Dec. 10, 2025
You’re Not As Far From Your Purpose As You Think You Are
Holidays have a way of turning up the volume on everything—joy, grief, pressure, and hope. This week, we follow a small family errand that became a marker moment: a dad, his daughter, his brother home after 15 years, and their mother, all riding out to find a Christmas gift. In the middle of the drive, a bald eagle swept overhead—an unmistakable nudge that love and legacy keep circling back. That sign connected to a deeper reminder we all need right now: you’re not as far from your purpose as you think.
From there we get honest about money stress, marketplace no-shows, and the mental spiral that tells you to quit your dreams. We unpack a faith-centered framework that helps you hold steady when life feels late: divine presence, the bigger picture, trust and surrender, and preparation. These four pillars turn setbacks into signals and build the “confidence calluses” that carry you through the next round of uncertainty. You’ll hear how this lens reshaped holiday anxiety, softened the edge of comparison, and opened a little more room for grace.
The heart of the episode lands in a moment long thought impossible: walking into church as a family—wife, daughter, and brother—standing together as music swells and baptisms unfold. It didn’t erase past losses or fix everything overnight, but it reframed what’s possible. We left with a simple commitment and a stronger hope. If you’re feeling behind, overwhelmed, or just tired, this conversation will meet you where you are and nudge you forward one step at a time.
If this resonates, follow the show, share it with someone who needs a lift, and leave a quick review. Your words help bring more people into a community where struggle becomes growth and faith fuels the next step.
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00:00 - Welcome And Show Mission
03:15 - Listener Shoutouts And Holiday Vibes
05:15 - Small Business Deals And Support
06:45 - Daddy-Daughter Day Road Trip
08:40 - Loss, Family Fractures, And Healing
11:05 - The Bald Eagle Sign And Dad’s Presence
14:00 - Financial Strain And Marketplace Letdowns
16:00 - “Never As Far Away” Faith Message
20:10 - Four Pillars: Presence, Picture, Trust, Preparation
24:10 - Holiday Social Anxiety And Comparison
28:10 - Church Together After 15 Years Apart
32:55 - Surrender, Hope, And Weekly Renewal
40:00 - Closing Gratitude And Community Plugs
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On this week's episode of Share the Struggle Podcast, its new struggles, its new challenges, but it's also new traditions and new memories.
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Together, we accept that we are never as far away as we think we are.
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From living the life we want to live, achieving and attaining the goals we have for ourselves, and fulfilling that purpose that was bestowed upon each and every one of us.
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That and more on this week's episode of Share the Struggle Podcast.
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Let me tell you something.
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Everybody struggles.
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The difference is some people choose to go through it and some choose to grow through it.
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The choice is completely yours.
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Which one you choose will have a very profound effect on the way you live your life.
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It's a struggle.
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Uncomfortable conversations.
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You are right where you need to be.
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What it do, what it do, what it hot.
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Almighty.
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Am I so excited to be back with you?
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Oh, it is true.
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It is damn true.
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Because I love you, baby boo.
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Welcome to that podcast.
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That perfectly, precisely, beautifully named podcast.
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Share the struggle because everybody struggles.
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But we all have come to know that if you are courageous enough, bold enough, transparent enough to share your stuff, then you will motivate somebody else.
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You will pull them through.
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You will shine a light on them too.
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Because everybody's struggle contains seeds of hope, clues for success, and opportunities for togetherness.
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There's positivity in our stories.
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There is strength and growth to be learned, to be shared, to be multiplied.
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You just gotta tune in and share it week after week, and you end up doing something positive and perfect like us, which is 283 weeks of you and me.
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Oh baby.
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It is true.
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283 consecutive weeks of you and me on this year podcast.
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Find all things podcast related over to w share the struggle podcast.com.
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I don't know where that voice came from, but hey, it's the holidays, man.
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We get freaky around the holidays.
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Am I right?
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Whew.
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All my day ones, my loyal ones, the ones that have been listening since all the way back in July 2020.
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Get your ones up.
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I acknowledge you.
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I appreciate you.
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To all the noobs here, the new ones, maybe this is your day one.
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I welcome you.
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As we've been doing over the past few weeks, we shout out a few uh cities and states and sometimes countries that are starting to tune in.
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So this week, we got four noobs for you that I want to welcome to the show.
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I want to say thank you for tuning into the show.
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We got McKeesport, Pennsylvania.
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Welcome to this positive, positive tribe we have growing over here in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.
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Welcome, Largo, Florida.
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Come on in, Largo, Florida.
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This one, Fargo, North Dakota.
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Well, that was a show, wasn't it?
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I really want to go to Dakota sometime, man.
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I really want to do um really want to do it.
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I I would love to be a vendor in Sturgis.
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I wonder if I can someday make that happen.
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But welcome, Fargo, North Dakota.
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Also, welcome, Bruton, Alabama.
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That's right, folks.
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Roll tide.
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We're starting to get a nice little little uh group, positive vibe and tribe out there in Bama.
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I like it.
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Pennsylvania, Florida, North Dakota, Alabama.
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I love each and every one of you.
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Thank you for tuning in.
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Thank you for listening in.
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I truly, truly appreciate it.
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I hope everybody out there is doing so nice.
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We got Thanksgiving behind us.
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Christmas is fastly approaching us.
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I'm just gonna tell y'all, Christmas is coming quick this year, man.
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I think because Thanksgiving was like right at the end of November, you feel like you have a like one less week when it comes to uh shopping and stuff, man.
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I was looking at the calendar and realized, shoot, we're getting pretty damn close to Christmas.
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Y'all better stop procrastinating.
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You better stop waiting.
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You better hurry up and get on over to LauProudAmerican.shop before we sell out of all the popular items that we have in stock.
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You better get over there, man.
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We got daily deals all the time.
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Right now we have our um infamous, famous Savage t-shirt on sale for 20 bucks.
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We've got a multitude of t-shirts that are normally$27.
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Buy two for$50,$400,$400.
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We've got hoodies on there for$40,$50,$50.
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I'm telling you right now, folks, there's deals over there.
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Get on over there, LauProudAmerican.shop.
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You have time to purchase yourself something and get it in time for Christmas.
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So don't miss out.
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Also, keep your beauty little eyes peeled.
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They're probably gonna start doing a lot more lives as the holidays are getting closer.
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So you'll find us out there spreading the good love and the good gospel of proudly made in America Christmas gifts, which I think are the best gifts to give.
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You know what I'm saying?
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Just the best gifts to give.
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Speaking of giving gifts, um, today I actually went on a quick little excursion to pick up a um gift for the wife.
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Something I actually found on Facebook Marketplace, and it goes along with uh like a little theme I'm establishing for the wife here.
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And uh this year, we're not going crazy on Christmas, we're focusing on the little one and uh enjoying the time that we have and and her excitement and joy and wonderment.
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But uh obviously we want to do some special things for each other, and today I I found something on Marketplace that I really wanted to get, and uh it was a cool little impromptu adventure, and there's a reason why I'm telling you this, but uh today is Daddy Daughter Day.
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Um I get up at about five in the morning, I bring my mom to work, then I come home, I work for a little bit, Allie gets up, she goes to work, and then um me and Paisley have the afternoon together or the morning and afternoon, then we go pick up me and Ma together at the store.
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So today I was getting ready to leave, and my brother uh called me and said, Hey man, where are you going?
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And I was like, Oh, I'm just gonna go pick up Ma and I got this little errand to run if you want to tag along.
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So he came with, and uh, so it was me and Paisley and my brother, my brother Charlie, and then we went and picked my mom up at work, and I said, Well, surprise, we're going on a little road trip here.
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So the three of us with the little one, we headed out, and uh I I honestly can't tell you the last time we did something like that together, the last time we've really just sat down together and just talked that long, you know what I mean?
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And if you guys have been listening week after week, you understand my brother just finished a 15-year prison sentence, and uh we're starting to do some things, you know, again.
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Uh, or we're starting to, in some cases, do things for the first time, which is really where I want to head to today, but I want to easy into it.
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I want to trickle our way into it by sharing this little story first.
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It's pretty cool the fact that the three of us with my little baby girl are out on an adventure to get something for my wife for Christmas.
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So I find myself being a little nostalgic in the vehicle and thinking, here I am Christmas shopping for my wife with my daughter, with her grandmother, aka Mima, and her uncle.
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And you start to trace that down and think about my mother saying, Here I am shopping for my daughter-in-law, with my two sons and my granddaughter, my brother who's been behind bars for 15 years, saying, I'm on an adventure with my brother, my mother, and my niece.
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When you start thinking about everybody's perspective and opinions and feelings from each different seat in the deniali, you start to think about life a little bit different.
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So having those moments of reflection, it makes you feel really good because this little circle we have has been missing limbs off the tree, has been losing limbs off the tree.
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I know if you're tuning in for the first time, then maybe this episode's gonna leave you just curious enough to go back and listen to all the episodes to clue you in on what's been going on in this crazy life and world that we live.
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Because over the past few years I've I've lost my father.
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I've lost my grandmother, I've lost my grandfather, I've lost two of my brothers, some of my best friends.
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I've been disowned and cut off by family.
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We've chosen to disown and cut off family.
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This tree begins to be a bit of a pole with very few branches on said tree.
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It's a whole different feeling having some of those branches back.
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And spending this time is something that I'm still not used to.
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And last week we talked about some of the things that I want, what I want for my brother, what I want for my wife and for my daughter, those relationships, those connections, what I want for them.
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It's pretty surreal to experience them.
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And I've seen some some big changes in my brother, some big changes in the way he thinks and looks at things, and it gives me encouragement for him and his direction and his ability to regain the life he lost and live the life that he deserves.
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So today, as we're out on this little journey to buy something for for Ali for Christmas, we're just kind of sharing some stories and reflecting.
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I look up, coming right at the vehicle, right at the SUV.
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I see big, bold, beautiful, as bright and majestic as can possibly be.
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This amazing bald eagle.
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I couldn't believe it.
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This beautiful, amazing, majestic bald eagle, full spread, soaring right at us, and then swooping up in the air and just circling over us.
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I yelled to my mom, and she looked at it, and we both just stared at it as much as we could as we were driving by and he was soaring off into the sky, and we knew at that moment how proud my father is that we're getting this unit back together.
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We knew at that moment the fact that my father was also in that vehicle today.
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There wasn't just four seats, there wasn't just four opinions and perspectives, there were five.
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And it has been validated to us by multiple mediums and and just by our own intuition and feeling that my father comes back as an eagle when he wants to make his presence known, he comes back as an eagle.
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And today, when we were out on this Christmas adventure, my father joined us.
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I get goosebumps, I get teary-eyed, and I get blessed and thankful just thinking about it.
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I know how much it meant to my mother to see that, and this was one of the best, clearest, precise images of an eagle that I've ever seen.
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Like it was it was just gorgeous.
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And every time I see my father back as an eagle, I always state the case that to validate this and to make it even more true, I am a forty-two-year-old man, and in the first forty years of my life, I think I've seen an eagle twice.
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Since the passing of my father two years ago, I've seen an eagle fifteen, twenty times.
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That to me, folks, is not a coincidence.
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That made me feel good.
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I've been struggling with some things.
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I think we all have our own individual struggles and battles when it comes to the holidays.
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I've been trying to be creative on a lot of things, uh, selling different things, offloading um stuff that I just, you know, either I don't have a use for or I haven't used it enough.
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And as of late, I've been getting stood up and uh let down by marketplace.
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I've had countless people telling me that I'm on my way, I'm coming to buy this, or I'll be there tomorrow, and then these people just don't show up and they don't respond, and they get your hopes up and they get you down.
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Um, because every time I feel like I'm carving a path through the forest of self-doubt and debt and despair, every time I think I'm carving that path through the forest, then that that path just closes up, right?
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More trees pop up, the fog sets in, the rain comes down, and before you know it, I feel like I'm back to ground zero.
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When it feels like those bills continue to stack, the ability to pay them begins to lack, when those tipping moments in life, when they happen, when you get yourself in the position where things aren't getting paid on time, and you're getting through and you're pulling through, but you're using every ounce of uh of will and strength and creativity possible.
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You have these moments where you can really doubt yourself.
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You can really doubt your direction, you can begin to think about giving up on your dream, you can begin to think about changing your direction, and something like today happens that shows you you're not alone, you are on the right path.
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There's been some things that have happened over the past few days to prove to me to continue on this here path.
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This morning, while I was working in the office, I was listening to uh some previous uh sermons on uh on YouTube um from this uh this this church and this um pastor that I really enjoy, Stephen Furtick from Elevation Church.
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I find myself listening to him quite often, and this morning he delivered a message, which the great thing about this message is that it wasn't a sermon that he gave like today or yesterday.
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I think it was from months or years ago.
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I didn't even pay attention, but it found me today, and one of the things that he said today is you're never as far away as you think you are.
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You see, we often feel that those goals, those hopes, those dreams, those aspirations, that life we want to live, the things we want to attain, we feel like it is so far away.
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But in truth, they're never as far away as we think we they are, because it's not our plan.
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It's God's plan.
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And we are right where we are supposed to be.
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We are where we need to be.
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And it's so hard for us to understand how close our hopes, dreams, aspirations, and most importantly, purpose, the purpose that we're supposed to fulfill, we have a hard time understanding how close those things are because it's not our plan.
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We think we have a plan for so many things in this life.
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I think that there's a plan for my business, and I have these goals, and I try to forecast these things for this business, but I'm unaware of the fact of what God's actual plan is for me and this business, and just how close I am to realizing that plan, to experiencing that plan, to stepping into and fulfilling my purpose.
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We are never as far away in life from the things that we hope for, that we pray for, that we desire for, that we are meant for.
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We're never as far away from those things as we think we are.
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Those things can all come to us overnight.
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Those things can all come to us before we know it.
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We need to unite and hold fast to a common spiritual belief that despite the fact that we might feel lost, that we might be distant, or we're making mistakes, we are always within reach of divine love and purpose, with God's bigger, better plan unfolding even through setbacks and preparing us for something bigger, for something greater than we ourselves can imagine.
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Sometimes we go through the hurt, sometimes we go through the doubt, sometimes we lose sight, we think it's never going to work out.
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But we must emphasize and trust in his timing and his wisdom over our own limited view.
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We are never as far away from the life that we want, from fulfilling and living in our purpose.
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We are never as far away as we think we are.
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I did a little research on this quote today because it motivated me today.
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And there's a few keys that come into play with this message.
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Number one, divine presence.
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You can never go too far away from God's reach.
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His love is infinite and always available, no matter how lost you feel.
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He's always there for us.
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We always have the opportunity to lean into his presence.
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There's a bigger picture, but seems like failure or delay is often part of a larger, unseen plan, preparing you for future blessings and divine purpose.
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There was another speech that I listened to from uh Steven that I listened to months ago, but it's coming to me right now as we're having this conversation because it really goes in line with that bigger picture.
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What seems like failure or delay is often part of a larger, unseen plan preparing you for future blessings or divine purpose.
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He was discussing the fact that there's going to be times in your life where you're struggling, where you're down, where you're out, where you're feeling defeated, when you're you're overly depleted, and you find a way to pull yourself through.
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No matter how difficult, no matter how painful, you find a way to pull yourself through, and you tell yourself, I'm never going back.
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To that, I never want to experience that again.
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And oftentimes when we find ourselves in these situations, we find ourselves with these battles and these struggles, we come out of it and say, Man, I really wish I didn't have to go through that.
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And there's nothing good that came of that.
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You know, like when we go through things in life, we often say, like, oh well, there's a reason for it.
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And uh, you know, um, I learned this lesson from it.
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But sometimes we go through such a shitty situation that you come out of it and say, There's no way that was worth it.
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There's no way that um was something that I needed to experience.
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But that is because we cannot see the bigger picture.
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What seems like failure, what seems like delay, what seems like never-ending struggle and despair, it is actually a lesson that will help you in the future.
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Because there's going to be a time in life where you encounter something similar, or you find yourself in a situation where life is crashing down, and maybe even just the smallest confidence that you can muster up is the fact that you can reflect on this time that we're discussing when we came through that scenario.
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When you start to think back to it and say, remember how difficult that was?
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Remember how down on the dumps I was, remember how I thought everything around me was over and it was all coming to an end.
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I pulled through because of that experience of pulling through.
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I know that I possess the ability to pull through yet again.
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There's a lesson from the fact that I made it through the lowest of lows, that whatever the low is I faced today, it wasn't what I faced yesterday.
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You're building confidence.
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You're building, I like to consider them confidence calluses, right?
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I'm I'm calling myself with confidence, these layers of confidence that all as many times as I fail, as many times as this business leaves me going through the count cushions for change to survive, as many times as that happens in my life, I'm callusing myself and I'm finding confidence.
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And those years of calluses and the struggle and the despair has me at a position right now where I can look myself in the mirror and say, You don't know where those payments are coming from today, this morning, as I look in the mirror, but we ain't made it to lunch yet, and we ain't made it to dinner yet.
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You understand what I'm saying?
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There's opportunity.
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So we, as the message says, can't always see the bigger picture.
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And that these failures, these difficulties in our life, they are lessons.
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And if you listen to the podcast, you always hear me say, sprinkle time and distance on it, and it all makes sense.
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Sometimes the struggles make sense when we sprinkle two months, two years, twenty years down the road and realize I'm conditioned for this, I've been through this.
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The next tip I found today is trust and surrender.
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The core message of what Stephen said to us is that if you surrender your limited plans to God's perfect higher plan, trusting that He sees the whole path and knows what's best, followed by preparation.
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Difficult seasons, loneliness, or feeling buried are seen as planting and preparation, building character and strength for what's to come.
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Those are those confidence calluses that I just spoke of.
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Those are four keys.
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The four pillars to that message from Stephen Divine presence, bigger picture, trust and surrender, and preparation.
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We're going through it, folks.
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We're growing through it.
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We have been struggling in this world, in this life for years.
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I can confidently say right now, today, each and every one of you listening and myself speaking, we have all struggled this year.
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We have all had varying degrees of struggle this year.
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This might be your worst year, this might be your best year, but this year was not free of struggle.
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Those struggles, those failures, those mistakes, those things are not telling you that you're slipping further and further away from your goals, your hopes, your dreams, your aspirations.
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Those things, those struggles, those failures, they're not you slipping further away.
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They're you realizing four key things divine presence, bigger picture, trust and surrender, and preparation.
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You are being taught four key lessons.
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Learning those lessons, in fact, are bringing you, are pulling you closer to your goals.
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They are bringing you closer to the life you want to live.
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They are getting you closer to living and fulfilling your purpose.
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We are never as far away as we think we are.
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Right now you might find yourself thinking, okay, big fella, that was an uplifting little message.
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Unexpected, but uplifting.
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Okay, okay, I think I'm understanding.
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I'm not gonna give up on my dreams.
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I'm going to embrace my faith a little bit more.
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I'm going to encourage myself a little bit more, and I'm going to acknowledge I'm nowhere near where I think I should be, but that doesn't mean anything to me because my hopes and goals and dreams, they might be right around the other corner to me.
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I don't know.
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We're never as far away as we think we are.
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Okay, great message.
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But my question to you is why did you have to take me to church and why did you have to deliver this message?
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Well, I'll answer that question, which is getting really odd because I shouldn't be delivering the message, asking the questions, and answering the questions.
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This is getting strange.
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People are going to start having questions about me and my own disorders.
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