Don’t Put Your Purpose in a Holding Pattern w/ Dr Joseph Walker

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Speaker 1: Calling all my sweetish to the forefront. I'm your host, Christ and this is the Keeping Positive Swish Show. Bishop Walker is widely known for his leadership, influence, and reach, but today's conversation is about the weight that comes with that responsibility, from stepping into leadership at a very young age to navigating faith, loneliness, marriage, and legacy. This is a chance to hear how he carries leadership beyond the pool pits and how he continues to go through it. Kiss family, please give a very warm welcome to the incomparable Bishop Joseph Walker. The third, How.

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Speaker 2: Are you, miss Great? I'm great, I'm here with you. Oh gosh, no, I'm excited.

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Speaker 1: When you hit me and said you got a new book, it was a no brainer. I wanted to have you on. I'm excited to finally have you on with us. I know that this is gonna blessing people. And your new book, Pursuit of Purpose Peace by Piece is literally you're the one who has pursued purpose and done it very well. So I'm excited to get into that. But before we dive into the book, I definitely want to talk to you about your journey. You started in the church at twenty four or your own church, Yeah, at twenty four years old? But before that, how did we get there?

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Speaker 2: Isn't it crazy?

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Speaker 3: Like?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 4: You know?

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Speaker 3: So I grew up in church in Louisiana and Streeport, and I was the first musician of drums in my church, and so we introduced the drums. My dad was like, you, you're gonna have to work and do well in school to play the drums.

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Speaker 2: So that was like an incentive thing for me.

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Speaker 3: And so, but I've always grown up in church and understood the nuances of church. Kind of a church kid, right, And so but I had in my mind like I was going to be a lawyer because my siblings had the two siblings and the judges. Another sibling was attorney. So for me, it was about law, law, law, law, law. And then then God like, okay, all right, that's what you want to do.

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna make God laugh. Tell them your plans right on.

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Speaker 3: And so twenty years old, Southern University under my paternity tree, and God's like, I need you do this, called me to preach.

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Speaker 2: I'm like, no, I'm running. No, I want to be the black matlock.

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Speaker 3: It got my sea a circle suit already ready, I'm ready to go to law school, been accepted, you know, and ended up pivoting for purpose. And at that moment I realized that God was calling me to do something much greater for me and to impact lives. And at twenty years old my life took that trajectory and went to Divinity School and started pastoring the church I Passion. Now at twenty four it was my first church and I've been there ever since.

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Speaker 1: And it went from how many was it?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was one hundred and seventy five people and now it's over thirty three thousand.

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Speaker 2: Isn't that crazy?

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Speaker 4: That is?

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Speaker 2: God be the glory to God, God Glory.

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Speaker 1: Man well, and you steward over it so well. My word for this year is stewardship, Yes, my personal word, and I want to talk about that, like when you were given something and God entrusted that in you for a twenty four years old but one hundred and seventy five people to now over thirty thousand people. What was that stewardship like for you?

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Speaker 2: You know a couple of things.

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Speaker 3: For me, one, I think it was about really understanding truly living out humility because you could never be a good steward if you're not humble, and when things are happening fast when you're young, you often attribute those things.

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Speaker 2: To I'm doing it. I'm doing it, you know.

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Speaker 3: And one of the times I heard God's voice so clear. We had moved to the World Baptist Center in Nashville. Our church was growing so and thousands that come. People thought the church was going to be swallowed up. This young preacher, it's a fad.

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Speaker 2: God did it.

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Speaker 3: Everybody left out and I stood that, like, God, we're doing this. And God was like, you're insignificantto the process. This is from my glory, my goodness, man, talk about humility.

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Speaker 1: Humble you real quick.

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Speaker 2: That was it. And I knew at that moment, like this is what it's about.

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Speaker 3: And the second thing that I think really blessed me in terms of stewardship in this whole process is in one of my prayers, I was praying to God about God, You're doing all these locations and you know, people around the world being blessed. He says, well, how high can I take you without losing you? Be sure, my goodness, deardship, how high can God take you.

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Speaker 2: Without losing you?

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Speaker 1: My goodness was there ever a moment where you felt like the altitude was getting too thick for you, where you were like all right, lord, yeah, like this is a lot yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, and you realize at that moment, right, you need him, You need counsel, You need community of people who operated at that level to help you navigate those spaces, because often when you're there, you're probably the first person in your own you know, and your own crew that's ever.

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Speaker 2: Gotten in that place. And so you your relationships.

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Speaker 3: Change, and the people that who've been cool with you at certain levels have to understand that relationships change because language changes. As a leader, language a different conversation at that altitude on the twenty seventh floor than it is in the lobby. Yeah, right, And so how to navigate those spaces are important.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, that's so good. Yeah man, my goodness, you're preaching to me already. That is so true. I know for me when it comes to like how you say, the language changes, the conversations changing. A lot of times we are the first ones in our group to go those places. But that's where our purpose comes in and understanding that at a young age, how were you able to identify Okay, God, I know that's what you want me to do. But now wait a minute, this is actually my purpose.

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Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, you know so for me, and I think I write about in the book. You know, I think purpose is is preordained. We don't really know it, but before we were born, God is at work. Right when my mother and our father meet each other, our grandparents meet each other. Before your grandfather shot and shot at your grandmother, God.

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Speaker 2: Was thinking about you. He was thinking about all that DNA, all those genes.

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Speaker 3: He was preparing the earth for you. So your rival is not an accident. Jeremiah says, before I form you in the belly, I knew you, right, So it was pre ordered. You come into the world with like this passion as a baby. It's passion. So you asked a young kid, what do you want to be? Firem an astronaut. It's all this passion, but it's not focused. It's like all this light, and so you take all that light and you focus that light.

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Speaker 2: It becomes a laser.

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Speaker 3: So that's that moment when you realize, when you're able to actually comprehend that something's different about you and God is pulling you into it, and that's when it gets clearer and clear and clear. And that's what purpose is. It's that thing that you don't choose, it chooses you. And the acceptance of that is it's offering a place of negotiation because you're trying to hold on to what is comfortable and you're like, well, God, can I have a few more years of just doing this? And God say no, because purpose and vision right for a moment a time and as a window, you have to move in that space. And I tell people all the time, you are born to solve a problem. Wow, And if you don't understand what that problem is, you become the problem.

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Speaker 1: What is that verse? You were born for such a time as.

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Speaker 3: This, Yeah, Right, for such a time as this. You have come into the kingdom. Right, and you recognize that the earth is waiting on your gifts to arise.

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Speaker 1: When you understand that, Gosh, Lord here for a reason and for this time. I think about, like what we're going through now. We were born to navigate these times and to help people through these times.

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Speaker 5: What what what do you think about your life that God would allow you to be alive at this season to do what you do in the midst.

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Speaker 2: Of all that's going on. Yeah, he thinks the world of you, he thinks something. You are a world changer. You are you know, you are a culture shifter.

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Speaker 3: You you have so much purpose, and what the enemy wants to do is tell you you have no value.

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Speaker 2: You know, your voice doesn't mean anything.

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Speaker 3: But when you walk squarely, unapologetically into that space, I don't get it twisted. This ain't this, ain't like I'm not walking around here arrogant.

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Speaker 2: I'm just confident. Yeah, don't confuse it.

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Speaker 1: Don't confuse it.

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Speaker 2: Confuse my confidence for arrogance.

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Speaker 3: I'm stepping into this role, walking to this place, saying this is where God wants me to be.

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Speaker 1: Yes, I love it. You said unapologetically. That is unapologetic is the theme of season ten. Oh gosh, so we're going to definitely use that.

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Speaker 2: Look.

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Speaker 1: So let's talk about this. This is book number fourteen fourteen books, Pursuit of Purpose, peace as in peace by peace. All right. I love how you did that. Now? What inspired this book and why? Now?

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Speaker 3: I looked over my life at all the various seasons and saw them as pieces of a puzzle, and individually those pieces, obviously some of them are not as pleasant as other as a very painful moments, loss's.

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Speaker 2: Frail, the things that we often go through.

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Speaker 3: And when I experience those things, I realized that when you understand why those things happen, the piece has happened. They were actually forming you into a place of creating or moving you to this place of purpose. And when you understand that, that's where peace comes. I have peace about what happened when Joseph says, you know the thing you thought even against me, God Man, it for my good. Like all those different pieces of my life, from the pit to the prison, all of it, I have peace about it. So I'm not going to be vindictive. I'm not going to be bitter because I can't walk in the fullness of my blessing if I'm bitter.

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Speaker 2: So that's kind of what inspired it.

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Speaker 3: And people really asking me over the years, like how do I understand my purpose? How do you arrive at it? And purpose does not come without pain.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about this. Yeah, it doesn't, because I think a lot of time you will see us living out our purpose and it looks amazing from this vantished one, right, but they don't understand everything we've gone through. You had a book leadership Loneliness. Yeah, and people don't understand what that that's right, and that there's pain that comes with it. Where you talk about betrayal, you talked about breathing. What are some moments as you were even writing this book that you had to relive and you were like, ooh, I have been through a lot.

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Speaker 3: I chapter ten. It's an interesting title. Seven thirty seven thirty five. I'm writing the book reflecting over the seven at the time I wrote it's seven hundred and thirty five funerals I had done, geez, and trying to process the fact that God has blessed me with this extraordinary memory and I can't unsee it.

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Speaker 2: I can't, I can't forget it.

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Speaker 3: So every time I have a funeral, I relive every funeral I've ever done.

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Speaker 2: Then kind of got a little.

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Speaker 3: Bit more focused around it and realized why was God showing me that? While I was writing it, I experienced loss as a spouse. I lost my first wife to Kansas, and then I lost my mother, so I lost I experienced it as a son. Then I lost recently my brother as a sibling, so as a spouse, as a son and a sibling, I begin to realize that most time I engage people in grief that in one of those spaces, either they've lost the spouse, they've lost a parent, they've lost a sibling.

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Speaker 2: And so I'm.

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Speaker 3: Gonna ask why why was I chosen to walk in that space? Because now I don't show up as this person who's got to figure out. I show up in my brokenness. I show up in a place of empathy. And I think what happens. People who lead well in purpose have a greater sense of empathy. Absolutely, we're not out here alienated from other people's pain.

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Speaker 2: The reason you're able.

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Speaker 3: To do what you do authentically because it comes from a place of your own personal experiences. And people don't realize that. They think you're just you know, you're reading the cliff notes. They don't realize know what you're talking about.

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Speaker 2: You've lived. And this is.

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Speaker 3: Why when you are presented, you know, this mortgage board of opportunities, you only a drone of that which is authentically you, right, right, you only like this algorithm. I can only do that that is authentically me. I can't do something that's not organic, because if I haven't lived it, it's hard.

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Speaker 2: To for sure.

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Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people kind of fall short when they start saying yes to a lot of different things that aren't in alignment.

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Speaker 2: That and that's the point, right, that alignment piece.

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Speaker 3: Because one of the things I one of the mistakes I made early on in ministry and in life's just saying yes to everything, not having any boundaries, just trying to you know.

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Speaker 2: And that's the thing about purpose.

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Speaker 3: If you don't really understand purpose, you try to manipulate the outcome. You want to manipulate the outcome, you get it. So you moved from hustle, you move to hustle versus honor. So yeah, you out here hustling when you should be. If you honor right, honor God, he'll he'll show you. But if you don't honor God and say God, what would you have me to do?

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Speaker 2: Right?

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Speaker 3: I lean out your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path.

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Speaker 2: That's honored. Yeah, But if I don't honor him, and I'm like.

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Speaker 3: I got it figured out, I got all these opportunities, what's going to happen is that you're going to crash out.

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Speaker 1: And that's a real thing. We're seeing. It is real.

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Speaker 3: And I believe you're a perfect example of it. That success is in sustainability.

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Speaker 2: If it's a God.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not empisodic.

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Speaker 2: It's not people told me, oh, yeah, you got this great church. Yeah, I'm thirty four years.

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Speaker 3: In christ goodness, and God continues to do it. I've seen him come and go right. And when you do what God tells you to do. I mind my business, staying my lane.

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Speaker 1: Yes, you do, you get it.

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Speaker 2: I don't bother nobody.

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Speaker 3: I just do my thing, keep my head down and keep my face to the clouds and say, God, just leave me and guide me.

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Speaker 2: And when you do that, and that's what the blessing is.

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Speaker 1: Yes, my goodness. Three pillars that were in this book were why am I here? Why did this happen? And what do I do now? And you talked about you, you ask God like why have I gone through all these things? But what is that pivot of why did this happen?

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Speaker 4: So?

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Speaker 1: What do I do now? What are those steps?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Why did it happen has a lot to do with I think understanding the peace. You never get peace until you understand why and what was it building in me? Like when I look at the scripture, why did this happen? To this person, what was it? What was God prepared? And I always say God is always preparing something for me. I was always looking at it like, but God, you're punishing me, chucks, you know why? I mean, you ain't got nobody else right, But He's no, I'm preparing you, and I'm allowing this to happen, to build something in you because I don't look at you in your actuality. I look at you in your potentiality. Everybody else sees in your actuality. That's why they give up on you in the wrong chapters. Wow, God always sees us at our potential, and so he's preparing us, not for out right now, but I not yet. And so for me, that's when I began to realize why this has happened. It was giving me resilience, helping me. I've been to school. I studied pneumatology, sociologist, psychology, epistemology, but I didn't know focology.

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Speaker 2: I did not know. Oh. I could have said that so many different ways. You know, I couldn't listen. You know what I'm saying. I listen.

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Speaker 1: Only life can teach you the goodness.

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Speaker 3: The Lord can help you navigate EQ and IQ navigating rooms, knowing people's agenda, having desernment. You know, those things are important that you don't know how to navigate those spaces.

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Speaker 2: And God will let you get hurt. Sometimes you'll let you walk into it.

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Speaker 3: So you say, Okay, I've been there before, so now I have you know, I kind of have a few boundaries as a result of that, and I've learned, and sometimes you have to go through that experience.

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Speaker 1: No, for sure. You're also a father of two beautiful children. Gosh, so I want to know, like, how do you implement these these principles into your children as they're growing up, because they have great examples and you and doctor Stephanie. So to have two amazing parents as you and doctor Stephanie, But what are you guys implementing into them daily?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Giovanni, you know she's thirteen, she's all into ballet, she is, She's just doing so many amazing things and both just incredible students.

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Speaker 2: Joseph seven.

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Speaker 3: And one of the things that Steph and I have decided to do is take that scripture literally train up a child and the way they should go when they're old, they will not depart from it. And the way we read that scripture is train up a child and the way they're leaning. Like they're telling you, don't try to impose your wishes and thoughts and your visions on your children.

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Speaker 2: Find out which way they're leaning, and then train them. Put the energy toward that.

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Speaker 1: I love that.

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Speaker 2: You get it. Like my son man. He loves music, he loves baseball, he loves my son likes writing. Really, my son has written books. Listen to me. I came in.

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Speaker 3: He's seven years old, and he wrote, he writes these books, and he stay, comes and asks me to staple them, puts a cover on him, stacks him up. His project for school was a book about his dad, you know, and I was Mud. My hero was my dad. He went through looking at all the people that were famous. He said, I know what I'm gonna do, Mom, I'm gonna.

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Speaker 2: Talk about dad. And he said, the.

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Speaker 3: Best part of this book is that he's my dad and you couldn't tell him nothing.

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Speaker 2: God, I was Mud.

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Speaker 3: But the idea that he's leaning toward, that he likes to read and he loves math. We invest in where they're leaning. We don't try to push them. I'm not this pastor who's like my son gonna be my successor.

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Speaker 2: No, no, son, do you. I'm not about the way for you to grow up? Do you?

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Speaker 3: I want my daughter to do herself. She's coming into her own. She loves ballet and she's very bright. So we're just going to continue to cultivate that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that. I love that. Outside of your pastoral duties, you are also in astute businessman and a lot of people don't. Like they look at you and they're like, what else does he do? You head in so many different fires, And I just want to touch on that because it a lot of times. I mean, you're an entrepreneur as well. How did you know? Like, Okay, these are the things I want to tap into.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm glad you asked that question.

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Speaker 3: And I think that one of these I tried to dress in the book is purpose is never one dimensional?

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Speaker 2: Yes? Never? Yes.

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Speaker 3: Purpose is like once you walk squalling the purpose, then God begins to show you all these other things that come from that. Never let people type set you into one thing. That's how they'll ever deal with you. So when you walk into that purpose, God will starts showing you. Okay, is this thing now called the energy of synergy? All the energy I put out must connect to the actual purpose. If it doesn't connect to the purpose, I can't do it.

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Speaker 2: I don't have the energy for it.

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Speaker 3: But everything I do connects back, connects back. Every book I write, every production I do, everything I do has to point back to the same initial purpose elevating people, bringing people their destiny.

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Speaker 2: Everything I do, I can't do anything.

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Speaker 3: You know, people ask me all the time, can you be on the board of you know the uh, you know, there's the board for you know this or that or that. I'm like, you know, I just that doesn't It's a great I'll give money to it, but it doesn't it's not in the synergy of what I'm doing.

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Speaker 2: Everything has to align with purpose.

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Speaker 3: And so all the things that I'm passionate about doing, being an author, step and not having a production company, all these things we do have a lot to do with it has to align with.

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Speaker 2: The main thing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, keep the main thing, the main thing that is true. Yeah, love that because a lot of times I feel like pastors can get types it as you say, like you can get stuck.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, stuck in one thing. I'm just gonna preach that's what I do. That's what I do.

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Speaker 2: I'm like, there's so much more.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes the people that want you to just do that.

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Speaker 2: Man, I'm like, no, I mean I love you. I love you.

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Speaker 3: I do commencement addresses, I teach leadership stuff for corporations. I'm just all over the place. I just want to maximize. For me, it's about living full.

00:20:23
Speaker 2: And dying empty. Wow.

00:20:25
Speaker 1: I love that.

00:20:26
Speaker 2: Live full man.

00:20:27
Speaker 3: And die empty. LEAs nothing on the table. Got everything you have given me I left it in New York.

00:20:32
Speaker 1: Yes, I love that. With the mini hats that you carry, a big part of this platform is mental health, and a lot of times when it comes to religion and therapy, there's this huge economy where it's like we don't want to put the two together, we want to keep the separation. Yes, how do you feel about that? And with everything that you're carrying, is that something that you've had to lean on as well?

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Speaker 4: Oh?

00:20:52
Speaker 2: Yeah? Quite often?

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Speaker 3: And our church and as you know, we we we really stress the partnership. But between faith and clinical counsel and mental health, it's so important. And I think that this whole stigma that's placed on mental health, I think we should be well beyond that.

00:21:11
Speaker 2: Particularly a lot.

00:21:12
Speaker 3: Of the trend of mental health stuff. We're seeing all the different pressures and people are under I think now we should normalize mental health, and I think that we should help people get the health that they need. For us and for me, I've had to deal with it with the loss of experience. You know, my first wife passed away. I went to therapy. I talked about it publicly. You know, Stepani, we go to therapy together. We counselor the couples about therapy.

00:21:36
Speaker 2: I preach about therapy.

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Speaker 3: I when I look at texts, when I preach Crystal, and you know this, I preach from a I call it a psycho social theological perspective. Always say, you know, what's happening in the mind of this person, and then what's happening in the culture in.

00:21:53
Speaker 2: Which they are having to exist, and what is God saying about it?

00:21:57
Speaker 3: You know, everybody preaches about the one with the issue of blood, and that's wonderful story.

00:22:01
Speaker 2: But what could potentially be happening in.

00:22:04
Speaker 3: Her mind to be in this place of obstracism, to be a woman with an issue in that culture Psychologically when she finally gets to Jesus in the Bible, so she pressed her away. People often assume it was because of the crowd, and it was, But what did she have to press through before she got to the crowd. You don't realize what people pressed through before they even got to the church. Listen to me, you get it. That's the real pressing, just to wake up, show up, I'm trying to tell you. And so I think that's where I believe. You know, for me, purpose is the path to destiny. And if a person understands their purpose, that's what gets you up. Yeah, my wive is what gives me up, Crystal, my wife, why I exist. That's what gets me up in those days when I'm foggy. My lord, that's what makes me go talk to therapist.

00:22:55
Speaker 2: That's what makes me put.

00:22:56
Speaker 3: If you talk to someone, I can pray for you to give you scriptures, but you got to talk to because you understand your why. The enemy is going to always try to attack that, and that's what pushes you to that place.

00:23:06
Speaker 2: That's how we did with that.

00:23:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. I lost my mother at a very young age, and I recently told this story about how he took me to my aunt's house his sister and dropped me off and said, I cannot take care of her, like I can't raise the little girl by myself. You gotta do it. And he went home and he said the next when he got home, he said, I'm coming to get her tomorrow when I get off work. And she said, well, what happened? And he said, it was as if God himself sat in the car and said, go get her and I will help you take care of her. She said, Crystal, for the three years that you didn't have a mom or a mother figure in your life, you would have never known it because your hair is perfect, you were dressed perfect every single day. She's like, it was just like, clearly there's a woman there. I mean, of course he had his younger sister came and stay with us, she said, But the fact that he was able to do that, but then he found love again. I want to talk about the grief and when you knew that it was time because God blessed you with doctor just said, man, yeah, yeah, how did you navigate three years?

00:24:03
Speaker 4: Man?

00:24:03
Speaker 2: Three years? Will being.

00:24:06
Speaker 1: That years?

00:24:07
Speaker 3: Three years and the Lord has were doing things in threes three days, But uh, three years of navigating singleness and I had to go back. Honestly, and humorously. I had to go back and tell my church I'm sorry, all the single people, I'm sorry. I told y'all it wasn't that bad out here until I realized it was a jungle.

00:24:27
Speaker 2: Even then, let me tell you something.

00:24:29
Speaker 3: Listen, there's a thin line between the voice of God and mental health.

00:24:34
Speaker 2: I'm gonna just lead that right there. I'm gonna leave that right there. Okay, I'm gonna listen.

00:24:41
Speaker 3: Now, many times I heard the Lord told me, right the Lord, I just talked to him.

00:24:49
Speaker 2: He didn't tell them God, what's up now?

00:24:53
Speaker 3: But but three years man, three years man, three years of walking this path, praying, and I remember sitting in my home throwing my hands up and saying, God, I resigned.

00:25:09
Speaker 2: I give up on trying.

00:25:11
Speaker 3: It's crazy out there, yeah and loud. Did I know while I'm saying the same thing, Stephanie is in Boston saying the same things. I'm at a conference that following weekend teaching leaders. Meet a guy I never met before. He's you know, I'm talking to leaders in Florida. He walks up to me and says, and I'm a little leary of this. Sometimes he says, you know, the Lord told me here'll be going.

00:25:36
Speaker 2: Again with what the Lord say.

00:25:38
Speaker 3: Okay, but the Lord told me that, you know, I am to help facilitate finding your wife.

00:25:43
Speaker 2: And I think I know who she is. I said, sir, my name is Joseph Walker. But I you know, but this medic guy was so so genuine.

00:25:52
Speaker 3: It's such an awesome kind man out of Boston and Bishop Borders and he's such John Borders, an amazing man.

00:26:01
Speaker 2: And I said, okay, I'll give it a chance.

00:26:04
Speaker 3: So he then gets back he hadn't told Steph this at all.

00:26:08
Speaker 2: Steph's on faculty at Harvard. She's doing her things.

00:26:12
Speaker 1: Girl, first purpose is about married up, hear me.

00:26:19
Speaker 2: I knew my purpose. Y'all better understand this. But let me tell.

00:26:22
Speaker 4: You this girl is here doing it. And she goes to his church and you know where her pastor told her the next Sunday.

00:26:34
Speaker 2: You're not gonna believe he told her.

00:26:35
Speaker 3: He said, yeah, come in the office, you know, And she's with a boyfriend at the time that ain't him.

00:26:45
Speaker 1: In front of him that thank God him, she told her.

00:26:51
Speaker 3: He told her that's not him. And then a course weeks later, you know, and she kind of knew that was the case.

00:26:58
Speaker 2: I know just you know, so you know, hey, I want you know what, you know, I like you to I got somebody coming in town. I like you to meet.

00:27:06
Speaker 3: She's thinking because she said the hell policy, maybe it's somebody like that.

00:27:10
Speaker 2: And then I'm like in Nashville, like, yo, can you send me a picture?

00:27:14
Speaker 1: Right?

00:27:14
Speaker 6: You know, I'm a guy, right what I'm walking into what? I don't date by faith, I date by sight anyway, so listen. So so yeah, so he goes back to her and says, well.

00:27:30
Speaker 2: Do you have a picture or something?

00:27:31
Speaker 3: And so she's kind of feeling the weird out about this, like why my pastor?

00:27:36
Speaker 2: It hits her he's trying to send me up.

00:27:38
Speaker 3: So she's like this person and of course, you know, he tells her like you know, I'm a pastor, and he's like, oh no, no, no, no, she doesn't want no parts of it.

00:27:49
Speaker 2: Watch this work.

00:27:50
Speaker 3: Watch how this this comes full circle?

00:27:52
Speaker 2: Right?

00:27:53
Speaker 3: So then she finally, you know, yields to having a conversation and we talk, come to realize, we talk in and come to realize that she attended Mount Zion when she was a Vanderbitter UNDERGRADU We had never met.

00:28:10
Speaker 1: What but she was a student.

00:28:12
Speaker 3: She and God would have it that we had never because we had met. It would have been a rap. Right we had never met, she'd come, get the word and go back. So now we're talking, we're connecting. One day we're on the phone. I have a list of all the things I asked God for a woman. She has a list, not knowing I didn't know that. Let's read our list. We're both on the phone, like you gotta be.

00:28:32
Speaker 1: Kidnamed the same thing.

00:28:35
Speaker 2: Straight down, down down. Met her in May. We started talking like in early June. By September I put a ring on it.

00:28:43
Speaker 3: Hannah, what was the three months? Because when you know, God be doing things in threes with me. When you know, you know, you know, don't play with it. You don't play with purpose God. And so God brought us together for purposes greater than I say. I love.

00:28:59
Speaker 2: Play with it can't be right here. Put people in a holding path. You don't put purpose in the holding path. When it's real. You got to land that plane.

00:29:08
Speaker 1: Landed.

00:29:09
Speaker 2: Come on, it's clear for landing. Some that you clear for land landing.

00:29:15
Speaker 1: That's the season playing. You not play with me land a plane landed? No, I said, this year is gonna be my year. I feel it.

00:29:26
Speaker 2: I believe it.

00:29:26
Speaker 1: I feel it. I feel it, and it ain't gonna it. Don't take all it.

00:29:30
Speaker 2: Don't take all that when you know, you just know.

00:29:33
Speaker 1: I love that. And here we are, how many years later?

00:29:36
Speaker 3: Man?

00:29:36
Speaker 2: Fourteen years later?

00:29:37
Speaker 1: Goodness?

00:29:38
Speaker 2: Isn't that a blessing?

00:29:39
Speaker 1: And I just love everything y'all do together.

00:29:41
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:29:42
Speaker 1: What was the book that you guys wrote together?

00:29:43
Speaker 2: Oh, becoming a couple of Destinies?

00:29:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, becoming a couple of destiny?

00:29:47
Speaker 3: Man, and you know the crazy thing. And it's sixteen years and becoming a couple of destiny. And God has blessed that book. And God has blessed our you know, our our our YouTube podcast together, a couple of destinies. We're doing things together there and it's a blessing, so man, I'm telling you. And she's a real superstar with that. Now she's dropping gems on a couple of destiny. Yea, check it out.

00:30:09
Speaker 1: She's just like, y'all gave me that. Y'all gave that to us when we came to your house.

00:30:14
Speaker 6: And I remember, like I'm like, yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.

00:30:17
Speaker 1: That book was crazy. Any couples read read that book.

00:30:23
Speaker 2: YouTube.

00:30:24
Speaker 1: So I love that with pursuit they can get this now.

00:30:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, get that anywhere.

00:30:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's out. But what are some things that you want people to take away when they get through this book?

00:30:34
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:30:34
Speaker 3: So I want you to understand that you know, your life has never been a series of accidents, but they've been incidents that have really directed you.

00:30:41
Speaker 2: Towards true purpose.

00:30:42
Speaker 3: And don't look at life as this big casualty. Look at it as it was all caused by God to push you to a place you otherwise would have never gone. Recognize that you are unique and walk in that uniqueness of who you are. Recognize that God, fearful and wonderfully made you. He knew everything about you when he called you. You don't have to tell him all your shortcomings.

00:31:05
Speaker 2: He knew that.

00:31:06
Speaker 3: But when God annoys you, he annoys originals only.

00:31:10
Speaker 2: Not copies.

00:31:12
Speaker 3: Wow, and always come to a place where you recognize, live it, and do it for Him. Because whatever you do in purpose, I always tell people if, and I said in the book, if you do it for the applause of people, if their applause becomes your oxygen, you will suffocate in their silence.

00:31:33
Speaker 1: That is so true that people.

00:31:36
Speaker 3: Can't handle when the applause stops because they don't know what. I don't need their affirmation. I have his confirmation, and I understand how to navigate various seasons of purpose and continue to revent and evolve and re imagine what God wants me to do. And purpose is an amazing thing, and you look at it, look back over your life, and you begin to realize, God, you chose me to do something to get extraordinary. And I am humbled and grateful that every piece of it has mattered. All the heartbreak, all the setbacks, all the false promises, all the crazy stuff I had to go through. I tell you this, Crystal. Every time I fly a plane, you know what I do. I always look for the pilot.

00:32:18
Speaker 2: Know why. I'm trying to find out how many stripes he got? Really, you know why?

00:32:22
Speaker 3: Because if you got one little stripe and he's the pilot, what's going to happen through a storm? Ladies and gentlemen begin through this storm. It's my first time, y'all. Pray we'll get through it together.

00:32:34
Speaker 2: I can't do that. I need to better with full stripes, because that means he's got a lot of flight hours.

00:32:39
Speaker 3: Yes, and sometimes people look at us. We don't realize the stripes we have. You want people who can help you navigate those spaces, and the people that can help you navigate those spaces of people that have cast some stripes, people that have been through some things because of what we've gone through. God does not just let purpose stop with us. It's about He used us for the benefit of others. Every day I wake up, Lord, let my life be a gift to someone else.

00:33:06
Speaker 2: Let my story be for your glory. Come on, that's it.

00:33:10
Speaker 1: Ultimately, Yeah, my goodness, that is so good and it's so true. For New Year's I brought it in. I was watching church and I just started reflecting. I feel like New Year's Eve was all was the time of reflection for a lot of people, and unlest my friend, I was like, do you realize that we're chosen? And I was like, how humbling is it that God literally said you and you I want to build you up for my kingdom and you're gonna get to do all these amazing things and impact all these people because I know I can trust you to be trusted by him. And I was like, man, I was like, just put everything my whole life into perspective in that moment.

00:33:49
Speaker 3: To be chosen, and to be chosen before the foundations of the world, that that was a moment that you had to emerge.

00:33:57
Speaker 2: And the enemy knew it.

00:34:00
Speaker 3: Me knew Moses was chosen. That's why he tried to kill him. Jesus was chosen. He tried to kill him, Yes, and.

00:34:05
Speaker 2: He knew you were chosen, and all the things. He couldn't kill you, but he tried to get you to kill yourself. He tried to get you tor self. But the devil is a lie.

00:34:12
Speaker 3: He is you just keep walking and what God told you to do and all this stuff, now, all these attacked God's got that I've learned.

00:34:20
Speaker 2: Man, I let God my battles. I'm like, I'm chosen. I'm walking her that because he will save his anointance. Yes, yes, yes.

00:34:30
Speaker 1: Goodness, I'm so grateful for the day that I sit next to you in first class.

00:34:37
Speaker 2: Do I ever remember that day? Yes?

00:34:40
Speaker 1: So, I was styling Tyler at the time, and I was coming from doing something with him, and I sat next to you, and I knew you because I had I was going to Bischapallins Morton's church and I was like, oh my goodness, mis Walk and then what's your name? Jenny Stevens The works a Demon Natasha. She introduced us. I was like, yeah, I sat next to him. I got his book. But I'm so grateful for moments like that because you just never know who God will put you in the presence of. And you have continued to cover me ever since through life, and how God has continued to take me on this ride. You've been there every step of the way of my ascensions. So I want to say thank you, thank you so much. I'm proud of you. Everybody, please go get the book Pursuit of Purpose Peace by Peace Mischu. Thank you so much, John, thank you for the opportunity. Yes, absolutely, Okay. So this is from Brionna Butler, and she says, how do you stay motivated and focused when things aren't progressing as quickly as you would like?

00:35:44
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, so I think you have to believe in what God showed you.

00:35:51
Speaker 2: Vision for me, Purpose of me kind of works this way.

00:35:54
Speaker 3: I agonize first in me deeply, I know what's something I'm supposed to do, and then I visualize it. And the visualization part is when you see it. Visions for the point of time. So you have to constantly keep your focus on that vision, regardless of the distractions of setbacks. Never forget what God show you, right, and then that's the visualization for me, then goes to I visualize and I strategize.

00:36:20
Speaker 2: That's the board, the white board, and then I organize.

00:36:22
Speaker 3: Right.

00:36:23
Speaker 2: But I think sometimes when you're organizing a thing and you say, okay.

00:36:27
Speaker 3: I strategized and I'm organized and I'm mobilized, why not monetized?

00:36:33
Speaker 2: That's how it works. Where is monetizing much more? Do I need to strategize?

00:36:40
Speaker 3: Right? And you can, and you have to realize you never forget the visualization because it is for an appointed.

00:36:47
Speaker 2: Yes that part and all it.

00:36:50
Speaker 1: Takes is one thing and suddenly and suddenly and you're.

00:36:54
Speaker 3: Thinking, like, well, I've done this and done all the things about God's like, no, I'm going to show you what I do.

00:37:00
Speaker 2: No man or woman can do for you. Yeah, It'll be one moment, one situation.

00:37:04
Speaker 1: And you'll know it's nobody but Him.

00:37:06
Speaker 2: You got.

00:37:07
Speaker 1: It's so true, trusted. I love that when I look at my life period just in the vision that I had to be where I am today, and it took ten years from moving to Atlanta to getting the first TV show. If I had allowed the setbacks and things not moving at the pace that I thought they should be moving, I would have missed it. Really, we wouldn't be sitting here today.

00:37:27
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, you know, yes.

00:37:31
Speaker 1: I kept my eye on it even when people didn't see it, because a lot of times people don't see what God has placed in your heart, that vision that God has given you. People like, okay, girl, you you okay, I understand you dream, but this is a little too far fetched, and I'm like, no, I can do this. And my parents always said you just believed you could do anything, and I did.

00:37:51
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right, that's hot.

00:37:53
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I was talking today. I do what I call like a TikTok update or whatever life update, and I was telling people that a lot of times during that preparation period where we feel is like God's not moving fast enough. He's preparing us, because sometimes we think we're ready for something and we're really not. We're not ready and don't give it to it, honey. Because I thought I was ready for a husband. I was not get mad. I was like, you are not ready, girl, Because I was a lone single too long. I think there's a such thing too where you get used to being by yourself, And for me, I was like, yeah, I was stuck. He's like, we gotta have to I got to such things around and rework this this mindset of yours. But yeah, I do feel that anytime things are kind of slow cooking, that's always the best.

00:38:38
Speaker 3: One's always best, and when it shows up said, yeah.

00:38:43
Speaker 1: You will know me. And Brenda Palmer's quote for this season of Our Lives or this year is and suddenly about it because God is doing things and suddenly it'll feel like it's taken forever. And then suddenly God be like it's time and you're like, whoa, Yeah, but you'll be ready. That's so true, Brihanna, You'll be ready. So that's hanging there. I love it, vis, thank you, appreciate it absolutely. Is there anything that we can support you and we're gonna go by the book? Anything else?

00:39:13
Speaker 2: Okay? Yeah?

00:39:16
Speaker 1: Yes, make sure we follow you and you can watch online it if you live in Nashville, you're looking for a church home now, Zion baby, come on over. Yes, I love it, well, thank you, yes, sir, I appreciate it. Wow, that was such a meaningful conversation and a reminder that leadership isn't just about strength, it's about honesty, care, and knowing when to pause. Thank you guys so much for tuning in to another episode of The Keep It Positive Swedy Show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who might need it right now. And it's always stay blessed, to stay encouraged, and remember to keep it pauses suity. I'll see you guys next time.