What was Bill Johnson like as a kid? Bill shares about his dreams and interests as a child, and what is possible with God when we steward a heart of tenderness towards Him.
as a child
what did you read uh what did you you
know what were you exposed to
uh that has been formative for you
uh maybe your you know childhood maybe
your adolescent years that you would
feel like
all right these should be good things to
expose your kids to or i hated to read
yeah don’t tell that that’s just
internet we’re sorry
that’s horrible i read what books have
you written i read
i read one book
until i was probably 18. yeah one book
in the eighth grade is a book about a
hot rod
can’t can’t brag much on that one no he
shouldn’t yeah
it was it was horrible i hated to read
it i hated to read i had to write i
wasn’t good and so the moral is if you
want to turn out like bill johnson
do not yeah yeah don’t read don’t write
don’t run
i’m i’m not a good example to follow
yeah
grace it’s the grace of the lord that’s
the truth that’s totally the truth
but it’s yeah you know i just didn’t i
didn’t read i didn’t i didn’t enjoy that
i
i uh i liked sports i played baseball
that’s what i did yeah
played baseball but raising the church i
mean any anybody raised in us
in a somewhat healthy church is
surrounded by
adults who are of course are fun to be
with who they have an interaction with
each other you see
very real quality of relationship yeah
yeah you see real people that pay a real
price to love god and you always have
that example and
you know being loved while at home you
know parents that believe in you that
you can do anything
i i wasn’t you know i i wasn’t good at
the at the school stuff the book stuff i
mean my grades were fine i got good
grades but
but i i would never say i was a great
student just by the the way that i
i did things you know i could cram
before a test and do well but
i wouldn’t remember the next day you
know just long enough to take the test
but um uh so i i wasn’t good in that
sense but i i did have it i always had a
tender heart
you know always had a tender and i think
it was just let’s just be raised in that
environment you know you
you want to go to heaven period that’s
what it comes down to
and i always had this this tender heart
and even in days where i wasn’t doing
real well
there was i would just i would never
miss church i’d weep at this
and pray at that and it was it was just
i didn’t i didn’t know how to do life
you know
you know at the age of 19 i just didn’t
know how to do life i didn’t know what i
was going to do with my life and
you know i just wanted to play
professional ball or coach you know
that’s all i wanted to do
and uh and so i didn’t want to talk in
front of people that’s for sure
and i didn’t want to do anything that
required writing or reading or any of
that stuff and i mean this is pitiful
but
that’s my life right now is all the
stuff i don’t have to do
it’s divine humor but but in
at least in my heart i know i know what
i’m capable of and i know what i’m not
capable of
and so i i live with the realization
this one’s grace
wow yeah there’s a story just about
talking in front of people that you
you took an f on a oral
report yeah you were spontaneous
speaking or something like that or yeah
i said i didn’t have much college i did
go to college some i have i think 30
units or something like that
but it was in some sort of a i figured
it was i think a history class
here at shasta college and uh they were
doing an exam oral question and they
asked me the question and i just
i passed i thought i knew the answer but
i thought i’d rather take an f
so i did i didn’t want to answer from my
maybe be wrong or speak
yeah i didn’t want to speak out loud in
front of the class it wasn’t going in
front of the class giving a speech
no it was just giving a one sentence
answer but i just i didn’t want to do
that so
yeah i’ll take the f
if i remember right i think i have it
right if i remember right
what i thought was the answer was the
answer too but i yeah
i just i didn’t care he didn’t care i
just i just didn’t want to speak i
didn’t want to talk in front of anyone
yeah so the home body who doesn’t like
to speak publicly is going around the
world
yeah yeah yeah three times yeah rub it
in would you no no it’s the lord’s
memories
it is it totally is i mean uh i’m aware
of that one
yeah yeah so i i didn’t i didn’t read
much my activity was
was just mostly with sports with friends
and
you know things like that things with
the family
my parents were you know my dad would
play
catch with me and yeah yeah things like
that it was pretty simple