How do I shift from pain to purpose?
I teach and coach women that sometimes in life, we need to pause and step back into history to do a reflection or celebratory walk and speak truth all over our pathway. And this past week I stepped back on to the college campus of Central Michigan University with a fellow SpeakUp/Writer friend, Kim. We both had history here on this campus.
It will be a major anniversary date this month of when I stepped off this campus with my BA in education. Back then I pictured my life:
- With me being hired into a public school system
- Set up shop and teach for years in the SAME O school
- Live life to the best of my ability with teaching and eventually marry and start a family.
BUT, right before I held that diploma in my hand at CMU, like three months prior, God got me. Meaning that I surrendered my life to His hand and lead. I knew I was a sin-filled person and wanted true peace and purpose in life and knew it came through Him. He had been chasing me around at CMU and I final surrendered my pride and self-righteous ways. I wanted to know when I died, I would be with the Lord. Plus, I knew His ways would give me life, real life. So, once I held that BA in my hand it was, now what, GOD?
Never did I expect my pathway to go as it did. And I hear this often from women that I coach.
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I taught little loves in a brick & mortar Christian school. LOVED the kids, the families, and my colleagues!
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I also homeschooled using an online program with my three loves and a little girl.
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I taught children for about 18 years.
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Then God began His whisper to me, women, women, women, shift, shift, shift and His Word and His Way. Step out by faith, just step, Darlene.
- From standing at black chalkboards, to green chalkboards, white marker boards, to online classes without seeing faces, to now zoom, YouTube and GO Lives…a journey for sure by faith.
His Call. His way. Teach. Coach. Speak. Write. I do and I am. Four books out, two pending, and one in process…
So what ingredients has God given or allowed to stir my pot of purpose?
- The Teaching gift
- Discernment
- Wisdom
- His Word
- Tremendous emotional pain
- A mountain of Grief/Loss
- Multiple Life transitions in which, I DID NOT want many of them and yet, pain to purpose…
- My Life Purpose is Hearts with a Purpose
- Emotional Wellness
- Joy
Another major reason for being on campus was to cheer on a fellow speaker, author, and friend, Lisa. She was there to speak to campus leaders about Sexual Assault. She had been raped on campus a few years after I graduated. Lisa shared how crucial it is to live out our life purpose and to make a difference with our stories as she spoke to the college leaders!
Darlene, I really enjoyed reading this post. Much like you, I have experienced a lot of pain in the forms of abuse, abandonment, rejection, etc, And now, I am asking Holy Spirit to give me wisdom and insight as to how to turn all of that pain into purpose. My life,NOw is not what I had imagined it to be, but I am so grateful that my best days are ahead of me and God always uses a broken thing to make a Masterpiece! Again, I look forward to the New Life ahead of me and the many lives that will be impacted from my life as my pains turns into purpose. Abundant blessings, Tish
Hello Latisha, thanks for sharing. And this post was fun to write. And you are stepping to your call and I get to see how this will all unfold. He is faithful, so you keep doing all the good you are and by faith, step. WOO HOO…bless you!