Teen cancer survivor uses Make-A-Wish to help 300 homeless

You're listening to the hidden likeness on America Out Loud Talk Radio.

I'm your host Jimmy Hinton.

Today I want to talk about a just a fantastic heartwarming story.

This involves a young boy who had a lethal illness.

An illness that did not have a good prognosis.

He had Ewing Sarcoma.

It's a very, very painful type of cancer.

And what he did was absolutely staggering.

So this story brings us to Somerville, Georgia.

And he was battling cancer and eventually had finished his chemotherapy.

And was granted a wish through Make a Wish Foundation.

And instead of using something for himself, he decided to help out homeless people.

He had been touched by seeing a homeless person, somebody or some people facing homelessness.

And it absolutely gripped his heart.

And he made the decision all on his own.

He made the decision that he was going to take everything from Make a Wish.

And he was going to turn that and take absolutely 0% of that.

And he was going to help the homeless population in Somerville, Georgia.

This story is absolutely incredible on so many different levels.

And first and foremost, I want to say what a brave, humble, incredible, young kid.

I am absolutely at a loss for words.

So often I get, you know that I get irritated when people talk down about kids.

And when they call them lazy and entitled and all this stuff that we hear, my experience, my experience, my personal experience.

And based on all the research that I do and all the stories that I hear day after day after day,

that is absolutely 100% false.

Now does that mean that you can't find a handful of lazy people?

Well, of course not, right?

There are always going to be exceptions to the rule.

But to paint the young generation as lost.

And as a bunch of bumbling idiots that just have no goals in life and no ambitions

and this generation, we're pretty screwed as a nation because this generation is lazy and they're entitled

and they're a bunch of snot-nosed brats.

I just reject that notion altogether.

I reject it wholeheartedly and stories like this just keep proving me right time and time again.

And really it's not proving me right.

It's proving the kid's right.

They're proving themselves to be pure gentlemen and gentlewomen.

They're absolutely incredible.

They're thoughtful.

They're kind, compassionate.

And I just see it.

I see it time and time and time again.

I see it with the youth at our church.

They're just the most thoughtful kids and hardworking.

They want to work.

And I'm not just talking physical labor just all the way around at school.

They're involved in every program.

They help other students out.

They mentor other students.

They tutor other students.

They just are always thoughtful.

And when people are sick, they're the first people to visit.

They're the first people to send cards.

And they're not told to do it.

They just do it.

Just because that's who they are.

And so the story from Somerville, Georgia.

You know, a lot of people when they get cancer, this is a Fox43.com article.

I assume a local news from Georgia.

And they say when children are battling cancer in their grand of the wish,

many dream about a trip, meeting a favorite celebrity or doing something unforgettable

after months of painful treatments.

And rightfully so, by the way, I am not only all for that.

I am just 1,000% behind that.

I think these kids deserve the world.

It is one of the cruelest things.

Cancer.

Cancer is a cruel disease to begin with.

But one of the cruelest things, in my opinion,

that can happen here on planet Earth,

is the abuse of children.

And when children get sick,

I think those are two of the cruelest things in our universe.

Children are innocent.

That's why I did victim advocacy for so many years.

Child sexual abuse prevention.

I put my own father in prison.

I have zero, zero tolerance for abuse of any form of children.

Verbal abuse neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, trafficking, sex trafficking.

You name it.

In fact, did you see that scene?

I was going to do a show on this,

I thought it'd be a hard to talk for a whole hour on just this one scene.

But it really was incredible.

And it's this guy at an airport, this big burly dude.

And somebody has a camera out and he just starts shouting at this other man.

I mean, he's up in his face, he's yelling, he's making a scene.

He said, talk to me like that.

Talk to me like you just talked to your little girl here.

I want you, he said, I demand that you talk to me the way that you just talk to her.

You disrespect me, you try it, try it.

And you can see the other dad and he was a pretty big dude himself.

But you can see the dad kind of coward.

And he looks like a little shell of a man.

And you can usually spot an abusive person.

And there's a difference between when somebody's having a bad day and they just kind of snap.

It's kind of bark at a kid.

Sometimes I get frustrated with my kids and I'll be like, hey, straighten up.

But I've never sat there and shouted and berated any of my kids or embarrass them, publicly embarrass them.

And don't get me wrong.

Listen what I'm saying here.

When I say publicly embarrass them, I don't think that you should be doing or saying things that you wouldn't say in public.

So do not get the impression that I think it's okay to privately berate shame humiliate your kids.

It is not, it's not okay.

It is never okay.

My parents have a responsibility to be wise and to be kind and to be compassionate towards their kids.

And I just have zero, zero, zero, zero tolerance for people who shout berate, talk down to, embarrass, sexually abuse, spiritually abuse any kind of abuse of their kids.

I just have zero tolerance for it.

And I love to that scene because that dad and again, I don't know what the exchange was.

I don't know what this guy said to his daughter.

But his daughter looked to be about, I don't know, she was like maybe a teenager, maybe.

And she kind of smiled when this dad was berating, when this man was berating her dad.

And I didn't really know how to interpret that.

You know, maybe it could be interpreted in so many different ways.

But she looked like she was kind of comfortable with the fact that this guy was shouting at her dad.

I mean, I kind of got the impression, and I could be totally wrong, but I kind of got the impression that she was like, you get him.

You know, this poor girl probably had been berated her entire life.

But anyway, you know, I don't like abuse.

I don't like cancer.

I don't like to see children suffer in any form, fashion, or manner, period.

I just don't like it.

I don't think it's fair.

I don't think it's right.

I think it's one of the valid questions that people ask whenever they ask me, how can you believe in a God who allows little children to suffer?

I think I don't get offended at that.

I think it's a very, very valid question.

And I'm willing to sit down with people and talk through that.

I struggle with that as well.

Not in belief of God, but in understanding a God who allows horrific things to happen to children.

I think it's a valid question.

I don't ever get offended at that.

I've seen some pastors explain it away, well, God works all things for good.

Will you tell that to the parent whose kid is lying in a bed in st. Jude's dying of cancer?

Will you tell that to the parent of a kid who went missing because some scumbag kidnapped and assaulted sexually assaulted this little child?

We can't sprinkle these little verses on people and be like, oh, God works all things for the good.

Maybe you just aren't seeing the good that's coming out of this situation.

Sometimes there are no good things that come out of horrific situations.

And it's our duty, it's our responsibility in my opinion to sit with people in their suffering.

And if people want to shout, yell, scream at God, by all means let them do it.

Without judgment, let them do it.

I think it's perfectly acceptable.

I think that that's an important part of lament to be able to cry out and shout and have the freedom to do that.

And so I never, ever get offended when somebody starts pointing fingers at God.

God is big enough to take it, but when people start pointing fingers at God in their grief,

and they say, how could he let my child suffer?

I get it. I empathize with that parent.

And so here we have a case of a 14-year-old.

His name is Jude Baker, and he's literally dying of cancer at one point.

He's in remission now, which is absolutely miraculous and its own right.

But it was just 12 years old when he was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma,

which is a rare and aggressive cancer that forms in the bones or the surrounding tissue.

And it's very, very painful.

Jude said, I wasn't even knowing I could die.

The chemo hurt.

Of course, his family was watching him go through that.

And I've been very blessed, folks, and I thank God.

I thank God every day, and I pray that I never take for granted.

I pray I never let a day go by where I take it for granted that my children are present.

They're with me. They're alive. They're healthy. They're happy.

I pray that there's never a day where I take that for granted.

Because I know that life is fragile. I know that any of our kids could be taken from us in a heartbeat and an instant.

That's why I do work. I have a podcast with my mom, the Silent Grief podcast.

She has a Silent Grief community on Facebook of over 300,000 people.

Of grieving parents. I hear the stories day after day after day.

I pray that I never take for granted that my kids are healthy. They're happy. They're safe.

I pray I never take that for granted. I cannot imagine. I genuinely mean that.

I can't begin to imagine what it's like for a parent to watch your child lie in a hospital bed and suffer.

And his dad said, I could feel his pain. And as a dad, that just it sucks.

I read that sentence and man, I started tearing up and I was like, I can't imagine.

And I'm not saying that is a cliche. Like I legitimately try to put myself into the shoes of people who watch their kids suffer.

And I can't do it. I can't fully understand it.

I can't understand the pain, the exhaustion, having to go to work and keep your head right.

You still have to provide for your family. While your kids alone in a hospital bed, you can't be by his or her side.

I can't imagine. Then you go to the hospital after work.

You know, the financial strain of traveling to the hospital every single day,

of trying to find hotels close to the hospital,

of watching your kids suffer day in and day out, of not having answers, of not knowing whether your kid is going to be terminal or not,

whether they have a terminal disease or whether they're going to find healing day after day after day after day.

For two years, they were going through this process.

And I just want to say, not only is Jude just in every sense of the word a beautiful human being,

just an absolute rock star.

But I think that his attitude, his humility, his smile, his great attitude towards the whole thing,

it is absolutely a reflection of his parents and the way that he was raised.

So I just want to commend Jude's family as well, say that they're incredible.

I don't even know them. I know nothing about them, except that my goodness, you raised an incredible kid.

And that is not by accident. That doesn't just happen.

I don't care what people say. It's not luck. I hear that all the time.

Oh, you're so lucky that your kids, you know, your kids are, they behave and they're not wild and they don't go out and trash things and, you know, steal and do all this stuff.

I'm like, it's not luck. It's called parenting.

You know, I'm not saying that kids can't go astray. Absolutely they can.

But typically the way that our kids behave is a reflection of us.

It's a reflection of how we parent.

And Jude's parents, they get an A plus plus. Absolutely incredible.

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14-year-old in Georgia used his make-a-wish to help his entire community.

He had cancer, he had a rare form of cancer, a very painful form of cancer,

called Ewing Sarcoma, and Jude Baker used his make-a-wish to help people experiencing homelessness.

And I just can't begin to fathom the humility behind this boy's heart.

I mean, what an incredible thing to do.

And if you think about how much he suffered and how much pain he was in

and not knowing whether he was going to pass away or not,

in fact, he said, it wasn't even known I could die, the chemo hurt.

So for him, that question of whether he was going to live or die was secondary

to how painful the chemo was.

In other words, I don't even think he either processed or didn't care whether he lived or died.

He was just trying to push through the pain.

And I just can't begin to imagine what that's like.

And I've been in cancer centers before where I hear people screaming because of the pain.

And I got to tell you it's like a war zone.

It really legitimately sounds like a war zone.

And for all the people who work with cancer patients, and especially people who work with cancer patients,

people who work with kids who have cancer, the nurses, the doctors, all the staff,

man, you guys deserve an extra special place in heaven.

And I mean that.

It's just so hard emotionally and spiritually and physically.

It's just so hard. It's so demanding.

And the amount of sorrow that you guys see and yet you still slap on a smile.

I see nurses that and doctors that they're just so happy.

And I know part of that is they just have a good attitude.

But I know another part of that is that they're just trying to not walk into a kid's room and look defeated.

And so for the kids, they strap on a smile.

They have pleasant attitudes.

They're overworked underpaid in my opinion for what they do.

And they walk in those rooms and they just absolutely light the room up for these kids.

There is a special place in heaven for people like that.

And I really, really, truly believe that.

And so Jude, this 14 year old boy, speaking of angels, I really believe he has won.

He qualified when he rang the final bell that he finishes chemo treatments.

That made him eligible for Make a Wish, Georgia.

And most kids pick a dream trip or meeting a hero, a celebrity.

You know, some kind of a once in a lifetime experience that they'll never get the opportunity to do again.

And again, I am 1,000% behind that.

I think they deserve every bit of that and more.

But Jude didn't do that.

During his hospital visits, he noticed people who are experiencing homelessness.

And when he was asked what he wanted his wish to be, he didn't even hesitate.

He said, I got out of my version of heck.

I love that he won't even stay AG double hockey sticks.

He's referring to the pain that he was in.

He was living with excruciating pain.

And he says, I got out of my version of heck, meaning the pain, the cancer, fighting the cancer, the treatments.

And I want to help others who are in a similar situation, their own version.

He wants to help people who are living in their own version of whatever their hell is.

Do you realize how much wisdom is in that?

Like, never mind the fact that he just has a good heart.

There is a lot of wisdom in that.

That's a wise thing.

Such a mature way to look at life.

Such a wise lens to look through as you look at other people.

To say, I just want to help other people who are living their own version of whatever their heck is.

There's so much wisdom in that.

Don't you dare for a second tell me that our generation is doomed, that the world is doomed, that America is doomed.

You know, part of the problem, and I think part of why people feel that way, and they stay those kinds of things, and I'm going to live in another country.

Now, let me ask how that worked for Ellen DeGenerate.

She moved back already.

At least for several months out of the year, she's living back in America.

You know, they talk about how bad it is here, and everything's just so horrible, and we're losing all our freedoms, and you know, we're doomed, America's doomed, we're embarrassed of our country.

Like, you hear those kinds of things, and I just shake my head at those people, and I'm like, man, how rotten must it be?

I almost feel sorry for them, because I'm like, how bad must your life be?

To have that bad of a view of just everything.

Everything's negative. Everything's always wrong.

Everything's always falling apart.

It must be miserable to be inside their own heads.

Definitely miserable to be around those people.

You know, so they're a handful of people, and I was going on to say, I think part of the reason that a lot of people feel that way, or at least some people feel that way, is because of the media.

The media has been so slimy.

You know, they're so manipulative, and they just gas like people all the time, and make it look like they're just all these radicals out there, and both sides do it.

You have conservative media, and they make it look like the world is doomed, because you have all these crazed liberals that are, you know, screaming, and not working.

Demanding all their rights, and doing their riots, and all that stuff.

You know, so you have conservative media doing that, and then you have the liberal media that makes it look like all Americans are racist, or half of Americans are racist, and homophobic, and violent, and all that stuff.

You know, I hear that all the time, people are like, I'm terrified of mega, because they're so violent.

That's because of the media. I mean, they've done that.

They've succeeded, unfortunately, in turning people into what Rush Limbaugh referred to as low information voters.

People are always paranoid. They have conspiracy theories all the time, and everybody's always out to get them, and the world is unfair, and the world is stacked against them, and America sucks, and I could go on and on and on.

But that's such a small part of our population.

The bigger story, and it's one that's not covered on the news hardly at all, the bigger story, is that many, many, many Americans are like Jude.

And while I think his story is unique, and it's heartwarming, and he's a hero, he's an angel, I'm going to heap a lot of praise on him, because I just think he's an incredible dude.

What an incredible kid. I mean that.

But while that's true, he's not the needle in the haystack, and I don't mean to take away from what he did, because it's incredible, and I'm going to get into this story here,

and it's just, I mean, it's so cool.

I don't want to take away from that by saying that he's, he's not incredibly unique in that there are a lot of young people who are doing things like this every single day.

Millions of them.

I see so many young people who are thoughtful, who are compassionate, who are intelligent, wise, wise beyond their years, and I don't mean to take away from, from Jude.

And I hope I'm not doing that.

What I'm trying to accomplish is doing still hope, and let people know, my goodness, there are so many people, so many young people who are stepping up to the plate, and just being mature little kids.

And they're being so thoughtful. It's just really, really incredible.

Anyway, back to this story, Emily Campbell, who helps coordinate wishes for Make a Wish, Georgia, said that Jude's request was unlike almost anything she had seen.

You know, that's one thing that I think that's where the unique edge is on Jude's story.

When I say what he's doing is not unique, I don't mean specifically what he's doing. I just mean that having compassion and kindness is not that unique among young people.

But what he did with Make a Wish specifically, that is unique.

You know, very few kids probably give up their wish and use the funds to help somebody else.

I mean, that's just absolutely incredible.

So she said his only wish was to give back to his community.

That's not a wish we even tell kids is an option.

Usually we tell them you can wish to go somewhere to be someone or to meet someone.

Jude came up with this on his own. He never had a backup wish.

That's the part too. That gave me chills when I first read that. He didn't have a backup.

What's your backup wish? You know, a lot of kids.

And because the reason they ask them to have backups is because they meet a celebrity.

There might be a celebrity if it's an actor or actress. Maybe they're in the middle of filming and it's just timing-wise it can't work.

There are a lot of different scenarios and so they'll tell them have backup wish lists.

And we're going to start in order of priority and we'll just go down through the list and we'll do that until we make a wish.

One of your dreams will come true.

Not Jude. He didn't have a backup list. None. Nada.

What's your backup wish? Don't have one.

That's incredible. And that shows me sheer determination. He was not taken no for an answer.

He was not going to take no for an answer and that again speaks to his heart.

And it speaks to the way that his parents raised him.

To be respectful, to be humble, to be kind, to be giving. That's really cool.

So what did they do? The organization and Jude's own community.

They came together and they started packing backpacks filled with supplies.

They collected sleeping bags for people who don't have anywhere to sleep.

They're prepared hot meals for anyone in summerville Georgia who needed a hot meal.

And the article from Fox 43 says for Jude, it wasn't charity, it was understanding.

He said, I want to help them out because I was in a bad situation and they were too.

He helped more than 300 people because of his wish.

Jude only had one rule for that day. He would not eat until every single person in line had been served first.

Do you want to talk about humility, putting others first?

Thinking of other people, treating other people with kindness, this second greatest commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.

You know, it really reminds me of what Paul says in Philippians 2.

Starting in verse 1, here's a Paul says, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort in love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind.

Having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

Who though he was in the form of God did not count a quality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taken the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men,

and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross.

Yeah, so it's really, really incredible.

Jude is really living out the scriptures.

He's so Christ-like and so mature and so thoughtful and so humble and kind.

There are not enough adjectives to describe Jude Baker.

Enough good adjectives. I better put that caveat in there, that disclaimer.

There are not enough good adjectives to describe him.

What an incredible soul. What an incredible human being.

Three hundred people got meals, people who needed sleeping bags, got sleeping bags, whoever needed supplies.

I imagine it was things like soap, shampoos, toothpaste, those sorts of supplies, just survival kind of stuff.

Three hundred people were helped.

This goes back to this idea and it's what I talk about all the time.

All it takes is to have a passion of something, something has to touch your heart.

Because if you're doing it and it hasn't touched your heart, you're just going through the motions.

And you'll burn out where you'll get a bad attitude about it.

Somebody will take you off and you'll be like, well, I'm just going to quit doing it.

I don't need this kind of crap. I don't need these kinds of attitudes.

If your heart's not in it, if your heart's not been personally touched, that's the result.

You will give up at some point.

When your heart is touched and it becomes deeply personal, nothing and I mean nothing will stop you.

And God will bless it.

This is a case in point.

There's more to this story. Hang tight over the break and there's another little plot twist that's really cool.

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Jude Baker, the young 14-year-old superhero in my opinion from Georgia.

He had to make a wish and make a wish said, what do you want?

What's on your list? What do you want for your wish?

And on down the line.

If that doesn't work, what's your next wish? What's your next one? What's your next one?

He said, I don't need all these wishes. I only need one. I want to help the homeless.

He came up with a plan. He coordinated it with make a wish, Georgia.

And they began buying book bags and filling with supplies.

He got his community involved.

They started buying sleeping bags for people who were out on the streets.

Didn't have any kind of warmth or blankets.

And they served 300 people.

Jude said, I will not eat a meal. My only condition is the day that we serve all these people,

I will not eat until every single person in line has eaten first.

That truly is the definition of humility, being humble,

putting other people before yourself, and that's at the age of 14,

and that's a kid who had battled cancer for two years, excruciating pain.

He had been through so, so much.

And as soon as he finished his chemotherapy, he said, let's go help the homeless.

Make a wish, said that he didn't have a backup plan.

There was no backup wish. This was it. He was determined.

Now, one of the cool things about that is, of course,

people in the community were not going to just let that slide.

So, as you can imagine, where the story is going,

somebody by the name of Kevin Godfrey,

he's the owner of Godfrey's tree service.

There within Jude Baker's community, he started to go fund me.

And I want to read this because it's just cool.

He says, my name is Kevin Godfrey, and I'm the owner of Godfrey's tree service here in our community.

Recently, Leslie Trip Watwood, owner of Burger Shack,

reached out to me with an idea that immediately touched my heart.

She had been following the story of a young boy in our community named Jude Baker,

and she said something simple but powerful.

We should get people together for him.

After hearing Jude's story, I know she was right.

In February of 2024, at just 12 years old,

Jude was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma,

a rare and aggressive cancer,

what followed were months of treatments,

and pain that no child should ever have to endure.

After a long and difficult battle, Jude finally reached the moment

every cancer patient hopes for.

He rang the bell.

Making or marking rather the end of his treatments.

Through Make a Wish, Georgia, Jude was given the opportunity to wish for anything he wanted.

Most kids chose Dream Trip, meeting a hero or something very special,

they've always wanted.

But Jude chose something very different.

During his treatments, Jude noticed people experiencing homelessness near the hospital

and around the community.

Even while he was fighting cancer himself, those moments stayed with him.

So when he was given the chance to make a wish,

Jude chose to help others instead of himself.

His wish helped provide backpacks, supplies, sleeping bags,

and meals for people in need right here in our community,

serving more than 300 people.

That kind of compassion is rare in this world,

especially from someone so young.

Now that Jude is thankfully in remission,

Leslie and I both felt strongly that it's time for our community to give something back to him.

Our goal was simple.

We went to raise money to send Jude and his family on a trip,

though never forget.

A chance for them to step away from hospitals, treatments,

and worry, and simply enjoy time together making memories.

Jude has already shown our community what true compassion and selflessness looks like.

Now we want to show him just how much his kindness has meant to all of us.

If you feel led to help, please consider donating or share this fundraiser.

Every contribution helps us get closer to giving Jude and his family the joyful adventure

they deserve after such a difficult journey.

From the bottom of my heart,

thank you for supporting this incredible young man.

Kevin Godfrey, owner, Godfrey's tree service.

And then he says at the bottom,

because sometimes the biggest heroes aren't wearing capes.

Sometimes they're 14-year-old boys with incredibly brave hearts.

How cool is that?

They've already raised well over 40,000.

They're well on the way to the goal of 50,000.

And it's really, really cool.

And I am a firm, firm, firm, firm, firm believer

that what goes around comes around.

In fact, I'm preaching on that on Sunday.

My sermon is about measuring sticks

and the way that we measure things to other people

is what will be measured back to us.

That's not my wisdom.

That's not my words.

Jesus Himself says it.

You know, to the measure that you use,

it would be measured to you.

And he's given different kinds of examples.

And I truly, I believe it.

I'm a firm believer in that.

What goes around comes around.

If we're stingy,

you know, if we're selfish,

if we look down on other people,

if we're always annoyed with other people,

we're refused to give to other people.

We're tight-fisted towards people in need.

I believe we're going to have a life of a lot of heartache,

a lot of hard times.

I don't think God rewards people.

At least He doesn't reward them very generously,

who are tight-fisted towards people in need.

I don't.

And here's a case in point.

It's a prime example of somebody with a huge heart.

And I'm not saying that God directly

lines your bank accounts

and pads your accounts with all kinds of money.

I'm going to help them wealth preacher.

I'm not.

Because I do believe that

you can be a really good person

and still have a really hard life.

And I have a really challenging life.

But what I see in this is,

God blesses us

by having a good heart,

or for having a good heart,

having other people

to let their good hearts

be kind and compassionate

and gracious and generous.

And that's what I talk about

on the hidden lightness all the time.

When we let our hidden lightness shine,

it becomes really contagious.

When we have passion behind what we're doing,

think about that.

We have passion.

Our hearts are moved.

This dude is literally laying in his bed,

writhing in pain

as a 12-13-year-old kid.

He's literally screaming out in pain.

And what he notices

in that moment,

in a moment of darkness

and desperation

and unknowns,

sickness,

all of those things.

What he notices,

if the people outside his window,

the people on the streets,

the people trying to stay warm,

or trying to stay dry

when the weather turns bad,

when it's wet.

That's what he notices.

You know, he's so outside of himself

that he's just in tune

with people who are in need

and what happened is

when he verbalized that.

When he said, I want to make a difference

in those people's lives.

I want them,

whatever their own heck is

that they're living,

I want to help ease that for them.

I want to provide some kind of a remedy.

When he verbalized that,

what that did

is it started working on the hearts of other people.

And that I believe is the blessing

that God gives us.

You know, it's not like God just magically

you pray and you're like, oh,

I've been a good person in my life

and God just like

opens up the floodgates

and all these, you know, your bank account starts getting full

sudden, you're just healthy and happy.

I don't think God works that way.

I really don't.

I just, I'm not a Joel Osteen.

Joel Osteen, you know, he's all about health and wealth

and, you know, the more you give,

the more God's just going to, he's just going to

open up the floodgates.

You're going to have so much money

you won't know what to do with it.

It's so deceiving.

It's just not,

it's really scammy

and I'm just not into it.

But I truly believe

that to a large extent

what goes around comes around

and the reason

is because when we let our light shine

before other men,

people see the light of Christ.

Whether they believe in Him or not,

people see that light

and it begins to break into their,

their heart

and it begins to work on them

and then people

willfully give, joyfully give.

I think that's the blessing.

And all of us have the opportunity

like we live in a free country.

We all have equal opportunity

to bless other people.

You don't have to have a lot of money.

I see videos of poor people

doing it, homeless people doing it.

They have a dollar

and they give their last dollar

away to somebody to help them out.

I mean, you tell me

who's the bigger blessing them

or some snob

who doesn't give somebody

the time of day.

I'll pick the homeless person

10 times out of 10.

You know, they're the compassionate ones.

So when we let our light shine,

you know, you don't have to be

well-known. You don't have to

even be on social media.

Heck, you don't even have to

have a cell phone or a computer

or a house.

You don't have to have those things

to be a shining light

for somebody else.

To set an example

for somebody else

and to motivate somebody else

and to work on their heart

where they start

giving to other people.

Look at what this did in the community.

Look at what happened just

from Jude. One person

had a direct impact

on over 300 people.

And really more than that

because I'm looking at the GoFundMe page

1.1,000 people donated.

He literally

has had an impact on thousands of people

and right now I'm doing

an entire show on this.

I saw the story and I was like

this is absolutely incredible.

What incredible kid, what

incredible story

and I just wanted to share that

with other people and I hope

more and more people

keep sharing the story

of Jude Baker.

And I really think this kid

is going somewhere in life.

I honestly goodness do.

I can't imagine that God is going to

look at this boy

and look at his heart and be like,

he's going nowhere in life.

I think he's highly

motivated.

It's pretty evident that he's highly

motivated.

Certainly very wise.

He's knowledgeable.

He has a great heart.

He loves his community.

He's compassionate towards homeless people.

He doesn't look down on them.

He's not like, you know,

get a job.

He has compassion.

He doesn't judge people

for being homeless.

How do we help pull them

out of their heck?

Out of their own version of

whatever their hell is

that they're living?

How do we pull them out of that?

It came up with an idea.

It came up with a plan.

Maybe it's not the best

one in the world.

I don't know.

Maybe it is.

But he did it.

And that's the point.

I would say for a minimum

for a day, but some of

these people for a long,

long time.

And that motivates other people

in the community.

And they want to help.

They're like, well, if Jude can do it,

if a boy who is a 12-year-old

was dying of cancer

and screaming out in pain,

if he can do it,

I don't have an excuse.

There is no excuse for me not

for these people in my community.

That's the beauty in all of this.

That's the beauty in the hidden lightness.

That's the beauty whenever we just

take charge and we just do it.

We don't hesitate.

We don't think about it.

We don't

whine about the red tape

and all the things that could go wrong.

You just do it.

Jude just

did it.

And look

at what's happening.

I mean, if that doesn't move you,

if that doesn't motivate you,

if that doesn't make you want to go out right now

and help people in your own community,

I don't think anything will.

I mean, I don't know.

I don't know how you can't

be moved by Jude's story

and just want to help people.

And again, it doesn't have to be homeless.

It doesn't have to be like

this big, huge project.

You don't have to partner

with 9,000 people

to do something.

You literally could just do an act of kindness.

And I say this all the time.

You could leave a tip.

Leave a 100% tip for somebody.

Next time you go to a restaurant.

Guarantee

you'll make

that server's day.

It doesn't have to be

this huge production.

Just do something that's kind

and I promise you.

I promise you.

It's going to become contagious.

Other people are going to see that.

And it's going to make them want to do things too.

That my friends is the hidden lightness.

Go Jude Baker.

I'm going to be cheering this kid on

for a long, long time to come.

You can find more out about my show

and get all the latest podcasts

to go to the menu, navigation bar,

and americanoutloud.news

under our shows or schedule.

You'll be in the know.

There's a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us.

When there's so much darkness that envelops the world

remember that it doesn't take much light

to expose that darkness

and to ultimately inspire other people.

Join me in being a light.

Join me in being a light.

Join me in being a light.