[SINGING] "I want Jesus to walk with me.
I want Jesus to walk with me.
All along my pilgrim journey,
Oh, I want Jesus to walk with me."
I just sang--oh, thank you.
[APPLAUSE] So I just sang the first verse of an African
American spiritual.
There are so many of these songs,
composed straight from the mouths of those who have been
enslaved--my ancestors.
And they've been passed down from generation to generation.
My mother sang these songs.
She sang this song.
My grandmother sang this song.
There are so many things that I learn,
as I grow older, from the words expressed in this song.
There's power in knowing that there's somebody
that you could walk with, that this journey in life
doesn't have to be alone.
And I draw strength from my ancestors, from my brothers
and sisters, from my mom and dad, and, more importantly,
from Jesus Christ.
My ancestors didn't lead an easy life; it wasn't easy.
But they prayed through song to the Savior,
for Him to be with them.
They prayed to God knowing that there
was going to be a better and brighter day.
Their determination to call out for Christ strengthened them.
The atrocities and trials were able to be overcome
because of their belief.
They lived not just for themselves,
but for those who came after them, for me.
"Pilgrim journey."
A pilgrim can also be a pioneer, right?
And what is a pioneer?
Someone who is the first to do something, right?
To change something.
But change is not always easy, is it?
It can be very, very trying.
But with any trial or any journey
that is trying and hard, it's a little better
when you have somebody to go through with it, right?
The process makes it a little more bearable.
[SINGING] "In my trials, Lord, walk with me.
In my trials, Lord, walk with me.
When the shades of life are failing,
Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me."
I have an older brother; he's three years older than me.
He's my best friend, and he is the worst enemy, OK?
[LAUGHTER] I see that some of you can relate.
Well, me and my brother, we used to fight a lot.
And one Saturday the fighting got really intense,
and my dad said, "That's it!
That's it!
Get out!
Get in the car!"
So we ran out, jumped in the car.
My dad got in the car.
He started driving.
And I'm thinking, "Oh, my gosh, he's lost it.
This is it.
This is it for us, right?"
And we're living in Las Vegas, Nevada.
And he stops after what seemed like 20 hours.
But it seems a lot longer when you're waiting
for a butt-whupping, right?
It was more like 20 minutes.
And he stopped and he said, "Get out."
And he says, "Make it home before dark."
And he drives off.
And then he stops, and he rolls down the window and says,
"Together!"
Takes off.
[LAUGHTER]
So my brother starts walking.
And me, the younger brother, I start
walking in the same direction but on the other side
of the street.
He picks up a rock and throws it.
"Quit following me!"
I picked up two rocks, and I threw them back at him.
And I just kept walking.
And I see a shopping cart.
And I jump in the shopping cart.
You know, I'm 10.
I jump in the shopping cart, right?
And next thing I know, he's pushing me, and we're laughing,
and we're enjoying our time together.
We're hungry, we're hot, and we might
get beat when we get home.
[LAUGHTER] But this journey, this trial,
we're enjoying it together.
And wouldn't you know it?
We made it home before dark.
What a blessing for us, and for my dad, because my mom was
like, "What have you done?"
[LAUGHTER]
So that day created a bond between me and my brother.
We got a little bit closer, you know?
And it really helped us understand
the importance of being together when we're in trouble.
So we got in a lot of trouble together.
But any argument, any time I would wear his clothes or eat
his desserts--he has a sweet tooth;
he'd hide desserts in the refrigerator;
I would eat them--he would forgive me after a while
or after a fight.
But it didn't take long.
He was my brother.
Life today is very different.
We don't face a lot of the same hardships
that our ancestors did.
And the things that they went through,
they sacrificed for us to be here.
Somewhere in your history, someone
has given up something great for you to be here.
And that's what these songs are about.
It's about connecting to our ancestry
and finding out where they drew their strength.
So any trial or anything that comes to me,
I know I can get past it; I can get over it.
Nothing's insurmountable, because those
who came before me have gone through so much worse.
And they did it so that I could be here.
At the end of the day, we have to find out who we are
and what relationships we really care about.
I'm so grateful for my parents pioneering the way for me,
right?
They helped me feel grateful for every opportunity that
was ever set before me, even when those opportunities are
preceded by disappointment and sorrow, because that happens,
right?
Life isn't always success.
There's some sorrow.
[SINGING] "In my sorrow, Lord, walk with me.
In my sorrow, Lord, walk with me.
When my heart is bruised and aching,
Oh, I want Jesus to walk with me."
I lived on this street in North Las Vegas;
it's called D Street.
And my best friend on the street was Dominic.
And Dominic was also the biggest bully on the street.
But he was my friend because I love basketball,
and he had the only basketball hoop on the street,
so I would go to his house after school.
But there was a pattern that followed.
We played basketball, and then I'd have to go home.
But I'd have to run home because if he caught me,
he'd beat me up.
[LAUGHTER] Yeah, yeah, some kind of best friend, right?
So my brother would tell me, "Don't go over
to Dominic's house today.
Don't go over there.
You know what he's going to do."
And I'm like, "Yeah, OK, OK, I'm not going to go."
What do I do?
I went over to Dominic's house.
I want to play basketball, right?
So I got smarter, and I started to kind
of sneak away because my curfew was,
"When the streetlights come on, be home."
It starts to get dark, and I'm like, "OK, that's my cue;
I've got to start sneaking away."
If I got far enough away from Dominic,
I could make it to my yard before he caught me.
And if I could make it to my yard,
I could call out to my house for who?
For my big brother.
That's right.
The same brother that used to beat me up,
throw rocks at me, right?
But that was my brother.
And my big brother, nobody messed with my big brother
on that street.
So if I could make it to the yard,
I'd call out, "Junior, Junior!"
And he'd come running out the house,
and Dominic would flip a quick U-turn and be gone, right?
[LAUGHTER] But if he made it into my yard and Junior
caught him, then Dominic got dealt with.
But there was never a time where Junior could hear my voice
where he didn't come.
I kept making the mistake of going over to Dominic's house.
But if I could make it to my yard and call to my brother,
he always came.
Does that remind you of somebody?
We all have a big brother who loves
us, who wants to stay connected to us, who wants to protect us,
who wants to take this journey of life
with us, through our sorrows, through our troubles.
[SINGING] "In my troubles, Lord, walk with me.
In my troubles, Lord, walk with me.
When my life becomes a burden,
Oh, I want Jesus to walk with me."
Well, luckily we moved away from that house.
And we moved to Farmington, Utah.
[CHEERS] Culture shock?
[LAUGHTER] Just a little bit.
But what was so cool is that I could look outside of my door
and look this way and look that way,
and every other house had a hoop.
I played basketball every day!
I played every day!
And the next year I was in junior high,
and guess what I did?
I tried out for the basketball team.
I was so excited.
Tried out, did my thing.
Went up to look at the list--didn't see my name.
I was let down.
I felt like "Wow, I practiced all year,
and I didn't make the team."
Well, fast-forward a few months, and there's a talent show.
Little backstory: My mother is amazing, queen of my life.
Well, the other queen.
My other queen is my wife.
[LAUGHTER] But she taught us all how to sing.
I had seven siblings; she taught us all how to sing.
And we were kind of well known in that area.
And I was like, "This--this is my moment of glory."
So I tried out for the talent show, and I go,
and I look--the names--my name wasn't on there.
Now, at this point I'm feeling like I'm
letting down my family, because this is what we do.
This is our thing, right?
Fast-forward a little bit more.
Everywhere we go, everywhere we move--we moved a lot growing
up.
My mom had a gospel choir.
And we had a performance, and the soloist wasn't there.
I knew all the solos, every one.
And my mom used to tell me, I used to say, "Momma, Momma, I
love you.
Momma, I love you!"
And she'd be like, "You do?"
I'm like, "Yeah, Momma, I love you."
She'd be like, "Clean your room."
[LAUGHTER] "You love me, do the dishes.
Do your homework," right?
So I was like, "Hey, Mom, you love me?"
She's like, "Yeah, I love you."
I said, "Can I sing the solo?"
Show me you love me, right?
And I heard a sigh from behind me.
And it wasn't like a sigh of relief.
It was like a "Oh, no."
And I look back, and there are some
of the people in the choir that I knew, some family members.
And that hurt.
But I was focused on my mom.
What is she going to say?
Because she's the choir director.
Needless to say, I tore that solo up.
I did it, right?
Oh, man!
[APPLAUSE]
And that day was a game changer.
Changed my life.
Because my mom, who had been with me,
she felt what I felt when I didn't make the basketball
team.
She knew how I felt when I didn't--I mean,
everybody makes it into the talent show!
[LAUGHTER] You know?
So she knew where my pain was, and she gave me an opportunity.
So I've accomplished a lot of things since then.
I've had some letdowns, but I've had some great accomplishments.
One of my greatest accomplishments
is being married to a beautiful, brilliant woman.
And I have three beautiful children.
I played college basketball.
I was defensive player of the year of the conference
at UNC--the other UNC, University of Northern
Colorado.
[LAUGHTER] Yeah.
I earned a master's degree in professional communication.
And now I work professionally in music and in sports.
So take that, junior high!
[LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] Thank you!
I've been singing--I've been singing for the last 15
minutes, and I didn't have to compete with anybody.
But this road to these blessings did not
come without some hardship, right?
I drew on the strength that was passed down to me from those
that came before me, those pioneers, my ancestors,
my parents, my brothers and sisters, my true friends.
And my truest friend and big brother, Jesus Christ,
who always loves me, who will always be there,
even after I get my butt kicked--because life kicks
your butt sometimes, you know, right?
It does!
But the Savior's there for us.
One of the many things I love about African American music
from slavery is that the songs change all the time.
The lyrics change depending on who's singing it
and how you connect with it.
So I have an original verse to add to this song.
[SINGING] "In my victory, Lord, please walk with me,
Making history because you walked with me.
With your love and spirit's guidance,
Thank you, Jesus, for walking with me."
I hope you will all look for that opportunity
to walk with your big brother, because He's there.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]