Remedy for a Rebellious Brain

The first time I ever stood in front of a large group of people to speak I was absolutely terrified. I have read that after ‘death’ that is the one thing most people are afraid of and I certainly fell into that category. The real problem is that your mind decides to take a vacation about the time you reach the podium. It simply shuts down and tries to convince you that it really isn’t there. Try as you might, it is nearly impossible to pull up the brilliantly composed work you would like to present for the most interested listeners. Instead, words tumble over thoughts and in the end you can walk away feeling like a great fool and your audience is exhausted trying to make sense of your nonsense!

Lance Brady has been a wonderful friend of Big Dream Ministries since the beginning. He and his wife, Genie, have been great encouragers to us. In October 2002 Lance called with a gift he wanted to give to each one of the teachers. SpeakEasy is an Atlanta based company that provides excellent classes for people who have to stand up in front of others and give presentations. He had arranged for us to attend the classes so that we might be more confident in our presentations. We were blown away by his great generosity and immediately signed up for the classes.

However, shortly before we were to attend I got a call that our class was canceled and I would need to reschedule. Well, life got in the way and I didn’t get around to it until I got another call from Lance encouraging me to move forward. Because of his prodding, I began to sense that God was up to something. So the call was made and we were all set to take classes at SpeakEasy.

Entering a classroom of nine strangers is not always comfortable but I was so surprised to find the class included high powered businessmen and women, confident in what they did and exuding success. It was intimidating to say the least. We saw ourselves as neither high powered, business women, successful, nor confident.

Nevertheless, the playing field evened out as each person began to give their carefully written speeches. We had three minutes each to give our presentations. I was one of the last but found that other’s confidence fled out the window as each person got up in front of the group. We were all the same. Simply a group of people who would rather hide than speak in front of an audience.

Strange as it sounds, their fear gave me confidence! If they felt as I did, then together we could help each other move forward, become more confident and shape a talk that made sense. In other words, we could overcome our rebellious brain, force it to straighten up and behave, and remember what our purpose was all about.

As teachers our purpose was very different from our classmates. They were selling a product but we wanted to transform lives through the Word of God. For Eleanor, Linda, Margie and me that was great motivation. In the end, we left the classes more confident, more assured, better equipped and most grateful to God who worked through the enormous generosity of Lance Brady.