Jun 29, 2026 · 37 min · 7 segments
In this powerful episode, T.D. Jakes reflects on how to navigate the changing seasons of life with wisdom, intention, and courage. Drawing from his experience of being raised by a dying father, Bishop…
From the earliest of time, before there was electricity or before there were automobiles, there were hourglasses that gave us some sense of time so that we would be aware of time.
It doesn't ask us, "Is it all right that we go forward or that we like one season of life better than the other and we wanna stay there?" There are some people I've seen who tried to stay at one season of life, but ultimately they...
time took its toll, and they had to come up and admit, you know, "I am not who I used to be or how I used to be." And then at a certain point, you get to the point that you don't even want to be, uh, who you used to be.
I, I find then a, a, a certain law that really what, what, what makes it special for us is if we enjoy every season of life, and if we enjoy every season of life, we have to be prepared to navigate every season of life.
Let me back up just a minute and, and talk to you, uh, from this perspective, which will help you understand the way... why I think the way I think.
My father got kidney failure when I was just a little boy, uh, in the single digits, maybe 10 at the most, and, uh, and died when I was 16 years old.
And when you are raised by a dying father, you become very cognizant of time, the value of it, how it's going to be spent, how precious it is, and how limited it is.
A lot of people don't have a sense of the limitation of time, so they waste their time.
It just whatever, whenever, however, I'm just enjoying myself, is one time is one big party.
Or for some people, it's one big depression or they spend all their time in one spot not navigating out of the other spot.
Bad thing about it, bad thing about it is you begin to think your good old days are behind you, which creates a certain grief.
Grief can be when an idea dies, when, uh, an illusion dies, when an expectation dies.
Uh, the death of how I thought it was going to be, and they can enter into a grieving process that goes on for a long time.
It's just the grieving part of my soul that life didn't turn out for me the way it was supposed to be.
Maybe you're listening at me today and you feel like that, and you've been through that.
You lost the best job you ever had, lost the best companion you ever had, uh, lost the best friend you ever had, and you begin to rethink, uh, life and go into a state of depression as if you already have foreknown that the future would not get any better than the past, and you don't know that.
From the earliest of time, before there was electricity or before there were automobiles, there were hourglasses that gave us some sense of time so that we would be aware of time.
It doesn't ask us, "Is it all right that we go forward or that we like one season of life better than the other and we wanna stay there?" There are some people I've seen who tried to stay at one season of life, but ultimately they...
time took its toll, and they had to come up and admit, you know, "I am not who I used to be or how I used to be." And then at a certain point, you get to the point that you don't even want to be, uh, who you used to be.
I, I find then a, a, a certain law that really what, what, what makes it special for us is if we enjoy every season of life, and if we enjoy every season of life, we have to be prepared to navigate every season of life.
Let me back up just a minute and, and talk to you, uh, from this perspective, which will help you understand the way... why I think the way I think.
My father got kidney failure when I was just a little boy, uh, in the single digits, maybe 10 at the most, and, uh, and died when I was 16 years old.
And when you are raised by a dying father, you become very cognizant of time, the value of it, how it's going to be spent, how precious it is, and how limited it is.
A lot of people don't have a sense of the limitation of time, so they waste their time.
It just whatever, whenever, however, I'm just enjoying myself, is one time is one big party.
Or for some people, it's one big depression or they spend all their time in one spot not navigating out of the other spot.
Bad thing about it, bad thing about it is you begin to think your good old days are behind you, which creates a certain grief.
Grief can be when an idea dies, when, uh, an illusion dies, when an expectation dies.
Uh, the death of how I thought it was going to be, and they can enter into a grieving process that goes on for a long time.
It's just the grieving part of my soul that life didn't turn out for me the way it was supposed to be.
Maybe you're listening at me today and you feel like that, and you've been through that.
You lost the best job you ever had, lost the best companion you ever had, uh, lost the best friend you ever had, and you begin to rethink, uh, life and go into a state of depression as if you already have foreknown that the future would not get any better than the past, and you don't know that.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.