Sunday Night With John: Sea to Shinning Sea

Sea to Shinning Sea

John Paul Derryberry

In 2018, Sunday Night With John stretched to every state in the USA. Let's see how it grew from Grandview University in Des Moines, Iowa, to the whole country and beyond.

I was in a small lower meeting room in the Jens Building on the Grandview College campus on a crisp November morning in Des Moines. Grandview has grown since I left. It is no longer a college but a university. I will be referring to it as College because that what it says on my diploma. That morning, I was standing at a skinny lecture podium with an outline of my presentation. There was just one person sitting in the room, Dr. Ken Jones, a professor of Philosophy and Religion. That subject had captured my attention and was one of two reasons I graduated instead of dropping out. Professor Jones had asked me to write out a speech about my life and he was interested to hear in depth about what I had overcome. 

I rambled on for 60 minutes working through my story in a car crash of a delivery, but he saw a spark of magic. When I finished, he smiled and said, "Not bad, but I told you to write it out and you just outlined it. Now go write the whole thing out so you are intimate with your words and then you can ad lib as you see best."  I asked, why?  He replied, "You are giving this speech at the staff fall chapel service before Thanksgiving break. Two weeks later I gave my first talk; 14 years later I'm still at it. 

It's important to see where we are headed and to remember where we came from. The journey always seems enormous.  For the first time ever, Sunday Night with John had at least one reader in every state in the USA.  My blog stretches from sea to shining sea plus 20 countries, including 17 readers in India, and 16 in Great Britain.  I'm not breaking records here, but remember that this message that started in an office with just two people now reaches across the country. If you would have asked 22-year-old John whether would this happen, I would have said, no, because I'm not a good writer. I always wrote just well enough to make sure I could talk about it because talking is by far my best skill. 

Step by step, and person by person, I have pushed forward. It's that type of diligent work, done by passionate people slowly but inevitably building something.  Whatever your dream is, whatever the desired skill you want to add, achieving it involves constant small steps forward, not giving up and asking for help. I never claim to be giving out groundbreaking knowledge here. I think too many successful people act like it was their genius that led them to success. I jumped for joy when Michelle Obama tweeted out that she has met the world leaders and, none of them are any smarter than you. I love to remind people of stories of late bloomers. Morgan Freeman didn't land his acting break until age 52, and now he is pretty much the voice of God. 

Heck, I never dreamed of being a public speaker. Dr. Jones saw something in me and gave the nudge. Lots of people have helped along the way. It's a fantastic feeling to know I have readers, and that my readers are all over the country.  As I move forward into 2019, the core of my talk stays the same as it did then. Explaining life moments that shake our foundation can unite us instead of breaking us.  One day I hope I get invited back to Grandview to do a talk. I hope Dr. Jones will attend because there is nothing like returning to the beginning to see how you have grown.

But for now, I take today and enjoy this milestone.  I have created something lots of people find value in and they tune in weekly to read what I have to say.   I will smile and quietly hum to myself: 

O, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesty above the fruited plain...