1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,240 What's going on, pursuers? Welcome to the Pursuit of Calling podcast, where my goal 2 00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:13,480 and purpose is to provide you with the skills and mindset needed to successfully discover 3 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:18,640 and pursue your God-given calling. I'm your host, Thomas Carney, and today, well, I'm 4 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:19,640 heading to Uganda. 5 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:39,160 All right. Okay. So yeah, I'm going to Uganda. Not today. Not specifically the day I'm recording, 6 00:00:39,160 --> 00:00:46,280 but I am going the day that this episode releases. And you might be wondering, like, why is a 7 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:51,920 person that is in, has chronic pain and has, you know, has a chronic movement disorder, 8 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:58,720 why are they going to a completely different hemisphere? Like, I'm going to be on a plane 9 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:02,960 for like 14 hours, I think one way. That might even be, it may be a little bit less, might 10 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:08,080 be a little bit more, I'm not sure. But like, why am I going? Like, and like, honestly, 11 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:15,560 that's a really big reason why. Now I have two main reasons I want to talk about in this 12 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:21,600 episode. And I'm going to go in depth and I'm also going to, and then we're going to, 13 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:27,600 for each section, I'm going to have some reflective questions for you guys to reflect back on 14 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:35,920 your lives and to hopefully use my life, the use of the things I'm, the things I'm going 15 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:41,260 through and pushing myself towards to help you reflect on your life and help you push 16 00:01:41,260 --> 00:01:47,800 yourself as well. So let's dive in. So two reasons I'm going. Two big reasons. One, because 17 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:53,600 I want to increase my dependency on God. And I would normally say this isn't a quote unquote 18 00:01:53,600 --> 00:02:00,340 Christian podcast, but this is, I'm going to Uganda on a missions trip with my church 19 00:02:00,340 --> 00:02:05,680 and with Compassion International. Compassion International, through Compassion International, 20 00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:13,560 a lot of us have our compassion children who we sponsor. And yes, if you don't have heard 21 00:02:13,560 --> 00:02:16,960 of them, definitely look them up. I'll put the link in the show notes so you can look 22 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:23,560 at what they do. But there's, you can sponsor it. Essentially, you can sponsor a child and 23 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:31,920 for believe it's $47 a month. And that money goes to whatever that child needs, whether 24 00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:38,040 that be medical care, whether that be food, food, clothing, hope maybe with school is 25 00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:47,600 whatever that child needs to live a more fulfilled life. So that's one big reason. But I also 26 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:53,400 want to see the lives of those who have have a very different view of the world and believe 27 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:59,440 in the same God to see how the lives have, how they live out their faith without all 28 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:04,800 the same things I have in the US here in the US that I take for granted. I'm specifically 29 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:07,960 saying that I take for granted even though I know a lot of us take things for granted, 30 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:14,460 but I'm thinking about I'm thinking about the things I personally take for granted that 31 00:03:14,460 --> 00:03:18,680 if I lived in a different country, if I lived in a country, a country like Uganda, that 32 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:26,120 I think that just wouldn't have. And I want to see their dependency on God and to learn 33 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:30,800 from I want to learn from them. That's the goal. This is a learning experience. It's 34 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:35,480 not for me to go there and teach them anything. It's to go there and learn something from 35 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:39,880 them so I can come back a better a better man and a better child of God. So I'm hopefully 36 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:45,520 going to be able to meet my sponsor child Shafik. That's like it was like a shift. But 37 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:48,880 that's like something huge I want to do. I want to I have a sponsor sponsored child called 38 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:54,920 Shafik. If we get to meet, that'd be amazing. I still got to buy him something. I want to 39 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:58,240 buy him a gift. And if I don't meet him, I'll give it to some other I give it to another 40 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:04,200 kid and they'll be I know they'll be grateful. I want to get him something. I'm not sure 41 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:11,960 what yet. I'm not sure what to expect on this journey. But I'm extremely excited to go. 42 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:18,540 I'll update all of you on what I've learned in an upcoming episode once I'm back. Maybe 43 00:04:18,540 --> 00:04:22,120 I'll bring on some guests who are going on the trip with me. That would actually be really 44 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:28,600 cool. I might have to ask him about about that one. We're on the plane for 14 hours. 45 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:34,240 So for the reflective questions, so for this section, I want you to think about like what 46 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:39,300 are some things in your life that you've been taken for granted that you've been taking 47 00:04:39,300 --> 00:04:46,940 for granted and how might your faith or perspective change if those things were taken away? How 48 00:04:46,940 --> 00:04:54,440 might your faith or perspective change if those things were taken away? What would you 49 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:59,560 do if you no longer had your phone? What would you do if you no longer had social media? 50 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:06,580 What if you what would you do if you no longer had access to all the food that you have now? 51 00:05:06,580 --> 00:05:11,440 What would you do? How did your perspective change on your perspective change towards 52 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:18,360 God? How would your perspective change towards your faith? Think about that, right, right 53 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:21,800 down your answer. And how do you and this is the second question, how do you currently 54 00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:28,160 rely on God in your day to day life? In what areas could you deepen that dependency? And 55 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:35,080 in what way? When I say a great thing you can do to deepen your faith is going up fast. 56 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:41,400 And right now the Amplified Church is actually going through a 14 day fast, where a lot of 57 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:47,960 people you can are fasting from social media, but I highly suggest that you fast honestly 58 00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:54,480 for even for a few days, you fast from food. And you know that might sound crazy to some 59 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:59,520 of you and especially those who aren't people of faith. But let me quickly explain that 60 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:04,660 and I'm going to move on to the next section. So fasting from food. The whole reason to 61 00:06:04,660 --> 00:06:10,880 do that is to deny the flesh is to deny your flesh, deny what your flesh wants and to become 62 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:18,240 completely feed the spirit through having more constant conversation with God, diving 63 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:23,280 into your word more. And time you feel hungry, you just speak to him and you thank him for 64 00:06:23,280 --> 00:06:29,880 what he has for what he has given you. Fasting from food, like for three days even, that's 65 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:35,040 not going to kill you. It's going to hurt. But it's going but like I heard something 66 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:43,080 recently where a pastor said, if it doesn't hurt, it's not a fast. And it sounds harsh. 67 00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:47,320 It sounds harsh, but it's true. So think about that. Think about that. That is a great way 68 00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:53,160 to deepen your faith, to deepen your dependency on God is by loosening your dependency on 69 00:06:53,160 --> 00:07:02,680 worldly things. Okay, so I'm done with the heavy Christian stuff. So if you've been tuning 70 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:10,800 me out for the last six minutes, you can come back, you can come back now. So the other 71 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:17,680 reason I'm going is because I want to increase my margin of endurance. So it's funny because 72 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:21,600 I this is the second to the second time I recorded this episode. And I said margin of 73 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:26,440 endurance, I was like, wow, that's really good. And I was like, I shouldn't make a whole 74 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:32,180 episode on that. And maybe I will one day. But now that is the second time I really fleshed 75 00:07:32,180 --> 00:07:36,440 out my notes a little bit more. And I really want to talk to you guys about why I want 76 00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:40,800 to increase my margin of endurance and what that is. You might already know. So I want 77 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:44,760 to I want to prove to myself and others that I can do hard things regardless of my condition. 78 00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:50,200 I want to show others that they can do the same. Maybe not specifically go to Uganda, 79 00:07:50,200 --> 00:07:56,400 but maybe it is. But you get the point. I want to prove to other people who are other 80 00:07:56,400 --> 00:08:01,160 people who specifically can even be specifically we can say people with chronic movement disorders, 81 00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:06,080 like pain, chronic conditions that despite their circumstances, that they can still do 82 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:10,360 hard things. I'm going to be I'm going to be proof of it. You know, I have a lot of 83 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:16,560 hard things I want to do in my life. No, this won't make this won't make things easier. 84 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:20,360 This won't necessarily this won't necessarily make things easier. But it will give me something 85 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:26,560 amazing to look back on. I got to be a part of something hard, something that I'm still 86 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:33,440 not 300% sure of how my body is going to handle. To be honest, I know there will be pain. But 87 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:36,960 you know what else is new? I know there's going to be pain. Like that's like that's 88 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:40,800 my normal. That doesn't bother me. I just don't know how much. And that's the part 89 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:47,840 that I'm like wrestling with. And that's where my dependency on God is increasing. 90 00:08:47,840 --> 00:08:54,080 So this is my way to prepare for the unexpected. You know, within all the areas of my life, 91 00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:59,280 I want to increase my margin of endurance to the other hard things will that will cause 92 00:08:59,280 --> 00:09:07,400 pain whether it's mental or physical, or even spiritual, I'll be prepared for. So I, this 93 00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:13,040 is a concept that margin of the concept of margin, I've just to go into a bit more depth. 94 00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:17,200 I've heard I heard I hear about it a lot whenever you're talking about your time. I also hear 95 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:23,360 about whenever you that means margin like leaving room for margin of error in your schedule. 96 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:26,960 So if something runs over you have something a meeting runs over that you were expecting 97 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:32,680 only take 30 minutes, but takes 40, you have scheduled that time for it to take that long, 98 00:09:32,680 --> 00:09:38,080 for instance, or margin of margin in your finances by having a decent savings having 99 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:45,480 an emergency fund to be prepared for the unexpected. I want to build up my endurance so that whenever 100 00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:56,720 there is something hard I have I have a I have a pool of endurance I can pull from. 101 00:09:56,720 --> 00:10:02,920 I have this built up foundation of endurance I can pull from now. Okay, good Christiania 102 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:11,200 Christiania a little bit again. This is going to help me and this is goes right hand in 103 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:16,080 hand with this good. I can't you can't even see on the camera I'm gonna show it. This 104 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:23,720 goes hand in hand in increasing my dependency on God increasing my spiritual endurance increasing 105 00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:30,780 my relationship with him endurance increasing my endurance my margin of endurance increasing 106 00:10:30,780 --> 00:10:35,960 my dependency on God they are they are pretty much one in the same. I wanted to give I wanted 107 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:45,400 to give a reason for both because they are they're not the same but they're very closely 108 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:51,920 related as a Christian. I don't think you can have one without the other. So for the 109 00:10:51,920 --> 00:10:55,880 reflective questions for this section I want to I'm going to ask to this time to say in 110 00:10:55,880 --> 00:11:00,640 what ways are you currently stepping outside of your comfort zone to grow into the person 111 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:06,700 you feel called to be? What in what areas are you currently stepping outside of your 112 00:11:06,700 --> 00:11:15,160 comfort zone to grow into your calling to pursue your calling well? You can't pursue 113 00:11:15,160 --> 00:11:18,520 your calling well if you're not stepping out of your comfort zone. You're not gonna do 114 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:23,840 that you're not going to be you're not going to pursue your calling well if you're comfortable, 115 00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:28,220 so think about that in what various are you currently stepping out if you're not currently 116 00:11:28,220 --> 00:11:32,220 stepping out in any way, start figure out, write the areas down where you can start stepping 117 00:11:32,220 --> 00:11:35,740 out and becoming uncomfortable. 118 00:11:35,740 --> 00:11:39,260 How do you prepare yourself in the unexpected challenges in life? 119 00:11:39,260 --> 00:11:40,700 This is question two. 120 00:11:40,700 --> 00:11:45,680 Are you actively building a margin of endurance to help you face future obstacles? 121 00:11:45,680 --> 00:11:50,860 So if you aren't currently doing anything, this is write down two things that you can 122 00:11:50,860 --> 00:11:53,580 be doing that you can start doing. 123 00:11:53,580 --> 00:11:54,580 You can start doing today. 124 00:11:54,580 --> 00:12:00,420 You can start doing this week because like we said, the margin of endurance is not going 125 00:12:00,420 --> 00:12:04,340 to make things, it's not going to make the thing that you're going to be doing easier, 126 00:12:04,340 --> 00:12:10,380 but it's going to make you able to do it with a higher level of excellence. 127 00:12:10,380 --> 00:12:19,380 It's going to cause you to not want to quit as quickly. 128 00:12:19,380 --> 00:12:25,340 It's going to be able to give you a, it's going to be, I'm trying to use a different 129 00:12:25,340 --> 00:12:32,820 word other than endurance, but it's going to be able to give you a confidence that you 130 00:12:32,820 --> 00:12:35,580 can do it because you've already done other hard things. 131 00:12:35,580 --> 00:12:37,580 That's exactly what it is. 132 00:12:37,580 --> 00:12:38,580 You've already done this. 133 00:12:38,580 --> 00:12:39,580 That's why I'm doing this. 134 00:12:39,580 --> 00:12:41,980 I can look back on this and say, I already did something hard. 135 00:12:41,980 --> 00:12:45,100 I already went, I went to Uganda in pain. 136 00:12:45,100 --> 00:12:48,620 I was sat on a plane for 14 hours and maybe that causes a lot of pain. 137 00:12:48,620 --> 00:12:49,820 I did all of these things. 138 00:12:49,820 --> 00:12:54,940 I think about it that now, like I've been in, I go in, I'm in pain every single day 139 00:12:54,940 --> 00:12:57,940 and I can pull from that and I've already done that. 140 00:12:57,940 --> 00:12:58,940 I've already done that hard. 141 00:12:58,940 --> 00:13:02,660 I've already done these hard, I've already done hard things. 142 00:13:02,660 --> 00:13:04,900 I can do this. 143 00:13:04,900 --> 00:13:06,340 Right? 144 00:13:06,340 --> 00:13:11,140 It's all, it's a lot of it's mental. 145 00:13:11,140 --> 00:13:13,980 So if you aren't currently doing anything, write down two things you can be doing right 146 00:13:13,980 --> 00:13:16,100 now that you can be doing today. 147 00:13:16,100 --> 00:13:18,900 You can be doing next this week. 148 00:13:18,900 --> 00:13:24,380 All right, guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. 149 00:13:24,380 --> 00:13:31,060 I hope you got something out of this and if you liked it, share it out on social media, 150 00:13:31,060 --> 00:13:37,420 on Instagram, on Facebook, and don't forget to leave a five star review and on Spotify 151 00:13:37,420 --> 00:13:38,420 podcast. 152 00:13:38,420 --> 00:13:42,220 I'd also leave a comment on Apple podcast or Spotify. 153 00:13:42,220 --> 00:13:46,020 All right, guys, don't forget to pursue your calling. 154 00:13:46,020 --> 00:13:49,060 I'll see you next time.