The Truth About Finding Your Passion

Hello, it’s your girl, Courtney Sanders. Welcome to another episode of the Courtney Sanders Show. Today we are talking about purpose, specifically the truth about finding yours. So I got really inspired to speak about this subject, after a weekend I spent at a Christian retreat that my husband’s family puts on every year.

My husband is a PK (Preacher’s Kid. His dad is a pastor and is also like a psychotherapist or whatever, and he does a lot of work professionally with psychology and dealing with troubled youth and all that stuff. His Dad is a pastor and has a church for as long as I’ve known my husband. 

I’ve known him for 10 years. We’ve been married for five, going on six. That’s crazy. But anyway, for as long as I’ve known him, they do an annual retreat in the summer, usually around this time in August. And there’s like different themes and different topics and all that.

So they have sessions where you can learn about different things and just kind of reflect on your own walk. But then also you can just kind of like go be by yourself and reflect on all of this stuff.

This year’s theme was super simple. It’s the Gospel, which is really important. In one of the sessions, my husband, because he teaches one of the classes, was asking something about what or what is it that you have doubts around? Like what are you still doubting God about? And it was a kind of question and answer, as an open forum session. 

One of the women in the session, she said that and I thought this was so interesting, she struggles with God and doubts, particularly around her calling because she feels like she doesn’t know what she’s called to do and she doesn’t know what her purpose is. I was like, man, this is just something that I really wanted to go into because I feel like a lot of women unnecessarily give themselves grief over “ not knowing what their purpose” is and they don’t realize how much leeway and how much autonomy they have in this.

Notes from the podcast:

So here’s the truth about finding your passion that most are not aware of.

• A lot of women give themselves, a lot of people give themselves grief, particularly when considering your God-given purpose because there is a mindset just in the world in general that you create your purpose, right? So you decide what you want to do, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but you decide what you’re here on earth for, which is kind of crazy because you didn’t bring yourself here, right?

• If you’re an inventor and you invent a medical device, you invent the George Foreman Grill, you create something, you as the creator, you’re the patent holder. You say this is the purpose of that item. So now, can people buy your invention or get ahold of your invention and use it in whatever way they want? Of course, but you as the creator or as the inventor, no, that they’re not getting the optimum use out of it.

• We were created for a particular purpose and we try to make our own purpose and do things not according to the manufacturer’s instructions. So I say that to say because in, in ones very real sense, it is good to have a healthy, not fear, but kind of like not resistance, what is the apprehension? It is good to have a healthy apprehension in terms of not wanting to do the wrong thing with your life.

• I think sometimes people box themselves in and they get into a place where they don’t really do anything with their lives. They do enough to get by and to pay their bills and to take care of their kids and whatever, but they don’t really have the impact that they were created to make because they’re so scared and worried about doing anything that might not fall in their purpose. 

• Your purpose is not just whatever. You were created with a specific purpose in mind, but you do have autonomy. And so here is how you know all that works together. So all of humanity, regardless of what you believe, even the most hardcore atheist, all of humanity was made in the image of God, period. Right? So our core purpose from the beginning was to be image-bearers.

• God breathed literally, like it’s not just like, oh you have life, but you have a particular type of life. You have a god-like life within you in terms of your ability to understand your ability to comprehend our understanding of morality. Right? And animals don’t have morality, don’t have the ability to create all of that. So there’s a creative, lowercase g God, like an essence within you on purpose because ultimately all of humanity was created to reflect God. That’s what I mean. You’re meant to give God glory. You were meant to be a walking reflection of God here on earth.

• He created you in me. Awesome to be his little agents, to be his little stewards, to tend to the earth and to manage them. And by tending to the earth, we tend to think ancient times where we’re all supposed to be farmers and tilling the garden and all that stuff. This is a form of being stewards of the garden and managing it. Well, if you’re a doctor or nurse or you’re in healthcare, you are part of how God meets the needs and how God maintains and grows and makes the earth better. All that maintenance, everything that was supposed to be done instead of doing it himself, God said, well, I’m going to create companions.

• I say all that to say, that is your purpose period. I don’t care who you are or what you believe in. I’m telling you, that’s why you’re created. That is your purpose. Once you understand that, you start to see the freedom that exists within that and why the Gospel is so powerful because you know a lot of people think the gospel is like this.

• The way morality works, the way justice works, the way the universe works that he set up,you can’t be restored to your original purpose unless you have God’s spirit within you.

• Your new mission now is to bring heaven on earth, right? The Bible talks about how God’s kingdom is at hand. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The Kingdom of God is at hand. What does that mean? That’s God trying to give back to what he started back in the Garden of Eden, Eden and this again, this is why I wanted to do this podcast and talk about this because so many people make the gospel just about like not going to hell.

• He’s curious to see now that you know what your mission is, now that you know what your purpose is, that you know what you’re here on earth for. He’s really curious to see what do you come up with? What needs do you identify out in the world? How do you exercise your gifts and talents to bring heaven on earth and to reflect God and your day to day life and in your day to day spaces? How do you do that?

• Are you reflecting God’s glory in that? If you’re not, I would say that’s your purpose to start. Start there, start getting on the playing field there and then you’ll find that as you become an engaged participant, God will move you in part because he can trust you to take action, but he’s already given you so much. You already have way more authority than you realize. You do both authority here on earth and authority in heaven.

• You could take your natural gifting and start applying that to the things that you know are in God’s heart. That’s the minimum you could do. You could just try it. And guess what? I want you to do it. He’ll move you to somewhere else or he’ll tap you on the shoulder, you’ll get a sense of it, you’ll know.

• When God wants you to know something, it doesn’t matter if you’re a hardcore atheist , you will know, okay? Like it’s just undeniable. Like no one can deny. So particularly you as a believer who has the Holy Spirit within you. If you were doing something and you’re doing it in earnest and you’re doing it for God’s glory and you’re trying to honor this mission of bringing heaven here on earth and God wants you to do something different, you will know. But that is not an excuse not to do anything in the meantime.

• You have the freedom to use your God-given creativity, that God within you. You have that freedom to start trying some things and to start doing some things again. As long as Jesus said, anything you do in my name, I will do anything you ask for my name, I’ll do it for you. But no more waiting on the sidelines waiting for your purpose. You already know what your purpose is. Hopefully, you already know what your gifts are. Get into action and understand that if there’s something specific that God wants you to do, that he’ll direct you to do that.

• So stop being afraid and start working, walking in the purpose that you already have. All things work together for your good. And that’s not for everybody. That’s for you if you’re a believer.

• It’s not because I am God, but because I have God within me and that’s a part of my purpose and part of my mission. So yeah, my goal is just to get people to think differently about everything they do and to just really reflect God’s heart and God’s amazingness. Just to get people to think twice.

You could be changing lives, you’d be making a dent in the universe. You could be having such a huge impact. And we’re caught up on like some silliness, you know. So I always talk about generations. I want generations to change based on, the work I do here. And I feel confident to even make claims like that, even though I’m a nobody who’s just in a podcast studio in Houston, Texas, ranting, with “no qualifications.”

But my confidence comes not from me, but what my calling is and who I am and the God within me that is empowering me to do all this. But the thing is, I’m not the only one and I need more of you who are listening to start stepping in your calling and stepping up and taking action. 

So I’m gonna get off my soapbox. I hope this gives you something to chew on. I will leave, um, notes and scripture references in the show notes and I’ll see you in the next episode. Bye.