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Robert Collier: A Musician's Faith Journey · Get The Hell Out of Your Life with Ron Meyers

0:01
Announcer: It's time now to get the hell out of your life.
0:04
Announcer: A weekly broadcast with real people, sharing real struggles, and offering real hope.
0:09
Announcer: Today's show will encourage, inspire, and empower you to face life's challenges with a bold confidence and renewed hope.
0:17
Announcer: Now let's join our host, Ron Myers, the promoter.
0:21
Ron Meyers: You can stand on a stage, hear the applause, feel the lights on your face, and still walk back to a room that feels painfully silent.
0:31
Ron Meyers: Hello, my friends.
0:32
Ron Meyers: I'm Ron Myers, and it is so good to be with you today.
0:35
Ron Meyers: This show is called Get the Hell Out of Your Life: Real Stories, Real Struggles, and Real Hope.
0:41
Ron Meyers: Today's conversation goes beyond the spotlight, in the places most people try to hide.
0:47
Ron Meyers: Because, friend, the loudest battles in life, they don't happen in front of people.
0:52
Ron Meyers: They happen behind closed doors in the quiet.
0:56
Ron Meyers: Where regret whispers, anger justifies itself, and faith gets tested for real.
1:04
Ron Meyers: My guest today, Robert Collier, knows what it feels like to carry questions about identity from the very beginning.
1:12
Ron Meyers: He was adopted, he had three different names before the age of four, and was raised by an older couple who gave him something the world can't fake grit, wisdom, and community.
1:25
Ron Meyers: But life didn't go easy for Robert.
1:28
Ron Meyers: A teacher once looked him in the eye and said, You'll make a great inmate.
1:33
Ron Meyers: But for some people that becomes a label.
1:35
Ron Meyers: But for Robert, it became a turning point.
1:39
Ron Meyers: Today's story is a story about identity, healing, and choosing who you become when life tries to define you.
1:48
Ron Meyers: So let's get into today's story.
1:50
Ron Meyers: Robert, do you remember where we first met?
1:53
Robert Collier: It was back in the 80s, mid to late 80s, and you were putting on a sh some type of marketplace thing down at the old Gulfport Pavilion.
2:03
Robert Collier: Yeah, right.
2:03
Robert Collier: Rice Pavilion.
2:04
Robert Collier: Right.
2:05
Robert Collier: And I forgot what it was named.
2:06
Robert Collier: Anyway, so you had come over and you had we were going to do it, and and it it we kind of threw the band together at that time, and we went and we were performing, and you came out, and I remember saying, Who is this lightning bug?
2:17
Robert Collier: Because you you you were all over the place.
2:20
Robert Collier: And I remember talking to you and we shook hands and we went ahead and we had just a small amount of time to talk.
2:26
Robert Collier: But I remember walking away and one of the band members looked at me and uh said, you know, who is that?
2:31
Robert Collier: I said, uh his name is Ron.
2:33
Robert Collier: I said, but I got a feeling we're gonna see a lot of him in the future.
2:37
Robert Collier: You have to have drive.
2:38
Robert Collier: You have to have belief in yourself.
2:40
Robert Collier: Never seen you again until I saw you on TV during your Christmas down at the Coliseum.
2:45
Robert Collier: And I went, that's him.
2:46
Robert Collier: Well, you played for me, didn't you, at some of the festivals?
2:48
Robert Collier: Your band called Meet the Press.
2:50
Robert Collier: Right, right.
2:51
Robert Collier: That was when it was rock, Meet the Press.
2:53
Robert Collier: And again, every time uh that I got to see you, we didn't get to see uh talk a lot because you were Yep, I was always you were always running around.
3:00
Robert Collier: But it was one of those things that you have to have, and I try in my own life, you have to have self-worth, you have to have self-drive, you have to push yourself to say, I'm going over any obstacle that comes my way.
3:13
Robert Collier: And you went from doing that to doing those Christmas things, and I'm just like, okay.
3:18
Robert Collier: And then obviously Christianity.
3:21
Robert Collier: And it's been a just an absolute metamorphosis, and I can look back now when I see your name, and I'm going, I'm not going to say I knew that, but I had a feeling back in the mid-80s we would be here in Ron Meyer's name again.
3:32
Ron Meyers: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: When I reached out to you to have a visit with you and be a part of my show, talk about stories of faith.
3:38
Ron Meyers: There's not a lot of people I know that knew me back to 30, 35 years ago, but both of us, we've grown, we've got wiser.
3:45
Ron Meyers: And tell us a little bit about you, Robert.
3:48
Robert Collier: I was born at Howard Memorial.
3:50
Robert Collier: Howard Memorial Hospital was on the beach down there right now where my mother gave me up for adoption.
3:56
Robert Collier: And from till I was four years old, I had three different names.
3:59
Robert Collier: Now, here's the thing.
4:00
Robert Collier: I could very easily have been angered at her and whatever, but as I got older, I didn't know what her situation was.
4:07
Robert Collier: How can I judge her for giving me up at that time without any explanation?
4:13
Robert Collier: I didn't know her situation.
4:14
Robert Collier: And now that I have children and grandchildren, I sometimes sorry that I didn't get to know her better, you know.
4:20
Robert Collier: But anyway, I was raised on the east end of Biloxi by an elderly couple, third-grade educated people who were the smartest people I've ever met in my life because they had common sense and they applied it.
4:29
Robert Collier: And we had a small cafe down there, a neighborhood cafe, and everybody in the neighborhood was my family.
4:35
Robert Collier: Everybody in the neighborhood, we all went down there, and I remember that my parents, they would do spaghetti drives and cake drives to build St.
4:43
Robert Collier: Michael Church on the on the beach.
4:45
Robert Collier: And once that church was built, and this is the amazing thing, you don't have to have a master's degree or a PhD.
4:52
Robert Collier: These people on the east end of Biloxi, who I cherish, were not highly educated.
4:57
Robert Collier: They had some, but they weren't highly educated, but they were educated enough and understand that hard work and dedication, when that building was built down there, and it's still down there, the shell-looking uh St.
5:07
Robert Collier: Michael's, it was paid for.
5:09
Robert Collier: There was no loans.
5:10
Robert Collier: And I learned that hard work and dedication from them.
5:13
Robert Collier: And so it went on as life went on.
5:16
Robert Collier: I was not a good student.
5:18
Robert Collier: I am today, can tell you very honestly, I can't tell you an adjective from an adverb.
5:22
Robert Collier: But as the last day I was a troubled child and I'd got in a lot of trouble, and I used to weigh 320 pounds.
5:29
Robert Collier: And I was got a lot of trouble back in high school.
5:32
Robert Collier: My last day of high school, la very last day we were walking out, and they were giving me my diploma, and that's the God's honest truth, they were giving me my diploma.
5:39
Robert Collier: I had a teacher stop me in the hallway and she looked at me, she said, Mr.
5:42
Robert Collier: Collier, you're gonna make a great inmate one day.
5:45
Robert Collier: Because I and wait a minute, and I didn't get mad at her, and I wouldn't go home and tell my mom because my mom would have agreed with her, because I was in a lot of trouble as a kid.
5:52
Robert Collier: But it drove me.
5:54
Robert Collier: And I went to work for a finance company as a collector right here in Gulfport, didn't know what I was doing.
5:59
Robert Collier: Fifteen years later, I opened my own company and I had the mortgage to that woman's house, to my to my teacher's house.
6:05
Robert Collier: Now, I had lost all my weight.
6:08
Robert Collier: I was back down to about I was down to about 175, 80 pounds, and I had a nice suit on.
6:12
Robert Collier: I went to her house and I knocked on the front door, and I'm not gonna say her name, but I knocked on the front door, I said, ma'am.
6:16
Robert Collier: She said, Yeah, I said, I'm Robert Collier.
6:18
Robert Collier: I said, I I have owned a company now that has the mortgage to your house.
6:22
Robert Collier: And she looked at me very inquisitively.
6:24
Robert Collier: She went, Collier, Collier.
6:26
Robert Collier: And I went, the inmate.
6:28
Robert Collier: And she she came out and hugged me.
6:30
Robert Collier: And I said, And I said, Thank you.
6:32
Robert Collier: I said, Thank you for it was a wake-up call.
6:34
Robert Collier: And here's another thing is that it was her words, but it was God's pushing and saying, it was it was God's doing something that I'll that that I'll give to you reference later on.
6:44
Robert Collier: That God did something to me that I wound up doing to try to help other kids.
6:49
Robert Collier: And it wasn't one of those things to where it was a lightning bolt.
6:52
Robert Collier: It was a subtle push.
6:54
Robert Collier: And so I went from there and wound up in the finance business, went back into music.
6:59
Robert Collier: I was doing both of them.
7:00
Robert Collier: I was I was trying to be so busy with the finance company and playing music.
7:04
Robert Collier: I was saying so busy, and I thought I was trying to make all this money, but then I realized I didn't want to slow down to realize how miserable I was.
7:11
Robert Collier: I didn't want to stop on a couch and sit there and realize I'm all alone.
7:15
Robert Collier: I have no family.
7:16
Robert Collier: And that's the reason why alcohol and drugs are so prevalent.
7:20
Robert Collier: People, they're not bad people, these are not bad people.
7:22
Robert Collier: These are people that got lost, they got lonely.
7:25
Robert Collier: They they they didn't understand that they didn't have to have a needle or drink, that they just needed to back up a second.
7:32
Robert Collier: And nowhere in the Bible does it say you have to go to a building to get God.
7:37
Robert Collier: Amen.
7:37
Robert Collier: Where I found God is on the road.
7:41
Robert Collier: When I was driving from show to show in music, I'd be by myself and I'd put on a some Christian show and then I'd turn it off.
7:48
Robert Collier: And for the next couple of hours, I would just think about my life and say, what happens now?
7:53
Robert Collier: I'm really not happy.
7:55
Robert Collier: You know, and I tried, and I was in Catholicism for 27 years, and God, it's a beautiful, wonderful religion.
8:02
Robert Collier: I have nothing bad to say about it.
8:04
Robert Collier: It just wasn't for me.
8:06
Robert Collier: I could not find that inner peace.
8:08
Robert Collier: And then I went on, and there were many years I did not go to any church whatsoever, but I did on Sunday mornings would sit there and pray and say, Look, I don't know what I'm doing.
8:18
Robert Collier: You know, I know I had a wonderful time this past weekend.
8:21
Robert Collier: I had all the the people yelling and hollering, the girls laughing and smiling.
8:25
Robert Collier: But uh, when I got back to the hotel, I was alone.
8:28
Robert Collier: And in an insight, people want to know why so many of these major rock stars and them, why they turn to drugs.
8:35
Robert Collier: Is nothing more euphoric than getting on a stage and having 20,000 people scream at you.
8:41
Robert Collier: And then you go back to a hotel room, nothing.
8:44
Robert Collier: Nothing.
8:44
Robert Collier: And you have to try to fill that void.
8:46
Robert Collier: Me, I know I I I'm amazing.
8:48
Robert Collier: I I say I'm amazed at this, that in my 50 years of being in music, I've never smoked a cigarette, I've never done a drug, I've never drank a beer.
8:57
Robert Collier: I realized when I was 320 pounds, I was addicted to food.
9:01
Robert Collier: So if I ever tried drugs or alcohol, I was never going back.
9:05
Robert Collier: I understood that.
9:06
Robert Collier: I if of all the things that I've done stupidly.
9:08
Robert Collier: But it was one of those things that you look at your life and you see people, and you and too many times that we as people, just normal, that there was only one perfect person ever in this world and they crucified him that we look at people and say, oh man, they're this, they're that.
9:23
Robert Collier: No, you don't know what's going on in their lives.
9:25
Ron Meyers: Amen.
9:26
Robert Collier: I spent 31 years on the road with all African American musicians, and we've never had one racist comment, we never had one racist argument, because I have this that I've said to so many times about racism.
9:38
Robert Collier: Racism is not the color of a man's skin.
9:42
Robert Collier: Racism is the color of a man's heart.
9:44
Robert Collier: Forget their skin.
9:46
Robert Collier: I I how how can you like yesterday?
9:48
Robert Collier: I I I'd met a beautiful black lady, and we had a great conversation.
9:53
Robert Collier: I met her and I looked at her and I said, Do you hate me?
9:56
Robert Collier: She said, Why?
9:58
Robert Collier: I said, I don't hate you either.
9:59
Robert Collier: But I mean, we're supposed I guess we're supposed to.
10:01
Robert Collier: You know what I'm getting at?
10:02
Robert Collier: It's not the it's not the color of her skin, it's the color of a person's heart.
10:06
Robert Collier: And when we can get past that, when we can all get past that, so as I traveled and met so many people, I can't think of anybody I ever met right off the bat that I disliked or hated.
10:16
Robert Collier: Because how can a man who came from his mother gave him up at birth?
10:21
Robert Collier: I was raised in a very beautiful community, but it was it was not hybrid, I was not rich.
10:27
Robert Collier: How am I gonna look it down at somebody else?
10:30
Robert Collier: You know, I just lucked out.
10:31
Robert Collier: I I very much lucked out that I did not get into drugs and alcohol and that I'm not holding a sign on the case.
10:36
Robert Collier: So you have a lot of gratitude that you've just Oh, I I would I would not trade, and I'm saying this a thousand times, and this is where people really have to look at it.
10:45
Robert Collier: I would not trade a single mistake I made in life ever, because it got me to where I am today.
10:52
Ron Meyers: Have there ever been a moment where your faith was tested on the road and you really had to say, uh uh, I gotta practice what I preach?
11:01
Robert Collier: Yeah.
11:01
Robert Collier: I mean, there's many times that I would be somewhere and someone would do me wrong.
11:06
Robert Collier: I had people that you know that that uh you you're talking about would come up to me and say that, you know, you owe me money or you this and that because of this show or that.
11:13
Robert Collier: And I would want to get angry and lash out.
11:16
Robert Collier: And I'd look at them and go, okay, you know, I live by the premise of this because and you know this better than I do, if we'd had social media in my day, I don't know what we'd have done because if every mistake I made would have been magnified a thousand times over.
11:31
Robert Collier: So here's so true.
11:32
Robert Collier: Here's the thing I do, and I've been this way, and I don't know if it irritates my wife and my family or whatever, but somebody could come up to me and say, You're a thief, you're a liar, you're this and that, and I look at him and say, I must be.
11:44
Robert Collier: Because no matter what I tell you, you're gonna believe what you want to believe.
11:48
Robert Collier: So I'm not gonna tell you, I'm gonna show you.
11:51
Robert Collier: I'm not gonna give you words, I'm gonna give you actions.
11:54
Robert Collier: People are gonna say what they want to say, and you can defend yourself all day long.
11:57
Robert Collier: You have you have you have millions of people on both sides of the realm that says OJ did not kill his wife, and then you have the other half saying that he did kill his wife.
12:05
Robert Collier: No matter what said or nobody's done.
12:07
Robert Collier: So I have learned that when somebody attacks me, I don't defend myself.
12:12
Robert Collier: I say, okay, God bless you.
12:13
Robert Collier: God bless you.
12:14
Robert Collier: You just turn the other cheek.
12:15
Robert Collier: Yeah, because it does no good.
12:17
Robert Collier: It does no good.
12:19
Robert Collier: People are gonna think of you what they want to think of you.
12:21
Robert Collier: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
12:21
Ron Meyers: Over these years of not seeing you, God has really seasoned you and and you have a a passion.
12:28
Ron Meyers: You you you can tell that you like people, don't you?
12:31
Ron Meyers: Oh, absolutely.
12:31
Ron Meyers: You love people.
12:32
Ron Meyers: Yes.
12:33
Ron Meyers: Have you ever been in a hard season in your life?
12:35
Ron Meyers: And and where was God during that hard season?
12:39
Robert Collier: Again, my adopted parents.
12:41
Robert Collier: My adopted father took infantsema and uh cancer of the lungs, and he for three years, nine months, and twelve days.
12:47
Robert Collier: And the reason why I know that is because my mother kept reminding me she took care of him three years, nine months, and twelve days.
12:53
Robert Collier: He was dying.
12:54
Robert Collier: And we uh I would come home as a kid.
12:57
Robert Collier: I was only a I started at seven years old, and I got eight, nine years old, and every day I'd come home, he was bedridden, and I would have to, you know, wipe his mouth from blood and and help him on the potty.
13:09
Robert Collier: And I remember one day I came home and I'm a kid, and I ran in there, and he had a little pink soft bristle brush, and he told me, he said, he said, Robbie, he said, Come here, baby.
13:20
Robert Collier: I said, What, Daddy?
13:21
Robert Collier: He goes, Would you mind scratching my back for me, please?
13:24
Robert Collier: Well, my friends were outside ready to play.
13:26
Robert Collier: They had a ball and gloves and they were ready to go.
13:28
Robert Collier: And so I grabbed the brush and I was doing it real fast.
13:31
Robert Collier: And uh, he says, the other side, I said, and I might have made a sound or a grunt.
13:35
Robert Collier: And I went, uh okay.
13:37
Robert Collier: And he goes, baby, and he looked at me, he goes, One day you won't have to do this.
13:41
Robert Collier: That was fifty fifty something years ago.
13:45
Robert Collier: I've never gotten over it.
13:46
Robert Collier: And I would give up, and and I mean this, this is not you hear people say, I give up no.
13:51
Robert Collier: I would give up ten years of my life to be able to look him in the eyes right now and say, I'm sorry.
13:55
Robert Collier: I di I didn't didn't realize he was never gonna be there.
13:58
Robert Collier: And I went through that for a long time.
14:01
Robert Collier: After he died, I never cried at his funeral.
14:04
Robert Collier: Never cried.
14:05
Robert Collier: I just looked and saw him and just got inside myself.
14:09
Robert Collier: And then all of a sudden, I was a 11-year-old kid with a 69-year-old adopted mother, and she was running a gr a a uh a grill and cafe, and she didn't have time for me.
14:22
Robert Collier: And she did the best she could, don't get me wrong, she did and I idolize her what she did for me.
14:27
Robert Collier: But it was one of those things to where I didn't realize how important it was for that moment in time just to scratch his back a little longer.
14:37
Robert Collier: And sometimes we as children, not only me, everybody, we as children find our parents to be maybe a little worriesome.
14:46
Robert Collier: You know what I'm getting at?
14:48
Robert Collier: Oh God, Dad, do we have to go there again?
14:50
Robert Collier: You know?
14:50
Robert Collier: I would give up ten years of my life to scratch his back one more time.
14:54
Robert Collier: And that was a dark period.
14:56
Robert Collier: It obviously is.
14:57
Robert Collier: Fifty years later, I b I beg God for forgiveness and I asked my father, my dad, please forgive me.
15:05
Robert Collier: So there are times that you go through that and you are not sure.
15:08
Robert Collier: There's times that you go through and I'm I'm trying to get people to understand that even when somebody divorces you, you know, they say, you know, you know, I don't want to be married, I don't love you anymore.
15:17
Robert Collier: Okay, well then you know, it's a you know, some people can walk away and some people carry the bitterness with them.
15:25
Robert Collier: And what they need to understand is is that at that time, stop.
15:28
Robert Collier: Realize to tomorrow morning you can change everything.
15:34
Ron Meyers: There's somebody listening to you right now, and they can relate to you, and they've never been able to forgive themselves, even though God has.
15:42
Ron Meyers: You can give that person some encouragement and hope now.
15:45
Ron Meyers: What would you tell that person?
15:46
Robert Collier: I would tell them to understand that give it to God, pray.
15:50
Robert Collier: Like I do at my that one instance with my dad where I pray and I say, Look, I'm sorry.
15:55
Robert Collier: You know, and and you know, you only have to say you're sorry sincerely one time.
16:00
Robert Collier: You know, any time after that's repetitiveness.
16:03
Robert Collier: But if you really are sorry, don't do it again.
16:05
Ron Meyers: Don't do it again.
16:06
Robert Collier: Yeah, and again, I've told you that I learned more from my mistakes than I did from my accomplishments.
16:11
Robert Collier: I can remember some mistakes I made that stay with me today, and I ask God, I I wish I could go back to those people and tell them I'm sorry what I said.
16:18
Robert Collier: I'm sorry I hurt you.
16:19
Robert Collier: This is when I was young and foolish, and I thought I knew everything.
16:22
Robert Collier: And sometimes we just forget that no matter whether we're 20 or 70, we're still sometimes vanity gets to us.
16:31
Robert Collier: Well, you're not gonna talk to me that way.
16:32
Robert Collier: Well, why don't you just walk away?
16:33
Robert Collier: And and I'll give you this real quick, not take There's a young lady at Walmart, young young, beautiful young lady, and she was working.
16:39
Robert Collier: I was two customers behind her, and this woman chewed her out because of some well, here, this stamp says it was 195 and you're charging me 299.
16:49
Robert Collier: She just chewed her out and just embarrassed this child.
16:53
Robert Collier: I remember looking at that, just shaking my head.
16:55
Robert Collier: Well, by the time I got to the young lady, she had wiped her tears.
16:58
Robert Collier: And I looked at her, I said, sweetheart, I want you to do me a favor.
17:01
Robert Collier: The next time somebody chews you out like that and they're getting all into you, they're not mad at you.
17:06
Robert Collier: Their lives are miserable.
17:08
Robert Collier: And they have to take it out on someone.
17:10
Robert Collier: So I tried to get her to laugh.
17:12
Robert Collier: I said, So what you're gonna do next time, somebody's chewing you out and just going on and just getting into you, I want you to look at them and think in your head, I get off here at five o'clock, but you have to live in that body.
17:21
Robert Collier: Don't scream back at them.
17:25
Robert Collier: They're going through a horrible time and they need somebody to take it out on.
17:29
Robert Collier: So what you need to do is just say, God bless you.
17:32
Robert Collier: And you'll see them, they might anger get back at you, but don't allow them to ruin you because they're already there.
17:40
Robert Collier: People and I got a sign that I put in my son's room.
17:44
Robert Collier: It says, People that will tear you down are too lazy to lift themselves up.
17:48
Ron Meyers: Wow.
17:49
Robert Collier: That's good.
17:49
Robert Collier: And also, never live down to someone's expectations.
17:54
Ron Meyers: Live up to them.
17:54
Ron Meyers: Hey, the title of the show is called Get the Hell Out of Your Life.
17:57
Ron Meyers: Yeah.
17:58
Ron Meyers: So, Robert, how do you get the hell out of your life?
18:00
Robert Collier: It's just you don't allow, you don't allow things that you know are gonna destroy you.
18:05
Robert Collier: You don't think so.
18:06
Robert Collier: I mean, whether it's, you know, I I you know, I'm sitting here on a Friday night and I'm alone and a miserable, blah, blah, blah.
18:12
Robert Collier: I'm gonna go out and have a bunch of drinks to get to to really just get it out.
18:15
Robert Collier: And then the next morning you're alone again, this time you're hung over.
18:18
Robert Collier: All you've done is add pain on top of pain.
18:22
Robert Collier: So what you can do is I'm not saying everybody needs to grab a Bible and jump down.
18:25
Robert Collier: Just you don't you don't need a Bible, you don't need a church, you don't need another, you know.
18:30
Ron Meyers: Well, look what you and I are doing now by just talking.
18:34
Robert Collier: God would love to talk to us a little more, wouldn't he?
18:36
Robert Collier: You know, I I I I I I said, you know, you know, these people, and and I I had a a a religious person, I'm not gonna say the denomination, we had a conversation about, you know, well, you need to come to me to go, you know, forgiveness and we're gonna do this and that.
18:51
Robert Collier: And I said, let me ask you a question real quick.
18:53
Robert Collier: I'm in the middle of adultering at 2 o'clock in the morning, okay?
18:56
Robert Collier: And I have a wreck and I'm upside down, I'm bleeding out, I know I'm going to die.
19:02
Robert Collier: I know this because there's no way anybody's gonna get to me before I bleed out.
19:06
Robert Collier: If I at that point in time ask the Lord, I ask God, please forgive me for my sins.
19:11
Robert Collier: I'm begging you, I'm sorry.
19:13
Robert Collier: I've lived a horrible life, but I don't want to live a horrible eternity.
19:16
Robert Collier: Will God forgive me?
19:18
Robert Collier: And he goes, if you're sincere, yeah.
19:20
Robert Collier: I said, then why do I need to come to you?
19:21
Robert Collier: Why can't I go straight to God?
19:23
Robert Collier: Why can't I ask him?
19:24
Robert Collier: And of course come back with where two more is gathered.
19:27
Robert Collier: I said, that isn't what I said.
19:28
Robert Collier: I said I was alone, by myself in the middle of nowhere, and I'm begging for forgiveness.
19:33
Robert Collier: I don't know where it is, but if you're out there right now and you're having this problem and you think that you need to, all you need to do is turn to one person, and that is God.
19:43
Robert Collier: And I'm not trying to placate you, I'm not trying to tell you I'm this.
19:46
Robert Collier: I make a lot of mistakes.
19:47
Robert Collier: Still today I'm I still do I get I mean, stupidly I get mad at the Saints when they don't score a touchdown.
19:52
Robert Collier: Okay?
19:53
Robert Collier: You know what I'm getting at?
19:54
Robert Collier: And and and when and when you find out that your light bill is $400 and you only got $300 in your pocket, okay.
20:00
Robert Collier: Well, that's just everyday stuff.
20:02
Robert Collier: Eternity is a long way.
20:05
Robert Collier: And so I try very hard for my children.
20:09
Robert Collier: You know, my my children tell me all the time, when I amazingly, my uh my one of my my children, you know, think that I was not a very smart dad at when they were 13 and 12, and now they think I'm brilliant.
20:19
Robert Collier: And I'm the same person.
20:21
Robert Collier: Amen, brother.
20:21
Robert Collier: You know, and it's just one of those things to where and this is what my children will tell you it isn't what I say, it's how I carry myself.
20:28
Robert Collier: Oh, I make a lot of mistakes, I laugh, I embarrass them a lot, but they never have to worry about me not being there.
20:35
Robert Collier: And they understand that before every meal, every morsel you put in your mouth, we will say prayers.
20:41
Robert Collier: You know, we will say the blessing.
20:44
Robert Collier: My wife, I love her for this, that my wife knows that before we go out with a bunch of friends, she knows I'm about to tell all of them, hang on, we're saying the blessing.
20:52
Robert Collier: And if and I never say, you know, anything else, I said we're doing the blessing.
20:55
Robert Collier: Everybody, I've never had one person yet say, No, I don't want to do the blessing.
20:59
Robert Collier: Everybody goes, please do.
21:00
Robert Collier: I do the blessing before every meal because there are people out there who won't have a meal.
21:06
Robert Collier: There are people out there who, you know, in different countries that we never see don't have a morsel.
21:13
Ron Meyers: You know, when I I pray every day, Lord, who am I going to meet today?
21:17
Ron Meyers: Who am I going to talk with?
21:19
Ron Meyers: And when I saw a social media post that you had, you had just lost a friend or something and you had some scripture in there, some and I said, I felt God's say, you need to bring Robert in and talk with him.
21:33
Ron Meyers: And I tell you what, sitting here in the last half hour and talking to you, God has done a really, really awesome job with you in the sense of relating to other people.
21:44
Ron Meyers: What you've just said over the last few minutes is going to help someone so much, Robert.
21:50
Ron Meyers: And I appreciate your honesty and transparency.
21:53
Ron Meyers: And before we go, you've got the microphone.
21:56
Ron Meyers: I would love it if you would pray for our listeners.
22:00
Robert Collier: I will, thank you.
22:01
Robert Collier: Holy Father above, there's so many out here that are hurting, lost, and they really don't know the way.
22:10
Robert Collier: You don't have to give them lightning bolts.
22:12
Robert Collier: You don't have to move mountains.
22:14
Robert Collier: Just touch them.
22:16
Robert Collier: Give them five seconds of peace and understand that that five seconds of peace can turn into an eternity if they just trust you.
22:24
Robert Collier: Thank you for all you have done for us.
22:27
Robert Collier: And in this world where it's upside down, there's only one way up to you.
22:31
Robert Collier: Amen.
22:35
Ron Meyers: Boy, what a great conversation I had with Robert.
22:38
Ron Meyers: And there's something about Robert's story that hits deeper than the surface because it reminds us of a truth most people don't want to admit.
22:45
Ron Meyers: You can look successful on the outside and still be searching on the inside.
22:51
Ron Meyers: Now, a few things stood out that we can all grab on to today.
22:56
Ron Meyers: Number one, labels don't decide your life.
22:59
Ron Meyers: You do.
23:00
Ron Meyers: That moment when a teacher told Robert he'd make a great inmate, that could have been a life sentence.
23:07
Ron Meyers: But instead of accepting it, Robert flipped it.
23:10
Ron Meyers: The life lesson, you are not what someone said about you in a moment of frustration, ignorance, or pain.
23:18
Ron Meyers: Number two, the stage can't heal what's inside.
23:22
Ron Meyers: The plause is real, but it's temporary.
23:24
Ron Meyers: And if you're chasing external validation to fix an internal emptiness, you'll always need more noise to drown out the silence.
23:33
Ron Meyers: The life lesson: healing doesn't happen in the spotlight.
23:37
Ron Meyers: It happens in the quiet moments where you finally get honest.
23:42
Ron Meyers: Number three, forgiveness is freedom, not approval.
23:46
Ron Meyers: Robert talked about forgiveness in a way that's powerful.
23:51
Ron Meyers: It's not saying what happened was okay.
23:54
Ron Meyers: It's saying I refuse to let it control me anymore.
23:59
Ron Meyers: The life lesson: forgiveness isn't for them, it's for you.
24:04
Ron Meyers: Number four, faith has to move from words to action.
24:09
Ron Meyers: Anyone can say they have faith, but real faith shows up when you're misunderstood, accused, or hurting.
24:18
Ron Meyers: Robert chose actions over arguments.
24:21
Ron Meyers: Now, friend, that's strength.
24:24
Ron Meyers: The life lesson, your response and pressure reveals the depth of your faith.
24:30
Ron Meyers: And number five, your past can shape you without defining you.
24:36
Ron Meyers: Adoption, identity struggles, painful words, loss, all of it shaped him, but none of it owns him.
24:44
Ron Meyers: The life lesson?
24:46
Ron Meyers: Your story is real, but it's not finished.
24:50
Ron Meyers: So let me ask you something.
24:51
Ron Meyers: What voice have you been listening to?
24:53
Ron Meyers: The one that reminds you of your mistakes, your regrets, what someone said about you years ago?
25:00
Ron Meyers: Or the one that says you were created on purpose with a purpose.
25:05
Ron Meyers: You are not disqualified, you are loved, and your story isn't over.
25:10
Ron Meyers: Friend, don't live on the island of regret with villages called should have, would have, or could have.
25:18
Ron Meyers: Why do you think you're listening today?
25:20
Ron Meyers: Because God is sending you a message, because this might be your moment, your turning point, your invitation to finally get the hell out of what's been holding you back.
25:31
Ron Meyers: If this conversation today spoke to you, don't keep it to yourself.
25:36
Ron Meyers: Send it to someone who needs it.
25:38
Ron Meyers: Because we're all in this together to encourage, empower, and inspire each other to discover or God ordains destiny.
25:48
Ron Meyers: And now I want to pray for us.
25:50
Ron Meyers: Father, for the person listening right now who feels the weight of regret, the sting of words spoken over them, or the quiet loneliness no one else sees, meet them right there.
26:02
Ron Meyers: Remind them they are not forgotten.
26:04
Ron Meyers: Their life matters, they are not disqualified or too far gone.
26:08
Ron Meyers: Give them the courage to release what's been holding them back, the anger, the shame, the fear, and replace it with your forgiveness, your love, your peace, your truth, and a renewed sense of purpose.
26:23
Ron Meyers: Help them forgive even when it's hard.
26:25
Ron Meyers: Help them trust even when it doesn't make sense.
26:29
Ron Meyers: And help them take that first step forward today.
26:34
Ron Meyers: Because their story isn't over.
26:37
Ron Meyers: It's just getting started.
26:39
Ron Meyers: In Jesus' name, amen.
26:42
Ron Meyers: Well, friends, I'll be back next week with another grace-filled episode of Get the Hell Out of Your Life available wherever you listen to podcasts.
26:52
Ron Meyers: And if you have a story you'd like to share, please go to my website, thepromoter.org.
26:58
Ron Meyers: Until next time, this is Ron Myers reminding you that I love you, Jesus loves you, and when you give Jesus your heart, you not only get the hell out of your life, but life begins to make sense.
27:22
Announcer: Today's show is produced by Ron Myers Ministries, a listener-supported ministry.
27:27
Announcer: For a copy of today's broadcast, please visit our website, thepromoter.org.
27:32
Announcer: And would you prayerfully consider making a tax deductible donation so that we may continue to share stories of God's amazing grace with the world?
27:39
Announcer: And join us next week for another broadcast of Get the Hell Out of Your Life.
27:44
Announcer: Real people, sharing real struggles, and offering real hope.