Run Your Race | Run Journey Podcast

Hey, I'm Chuck. I'm Justin. I'm Kirsten. And over the next several weeks, we're going to be doing this in the app. We'd love for you to join us. We're going to be talking about the theme each week of the Run journey that we're all doing together and kind of applying it to our lives and processing a little bit with you. Hey, this week is about Run Your Race. We're talking about what it means to live a life with purpose and intentionality instead of distraction. And we're really just trying to set up for a journey that is intentional and actually worth doing. So purpose. When you guys hear that question, what do you think it means to live a life of purpose? When I hear that word, I go, oh, yeah, purpose. Yeah. It feels massive. Are we supposed to know? I love it. I love it. What? You don't? You don't know your purpose? You haven't figured it all out? I mean, at times I probably feel like I do. But then I'm like, hold on. How'd I get here? Let's roll it back. That's right.

No, I agree. I think purpose is it's a weighty thing and you can feel like it's a pass fail, right? Like I either know it perfectly or I don't know it. And yeah, I think that's a challenge. So where have you found purpose in your lives? I think for me, it comes in seasons. I feel like every, you know, January I go back and I think through, um, all right, what's this past year and what's this coming year? And that's where I think the most about purpose. And so I've seen purpose from back when I was in college where I was in construction management. I was a female in construction management. I'm like, all right, my purpose is to lead women in this industry. I'm like this. Yes. Like that is why I'm here. I am paving the way, whatever. And then I go full time for eight months and I'm like, what am I doing here? And so then we pivot and then we shift. And in that time, actually, that's when I started following Jesus was in college when I was studying construction management and I was working full time as a co-op and during school and found Jesus. And funny enough, that's where that purpose kind of dissolved and a new one popped up. That's an interesting word too. Yeah. Dissolved. Yeah. It was like a purpose I had that I knew I was still passionate about young women and like spearheading somewhere that they don't exist. And then when I met Jesus, I was like, man, there's so much more.

There's so much more than, than that. What became, even though it wasn't a shallow purpose, it, it felt that way once I found Jesus. And so that's what comes to my mind. And I love that. The first thing that comes to mind is I've found purpose in looking around and looking at myself and going, what do I enjoy? And which at times can be totally misleading. Like I grew up thinking I'm going to be a baseball player. That's my purpose. Okay. Until I got to high school and I was like, I am not that good at baseball. So there's no one in my family history who's played baseball. That's no there. But I loved it. And then all of a sudden, man, it flipped for me. In part, when I came to Jesus, my freshman year of high school, but it flipped and there became this opening of, man, I really love music and music has been a part of my life since I was like three, four years old. And then I had family members who sort of had music in their blood as well. And music, I just started to explore it. And in that, I've done music now ever since then. You know what I mean? It's such a major part of my life. And it's at times it's just going, what do I enjoy? What do I enjoy? And what opportunities are coming open? And that's right. What, man, what gives me energy? What do I have drive for?

What do I, what, what would I do without somebody paying me to do the thing? Because I love it. Yeah. That's a good clarifying question on that. You know, I think about purpose too. And I think about the people around me, I think purpose has a lot to do with the community that you have. Yeah. And so, you know, when I, when I got married, it clarified some of my purpose, I had kids and started to clarify, you know, being in community with you guys started to clarify some of my purpose. And so, you know, as you think about this, this journey, it's really around running your race. You know, I mean, I think what we would say is, hey, we want you to run your race. And part of this journey is meant to help you discover that. As you think about running your race, what are some of the things that trip people up? What gets in the way of running your race? And you can think about that personally, you can think about that societally, what gets in the way? The, the easiest first one I think of is comparison. Yeah. When I, when I look at your race and go, well, Chuck's already doing this in his purpose. Why am I not there? I forget that your race started in a very different place with a different set of circumstances and resources and all the things, right? And I, I, I mean, we are so much in our culture, everything is measured against somebody's best day. Yeah. and somebody's best purpose that they want to tell me, but I, they rarely tell me about the 30 things that they thought were their

purpose that failed. That's right. Right. And so for me, still, still at my stage of purpose, it's still comparison. Yeah. Stop the comparison. Compare, compare me to me yesterday. Yeah. And do I see progression there is so much where I've found traction. That's so good, man. That's so good. It actually is funny thing. So I used to coach a kid's track. Yeah. And the hardest thing to get kids not to do on a track field is not to look to their left and to their right. Totally. It's the hardest thing. Like they would just run straight. They gain, they gain speed, but they're just like, they have to look left and right. And I think there's a part of us that is that way. Right. What do you think? What are some, maybe one thing that gets in the way? That was the first thing that came to my mind was comparison and how, even if you're running the straightest track ever, as soon as your eyes start to move, your whole track, your whole path just shifts. And I've seen that happen so many times in my life. Yeah. And I have actually been paralyzed to even start because I see other people running and quote unquote finishing their race or like fulfilling their purpose. I'm like, well, I don't even think I can, I can do that. Like I don't even think I can fulfill the purpose that I feel on my life. So why, why would I even start? And so I really have to like push those, those voices down. And you're like, this is my lane. No one else is in it. No one else can come in it. It's mine. And so that's, that's where my mind's at. I think that fear thing, even where we started with the question of what is, what is your purpose and what it did to you and I, when we just hear that word, it's fear that I'm going to get it wrong. It's fear that man, there's only one thing that I'm supposed to do. And if I do this,

if I'm off to the right or left, I get it wrong. And it's the fear of like you, you become paralyzed and I didn't even start. So fearful. I'm going to get it wrong. We're so risk avoidant. And to find your purpose takes risk every day. You put yourself at the, at the end of yourself. That's exactly right. So, Hey, here's what I would say to you. Just start. That's right. Just start. This journey is about you finding your race, running your race and just getting started. Imagine yourself at the starting line on your mark, get set. Let's go.