Get The Hell Out of Your Life
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Get The Hell Out of Your Life
What Will Be Your Legacy: Wayburn Dean
My guest Musical Artist Wayburn Dean. Known for his vocal prowess in the multi-million-selling group Acappella, Wayburn’s musical ability gained him much acclaim during his 5 ½ year stint with the group. Ron and Wayburn chat about life and Wayburn offers insight on is #1 Inspirational song, "What Will Be Your Legacy".
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It's time now to get the hell out of your life. A weekly broadcast with real people sharing real struggles and offering real hope. Today's show will encourage, inspire and empower you to face life's challenges with a bold confidence and renewed hope. Now let's join our host, ron Myers. The promoter.
Speaker 2:Hello, my friends, it is so good to be with you today. My name is Ron Myers. The show is called Get the Hell Out of your Life. It's real stories, real struggles and real hope. It's about encouraging you, and now that 2025 is here, well, we're going to have the best year ever, aren't we? Today, let's talk about your legacy, but first I want you to reflect for a moment on the footprints you're leaving in the sands of time.
Speaker 2:Your legacy isn't just what you accomplish in your lifetime. It's the impact you have on those around you and the world you shape with your presence. It's your values, your actions and the love and inspiration you give to others. It's your values, your actions and the love and inspiration you give to others. Imagine how your actions today might echo into the future. Every conversation, each choice, each moment of kindness contributes to your legacy. Your legacy is built one day at a time, through the little things you do, the decisions you make and the way you treat the people around you. You have the power to create change, to inspire, to uplift. Maybe your legacy will be a family that grows stronger from your love and support. Maybe it will be a community enriched by your contributions or an idea that changes the way we see the world.
Speaker 2:Remember, a legacy doesn't require grand gestures or monumental achievements. It's found in the simple acts of doing your best work, helping others and standing up for what you believe in. It's about staying true to yourself, even when it's difficult, and leaving the world just a little bit better than you found it. Think about the values that matter most to you. Is it kindness, integrity, creativity, courage? Use these as your compass, guiding you through each day with purpose and passion. Allow them to inspire your actions and decisions Whenever you have doubts or face challenges.
Speaker 2:Think about the story you want to tell with your life. Picture the people whose lives you've touched and know that you have already begun to write a legacy worth leaving. You are capable of extraordinary things. Embrace your uniqueness, pursue your passions and make your days count. Every step you take towards a life of meaning and fulfillment is a step towards creating a lasting legacy. My guest today, wayburn Dean, wrote a song called what Will your Legacy Be? Wayburn, so glad to have you on the phone with me. Wayburn, what got you into writing songs and doing music?
Speaker 3:I guess, as my mom prayed for me, it was divine. I do want to say that I know that God had a hand in the direction of my life and it led to music At a very, very early age. Come from a singing family and my mother taught me harmony sitting on the couch when I was about eight or nine years old and I just said, oh, my goodness, this is amazing harmony. So I started falling in love with harmony and I would go to church and I would sing only the harmony so that I could learn it. I just fell in love with music, the power of it, when I would go and watch my parents sing at different places and I would see how the music would move people and how it would draw them closer to God. And then that was the time when I said you know, I really need to try to hone my skills toward this because it's powerful and it's God driven. And so that's how my music career got its first legs.
Speaker 2:You were part of the singing group Acapello.
Speaker 3:I was. For five years we traveled the globe and were man incredibly busy, like we were home maybe six days a month for six years. That was in my blur years. But yeah, we were a powerful group of that who loved the Lord and stay together and stay focused on the mission of music and music ministry.
Speaker 2:Well, and harmony had to be so important to you to be a part of that group because there were no instruments, right?
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly, and that's the other thing that drew me to the group was the harmony, because, as I mentioned that, that was very, very, very partial in my heart and strong in terms of what I wanted to do with music, and harmony was beautiful and found four guys that were really good at it and and stuck with it the first time that I heard acapella, I'm thinking, before they sang.
Speaker 2:How do you sing without instruments? But I tell you what? That night I laughed. It just seemed to speak to me even more. The words, because there was no distraction. I got so in touch with the words of the songs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, indeed, and I think that's again's, that's another thing that really drew me and kept me there is the power of just harmony itself.
Speaker 3:And it's interesting thing about harmony when you get a perfect, what I call a harmony lock, it moves things that other music and other instruments just can't do. And so those moments were many as we traveled across the globe and I think people may not know this, but singing acapella, you have to be worried about so many different things. You have to be listening to everyone else, you have to be thinking about your tonation and making sure that it locks with everyone else at a certain, because it does it has some disadvantages. Locks with everyone else at a certain because it does it has some disadvantages acapella music does. So you've got to keep on top of these things in order to be effective in the, in the harmony world, and I think when you do that, you're thinking about harmony, you're thinking about stage presence, you're thinking about who sounds closest to this. Well, how do I move my voice to make this part? There's just a lot, but, but it was a beautiful, beautiful time, and harmony will never change, I love it.
Speaker 2:After you left that group, you kind of you took a break a while, didn't you? And then you did. Then you started your own solo career.
Speaker 3:I did. I took a break from the road. You know, I was just really taxed and tired and, and so I wanted to take a break from the road and I did. And then, when I took a break from the road, there was just absolutely no more opportunities to sing, and so I didn't have music in my life for eight years and I, I got to tell you those were the most tumultuous times in my life because I, I did not have music, and music is part of who I am.
Speaker 3:And so, um, we got an opportunity in 2000 to invite it down to Nashville and talked about some music directives with, um, some people there, and the music career started back up in 2000. And, uh, man, it's been been a wonderful whirlwind, and not only was it something that I was supposed to be doing, it was who I was, and it's almost like taking away a person from who they naturally and instinctively are. So, yeah, as I look back at that, I think I understand now why it was so difficult, because the truth is, without music, the person who I am, a part of who I am, maybe most of who I am ceases to exist, and that's a difficult time. It really is, ron.
Speaker 2:Wayburn. I often ask people that are meandering through life if you don't become you, who will? In fact, wayburn, years ago I was praying and I asked God why is there so much evil in this world? And I really felt that quiet voice inside that said, because people haven't stepped into their destiny, they have not become who I created them to become. Does that make sense, weyburn?
Speaker 3:It does and I think it just doesn't happen. You have to search for it and I think sometimes that even causes for self-surrender.
Speaker 3:You know when I think of the book of Jeremiah. The word says you will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with your whole heart. So, whatever it is you're seeking, you got to find God first, wholly, fully, completely and totally. And then I think, things become more clear in terms of what you're searching for and then you'll find who you are, you'll find your purpose and those things will live themselves out in the spirit as you seek them. So I think you know when I think about myself and I think about my life, ron, at that time, you know, when I got off the road, I started just doing, you know, I was the CEO of a couple of organizations and that was going well.
Speaker 3:I, just inside, was not happy and I could. I could do it. I could do it well. But truth is it really wasn't who I was. And so I told my wife, I said you know, I think God's done with me with music and it's hard. And she said no, god's not done. She said we just have to wait, and sometimes the message is to just wait, wait on God. And so we are sitting on the couch and the phone rings and it's somebody from Nashville as we're talking and the conversation started to go toward music and, and so we're driving to Nashville now to try to make this happen. And my wife writes a song called Wait on Me. It's an acapella song that was on our first album. Maybe I'll send you a MP3 of it, but it basically is my song. And when you wait on God and you seek God, he reveals his purpose to you in your life, and that's what happened.
Speaker 2:That is so true and I think that's one of the hardest things that I had to deal with in life is patience. When you wait, God's timing is perfect timing. Have you ever had anything in life happen that the enemy meant to harm you but God turned it into good?
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, I think this is a very powerful statement. So when I got off the road right and I was a CEO of an organization won't say the name of the organization, but the board gave me a specific design to do and to complete. It was a five-year plan and I had it done in two years, I think, and they kind of choked on the success a little bit. However, there were some people that didn't like what the board had designed and that they hired me to do and, as you know, anytime you take a CEO into an organization, he has his own agenda. You know, others may not agree with it because it doesn't exactly agree with what they are used to. That's kind of what happened. So one of the persons that was working for me gathered together a group of people in the board after an excellent, excellent review of my work about a month later, said that they were going to let me go and I said for what? What did I? What did I do? They really didn't have an answer and they said we really don't have to give you an answer. So, anyway, they they let me go from that, and so I said what Lord would you have of me now? What I mean I've done what you asked me to do. It was a ministry, by the the way.
Speaker 3:And so about two weeks after that, chuck Colson you know who Chuck Colson is oh yes, prison Fellowship. He was coming through our city here in Michigan, so his office called and asked if we'd be willing to do special music. They were doing a few prisons and tours in prisons. If we would go in, we said, sure, you're Chuck Colson, are you kidding me? Yeah, we'll do that. And so we did. And the very first prison we went to I think we did five, but the very first one we went to, over 50 men gave their lives to Christ. And so my wife and I sat out in the parking lot and we said what is God saying to us? I mean, we're traveling across the country this was after that, we're traveling and so we're traveling across the country and, man, these men are hungry, there's an incredible harvest. And so we prayed about that.
Speaker 3:And then we decided you know, I think God is moving us into prison ministry with music, because there's nothing that moves people like music, and especially in a depressed and a difficult place like prison, like music, and especially in a depressed and a difficult place like prison. So we prayed about it and we decided to go into prison ministry full time. And then we thought, wait a minute, how are we going to get paid here? But we decided to do that and we've had some tremendous people who support us.
Speaker 3:So we've been doing prison ministry now for 10 years, where in our ministry we used to be on the road and if we had a moment we would do a prison ministry. It's just kind of flipped. We're doing prison ministry full time and if we have a moment we'll do. You know, concerts on the outside. You know, you never know which direction God would have you go. I mean, if he had asked me before then that I will you be doing prison ministry, or if you told me, I'd say you're crazy. But man, what an incredible, incredible journey. Prison ministry has been Unbelievable.
Speaker 2:You know, I told someone just a little bit ago actually they did an interview. I had a book that came out, the Promoter and I said you know, the amazing thing about walking in your purpose, everything that I'm doing now I never knew I could do, I never knew I would do it, and everything that I thought I was going to do, I'm not doing it. And if that door wouldn't have closed with that nonprofit, you wouldn't have probably went into prison, ministry, Is that correct?
Speaker 3:That's absolutely right and there's no way I could have. I could have seen that. There's no possible way. I could have known that that was coming. So it's God. God directed and you know, the word says it's not in men to direct his own steps. We don't even have that. I mean, I think we think we do often, but it's God who directs our steps and our path and I think when we, when we yield to that because it was, it was scary. I'm telling you it's scary thinking about going into prison ministry and exposing not only my life but my purpose and everything to something as dangerous as prison.
Speaker 3:It has been anything but what I thought. And one of my philosophies in life is that we are molded and shaped by our experiences and they often determine our perception. And that's exactly what happened. My experiences determined my now perception, because what I had, the perceptions I had initially, were just absolutely wrong. But man, it's just been beautiful to watch. And the cool thing about prison ministry is I get to see what Jesus saw. You know we always talk about Jesus and the broken and how he loved them. I get to see it and I know why. Now I see it, I experience it.
Speaker 2:And so my perceptions of prison is completely different, because now I have the truth, the future is, and they have divinely tuned in to today's broadcast and looking for some hope. What would Weyburn Dean give them in the way of some hope?
Speaker 3:Well, two things wait and trust, because the problem with when there is a problem is that we want answers right now and sometimes God doesn't have those answers for you right now. There's a waiting time sometimes and in that waiting time here's the most difficult piece is the trust and trusting that God will give you an answer for what you need. But keep those two things in mind because, remember, god says I know every hair on your head, I provide for the sparrow and I'm not going to forget you. And if you can think about your own life, if you have children or your father or your mother, the truth is you love them so much you would never, ever leave them hungry or broken forever. And God is the same way. So sometimes we just have to wait and oftentimes we have to trust and when we do those things and put those two together and live throughout, that the answers come. And they usually come at a time when you're not expected, oftentimes because God doesn't work really on our timeline.
Speaker 2:So well put. Now, the song that really touched me in 2004 was what Will your Legacy Be? And my whole ministry in over 20 years on radio has always been about finding your purpose, your destiny in life. Because you are having fun, I mean, I always say that's the fountain of youth. When you know why you were born, you know that song was powerful. Now did you write the words to that song?
Speaker 3:My wife is an incredible gifted lyricist. My wife is an incredible gifted lyricist and my wife wrote those lyrics and she writes 98 percent of all of our songs. We have eight albums, by the way now, and she writes all of our songs. She wrote that and I was able to come up with the melody and the arrangement and those kinds of things. But so it was.
Speaker 2:It was a collaboration my wife and I the first time, when you put the melody and you started singing those words, what was going through your head?
Speaker 3:I had no idea that God would use it the way he did. You know, when you're putting together an album you're thinking about the whole collection of the record this specific song made. It made its way to the top of a melody idea in my mind, in my heart, and we began to pray about it. And as I look back now I know why it was actually number one on the inspirational chart. But when I think about how the song came together, you know it was a perfect storm because our country at that time were going through a time of an introspective look. We were looking at what are the things in life that we need to be God, what would you have of me, what are my friends, my family and, most importantly, what would you say, what I've done with my time on this earth? And that kind of directed the song's purpose and the direction of the song. That idea was where it came from. What will be your legacy? Kind of challenging, kind of convicting.
Speaker 2:God isn't finished with you, Wayburn, but what is the legacy that you want to leave with this world?
Speaker 3:that you want to leave with this world. Well, you know, I hope the legacy that I leave will be one that people can say I was moved by the gift of one individual or this individual that God allowed to be on this earth. I hope that when I get to heaven, that God can say I'm proud of you, son. I gave you a gift. You used it to my glory.
Speaker 2:Friends, when I return, I have a story for you Finding peace within a journey of self-forgiveness.
Speaker 1:You're listening to Get the Hell Out of your Life with your host, ron Myers. Real stories, real struggles and real hope.
Speaker 4:You know, if you take a really good long look at yourself, you may come to the conclusion that you are not all that and a bag of chips. My name is Mark and this is the Journey. We all have faults and if we are truthfully honest with ourselves, it should give us cause to realize there's no reason for us to be proud. God doesn't like pride. In fact, in Mark, chapter 7, pride is listed as one of the evil things which defile a man. But there is encouragement in being humble. Psalm 149 tells us this that God takes pleasure in His people. But read on in verse 4, he will beautify the humble with salvation.
Speaker 4:Zephaniah 17 tells us that God rejoices over us, his people, those who trust in him and look to him for salvation. We can't do anything apart from God. Think about it. It's he who created the world we live in. It is he who knit you together in the womb of your mother and gave you breath to breathe. It is he who came to earth as a man, gave His life on the cross, was raised from the dead and now lives in our heart. It is he who gave you the talents and abilities you possess and enables you to get up every day and take care of yourself and your family.
Speaker 4:Paul reminds us in Galatians, chapter 6, but far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord your family. Paul reminds us in Galatians, chapter 6, but far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So if you want to take pride in anything, take pride in the fact that Jesus made it possible for you to have a relationship with Almighty God and be encouraged that the Lord takes pleasure in you, his people, like a loving father who looks at his child with a smile and says I love you. The Journey.
Speaker 2:Here's a refreshing word from the book of Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 8. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
Speaker 1:You're sick of feeling let down and you want to turn your life around If you want to start living right get the hell out of your life.
Speaker 2:Get the hell out of your life. It was a brisk autumn morning and Emily sat on her porch, wrapped in a warm blanket and sipping on a steaming cup of coffee. The world around her was quiet, but her mind was a storm of thoughts, filled with self-doubt and regret. She reflected on the past few months of difficult decisions and perceived failures. Her own harsh judgments weighed heavily on her heart. Emily had always been her toughest critic, setting impossibly high standards for herself and berating her perceived shortcomings. Her inner voice whispered harsh words that no one else heard, words that chipped away at her self-worth. But today, on this peaceful morning, emily decided that she was ready for a change, a change that she knew would only come from above.
Speaker 2:With a deep breath, emily closed her eyes and began to pray, something she hadn't truly done in a long time. She needed guidance, strength and, most of all, forgiveness. Jesus, she whispered, help me, forgive myself. As she prayed, emily allowed herself to feel the presence of Jesus, his love, a warm, comforting glow in her heart. She imagined his gentle voice speaking to her Emily, my love for you is unconditional. Let go of your harsh judgments and embrace my forgiveness.
Speaker 2:Tears welled up in Emily's eyes as she felt unburdened, the weight of her self-criticism slowly lifting, she realized she had been holding onto hurt and fear for far too long. In that moment of stillness, she accepted Jesus' invitation to forgive herself and to allow his love to heal her wounds. With newfound clarity, emily made a promise to herself to be kinder, more compassionate, and to remember that no mistake was too big for the forgiveness from Jesus. She knew the journey towards self-love wouldn't be without challenges, but she felt equipped with a powerful ally unconditional love. That morning, peace had found its way to Emily's heart. She looked out at the vibrant fall leaves fluttering gently to the ground and whispered a silent thank you, knowing she was not alone.
Speaker 4:Ron, we'll be back in a moment to wrap up today's conversation. We want to encourage you today with God's promise to you. It comes from the book of Jeremiah, chapter 29, verse 11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. That's God's promise to you when you choose to commit your plans and future to Him Now back to Ron.
Speaker 2:Well, friends, my time is up. And a final thought for today trust in the plan. Yes, life can be challenging and full of unexpected turns, but remember you're not alone. God has a plan for you, a plan that's filled with hope and a future, even when the path seems unclear. Trust that every twist and turn is leading you to where you're meant to be. Keep the faith, Keep moving and knowing that brighter days are ahead. Don't give up. Your journey is guided by the loving hand of Jesus. Check out my other podcast on my website, thepromoterorg. Maybe you should consider sharing your story with the world. Until next week, 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, life gets fun.
Speaker 1:Today's show was produced by Ron Myers Ministries, a listener-supported ministry. For a copy of today's broadcast, please visit our website, thepromoterorg, 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. And join us next week for another broadcast of Get the Hell Out of your Life. Real people sharing real struggles and offering real hope.