I turned 40 today!

As part of the celebration, I invited you to ask me questions. You might have read my Personal Posts post where I left a link for you to ask questions anonymously.

Below are the questions I was asked, in the order I was asked. The answers, however, are very short on the written post. For the full (long) answers I invite you to watch the video or listen to the audio. The audio is also available as a podcast. Wherever you listen to podcasts just search for Pr.Marlon. I am on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and pretty much everywhere else.

• What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)? - Journals, Bluetooth headphones (podcasts & audiobooks)

• How has a failure or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favorite failure? - I lost a $4K scholarship during my first semester of college. Humbling experience. I’ll need a miracle to graduate. 

• In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life? - drinking water first thing in the morning. Mobility exercises. Intentionally moving more throughout the day.

• What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise? I can’t think of any (I talk about it more in the audio/video)

• When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do? - go for a walk, clean, work out, take a nap. 

• You were hesitant to have kids. How do feel now? Did being a father come naturally or did you have to put in work? What's the biggest blessing your kids have brought so far? - I am glad to have kids. I tend to work at everything I do. I am still working on it. Father = new identity, new responsibility, weight of responsibility that motivates me to be a better version of myself. Keeps me from being selfish 

• What do you feel your greatest achievement is? My family and my friends. Lifelong investments. 

• Do you ever have conflict in your life? If so, how do you handle it? Relatively few conflicts. Open dialogue is my preferred way to handle conflict. Structured, honest, kind, generous dialogue. 

• When you look back on your life, is there anything you would do differently? Anything you'd change? - more humility as a teen. 

• What advice would you give to a person having to decide between different paths in life and navigating the big change that would follow? - do your homework. Journal. Make lists. Ask the opinion of people in those areas. As the opinion of those who know you well. Ask the opinion of those you admire and respect. Talk about it with someone you trust. 

• How did you know you were meant to be in ministry? Did you ever think about switching to something else? - we are all meant to be in ministry. The tricky part is figuring out what kind of ministry you should engage in. I have thought about switching many times. But I do not feel called to do anything else. I want to do what God is calling me to do. I enjoy ministry and apparently, I am not terrible at it. Feedback is important to me. 

• Is it possible to go into ministry and speak at church without having a degree in it? If so, what steps would you recommend taking to start? - you don’t need a degree. Prayerfully prepare and make yourself available. Start small, prayer meetings, vespers, smaller churches. Pray and God will lead you.

Are there any questions you would like to ask me?
Feel free to leave them as a comment below or go to https://ngl.link/mrlnsfrt and ask them anonymously.

You can also find me on social media.