How's it going guys? Thomas here. In this episode, we're going to dive deeper into
our conversation with Quentin Booth here in part 2. And from career shifts to faith-driven
decisions, Q shares insightful perspectives on finding one's calling. We're going to
talk about discovering how trusting in God's plan can lead to unexpected paths filled with
meaning and service to others. Guys, if you liked part 1, get ready for part 2 and take
some notes. We'll see you in there.
How would you teach others where to find their purpose?
By no means am I telling the world to quit their jobs. I'm not saying that.
I've seen a couple of like, yeah, I think Steve and Ferdick have said it once and maybe
like TD Jakes, but they go on there like, I'm not telling you to quit your job. Don't
go tomorrow and say, my pastor said I can be relieved of this job. But I will say what
I know about God is he's not a God of confusion. He's not a God of like suffering. Right? If
you feel as though you are not growing, you're not pouring in, you're not being poured into
and like you have taken those steps to try to work towards that. Maybe that's not what's
for you. Maybe God does have something else different from you. But also you have to know
where to like place your roots on and be faithful in the journey because it's not easy. We could
look at anyone in the Bible and there's very few who were just like, oh no, they were blessed
from the moment they were born until the moment they moved on. The ones, these stories that
we read, they go through some very harsh, very, you know, most of the time life taking
trials and tribulations. I'm not telling you that you also have to sit in this job or this
life situation where it's just life taking because God does have something better for
you. So what I would tell someone who has a hard time finding it or has a hard time
staying faithful in it is that God knows you, right? We hear this all the time. He knows
the amount of hairs on your head. He knows what's in your heart. Be honest with yourself.
If you're growing here, if you feel as though you're being poured into, you feel as though
that you are being cultivated a leader or you're cultivating leaders. This is what I
tell my program managers all the time. If you're not cultivating a leader, if you're not cultivating
leadership, what are you doing? We're supposed to be making leaders. We're not here to just
manage and then do it all ourselves. We want people to be empowered, to be inspired and
take like, what I would tell you guys is whatever Tom loves to do, whatever Sean loves to do,
find out how you can get out of the way for God, but use those skills to expand his kingdom.
Wherever that leads you is probably where you're supposed to be, but it's not always fun. It's
not always sunshines and rainbows. Today, there was like a 30 to 40 kid fight outside
of our church and I found myself out there again trying to break up a fight and picking
kids off of each other. I'm like, I left law enforcement. What am I doing out here? Some
days I have to correct people and some days I get corrected. It's not every day is
this great, amazing time at work, but when you're working for God, it's different. I
would say that if you're a Christian and you're trying to figure out what your purpose is,
this is I guess also because I was front of house at church too, is you serve. You find
a way to expand the kingdom and he will find a way to use you because that prodigal son
story he's waiting for you. There is an issue in one of the neighborhoods. I won't speak
to it, but every neighborhood has their challenges. We had a group of employees who were really
down trodden on how are we going to fix this? How can we fix this? There's people who are
hurting, people are losing their homes, there's no funding coming in. I'm sitting there and
I'm trying to meditate and Father Paul is trying to do his thing. He's an amazing speaker.
I will shout him out here all day, every day. He is my boss, yes. He's not paying me to
say this, but Father Paul, you too, amazing speaker. He's trying to say something and
God put it on my heart and you guys will probably know it, but I was led to Isaiah 6, 8. When
we think about purpose, for me, it was so clear when he said that. Do you guys mind
if I read it because I won't be able to do it justice. Let me find it real quick. I already
had it up actually. Isaiah 6, 8 says, then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom
shall I send and who will go for us? I said, here I am, send me. I heard that and it is
so true. Whether you guys are doing a podcast to get the word out, to spread the kingdom,
to spread the glory of God, whether you are a garbage man helping clean up your community,
whether you are a custodian helping clean the church or you are the CEO trying to run
a non-profit, also a church at the same time or a director or a police officer or a nurse,
as long as we have the heart as God, okay, if you call me, I will go. Then that's your
purpose because some of the people who may watch this are in college and they are like,
well, this doesn't refer to me. Yes, it does. He's calling you. Right now you are called
to educate yourself. You are called to build community. You are called to go reach out
to that one kid that you always see that no one talks to and go be the light of the world,
go be the salt of the earth. We are called in every aspect and you have to, in its heart,
you have to be obedient and want to have that almost evangelistic aspect of it. Like, okay,
I won't have to sit here and talk scripture with you, but I can sit here and be the kind
heart that God has made me to be. I can be the Christian that God's made me to be. So
that was my answer. It's a long-winded one, but I think it's very true when you just have
a heart of, Lord, send me, then it doesn't matter what it looks like.
That's so good because that's all I've been like the verse of the year for me.
Yesterday? Is he yesterday? Yeah. What verse did she talk about? Wasn't that the...did
she use that same verse? I was there. You were there yesterday. I forgot. I was there.
But no, yesterday, I don't remember. She gave the word at Inspired Collective yesterday.
And if it wasn't that same verse, it was referencing it. And it was a reference to that verse.
And she was like, yeah, God's asking a question. If God's going to ask you a question, are
you going to answer like that? He's going down being like, I know we send questions
at him all the time, but in that instance, he's calling out and asking and you're like,
here I am. Here I am. Send me for whatever you're calling me to do. Not you asking the
question and God would...you can't ask this question, but it's not like asking a question
to God, like what do you want me to do? Answering that, it's called by saying, just send me
you wherever to do whatever you want me to do. And like you said, don't allow me to get
in my own way.
Yeah, that's so good. And I've also been learning relationship wise. I know this has nothing
to do with purpose, but I think it could. Having that same heart changes the way you
see your relationship as well. I've had the blessing to be able to have a Christian couples
counselor with many, and we pray into every single one. But he also emphasizes having
that heart, right? In the Lord's prayer, I heard it again today, but forgive me for my
trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me. And that's also a calling. That's
also a purpose. We're called to love, love God, love others. And that same mindset you're
talking about, Tom, the same Isaiah scripture, it can go into so many different aspects if
you just have that. We're called to forgive, we're called to love, we're called to serve,
we're called to get out of our own way and just let God do his thing. And like I said,
when I heard that, it was so clear. And then I'm sitting here, I read it and I'm looking
up and one of my employees is crying. I'm like, oh, okay, God, I see you.
So can I ask you, this is a question that I just thought, I think you kind of ran through
all the questions I had and now I have something, we talked about this before with something
John Maxwell said in one of his podcast episodes is that the way he sees purpose is that there's
a couple of things in my mind right now, but he said that your purpose is the intersection
point essentially between what you're passionate about and what you're good at.
That's good.
And then he goes forward to say a calling is a purpose with a divine touch, which I
just had to throw that in there because it's great. And for me, I didn't really understand
what I was passionate about. And I'm going to talk about this briefly because we've talked
about it before, but I had this click, something just clicked and it was about something that
I had no idea that I was ever going to be passionate about, I guess, with me wanting
to be a life coach. And did you have a moment like that where something just clicked for
you or was it more of a gradual?
Yes and no. I guess because my story is fairly unique. There was one day as a patrol officer
where it kind of clicked and that everything wasn't just so black and white, if you will,
that people's lives are affected. And it started clicking that I always had a heart for people,
not a heart for, don't be wrong, I liked action. I used to keep this video of my very
first high speed chase and it's awesome, but it clicks whenever I'm serving people and
having a heart for people and caring about them. And so it would be in that way. It clicks
when you find yourself and you have a word for somebody at the church or during service
and you want to go talk to them or you find yourself just being a listening ear. So for
me, and don't get me wrong, I believe that I'm probably fairly dramatic, but it clicks
for me when I'm serving people. Life for me doesn't make sense unless I'm helping someone.
That's great.
I honestly think that's amazing. I think you personally, for anybody going out there, for
all the listeners, your calling will always be to serve being people. I feel that you
can't have a calling without that. So it will be serving people and I think it will have,
sometimes, it will have, I want to say, sometimes, it's not more than like it's a lot of love,
a thing that you love that you feel fulfilled when you do while you're helping others. That's
how you know that's your calling, that's your purpose.
Yeah, that's beautiful. I would only piggyback that saying absolutely. And it doesn't have
to be you're out there being a firefighter or a cop or doing that. Oh crap, I'm going
to forget the Bible character. Help me out here. But I believe it's Daniel, but everything
that he did, he did it with an excellence, right? I hope that's him. And that's how
you can care for people too, right? You're talking about teachers, you're talking about
even, I even think about flight attendants in this aspect because no one really would
just be like, oh, I want to go help people, let me be a flight attendant. They're just
probably like, I want to see the world. But in the same way, there's so many things that
they can do there just to keep people comfortable, to keep them calm. And it's still a serving,
right? And so I say that not to talk down on that profession, but say that you can do
excellence anywhere. As you said, you can love someone in anything. So that is beautiful.
That actually, I don't know how to speak to that. With my job currently, I'm currently
a web and mobile app developer. And within the last maybe a few, I would say maybe the
last four months, four or five months, I've had a whole mindset shift. For the last few
years I've been trying to leave and I know my boss, I'm pretty sure my boss watches this.
He kind of called me out on something I've said in the previous episode. But the, I was
trying to leave for years and my mind shifted from like, this is somewhere I'm only going
to be temporarily. And so right now it's just a means to an end to, even though I don't
see myself being here forever, I'm still here to serve people. And like the apps I build
are making, it's still making other people's lives easier. It's like, it's making other
people's lives, that your job's easier for the people that work for the same company
I work for. And even what we're doing right now, we're re-implementing a whole new, it's
building a whole new website that it's like lightning fast in comparison to like our past
one. And it's all about, I feel like if you have that mindset in any job of like, this
isn't just for a paycheck. This is because I'm doing this and what I'm doing today is
going to make somebody else's day better. And I used to talk down to like McDonald's
workers all the time, especially when I was younger. But like, you're making people's
lives better by flipping burgers and like getting the kids their happy meal, even if
you're just on the line.
Exactly. And you know, I think the world saw that whenever the world shut down. And you
know, first they said everybody, you know, there's only certain level of essential workers.
And then you know, what, like four weeks later, they're like, okay, fast food workers are
essential workers. And I think it's because even the world had a chance to, my cats are
fighting sorry. The world had a chance to take a step back and really, you know, look
at themselves and kind of look at, you know, how do we operate and you know, our everything
got shut down. And I think God really showed a lot of people in their hearts, where are
they at, you know, a lot of people want to work from home now. And like, that's the thing
and companies are juggling that. And I'm neither here or there on it. I understand the the
best of both. But something Father Paul actually said the other day, there was like a winter
storm what like three weeks ago, guys, like it was pretty bad. City shut down again, I
have all these program managers calling like, Hey, are we are we not coming in working from
home, right? And I call him he was away on a business trip. And he goes, he just says,
I understand that there's snow on the ground that some people may not make it in. I told
him I was like, well, I'm coming in because I live like three minutes from there. Right.
And he goes, Okay, great. And I was like, well, so like, what's your position on it?
He goes, if we are not there, who will serve the people? And you like even that I'm just
like, let me go put my boots on. Right. It's like, exactly. You know, it's just a drop
in the center. You know, it's not even just but it's a drop in center. We do give meals
to people every day. And we have this thing called the backpack feeding program that you
know, they do amazing things down there. They provide 23 different schools, over 12,000
different bags of food that they give out like per week. And so if we close, that's
12,000 different students who kick, you know, won't bring being bringing home food for their
families that week, right. And when I put it in perspective like that, we have to it
doesn't matter what you do, you know, and those people could be working in that room
setting like all I do is take, you know, non perishables and put it in a plastic bag and
then like that's my job. But in that same week, a family is going to be eating that
they're going to be, you know, using that to nourish themselves. And the same thing
with like McDonald's, they may see it as you know, this is just a job is not a career.
I'm here. But as you said, Tom, like, you are helping people. And to be honest with
you, I'll put this shameless plugin I didn't know about the mobile apps and the different
offers that like, you're gonna go to McDonald's, you need to go on the app because it's like
McDonald's has the best of all time. Yeah, like got like a whole free meal yesterday.
I was like, what? To, um, to Big Macs or like a quarter pounder or two quarter pounders
for five bucks. Yeah. Price. That's a whole win. Yeah. Yeah. And so not for my body, but
for the yeah, but you got to get it how you can get it sometimes. And so to just to just
to wrap on what I'm saying, honestly, is this season this this year for me, even with all
of the craziness that's happened for all of us in our journeys of faith, and what building
are we going to be, you know, hearing the Word of God? Purpose is what's coming out
of that. Because what has changed is who's serving where? What has changed is people
who don't who didn't normally, you know, have a hand in how can they do the ministry this
way? How can they do things? The purpose, I believe is that one God has his hand on
all everyone in that. But we are finding a new journey, a new calling in a new way that
we can bring the kingdom, right? If everybody's still I still believe that everyone's heart
is helping other people have relationship with Jesus have a way that they can, like
foster this environment where they can have a healthy home with him. And so now we all
have this new calling this new way, and this new purpose really to find a way to do that.
I've been hearing so many different like ideas like, Oh, I can do this, I can do this. I
was like, where was this like two months ago, but it's a different fire. It's a different
purpose. And so but it's still still that the mission is still the same, right? Different
purpose, different calling, but the mission is still the same. And so for anyone who has
been in that transition, and it has been hard, it has been hard, you know, just know that
our mission is still the same doesn't matter what you who you call it, where you're going,
where you're calling yourself, we're still disciples, and we're meant to go make more
disciples. Amen. My shameless plug for that. I love that. That's the I feel like the mission
will always be my purpose. And I feel like all of our purpose is to love God, love people,
teach people love God. That will always be the purpose. That's really good. Yeah. All
my questions were answered already by a queue. You know, sorry, I had a it's it's such a
great topic to really talk about. I'm so just blessed that you guys have me here. But when
you talk about purpose, like I said, it's been a journey for me. And so it's really
just every day trying to figure that out and just trying to just be a vessel. And that's
where you can start. And that's where you end at. And hopefully, you know, you're being
obedient to what God is calling you for. But then also, I try to pray for myself like,
God, let me be sensitive to how you're working. Right. So I may not know where the end is,
but I'm able to see how he's he's operating to and it helps. Honestly, my beautiful fiancee
just walked in. Hello. Yeah, I just thought Isaiah 6, 8, that you brought that up was
crazy because that was like the verse I got for this year. Right. And it's been a powerful
verse. And then you to bring it up on the day of today where pretty much the army was
confirmed today. Right. So thank you. That's amazing. Waiting on the paperwork. But yeah,
that was Isaiah 6, 8, which is crazy because I literally like I made a video like early
on last year and then this year again, I'm talking about it because I thought it was
so important. It was Isaiah 6, 8 yesterday. And it's confirmation. It was just confirmation.
So I looked it up. That's crazy. Well, sir, your journey is just beginning. I know you're
you know, I'm going to be praying for you and you're going to get to serve this country.
Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, that's a wow. Yeah. Well, I feel like that's a great place
to wrap it up. But I got you. Thank you for being. Thank you for coming out. Thank you
for asking to be on. Yeah, Q, you're amazing. You're the first person we love that you're
the first for the ask to ever be on. It's funny because the episode that dropped yesterday
to this week, Tuesday or a couple of days ago, I was saying like, oh, whenever some
people start asking me on the show, like that will cost that bridge when we get to it. I
don't know how we're going to handle that. And then you just want Hey, can I be on the
show? I guess. Well, trust me, guys, it's definitely a blessing. And and in that, you
guys actually helped me find a reason having a purpose to spend intentional time with God
and really meditate on what this topic is. So in a way, honestly, you minister to me
through that. So again, truly appreciate it. And I know that this is going to go many places
and hopefully what you guys are doing, you know, you're getting out of your own ways
and being vessels for God and being obedient and allow him to work through your your podcast.
So thank you. Man, we love you, Q. We'll have you back on here sometime. And there is there
is sorry, I asked a couple of questions at the end and I completely forgot because we
were just like we're just going to but the last couple of the two ending questions one,
if you have any resources that people can go to, whether it's when it pertains to purpose,
pertaining to personal growth, what would you typically recommend? Well, I like to be
transparent and I would tell I would love to tell you that I'm reading so many books
about it. I'm not. The last books I read was Crazy Faith from Mike Todd. It's pretty good.
I was also reading a book on purpose from T.D. Jakes, which is also pretty good. But
I will start there. But honestly, go to the word. That's you know, that's the answer.
I think through all of that, if anyone could hear that is just a leap of faith and a trust
in God, go to the word, continue to be there to hear sermons on it. And it's going to come
as long as you're just trying to get out of your own way. That's great. Oh, who would
you like to have next on the on the episodes on our podcast? Next on the episode? If not
the same because she has an amazing story herself. I honestly believe that Jason, I
think that you guys should try to get Jason Howard because, you know, he is just a wealth
of knowledge and amazing listener. If you have amazing talker speaker, Christina Sander
and above all, number one is key Sander right now. Yeah, he's standard. Yeah. We'll reach
out to them again. All three of them. Okay, all right. All right. You've been taking their
name. I was laughing. I was like, man, we've tried. All right. Okay. We're all busy. We're
working on it. We're getting on. What's Leo's last name? Oh, Leonardo Morales. Yeah. Yeah.
Leonardo Morales. Leonardo. He's always on the church killing eight with the guitar.
I don't know people's names. Great guy though. I mean, honestly, any one of the people who
are just have that servant heart at sanctuary or amplify, I'm sure they have a wealth of
knowledge in a way that they can express how God is moving through their hearts. So is
this Yeah, I'm excited to see the next next episode. Yeah. All right, man. Well, thank
you. It was great. And we're going to reach out to all those three people again. And we're
going to talk with Leo. Yeah, Leo. All right. We'll see you. All right. Have a good night.
See you guys.