had ever seen.
And I didn't look at him. He was behind me again. He said, ‘This is what's on the other side.’ I said, ‘It's so warm here.’ He said, ‘There's nothing to the storm, but you have to go through it.’ As I turned, I woke up. I saw only for a fraction of a second, only saw about a quarter of his face, but now he was pure white, and his beard looked like fiber optics. He was made of light. I woke up.
I painted a picture of that storm. That dream changed my life. I had faith. I had hope. And I had witnessed love. This is the weekend to change your life and begin again.