Participants:
Series Code: CW
Program Code: CW000022S
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00:00 (placid music)
00:05 - Oh, yes, stand right there, come on. 00:08 Stand right there, I'll be right back. 00:13 Hey, welcome everybody to Talking Donkey International 00:15 and our new television series, "Country Wisdom". 00:19 - Let's set the tone for this new series of ours. 00:21 It's found in Proverbs four, 00:24 "Let your eyes look directly forward 00:27 "and your gaze be straight before you. 00:30 "Ponder the path of your feet, 00:33 "And then all your ways will be sure." 00:36 - Join us now for "Country Wisdom". 00:38 (placid music) So drones, drugs and God, 00:46 what do they all got in common with Taylor? 00:48 Well, stay tuned and find out. 00:50 (drone buzzing) 01:01 We've got an episode for you today. 01:03 It's exciting, a young man that, 01:05 well, tattoo covered and everything else. 01:08 Before we go on and talk a little more about it, 01:10 I wanna share a scripture with you. 01:11 It's found in Psalms chapter 34, verse eight, 01:14 "O taste and see that the Lord is good." 01:18 Taylor tasted and saw that God is good, didn't he? 01:21 - He sure did, and he should know 01:23 because he had also tasted a part of life 01:26 that's not so good. 01:28 - A lot of life that's not so good. 01:30 - But then the story of how he came back, 01:33 how God got his attention, 01:36 because we know God never had His eye off of Taylor. 01:40 Taylor took his eyes off God for a while there, 01:43 but he got back on track. - That's right. 01:46 And I'm guessing though 01:47 that perhaps you never had that kind of life. 01:51 - (laughs) No, I was very sheltered. 01:53 In fact, I often have found myself a little bit jealous 01:57 of people like Taylor, because it's like, 01:59 oh, they have such a wonderful testimony. 02:02 And nobody's gonna ask me for mine 02:04 because my whole life was kind of vanilla. 02:07 - I've heard that from so many people 02:09 as I've traveled all around different churches. 02:12 People say, "Well, your testimony is just wonderful, 02:15 "but I don't have any testimony at all." 02:18 But that isn't the case. - No, when you think 02:20 about it, it's not really the case. 02:22 I may never have gotten as far off the track as Taylor did, 02:26 and for that, I'm actually kind of thankful, 02:29 but you can be lost, there aren't degrees of lostness, 02:36 it's not like, oh, he was way more lost than I was, 02:38 lost is lost. - I've got another scripture 02:41 for you. - Okay. 02:42 - In Isaiah chapter 53 verse six, 02:46 "All we like sheep have gone astray," how many? 02:49 - [Janice] All. - All, so if you're 02:51 off the track a little bit 02:53 or if you're off a lot like Taylor, 02:55 it's a real problem, innit? - The parable of the sheep 02:58 that Jesus told, the parable of the lost sheep, 03:02 but actually we're all His sheep and all of us are lost, 03:09 were lost until He came along and got us back into the fold. 03:13 I was just lucky that in my life, I always had a teacher, 03:17 a friend's parent, whoever it was, I look back and realize 03:21 that there was always someone to just nudge me back 03:24 before I got more than a step or two off that path. 03:28 - Speaking of teacher, matter of fact, today's episode 03:30 with Taylor, a teacher played 03:32 an extremely important role in his life. 03:34 - That's true, that's true. 03:35 And the teacher might have no idea 03:37 that that was a lasting effect. 03:39 'Cause we're talking, he was junior high. 03:41 - I think so, yeah. 03:42 - And I think for every teacher out there, 03:45 it's just good to know 03:46 that some of those things really stick, 03:48 and it might not show in the kid today, 03:52 but the adult tomorrow is going to remember those things. 03:55 - Yeah, I wish that Taylor could actually find that teacher 04:00 and tell that teacher what happened 04:01 in his life because of him. - Yes, I work in a school 04:05 and I would love to know 04:07 that someday a child might come back and say, 04:11 "You know, Mrs. Nelson, I was having this really rough time 04:15 "at home that nobody knew about. 04:17 "But I knew when I walked 04:18 "into school and you smiled at me, you know," 04:21 who knows that I might've had an effect, 04:23 I might've helped keep someone on the path. 04:24 - That's right, so folks, gather all the family around now 04:28 and watch this episode, it's gonna be incredible. 04:32 - [Narrator] Introducing Talking Donkey International. 04:35 God once used a donkey to spread His word, 04:37 (placid music) but He'd rather use all of us. 04:41 It's time to prepare quality programming created 04:44 to attract and reach viewers of the world, 04:46 not just those of our denomination. 04:48 Together, we can carry the final advent message 04:51 to the individuals of planet earth 04:53 and hasten the return of our Lord. 04:56 Please pray for and support the successful mission 04:59 of Talking Donkey International. 05:02 (placid music) - Taylor, before we start 05:11 your interview, and by the way, thank you for coming today. 05:13 - Of course. - I wanna read a scripture 05:15 because it seems like it's apropos 05:17 to kind of your life and your journey. 05:19 It's found in Isaiah, chapter one, verse 16, 05:22 it says, "Wash you, make you clean, 05:23 "put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes, 05:26 "cease to do evil, learn to do well. 05:31 "The Lord will teach you His ways, 05:32 "walk in His paths and let us walk 05:35 "in the light of the Lord." - I'm curious, Taylor, 05:40 you brought us up here, it's gorgeous. 05:43 Clearly, it means something to you 05:44 and you obviously didn't bring me up here 05:47 for my comfort and convenience, so why here? 05:53 - So the mountains are a forming part of who I have been, 06:00 I would say, with my experiences of going with family 06:04 through all my childhood, through trips 06:08 where we would go to Rocky Mountain National Park or Lassen, 06:12 or places all throughout the Midwest. 06:15 I enjoy the outdoors and I feel 06:18 that there's nowhere more indicative of the outdoors 06:21 than on top of a mountain 06:22 where you can see all of the outdoors. 06:25 And I think it's also a little bit fitting being 06:28 that I'm a drone pilot. 06:30 I spend most of my working day up above everybody else, 06:36 just like these mountains, 06:37 they sit here and they watch us do our thing. 06:40 And when I'm up in the air, 06:42 I watch everybody else do their thing. 06:44 And I feel that the mountains speak a big part 06:49 of what it means to be powerful, but also reserved. 06:57 The mountains can be a volcano 06:59 or they can just be a mountain. 07:01 So, I think that that's a big, big thing 07:04 where you can look at somebody 07:06 and you think you would know so much about them immediately. 07:11 We can look at a mountain 07:13 and we can think we know so much, but it might be a volcano. 07:16 I like that idea. 07:18 It just seems to be fitting in a lotta different areas 07:22 in my life that I feel at home up on top of a mountain. 07:25 - Well, it certainly is beautiful. 07:26 I don't mind spending the day you here. 07:28 - I can settle that for ya. 07:29 It is a volcano that we're on right now. 07:32 - Oh, thank you. - Sure, sure. 07:33 - Remind me, yeah. - All right, now, we're not 07:36 on top of it right now, but I think 07:38 about when you're talking about loving the mountains, 07:42 but you've really had some valley experiences 07:44 in your life too, do you care 07:45 to share some of those with us? 07:47 - Definitely, it's hard to decide which one to share, 07:55 there's yeah, there's plenty. 07:58 My life has been a lot of moving around 08:02 because of freelance video being my dad's job 08:07 most of my life, so we-- - [Janice] So the apple 08:10 didn't fall far from the tree. - That's exactly right. 08:12 So we went where the jobs were. 08:15 I was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and then in 1998, 08:19 we moved to Southern California. 08:20 And then a couple of years later, 08:22 we moved to Northern California, 08:23 a couple years later we moved to Central California. 08:26 Year after that, I moved to Colorado, 08:29 year after that, moved back to California, 08:30 and it's been all over the place. 08:32 But in all of that, I would say that some 08:36 of those valleys have been not having that bit of, 08:41 oh, this is my childhood house, I grew up in this house, 08:44 or having that hometown to go to. 08:48 I have a town that I consider my hometown, 08:51 but it's not that, oh, I remember being a little kid here 08:54 and doing all these things, but. 08:57 - So different from my experience, 08:58 born and raised in the same town. 09:00 And didn't really move until I got married. 09:05 - Yeah, the longest we ever spent anywhere 09:07 after 1998 was a year and a half. 09:10 And most every time we moved, 09:13 I was going to a new school. - [Janice] Making new friends. 09:15 - Yeah, new town, absolutely new everything, so. 09:18 (placid music) - So how did that 09:19 affect you psychologically? 09:20 You get into a new town, new school, 09:22 new people all the time, you're the new kid all the way. 09:26 - When you're the new kid always, 09:28 there's no reason for your personality 09:32 to be rock solid because. - [Jim] Unpack that 09:37 a little bit. - Yeah, if you're the new kid, 09:41 you've gotta make friends, 09:42 you've gotta figure out how to make friends. 09:45 And so, do something, do anything, 09:49 even if it's minorly out of character to make friends. 09:54 And then, oh, that thing I did that was out of character 09:56 is what got a lotta people to start paying attention. 10:00 So I continued doing that. - [Janice] And then you 10:02 would mold yourself. - And then we moved. 10:03 - [Janice] To whatever new group you were with. 10:05 - Right, and so, I felt that a lot of my younger years, 10:10 I was very, very, very malleable 10:13 and I wasn't around the right people. 10:15 - So in other words, I take it the doing certain things 10:18 to get attention wasn't helping 10:20 the little old lady cross the street. 10:22 - No, definitely not, no, most of the time it 10:25 was what you'd call foolhardiness, 10:29 just going way too extreme. - [Janice] Jim knows what 10:32 you're talking about. - We're not bringing me 10:34 into this today, it's his interview. 10:36 - So a lot of it was I'll jump off the roof, 10:40 I'll jump off the second story into the pool, 10:43 I'll ride the dirt bike with my feet on the seat. 10:48 I was the dare devil, and most of the time, 10:52 I was scared pantsless, but I still did it. 10:58 And honestly, looking back, I'm glad 11:00 that I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, 11:03 but it wasn't for the right reasons. 11:05 So, it got the right outcome with the wrong method. 11:11 - And where did that eventually lead? 11:13 - So now, I'm probably the most adaptable person I know. 11:18 (placid music) You can drop me anywhere 11:22 in any country with any group of people 11:25 and I can have conversation 11:27 and I can get by and I can even get work done, I've been-- 11:31 - Actually, I can testify to that 11:33 since you came and helped us film 11:34 with your drones in some countries, and totally adaptable. 11:39 But let's go back to a moment, let's get into high school. 11:42 Now, did this carry you in a worse direction 11:44 by the time you got to high school to be the odd guy? 11:48 - For sure, my whole growing up life was private education, 11:54 a Seventh Day Adventist education, all through eighth grade, 12:00 and then freshman year was my first year, 12:04 obviously, my first year of high school, 12:05 we decided that it would be good to try something new. 12:09 And by try something new, 12:11 it was right around my freshman year was 12:16 when, well, let me start over. 12:20 Just before high school in seventh and eighth grade 12:23 is when my parents were going through their divorce. 12:27 And so, there was a lot of rockiness in life in general then 12:31 but there was a whole lot that I was just kind of saying 12:34 that's not important to me, I don't care. 12:37 I don't need to put any effort 12:38 towards things that I'm not interested in. 12:40 - I'm gonna interrupt ya. 12:42 So you're saying it's not important, 12:43 but deep down, was it important? 12:45 - Oh, for sure, there's so many things that I just let go. 12:49 There's a lot I let go of at that age 12:51 because when it became, oh, well, 12:55 our family is no longer gonna be our family, 12:57 then who do I have to keep it together for? 13:01 I'm not beholden to any of you. 13:03 So, I'm gonna do whatever I wanna do. 13:06 And so, I kind of went further along that way. 13:09 And so, eighth grade was not terrible, 13:13 but it was the start of what led me to needing to go, 13:17 freshman year of high school 13:18 went to a boarding school in Colorado. 13:21 And my family lives in California. 13:23 I had grandparents there in Colorado, 13:25 but it's 700 miles away from family to go to high school 13:31 for my first year of high school. 13:33 - That would be tough, I can't imagine. 13:35 - If I thought that I was foolhardy 13:36 in my elementary school years, 13:38 my freshman year is where I really took it up 13:40 to the next notch because I was in a new state now. 13:44 My parents aren't even in the same county, 13:47 who's gonna get me in trouble for doing what? 13:50 - So, not only physically were you in another state, 13:52 but mentally as well? - Absolutely, absolutely. 13:55 And so, I would say one of the main low moments 13:57 in my freshman year is I was through years 14:03 where I had found methods to, daredevilness, 14:09 trying to develop a sense of humor, that kind of thing. 14:13 And I was trying it there, and it didn't seem to quite work 14:16 with the same oomph that it had before. 14:19 So I said, "Okay, I just need to turn the dial up." 14:21 (placid music) And so, it became snowboarding 14:25 off the roof of the boys dorm. 14:27 It became, there was a very popular TV show 14:33 that was throughout the early 2000s, 14:35 and the title is another name for a donkey. 14:39 - [Janice] Okay, yes. - We mimicked that show 14:43 to a T and I-- - So, when they said, 14:45 "Don't try this at home, kids," you weren't listening 14:47 to that part. - And I said, 14:48 "Get the camera." 14:49 So we did a lotta things where it's like, 14:52 oh, I'm in the shopping cart, push me off the bank 14:54 and into the river, that kinda stupid, absolutely stupid. 14:59 But we were doing all these things, 15:01 and putting 'em on video, 15:02 and we were laughing about them afterwards, 15:03 and everything like that. 15:05 And it was the little bit of comradery that I had, 15:07 but I wouldn't say that it was healthy at all. 15:11 But I'm trying to keep a flow through this 15:19 because it's like there was a very low a moment in that year 15:24 but I would say one of the moments that I felt closest 15:27 to God was also at that boarding school. 15:31 - If I can. - That's quite 15:33 the juxtaposition there. - [Taylor] Of course. 15:35 - We'll talk just for a moment, what was your experience? 15:40 Did you know God at all? 15:41 You grew up in a Christian home, 15:43 but did you know God by the time you got to this point? 15:47 - I would say that a big part of developing any yearning 15:53 to be close to God is all thanks 15:56 to my seventh and eighth grade teachers. 15:58 And that was in an elementary school, 16:00 that was Adventist both times. 16:03 Dwight Crow and Brian Henry are those two teachers. 16:07 And they, I still remember everything 16:09 about being in their classroom. 16:11 I remember so much about going on video jobs with my dad 16:18 and hearing we're gonna meet such and such a person, 16:22 and I'm not gonna name names because I'm not saying 16:25 that these are tried and true indications of who they were, 16:30 but there were moments where it was like, 16:32 we're gonna go meet these people that everyone knows them 16:36 as a person that is so close to God, 16:39 and I'm seeing them in a work environment, 16:43 and they're dressed, and I totally get that now, 16:46 but I'm also seeing some of the worst sides of people 16:49 that everybody, they're the best person I've ever seen. 16:53 And so, I felt for a long time that, oh, okay, 16:59 if they're a good Christian, 17:00 everybody's gonna say they're a good Christian, 17:01 but really they're kind of a jerk. 17:04 My seventh and eighth grade year, 17:06 those teachers absolutely flipped on its head 17:10 because they showed me what it meant to be a steward, 17:17 they showed me what it meant to listen for real. 17:25 (placid music) If you have a problem 17:28 and you say, I don't like X, 17:30 or I don't like that God is doing X to me, 17:33 there's a lotta people that would immediately say, "Well, 17:36 "you're wrong for thinking that way." 17:39 But there's another way of doing that, 17:42 and I was led to that through those teachers. 17:45 - I wonder if they have any idea of the effect, 17:48 the seeds that they were planting, 17:50 that you would this many years later still remember that 17:53 and have that still be signified. 17:56 - Is it proper to say you saw people 17:59 that finally walked the talk 18:02 and it made some impression upon you? 18:05 - Absolutely, when you hear everybody, 18:10 and I mean, everybody saying 18:12 this is the pastor that we like to listen to, 18:15 or the way that they say it 18:18 is the way that I have wanted to hear it said, 18:21 because that's what I believe. 18:22 You're putting these people on a pedestal, 18:26 and then of course you end up seeing the human side. 18:29 And then, that pedestal, wrongly, 18:33 was my idea of what Christianity is. 18:37 And so, when they knocked that over, I'm like, oh, okay, 18:40 I don't know what I believe, I don't know who I believe, 18:43 I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. 18:47 And then, you meet somebody that it's, 18:49 their job is not to preach, their job is to teach. 18:55 And in that, they were able to find a way to also preach. 19:01 And it never felt like it was something 19:06 that they stayed up all night to write down. 19:08 Like, I'm gonna make sure 19:09 that I say this when he says this. 19:11 - Just flowed out of 'em. - [Taylor] Yeah, yeah. 19:12 - I'm impressed because I work at a school, 19:14 and if you can maintain a true Christian walk 19:19 teaching junior high. - (laughs) Absolutely. 19:25 - So now Taylor, you're into high school now, 19:28 you've left these teachers behind, so what's going on? 19:31 You're getting wilder and wilder it sounds like. 19:33 - Right, and having those teachers show me 19:38 what it meant to be a my approximation 19:41 of what a true Christian is, 19:44 was at least the smallest layer of a foundation possible 19:52 that I could have had, I was on the smallest rock possible 19:58 in this sea of sand that I'd been walking on my whole life. 20:01 And when I went to high school, I was like, 20:04 okay, it's kinda tight here. 20:05 Maybe I'll step out into the sand a little bit. 20:07 And that's what I kept on doing 20:08 is these activities to just try and get people's attention. 20:14 And for a long time, that's the driving force 20:18 behind most of what I did was just to get attention. 20:21 - And what was the yearning to get attention, 20:23 that deep down psychological yearning in your mind? 20:26 - I feel that it was when, it's because we moved so often 20:31 that any attention I was getting 20:33 was usually so base level of like, oh, hey, how's it going? 20:39 And then that was it 20:41 until the next day. - You were never one place 20:42 long enough to form really deep relationships. 20:44 - Right, so I would say 20:45 that the time I had a deep conversation 20:47 with somebody, for real, that wasn't a family member 20:50 was sophomore, junior year of high school, 20:54 because there was nobody that I was ever around long enough 20:58 for it to make sense to say, 21:00 "Hey, you know, I'm kind of struggling with this. 21:02 "What do you think, or what do you go through?" 21:05 Most of the time it would be 21:08 what are we doing this time that we're hanging out? 21:11 And it was usually whoever had the dumbest idea 21:15 was the one that we picked and (laughs). 21:18 - Sounds like, and I don't wanna put you on the spot here, 21:20 but it sounds like you were jumping off a lot of things 21:23 and a lotta cliffs, did you jump into alcohol and drugs? 21:26 Because that seemed like part of everything that goes on. 21:30 - Not my freshman year, 21:31 not at the boarding school, honestly. 21:33 And it was available, but I felt intimidated 21:41 by the crowd of kids that were already in there, 21:45 because I was like, I'm a good Christian boy (laughs). 21:50 But I never felt myself actually wanting to do it 21:54 in freshman year. (placid music) 21:57 Sophomore year is when it was really bad. 22:00 Junior year is when it was at its worst. 22:03 And then senior year, I was trying to taper off. 22:06 And yeah, but. - Why were you trying 22:10 to taper off? - I was ending 22:12 my high school career with no idea 22:15 about where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. 22:18 And I realized, okay, it's been two years 22:21 that I've been at the school, 22:22 and other people or other friends of mine 22:25 that have already decided their career path, 22:28 and they're already taking those AP classes, 22:30 and as soon as they're graduating, 22:32 they're enrolled in the next set, 22:34 and they're gonna just shoot off like a rocket. 22:36 And I was telling myself, there's those kids, 22:40 and then there's the other kids that I'm hanging out with 22:43 that I can see the wall. 22:48 And there's been so many times that I've had that moment 22:54 of seeing the writing on the wall 22:56 and still going that direction where... 23:06 - There's gotta be some young viewers out there 23:08 that are watching this, maybe they're hung up 23:11 in all the things you were, 23:12 but I almost get the feelings that, 23:14 yeah, at that point I just decided it was time to quit. 23:18 Well, we know that just doesn't come by itself. 23:21 - [Taylor] Right, of course. - So, how did you do all this? 23:25 - Well, I don't wanna take 45 minutes on this part, 23:29 but I will just say sophomore year 23:31 is when I had first experimented 23:33 with alcohol or anything like that. 23:36 And I have still to this day, 23:40 not been at all a fan of alcohol, 23:43 I've never once enjoyed being drunk, 23:47 but it's always been the I need to do it to hang out 23:49 with these people, and horrible excuse, horrible excuse. 23:54 If that's what you need to do to hang out with those people, 23:56 you don't need to hang out with those people. 23:57 But I went sophomore year having done that, 24:03 and got a couple more friends that I would smoke with, 24:06 or that I would have a beer with, 24:08 or that they were getting drunk on weekends, 24:10 and I would be around and happened to get drunk too. 24:12 And then junior year was when it became much more available 24:22 to do anything, and I mean literally anything. 24:26 We lived in the central valley of California. 24:30 Bay Area is an hour away, you can take an hour drive 24:34 and go see the worst drug dealer imaginable, 24:38 and get anything you imagine. 24:40 But what we were doing in our junior year 24:45 was a ton of smoking weed, a ton, 24:50 every day before school, skip a class to smoke, 24:54 and then after school until we've decided we didn't 24:57 wanna hang out with each other anymore. 25:00 And looking back at that, 25:03 it's like I cannot imagine quantifying 25:06 the number of hours I wasted on people 25:09 that I can't even either remember their names anymore 25:12 or wouldn't care to. (placid music) 25:15 - My grandmother was number 11 in a family of 13 girls. 25:21 And she sometimes felt lost in the crowd. 25:24 Do you ever feel that way? 25:26 With nearly eight billion people in the world, 25:28 it's easy to wonder if anyone even notices you're alive. 25:33 But there is someone who notices. 25:36 The Bible says God calls us by name. 25:40 He knows you, knows your name, you're His child. 25:46 If you'd like proof, go to talkingdonkeyinternational.org 25:50 and request offer number 130 for this free pamphlet. 25:55 There's not another you. 25:58 (placid music) - That was exciting, 26:00 a lot of stuff, but we ran outta time. 26:02 - We always run out of time. 26:04 There's always more that I wish we could pack in. 26:06 - But there is more in this, yeah. 26:08 - Oh yes, if you thought the first part of Taylor's life 26:10 was interesting, you are going to want to come back 26:13 for part two. 26:14 I can't believe some of his stories. 26:17 First of all, the way he moved every year, 26:20 the new kid practically every school year. 26:23 I was born and raised in the same town, 26:25 lived in the same house until I went off to college. 26:29 And from kindergarten through 12th grade 26:33 was in the same school. 26:35 I cannot imagine being the new kid over and over and over. 26:39 And then beyond that, I can't imagine the business deals 26:44 that Taylor was making. 26:46 And then, he ends up in the Bay Area, 26:49 and that story where he is running from the police. 26:53 - That's the part that I can identify with 26:54 being in San Francisco 26:55 'cause I've had some pretty rough times, 26:57 but boy, his was hair-raising. 26:59 - My run ins with the police are much more run of the mill, 27:05 the highway patrol are a little more of who I've run into, 27:08 because I might have kind of a lead foot, 27:10 but that is literally the worst trouble I've ever been in 27:13 is a speeding ticket. 27:15 - The cool thing is God loves us all, 27:17 He died for all of us, and He wanted to save Taylor. 27:21 It's absolutely evident. 27:22 But I think people need to tune into part two, 27:25 because part two is even more exciting. 27:28 - Oh yes, we barely touched on parts of his life today. 27:33 That's why it's gotta be a two-parter. 27:34 He's had that kind of life. 27:37 Some of us have been boring, vanilla Christians, not Taylor. 27:41 You are definitely going to want to join us next week. 27:44 - See how God saved him 27:46 out of this problem in San Francisco. 27:48 (placid music) 27:52 Hey, thanks for joining us for "Country Wisdom". 27:55 - See ya next time. |
Revised 2021-06-04