What's going on, pursuers? Welcome to the Pursuit of Calling podcast, where my goal
and purpose is to provide you with the tools needed to successfully discover and pursue
your God-given calling. I'm your host, Thomas Carney, and today's episode we're talking
about going from pain to purpose. For those who don't know, I have a condition called
muscular dystonia. And essentially, I'm in pain every day, and it's my brain tells my
muscles to do things they're not supposed to. That's the gist of it. And the reason
I'm making this episode is because I want to share my testimony more around this journey
of exponential growth that I've been on, despite the circumstances. Actually, because of the
circumstances, if I'm being completely honest. So this episode isn't just for people with
physical pain, even though it is, it's also for people dealing with constant psychological
pain. Because mental pain, mental or physical pain, sorry, physical pain, a lot of the time
when it is as severe, as chronic as what I have, it causes a lot of psychological issues.
So I want you, before we get any further into this episode, I want you to send this episode
to that person maybe that you thought of whenever I was talking about physical or mental pain.
Maybe you're not a person that is in this pain. I still want you to listen to this episode
if you're not in that part of your life. I still want you to listen to this episode,
because this will be benefit to you as well. However, that person that you thought of who
is in constant physical pain or constant psychological pain, I want you to send this episode. Maybe
you have to listen to the whole thing, make sure it's any good. And that's fine. If you
already know me and already know me know my podcast, and trust me enough, I want you to
send it to them right now. Because I know my story, my testimony, and what we're going
to be talking about in this episode will help well at least plant a seed in them to be able
to get out of the valley that they're in. So and I know there's people out there in
my position. I know there's people out there though that have also lost hope. That's who
this is really for is like, I know there's people out there have lost hope. And thinking
about those people breaks my heart because I've talked to some people like that. I've
read stories from people like that with muscular, this specifically with people with muscular
dystonia, and it breaks my heart. It breaks me. So I just wanted to make this episode
to hopefully reach some more people and plant some more seeds and hope some help some people
realize the calling that is on their lives, regardless of their circumstances. So just
to give a little bit more context around my experience, my pain is hurting my hands for
a few years, it essentially like a writer's cramp. And then it spread to my spread to
my arm, shoulders and now essentially is my whole body, my, my legs, my face even, what
essentially all the muscles in my head whenever I eat. Like talking right now I can feel the
muscles in my head kind of tightening up. But I still want to do this podcast, I still
want to keep this podcast going. Because I know it's part of a way that I can reach people
because I still have my voice to be able to reach those, those who I've been called to
reach and those have been called to serve. And like, hmm. Sorry, I just like going through
my notes. I'm like, man, that was like, I can't wait to talk about that. But I want
to get too far ahead of myself. I, you know, I've spent a lot of time, money and resources
trying to figure out first, it was trying to figure out what was wrong. And then it
was now that now that we have a name for it, muscular dystonia, it's how do we how do I
get relief or how do I get better? And, I mean, there's no known cure for this condition.
And but you know, I believe I believe in God, I believe he's a healer. So I believe that
I believe God can heal me. And I also believe that there has to be something out. I believe
that there has to be something. So I just I'm just going to keep looking. Honestly,
I'm just going to keep looking and keep talking to doctors. But I've spent a lot of time,
money and I plan to spend a lot more. But I understand, though, I've had a lot of doctors
tell me that first it was I don't know what's wrong with you. Let me send you to this doctor.
Then it was, OK, I know what's wrong with you. But it's not much we can really do except
make you comfortable. Here's some here's here's meds, which is like that's what they like.
That's where they're trained to do. And like it's not saying I'm not trying to demonize
doctors like they do a lot of good work and they're really nice. And I just don't think
they're fully equipped. If I'm being honest, for something like this, I feel like there's
there's and maybe you felt this, too. If now you're listening to it in your person, my
position, maybe you felt this, too. Maybe you've experienced this same kind of trajectory
of spending a lot of money being told you don't know what's wrong with you and then
feeling a shame that you that you get whenever you can't you see, realize you can't do the
things that other people can do. Things that you used to be able to do.
Sorry, I am. This is this is this is a real one. So whenever you. I lost my train of thought,
but those things that you used to be able to do and you feel the shame whenever you
tell people that you can't do something. And they ask you why and then they don't understand,
right? It's it's all part of this journey and you learn how to explain it. You learn
how to explain it quickly to people. I just tell people I have a muscular condition. I
can just have a body, but but I keep my spirits up. You know, I've had experiences like after
phone calls with doctors even where I've been on the floor in the fetal position and I'd
be crying out to God like why me? Why haven't you healed me yet?
But how would a good God actually allow this to happen? And the answer to all of these
questions all relate to the same thing. My calling. So. As time went on and my condition
progressed, I realized I had a new sort of vigor to grow and became the health and I
wanted to become the healthiest and best man I can possibly be. I can't work out as much,
but I can I can eat right and do do the things to fuel my body, to fuel my body, to do what
it needs to do to keep me healthy. And the pain at the time, it feels like my enemy.
It feels like it's the pain tells me like just to be lazy, to sit down and do nothing.
And because that's what I really feel like doing a lot of the time. I feel like just
not doing anything because that not doing anything sometimes means I'm not in pain because
every little thing, everything physical hurts in some sort of way. And like it's really
tempting to just be like, I'm just not I'm just done. I was going to watch TV all day.
I'm not going to do anything. I'll live off. I'll figure out how I can live off the government.
But I refuse to do that. I'm a mover. I constantly have to be doing something. And like I do
I'm really bad at resting, to be honest. I've always been bad at that. But I've been working
on getting better at that because of my condition. And I but I always have to be doing something.
So instead, I applied something I heard from Craig Grishill on his podcast the other day,
where he said, my pain, he said, my pain is my friend. And he was talking about a different
kind of pain. But but no, but the pain is but I decided to apply it to my life. I essentially
my pain is my friend. I think about that as a fuel for the fire. I believe God is using
this pain. He hasn't taken it away because of how much I've grown as he has taken away
because how much I've grown as a result of it of it because he knows I continue to grow
as long as I continue to grow at an exponential rate. And, you know, there there's already
been overflow. There's already been an overflow for how much I've grown the books I'm reading,
how I overflowed into my podcast into the people I into the people that I talk with
every day into my coaching. Like, there's only going to be more of an overflow as time
goes on as I continue to grow. And, like, it's and that's like, like the pain that's
like the pain is fuel for the fire. The pain is like, I, I can't just, I don't know what
I'm going to be able to do in two years. Let's be real. I feel like I'm jumping around. But,
like, it's fuel for the fire because I was talking with somebody the other day. It's
like, I don't know what I'm going to be able to do in two years from now, three, four years
from now. So I need to do what I need to do. I need to grow now. And I don't have many.
I need to grow now. I need to learn these things now. I need to get all these things
set up on my for my business now and learn these skills now. I don't know what I'll be
able to do later. I'll have my brain. But what will my body be able to do? I don't know.
So let's do it now. That's why I mean it's fuel for the fire. It's fuel to grow. It's
fuel for exponential growth. There's now I can hear you saying, I can hear it already.
Like that's great for you, but that's not my story. I know I can hear you saying I'm
in pain every day and I'm miserable. And I hear you. I know. I know that's like, you
know, I've already said I've been there. I know I've been mad every day at people for
not understanding my struggles for not trying to. I've been mad at God for not healing me.
And I've questioned him as to why he would allow this to continue to happen. This is
going to you know, this is going to sound harsh. But this is the honest to God truth.
Misery is a choice. When you decide to let the pain run your life, you're you are allowing
yourself to be held captive by it. The great news is the great news about that, though,
is that that is the fact that choice means you don't actually have to stay there. You
know, the great news is that there's a calling on your life, regardless of your circumstances.
You're not called to be in pain. You're not called to live in misery. You're not. You
are called to something so great that honestly you can't even imagine what it is. But I
want you to try. You know, I don't want you to think the call is just something that comes
out of nowhere. That's something that God just comes out and says, hey, hey, Thomas,
this is exactly what you're going to do. This is exactly what your calling is. He didn't
come down and tell me, hey, Thomas, you're here to provide people with tools they need
to successfully pursue their God given calling, discover and pursue. And I had to I had to
discover that on my own. And you know, the call is something the call is something that
you discover. And I've talked about that a lot on previous episodes of the podcast. And
if you haven't already, I really want you to go to pursuit of calling dot com and sign
up to get the pursuit to get to discover your calling planning guide so that you can start
to understand what the calling is that is on your life. So you know, I've said it before,
your calling is unique to you. And this is regardless of your circumstance, your gifts,
you have gifts, the things that are intuitive to you, the things that you understand that
others seem to don't seem to just seem to understand it so quickly. And you don't understand
why other people don't. And I'd argue that some of those things are a result of the struggles
that you go through every day. I call you a pursuer every time I start an episode and
every time I end it, because I believe you are even if you don't. I believe you are a
pursuer. You just have to unlock that part of yourself. The drive of a pursuer lives
inside of you. You just need to put fuel on the fire. The call is the call on you. I want
you to sit down and just think about what you're good at. I want you to think about
what you can do, even if you can't do everything else everybody else can do. There is a calling
on your life. I believe that calling comes from God. I want you to figure out how to
pursue your calling well.
Alright guys, well if you enjoyed this episode, this was I know it maybe I sound a little
bit more somber, but I really, really enjoy talking about this because it really helps
me to figure out how I can, it helps me figure it helps me share my testimony and more I
do it, the better I get at it. So, you know, I really appreciate you listening to this
whole episode. If you like this episode, share it out on social media. You can share it on
Instagram, Facebook, X, wherever you listen and wherever you use social media. If you
haven't shared this episode with that person already that you were thinking about before
that you've been thinking about this whole time that you've been listening to this episode,
I want you to send it to them now. And I want you to tell them why you're sending it to
them. And if you haven't already, go ahead, go ahead to pursuit of calling.com and download
the guide and leave a comment on Spotify, leave a five star review, all the things.
All right, guys, see you later. Psewers.