ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Super Bowl Sunday will have an extra special element for the Liberal community with the return of John Earle as a guest speaker.
Earle said it was an easy decision to come back to the area.
“I remember talking with Pastor Rex Petty last year, and we had such a good time speaking in the schools and visiting with all the FCA individuals who helped put this on, and many of the donors who brought me in,” Earle said. “We’d left it at more or less, if they wanted to bring me back, that’s great, if not, that’s also fine. I had a great time. This year, they were going to bring in one of my good friends, Steve Grant, who’s been there a few times, but he had a prior engagement, so Pastor Rex called me up and asked if I would want to come back, and I decided I would. I’ll do some schools, but my main ministry is working in prisons, and when everything was getting organized, I said, ‘When I’m there, try to get me in a couple of jails and places like that.’ So we’re going to do schools in the morning, and we’re going to be doing jails in the afternoons. I’ll also be doing a church service at Faith Tabernacle Church Sunday, Feb. 8, and then that afternoon, before the Super Bowl, I’ll do two jails, and then Monday through Thursday, the schedule is going to be schools in the morning and jails in the afternoon. I think one of one or two of the other days, we’re also going to be doing some FCA rallies at night. It’s going to be a packed week.”
Earle said he was excited to be asked back to the area.
“I remember when Pastor Rex called me, I was thinking ‘Hey, man, I don’t mind being the second choice at all.’ There are a lot of great football players out there who can share their story and motivate individuals and challenge young people to stay on a path that’s going to lead to their success,” Earle said. “Because ultimately, whether you’re a doctor, a lawyer, whatever, everyone has a goal they want to reach and everyone has a aspirations of being at the top of the food chain in their certain field, and for me, it was the NFL. There are so many things we all strive for, and there is a degree of decision making and things that you have to do to allow yourself an opportunity to see that success. I do have a lot of things I can share with young people, to allow them to change their mindset, put their feet on the ground with purpose, and have a desire and a purpose to drive themselves towards success, whether that’s going to be the first one to graduate from college, or whether that’s to one day to own your own successful business, whatever it may be. We all have a path we take in life, but on that path, regardless of the occupation, we all know the steps, and that’s the grind to the top. There are a lot of gifted people in this world who can go inspire people, so I was pretty jacked that they asked me to come back.”
Earle said he is looking forward to talking to young people and incarcerated people.
“It’s that mixture of speaking in schools and challenging young people and then speaking in prisons and reaching a certain individual who’s made the wrong decision and lived the life of crime. And what I mean by that is seven out of 10 inmates will always, for some reason or another, they will find themselves back in jail every time I preach,” Earle said. “I can’t tell you how many times an individual will come up to me, hand me my football card and tell me ‘I heard you about three or four years ago’ or ‘I heard you about two years ago. I was at this jail or that jail,’ and it’s kind of sad because they never buy into what they need to do to stay out, and they go back to their old lifestyle, which leads them back into a facility. I tell those guys ‘Keep on doing you, and you’ll be back in the facility near you.’ We always have a saying, ‘If you always do what you always did, you always going to be where you always been,’ and that’s what happens when you run with a crowd that’s leading you astray. That opportunity to offer some challenges to the young person in a junior high or a high school that’s going to nudge them to keep on keeping on towards their pursuit of reaching their goals and their dreams, but also to offer a second, third or fourth chance and an opportunity to say ‘Let’s grab the bull by the horns this time, and let’s really talk about ways that’s going to keep us out of a place like this.’ I love that mixture.”
Earle added the contrast between those audiences is quite stark.
“When you’re in the prisons, it’s real, and those guys have hit their rock bottom, and for the people who are right in front of you and actually listening, you see them open up their hearts, and you see the minds and the wheels turning a little bit. It’s real, and they know they are running out of chances,” Earle said. “When you’ve been in incarcerated for a second or third time, then you have a problem that’s really going to hurt you. I always say ‘We all have five fingers, and when you bring them all together, it’s a fist.’ When you make a bad choice over here, it’s a little slap on the wrist. Another bad choice here, it’s a little slap on the wrist. And you lose opportunities, maybe some privileges here and there. When you start putting all those bad choices together, and you make a fist, and you get hit by that fist, it hurts, and that’s when you lose things. When I get an opportunity to speak to them and offer life, what I’m just trying to do is show them what change looks like, and just give them a truth path. I try to help those in schools to find the truth path that’s going to lead to their success. And then when I’m in prison, I offer a truth path that’s going to help the inmates out.”
Earle also offered encouragement for turnout to his talk at Faith Tabernacle Church.
“Just like anyone else, we all have a story, and I have a story that has taken me in a lot of different directions. I grew up in a broken home, my mom and dad divorced when I was in the fourth grade and we literally grew up in government housing,” Earle said. “My brothers and I shared one room, and sometimes we shared the same clothes. Just to talk about my journey of like, overcoming different setbacks including a broken family and breaking my foot four different times, and going to multiple different schools. I had to go to a junior college first because I didn’t have the grades and had to change positions when I was in college to ultimately stick to it and find that path that was going to lead me to where I became an NFL draft choice and saw my dreams come true. Many of us don’t grow up in the big white house with the white picket fence and a three-car garage and a driveway and money at our disposal. A lot of those individuals I’ll be speaking to in Liberal those are going to work in the community. Some may not even go to college and will have to find a trade or other skill set. I want to let them know if you truly grab that grind mentality, you can overcome anything in life and to go reach your goals. I challenge them with that on their truth path, and then for the individual who’s incarcerated and made that bad decision and regrets what he or she did, I offer forgiveness, encouragement, and I also challenge them to grab life with a purpose, because that purpose is going to allow them to stay out of jail.”
Earle said he hopes his talks inspire his audiences.
“I’m not a superstar. I was never an All Pro – in fact, I barely made the team, but I would say my skill took me pretty far. I maxed out my skill, I maxed out my effort, and I did everything I could possibly do. I was never a superstar, I only played a handful of games,” Earle said. “But when you max out your opportunities, that’s when opportunities come. It’s not about striving to be better than somebody or striving to be the best at what you can do, it’s about maxing out your talent, effort, your skill set, putting it through the grinder and grinding every single day so that at the end of the game, at the end of the day, man, when it’s all said and done and the final whistle’s blown, you can look at yourself in the mirror and say ‘I gave it my best effort. I saw some goals. I achieved some goals. I saw a dream come true.’ If someone’s going to achieve a goal, if someone’s going to reach a dream, let it be you. If you don’t have a church home and you’re looking for a place to visit, come visit Faith Tabernacle Church if you’d like to come hear me preach. I’ll do a different message, of course, when I do a message at the church on Sunday morning than I will do in the schools and even in what I’ll do in the prisons. If you have nowhere to go, come join us Sunday morning, and we’ll have a good time.”
