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7: From Pain to Purpose
159 Plays3 years ago
Do you believe that God can transform your pain into purpose?
In this final episode of series one, Laura summarizes her story, shares the distinction between choosing your destiny and claiming your destiny, and describes several ways she can walk beside you as you travel through your own life's journey.
Seeking The Still Website: Seekingthestill.com
Seeking The Still Instagram: Instagram.com/seekingthestill
Seeking The Still Facebook: Facebook.com/seekthestill
Series sponsor Altered Ministries: https://alteredministries.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to Seeking the Still Podcast
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Seeking the Still is produced by Jill Devine Media. Season one is brought to you by Altered Ministries. Jane Patton and her team are transforming the lives of women and children all over the world, including orphanages, recovery homes, and more. Learn how you can support them and be part of these life changing ministries at AlteredMinistries.com.
Podcast Mission: Navigating Chaos with Connection
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Welcome to the Seeking the Still podcast with me, your host, Laura Fleetwood.
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In this safe space, we come together to seek the still amid chaotic lives. To get honest about what overwhelms us, to become connected to one another and to the divine. Just step into who we were created to be. Always real, never perfect, and forever on your side. The long and winding
Transformation Through Fear and Darkness
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The mystic tradition has this belief that in order to become who you were truly meant to be and in order to truly experience your divine purpose in life, you must walk through a dark night of the soul. You must experience
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and face head on your dragons and your deepest fears in order to gain the wisdom and gain the unity with the divine that is required to step into what God has for you. And I believe that to be true because I have seen it in my own life.
Laura's Breakdown and Realization of Purpose
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I never intended
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to share a story of a burnout and a breakdown. I never intended or thought that I would have a nervous breakdown. And I certainly didn't think that God would use that very thing, that deepest, darkest moment in my life to turn into what he wanted to do with the rest of my life.
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So often we tell our kids that they can choose their destiny. Well, you know what? I don't think that's true because we don't get to choose the battles that we face. We don't get to choose the experiences that happen to us. But what I do believe is true is that we can claim our destiny. We don't choose it. We claim it. We walk through the seasons because you cannot
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get out of a mess, you must walk through a mess. And what happens is we are redeemed, we are refined, we walk through that dark night of the soul and we are transformed by that very suffering. That suffering is what allows us to step into the purpose.
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for our life. And I know that to be true for me because just a few years after my breakdown, I stepped out onto a stage at church where the pastor normally stands. I looked at the beautiful
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faces of the women and girls who were in that audience.
The Birth of Seeking the Still Blog
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And I began to speak the truth about the darkest days of my life of laying in the fetal position on a bathroom floor, of walking into a mental health facility, of having to swallow pills every day just so I could get up and be the mom that my girls needed me to be. I never could have imagined
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that God would turn my pain into such amazing purpose. Because what happened is as I reentered the land of the living, I knew that I had to share
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what had been going on in my life. And I already had a blog called Seeking the Still. Seeking the Still was actually born on a winter day in February when my girls were little itty bitty. It had been a particularly rough winter in St. Louis. We had the winter blues. But this unexpected day, the sun was out, it was like 60 degrees, and it felt like just a little taste of spring that was still long off.
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I had stopped working in this season to be home with my girls and we had to sell a car of ours to make that happen. So we only had one car, Justin had the car at work. We couldn't even get out of the house that winter to go to the mall or do something to get out of the house. So this day, this unexpected day, I remember throwing open the sliding glass doors
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and running out into the yard and just twirling around and around and around. And I remember that sense of freedom. And my girls, not knowing what was going on, they followed me. And they started twirling around and around and around. And it was such freedom. And in that moment, I thought, you know what? I need to capture these days. I'm so busy always trying to make everything work and do the things I think a mom should do and have my kids do the things that I think they should do that
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I'm missing things. I just need to be still. And in that moment, Psalm 46 10 became my life first, be still and know that he is God. I immediately went in and created a blog called Seeking the Still. So originally you'll see my blog posts are all about being a mom, staying home and savoring those sweet moments.
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But when this breakdown happened and I began to get the sense that I was supposed to share it and write it, seeking the still became something totally different.
Embracing Suffering to Find Destiny
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Be still and know that I am God took on like such a deeper sense
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meaning it was to let go of control it was to sit in the middle of the suffering and know that he would redeem it it was to take the next right step and just show up to be still to see striving it became the mission of my life so I
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I did a 30 day writing challenge in 2015 where for 30 days I shared snippets on my blog about my breakdown and the healing that was taking place. And I did not know what to expect, but God sure did. Because what happened was I had women and girls and even some men come out of the woodwork saying, thank you for sharing because you know what, me too.
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And these were not people that you would have ever imagined struggled with anxiety, struggled with stress and overwhelm in their lives. But it was like an unleashing of, oh, just camaraderie and an unleashing of
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purpose in my life. And what happened from there forward is as I joined groups to continue my recovery, groups like Celebrate Recovery, which is a Christian 12-step program, groups like Fearless Women, which is led by my dear friend, Christy Boulware. It exists to provide resources for women and girls of faith who struggle with anxiety
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I found that there was such a need and this is what happens. Oh, it's so stunningly beautiful. When we walk through our darkness and you have to walk through it, you can't step out of it. You always have to walk through it. When we do that and we step into our divine purpose and we claim our destiny and we become who God created us to be
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It always intersects with a need that the world has.
Phasaurus Chapter House: Creative Ministry
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My story has been marked by special places all over the country that have inspired me and fostered the creativity that I needed to step into my purpose. And one of those places is the Phasaurus Chapter House in Jackson, Michigan.
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It's founded by Dr. David McDonald and he took this old Victorian home and he restored it and recreated it into the headquarters for Christian ministerial innovation. Dr. McDonald is one of the most fervent supporters of women in ministry that I know. I've had the honor of participating and staying at the chapter house
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being part of one of his retreats and in his women's online cohort. If you are in need of coming back to life, of being supported in a creative way by other people who get this passion that you have been given to bring hope to the world,
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check out the Phasaurus Chapter House. You can go to phasauruschapterhouse.com, F-O-S-S-O-R-E-S, chapterhouse.com and let them know that Laura sent you. So my story began intersecting with the needs of those around me and God kept putting
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groups and organizations and people in my life who had similar passions and similar goals, places like the Phosaurus chapter house in Jackson, Michigan, one of the sponsors of this podcast. And again, and again, and again, it was like these golden threads were connected and woven. And it's still happening to this day with this podcast. And God was saying, take your brokenness, Laura.
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and share it with the world because the world needs some hope. The world needs some authenticity, some vulnerability. Do not be ashamed of your story. For in your brokenness, when you were lost, you were found. And every darling, messy miracle living on this planet deserves to be found and deserves to know and experience that kind of freedom
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from their deepest, darkest pain.
Vision for Women Embracing Messy Lives
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So here's what I want you to know is that your pain, whatever it is, has a purpose. You can bet your bottom dollar on that. Your pain has a purpose, but you have to walk through it before you can be refined into that diamond that God wants to use you to change the world.
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You can share while you're going through it. You can. But oftentimes in the messy middle, you're still figuring things out and you're still working things out. But on the other side, opportunities
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will just start to show up and you can dismiss them. I've dismissed many of them. You can dismiss them as coincidences or what have you, or you can see them for what they really are, which is an appointment from the divine to step into your purpose that will impact your friend, your neighbor, the woman in the other state, the woman across the world,
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And I have a dream. I have a dream called a million messy miracles. And a million messy miracles is a dream where a million women and girls would rise up and
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they would confess the mess and they would claim the miracle of their life and step into the purpose that God brings out of that mess into the miracle. So stay tuned for more information about A Million Messy Miracles or you can go to Instagram and follow A Million Messy Miracles as we get that movement up and running.
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But out of my pain came all of these ways to share what I have learned. So I want to share a few of them with you because if this podcast has resonated at all, then perhaps our lives were meant to intersect.
The Calm 30 Program: Lessons from Breakdown
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The Calm 30 is a 30 day
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Program that you can sign up for on seeking the still where I send you a video every day for 30 days in the morning It's a short video. It's like three to five minutes, but I share the 30 truths that I learned through my burnout and breakdown I wrote them into a manifesto and the calm 30 shares them in a very relatable way it's the most effective way that I have found to share a
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the great lessons from this life that I use daily still to help me take the next step and to keep going and to keep on this journey of seeking the still.
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So there's a million messy miracles. There's the calm 30.
Joyful Memory Technique for Anxiety
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The twirl technique is also available to you. It is based on that moment when my girls and I ran out into that backyard and started twirling and twirl became the acronym that I use to teach girls and their moms how to communicate.
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through seasons of anxiety and stress, because the world doesn't give us a language for communicating these kinds of things. And twirl is the freedom to twirl through your anxiety using that acronym. And when you put it into practice, you're able to twirl together through whatever life throws at you.
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There's also tons of resources on seeking the still calm that are free. I speak at schools and churches and organizations all around the country now stand on that stage and get really
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open, honest, and real about the devastation that anxiety is having on this next generation. From my story, I have learned so many things that have helped my girls. And that is probably the thing I'm most thankful for that if there was any reason
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for me to go through what I have been through and that it would just change the trajectory of how I communicate with my daughters and the relationship we have and the honesty we have, the vulnerability we have, then it was all worth it. But we're not stopping there. We're not stopping with just impacting my family. These tools and this story are so relatable to so many women and girls
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all across the nation, all across the world. So the lessons that I've learned over these past six years have been born from pain, but they have been birthed into purpose. And there's one more that I want to share with you today, and that is coaching.
Calm Coaching Without Therapy
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calm coaching. One of the biggest gifts that God has given me is the ability to work one-on-one with women and girls through the amazing technology we have now. And I am not a psychiatrist. I'm not a counselor. I'm not a doctor. What I am is a fellow messy miracle who has traveled through the dark into the light and
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My goal when I work one-on-one with you is to help you get unstuck and to figure out what the next step is in your journey. And it would be my honor to work with you in that way. So those are just a few examples of ways that God has redeemed my story and turned it around to be a light to others. And I want to just extend the invitation to you.
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to check it out because I don't want any one of you to walk through this life struggling with anxiety and overwhelm and to think that you're alone or to think that there's no way through or to think that it's hopeless because it's not. Your journey will look different from mine, but oh my gosh, messy miracle.
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Gosh, is there a purpose for you? There is, and it would be the greatest honor of my life if I could, in some small way, walk with you through it and see you claim your destiny. Thank you for listening to season one of the Seeking the Still podcast. I've decided that I'm going to do many seasons because there's so many different topics that I want to share with you.
00:17:53
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These first seven are season number one and it's the story, my story. Season two will be released soon and the topic is yet to come, but please know that this has been such
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a treasure for me, that you would trust me enough to listen and to become part of what God is doing in this movement where we can seek the still in the chaos of life. Because when we do that, my friend, we start to get out of our own way and to truly live free. Be still.
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I mean, I don't know about you, but I always learn something and feel so much better and so much more relaxed after I listened to Laura. I'm Jill Devine, and as her producer, her coworker, and most importantly, her friend, I can tell you that she has some amazing resources to help you
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seek this still in your life. In fact, Laura would love to send you a completely free video master class that helps you learn how to twirl your way through your next difficult day. It's five short videos from Laura herself that will land in your inbox and in her calming voice, she'll explain what that acronym twirl means and how it will help you transform your hard days.
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All you have to do is text the word twirl to the number 55444.
Free Master Class with Twirl Technique
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These videos are perfect for the girls in your life too, so make sure you grab the free twirl master class while you can. Text twirl, that's T-W-I-R-L, T-W-I-R-L to 55444, that's 55444, or sign up for it at seekingthestill.com.
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you will be so glad you did. And make sure you've subscribed to Seeking the Still because Laura will continue her story and her journey with you in a new episode that launches every Wednesday. So again, subscribe to Seeking the Still on the podcast platform of your choice and then you will be notified when a new episode releases. But just know every Wednesday you will get a new episode and new inspiration from Laura.
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And she's gonna leave you right now with an inspirational quote.
Closing Thoughts with Theodore Roosevelt Quote
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It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error or shortcoming.
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But who does actually strive to do the deeds? Who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions? Who spends himself in a worthy cause? Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement? And who, at worst, if he fails?
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at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither knew victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt. Be still.