Army member: I Am A Turkey Person

Published Dec 27, 2024, 5:00 AM

For "Shop Talk", we share Army member Ken Morris' reflection that he is in fact a Turkey Person. And what he's going to do about it. 

Everybody. It's Bill Courtney with Shop Talk number thirty three. Welcome in, Jeeve came into the shop. You're in the shop now, the door open.

We're actually at your office right now. We're not in a shop.

They were in the shop. The bell says it. So we're going to revisit something that you've heard before. But considering the time of year and that we were sent this letter that I'm going to read, we're going to talk again about a Turkey Person, but we're going to do it from the limbs of another person. Ken Morse sent me an unbelievably kind letter that I'm going to share with you now, and then we're going to uh to just let's just say a few words about it, and that's going to be the end of Shop Talk number thirty three. So Shop Talk number thirty three is revisiting Turkey Person through the lens of Ken Morris and some really kind words he had to me, some kind words of encouragement, some inspiration and maybe even a little bit of challenge. So Shop Talk number thirty three revisiting Turkey Person through the eyes of Ken Morris. Right after these brief messages from our general sponsors, all right, everybody shop talk. Welcome in. I Love My I Love Buffell from Ken Morris, dated December seventh, four thirty three. Hey Bill, I write a devotion from my church including my Turkey experience, trying to learn from you. Thanks Ken, December seventh, twenty twenty four. Don't be a Turkey Luke ten twenty seven and he answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Ken is in Thailand and here's how his letter goes.

Army members in Thailand.

We have army members in Thailand. That's awesome. It's the greatest thing in the world. It's a worldwide movement. Here's Ken's devotion, Greetings from Thailand. Often listen to the podcast An Army of Normal Folks, hosted by Bill Courtney, a formal former high school football coach who took a team with losing record of the Tennessee State championship Ken. Just to be clear, while I wish that was the truth, I took him to the playoffs. I never made it to the Tennessee State Championship, So one little footnote there, But uh, yeah, we can at least say we got better of football. So there it is. Can you edit out that?

But maybe I'll keep it in there to make you look like an idiot that you could have find. Hey, listeners say all the time about how you make fun of me and the.

Order you gave me, the pages out of order. It as your fault.

Actually, I didn't give you a mode of order.

This is poor production quality. Okay, Now I gotta kind of remind everybody where we were. His documentary Undefeated, won an Academy Award. I highly recommend this podcast because it highlights ordinary people who decided to make a difference in their communities. Through their hard work, lives have been transformed and the communities they served have become better places to live. Bill defines a Turkey person as someone who visits a disadvantaged community only during holidays like Christmas or Thanksgiving, hands out some food or gifts, and disappear until the following year. He describes as someone who helps others primarily to feel good about themselves without genuinely caring about the people they are helping. Last week, someone in the school where I teach. This is Ken's speaking, of course. Last week someone in the school where I teached emailed the staff and said, you're invited to a Christmas celebration on a low income community near our school and we needed help distributing some food and supplies to the neighbors. I didn't think about it and I just signed up. The event was really nice as the small church played games with the kids, The church members san Christmas songs, and some children dance to the music. Since I went with someone else, they had to leave early, so I added a part. Before the event was over. As I was leaving, a local person from the church.

Appost on a little bit, just so that people can understand you better.

As I was leaving, a local person from the church approached me and thanked me in English for coming. Her tone was nice, but I believe she wanted to say more. However, not to be greedy, she stopped at that one phrase. The next thing I was thinking about all day was I am a Turkey. Since this community is so close to my house, my wife and I have committed to walking around it often, observing and figuring out how we can help them. We have no idea how we can help. We were committed to showing up. Today's scripture describes a lawyer who tests Jesus on what is required to inherit eternal life. Jesus does not answer the question, but gives a lawyer a couple more questions to consider, like what does the law say? And how do you understand what the law says? The lawyer's response is impressive. In summary, the lawyer answers jesus questions by saying, love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. Then Jesus agreed with his answer and said to the lawyer, do this and you will live. Loving your neighbor is not an annual event, but being part of your neighbor's lives during good times and bad. It includes showing compassion and empathy with them when times are tough. To do this well, it takes time in being present. Serving others is important and something we must all do. So I would like to challenge you to determine your motive for serving, and when you do serve, do it consistently and show up often. God's grace upon you and your family. Kim Wow Ken. I could not have said it better myself. And the last part is the best. Serving others is important and something we must all do. So I'd like to challenge you to determine your motive for serving, and when you do serve, do it consistently and show up often. Ladies and gentlemen. Ken gets it. If you serve in a soup kitchen, or you give away gives it Christmas to the needy, or you do stuff to serve people that are disadvantaged, that's a beautiful thing. It's not that. The story of Turkey Person is not to discourage that. It's to check our motive and ask ourselves, are we willing to be consistent in that work. It's phenomenal. Love your neighbor as yourself, have empathy, have grace, and be giving. Do it for the simple edification of a person that's not as blessed as you, and do it more than once. Do it consistently so that the very people you seek to serve don't see you as a fraud doing it for yourself, but they see you more often, and they see you motivated by their exultation. If you do that, you can lead, you can serve, and you can make a difference in your communities. We've talked about it before, but through Ken's lens, I just felt like at this time of year, it would be good to share from a guy in Thailand who's heard the story, who's recognized the importance of the story, who understands the inspiration behind the story, and who he himself found himself possibly slipping into the role of a Turkey person, and who he and his wife have now decided we're going to be consistent. We're going to do it for right reason. We don't even know if we can help or how to help, but we're going to try. That's it, that's all all. It takes, just a willingness and an understanding that somebody I had to do something about these problems is not good enough. That's somebody as us. And if we're motivated by the right reasons and willing to remain consistent, we can make amazing changes. And I'll usually say all over this country, but Ken's and Thailand, so we can make changes all of the world for the better. That's Shop Talk number thirty three. Ken Morris, hats off to you. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and please write me back when you figure out what you're going to do to that little with that little community. I really want to hear about it because I absolutely believe in your your focus, your inspiration, and your commitment. So follow up with us Ken, thanks for the idea of shot talk number thirty three.

Hold on, and if people want to watch the full Turkey for story.

Oh yeah, and if you're hearing this for the first time and you really want to watch the first Turkey Person story. I think Alex actually bought a domain name or something. What's it called turkeyperson dot com. Yeah, yeah, you can go to turkeyperson dot com.

And see a fat reddithead a guy on camera for ten minutes.

Hold it. I'm allowed to make fun of myself, but when you say it, you're just being mean. So you can watch a fat, redheaded guy talk about Turkey Person. You could do that, and I think there's even a link to when we did it on the Kelly Clarkson Show. Right, that's correct, So you can go. Also look at me explaining to Kelly Clarkson, what the turkey what about the Sherry Show?

That's yeah, that's all there.

Okay, So you can see me talking about Turkey Person to Kelly Clarkson on TV. You can see me talking to Sherry on TV about Turkey Person you can see a video of me explaining originally the Turkey person story. So there's a lot of it at turkey person dot com. Right correct, All right, there you are.

If you have shop talk ideas, I'm going to that you were about to miss.

Do you want to host this thing?

You already rung the bell and you're closing it out.

Hey you I walk back in. All right, Guys, If you have ideas for shop talk sharing with us, you can write me anytime at Bill at normal Folks dot us. I will respond. And if you have ideas that I think I can add value to, I will always respond. But if you have ideas I think I can add value to, or if I share them, I'm not going to sound like a complete until idiot. I'll share them on the air, and I appreciate you. Guys. Listen, Please share this thing with friends and rate us and review us, share us on social get involved. Don't be a turkey person. Be a part of the army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney with Alex signing off shop Talk number thirty three thanks to producer iron Like Labs. I'll see you next week.

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