Your Joyful Order With Leslie Martinez

#74 Moving Forward: Overcoming Stagnancy with Faith and Practical Tools

• Leslie Martinez • Season 4 • Episode 74

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Have you ever felt tethered to your past, unable to step into the future with confidence and clarity? In this episode we navigate the path to shedding those anchors through insights from Christine Caine's "Don't Look Back" and my own toolbox for life coaching. Together, we'll explore the profound lessons of Lot's wife from the Bible, not merely for the sake of storytelling, but to illuminate the gravity of looking ahead. This episode is more than just a discussion; it's an interactive guide with actionable strategies to help you identify and overcome the feelings of stagnancy that hold you back.

Let's face it, moving from a place of stagnation to action can be daunting, especially in a world just emerging from the isolation of a pandemic. But fear not; this conversation is filled with practical wisdom and encouragement to help you take those small but crucial steps forward. Remember, you're not alone. I'm here, an email or a call away, offering a supportive space and free coaching calls that might be the gentle push you need. Share the journey with friends who could use a dose of inspiration, and let's collectively strive toward lives marked by joy and divine order.

Connect with Leslie:

Follow on IG: @yourjoyfulorderstyle

Website: https://www.yourjoyfulorder.com/

Email: lmartinez@yourjoyfulorder.com
to schedule- Speaking Events, Interviews or Life Coaching Sessions

Shop my SOAP the Gospels Journal on Shopify:
https://shopjoyfulorder.com/

Listen to this Episode on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsXoAYIM2mfclNtYiaOzIUw

Shop my Journal (Gratitude, Goals & Prayer Journal) on Amazon:
https://a.co/d/09Djvaw

Book a FREE 30 Minute Discovery Coaching Call: https://tidycal.com/joyfulordermedia/30-minute-meeting

Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, I'm Leslie Martinez and you're listening to your Joyful Order podcast. Each week I will bring you joyful stories that will motivate and inspire you and, at the same time, bring order to your everyday life. Let's just say the show will be a mixture of preaching and teaching, with a kick of motivation from your girl here.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to your Joyful Order podcast friend, thanks for a hit and play and listening to today's episode. Today's going to be a good one, as all the episodes are, but I wanted to share with you. Um, I just wrapped up a community group that I led, actually, on a book called don't look back and it's by Christine Kane and it's the little tagline is getting unstuck and moving forward with passion and purpose. I led a community group over the last several weeks. We met here in my home. We had not just only the book that we were reading but a study guide and videos that we got to watch, and I would strongly encourage you guys to get the book. If you want to do the study, purchase the Bible study that goes with it. Inside there is a code for you to download all of the videos that go along with that.

Speaker 2:

But this book and this series was just kind of a eye-opener for me of challenges that I have gone through and I wanted to bring a kind of Christine Kane's approach with Bible perspective along with my life coaching methods that I have used in bringing you just good, actionable steps to help you get unstuck. We all have gone through it. I've gone through it. There's still times when I feel like I'm still stuck in certain areas of my life, but I want to open up with the story because it's just so good. Christine Kane in her book, she references the story of Lot and his wife from the Bible. Now I'm going to give you guys a great story from the Bible, from Leslie's version. Now, this story of the Bible actually comes from Genesis 19. And I want to tell you this go and read Genesis 19. If you have never read the Bible before, if you're like Leslie I'm not big into reading the Bible start with Genesis 19. If you are one that loves to watch trashy reality shows, like the housewives or Vanderpump something whatever, or the Kardashians I don't watch trashy reality shows. I know it for me. I just I'm not going to judge, but I just don't like to watch that type of stuff. But if you're into that type of stuff, go read Genesis 19.

Speaker 2:

Y'all, when I say that the Bible has like crazy trashy drama in it, it really does. Like there are soap opera status stuff in the Bible and it just makes you realize how much truth there is in the word, based on our realities. And you might ask, leslie, what do you mean by that? Like where we are today in the world and how we live. People were doing the same thing centuries ago. Y'all what is going on in our world today is nothing new to God. This has happened. It's like oh, same time, same place, same drama. Go read Genesis 19.

Speaker 2:

But I'm going to pull a little excerpt from there. I'm not going to give you the trashy details of what happened, but let me just tell you, when I read some of the parts of this scripture in the Bible that is found in Genesis 19, my jaw dropped, my eyes opened wide and I was like what in the world am I reading? And I had to read it several times to make sure that I was comprehending what I was reading. And then I went down a whole rabbit hole of information from this, let's just say I almost questioned what was happening or what I was reading in there. And because I want to keep things appropriate on my podcast, yes, there is trashy stuff in the Bible and you got to read it to believe it yourself. That's all I'm going to say. But I'm going to take this one little story of Lot's wife that appears in the book of Genesis.

Speaker 2:

Now, lot is the nephew of Abraham. If you don't have big Bible knowledge. Abraham, father of many nations. Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons have. Father Abraham, I cannot sing. I can't say his name without singing that song.

Speaker 2:

Okay, former children's pastor here Back on track. He was the nephew of Abraham and Abraham was a righteous man favored by God. Now, lot himself wasn't necessarily a bad guy. He was actually very righteous. God loved him and God used him, but he wasn't as devoted as Abraham was to God. Now he chose to live in the city of Sodom, and Sodom is known for its wickedness and immortality. When you think of the city of Sodom, think of like Las Vegas. That's all I have to say. Think of Las Vegas, times 10, even maybe Sin city. Prostitution, sex, drugs, gambling, like all the bad things. This was the city of Sodom and this is where Lot and his wife lived. Now God decided to destroy Sodom and the nearby city of Gomorrah because of their corruption.

Speaker 2:

Again, back in Old Testament times, god came and destroyed lots of cities, lots of cities. He made walls fall, he crumbled and flooded and did all of these crazy things because people were just I mean, immoral and full of sin, and he wanted to destroy all of sin. Well, he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness. And what he did is? He sent these angels to Warnlot and his wife to flee from the impending doom that was about to come upon these cities, but angels instructed them to leave quickly and to not look back. I'm going to repeat the instructions that angels instructed Lot and his wife I need you all to leave quickly and, whatever you do, do not look back. Well, lot's wife, do not look back. Well, lot's wife, she disobeyed, just like many people of the Bible, right as they were escaping. She couldn't resist herself. So what did she do? She turned back and she looked at the burning city. The Bible tells us that it was then that she turned into a pillar of salt, and this was in Genesis 19, 26, to be exact, where she turned into a pillar of salt.

Speaker 2:

How many of you would have been Lot's wife? I'm raising my hand. How many of you would have looked back? Raising my hand, lot's wife, serves as a kind of cautionary tale to us that looking back, just clinging on to the past of what God seemed unfit for us, it oftentimes represents a complete lack of faith and trust in God's direction for our life. Now I have faith in God. I trust every aspect of my life with God and if God tells me, leslie, I need you to pick up and I need you to go here, I need you to pick up and I need you to go here. I need you to pick up and I need you to move forward because I'm going to destroy everything that is behind you.

Speaker 2:

If I were in Lot's wife's situation here, I most certainly would have looked back. But I don't know that I would have necessarily looked back because of my lack of faith in God or the direction where he was taking me. Because of my lack of faith in God or the direction where he was taking me, I would have looked back because I've been like, ooh, let me get a look at what God is about to burn down. Let me see the people that I'm leaving. Let me see the sinners, let me see the people that that I judged right. That that's where I think, if I was Lot's wife, I would have definitely become a pillar of salt, not because the lack of my faith, but because oh well, maybe I guess you can say the lack of my faith because I wasn't righteously obeying God of what he said. It's not because I was questioning where he was taking me. It's because I would have been like, ha ha, god picked me. See ya, see ya, bye, and I'm turning back like waving my hand. That's just in all honesty.

Speaker 2:

That probably would have been me, but in this story, lot's wife looking back, we don't know her name, like people think that this is an insignificant story, but there's so much significance to this story and she I wish we knew her name other than Lot's wife, but her lack of complete faith and trust in God's direction is significant here. And I want us to start with the story, just like in this book that I read, and it was so pivotal for me, this story, because we oftentimes we get stuck and all we want to do is we want to look back, we want to hold on to what we knew, we want to hold on to what we knew, we want to hold on to what was comfortable, we want to hold on to just what is familiar to us, even though that we know that God is calling us in a different direction. God is calling us to new territory, to a new career, to a new relationship, and he's going to destroy whatever we had that was corrupt, immoral, evil, wrong, just maybe even just not the right fit for us, or maybe our season is done, but we keep looking back because we're like God. No, that's what I knew God, that's what I was comfortable with. Now, later in the New Testament, jesus actually references Lot's wife, and this is in Luke 17, 32. He warns his disciples in Luke 17, 32. He warns his disciples to remember Lot's wife, and this is that's all the verse says. Remember Lot's wife. He's telling the disciples hey, do y'all remember what happened to that woman that looked back when my father was telling her do not look back, just move forward. It's a reminder to fully commit to following God. We cannot get caught up in what we're leaving behind. We have to focus on the path ahead. So here is where we're going to start. I'm laying the foundation here, bringing some biblical truth to why we do what we do. But I'm going to give you some actionable steps and some reasons as to why we oftentimes get stuck and ways that we can move forward with this.

Speaker 2:

Lot's situation. Again, he was living in a corrupt city, despite being related to a righteous man. How many of you are in a corrupt situation right now that you know? But you love God, you love Jesus. You know he has a plan for your life, but you're living in sin, you're living in corruption. You're living in immortality. I want you to think about that. Next, I want you to just connect. I want you to connect to that feeling of being stuck right now. Connect, I want you to connect to that feeling of being stuck right now. I want you to think to yourself why am I here and why do I keep feeling like I'm just stuck?

Speaker 2:

Sometimes we stay in unhealthy situations just out of comfort and habit. You're not alone in that. Clinging to the past can actually hinder our progress. And Lot's wife? She was being disobedient in a sense. Yeah, I admitted that if I was in that situation, I definitely would have been disobedient because I would have been looking back and being like look at what's going on, who's burning, who's catching fire, whose house is there? And yes, there may have been that part where I'm just like what am I leaving behind? Where am I going? I don't know where I'm going. Why is God burning my home? Is God burning my home? Jesus came then to remind us that we have to move forward with faith and trust, always just in starting a new journey.

Speaker 2:

Here's a couple of steps that is going to help you to just get unstuck. Step one is you have to identify the stuckness. I don't know that that's a word, I made it up. It could be a word your stuckness. You're in your stuckness. Well, you got to identify what that stuckness is, what areas of your life feel stagnant. Is it your career, your relationship, your goals or lack of goals? Is it that God gave you this vision and you just don't even know where to start and you're like I'm stuck? Well, you have to identify where it is that you are feeling stuck. It could even be in your physical health, also your mental health. You also need to notice the negative talk that is associated with you feeling stuck, negative talk that is associated with you feeling stuck. What are you feeding your head? What are you telling yourself about that area where you are feeling stuck?

Speaker 2:

An action step that you can take here is to journal about what you are feeling stuck about and the emotions behind it. Is it your career? What makes you feel stuck here? Is it your value at your job? Maybe Is it your career? What makes you feel stuck here? Is it your value at your job? Maybe is it your performance? Is it your environment? Is it your pay? Is it your inability to feel like your skills are being used? What is it? Write all of that down and write the emotions behind it. Write all of that down and write the emotions behind it.

Speaker 2:

The second thing that you can do is you want to shift your perspective. Oftentimes, feeling stuck comes from a limited perspective. You just think, oh, I'm not smart enough, I'm not worthy enough, like all of these things. I want you to be very mindful of what you are feeding your mind and what you're feeding your heart. Also, in Proverbs 4.23, god tells us guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Your heart determines the course of your life. What are you feeding into your heart? Consider alternative viewpoints as possibilities for new you know, new things that can happen in your life.

Speaker 2:

You got to shift your perspective. If it's your career that you're stuck in and you're telling yourself, well, I'm too old to shift careers, I'm not skilled enough, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, those are all lies and you're limiting your perspective on there. And then you're starting to fill it in your heart and you're starting to have fear and think that you're not worthy enough, you're not smart enough, you're not young enough. You have to eliminate those. One action step that you can take for this is simply to practice gratitude. I've shared this many times on podcasts about how significant the practice of gratitude has on your life. Practice gratitude for the good things in your life, even when you are feeling stuck, and this will start to change your mindset. It'll start to shift your heart also. The third thing that you can do when you are feeling unstuck is to take action.

Speaker 2:

Feeling unstuck can oftentimes lead us to paralysis. By analysis, we start to analyze so many things. We start to analyze like there's so much to do and you know, this kind of goes back to our limiting our perspectives and those limiting beliefs that we might tell ourselves and we become paralyzed by analyzing and overthinking everything. We get overwhelmed by thinking of the things that must get done to go in this new direction, like to start a new career. You start thinking I have to redo my resume, I might have to learn some new skills, I have to go on job interviews and put myself out there and figure out LinkedIn and learn you know Intuit and all like all these crazy things. And then you come paralyzed and you just don't do anything. Choose one small, achievable step towards your goal. Celebrate each little accomplishment, no matter how small. Maybe you're trying to learn a new skill, maybe it is that you're being called into a different type of career. Maybe you're an accountant and you want to become a physical trainer I don't know. Something completely opposite. An action step that you can take care is to break down a big, large goal into three actionable steps that you can do this week, and maybe what that means is maybe you want to become a physical trainer, and maybe what that means is maybe you want to become a physical trainer, maybe you can go to YouTube and maybe you can watch a YouTube channel on what does it take to become a physical trainer. That's one action step that you took this week that is going to move you in the direction of taking action, and then you go from there. One small, one small action step can make a huge impact. Now number four. This is another very important one, and I am just learning I don't want to say I'm just learning this, I'm putting emphasis on this right now and that is the power of community.

Speaker 2:

We went through COVID. Y'all know what that felt like. We were isolated for years and we started to get comfortable with being isolated. Isolation can actually worsen the feelings of being stuck, and I will speak truth to that because I know I've experienced that firsthand. Going through the pandemic and isolation and all of that, I came out thinking that, oh, it was a good thing I was. You know, I learned so much about myself. I went deep with myself and then trying to put myself out there again in community. It's been really hard and I feel like it's harder for me to connect with people at a deeper, more intimate level, and I'm really putting myself out there now in, you know, having community groups, going out, having lunch with friends, being intentional and reaching out to people so that I don't feel stuck, you know, so I can have conversations with people and they can speak life and truth into my life.

Speaker 2:

Also, it's important to connect with supportive friends. It's important to connect with supportive friends, family members or even a life coach. Also, in Ecclesiastics 4.9, it says two are better than one because they have a good return for their work. Y'all, go and be in community. An action step that you can do here is to reach out to a trusted friend. Consider joining support group. Get to church Church has amazing opportunities for you to be in community. And if you really need to talk one-on-one with someone you feel like your circle isn't there, reach out. If you need therapy, a life coach, someone that can be accountable to you, those are other ways that you can be in community with someone that can support you.

Speaker 2:

And the fifth and final step that I'm going to give you is having self compassion. Beating yourself up about being stuck is not going to help you. Treat yourself with kindness and understanding. Be graceful and patient with yourself. In Romans 12, 2, it says do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing and perfect will. Your action step here is to practice self-compassion. Do exercises like writing yourself a letter of encouragement. Journaling is probably one of the best forms of self-compassion that you can do. Write yourself a letter encouraging yourself Like think, think of you as a little girl and think what type of letter would you write yourself as a little girl to encourage just being resilient and persevering to become an amazing woman, chasing after what God called them to do?

Speaker 2:

We can get unstuck in so many different ways. I've been unstuck. I still struggle with this. I still feel like I'm stuck in certain areas of my life and in exploring this book I shouldn't say exploring as having read this book, I shouldn't say exploring as having read this book that really ignited a fire in me and realizing, hey, I have so many tools as a life coach to help people get unstuck and sometimes I forget them myself and it's important for us to get back to just these simple little things that can help us to get unstuck.

Speaker 2:

Now I want to just recap these steps for you, and that is identify the stuckness. What is it that is causing you to feel stuck? Shift your perspective, take action. The power of community and having self-compassion so much of these steps are vital in helping you to go from feeling stuck to being unstuck and taking action in the direction of where God is taking you. And it's important also to remember to be obedient to what God is putting on your heart.

Speaker 2:

Don't be like Lot's wife, don't look back. There are few people that Jesus like. There's so many people that God that Jesus could have told us remember them. He could have said remember Abraham, remember Daniel, remember Noah, remember David, remember Joshua. But he said remember Lot's wife, because Jesus, god, doesn't want us to look back. He doesn't want us turning into that pillar of salt. He doesn't want us holding on to the past. He doesn't want us holding on to immorality, to sin, to lust, to hate, to unforgiveness, to anger. There's so much that we hold on to that causes us to get stuck and we don't know why. We think I don't know why I'm feeling unstuck. It's because you're holding on to so much. You're holding on here.

Speaker 2:

And God just wants you to let go. He wants you to unclench your fists and let go and walk in the direction where he is leading us. I want to encourage you today Unclench those fists, give it to God and say God, I don't want to look back anymore, I don't want to be like Lot's wife, I don't want to be stuck anymore. I want to walk in the direction where you are taking me and I want to walk in the fullness and fulfillment for what you have for me. Friend, I hope this episode helps you and really just shed some light on just a few things that you can do, but I hope it just really stirs your heart.

Speaker 2:

If you really truly are feeling stuck and you're just like Leslie I don't know who to go to, I don't know what to do I definitely have resources that can help you as a life coach, but also as a friend. Know that I'm always available for you to reach out and say Leslie, I need prayer. If you need prayer because you're filling up the stage of life right now, shoot me a DM on Instagram, shoot me an email and I will be more than happy to pray with you. I also offer free 30 minute coaching calls and if you are feeling unstuck and you just don't even know where to start start there, book a 30 minute coaching call with me and say Leslie, I feel stuck and I I, I just need insight and I got you. I hope this episode will just bring some joy and some order to your life, and don't forget to share it with a friend. Until next time, friend, go chase joy.