Mingo Palacios:

Hey everybody, thanks for tuning into the PD Podcast. You know, from time to time we get the luxury of traveling around the country and actually bringing our podcast to conferences and events that are happening all over the country. This conversation took place at Urban Youth Workers Institute Conference. It was a collaboration podcast where we combined both our efforts and urban youth workers efforts to bring one cohesive podcast. I hope you enjoy it.

Mingo Palacios:

Welcome to the Purpose Driven podcast. My name is Mingo, your host, and we’re here hanging out at the Urban Youth Workers Conference. We have the first guest in a string of great conversations. Pastor Will, thanks for joining us. We’re super excited to have you here. We’ve got a Facebook crowd live streaming with us. We’ve got the podcast crowd jumped in. So, Will, you’ve got a great conversation that you bring into the platform today. I’m lucky that we get an early break on it. This is like a sneak peek.

Will Cumby:

Yeah yeah yeah.

Mingo Palacios:

Give our listeners a little background before you get into your topic. Where are you from, where you pastor there, how long have you been pastoring there? And then let us know about what it is that you’re going to be bringing to the platform today.

Will Cumby:

Okay, well listen, Will Cumby. I’m from Houston, Texas. The greatest place in the world. I think we should be our own country. But there’s something around-

Mingo Palacios:

Everybody from Texas believes they out to be their own country. What I love.

Will Cumby:

Everything is bigger in Texas, including our egos. But I’m from Texas. I serve at a church called The Fountain of Praise, a down there in Southwest Houston. Great ministry. Pastor Remus Wright. I’ve been doing youth ministry for 12 years.

Mingo Palacios:

You’ve been the youth pastor for 12 years?

Will Cumby:

Twelve years.

Mingo Palacios:

In that seat? That is-

Will Cumby:

Mm hmm. Been holding it down.

Mingo Palacios:

First of all, you need a trophy bro. Now like of the millennial trophy, you need an award because there aren’t enough pastors that are running that kind of tenure, serving in the same space. You have a well of wisdom because of that.

Will Cumby:

I think the reward I deserve is a nap because that’s what you don’t get. You know? I would love, “Here’s your nap.”

Mingo Palacios:

Reward yourself with a nap. That’s awesome.

Will Cumby:

But yeah, it’s a great church. It’s about a 24,000 member church. We have about 2000 kids in our youth department.

Mingo Palacios:

That’s great.

Will Cumby:

And lots of fun.

Mingo Palacios:

Okay, so the talk you’re bringing to the platform today is fire or water. I said earlier, dealing with the pissed millennial.

Will Cumby:

Yeah.

Mingo Palacios:

But it’s all about how much anger is really playing a role inside of the youth that we’ve got running around all over the place in our churches, in our communities, in our schools. So what is it that you have assessed or what is it that you’ve brought to the table when it comes to that topic in particular?

Will Cumby:

So the session is called Gasoline or Water and it’s really dealing with the fact that as leaders, as parents, as individuals that deal with teenagers and youth, that they’re angry and they’re going to respond to how we teach them to respond. So anger is an emotion, right? But then the thing is what are the anger response? And the anger response is usually built on what they’ve seen other people do.

Mingo Palacios:

Oh, that’s good.

Will Cumby:

So what we must do in this generation and future generations is being the role model for when I’m angry, this is how I respond.

Mingo Palacios:

This is how I’ve seen other people respond. And the problem is so many people have the “Do, as I say, not as I do” mentality, right? So it’s an ultra failure, especially with this generation, highly suspect over educated in the sense of all the resources they have at their fingertips. So modeling and example is more important now than ever.

Will Cumby:

Right.

Mingo Palacios:

So give me some of the resolve in how. Are there steps? Is there a process? Re there points that you can bring to the table for a listener who is thinking, “Man, I’ve got a couple of disgruntled youth in my circle.” What would be some tools that you would be able to give them to apply in their own space?

Will Cumby:

Well, the first thing when it comes to dealing with your anger is one, slow down from your situation. The problem is that people can’t make you angry. You choose to be angry. They can do upsetting things, but you choose how to respond to it. So the first thing I would say, slow down and assess the situation. The only person that can make you angry is you.

Mingo Palacios:

So good. You’re getting mad props right now from the producer right now. Dropping fire already.

Will Cumby:

So when we look back at the bible and you look at even in Genesis, Adam blamed Eve for what happened, right? Eve blamed the serpent, Cane blamed Abel, but at the end of the day, they are the ones who made the decisions based upon their emotions.

Mingo Palacios:

That’s good.

Will Cumby:

So my first thing I would tell them is, “Let’s talk about it. Let’s talk through this thing.” I talked to my kids about pimples. You know where pimples come from?

Mingo Palacios:

Tell me.

Will Cumby:

It’s a buildup of dirt.

Mingo Palacios:

Hey, ok. That’s kind of disgusting first of all but second-

New Speaker:

[Crosstalk]

Will Cumby:

You’re talking about the buildup of dirt. What it is, is when you are cleaning your face, it builds up and what happens? Something brushes past it. And boom, you’ve got this pimple that’s exploded all over the windows and all the mirrors. Well, that’s our anger. We internalize so many things over time. And then somebody might walk by and be like, “I can’t believe you wore those shoes.”

New Speaker:

[Roaring]

Will Cumby:

And you’re like, “What the heck happened? Well, what happened is I had allowed all these things to build up.

Mingo Palacios:

And then that pressure-

Will Cumby:

Right. And you know, I actually read a survey the other day that people who have vent or who complain a lot live longer.

Mingo Palacios:

Really?

Will Cumby:

Because what happens is they are expressing what’s on the inside of them.

Mingo Palacios:

So they’re letting it out there.

Will Cumby:

They’re letting it out.

Mingo Palacios:

A controlled purge.

Will Cumby:

Yeah.

Mingo Palacios:

Okay. So the ventures though, if somebody blows up on you, that can feel terrible.

Will Cumby:

It can absolutely feel terrible.

Mingo Palacios:

So what would you recommend if somebody’s like, “Yo, it’s building up inside of me. I’m feeling the pressure.” What’s the like responsible vent?

New Speaker:

[Crosstalk]

Will Cumby:

Okay. One of the things that I love to say is be careful where you vomit. It makes you feel better, but it makes the people around you sick.

Mingo Palacios:

I love all of this.

Will Cumby:

So when you say that, you’re not going to throw up in the middle of the living room because it’s bad. You want to go to a trash can because it’s prepared for what you’re about to release. So finding places it might be go running, go walking, journal, draw, listen to music. But when you listen to music, listen to music at an appropriate level because if you’re listening to Rage Against The Machine and you’re angry, you’re going to rage against everybody else.

Mingo Palacios:

It’s a multiplier supplier.

Will Cumby:

Right. Some of the other things I talk about is, sit down and relax. Sometimes if you sit there, there our breathing things that you can do, breathe in through your nose, out through your nose. Well, why would you say in through your nose, out through your nose? Well, because it takes more thought. In through your nose, out through your mouth as easy, but in through your nose, you actually have to, “Okay, I’ve got to concentrate. It has to come in and out the same place.”

Mingo Palacios:

Everybody in this episode, I want you to stop. I want you to breathe in through your nose. And think about the fact that you breathe out through your nose.

Will Cumby:

Out through your nose, right? See you had to think about it.

Mingo Palacios:

I’m already calm.

Will Cumby:

Right? You had to actually think about it. “I’m breathing out through my nose.” And finding a safe place to release your emotion. And that safe place is maybe working out, doing something physical, go swimming, go dancing. And what these things do is, because it allows you to express what’s on the inside of you physically, now, mentally and emotionally, I’m in a better place.

Mingo Palacios:

It can diffuse what’s going on inside of your mental-

Will Cumby:

Well and the session I’m talking about, I’m coming out of the story of the man who was possessed with the demons.

Mingo Palacios:

Oh yeah. Bring us down that road.

Will Cumby:

So I’m talking about we find this man who is in a graveyard and he’s cutting himself, right? And the thing is Jesus had just finished doing an amazing miracle with the disciples. And the moment he gets off the boat, he runs at this main, that’s demon possessed. And I’d like to tell people, don’t be believe just because you went to church on Sunday, that the enemy is not going to attack you.

Mingo Palacios:

Not waiting for you. Right?

Will Cumby:

He’s not waiting for you.

Mingo Palacios:

That’s good.

Will Cumby:

And so he gets off the boat and he sees this man and he’s possessed with these demons. A lot of times we think that anger just happened. So something must have occurred in his life prior to him living in that graveyard. And so he gets there and he asked them, he says, “Well, what is your name? He says, Legion for we are many.” It’s a military term, which is from like 2,000-3000 individuals. So he has all these things that are inside of him. And the story says that they tried to shackle him and that means that he was looking for temporary solutions. And what we must realize is there’s no permanent fix with temporary things. And so maybe you say, “Oh man, I’m to take a drink. It’ll make me feel better.” Well, what happens when the drink wears off? “I’m gonna go smoke this weed. It’s gonna make me feel better.” Okay, so what happens when the weed wears off? “I’m going to punch a hole in this wall.” Okay, so what happens when your mom comes home and you’ve got to explain the how you got the hole in the wall.

Mingo Palacios:

And now you’ve got a hole in the wall.

Will Cumby:

You’ll never get a permanent fix from a temporary solution. So then what we must understand is what is the permanent thing? What is the thing that can give me extended release? And I believe there’s nothing greater than the peace that Jesus Christ can provide.

Mingo Palacios:

So good.

Will Cumby:

But the thing is just like a good relationship with a Boo, you have to work on it, right? And so if you want your girlfriend, your boyfriend-

Mingo Palacios:

You can’t just call on it.

Will Cumby:

You can’t just be like, “I’m having a bad day, I need you to come over here and console me.” They’re like, “What the stuff?”

Mingo Palacios:

Yeah.

Will Cumby:

I learned this quote the other day, “People say things are hard as hail.” And so I was like, “Oh man, but how is hell hard?” I realized they were spelling it “h-a-i-l” and I was like-

Mingo Palacios:

Hard as hail! Boom. I am educated. We are educated right now, that was so good.

Will Cumby:

I’m dropping bombs in here!

Mingo Palacios:

Absolutely.

Will Cumby:

It’s hard as hail for people to help you because it’s difficult if they don’t know you and so God could be serving and providing the solutions for your anger, but because you have not spent that time with Him, you don’t realize it.

Mingo Palacios:

You don’t know how to read it or see it or identify it. Yeah, that’s super good.

Will Cumby:

And that peace comes from, the bible says, in the secret place there you will find Me. So where’s the place where you can find peace for your turbulent times?

Mingo Palacios:

So excellent.

Will Cumby:

How did He sleep in a storm? Because he was mentally in a place that was opposite of his physical location.

Mingo Palacios:

Yeah.

Will Cumby:

So we have to get our minds there and that comes from spending time with Him.

Mingo Palacios:

It reminds me of that proverb, is it proverbs? No. Psalms? Proverbs? It’s too early in the morning, I haven’t had enough coffee.

Will Cumby:

I know it’s in the bible.

Mingo Palacios:

It’s in the Bible. I know my leather covers, but be still. Yes. That’s written inside of an insanely turbulent chapter.

Will Cumby:

Exactly.

Mingo Palacios:

Most people don’t realize that right? Then the other thing I was thinking about when you were talking about Jesus, the demoniac and His response to Him. The hope on the other side of it is, if you go all the way through the story, he asked, “Yo, can I ride?”

Will Cumby:

Yeah. That’s one of my favorite parts.

Mingo Palacios:

“Can I come?” And you think, “Man, Jesus is really cold. He’s cold as ice when he’s like, “No, go back.” But how much relationship repair is going to happen in going back?

Will Cumby:

In going back.

Mingo Palacios:

And so I do think that there’s something really great about focusing in on the moment if you’re boiling up and you try to figure out how to manage anger, how to, how to manage the emotions inside of you. There’s a lot of repair waiting on the other side and that’s difficult.

Will Cumby:

Right.

Mingo Palacios:

But so necessary. And so your witness or your faith goes on super display when you can manage anger in the moment with your Maker.

Will Cumby:

With your maker, right.

Mingo Palacios:

And then do the hard work of going back.

Will Cumby:

Right. Because you’re healing isn’t always just for you.

Mingo Palacios:

Yes. Let’s go.

Will Cumby:

Other people can be healed from your being healed.

Mingo Palacios:

Rick says it so well. He says, “No pain goes without potential purpose.”

Will Cumby:

Yeah.

Mingo Palacios:

So like, no pain is without a good outcome for those that rest inside their maker. That’s so perfect Will, I love that.

Will Cumby:

Two points, because now you got my mind spinning.

Mingo Palacios:

Yeah yeah yeah! Boom, let’s go!

Will Cumby:

I think about how the pain that Jesus went through so that we would be healed.

Mingo Palacios:

Yeah.

Will Cumby:

So sometimes the pain we go through so people can get healed, but then I even think about when that gentleman, the demoniac. Well, he was like, “Yo, I’m going to go be with you Jesus.” Some of us, when we get our healing, we are ready to quit. We don’t want to deal with people anymore. I want to just let go.

Mingo Palacios:

Well that’s the harder part is to go back and deal with the mess that you made.

Will Cumby:

Is to go back. And so having true freedom and being free indeed is saying, “I’ll go back to the people that we’re trying to let me go. I can go back to that dad who, who talked about me and said that I would never be this. I’ll go back to that school where I was bullied. I’ll go back to that church that I didn’t fit in. I’ll go back and you know what? I’m not going to go back that broken person and I’m going back healed because there may be another person that’s in the same place that I am.”

Mingo Palacios:

Right. And you might be the person that’s role is to pull that person because now you’ve got eyes.

Will Cumby:

You don’t even have to say anything. You just have to be there.

Mingo Palacios:

Yeah, you’ve got eyes now. You’ve got eyes to see that situation because on one side you were the afflicted and now you’re in a role of potential rescue.

Will Cumby:

And just your presence. You don’t have to have this crazy gameplan, three point strategy, “The Bible says” and you’re sweating and throwing the towel. All you’ve got to do is just walk in there and be like, “Yo.”

Mingo Palacios:

It’s the ministry of presence.

Will Cumby:

And he just comes back because if you think, there’s stories where Jesus healed people and they come back and the folk are like, “Yo, isn’t that the one that’s hand was shriveled? Isn’t that the one that was blind. Isn’t that the one?” You don’t have to say anything. You just have to show up.

Mingo Palacios:

Show up. So good. I actually think that it’s a chapter or two later. So the entire community comes in and they’re like, “Yo, you got to go.”

Will Cumby:

Yeah, they kicked Jesus out.

Mingo Palacios:

And they don’t realize they’ve got like Savior on the shoreline. They go, “Jesus, you have to go.” And it’s like a chapter or two later out of the Decapolis. That’s like the area. The Bible says that they were away awaiting His arrival. So you know, He did something, just His presence back in the place that had maybe caused that pain. Him going back to it.

Will Cumby:

Yeah.

Mingo Palacios:

It served up the catalyst for they changed their perception based on His return. The question is, “Man, how many people are dreading a return but Jesus is waiting for it?” That’s the catalyzer.

Will Cumby:

They’re like, “I want you, but I’m not prepared for you.” “I want you, but I’m not prepared for you.”

Mingo Palacios:

Yeah, so good. So for our listeners, since this was fire 10 times over. Our morning conversation just like lit the whole thing on fire. What are some great ways that they can follow along with you guys as ministry? Maybe you personally? Do you have some social handles if they want to hear more from you?

Will Cumby:

I do. So the greatest way to get in contact with me, my kids say I have issues, I don’t answer my phone but I do answer my Instagram. My dm’s. So I’m on Instagram @willc27. I’m one of those old guys that didn’t know you’re supposed to come up with a cool marker. So mine is just like my name and my birthday, @willc27.

Mingo Palacios:

You have a book right here.

Will Cumby:

So here’s the other thing. I wrote a book. I was kind of an overweight kid, got bullied a lot and was uncertain about who I was, but then I found God and God showed me how to be fearfully and wonderfully made and be excited about who I was. And so I started working out a lot and then people were like, “Hey, I want to know what you do.” And I was like, “Nothing. I just work out.” They’re like, “No, there has to be more to it.” And I had to share that it was about my faith and fitness. And the great thing is this book is only 72 pages.

Mingo Palacios:

I was looking at that. That’s my kind of book.

Will Cumby:

And they’re like, “Why is it so short?” And I said, “Because most people cannot commit to an exercise or a meal plan. So why would I give them a long book on how to get there?

Mingo Palacios:

Right.

Will Cumby:

So about 70 pages. So the picture, one of the things that I do every summer is I traveled to Colombia or Brazil on missions. Our Church has a few churches in Brazil and a church in Columbia. And this is, one day I went running at some ungodly time, which is hard to say when you’re on a missions trip. One time I went running and I was in the favelas of Brazil and God spoke to me in that moment. He was like, “You have a message for the world.”

Mingo Palacios:

That’s great.

Will Cumby:

And so I took the picture, I totally did that whole set the timer thing and try and be cooler than I am.

Mingo Palacios:

Where do we find the book at? For our war watchers on the podcast you can’t see, but where can you find the book for our viewing audience?

Will Cumby:

You can get it @ WilliamCumby.com or on Amazon or Lulu, diversify yourself. You know, there’s several platforms big too.

Mingo Palacios:

Lulu’s got it too so I’m like ready to dive in bro.

Will Cumby:

And it’s a book that goes from head to sole, so it talks about from the top of your head to the soles of your feet, how much God loves you. And then it gives you fitness tips like how much water you should be drinking per day. Even workout tips.

Mingo Palacios:

Can I keep this for the podcast? Do you want to sign this for the podcast? We can keep it in the trailer.

Will Cumby:

Yeah, I’ll totally sign up for you man. And it’s all stuff that you don’t have to be some fitness guru to do.

Mingo Palacios:

That’s great.

Will Cumby:

It gives you at home workouts. It gives you eating tips and-

Mingo Palacios:

My wife would love if I was a little more fit.

Will Cumby:

Yeah.

Mingo Palacios:

Less burritos, more fitness.

Will Cumby:

I was like almost 180 pounds when I got married. And when I was trying to compete, I was down to about 145, and now I’m about 155, but it’s more about being happy with who you are.

Mingo Palacios:

You’re yoked on the other side of this table, dude. Go easy on us. So last word, if you’re going to give one pastoral word for our listening audience, what would it be as we close this episode down?

Will Cumby:

I want to say this and it’s something that I wrote when I got here, is understand that the only thing that makes you angry is you and so the best way to handle your anger is to handle your emotions. Stop blaming other people for your emotions. You have to control it and understand that God is the ultimate peace that surpasses all understanding. So what you don’t understand, you go back to the Creator. If there’s any project or anything you’ve ever had that didn’t work, you say, “Hey man, I can’t figure this out.” So what do you do? You go back to the Creator, and so when we’re uncertain of what’s going on in our lives. In the story of the gentleman that was in the graveyard, he was exposing himself to dead people and dead people can’t fix what’s alive.

Mingo Palacios:

Man.

Will Cumby:

Let me go to the One that went to the grave and got up again because if He did it, He can show me to do it too.

Mingo Palacios:

So good. For our listeners, I don’t know that you need to go to church today because just went to church. Will, thank you so much for… I see that hand. I see that hand.

Will Cumby:

I see you! Watch it come! Watch it come. Just one! [Singing] Right now, today, just come.

Mingo Palacios:

For all of our listeners. Thank you so much for listening alongside of us. Follow Will. Get a hold of his book, which is so dope. What a crazy feat. I think that’s super awesome, man. Thanks for showing us and telling us when things get overwhelming, where we need to set our focus. That’s such a good one and not to be hijacked by our emotions. Those are things, in fact, that we can surrender to our Savior of it and He can deliver us through it, right?

Will Cumby:

Yep. They say, “Emotions are indicators and not dictators.” Tells you how you feel but it shouldn’t tell you what to do.

Mingo Palacios:

Hey! Dropping dimes all day on this thing!

Will Cumby:

I don’t know when I’m going to get this opportunity again, so I’m just trying to pull out all the big guns.

Mingo Palacios:

Will is going to have his own podcast. I know it because he’s built for it. So Will we appreciate your time on the podcast. If this helped you, if this had insight that you love to do us a favor, share this conversation.

Will Cumby:

Yes, share it.

Mingo Palacios:

I’m not saying tag an angry person, but you know, just show them some love.

Will Cumby:

Show them some love.

Mingo Palacios:

Send it their way.

Will Cumby:

God loves our haters.

Mingo Palacios:

Yeah. God loves our haters. So, we appreciate you guys. Thanks for the PD Cast. We love you. We’ll talk to you guys soon.

Will Cumby:

God bless.

Mingo Palacios:

We hope today’s insights left you feeling inspired and propelled towards your greatest potential. Thanks again for joining us for another episode of the podcast. Until next time.