Episode 43: JT Jester: This Is The Day ...
Transcript
Patsy: Hi, I’m Patsy Clairmont, and I’m a Boomer.
Andrew: And I’m Andrew Greer, and I’m a Millennial.
Patsy: And you are listening to Bridges.
Andrew: Spiritual Connections Through Generational Conversations
Patsy: Season Two is brought to you by Food for the Hungry.
Andrew: Meeting the physical and spiritual needs of people all around the world for over 50 years.
Patsy, what’s that on your head?
Patsy: It’s my hat, and I got it from my friend JT Jester, who says “no bad days.” So since I had bad hair, I covered it up.
Andrew: You are literally living his tagline to his new book. The book title is No Bad Days, but the tagline is How to Find Joy in Any Circumstance. And I tell you what, that hat on you, that’s bringing joy to my life right now.
JT Jester has an adventuresome lifestyle. He’s a young twenty-something who has had, really, a long life when you consider some of the physical and learning and challenges that he has had in his life. He will introduce the drama of those to us in this episode but express how he has learned to live not in spite of those challenges but with and through those challenges into a new adventure of amazing heights. I really like JT. I like what he has to say and to express, and he’s a kind spirit, and this is a good conversation.
Patsy: It is a good conversation. I really appreciated him, and he’s got a tender story to tell that could’ve been tragic. So tune in and see how all this can fit in your life where you will have no bad days.
Patsy: Always, always, always, we have a bridge because it helps us maintain connection, whether it is in the difference of age or the difference in experiences. And so we have the opportunity today to walk across, with many other people in our minds, the Mackinac Bridge. It’s actually on September the 6th, they closed the bridge to traffic for five hours. Walkers from all over gather and begin the jaunt across this big, huge bridge, and it’s quite an adventure for them.
And you are a man of adventure, Andrew, and you have friends in high places doing extraordinary things, and you’re going to introduce us to our guest.
Andrew: That’s true, that’s true. I do love adventure. I do love high places, at least trying to get there to them. JT Jester, our guest today though, has been to very high places, including you’re kinda riding a high today because your first book just launched. So JT, welcome.
Your book is called No Bad Days: How to Find Joy in Any Circumstance, and we are thrilled to have you. I feel like we’re beginning the book tour. I feel like you gave us the launch.
JT: Well, thank you for having me here, Andrew and Mrs. Clairmont. I’m so excited to be here.
Patsy: Honey, you can call me Patsy. If I can call you honey, you can call me Patsy.
JT: Alright.
Andrew: Have I ever called you Mrs. Clairmont? I feel you’ve put me in my place, JT.
Patsy: You should.
Andrew: I know. That’s what we’ll do today. You call her Patsy; I’ll call her Mrs. Clairmont.
But the first thing I want to ask you about, I want to start with adventure, and that is four years ago — well, three and a half years ago — you climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, which tell me, one, about the climb, why you were inspired to do the climb, because from what I understand, it is an attempt for many people, not necessarily a story of success. So tell me about that climb.
JT: So the climb, Mount Kilimanjaro, was an awesome experience, but I have to back up a little bit and just tell a little bit of my story. I’ve had some medical challenges in my life, and with those challenges, this was a feat that probably was not expected that I’d be able to do. And so along the journey of my life, I’ve just fallen for a huge passion for the outdoors and just enjoying the outdoors in so many ways, from skiing to mountaineering to watersports and, like you said, the Mackinac Bridge. I’ve spent many times boating and kayaking around that area and just love that area.
So Kilimanjaro, going into this adventure was something that, when I came out of college, I had a friend who said, “What is something that you want to do? What’s a bucket list item that we could do when you graduate?” And that was Kilimanjaro. So on our journey there, we had spent a month training — well, many months training — but a month in Colorado training and getting ready for this.
Andrew: With the altitudes.
JT: Exactly. And so on our way to Kilimanjaro, we had to make sure that I had the proper medical equipment for… A little background: My medical treatment that I have to do on a day-to-day basis is I have no motility from my esophagus all the way through my system, so my whole GI system has been compromised in that sense. I’ve been blessed with amazing doctors that have been able to put me back together and make a system that works incredible for me. So I do a bowel management program everyday, and it takes about 45 minutes a day to do this procedure. So on Kilimanjaro, I’d have to do this.
Patsy: Wow.
JT: And we’d have to have the supplies, we’d have to have the ability to do this, which would require extra help. And so we found an amazing guide who was up for the challenge, and it was an amazing experience just going there, meeting up with him, and heading up the mountain. It was a three-night expedition, and our goal was to make it to the summit on the fourth day and, from there, get down the mountain. And we accomplished our goal.
Andrew: I want to read, though, you wrote in your book: “On October 8, 2018, after a grueling four-day climb, I reached the 19,341-foot tall peak of Mount Kilimanjaro.” Just to put this in perspective for people if they don’t know, the tallest mountain in Africa and the highest single freestanding mountain in the world. Roughly 35,000 people attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro every year, and about a third of them turn back because of altitude sickness, injury, or poor weather, including thousands that have to be taken for medical attention, and then about a dozen or so that die every year in the attempt.
So when you were thinking about it, not only is this a difficult or challenging adventure for someone who has less physical challenges, for you, who has a very specific set of physical obstacles, did you just ever think, Am I crazy? What was the point of attempting this, having all those special needs, if you will, to get to the top?
JT: Yeah. So you know, the point of this was it really was something that I never thought I’d be able to achieve, but be able to make it to the summit was an incredible experience.
I’m gonna walk you through a little bit sort of the days of climbing, and on the adventure going up, the first day was very, very smooth and awesome and beautiful, going through the rainforest and setting up camp and getting to meet our guides more and more. The next day we made it to our next basecamp, and we’re at a much higher elevation. And the next day we’d be reaching an elevation that I had never seen, I’ve never gone to. 14,500 feet was the highest elevation at that moment in my life that I’d ever been, and so on this journey heading up the mountain, I looked down at my GPS on the third day, and I realized I just passed that elevation threshold that I’ve never been. So the ability to get altitude sickness and all those aspects really come into play.
And we continued up the mountain, made it to our camp and set up, and I did my bowel management program, my treatment that I do on a daily thing, and it went okay. And the following day was the day of summiting. Well, my treatment, since it did not go so well, I started to have what I call hot stomach, and this is when I know it’s not going to be a good scenario for me and I could get sick. So the journey went from being this amazing experience to, Alright, now there’s some serious things coming up. And we get to a section where we had to cross a glacier and use ice axes and get across this probably 40-foot section. Once we got across that, the guides looked at us and said, “Guys, these glaciers aren’t supposed to be here. This is the time of year they usually shift out of here and we would have clear walking paths through here.”
So we can’t turn around. We’ve made it across this section, and we’ve got to continue. And so we headed up, and that sickness in my stomach just grew and grew and grew and caused me to get dehydrated and get sick. We eventually made it to a point where you could see the summit.
Now, I’ve got to remind you. I’m laying on the ground. I’m throwing up. I’m just one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other. And we make it to a spot where we trek up to the summit, and it was such an amazing moment in my life of accomplishment, a spiritual feeling, and honestly, tears just came falling down from me and the two people that I was doing it with who are what I would consider family to me. And so we were just so excited that we had made this accomplishment.
Reaching that Kilimanjaro summit and getting our pictures there, the sickness, the feeling of just being drained, all that went away, and we were just so thrilled to be there. And I give it to the good Lord for giving us the ability to make it there and that experience.
From there, we headed down the mountain, and funny thing is we had perfect cell service up there, and so we had the ability to call my dad and mom at I think it was 4 o’clock in the morning for them, and they were thrilled. But from there, we headed down the mountain, and the sickness came back and all that, but we made it and made it to our goal, which was just an unbelievable experience.
Patsy: What can you see from that kind of elevation?
JT: So the morning that we woke up for the summit, I have these incredible photos of being above the clouds. Now, Kilimanjaro is the tallest freestanding mountain in Africa, and it’s the only mountain there, so just a valley of clouds below us. And then from there when they lift, it’s just endless land and beautiful, beautiful scenery and probably, for me, some of the most beautiful scenes that I’ve seen in my life.
Patsy: My Kilimanjaro was a hot air balloon over the Maasai Mara, and that was one of the most scary things I have done.
Andrew: That’s the word.
Patsy: I was remembering how I felt. So I can’t imagine going up that mountain.
When you became ill up there and had to go across that glacier, were you afraid for your life?
JT: You know, the fear definitely came across in areas, but I knew that the people I was with and my family set me up with amazing guides as well as the two individuals that I went with. They are a team of very experienced climbers, and so I knew with their instruction and with their guidance that it would be a smooth journey. And it was. It really was. Even though I did get sick, the whole journey was incredible with their help.
Patsy: Do you think the difficulty factor in this climb prepared you even more to write this book?
JT: I think so. I think all of us in life, you know, we have our challenges in life and our obstacles that we come across, and I always say that in those most challenging times, we always learn something. We always pick something up that is so beneficial. And Kilimanjaro, for me in the physical sense, was something that taught me a lot about motivation and drive and determination, but with the medical side of things, I’ve had some of that, but this was a totally different type of experience, too, of learning how to get through the suffering.
“In those most challenging times, we always learn something.”
Andrew: You know, JT, sitting here in front of us, you’re 27-years-old?
JT: Yeah, 26.
Andrew: 26, and you look like the picture of health just sitting here.
Patsy: You’re adorable.
Andrew: She’s never said that to me either. Mrs. Clairmont!
But I want to put some context not just around the amazing achievement, the feat of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, but around some of your physical difficulties. And this is just a small excerpt I want you to expound on from your new book No Bad Days:
“The day after I was born,” this is you writing, “Dr. Fredrick E. Rector used a tiny pair of surgical scissors to save my life for the first of many times. By the time I was 3-years-old, I had spent 250 days in the hospital. During my first 16 years on earth, I endured 16 major surgeries, two of which were to correct a tethered spinal cord that might’ve caused permanent paralysis. Surgeons deconstructed and reconstructed my abdomen, 18 inches of my colon removed. Surgeons have cut me from the top of my chest to below my waistline, and yes, doctors eventually gave me a functioning anus if you were wondering,” which we were not wondering.
Explain. What happened?
JT: With the medical side. Well, first off, those surgical scissors, to this day, that doctor’s a friend of ours who became actually a neighbor of ours, but he gave me those scissors when he retired, and they sit in my office with a very awesome letter from him.
But yeah, my journey starts with when I was born. I was born with something called VACTERL syndrome, and it’s a birth defect that affects, like I said earlier, the GI system. It can affect other aspects, from heart to kidneys, which I do have some of the kidney issues, spinal cord and limb deformity and stuff. And I’m blessed to have had only a few of these things, and those few things stem from the esophagus to the colon to the anus and also the tethered spinal cord.
Patsy: Now your parents, being well acquainted with the fragility of your system, were they afraid for you on that journey up the mountain?
JT: You know… Oh, up the mountain? It’s funny because my mom is the adventurer. She’s the one that says, “Go get ‘em. Go try.” And my dad is very encouraging in that sense too, but my dad’s always the one a little bit more reserved. And so this adventure, definitely there was concern, but they knew that I was with the right people.
Something about the book, No Bad Days, and this reflects on all of us and I think is a really good message, is we have to find our tribe and our people to surround us and amazing people in our life to push us in those climbing scenarios or those medical or educational or whatever the challenge is. But finding your tribe is so important in your day-to-day routine to have someone to rely on.
Patsy: Now, the title No Bad Days, does that mean we never get a day off where we can be miserable? I look forward to those.
Andrew: There are no bad days, but there are hard days. And it’s true. There are really no bad days. There are hard days in our life, and we have to put our best foot forward to get through those, but it’s with the people in our lives and having a good support system is something that can help us get up off our feet.
We’re all gonna fall down one day. There’s a lesson that one of the guides taught me back in the day, and he was taking me up the chairlift. He was a ski instructor and a ski coach of mine, and we were heading up the chairlift. This was our first time meeting, and he said, “JT, we’re gonna learn how to fall.” Now, I had been skiing for years before this, and I’m like, “Well, why do we need to learn to fall? I know how to ski.”
So we get up to the top and we get to the edge, and he says, “Okay JT, follow after me. You’re gonna fall like this, and fall to the left, fall to the right, fall center, and you’re gonna try it.” So he did, and I learned that learning to fall taught us that you can get back up, and you can also learn so much from that. In the skiing aspect, it was learning to fall properly so that you don’t continue to have a worse accident and getting back up on your feet.
So I think in life for all of us, we are going to have those moments that we fall, but knowing how to get back up is important. And No Bad Days, the book, really highlights it from not just my story but other people’s stories and how they have been able to have been in the darkest of times and from medical challenges to the loss of a loved one and how they get back up and how they are encouraged.
Patsy: I think it’s important to take notes on each other. I think seeing how another person recovers, even in the level of the personal dignity after a failure or fall, is very inspirational, so I’m always writing down, Now, how did they do that?, because we don’t know along our own journey when we’re gonna need that information. And this thing about having the right tribe around you, I love that.
“It’s important to take notes on each other.”
Andrew: We’re gonna take more notes on your experiences and the lessons we can learn from those, JT, when we come back. It’s the new book No Bad Days: How to Find Joy in Any Circumstance by JT Jester.
I’m Andrew, the Millennial.
Patsy: I’m Patsy, the Boomer.
Andrew: And we’ll be back.
Food for the Hungry Sponsorship Message & Grand Prize Giveaway
Patsy: Food for the Hungry is giving us a wonderful way to take God’s Word and invest it all over the world, and we get to be a part of it. It will deepen their spiritual experience, it will help in literacy issues, it will bring light into dark places, and we can do it all if you will help us help others. And how do we do that, Andrew?
Andrew: It’s pretty simple. Our friends at Food for the Hungry are giving us a unique opportunity to purchase Bibles for folks all around the world, and here’s the cool part, Patsy. It’s translated, ready to go, ready to read in their language, and that’s a rare thing around the world.
So go to fh.org/briges, and for $12 a pop, you can buy as many Bibles as you want to help our friends know God better and read better across the world.
Patsy: For those of you who buy some Bibles to give away, there’s something for you.
Andrew: That’s right. Every single Bible that you purchase to help people in need around the world through Food for the Hungry is an entry into the Grand Prize Giveaway, and do you know what that Grand Prize Giveaway is, Patsy?
Patsy: I don’t.
Andrew: Well, I’m gonna tell you. You can choose from a selection of Patsy’s artwork, and we’ll make a special print for you that you’re gonna sign.
Patsy: Patsy’s artwork?
Andrew: Sure enough. And then you can pick your favorite hymn, whatever is your favorite hymn from the hymn book, you just let us know, and I will record an original version for you. Plus, that grand prize winner gets a stack of books and CDs signed by us just for them.
Now, here’s the other deal: Anyone who buys 10 or more Bibles to help those in need, we will do a little original Scripture watercolor for them where you’ll get your paint brush dashing across that canvas and I will write the Scripture of their choice hand written on it. We’ll number it, we’ll sign it. It’ll be a special art piece just for your home, and all to say thanks for helping us at fh.org/bridges.
The Abide Bible Sponsorship Message
Patsy: “Shout out praises to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with joy. Enter his presence with joyful singing. Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us and we belong to him; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.”
That’s Psalm 100, verses 1 and 2, from my own Abide Bible.
When we abide him and his words abide in us, everything changes — our perspective, our attitude. So it anchors my soul when I go to the Word of God. It teaches me better behavior than I’d have otherwise because I can really suffer from a case of the attitude. So this helps to keep me in a better place with a sweeter attitude in a difficult world.
The Abide Bible comes in two different versions. I don’t know if you have a favorite, but there’s a New King James and then there’s the New English translation. It is set up so you can journal, so those of you who love to do notes on the side, this paper is set up to receive those notes. It also gives you insights on the edges of the pages that help us to read the Word in a more meaningful way, to meditate in such a way that it begins to sink into the very depths of our being, to pray the verse so that we get better claim on the truth in it, and then to contemplate so that as we move forward the Word goes with us.
So that is what I want to tell you about the Abide Bible because I believe in passing on the Good News.
Andrew: We have been talking about the Abide Bible throughout the entire Bridges broadcast, but one new way to highlight your experience of reading the Bible is a free 21-day video devotional series called Experience Abide. It’s an incredible way for people to experience the Bible themselves and adds a free benefit to your own spiritual growth, and so we are excited to offer not only the Bible but this free Experience Abide devotional series straight from bridgesshow.com/abide.
Patsy: Welcome back to Bridges. We’re with JT and his new book, No Bad Days. Can you imagine that, no bad days? And he tells us why that is.
Andrew: Yeah. And I love, in the book, the dedication is to your parents, who I think had a large part of helping you understand or practice that no bad days idea. It says, “To my parents, who taught me to get up when I fell down, to believe in myself when other didn’t, and to push myself to my limits to conquer my goals and, most importantly, to be nice to others.”
I thought that was interesting. You’ve had a lot of achievement in your life, not just on the adventure side but also on the side of education, having struggled with dyslexia and short-term memory loss and things that didn’t set you up for the best or the easiest learning experience and even at the discouragement of some others. Because of the encouragement of your parents and your tribe, you continue to find your way in life, including through high school and college. So all that’s amazing, but what you said — “and most importantly, to be nice to others.” How did your parents teach you kindness and how did they teach you to be nice to others?
JT: They taught me so much. And back to the medical real quick is going through some of the medical things in my life, I realized that it’s the caretaker that is the one that is really going through the hardest of times. The caretaker, there’s so much more involved emotionally and everything. But my parents were there for me for that, and the kindness that they showed and gave me, I think that it reflected on me and it was something that I cherished that they did.
And then being in a hospital for 200 and some days at a time and walking down the hallway and looking into one room and seeing a kid there who I could look at my dad and say, “Dad, that kid’s not as sick as me.” And then walk down a little further and look into another room and say, “Dad, that kid’s sicker than me.” And then realizing two weeks later, walking down the hallway and both those patients are gone, now you got to know those patients too and they became friends. And the kindness really shows in a children’s hospital, but then those children are both gone. One of them’s discharged, and the other one unfortunately has passed away.
And so I think those early, early years of my life were very impactful on understanding individuals and making sure that you’re kind to everyone because who knows what someone else is going through. We all have a story, and we all have a story to share, and it’s just important to listen.
Andrew: Speaking being kind and seeing others where they are and accepting them where they are, which I think you’re talking about in those hospital experiences. People have such individual ailments and issues, and it’s easy to put labels on people, that could be labeling them by something they’re struggling with with a disease or a label based on… We put labels on everything culturally today.
One of your lessons in here is to pull off the label, is the name of one of the chapters. I just think of that being maybe one of the most challenging, just reading that title and then when I dug into the chapter. How do we pull off labels? It feels like we label everything. Everything is labeled. Everything has some kind of external stamp. So how do you begin to rip those off and it not hurt?
JT: Exactly. So for me, I was labeled early on as a non-reader, and I was told in fifth grade at a school I was at, you know, “JT, you’re illiterate, and you will not be able to read or write.” Actually, that was told to my parents, and then from there, I was told by actually the headmaster of the school that “JT, you can’t keep up with the kids here academically, and so you’re gonna have to move on.” And that was a label that was put on myself, and so going home and telling my parents that and crying laying on the kitchen on the floor, I can remember the moment of looking at my mom and saying, “Mom, all I want to be able to do is read and write like every other kid. I don’t care about the medical stuff. I just want to be able to do this.”
Well, I was very fortunate enough to find a program that worked for me, and Tattum Reading program is what it was called, and it was so beneficial in that sense. But that label was put on me as a fifth grader, and we all have those labels put on us, but it is something that we have to, again, have people in our lives to help us get through that and be able to share your story with and talk to them about how that is impacting you.
Labels belong on jars, not on people, and we need to just carry on and keep pushing forward.
“Labels belong on jars, not on people.”
Patsy: I love that — labels belong on jars, not on people. And while I have not appreciated some of the labels that came my way throughout my life, I then began to realize I put some of my own on others, and I had to begin to make more grace space for people who were designed very differently than me and understand that I didn’t understand their journeys, the different challenges that they had to overcome. And when I leaned in and listened, which you mentioned earlier — learning to listen — it made a vast difference in my compassion for them.
Andrew: Yeah, labeling is kind of inhuman, so when you do lean in and listen, you begin to discover people, I begin to discover people, as fellow pilgrims along the way, fellow humans all with a common denominator of need but with very different details in the journey of discovering what our need is and who will fill that need. It kind of puts us all on the same playing field if we listen, but labels feels very inhuman to me.
Patsy: When you were talking — I’m gonna jump back just a little bit.
Andrew: Please.
Patsy: When you were talking about what he wrote about his parents, I felt like you could’ve written that.
Andrew: Yeah. JT, I have a really wonderful experience with my parents relationship, which Patsy and her husband, Les, are also friends of my parents. I don’t know if I would have phrased it just like you did as far as their influence in my life, but they definitely taught me kindness, and that was through the example of… I’ve never seen any strings attached to my parents’ love for others, including my brothers and me. So when love can be exercised without condition, which I guess potentially is one of the kindest things, you know, love is not love with condition, so they really were people who exercised love.
And it took me a minute. My parents have good boundaries, which I think sometimes people think to be kind is to let people walk over you or on you. That was not exampled in my home either. It was there are certain healthy boundaries that allow you to interact out of a place of sanity and health and allows you to have spaces of grace for people.
But that’s something interesting too. How did you still interact in kindness? When the headmaster’s like, “You’re never gonna read or write,” how do you still interact in kindness while also kind of putting that boundary up to say, “Well, watch this”?
JT: Well, you know, when it comes to the headmaster saying that, obviously for a fifth grader at the time, that’s very hard to hear. But when life continued and I went on and went to an amazing school that really helped me move forward with my reading and writing, I actually came back to that school that told me I couldn’t go there anymore. But that headmaster, I look at him now, and I say, “Thank you. Thank you for the…” If it wasn’t for him, I would not have been pushed to go on and learn something at a new program, new school.
So there’s definitely things that happen in our lives that, at the time, might seem very hurtful or impactful, but coming out of that, looking back now I can say that it truly changed my life for the better.
Yeah, so kindness is interesting because looking at that and seeing how that impacted me, later on I was thankful for something like that. But that doesn’t always happen, and it’s important that we can try to be as kind as we can to others because as it’s said, treat others the way you want to be treated.
Patsy: Kindness has not been an easy journey for me. It didn’t come natural, and I remember my husband and I were in a spat and I could out talk him. What a surprise on that. And I could out-talk him, and one time, he got very quiet, and when I finally hushed, he said, “Patsy, because you can out-talk me doesn’t necessarily make you right, and it certainly doesn’t make you kind.” Oh my goodness, talk about a step back moment. I wanted to be a kind person, and I realized that trying to rule and win conversations, getting into competitiveness about it, was not kind and it wasn’t solving things. So I think kindness is really important.
JT: It is, especially in today’s world that we’re living in. It’s probably one of the most important things right now.
Andrew: Yeah, to exercise.
Patsy: People are on the edge. That kindness helps them take another step.
Andrew: Yeah, and to relax. Kindness helps us to relax, to be okay with ourselves. When someone’s kind to me, suddenly all the things that rub me wrong about myself, I feel more secure in myself too, which is really important for us.
Here’s a question for you: Kind of coming back to the beginning of our conversation and the adventure and the achievement of reaching Mount Kilimanjaro’s summit, you said here in your book, achieving that “taught me that no matter what challenge God decided to throw my way, I could accomplish it with slow, steady steps, patience, and resilience.”
Now this is kind of just for the sake of being provocative, which is my gifting, but “it taught me that no matter what challenge God decided to throw my way.” Do you think God throws challenges our way?
“Kindness helps us to relax, to be okay with ourselves.”
JT: I think God knows our life and knows our past, present, and future and where we’re going, and so he might now throw… He throws challenges in our way to motivate us to learn and to really set us up for hopefully success. If you can pull away and still stay strong his Word and stay strong with your relationship with him, which relationship is huge with the Lord, it can help motivate you to get past those challenges.
But back to relationship with the Lord, that’s a challenge in and of itself, and just being able to make sure that you’re motivated to stay in that relationship, whether that’s prayer, whether that’s nature. Andrew, I know you love nature, and that’s been a huge part of your life. And so for me, that’s the same thing. Being in nature is my time with God, my time in God’s country as I call it, and just enjoying that allows me to connect and to keep on track.
Andrew: People often think of being on our podcast as being in nature.
Patsy: I’m not sure exactly where to go with that.
Andrew: I think it’s the zoo.
Patsy: So I’m gonna go to the fact that I have seen the pictures of his explorations looking for waterfalls.
JT: Backpacking.
Patsy: It seems to be a little bit of his tendency, especially when he needs to center himself. You may need to go for a walk.
Andrew: I may need to go. Let’s say for now, since I can’t get out of this zoo to go for a walk, I think I can conclude, you know, the title of your book, No Bad Days: How to Find Joy in Any Circumstance, makes me think of James 1. And here’s a translation of the Bible that is a little obscure but that I love called The Voice, and the way it translates this message, it says:
“Don’t run from tests and hardships, brothers and sisters. As difficult as they are, you will ultimately find joy in them. If you embrace them, your faith will blossom under pressure and teach you true patience as you endure. And true patience brought on by endurance will equip you to complete the long journey and cross the finish line — mature, complete, and wanting nothing. If you don’t have all the wisdom needed for this journey, then all you have to do is ask God for it; and God will grant all that you need. He gives lavishly and never scolds you for asking.”
Patsy: Thank you, JT, for coming today, for taking some time out and chatting with us. You’re an absolute gentleman, and it is a delight to let others know about your work. And so I know that it’s not an easy thing to write a book, but I also know there’s a great deal of personal satisfaction, like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. When it finally comes out, you think, Look at this good thing that God has done. So I look at this and think, No Bad Days: How to Find Joy in Any Circumstance, this is a good thing.
Patsy: Bridges is produced by my co-host, Andrew Greer.
Andrew: And co-produced by my co-host, Patsy Clairmont. Our podcast is recorded by Jesse Phillips.
Patsy: And sometimes my son, Jason Clairmont.
Andrew: At the Arcade in Franklin, Tennessee. Jesse Phillips is also our editor and mixes our show. And our theme music is written by Kyle Buchanan and yours truly, and all of the instruments of the music were played by Kyle Buchanan at Aries Lounge in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Our transcripts are provided by Rachel Worsham. Thanks, Rachel, for all your work.
Patsy: If you like what you’ve been listening to, you can help us out by leaving a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to our show.
Andrew: For more information about Patsy, myself, or to read transcripts and to listen to more episodes, go to bridgesshow.com.
Patsy: Catch you next time.