July 29, 2025 • 23 mins
Description:
Ever feel like your life is too messy to lead anything meaningful? You’re not alone.
In today’s raw and timely episode, Jim Burgoon gets honest about what it really looks like to lead, create, and build when your behind-the-scenes life feels like chaos. From chronic illness and burnout to self-doubt and spiritual fatigue, Jim unpacks why your imperfections don’t disqualify your mission—they may actually refine it.
This one is for the leader who’s still healing. The entrepreneur who’s still battling. The creative who’s still showing up even when it hurts.
“God isn’t waiting for your life to be polished before He puts purpose on your shoulders.”
🔑 Episode Highlights:
- Why your mess doesn’t disqualify your mission
- The trap of “performance perfectionism” in Christian entrepreneurship
- Jim’s personal story of podcasting through a chronic illness flare
- The biblical truth: God moves in the middle, not after the mess is cleaned up
- What to do when your emotions tell you to quit
- Reframing leadership as alignment over adrenaline
- Encouragement for leading in weakness, not pretending to be whole
🙌 Scripture Anchors:
- Galatians 6:9 — “Let us not grow weary in doing good...”
- Judges 6 — The story of Gideon, called while hiding
- Exodus 3 — God meets Moses in exile
- Daniel 3 — The fourth man in the fire (God shows up in the middle)
✨ Faith-Driven Application:
- You’re not too broken to be used by God
- You don’t need to wait until you’re “ready” to start
- Biblical leaders led from the middle of their battles—not after the victory parade
- It’s okay to rest. But don’t quit what God has called you to.
🧭 Multipassionate Moment:
If you’re a creative with too many ideas and not enough energy—this episode reminds you that clarity doesn’t come from control—it comes from trust. Lead what you can, with what you have, from where you are.
🎁 Resources & Links:
- 🔗 Join the Newsletter: www.leadwithjim.com/nl
- 💬 DM “MESSY” on Instagram/Threads to @leadwithjim for a personal word of encouragement
- 🎙️ Catch more episodes + extras: www.leadwithjim.com
📣 Connect & Engage
- Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio
- Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
- Share this episode with a friend
- Subscribe, like, and comment on YouTube
- Join our newsletter → www.leadwithjim.com
🎙️ Got a question? Leave a voice message at
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
If you have ever looked atyour life and thought, how can I
show up powerfully?
How can I create?
How can I be the entrepreneurthat God called me to when behind
the scenes my life is a mess?
And something I've learnedover the years is that God doesn't
wait for you to put your lifetogether before he puts his purpose
(00:20):
on your shoulders.
So with that all being said,let's dive in today's episode.
Welcome to Online Business forChristian Creatives, the show that
helps you build a businessthat honors God, fuels your creativity
and actually pays the bills.
I'm your host, Jim Burgoon,leadership coach, Faith first, entrepreneur,
(00:42):
and a guy who's made justabout every mistake so you don't
have to let's get into it.
Welcome back to the show wherewe're here to speak to the Christ
centered leader, creator andentrepreneur who is building something
of importance, something ofimpact, even if it's messy.
(01:03):
And today you may be askingthe question, can I still lead the
mission God has put on myheart when I feel so unqualified,
when I feel so overwhelmed,when I just feel broken?
Well, I'm here to tell you,yes, you can.
Because leading when it feelslike a mess is exactly where we see
God showing up the most.
(01:23):
Because let's be honest, myfellow Christ centered leaderpreneurs
and creators and you're notalways going to live on the mountaintop.
Now I know we want to.
I know we want everyexperience to be a mountaintop experience.
But that's not where we live.
That is not where we see Godthe most.
In fact, most of your leading,most of your creating, most of where
you're going to do yourmission will be on the middle grounds,
(01:45):
will be in the place of the margins.
You know, you're going to befeeling business stress, you're going
to have marital strain, you'regoing to have home struggles.
Maybe you have an illness likeI do.
We'll unpack some of that today.
There's, there's going to besleepless nights, there's going to
be inner battles.
There's going to be timeswhere you're going to pray and you're
going to continue to pray,hoping for breakthrough.
But it may take a while forthat breakthrough to come.
(02:06):
These are the places where thewar is at the strongest, you know,
because we do need to speak onspiritual warfare.
These are the places where youare going to make the most impact
and these are going to be theplaces where you feel the most underqualified.
But guess what?
People are looking at you forthe impact you bring for the story
(02:26):
you have.
Because remember, you may, youand I may not be perfect.
As a matter of fact, I'm goingto go ahead and say we are not perfect,
but we serve a perfect God.
And it's in the story of howGod is bringing you through, breaking
you through, pushing youfurther, keeping you sustained, when
you just want to give up.
That's the stories of hope,that's the stories of breakthrough
(02:47):
that people need to see fromboth you and I.
If they're going to do thisthing called life, if they're going
to build whatever God's calledthem to build, they need to see God
working in other people's lives.
Not the polished version, notthe perfected version, but the active
version where God is workingin con, in tandem, in partnership
(03:08):
with you and I.
As we go through stuff, we seethe very nature and letters God is
writing to the rest of theworld stamped on us as we move forward.
And I know there's a lot oftimes where we think to ourselves,
am I too messy to be a leader?
Am I too broken to be an entrepreneur?
Can I really create from thisplace of just not knowing what to
(03:31):
do, feeling so unqualified?
But let's flip the script.
What if your mess isn't meantto disqualify you, but to refine
you?
What if your mess isn't reallymeant to just derail you?
Right?
What if this is the very thingthat God is using to build you?
The very things that are atthe core of why we need to go through
(03:51):
these to become the personthat God wants us to become, the
creator, entrepreneur, leaderthat God has been trying to deter,
trying to make you into, butwe've been running from it because
we try to be busy over, tryingto be faithful.
And in the midst of running,God's like, hold on, you've got a
mess and you've got a challenge.
Because this will end up beingyour greatest message.
(04:13):
But before it becomes yourgreatest message, I've got to throw
you through the refiner's fireso that it becomes your greatest
challenge.
Because remember, when we'rein the fire, God is purifying, God
is strengthening us.
So that.
That.
That thing that we're goingthrough, that challenge, that feeling
unqualified, becomes thegreatest message that God has written
(04:34):
on our hearts.
So as we dive into thisepisode, I really want to start off
by telling you, you have thepermission to be human.
This is our call out to beimperfect, doing something with a
perfect God.
This is us saying we're not afraud because we're struggling.
I think we need to hear thatmore often because in, when you're
in entrepreneurship and youread all of these things on social
(04:56):
media, you see all thesepeople that their challenge or whatever
they're going through is neverreally, it's very vague, it's very
general, that never reallydives into what they're really going
through.
They're just like, why wentthrough something hard so that I
could show up and sellsomething to you?
And we get this almostnegating of, okay, I don't care what
(05:16):
did you go through?
But they don't want to showyou what's going through because
they don't want to be humanenough to show weakness.
Because I was once told by amentor that if show your weakness,
nobody buys from you.
And then I'm really in themidst of now saying, I want you to
see my weakness and I want youto see how I'm working through it
so that you can gain theplaces that I've gained, that you
(05:37):
can win in the places I'vewin, so that I can shorten and collapse
that lifespan of, you know,trials and tribulations to a shorter
period of time because I'vebeen through the hardships, I've
been through the things thatyou're trying to get to.
So I think we do a disserviceas a Christ follower.
You know, we, we shouldn'tfollow the world.
We do a disserv service to thepeople we're trying to reach.
(05:58):
When we try to be too perfect,too polished, that we think our struggles
are disqualifying us.
No, my friend, your struggleis the very thing that's qualifying
you for the people you'remeant to reach.
And there's this place in uswhere we want to be cultural.
But I'm going to tell you thehonest truth.
You're not called to becultural, you're called to be biblical.
(06:20):
And as a Christ followingChristian, you are called to the
life of the Bible.
You're called to be, you know,in Peter, it talks about, you know,
being countercultural.
And if you're going to mimicor mirror the culture, then you're
not being biblical.
You have to stand out.
So if everybody's doing it,you may want to ask yourself, is
this what God wants me to be doing?
(06:41):
And we need to bring back tothe biblical truths.
Jesus had tears in his eyes.
You know, the shortest Bibleverse, Jesus wept.
David led through fear, Paulled through chains.
You know, there was all ofthese Bible people that Led in these
really tough situations, youknow, David and the lions, then Shad,
(07:02):
Shadrach, and I can never saytheir names.
I'm always like, you know, thethree guys in the fernery, the, the
fire.
And in the fire there was a fourth.
That's in the book of Daniel,Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
There you go, I said it right, Cool.
Anyway, but that's.
They were in a furnace whenGod showed up.
But nobody led from a place ofcompletely healed, Completely, you
(07:25):
know, apart from any struggles.
They led in the midst of theirstruggles, they led in the midst
of their challenges.
And God showed up powerfullybecause they showed up available
because I want you to thinkabout this.
If God only used clean andcomposed, if God only used healed
and moving forward, then youand I would never make the cut.
We would never make the cutsfor usable people in the kingdom
(07:47):
of God if that was all thatGod's looking for.
I oftentimes says like, I feelso broken and under qualified for
even a third of what God callsme to and where who I'm able to impact.
But even in that brokenness, Isee so much life change and I see
so much transformation becauseI show up with the message God put
in me that people draw to that message.
(08:08):
Because remember, we'redrawing them to Christ, not ourselves.
And, and in that, throughtears, through pain, through a lot
of different challenges, if weshow up, guess what?
We can be used by God in great ways.
So I would just almostencourage you to quit telling yourselves
you're not good enough.
Quit telling yourselves thatyou can't do this.
(08:29):
Quit telling yourselves all ofthese lies.
Just say to yourselves, Godcalled me.
I'm going to show up and we'lljust see what happens.
Because the reality of it isyou're not leading from a hypocritical
place.
You're leading from a place of courage.
You're saying I'm got allthese things going on that I'm just
going to show up.
That's courage, guys.
To call it what it is.
Be encouraged, my friends,because you're.
(08:50):
You're doing it from a placeof courage because you're doing it
afraid you're doing it inspite of the imposter syndrome.
What if people found out?
You know what?
Let's hope they do, becauseyou're a lot better than you think
you are.
So the second thing we have todo is we have to make sure that we're
putting our mission over our mood.
Let's just face it, guys, wecould Be moody.
We could be absolutely moody.
(09:11):
And we think that our feelingsare what dictate our truth.
And that's not the case.
Truth and feelings aren't thesame thing.
Your truth can be true nomatter how much it feels bad, no
matter how much it throws you off.
Truth is truth.
I mean, if you think about it,Jesus says, I am the way, the truth
and the life.
But if you get to a place whenhe says I am the truth, Christ is
(09:33):
living.
So we understand that truth isthe living Christ.
It's the embodiment of, of whoChrist is.
So the reality of it is factsdon't care about your feelings.
Truth is an interest in howyou perceive or feel it.
What truth does is truth showsup regardless of what you feel.
So we've got to understandthat it's okay to feel.
(09:56):
Your feelings are valid.
But your feelings should neverover overshadow what the truth is
and should never overshadowthe word.
It should never overshadowwhat you're here to do.
Because the other thing wehave to understand is, is feelings
change.
Number one is they change often.
They change really often.
Number two is that we put moreemphasis on a feeling than we should.
(10:19):
And we've got to back off thefeeling and understand that your
feeling is fleeting.
It is going to change.
A lot of times what you feelis just the interpretation of the
truth that you ex.
You experience.
And because of that, you, yourfeelings can be wrong.
And I know there's got to besome really major maturity because
people don't want to hear thatyour feelings are wrong.
(10:39):
They may be valid, but theymay not be right.
So let's get to that place.
And the other part of that isyour feelings aren't your morality.
Like we can't, you know, getinto this conversations of morality
and ethics based on what you feel.
It has to be based on truth.
Now, as a Christian, webelieve the truth is the Bible.
Now let's dive into this alittle bit because there's part of
(11:01):
you that your feelings arescreaming to you quit.
Your feelings are screaming toyou because you have no energy.
Your feelings are screaming toyou not to get out of bed.
Your feelings are screaming toyou that every bone in your body
is telling you're not cut outfor this.
But that's not correct.
If God's called you to it, youare cut out for it.
Now you may not be the personthat can handle it.
(11:23):
Yet when Gideon was called, hewasn't the person to be able to handle
it.
Right.
God found Gideon in A wine press.
And we know that the threshingfloor in the wine presses.
He was cowarding in there,trying to hide and save his life.
And yet he, God showed up andsaid mighty man of valor to Gideon.
Listen, when God shows up inyour life and says, mighty man of
(11:43):
valor or mighty woman ofvalor, it doesn't mean that's who
you are now.
It means that God is speakingto a future reality of you, that
he's going to put you throughthe threshing floor to get you there
there.
He's going to put you throughthe refiner's fire to get you to
that place.
But you have to go through thechallenge to get to the promise.
And then this is where it getsinto the rubber meets the road.
Especially for Christ followers.
(12:05):
Obedience is not a feeling,it's a decision.
Obedience is not a feeling,it's a decision.
It's a place where if God'scalled me to it, then I decide to
do it every day, regardless ofhow I feel.
Let me give you a story evenleading up to doing this episode.
Last week, I had a flare, amajor flare.
Like, I have chronic illness.
(12:25):
I don't know what flavor ofchronic illness I have because the
doctors have been gaslightingme for 15 years.
Only recently did I have anANA positive, which says something
I've been telling them for 15years I've got a problem and I've
got a strong family historyand genetics of said problem.
But it's been, it's been thiswhole, your blood work doesn't show.
(12:46):
So therefore we won't say.
But here's the deal.
Just because the blood workdoesn't show it yet doesn't mean
it won't.
But I experienced the symptomsof it, and the symptoms are getting
worse.
So last week I have this major flare.
I don't want to get out of bed.
Most days I stayed in bed.
There was some point of lastweek, I think there was three or
four days where I almost wentto the er.
(13:07):
Now I didn't, but I probablyshould have.
But I chose to ride outcertain things and that's a different
conversation.
But that's how the level ofwhat I was experiencing, the level
what I was feeling.
And I almost did not recordthis episode for this week.
But I know that God's calledme to podcast what God's called me
(13:27):
to speak, to communicate.
Now, here's the thing, guys.
There were a lot of timeswhere I could not physically do anything
last week.
But this week, today wasactually the first day today I'M
recording this Monday.
This should go out on Tuesdaythe 29th.
I'm recording this on the 28th.
That today I had a break wheremy flared is basically low, like
(13:51):
I'm not flaring anymore.
And I had enough energy torecord this.
And I want you to understandthis particular thing.
Even if I put my recording outa day late, I will record every week,
regardless of my illness.
The, the.
The goal is to record four orfive episodes.
That way if I have a majorflare, it doesn't miss.
(14:12):
But here's what it is.
I didn't have the ability todo that over the last couple months
because of the way my illnessis, but that's where it is.
I have to make the decision in health.
I'm doing this.
I'm doing this because this iswhat God's called me to.
But I'm also taking care of my body.
I rest it for multiple hoursbefore recording.
But God isn't looking for me to.
(14:33):
To bow out and hit the belland quit because my mess is too big.
He's saying, can you trust mein the places of the mess in order
to get the message out.
And I trust them.
And to end through it all, Itrust them.
And today I'm able to recordnow, I couldn't have predicted this.
I couldn't have said, oh, Iwill record on Tuesday, regardless.
(14:54):
No, I'm going to say, God, Itrust you.
And today I'm not flaring.
And here I am recording for you.
So we think leadership isabout momentum, but it's not.
It's about alignment.
You're aligning what you'recalled to.
You're aligning to God's voice.
You're aligning your values,you're aligning your assignment.
And you're going into windowsof opportunity.
(15:15):
And if you're dealing withsome chronic illness, autoimmune,
like I am, then you go intothe places, the times when you feel
better.
You record the times you don't.
You rest and take care of your body.
If you're a place of strongemotional or mental challenges, illnesses
and things, you record whenyou're in stable condition and you
take a rest when you're not.
(15:37):
Find the ebbs and flows in thereal and the rhythm.
But if you're called, nothingwe go through is ever an excuse never
to show up for our call.
We just have to show up differently.
We don't show up like theworld does.
We ask holy Spirit, how shouldI show up?
Because this is about not.
This isn't about adrenaline.
This isn't about hustle, thisisn't about hype.
(15:58):
It's saying that God spoke.
I trust him.
I'm going to show upirregardless of the mess that's going
on inside or behind the scenes.
Because it comes down to justbeing faithful, remember?
Because we're trying to befaithful and we're trying to do faithfulness
in the midst of this amazingmess, this life.
(16:18):
Call.
When life lives, when life.
We're gonna.
We're still gonna just trustGod and show up.
And if you wait untileverything is calm, if you wait until
everything is okay before youact on your calling, you'll miss
the moment, you'll miss thewindow, and then you're more.
You live in.
I like to call this.
You live in the place ofapology, not in the place of action.
(16:39):
We want to be proactive and doit when we're able, in the windows
of opportunity we're given.
So we're not living in theplaces of always apologizing for
what God's called us to.
No, we're showing up.
And even if you are recordingthree, four, five, six, seven weeks
out, you're still showing up powerfully.
Why?
Because you're living infaithfulness and you're looking for
(17:00):
windows, opportunity whenyou're stable and healthy and healing
to be able to do it, not whenyou're whole.
Because if we wait it untilwe're completely healed, we would
never do anything.
Matter of fact, we would neverbe able to show up because we would
be disqualified if we werecompletely okay.
Or rather, if we werecompletely waiting to be okay.
(17:21):
It's okay not to be perfectand it's okay to show up broken.
It is not okay to quit unlessGod tells you it's time to move somewhere
else.
So you just got to lead fromwhere you are.
You got to lead from a placeof who you are.
And even if it does, even ifyou don't feel like an entrepreneur,
you get up and you.
(17:41):
You are one, so you create.
You don't feel like a leader.
You are one, so you lead.
You don't feel like you'regoing to be able to pour out.
You show up and you do whatyou can continually fill your cup
up so you're never pouringfrom an empty cup.
But show up, be faithful, anddo all that God's called you to,
no more, no less.
And I promise you that Godwill show up with you in tandem and
(18:04):
you will have everything youneed and the time you need it, because
it's the time he's called youto it.
And as we close this episodeout, I want to give you some.
Some good biblical thoughtprocess here is God moves in the
middle.
We talked about that.
But so let's think about this.
And these are just examples.
Moses didn't get therapy andspeaking coaches before he went in.
I mean, we look at Moses andMoses was standing before God, and
(18:27):
God, he was like, but I can't speak.
And he.
And God didn't say, well, goget some speaking coaches and go
get the therapy for everythingyou experience in Egypt and all that
before you can go, no, hesaid, let's go.
Matter of fact, he called himin the fact when God called Moses,
the bush was burning.
I think he almost may needtherapy for that, because who not
(18:48):
be crazy or at least thinkthey're crazy if they're seeing a
burning bush with a voicecoming out of it.
But even so, the reality of itis is God didn't tell him he needed
to therapy for a while orspeaking coach.
God said, go, and I'm with youand just speak.
Now, I am very much big on therapy.
I have a therapist and I'm bigon speaking coaches.
(19:09):
I coach speaking a lot of times.
But you don't need thosethings as a prerequisite to do what
God's called you to.
Now, I do say get out thereand focus on healing as you go.
So as you're going andtrusting God to do the thing, get
yourself a therapist if youneed it, as you're going.
But that first step should beyes and amen, not hold up and let
(19:32):
me go ask.
Let me go get some coaches first.
The second thing is, like, youlook at David.
David was in the field, andGod called him in the field when
he was invisible to the world.
So don't wait.
Don't worry about all.
You need to be out there withall of this pomp and circumstance
and you need to go viral.
No, David was basicallytrained and, and matured in the places
(19:55):
where he was invisible.
And God showed up with him onthose mountains and he wrote psalms
and he became this king.
So you realize that in theplaces where you feel invisible,
God is shaping you for whenyou become visible.
Just go out and do what God'scalling you to do.
Let me tell you this last story.
I remember when I waspastoring, I pastored for a while.
It was a church plant.
And I remember sitting in myprayer time and I said, God, I said,
(20:18):
hey, do you.
You know, you could havecalled anyone more qualified than
I.
Like, I struggled with this a lot.
This was the first time I ever pastored.
I said, there are so manypeople that are more qualified.
I said, do you see my life?
Do you see what's happeningbehind the scenes?
There's just too much going on.
You could pick anyone.
And I felt the Holy Spirit sayto me, he says, you're right, I could
(20:38):
have.
He said, but I didn't pickanyone because I picked you.
And even though there weremore qualified people, I'm not interested
in their qualifications.
I'm interested in you becomingqualified in the place I've put you.
So it really comes back tothis place, is God could have called
anybody, but God chose you forwhat you're doing.
(20:58):
So start acting like it.
Take that on, grab that, holdthat, make that part of you and move
into it.
Stop acting like it belongs tosomeone else.
It's your own anointing, your assignment.
Grab it, hold it, and move in it.
Because here's what you and Ineed to understand.
It's the very things that makeyou, you know, the very things that
we're going through is whatmakes you relatable, what makes you
(21:20):
credible, what makes youpowerful in the eyes of the people
you're called to reach.
Your message is the soil whereyour mission grows roots.
So don't discharge yourmessage as if it's nothing but, or
it's just, you know, you wantto hide it.
Be proud of what God's doingin the midst of it and how God is
redeeming your story.
(21:40):
That's really what it comes down.
So as a reminder, you don'thave to be healed to be helpful.
You don't have to be perfectto be powerful.
You don't have to be fullyready to be radically obedient.
You don't have to have it alltogether to be successful in whatever
way you define success.
You just have to be faithfuland you have to show up.
(22:02):
God isn't looking for your perfection.
He's looking for your participation.
He's not looking for you to behyper qualified.
He's just looking for you tobe available.
Let that all sink in.
And if that's you, I couldjust tell you, that's enough.
You are enough.
Just show up and say, yes,God, Amen, God, and let's move forward
(22:23):
and move it in perfectly andjust do it.
Just do it.
And so, with that being said,if this all hit home, I want to invite
you to join the mailing listwhere there's four, a little over
400 people on this mailing list.
I'm going to send youinformation that isn't found in in
these episodes.
It's just extra deep dives.
Maybe some biblicalunderstanding on how to be an entrepreneur
(22:45):
in business, in life, as acreator, if you want to get in there.
Www.leadwithjim.com forward/nlfor newsletter that's pretty clever,
right?
It will be in the show notes,so you could just make it a little
clicky click and then headover there and drop your info in
it and let's be friends.
So for that being said, keepleading, keep creating.
Even if it's messy, becausethat's what you're called to.
(23:08):
So show up, show out, and letGod show through you.
If you have ever looked atyour life and thought, how can I
show up powerfully?
How can I create?
How can I be the entrepreneurthat God called me to when behind
the scenes my life is a mess?
And something I've learnedover the years is that God doesn't
wait for you to put your lifetogether before he puts his purpose
(00:20):
on your shoulders.
So with that all being said,let's dive in today's episode.
Welcome to Online Business forChristian Creatives, the show that
helps you build a businessthat honors God, fuels your creativity
and actually pays the bills.
I'm your host, Jim Burgoon,leadership coach, Faith first, entrepreneur,
(00:42):
and a guy who's made justabout every mistake so you don't
have to let's get into it.
Welcome back to the show wherewe're here to speak to the Christ
centered leader, creator andentrepreneur who is building something
of importance, something ofimpact, even if it's messy.
(01:03):
And today you may be askingthe question, can I still lead the
mission God has put on myheart when I feel so unqualified,
when I feel so overwhelmed,when I just feel broken?
Well, I'm here to tell you,yes, you can.
Because leading when it feelslike a mess is exactly where we see
God showing up the most.
(01:23):
Because let's be honest, myfellow Christ centered leaderpreneurs
and creators and you're notalways going to live on the mountaintop.
Now I know we want to.
I know we want everyexperience to be a mountaintop experience.
But that's not where we live.
That is not where we see Godthe most.
In fact, most of your leading,most of your creating, most of where
you're going to do yourmission will be on the middle grounds,
(01:45):
will be in the place of the margins.
You know, you're going to befeeling business stress, you're going
to have marital strain, you'regoing to have home struggles.
Maybe you have an illness likeI do.
We'll unpack some of that today.
There's, there's going to besleepless nights, there's going to
be inner battles.
There's going to be timeswhere you're going to pray and you're
going to continue to pray,hoping for breakthrough.
But it may take a while forthat breakthrough to come.
(02:06):
These are the places where thewar is at the strongest, you know,
because we do need to speak onspiritual warfare.
These are the places where youare going to make the most impact
and these are going to be theplaces where you feel the most underqualified.
But guess what?
People are looking at you forthe impact you bring for the story
(02:26):
you have.
Because remember, you may, youand I may not be perfect.
As a matter of fact, I'm goingto go ahead and say we are not perfect,
but we serve a perfect God.
And it's in the story of howGod is bringing you through, breaking
you through, pushing youfurther, keeping you sustained, when
you just want to give up.
That's the stories of hope,that's the stories of breakthrough
(02:47):
that people need to see fromboth you and I.
If they're going to do thisthing called life, if they're going
to build whatever God's calledthem to build, they need to see God
working in other people's lives.
Not the polished version, notthe perfected version, but the active
version where God is workingin con, in tandem, in partnership
(03:08):
with you and I.
As we go through stuff, we seethe very nature and letters God is
writing to the rest of theworld stamped on us as we move forward.
And I know there's a lot oftimes where we think to ourselves,
am I too messy to be a leader?
Am I too broken to be an entrepreneur?
Can I really create from thisplace of just not knowing what to
(03:31):
do, feeling so unqualified?
But let's flip the script.
What if your mess isn't meantto disqualify you, but to refine
you?
What if your mess isn't reallymeant to just derail you?
Right?
What if this is the very thingthat God is using to build you?
The very things that are atthe core of why we need to go through
(03:51):
these to become the personthat God wants us to become, the
creator, entrepreneur, leaderthat God has been trying to deter,
trying to make you into, butwe've been running from it because
we try to be busy over, tryingto be faithful.
And in the midst of running,God's like, hold on, you've got a
mess and you've got a challenge.
Because this will end up beingyour greatest message.
(04:13):
But before it becomes yourgreatest message, I've got to throw
you through the refiner's fireso that it becomes your greatest
challenge.
Because remember, when we'rein the fire, God is purifying, God
is strengthening us.
So that.
That.
That thing that we're goingthrough, that challenge, that feeling
unqualified, becomes thegreatest message that God has written
(04:34):
on our hearts.
So as we dive into thisepisode, I really want to start off
by telling you, you have thepermission to be human.
This is our call out to beimperfect, doing something with a
perfect God.
This is us saying we're not afraud because we're struggling.
I think we need to hear thatmore often because in, when you're
in entrepreneurship and youread all of these things on social
(04:56):
media, you see all thesepeople that their challenge or whatever
they're going through is neverreally, it's very vague, it's very
general, that never reallydives into what they're really going
through.
They're just like, why wentthrough something hard so that I
could show up and sellsomething to you?
And we get this almostnegating of, okay, I don't care what
(05:16):
did you go through?
But they don't want to showyou what's going through because
they don't want to be humanenough to show weakness.
Because I was once told by amentor that if show your weakness,
nobody buys from you.
And then I'm really in themidst of now saying, I want you to
see my weakness and I want youto see how I'm working through it
so that you can gain theplaces that I've gained, that you
(05:37):
can win in the places I'vewin, so that I can shorten and collapse
that lifespan of, you know,trials and tribulations to a shorter
period of time because I'vebeen through the hardships, I've
been through the things thatyou're trying to get to.
So I think we do a disserviceas a Christ follower.
You know, we, we shouldn'tfollow the world.
We do a disserv service to thepeople we're trying to reach.
(05:58):
When we try to be too perfect,too polished, that we think our struggles
are disqualifying us.
No, my friend, your struggleis the very thing that's qualifying
you for the people you'remeant to reach.
And there's this place in uswhere we want to be cultural.
But I'm going to tell you thehonest truth.
You're not called to becultural, you're called to be biblical.
(06:20):
And as a Christ followingChristian, you are called to the
life of the Bible.
You're called to be, you know,in Peter, it talks about, you know,
being countercultural.
And if you're going to mimicor mirror the culture, then you're
not being biblical.
You have to stand out.
So if everybody's doing it,you may want to ask yourself, is
this what God wants me to be doing?
(06:41):
And we need to bring back tothe biblical truths.
Jesus had tears in his eyes.
You know, the shortest Bibleverse, Jesus wept.
David led through fear, Paulled through chains.
You know, there was all ofthese Bible people that Led in these
really tough situations, youknow, David and the lions, then Shad,
(07:02):
Shadrach, and I can never saytheir names.
I'm always like, you know, thethree guys in the fernery, the, the
fire.
And in the fire there was a fourth.
That's in the book of Daniel,Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
There you go, I said it right, Cool.
Anyway, but that's.
They were in a furnace whenGod showed up.
But nobody led from a place ofcompletely healed, Completely, you
(07:25):
know, apart from any struggles.
They led in the midst of theirstruggles, they led in the midst
of their challenges.
And God showed up powerfullybecause they showed up available
because I want you to thinkabout this.
If God only used clean andcomposed, if God only used healed
and moving forward, then youand I would never make the cut.
We would never make the cutsfor usable people in the kingdom
(07:47):
of God if that was all thatGod's looking for.
I oftentimes says like, I feelso broken and under qualified for
even a third of what God callsme to and where who I'm able to impact.
But even in that brokenness, Isee so much life change and I see
so much transformation becauseI show up with the message God put
in me that people draw to that message.
(08:08):
Because remember, we'redrawing them to Christ, not ourselves.
And, and in that, throughtears, through pain, through a lot
of different challenges, if weshow up, guess what?
We can be used by God in great ways.
So I would just almostencourage you to quit telling yourselves
you're not good enough.
Quit telling yourselves thatyou can't do this.
(08:29):
Quit telling yourselves all ofthese lies.
Just say to yourselves, Godcalled me.
I'm going to show up and we'lljust see what happens.
Because the reality of it isyou're not leading from a hypocritical
place.
You're leading from a place of courage.
You're saying I'm got allthese things going on that I'm just
going to show up.
That's courage, guys.
To call it what it is.
Be encouraged, my friends,because you're.
(08:50):
You're doing it from a placeof courage because you're doing it
afraid you're doing it inspite of the imposter syndrome.
What if people found out?
You know what?
Let's hope they do, becauseyou're a lot better than you think
you are.
So the second thing we have todo is we have to make sure that we're
putting our mission over our mood.
Let's just face it, guys, wecould Be moody.
We could be absolutely moody.
(09:11):
And we think that our feelingsare what dictate our truth.
And that's not the case.
Truth and feelings aren't thesame thing.
Your truth can be true nomatter how much it feels bad, no
matter how much it throws you off.
Truth is truth.
I mean, if you think about it,Jesus says, I am the way, the truth
and the life.
But if you get to a place whenhe says I am the truth, Christ is
(09:33):
living.
So we understand that truth isthe living Christ.
It's the embodiment of, of whoChrist is.
So the reality of it is factsdon't care about your feelings.
Truth is an interest in howyou perceive or feel it.
What truth does is truth showsup regardless of what you feel.
So we've got to understandthat it's okay to feel.
(09:56):
Your feelings are valid.
But your feelings should neverover overshadow what the truth is
and should never overshadowthe word.
It should never overshadowwhat you're here to do.
Because the other thing wehave to understand is, is feelings
change.
Number one is they change often.
They change really often.
Number two is that we put moreemphasis on a feeling than we should.
(10:19):
And we've got to back off thefeeling and understand that your
feeling is fleeting.
It is going to change.
A lot of times what you feelis just the interpretation of the
truth that you ex.
You experience.
And because of that, you, yourfeelings can be wrong.
And I know there's got to besome really major maturity because
people don't want to hear thatyour feelings are wrong.
(10:39):
They may be valid, but theymay not be right.
So let's get to that place.
And the other part of that isyour feelings aren't your morality.
Like we can't, you know, getinto this conversations of morality
and ethics based on what you feel.
It has to be based on truth.
Now, as a Christian, webelieve the truth is the Bible.
Now let's dive into this alittle bit because there's part of
(11:01):
you that your feelings arescreaming to you quit.
Your feelings are screaming toyou because you have no energy.
Your feelings are screaming toyou not to get out of bed.
Your feelings are screaming toyou that every bone in your body
is telling you're not cut outfor this.
But that's not correct.
If God's called you to it, youare cut out for it.
Now you may not be the personthat can handle it.
(11:23):
Yet when Gideon was called, hewasn't the person to be able to handle
it.
Right.
God found Gideon in A wine press.
And we know that the threshingfloor in the wine presses.
He was cowarding in there,trying to hide and save his life.
And yet he, God showed up andsaid mighty man of valor to Gideon.
Listen, when God shows up inyour life and says, mighty man of
(11:43):
valor or mighty woman ofvalor, it doesn't mean that's who
you are now.
It means that God is speakingto a future reality of you, that
he's going to put you throughthe threshing floor to get you there
there.
He's going to put you throughthe refiner's fire to get you to
that place.
But you have to go through thechallenge to get to the promise.
And then this is where it getsinto the rubber meets the road.
Especially for Christ followers.
(12:05):
Obedience is not a feeling,it's a decision.
Obedience is not a feeling,it's a decision.
It's a place where if God'scalled me to it, then I decide to
do it every day, regardless ofhow I feel.
Let me give you a story evenleading up to doing this episode.
Last week, I had a flare, amajor flare.
Like, I have chronic illness.
(12:25):
I don't know what flavor ofchronic illness I have because the
doctors have been gaslightingme for 15 years.
Only recently did I have anANA positive, which says something
I've been telling them for 15years I've got a problem and I've
got a strong family historyand genetics of said problem.
But it's been, it's been thiswhole, your blood work doesn't show.
(12:46):
So therefore we won't say.
But here's the deal.
Just because the blood workdoesn't show it yet doesn't mean
it won't.
But I experienced the symptomsof it, and the symptoms are getting
worse.
So last week I have this major flare.
I don't want to get out of bed.
Most days I stayed in bed.
There was some point of lastweek, I think there was three or
four days where I almost wentto the er.
(13:07):
Now I didn't, but I probablyshould have.
But I chose to ride outcertain things and that's a different
conversation.
But that's how the level ofwhat I was experiencing, the level
what I was feeling.
And I almost did not recordthis episode for this week.
But I know that God's calledme to podcast what God's called me
(13:27):
to speak, to communicate.
Now, here's the thing, guys.
There were a lot of timeswhere I could not physically do anything
last week.
But this week, today wasactually the first day today I'M
recording this Monday.
This should go out on Tuesdaythe 29th.
I'm recording this on the 28th.
That today I had a break wheremy flared is basically low, like
(13:51):
I'm not flaring anymore.
And I had enough energy torecord this.
And I want you to understandthis particular thing.
Even if I put my recording outa day late, I will record every week,
regardless of my illness.
The, the.
The goal is to record four orfive episodes.
That way if I have a majorflare, it doesn't miss.
(14:12):
But here's what it is.
I didn't have the ability todo that over the last couple months
because of the way my illnessis, but that's where it is.
I have to make the decision in health.
I'm doing this.
I'm doing this because this iswhat God's called me to.
But I'm also taking care of my body.
I rest it for multiple hoursbefore recording.
But God isn't looking for me to.
(14:33):
To bow out and hit the belland quit because my mess is too big.
He's saying, can you trust mein the places of the mess in order
to get the message out.
And I trust them.
And to end through it all, Itrust them.
And today I'm able to recordnow, I couldn't have predicted this.
I couldn't have said, oh, Iwill record on Tuesday, regardless.
(14:54):
No, I'm going to say, God, Itrust you.
And today I'm not flaring.
And here I am recording for you.
So we think leadership isabout momentum, but it's not.
It's about alignment.
You're aligning what you'recalled to.
You're aligning to God's voice.
You're aligning your values,you're aligning your assignment.
And you're going into windowsof opportunity.
(15:15):
And if you're dealing withsome chronic illness, autoimmune,
like I am, then you go intothe places, the times when you feel
better.
You record the times you don't.
You rest and take care of your body.
If you're a place of strongemotional or mental challenges, illnesses
and things, you record whenyou're in stable condition and you
take a rest when you're not.
(15:37):
Find the ebbs and flows in thereal and the rhythm.
But if you're called, nothingwe go through is ever an excuse never
to show up for our call.
We just have to show up differently.
We don't show up like theworld does.
We ask holy Spirit, how shouldI show up?
Because this is about not.
This isn't about adrenaline.
This isn't about hustle, thisisn't about hype.
(15:58):
It's saying that God spoke.
I trust him.
I'm going to show upirregardless of the mess that's going
on inside or behind the scenes.
Because it comes down to justbeing faithful, remember?
Because we're trying to befaithful and we're trying to do faithfulness
in the midst of this amazingmess, this life.
(16:18):
Call.
When life lives, when life.
We're gonna.
We're still gonna just trustGod and show up.
And if you wait untileverything is calm, if you wait until
everything is okay before youact on your calling, you'll miss
the moment, you'll miss thewindow, and then you're more.
You live in.
I like to call this.
You live in the place ofapology, not in the place of action.
(16:39):
We want to be proactive and doit when we're able, in the windows
of opportunity we're given.
So we're not living in theplaces of always apologizing for
what God's called us to.
No, we're showing up.
And even if you are recordingthree, four, five, six, seven weeks
out, you're still showing up powerfully.
Why?
Because you're living infaithfulness and you're looking for
(17:00):
windows, opportunity whenyou're stable and healthy and healing
to be able to do it, not whenyou're whole.
Because if we wait it untilwe're completely healed, we would
never do anything.
Matter of fact, we would neverbe able to show up because we would
be disqualified if we werecompletely okay.
Or rather, if we werecompletely waiting to be okay.
(17:21):
It's okay not to be perfectand it's okay to show up broken.
It is not okay to quit unlessGod tells you it's time to move somewhere
else.
So you just got to lead fromwhere you are.
You got to lead from a placeof who you are.
And even if it does, even ifyou don't feel like an entrepreneur,
you get up and you.
(17:41):
You are one, so you create.
You don't feel like a leader.
You are one, so you lead.
You don't feel like you'regoing to be able to pour out.
You show up and you do whatyou can continually fill your cup
up so you're never pouringfrom an empty cup.
But show up, be faithful, anddo all that God's called you to,
no more, no less.
And I promise you that Godwill show up with you in tandem and
(18:04):
you will have everything youneed and the time you need it, because
it's the time he's called youto it.
And as we close this episodeout, I want to give you some.
Some good biblical thoughtprocess here is God moves in the
middle.
We talked about that.
But so let's think about this.
And these are just examples.
Moses didn't get therapy andspeaking coaches before he went in.
I mean, we look at Moses andMoses was standing before God, and
(18:27):
God, he was like, but I can't speak.
And he.
And God didn't say, well, goget some speaking coaches and go
get the therapy for everythingyou experience in Egypt and all that
before you can go, no, hesaid, let's go.
Matter of fact, he called himin the fact when God called Moses,
the bush was burning.
I think he almost may needtherapy for that, because who not
(18:48):
be crazy or at least thinkthey're crazy if they're seeing a
burning bush with a voicecoming out of it.
But even so, the reality of itis is God didn't tell him he needed
to therapy for a while orspeaking coach.
God said, go, and I'm with youand just speak.
Now, I am very much big on therapy.
I have a therapist and I'm bigon speaking coaches.
(19:09):
I coach speaking a lot of times.
But you don't need thosethings as a prerequisite to do what
God's called you to.
Now, I do say get out thereand focus on healing as you go.
So as you're going andtrusting God to do the thing, get
yourself a therapist if youneed it, as you're going.
But that first step should beyes and amen, not hold up and let
(19:32):
me go ask.
Let me go get some coaches first.
The second thing is, like, youlook at David.
David was in the field, andGod called him in the field when
he was invisible to the world.
So don't wait.
Don't worry about all.
You need to be out there withall of this pomp and circumstance
and you need to go viral.
No, David was basicallytrained and, and matured in the places
(19:55):
where he was invisible.
And God showed up with him onthose mountains and he wrote psalms
and he became this king.
So you realize that in theplaces where you feel invisible,
God is shaping you for whenyou become visible.
Just go out and do what God'scalling you to do.
Let me tell you this last story.
I remember when I waspastoring, I pastored for a while.
It was a church plant.
And I remember sitting in myprayer time and I said, God, I said,
(20:18):
hey, do you.
You know, you could havecalled anyone more qualified than
I.
Like, I struggled with this a lot.
This was the first time I ever pastored.
I said, there are so manypeople that are more qualified.
I said, do you see my life?
Do you see what's happeningbehind the scenes?
There's just too much going on.
You could pick anyone.
And I felt the Holy Spirit sayto me, he says, you're right, I could
(20:38):
have.
He said, but I didn't pickanyone because I picked you.
And even though there weremore qualified people, I'm not interested
in their qualifications.
I'm interested in you becomingqualified in the place I've put you.
So it really comes back tothis place, is God could have called
anybody, but God chose you forwhat you're doing.
(20:58):
So start acting like it.
Take that on, grab that, holdthat, make that part of you and move
into it.
Stop acting like it belongs tosomeone else.
It's your own anointing, your assignment.
Grab it, hold it, and move in it.
Because here's what you and Ineed to understand.
It's the very things that makeyou, you know, the very things that
we're going through is whatmakes you relatable, what makes you
(21:20):
credible, what makes youpowerful in the eyes of the people
you're called to reach.
Your message is the soil whereyour mission grows roots.
So don't discharge yourmessage as if it's nothing but, or
it's just, you know, you wantto hide it.
Be proud of what God's doingin the midst of it and how God is
redeeming your story.
(21:40):
That's really what it comes down.
So as a reminder, you don'thave to be healed to be helpful.
You don't have to be perfectto be powerful.
You don't have to be fullyready to be radically obedient.
You don't have to have it alltogether to be successful in whatever
way you define success.
You just have to be faithfuland you have to show up.
(22:02):
God isn't looking for your perfection.
He's looking for your participation.
He's not looking for you to behyper qualified.
He's just looking for you tobe available.
Let that all sink in.
And if that's you, I couldjust tell you, that's enough.
You are enough.
Just show up and say, yes,God, Amen, God, and let's move forward
(22:23):
and move it in perfectly andjust do it.
Just do it.
And so, with that being said,if this all hit home, I want to invite
you to join the mailing listwhere there's four, a little over
400 people on this mailing list.
I'm going to send youinformation that isn't found in in
these episodes.
It's just extra deep dives.
Maybe some biblicalunderstanding on how to be an entrepreneur
(22:45):
in business, in life, as acreator, if you want to get in there.
Www.leadwithjim.com forward/nlfor newsletter that's pretty clever,
right?
It will be in the show notes,so you could just make it a little
clicky click and then headover there and drop your info in
it and let's be friends.
So for that being said, keepleading, keep creating.
Even if it's messy, becausethat's what you're called to.
(23:08):
So show up, show out, and letGod show through you.
Host
Jim Burgoon
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