Episode 437 - Called To Something New

Welcome to Voices in My Head, the official podcast of me, Rick Lee James. I'm a recording artist, a singer, a songwriter, an author, a worship leader, and an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene. The Voices in My Head podcast is where I discuss music, movies, books, pop culture, theology, and more with friends, colleagues, and sometimes just by myself. Make sure to let me know what you think of today's episode by leaving me a review on iTunes or by tweeting at me @RickLeeJames on Twitter. And please join my mailing list at RickLeeJames.com where you can receive an email every time a new episode is released. By the way, in case you're interested in a daily dose of kindness and encouragement beyond this podcast, I also run the Twitter account @MrRogersSay where I post daily quotes from Fred Rogers, one of the voices in my head. Well, I guess that's it for the intro, so sit back, relax, and listen to the latest episode of Voices in My Head.

Hey friends, welcome back. It's me again, Rick. I'm so glad you're here for another episode of Voices in My Head. Another little bit different episode today. I don't have a guest today, partially because I have another podcast that I host, and it actually has an episode coming out today, and I want to encourage you to listen to that one. It's the one that I referred to in the intro, the Welcome to the Neighborhood. Mr. Rogers Tribute Podcast, and this one's pretty special because Mr. McFeely is actually on the show. David Newell, the actor who played Mr. McFeely, the delivery man who always would come in with a speedy delivery on the Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood show, he actually is my guest this week on that show. And so it was a real privilege to get to talk to him. Sorry everybody, I'm a little bit winded. I actually just am walking and talking while I'm doing this. Through my house. And anyway, just wanted to, to share the, the news with you about that podcast. I am doing a podcast today, but there's no guest, partially because of, of the guest on that other show this week. So I wanted to encourage you, if you want an interview show this week, go check out my other podcast, Welcome to the Neighborhood. It's also on rickleejames.substack.com. Substack.com. As you know, if you've been listening for a while, I'm migrating the podcast over to that Substack page. So every week when you sign up, you can get the podcast directly to your email inbox. And that way, hopefully you can just subscribe however you listen to podcasts. So whether you listen in iTunes or whether you listen in Pocket Casts or Spotify or whatever way you listen, you can subscribe straight through there and then get email updates each week, or you can just listen straight from your email inbox. So it's hopefully the easiest and best way to keep in touch with everybody. And then you can also just hit reply and say, hey, you know, thanks for the new podcast, and, and, or, or didn't like that podcast, or whatever you want to say. We can keep in touch hopefully in, in a much more meaningful way. Through that Substack page. I love to hear from you and your thoughts about the podcast and, and what you're getting out of it, or things that you would like to hear in the future. And I think that that Substack route is going to be one of the best ways to go as far as that goes. And you can also subscribe through a paid subscription if you want to, and, and that helps to actually support the show because there is some cost involved in doing that. But Anyway, that's, that's enough of the ad for the Substack page. If you want to subscribe there, that would be great. That would help me a lot, and it increases my email list too, so it helps me to just keep in better communication with all of you out there. So thank you for listening to Voices in My Head. Thank you for listening to Welcome to the Neighborhood, Mr. Rogers Tribute Podcast. Check out that interview which is over there with David Newell, Mr. McFeely. I know you're going to enjoy that. He's a really, really neat person. He had been on the Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood program since the '60s. But what I wanted to do today on this podcast is just take a few moments to update you of what's going on in life with me. I told you I would. We've had several guests over the last few weeks So I haven't had a chance really to do that and kind of update you with the wild things that have been going on in our life and in our family. As you know, summertime has been difficult. Been a lot of loss. I know there's been a lot of loss in the nation. Just even this week as a nation, we, we surpassed the deaths. The numbers for the 1918 flu pandemic, which was a huge deal for the, the coronavirus pandemic. We surpassed those numbers this week with the number of losses. So it's a bigger deal now than the flu pandemic of 1918. And so we're experiencing huge loss in many ways, and in our own family there's a lot of loss. We lost a dog that we'd had for many, many years, which for us, you know, dogs are a part of the family. We lost even more importantly my father-in-law, and so the family's still kind of working through all that. And somewhere in the midst of that, completely blindsided me, I started sensing that God was calling me to something new, and I wasn't sure what. Here I was, finally set up my home studio and started recording some new songs, and I thought, great, I'm finally set up to do this. I had just been accepted into the Recording Academy, which, if you don't know, that's the Grammys. And even just now, I've become a mentor to another young person who has been accepted into the Recording Academy, and it's a real honor. I'm a voting member now, so I actually am a part of— when you watch the Grammys live, whenever that is, I'm not even sure when that is now, you can vote on my music. So I can actually be nominated now for Grammys. I can nominate others for Grammy Awards, things like that, which is, you know, a really huge thing. And started releasing songs again this summer, songs from my home, and I started by releasing "You Are My Salvation." Kind of quietly did that one and just got all kinds of plays on that one. Lots of people adding it to their Spotify playlist, which was wonderful, and so grateful for the concerts that I started doing again. And then "Shine a Light in the Darkness" came out. We released a music video. That was the second song that I recorded completely here in my home. And it just seemed like, well, we're back, you know. Things are happening, things are clicking along with music again, and I'm going to be touring again. I started booking concert dates. Matter of fact, Sunday night I've got a concert. Next month, another concert again. And after a year of not doing any concerts at all. It felt like, "Okay, things are finally back on track. I'm gonna become a touring musician again, and life's gonna become somewhat normal again." But I couldn't shake this feeling that God was speaking something into my heart, and I was supposed to be pursuing something new. And I mean, I was losing sleep at night and I was restless and I couldn't figure out exactly what it was. I got an email one day randomly. I don't know why I got this email because I don't get like jobs emails. It was weird. I wasn't pursuing a job. I wasn't wanting a job. But in that email there was a a job opening for a chaplain. And for some reason it just like stuck in my brain. And I was thinking like, why is this? Why is chaplain sticking in my brain? Am I supposed to pray about this? And of course I know enough to know that when it's God speaking, it doesn't go away. And so I started praying about it, and I started looking up online chaplaincy positions, medical chaplaincy. I was pretty sure it wasn't military chaplaincy. I looked up hospice chaplaincy, but I just put in chaplaincy. I didn't know what. I didn't limit myself. I thought maybe military chaplaincy, maybe hospice chaplaincy.. But I just put in chaplaincy. I didn't know. I didn't know. Still don't know, to be honest with you. And then Loyola University came up in the search as far as a place where you could pursue a master's degree. And I thought, a master's degree? I don't want to— am I supposed to become a chaplain? Am I supposed to pursue a master's degree? I don't want to do this. And I started talking to my wife about it, and praying about this, and I'm thinking, "Am I supposed to— I'm feeling really uncomfortable, and I think I'm supposed to pursue this, maybe apply?" And I remembered then, of all these lists of schools that came up, Loyola was at the top in Chicago. And I remembered my friend David Dalt. Who I do many podcasts with, including Welcome to the Neighborhood. He teaches at Loyola University, and I thought, well, I need to give David a call. Uh, and I talked to David on the phone, and, and I talked to him, and I just said, this is the situation. I don't know why, but I'm feeling like I'm supposed to, for some reason, long story short, look into medical chaplaincy. And it may be God, it may not be, but Loyola came up and I felt like I needed to talk to you. I said, it could be God, it could be Google, but Loyola came up. I talked to David for a few minutes. And there was such a peace that washed over me for the first time that I hadn't had in weeks. And I just felt this calm from him, and then I found out that David's wife is a chaplain. She said some of the best work she'd ever done was this medical chaplaincy, and that as he explained to me some of the ins and outs of the work that she had done, and then some of the program at Loyola, University Institute of Pastoral Studies, and some of the people there. I told him, I said, "Well, I guess the next step is—" I said, "I don't even know if I can afford it, or even if they'll accept me, but I guess I ought to apply." He said he would be praying with me on the journey, and if this was what God had for me, then they definitely wanted to pray along with me on it. So I applied, and it was, you know, it's not a fun process to apply, but I applied thinking and praying and even hoping I wouldn't be accepted into Loyola University, thinking this will be the end of it. I won't get accepted in. Last thing I want to do is go back to school. It's been over 21 years since I've been in school. I graduated from college, and I don't— I'm not one of those people that loves being in school. I love to learn, but I don't love being in school. I don't love writing papers. Love to read. I don't love required reading. As it turns out, I was accepted. They welcomed me in with open arms, and they said they couldn't wait. And then every person I talked to at Loyola, I mean, I was a nervous wreck. I mean, I was like in tears beforehand. I was having almost panic attacks, and I don't do that, because I didn't want to do this. But with each person I talked to, there was a calm that came over me each time I talked to them, right down to the night of my first class. I mean, I'm telling you, like, I went into my my first class, and the cost was huge. I didn't know how I was going to pay it off. That's a whole other story I won't get into here. I'm still wondering how God's going to provide it all, but the first semester it's taken care of for now. But I went into the first class anxiety-ridden. I was in tears the afternoon before. I was nervous.. And even in that first class, I can't tell you the peace that washed over me in both classes. I've only taken two this first semester. As the professors spoke, and they were so committed not only to the academics, but also to both of these classes specifically said to all of us students, "We care about the direction God is leading you in, and we care just as much about helping you discover what God might be speaking into your life and the vocation that He is calling you into. And we understand that God might be calling you to something new after many years, and something that might be quite scary to you at this point. And many of you are already in an active ministry and have been active for a very long time, and you may not even know why you're here at this point. And we understand that. And part of our job in being here is to not only equip you academically and theologically, but to help you sort out what God is doing in your life in this moment, and to walk through the door of whatever new vocation God might be calling you to. It was as if they were speaking right to my story. And so here I am, not knowing what that means. I've had to turn down some invitations and say, "I just don't have time to do everything. I can't be everywhere." I've had to tell people, "I don't know what this means for music. I don't know what it means for podcasts." I haven't had to turn down every concert, but I've had to turn down a few things here and there. I've had to turn down a couple of podcast interviews and things just because I don't have time because I'm writing, I'm reading, I'm doing classwork. I've had to change praise team times at church, you know, practices, rehearsal times, and I just don't have any time anymore. Matter of fact, the fact that I'm doing this this morning and that I've been talking for 16 minutes, as soon as I finish here, I've got to go back to doing classwork again. But I felt like it was important to share with you here on Voices in My Head. I wanted to give you something to pray about with me because I don't know where this new journey is taking me, honestly. I have always felt like I wanted to be open to wherever God was leading in my life. And this isn't my story, this is God's story. And it's the fact with all of us that this isn't any of us. It's not our story. It's always God's story. And He calls us to go where He wants us to go for the good of the Kingdom. And if I am supposed to go into something new, every part of the ministry up till now has always had something to do with music in some way for me. I don't know that that ends. As far as I know, that still continues. I'm just trying to be obedient. That's what I told my pastor. I said, "I'm walking through this door." I'm still music pastor at my church. I'm still doing all the things I was doing before, but I'm doing this in addition. And so pray for me on this journey, if you would, if you're listening and you don't mind praying for me. I'm trying to be obedient, and I hope that I'm modeling obedience for those of you who are listening, for those of you who also might be feeling a sense of restlessness, what I call holy restlessness, wondering that maybe God might be leading you through some kind of a new door, possibly a new vocation. You know, our vocations are not always forever and ever amen, although, you know, I've been at my same church for like going on 20 years now, so it seems like it's forever sometimes. But we just never know, and the important thing is that we keep ourselves open and obedient. I didn't expect at 44 years of age to go back to school and start pursuing a master's degree, and that And it feels like starting all over in some ways, and it feels big. But by the grace of God, I'm doing it. And so I'm praying for your help. All that being said, things like subscribing at Substack, things like that, it doesn't just help out with the podcast, man. Boy, we could ever use help financially right now. Subscribing at Substack. That helps with things like, you know, money towards the next semester too, things like that. So if you ever thought about subscribing, that is the kind of things that it is going towards too right now. Not just new music and new podcasts, but it is also furthering wherever God may be taking me down the road ministry-wise, which I have no idea at this point. But if God is calling, we just want to be obedient to that. So because you are now subscribed on Substack, I'm sure, at rickleejames.substack.com, you can easily, when you get an email about a new podcast, hit reply with your questions or with your comments or even with your answers and send me a quick note. If you have any questions about what's going on in my life, going on in my ministry, I'd love to hear from you. And you can share with me anything. Maybe you have something that can help with my own journey along the way. It's becoming quite a ride for sure. So I want to thank you for listening to Voices in My Head. I also once again want to refer you over to Welcome to the Neighborhood, Mr. Rogers tribute podcast, for that conversation. Great visit with the real-life Mr. McFeely from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, David Newell. Such a great person and joy to sit down and visit with him for that podcast this week too. So I hope you enjoy that interview. Thanks so much for listening to Voices in My Head. God bless you all, and we'll be back with you soon.

Thank you for joining me here this week on Voices in My Head. I hope you'll visit me on my website at Rick Lee James. RickLeeJames.com, where you can find out more about me, get my music on vinyl and CD, follow my blog, and even schedule me for a concert or a speaking engagement. Better yet, even a book signing in your neighborhood. You can find all that and more at RickLeeJames.com. Also, it would mean a great deal to me if you could write a review of this podcast on iTunes. The more positive reviews that we receive, the the more visible this podcast will be online. And now for the benediction: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. God bless you, and thank you for listening to Voices in My Head.