Dr. Ellis Putnam president Don Broyles receives a banner from Bluefield Rotary where Ellis spoke recently.

'Stay alive as long as you live,' Putnam group admonished

October 23, 2007

He heard a noted speaker praying, "Dear Lord, keep me alive -- as long as I live."

"That sounded like one of the dumbest things I had ever heard," Bill Ellis told Putnam Rotarians today. "Why would anyone pray a prayer like that?

"But the truth is that a lot of people are dead before they die. They die socially -- they don't meet people or try to make new friends. They die intellectually -- they never read a book. They die spiritually."

Ellis enumerated several exercises which help one to stay fit and to "stay alive."

"The first exercise is called 'push away'," he said. "You need to 'push away' from the table before you eat too much. I do this at every meal. And about 45 minutes later my brain catches up with my body, and I am satisfied."

You need to exercise, he said. "I have a basketball goal in my driveway, and I make a regular habit of shooting baskets -- left hand, right hand -- until I work up a sweat," said Ellis.

"Sometimes it takes a while for a 77-year old to work up a sweat, but I keep my weight down and my muscles in shape. I would flex my biceps," he continued, "but I'm wearing a new suit, and I don't want to rip the seams.

"You have to learn to laugh," he told the group. "No one wants to hear a complainer. I talk to a lot of bankers, and they will tell you there is no humor in banking. But there is humor to be found in everything!"

Ellis likes to cite humor in the Bible, drawing on the 1964 book by Elton Trueblood, "The Humor of Christ."

"'But I don't have a job!' people will say.

"I tell them, 'Yes, you do have a job. Your job is to dress up every morning, and look for a job for eight hours a day! "

Ellis often hears other excuses. "'But I'm retired.'"

Ellis replies, "(1) You've got to be in motion for the lights to be on. (2) You can't hit the baseball if you don't swing the bat! Once in a while, the pitcher will hit the bat if you are swinging it -- but you've got to be swinging it! (3) And you have to have the football in your possession to score a touchdown. One time I walked out on the field, and I crossed the goal line. But I didn't score -- because I didn't have the ball!"

Bill Ellis retired to Scott Depot after a ministry of 25 years with Peoples Church of God in Decatur, Illinois, and he doesn't have much sympathy for those who cannot continue to grow after retirement.

For his own part, he has motivated groups on five continents as a popular raconteur and public speaker. He writes two newspaper columns a week -- one for local consumption, and another which is syndicated around the world.

Most recently he was featured on K-LOVE, a network of over 300 radio stations, in an extended interview by reporter Julia Zaher on "Pastor Appreciation Week."

K-LOVE's Charleston affiliate is WKVW which transmits on FM 93.3.

"I speak like a Texas longhorn steer," says Ellis, "a point here, a point there -- and a lot of bull in between. But the prayer I heard over fifty years ago speaks to me today -- 'Stay Alive!'"

Bill Ellis is a syndicated newspaper columnist and convention and conference speaker around the world. He lives in Scott Depot, West Virginia.