Israel & Rachel Campbell "SOUP" Podcast
Join us for an exciting Season 2 of our podcast, which garnered over 7000 downloads last year! Your hosts, Rachel and Israel Campbell, are back to take you on an incredible journey. In this podcast, we invite you into the ongoing dialogues about life, love, parenting, relationships, spirituality, and whatever else sparks our interest!
Our motivation for creating this podcast remains unchanged: we believe that discipleship should encompass more than just a classroom experience; it should be a way of life. Drawing inspiration from Jesus' interactions with his disciples, we see that it was far from a traditional classroom setup. Instead, it was a continuous exchange of teachings and discussions encompassing all facets of life.
Imagine savoring a delicious bowl of soup – that's what our podcast is like. We're here to engage in honest and unfiltered conversations, covering a wide spectrum of topics. And now, we invite you to share this podcast with your friends, family members, or coworkers, just as you'd share a great meal. Just like Jesus and his disciples, we're here to explore the richness of life together!
So, come join us for another season of candid conversations as we dive into a little bit of everything – from the profound to the lighthearted!
Israel & Rachel Campbell "SOUP" Podcast
Switching Fuels | Pain to Purpose: Embracing God's Plan for Our Lives" Campbell Soup Season 2 Episode 26
Have you ever felt like you were running on the wrong kind of fuel, using pain as a motivator instead of purpose? You're not alone. Through rich conversations and personal narratives, Rachel and Israel explore the idea that a life powered by pain might get us moving, but it's purpose that takes us where we truly need to go. We discuss the shift from hurt to a higher calling, sharing stories that reveal the dangers of a pain-driven existence and the liberation that comes with aligning to God's plan for us.
During our walk, a simple discussion blossomed into an in-depth analysis of the strategic depth required for leadership and living a life of faith. We turn to the biblical story of David as a beacon, showcasing how serving God's purpose in our generation is pivotal. Our personal experiences, intertwined with these timeless narratives, highlight the strongholds that can derail us and the importance of staying true to our divine path. As we invite you into our intimate space, we also open up about our journey in starting a ministry and the transformation from seeking validation to igniting genuine change in the lives of others.
The episode culminates with an invitation to discover and embrace your God-given purpose, to switch to the fuel that will revolutionize your life with clarity and direction. As we reflect on the transformative power of pain, we share how it can become the catalyst for uncovering direction and meaning. We encourage you to join us in this conversation, to share your stories and build a community where we all grow and support each other towards living for God's glory and purpose.
Campbell Soup podcast Rachel Campbell Soup and Israel Campbell Soup. I would be Chicken Noodle. That would have been my nickname when I was in high school, because I was so skinny. What would your flavor be?
Speaker 2:Oh, with Campbell's soup. Yeah, why do you ask me these pop-up questions?
Speaker 1:That's what makes the show so good Okay let's see.
Speaker 2:You know, what I really like is I just like a good Campbell's tomato soup, the old school dip your sourdough grilled cheese sandwich inside. It's almost lunchtime and I'm going to make us all very hungry. I love it.
Speaker 1:Well, welcome to the Campbell Soup podcast, which actually is nothing to do with what's the right way of saying. It has actually nothing to do with the Campbell Soups.
Speaker 2:It's not a cooking show.
Speaker 1:It's not a cooking show.
Speaker 2:Although it could be.
Speaker 1:It is actually everything that is going on in our crazy minds when it comes to discipleship, when it comes to living life, when it comes to, maybe, some of the things that we can't say on Sunday morning and we want to say to you, hopefully to equip you, hopefully to make you laugh and hopefully to give you some um, maybe just some advance where, wow, we're just a few years older than you and so maybe it'll kind of help, or maybe we've experienced a few things that you're now experiencing and it'll help. So that's the podcast, that's the soup, and I think about our um.
Speaker 2:You know how much I would have loved to have Campbell's soup when I was younger, because sometimes you're just like not that this is only for younger people, but just while you're on your journey, sometimes it's good to hear other people's conversations and everyday life. You know things that are going on and how they're relating the word of God in their, in their Christianity to it. I think it helps encourage us that we are all very much on this journey and it's fun.
Speaker 1:It is fun. So this week, or this episode, I guess, is we are doing our podcast on switching fuels and powering your life with purpose and not pain, and you titled it, but it really started with me and I'll tell the background story and then Rachel, we can just jump into it. But I was working out listening to a podcast actually not a podcast, an audio book that was recommended actually from a pastor, and I actually had it kind of for a while Rach in my podcast because it was a book on strategy, business, all those kinds of things, and as a pastor and as a leader, I think strategy is so important.
Speaker 1:So I was just it was a New York bestseller yeah, a New York Times bestseller, I think it's your next five moves, and the premise is in chess, a chess master never responds by what the opponent does, but they're always thinking five steps ahead. That's why when somebody is like I got you in checkmate and four moves, well, that doesn't just happen, it was because they pre-planned everything and it happened. So great book, all of that. But as I was listening to the book and I wouldn't throw away the book because of this, but when he, the author, said something, I bristled in my spirit and I was like no, and I don't believe.
Speaker 1:This guy is a believer, and so I don't think it was like heresy, but I did think it was the wrong intention and the wrong thing that the world would say is actually really bad. What has hurt you and who has hurt you? To motivate you, to prove them wrong, to be successful. And I just was like no, no, and it really put me on a short little journey of like no, no, no, no, no, no. And then also, but what do I believe? And so that's what kind of birthed this? No, no, no, no, no. And then also, but what do I believe? And so that's what kind of birthed this? And you and I actually were doing our walk, having a coffee together, our little mini date, and we started talking about this and then you were like we need to do that as a podcast because it's so true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the reason why we are calling it Switching Fuels is because I recently have just been trying to get a hold of my new health and you know, being at 47 years old, it's just my mind, my body, everything. I'm trying to just figure out the new rhythm of my life and it's just been a little bit of a journey. I could do a whole podcast on that but some of the guys would get bored. And one of the things that I've been doing is this weird diet it's the carnivore diet, where you basically only eat meat. It sounds so bad but it's supposed to reset your body and your balance and all of these things. And actually it's been amazing. But there was this brackish water where you stop eating all vegetables, all fruit, all carbohydrates and you go back to the basics of basically what people used to do is hunt for their food and eat it and, um, and that's what you're doing Carnivore diet and it makes you switch your fuel. But until your body learns how to switch fuels from burning your fat to burning more, or burning your muscle and everything to burning the fat, um, you're feeling so off and it's this really murky place because it feels like you're doing harm to your body instead of resetting your body. But the whole the book of you know, when you're doing a keto diet or anything like that, you have to. Your body has to switch. What it's burning and spiritually we want to speak to that today is the way of our self nature. The way of the world is to always preserve and so, like Israel said, this book it sounds right and the Bible talks so much about that right when it says the way of the wicked sounds good in their own eyes, but the way of the spirit seems foolish. Until you know the Holy Spirit and I'm so thankful for the Holy Spirit that bristled inside of you. It wasn't you just being so knowledgeable, which you are, you're so smart, but there was the Holy Spirit inside of you was like don't accept that as wise teaching. That's the teaching of the world. That seems right and I just I really love that. But yeah, I want to read a scripture first and then I'm going to pass it to you because I love this conversation. Ephesians 4, 26 through 27.
Speaker 2:In the message Bible says go ahead and be angry. We're talking about how we can be fueled by the right things and not the wrong things. We don't want to be fueled because someone made us angry, and that's why we do what we do. We don't want to be fueled by bitterness, and I love what it says in Ephesians go ahead and be angry you do well to be angry but don't use your anger as fuel for revenge. Don't stay angry. Don't go to bed angry. Don't give the devil that kind of foothold. This is the message Bible.
Speaker 2:But I love when the new Testament talks about giving the enemy a foothold, and usually it's talking about offense or things that um, unforgiveness, things that are happening to us from other people. And Paul is teaching he's like use it as fuel, but use it as the right fuel. Be angry, but sin not. And so we want to talk about that. How do we change fuels where we're not living revenge lives? You know there's like Princess Diana has a revenge dress when their marriage broke up and everybody knows the famous revenge dress. But we don't want to be the people that live our lives in revenge because, like you said, that's always responding instead of being who God's called us to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I just love that so much because there is this part of like you just read the scriptures, be angry, so we're not trying to tell you that nobody's ever hurt you and to not you know, uh, realize that, but don't live on that. And that's kind of what this guy was saying. It was like you know, here's a list of people that he could list that have done him dirty and you know, and then that's what fuels him now is that now he can go and look at them and say, look what I did. He even gives a story of it and I for a millisecond, I went there for just a second, was thinking of all the people that hurt me and I just was like that is not the way to live. And it is like you said, rachel, it's the world's wisdom and it gives the devil a foothold. And the problem with that fuel is it does work but it's not efficient, and that's the problem is the world's fuel. It is a fuel there. It can fuel people.
Speaker 1:Michael Jordan when he got the Hall of Fame in the Basketball Hall of Fame, he invited the guy who took his spot in high school, who got picked over, michael Jordan, he invited to bring to his hall of fame induction, he still wasn't over it.
Speaker 1:And so that's what happens is, if you use that fuel, you have to continue that fuel all your life. And so, yeah, so you prove the one person, and now you've gone five years, you got to find somebody else that you're mad at so that you can prove again, and so you're consistently looking for somebody to prove wrong. And so it might be a good fuel in the beginning, or at least you think, because it maybe brought some kind of a success, but it's not sustainable. It will wipe out your world, your relationships, your children, your friends, your church. Everything will fall apart, because everything is looking to be mad at something, to use it as fuel, and what we're talking about today is don't let pain fuel you. Don't let pain be the fuel, let purpose be the fuel. And so I'll read this verse and go back to you.
Speaker 2:Rachel, it's so good Israel.
Speaker 1:It's Acts, chapter 13, verse 36. And this is what I went to immediately after I was like bristled in my spirit. I was like I got to look up this verse, okay, and it says now, when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep, he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. And so I just love the fact that it's described to us that David died fulfilling God's purpose for his life. And I, just right there, because I was at the gym and right there, took out the earbuds and just went. God, I do not want what has happened to me to fuel me. I want your purpose to fuel me. And so there it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and here's the simple truth is that the world's fuel, it is fuel, and you know, I meet with these girls whose moms literally taught them from a young age you need to go to college and you need to be able to provide for yourself because that man you marry might fail you. And it's like you're basing everything that you build off of the fact that somebody might fail you, and that is the biggest burden to carry. It's a worldly burden. It's not a burden that's life-giving. And so there's this always in the back of your mind. You have a way out, you have a way to make it work for you if other people fail you, and it is a way of living. But it is not God's plan, it's not God's best for us.
Speaker 2:And you know, Israel and I, when I look about our life, when I think about all of the times that we've done this right and then the times that we've done this wrong, there've definitely been moments where we were fueled by the wrong thing and, um, I'm going to prove them wrong. Or, you know, we've had men and women of God speak things over us that were not God's heart, and then we would be in this response mode and literally I can mark in my life the times where I tried to prove people's words wrong or I tried to write their wrong in my own strength. I've never ended up on the track God had for me and it took learning that of, of just realizing that the enemy that scripture verse in Ephesians four says don't give the enemy a foothold and a foothold can become a stronghold. And we and we wonder how these people that we love and admire in the Christian world end up where they ended up. And I just want to maybe say it didn't happen overnight.
Speaker 2:It happened because somehow the fuel that they were fueling their life and purpose on somehow got off, and it probably got off through their pain. That really did happen, through disappointment, through unforgiveness. There's these things and those footholds. The enemy knows. If I can just get you to begin to be fueled by something that's not God, fueling your life and his purposes, it will become a stronghold and then it's harder to get out of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just saying that we were talking about one of the stories, for us at least, one of the bad stories is we had been in Seattle and had moved, really felt the moving of God to move from Seattle to Orlando, and we just knew it was a new season, it wasn't a better season, it just was a new season.
Speaker 2:And same problems, new place.
Speaker 1:Exactly, we were there Right, and so I just there was some words that were said from our senior pastor and they were not great words. There's some words over you, some words over even you, about me. I mean there's just some really insecure leadership things. And I really did go to Orlando and I do remember in my mind I'm going to prove them wrong, I'm going to prove them wrong, I'm going to prove them wrong, I'm going to prove them wrong, I'm going to prove them wrong.
Speaker 1:And to be a real transparent ministry did not start out well in Orlando. It was like it just was not going and I can just remember, like almost even then, thinking, oh well, now, how am I going to prove them? You know what I mean, but we would do these things and I don't know when the light bulb went on, but somewhere in that moment I just God, I don't want a youth pastor to prove in Seattle that we made the right choice or to prove to that church that this was a God thing. I really want these students that we're dealing with, their lives, to be transformed and just do it. And it was almost like an overnight switch of the success and the transformation and it was like there wasn't any new gimmick, there wasn't any new strategy or system that we put in place. I just really remember it almost being just a prayer of God. I'm so sorry for trying to prove them. I just want to be present, successful now.
Speaker 1:And it was, like you know, and we really did have some incredible moments with those students and I think it had a lot to do with, obviously, god's love and stuff, but also being able to use a vessel that wasn't trying to validate himself or prove through pain that he was right. What about right now? And it really was fueling purpose rather than pain. What about you? Bad or good, you got one.
Speaker 2:That's so good. I just love that because it's so true. And I look, I think back at those days while you're talking about it and there was a lot of striving and exhaustion and disappointment connected to trying to prove and be fueled by the wrong thing, and I remember the surrender and tears. It did not come through good days. It came to really hard realities for us and I just remember us together, um, surrendering to God and saying God, it's not our reputation we're building, it's really yours. And those are easy words but harder decisions in your life, because it takes humility, it takes being willing to be wrong, it takes all those things and I just yeah, it's so true.
Speaker 2:I think that you were talking on Sunday about this really hard moment that shaped my life as a young girl. I think I was 14 and my parents had been kicked out of our church that they were pastoring and they voted out, and it was a really pivotal moment where my relationship with the church got really hard. But you were talking about it and while you're talking about it, I was thinking that the sting of that is not there anymore and I'm so thankful for the grace of God that I haven't fueled my life by not trusting elders in churches, by not trusting the house of God, and I'm so thankful that I don't really remember, like, while you're telling the story, it's, it's a story that I'm hearing, but it's not this big, huge gape in my heart. And that's the goal is that we're all going to go through hard things. We're going to have people that their names cause pain inside of us. You know where somebody brings up something and all of a sudden that knot in your neck comes back. Does anybody else?
Speaker 2:know what I'm talking about the tension of being failed by humans and that is always connected. It's the foothold of disappointment, bitterness and then striving. And when you take on that yoke, that's easy, the burden's light, when you're fueled by giving God the glory and him alone. There's so much redemption in relationships in that because no elders have ever apologized to me, the guy who split your parents' church and had the affair that ruined the church your mom and dad started he has no foothold in your life. There's no resentment and we've actually talked about that man and you have so much compassion now for him and I don't know. I don't want a list of people I need revenge with and people I'm trying to prove wrong. I want a list of God's faithful healing in every relationship of my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would say you know me on the practical. I think that that is so helpful, rachel is you know? The book said almost like write a list of you know who you're going to prove wrong. And I think it's more vital to write a list of what is God's purpose for you, and so that's what David did.
Speaker 1:It says that David fulfilled the purpose of God on his life, and so, you know, going on a journey of what is what have I been created for? What's my why, what, what is that? And that's not an easy thing. I don't think that that's a five minute deal. I think that's something that we're now.
Speaker 1:I'm 52 and I'm still wrestling and trying to bring the complete um, maybe not the complete, but just even to be able to articulate what some of that is is pretty crazy. But I can look back and start looking at what are some things that God's used me in, and so I can start oh, that was his purpose. Oh, okay, this is part of it. So for me, some of my purpose is anesthesiologist, and what an anesthesiologist does is it helps you deal with pain so that they can then do the surgery to heal, and so I feel like I am a spiritual anesthesiologist. I want to make you laugh and then deal with some of that pain and then God heal you and then do that, and so that's just who I am.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm making jokes all the time, sometimes inappropriately, maybe the wrong fuel, but I think that that's. So I look back and see that I have always done that, since I was a little kid I would entertain my family. When I was in high school and junior high I was the class clown. Well, what was all that? I think a little bit of my purpose in life is tied to that.
Speaker 1:And so now, if I can figure out what my purpose is and I'm fueled by that, oh my goodness. But a life of longevity because I'm even in my hospital bed dying I'm still can find fulfillment in that purpose. I can make the doctors laugh, the family laugh. You know all my great grandkids laugh because grandpa is still doing jokes and pulling pranks and you know, unhooking his IV and hooking it up to the IV to the person next to him and sneaking out. I mean, just, I don't know what I'm going to do, but it's going to be fun, but I can do that all my life. But if you're at your deathbed and you're still on the wrong fuel, you're still mad looking to try to prove somebody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the thing about operating on the wrong fuel is you'll spend your whole life perfecting something you might not have ever even been called to do.
Speaker 2:We can so run in our wrong the wrong lane when we're trying to prove somebody wrong and instead of spending your energy and faith and time trying to prove people wrong, trying to redeem your name, all of these things that it's part of living in this broken world, unfortunately, is that you're not going to make everybody happy. There's going to be people that if you're doing anything worthwhile in this life, you're going to have haters. It's just, it's human nature. But God can give us the grace and the ability, like you said, to be a spiritual anesthesiologist. That is so who you are. You've never said this to me and it's exactly who you are. You've always said that you're an encourager, but you're more than an encourager because you have this anointing on you Israel, for people in pain, and anyone who knows you knows that that's true, and what's so beautiful about that calling is that first you went through pain, you were anointed in the pain, and I'm not. I know I'm just talking to you, but it's true. But all of us need to find that. All of us need to stop listening to these worldly books that tell us to draw bigger boundaries. And you know, if, fool me once, fool me all the things that they say. It's like you can live that way. But there is a better way. It's the way of Jesus.
Speaker 2:Jesus, while he was on this earth, what did he do? No-transcript. He was just being the Savior. He was healing, he was teaching, he was providing for, and he could have easily spent his 32 years 31 years, however long that was. He could have spent that time arguing and winning arguments with the Pharisees and doing all these things. He never did, and I think that that's our number one role model. And here's a scripture verse that I love so much 1 Corinthians 10, 31. We love the word of God. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God, and that's what Jesus did. He lived his life for God's glory. He glorified his father, and we are called to do that. But the enemy wants us to be so distracted through our pain that we start using the wrong fuel, we start living for the wrong purpose and we miss the plot of our life.
Speaker 1:I love that. And you just said something and I was like whoa, um, you were kind of describing something to me, so I'm not trying to make it about me, let's go back to talking about me.
Speaker 1:It's not about that at all. But you like, the thing is, um, we're not saying that you throw away your pain and like, just, you know, you don't even acknowledge it or deal with it or get healed from it. We're not saying that at all. And you kind of mentioned something. Sometimes we have a hard time finding our purpose, but we actually can use pain as a starting point to sometimes finding our purpose. And I don't know how to necessarily fully unpack that, but sometimes pain can show us or give us a direction that our purpose is.
Speaker 1:It's almost like the enemy tried to kill you in that because you've been called to lead that. And so sometimes we can find some purpose in our pain. And the story that I would find is Joseph was like, hey, what you meant for evil? Actually God has turned to good and so I have found purpose. You left me in the pit, you sold me to the Israelites, I was thrown in jail from Potiphar's wife. But now I'm saving nations and I'm finding purpose from my pain. But the fuel was not to revenge, or when he would have first saw his brothers, he would have just killed them, thrown them in jail, done whatever. You know what I mean. But instead he found purpose in it. So sometimes you can find some purpose in your pain. Rach any other practical ways of maybe trying to find your God purpose, and it's kind of hard sometimes when you are in pain right.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know I probably do have an answer for that, but I do want to say something. You know me, I'm like Dory and I have to say something while I'm thinking about it. So I'll wrap back around to that, but I'm thinking of this instance in our life where we were pastoring in North Carolina and there were 13 very influential elders of the church that we took over. They were the ones who voted us in and um, after about a year they did not like us pastoring.
Speaker 1:They didn't like me. No, they didn't like me either, but they didn't like me. They just didn't like both. They didn't like us.
Speaker 2:And we didn't know why. And now we have a clearer view of what was going on in the spirit realm. But we were. We were really blown away Like whoa. They were really coming against us.
Speaker 2:And I remember that we had made some decisions in the church. We were leading the church and they decided they didn't like it and so they had a big, huge church split. I think I don't know. Hundreds of people walked out on a Sunday morning with them. It was really painful for us but they had said to an elder that had stayed and stood with us they said they won't be able to financially make it as a church even till the end of this month without our financial support. And in the natural it was 100% true that they had financially carried that church. But I remember when the elders that stayed came and told us that and I got the biggest smile, I had Holy Spirit confidence rush into me and I know that came from God. But I just looked at Israel. I was like we are about to be so blessed because God does not like man saying that they can curse his people and God doesn't like it when they say that they're the source. And because of those two principles. I know that God is about to bless this church, not because of us. It has nothing to do with Israel and I. It has everything to do with. God does not like people talking bad, gossiping and slandering against his children and against his church. And so what happened?
Speaker 2:By the end of that month, we started rocking along without these controlling elders, and God began to bless and God began to grow and we saw the hand of the Lord provide every single step of the way, and it would have been really easy to fuel success on making sure they knew every time God did something good in our church. But we had this holy awe of we can mess this up just as much as they can mess this up, and this is about giving God glory and surrendering to Him and because of that that church today is such a beautiful and thriving organization and we're just so. I think back at that and it reminds me don't be deceived. God is not mocked. He does not like it. When his children are attacked or slandered, he doesn't like it. And we either solve those things on our own by unforgiveness and fueling our lives to get back in revenge, or we surrender it to God and let him fight our battles.
Speaker 2:Vengeance is the Lord's. You know, if you're in a business deal and somebody's ripping you off or talking bad about you to other businesses and you feel like you're in this fragile place, can I just encourage you that when someone comes against God's children and when we really allow him to be our fuel of, I'm just going to keep doing what's right. I'm going to keep pleasing God. I'm not going to have revenge. You wait and see what God does for you. It will be mind blowing. That's just who he is.
Speaker 1:Amen. Well, that is a wrap.
Speaker 2:That was my mini message.
Speaker 1:Good, good, good. I think it was so good. So that is a wrap. Find your purpose.
Speaker 2:Switch your fuel.
Speaker 1:Get your God's purpose. Switch your fuel and I do think even with some of the business teachings and stuff we do need to make sure, because I think people would even say find your purpose, but more important, find your God purpose. Use that as a fuel, not just trying to figure out what you want to do. Figure out what God wants you to do and that would help. But a fuel change will revolutionize your life.
Speaker 1:So, hey, share this with somebody. Maybe you see somebody struggling with this, maybe you are struggling with this. Whatever it is, we hope it helps. Give us some comments. We've been having feedback on the podcast. We absolutely love that, so make sure you continue to do that and we will see you next week. You
