>> KEN COLEMAN: Well good Monday morning,
Liberty University! Oh, that's pretty weak. Come on, good Monday morning, Liberty University! All right I want to get to know you real fast,
you just heard a little bit about me. I just want to get a snapshot of who's in
the building because I haven't been in this building in a long, long time. In fact, the last time I was in this building
I was doing a skit on this stage, it was much smaller, a lot less people in the room. But I jumped out of the back of a truck to
the theme song from “Sanford and Sons.” So, yeah. I'm surprised anybody knows what “Sanford
and Son” is Johnnie, that's awesome. All right, so let me get a real quick snapshot
of where you are from. If you're from the West Coast, let me hear
you. All right, Midwesterners, where are you? How about you Yankees from the North? I was about ready to get cocky about this
next group ‘cause it's where I hail from but the Yankees scared me so there's a little
bit of a warning. Because I saved the best for last, if you're
from the South, let me hear you! Woo! Oh, yes. All right, now listen. I'm gonna give you some really practical stuff
today but let me start with this one. If you ever do public speaking and you're
just wanting to get the crowd engaged, just do that right there, and always end with the
South, because they're always gonna come through for you. Yeah. Hey listen, let me tell you something real
quick. I, I'm out of my mind excited to be here today
because as I look around this room, I'm just pulsating with excitement about the potential
in this room, and I think you young people are so blessed with the people that come and
speak to you. I hope you don't ever get tired, I hope you
don't ever get bored with people telling you that there is amazing potential in this room. And that when these people say to you that
"life is meant to be lived for God, and that what you can do in this room for Him to change
the world can actually change the world," I hope you get that. I hope you get that. So I'm so blessed to be here. This place is very special to me, I spent
four years here, '92 to '96. Yeah, I know. I don't look that old, come on, let's be honest. We can do a close up, no wrinkles. My wife Stacey is over here, she's really
hot. She's in the white suit. We adopted our second child, my wife and I
have adopted two boys, we adopted our second son, Chase, from the Liberty Godparent Home. Family life services right here, about five
years ago. And I'm very proud to introduce you to a very
special lady in our lives, she's sitting next to my wife. Sierra would you stand up? She is Chase's birth mother. She is an online student here at Liberty University
and she is Chase's birth mother, our 4-year-old, soon to be 5-year-old. Give her a big hand. Yeah. Hey. That is a heroine. And we love her so much. So this place is very special to us. All right, you guys ready to dive in? Listen, if you've got something to write with,
we're gonna go over some very simple stuff. What do we got? What happened, anything? Who knows, all right. I got ADD so it's like "squirrel!" All right, we're gonna have some fun, we're
gonna get right to this, OK? Get ready to write. I want to talk to you about something that
a mentor shared with me in my early 20s that's going to hit you right where you're at, and
it's hugely important. And if you get this today young people, listen
to me, you're gonna be so far ahead of the rest of the world it'll blow your mind. Are you ready to go? We're gonna talk about questions. How many of you in this room grew up in church? Let me see your hand, real quick. All right, good. How many of you also went to church camps
growing up? K. How many of you know this phrase? The will of God. How many of you actually right now know what
it is for your life? A lot less hands, that's OK. Hey, that's OK. I didn't know either and, you ready for this? Our churches in America are full of people
who have no idea what it is they're supposed to do with their life. I was a young person, I remember youth pastors
and preachers and youth camp evangelists would say "young people! Don't miss God's will for your life!" And I'm out there going "I don't want to,
but I don't know what it is!" Right? You know that anxiety. And right now you're in the most important
transitional phase of your life. As you get ready to move into, what adults
like to say, "the real world." Right? So what are the big questions we all ask? So if you grew up in church, you heard people
say "hey, don't miss the will of God for your life." But you didn't hear a whole lot about how
to find it. So today we're gonna talk about — what’s
the number one question we all ask? Deep in the dark crevices of our mind and
our heart, many nights we lay awake, "what should I do with my life?" Or another way to say it is, "why am I here? Why am I here?" So how do we answer that big question? Here's how you answer it, write this down,
are you ready? How do you answer the big question, "what
am I here for?" You find your sweet spot. It's that simple. You find your sweet spot. But that begs another big question, Ken, thanks
for that great information. But how do I find my sweet spot? I'm glad you asked me. My mentor shared this with me when I was in
my early 20s and it rocked my world. It answers the big question; how do I find
God's will for my life? You have gotta find how God designed you. What should I do with my life? The answer is what He designed you to do. Well how do you find that? Well He's written on your heart a sweet spot. Here's how it goes, are you ready? If I had a whiteboard up here I'd draw two
lines for you. So on your paper right now draw two lines. Draw one line going this way on the left side
and on the right side draw another line. On the left side write "strengths," on the
other side write "passion." You find your sweet spot by finding the intersection
of your greatest strength and your greatest passion. What are you really, really good at? Plot those things out in your dorm later. You can even do it now if you know instinctively. Some of you in here actually know this already,
some of you don't. It's OK. God wrote this on your heart. The will of God for your life is not the giant
mystery that you think it is. It's not the unanswerable question that millions
of Christians think it is. God, the creator of the universe, the person
who designed you uniquely and wonderfully for this world wrote it on your heart. What's your greatest strength? You may not know it yet; you can find it. Take a strengths finders test. StrengthsFinders 2.0, it's very simple, it'll
help you begin to dig through this. What's your greatest passion? This is what you do for free. This is what you think about every waking
moment. This is what you want to charge with everything
you've got. Your sweet spot in life is at the intersection
of your greatest strength and your greatest passion. Let me illustrate what the sweet spot is not. How many of you watch “American Idol”
or “The Voice” or any of these singing shows? Yeah. My wife and I, I guess are technically old
in this building Johnnie, so we still like “American Idol.” Yeah. How many of you have noticed in the auditions
— don’t you love the auditions? Right now it's funny to you, when you become
a parent you're gonna get very sad about this. You know what I'm talking about. The kid walks in, we see him on camera for
about a minute telling us how great they are, goes something like this "oh yeah, I'm really
good. I'm really good. Everybody in my life, all my friends told
me 'I can sing really good.'" And we all begin to get the pucker factor,
"oh jeez, this could be ugly." They walk into the audition room and they
proceed to butcher a song, humiliate themselves, and then the judges tell them the truth, which
is "you stink. You can't sing. You shouldn't try to do this for a living." And then what happens? Hilarity ensues, they get outraged, they doubt
the experts, they walk out in the hallway while the cameras follow them and they swear
at the camera, and flip 'em off. "You're nuts! You're crazy! I'll be a star!" That's not the sweet spot. What's happening there? Music, or to be famous, unfortunately of this
younger generation, to be famous is their great passion. So “American Idol” or being a star or
singing is high on their passion line, you staying with me? But it's really low on their talent line. That's not the sweet spot. That's why they leave so confused and angry. It's really high up here, but they don't have
the talent to make it. Now let's flip it. Corporate America, guys knocking down half
a million dollars a year or more. He's really good, she — this woman, this
man, they're good at their job. They get paid top dollar, but they're miserable. They fall into addiction, they cheat on their
spouse, they're walking around like zombies. They're miserable. What's the situation there? Really good at their job, high on their strength
line, but really low on their passion line. I — I’ll give you a great example, I love
the game of basketball. Later tonight, I'll go to the national championship
game in Atlanta to root my Michigan Wolverines on, go blue! Sorry Johnnie, I had to get that in. But I'm passionate about the game of basketball. But look at me! I'm a 5 foot 9 white guy who can't jump over
a piece of paper. If I tried to be a professional basketball
player, I would starve. That's not what the sweet spot is. This is simple but so profound. Let me illustrate one of my favorite stories
of what the sweet spot is and how it plays out. Anybody in here, you young people know who
David Copperfield is? The magician? I'll bet you didn't know this. David Copperfield is the highest grossing
entertainer in the history of the world. Not Garth Brooks, not Michael Jackson, David
Copperfield has sold, ready for this? More than four billion dollars in ticket sales. I was watching him on Oprah's new show — I
do watch Oprah and I'm proud of it. Thank you, sir. See me afterwards, we can exchange man cards. Hey, I love Oprah. She's got this new show called "Oprah's Next
Chapter." And in it, she just goes to these famous people's
homes and it ends up being an hour long show, and she sits down and she interviews. I'm an interview junkie and so I love watching
this stuff. And so I was recently watching an interview
with David Copperfield. She goes to the Bahamas. David Copperfield is so rich — Bahamas,
there we go. David Copperfield is so rich, he bought ten
islands in the Bahamas, OK? David's doing real well. And so they're hanging out at David's place,
right? David's place, did you like that? I worked that in. I wish you could've seen what David's Place
looked like when I was here, you'd just come up here and give me a hug. So she's interviewing David Copperfield, and
she gets halfway through the interview and she says "how did you figure out that magic
was what you wanted to do with your life?" And he said something that blew me away and
it perfectly illustrates what the sweet spot is and what it looks like when we walk in
it. He said "Oprah when I was a kid, I went to
New York City one day and my mom and dad took me into a magic shop, and I just picked up
a couple tricks and I was pretty good at it, so they bought me a few. Went home, and we figured out, I figured out,
they figured out, I was really good at doing these tricks. And so they bought more and they bought more
and they bought more, and then he started performing as a child performer." Bottom line is, everybody figured out, David
Copperfield was a natural genius when it came to doing magic trips — tricks and illusions. He said "but Oprah, what I really loved growing
up were stories. I loved to read, I loved to watch movies,
television, I loved going to plays," and he said, "I just figured out one day as a teenager
that what I needed to do was figure out a way to tell stories with my magic." Strength, magic. Passion, stories. The greatest entertainer in the history of
the world figured out his sweet spot very early on. It's that simple, that's what it looks like. Now, OK Ken, now what do I do? I find my sweet spot, what's next? Ready? This is unbelievable, get ready to write this
down, this is huge! Step in it, and stay there. Step into your sweet spot and stay there. It is not enough, young people, to find your
sweet spot. Our world is littered with people who know
what they should be doing and they won't step in it. They're scared, they're scared of the unknown. And let me just tell you something, young
people, I am 38 years old, I sat where you are, I am standing in my sweet spot because
I had the courage to step in it and stay there and that's when God, your Abba Father steps
up and says "yes! My son, yes my daughter, you're where I want
you to be and you don't know what's coming next, and now I can step in and build the
bridge for you, and I can get the glory." It's faith. You gotta step in it and stay there. It's not enough just to find it, you gotta
step in it and you gotta stay there. Let me tell you my favorite, favorite sweet
spot story of a guy who stayed with it. Jeremy Lin, you all know Jeremy Lin well,
do you not? You know the story. I'll go through it really fast, stay with
me and watch this. Guy goes to Harvard, doesn't get drafted. Nobody wants to draft an Asian guy from Harvard
to play in the NBA, it's just a reality. Nobody gives him a shot; the guy can play
basketball. He signs a free agent contract, gets cut two
times last season. Gets cut twice, goes to the New York Knicks. He's down, he's depressed, he's sleeping on
his brother's couch. He tells his brother two nights before he
gets in this first Knicks game — he’s on a temporary contract — he tells his brother,
"I think I'm done. I think I'm just gonna go into ministry. I think I'm done; I can't take it anymore." The reason I tell you that part of the story
is because when you find your sweet spot, young people, listen to me, it's not all roses. It's still tough, it still requires faith. Jeremy Lin is about ready to quit. You know the story, he gets put in the game,
the New York Knicks are terrible, they're awful, they have no other point guards. Sorry, it was just a fact, they were bad. And Mike D’Antoni the coach at the time
says "Lin, get in the game." And the rest is history. Do you think for one second that Jeremy Lin
figured out how to play basketball right then and there? No, he was in his sweet spot. And the right time came along. How many of you have ever heard the phrase,
"oh he was in the right place at the right time?" I hate that phrase. I hate it. Because it's usually said like this at a party,
"oh did you hear about so-and-so?" "Oh yeah, really cool, amazing." "Yeah, he was in the right place at the right
time." Dumb luck. That's not true, I hate that. We should say it like this, and I would like
you all to start a revolution, right? Next time you hear somebody say that go "no,
he was in the right place and the right time happened." He was in the right place and the right time
happened. Here's what's true about finding your sweet
spot and stepping in it and staying there. Is that if you find the sweet spot, you put
all your energy, all of your energy into staying in the right place. Find the right place, stay there, put all
of your energy. Listen to me, the next three or four years
are huge for you all. Don't worry about the rest of it, worry about
one thing. Finding and staying in the right place, and
if you do that, the right time will find you. I promise you. Just like it found Jeremy Lin. He stayed where he was supposed to stay, he
got his opportunity, and he made the most of it. The legendary John Wooden — I had an opportunity
to spend a day with him one time and one of my favorite quotes from John Wooden is, "when
opportunity comes, it's too late to prepare." It's too late, you'll miss your opportunity
if you're not in the right place. I don't even care about the right time. If I've learned anything in 38 years, is that
my plans don't match up with God's timetable. He's not interested in my timetable. What He's interested in is do I find the right
place? And then do I have the faith to stay there,
and wait for His time? Then folks will marvel at God's timing. Chick-fil-A, Johnnie and I were talking about
this, the interesting — listen, do you realize I was doing a Saturday radio show? Do you know how many people listen to Saturday
radio shows? Three. One of 'em was my wife. That's where you gotta start, and I have the
CEO of Chick-fil-A come on my show, and I'm hustling just for the chance to break into
drive-time radio to hustle a day job working on the dream job. Already written the book. Dan Cathy comes on my show, I ask him a harmless
question, he answers it but he takes it another direction. Three weeks later, Gabe Lauger finds the interview
and puts it up there and the next thing you know my little, teeny-tiny show on Saturday
in Atlanta is splashed all over every major media outlet you can imagine from the Nightly
News to Jon Stewart and on and on and on it goes. I have no control over that, that has nothing
to do with me. Do you get how funny God thinks that is? He thinks that's hilarious. You're in the right place Ken Coleman, you're
an absolute nobody. But I'm gonna use your little show for my
glory. It's unbelievable — you can't believe the
opportunities I've had. A prominent gay activist flies me in on his
private plane two weeks later to spend a day with him talking about how evangelicals and
those in the gay community can have a very civil dialogue. What am I doing there? What am I doing in this situation? The answer, I'm doing exactly what God has
designed for me to do but I had no idea how it was gonna work out. Get in your sweet spot and stay there. Now I want to make a quick note, that I think
you're gonna struggle with as you get a little bit older some of you may now. Johnnie I know you and I struggle with this,
so I'm gonna put you on the spot, I know this is true, I struggle with this. When you find your sweet spot, there's something
really exciting about it because you know you're where you're supposed to be and things
just start to happen for you because you're where you're supposed to be. But then this temptation comes along to always
be thinking about the next. You like that Johnnie? I'm always thinking about the next. Always — what’s next, what's next. Yes, this is great. Yes, my, my first book came out, yes it had
a first great week, what's next? And the temptation is to get so obsessed with
the next that we miss what God has for us in the now and we ultimately sacrifice the
next. The very thing we're obsessed about, what's
next God, what's next? What can I do to get over here? I want to keep moving. It's natural, progress is wired into us. But I would be remiss if I didn't give you
this advice today. ‘Cause you go-getters that are in the building,
those of you that are ready to charge Hell with a water pistol, you know who you are,
you're always gonna be tempted to be thinking about what's next. And I want to say it again ‘cause I want
you to catch this. God wants you to be totally present in the
now because He's got you there on purpose. He put you there, and if I'm so obsessed about
what's next, I'll miss what's for me in the now, who God wants me to meet, who God wants
me to serve, who God wants me to help, who God wants me to learn from. If we're so obsessed with what's next, we'll
miss what we need in the now, and ultimately sacrifice what's next. OK, so we've gone through, what should I do
with my life? What God designed you to do. How do I figure that out? Find your sweet spot, the intersection of
your greatest strength and your greatest passion. What do I do when I find my sweet spot? Step in it, and stay there. Let's do that together. Step in it — say "what do I do when I find
my sweet spot?" >> AUDIENCE: Step in it, and stay in it. >> COLEMAN: Oh, I love crowd reaction. Finally, what's it looks like, what does sweet
spot living, or walking in God's will look like? It's all around you, you see it all the time. We go back to my “American Idol” illustration. This is one of my favorite stories I've seen
in all the years of “American Idol.” Last season, there was a little gal from the
Northeast called Hollie Cavanagh. Hollie Cavanagh, a little teeny, petite little
gal, blonde hair, very shy. I remember seeing her in some of the earlier
auditions, she just looked terrified when she'd walk up and stand in front of the judges
to sing. And I'll never forget, she had an amazing
voice, but she still wasn't experiencing the confidence. Fast forward to she made it to the final 12,
or whatever it is. I'll never forget one specific night it just
hit me, she walked onto the stage and the song began and even as she walked out to get
ready to sing, you could still see her natural timidity, and her introvert personality. But when the music started and she began to
sing, it was only a few bars into the song when you could see the metamorphosis take
place. You saw this little shy timid girl begin to
transform into this amazing, beautiful songbird. And she's hitting these towering notes, and
she's moving me in my pajama pants at home. Well that was a little weird. That's not how I meant it but I realized it
and you gotta step into it, right? Oh jeez, put that on the highlight reel. All right, hey, I know, I know, you get my
point. I'm at home watching it and I'm moved, I'm
moved by the power in her voice. In that, in that moment she's stepping up
and she's doing — stay with me — she’s doing what she was designed to do. How does this little timid gal stand in front
of millions on television and belt out a very difficult song? It's because she was in her sweet spot, that's
what it looks like when we step into our sweet spot. And we find ourselves in that moment of great
fear, in that moment of great anxiety that "hey, I'm meant to do this." God steps up in those moments and gives us
great courage. I'm so blown away by what's happening on this
university, it's so cool to be watching this from afar, and I've had the opportunity to
step into some cool situations. Some national media coverage, I'm an MC at
the Catalyst leadership conference, been able to interview some cool people, this book — I
mean, it's just a complete, unbelievable act of God. But what fires me up most is when I come back
today and I look around this room and we have no idea who among us will literally change
the world but here's, here's the advice I want to give, I talked about the temptation
for focusing on the next earlier, here's another temptation. So many people identify their sweet spot as
I've laid it out to you today, somewhere along the way, life happens. Roadblocks, detours, sickness, tragedy, it
happens. And you start getting your mind off of what
your sweet spot is and what God has uniquely designed you to do and the call that is specifically
on your life, and the niche that only you can fill. You get your mind off that and you start going
"I'm not rich, I'm not famous, I'm not powerful, I'm not gonna make a huge impact." Let me tell you something, you don't have
to make a huge impact that a bunch of people see and that people talk about and it gets
Tweeted and it gets on the news. You only have to make the one impact that
you were called to do so whether it's on a trip to Uganda with the field hockey team. I — I’m telling you, God's gonna put some
people in you — in your path. You have no idea what it is that's gonna happen
out on that trip, in fact, you may never know what one prayer, one hug, one encouragement
on the other side of the world could forever change a village, could change a family, you
see where I'm going? Don't get hung up, people, in the stats of
life. Don't get hung up in what other people are
doing. And I'm gonna tell you something. In this room alone, if 50 percent of you get
this sweet spot thing and really work hard on identifying what your greatest strength
is and your greatest passion and where they intersect, you don't have to know all the
details. You don't have to know. But you're gonna be so far ahead of everybody
else, it's gonna blow your mind. I said it before, I'll say it again. The world is full of people walking around
like zombies, that's why zombie shows are so big right now, people identify with it. [Groaning] Oh, it's Monday, when's Friday
coming? I'm having fun but young people, listen to
me. How dare you live that way? How dare you live that way? The creator of the universe has designed you
to do something absolutely that nobody else can do and it doesn't matter how big or how
grand it is. But it's what you're supposed to do. Life is so short, I can't tell you how many
of my friends from my days at Liberty are dead, gone. I don't know if I've got tomorrow. Don Miller, the writer, said this so well,
I'll paraphrase it, but "may you live your life that if you go young, people will shake
their head not because they're sad, but they shake their head because 'wow, they were doing
so much, we're gonna miss 'em.'" What's your sweet spot? What is it? What's so unique about you that only you can
do it? Figure it out, I'll close with this. The poet Henry David Thoreau famously once
said — it’s one of my favorite quotes ever, if you can, write this down, if you
can, Tweet it, it's gonna help people. You ready? "Most men," — and I'll add the word 'women'
to his quote — “most men and women lead lives of quiet desperation." Most men and women lead lives of quiet desperation."
— this is the sad part — “and go to the grave with the song still in them." And go to the grave with the song still in
them, that's so true folks. It's so true. So my challenge to you today is this, what's
your song? What's your song? Not the song that your dad wants you to sing,
not the song that your momma wants you to sing, not the song your grandmother, grandfather
wants you to sing. Not the song your youth pastor wants you to
sing. Not the song your pastor wants you to sing. What is your song? You find your sweet spot, the intersection
of your greatest strength and your greatest passion, you will find your song. And I implore you today, to find your song
and to start singing it and sing it loud and sing it loud every day, every month, every
year of your life. Sing it loud to the top of your lungs, until
you draw your last breath. And when you enter Heaven and you stand before
our creator, the great conductor, the person, the God of the universe who wrote that song
on your heart, may He look at all of us and say "well sung, well sung." Father in Heaven, I pray a special pray of
blessing over these young people. The untold amount of potential that is sitting
in this room right now can set the world in a completely different trajectory. I pray that you'd speak to these young people
today Father, to hold them close and hug them and let them know You have written a song
on their heart, a song that only they can sing. Father, I pray a prayer of courage as they
step into the ambiguity that is called life. That they would choose to paint on a blank
canvas their masterpiece, and not live a life of paint by numbers. Father, that they would seize the moment even
now today, to spend all of their energy finding the right place. The place where You want them to be, the place
You have designed for them to be, that they would have the courage and the faith to stay
the course. Father, we're so immeasurably blessed. You have done so much for us. May we spend all that we have and give every
matter of our being to finding our sweet spot and to living the story and singing the song
You want us to sing. It is in Your matchless, precious name Jesus,
that we all say "amen. "
