ChristiTutionalist Politics | Christian Perspectives on Constitutional Issues

CTP (S3EDecSpecial2) Facing Darkness, Finding Purpose

• Joseph M. Lenard | Christian Activist & Author in Politics • Season 3

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CTP (S3EDecSpecial2) Facing Darkness, Finding Purpose
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond  
We explore how to face darkness without getting stuck in it and how purpose rooted in faith can turn pain into forward motion. Humor breaks the tension while we draw a firm line between helping and enabling and point to resources that support real change.
• framing anger, sorrow, and grief as normal emotions 
• shifting from dwelling on the past to building tomorrow 
• defining purpose as serving God and serving people 
• drawing boundaries that prevent enablement and support accountability 
• distinguishing self-interest from selfishness in a faith context 
• using humor and honesty to keep hope practical 
• where to find tools, guides, and ministries that help 
http://CoupleONukes.com  https://tinyurl.com/SubscribeToCTP  

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello, welcome to another episode of Pristitutionalist Podcast. I am your host, Joseph M. Leonard. That's L-E-N-A-R-D. It looks French. It's not, it's Leonard without an O. Thank you for tuning in. As Graham Norton used to say on his show. Let's get on with the show. Morning. This episode contains some audio and or video glitches. It is not your equipment. Hello everyone. Welcome to another Christitutionalist podcast. This I have a guest, Mr. Whiskey. This is going to be a rather weird and odd introduction. In fact, my guest, Mr. Whiskey, isn't even joined yet, making this even more strange. So he's not even going to hear this introduction. Because it is indeed going to be rather strange. I want to mention the Book of Kennedy, Project Carpe Diem. And why do I want to do that? And what does that have to do with the guest, right? Why I'm recording this ahead, and we'll go right into the discussion with him. But tip full disclosure behind the scenes recording today with my guest, Tuesday, December the first, coming upon one in the afternoon now. Later today on social media, I intend to post across my social media platforms to promote the Book of Kennedy Project Carpedium, the Phil Collins song, Take a Look at Me Now, right? Empty space and reminds me of your face and reflection and sorrow and pain and agony and looking back. All right. This wasn't didn't end up being the cover of the book of Kennedy, but remind me of your face, right? Sorrow and sadness. Well, in CTP3, is it? Uh let me hurry, hurry, hurry, rush, rush, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, no, it's CTP four, I guess. Uh my chapter on anger. Uh a huge natural, normal human emotion. Jesus never told us it's a sin to be angry, right? The sin of hubris, but anger, sorrow, sadness, normal emotions. We feel them from time to time. And it's okay to hurt, but the path is the path. What are we doing looking and moving forward? Which is the book of Kennedy Project Carpe Diem about. What are we doing tomorrow? How are we moving forward? And Mr. Whiskey's Hodmat profile says, All I needed to see about him to want to have him on, help people face the darkest parts of their lives and walk out of them with purpose. What is our purpose for? Are we dwelling? Are we going to endlessly dwell on the hurt and the pain and past or Bruce Springsteen? Springsteen, I call him right now a big fan, but his glory days song. In fact, in my how to write a book and get it published in tips and techniques, I I talk about character development and have your character engaged in sport, past present, or future. It makes them relatable. All of us, well, most people engaged in a sport, at least in their youth, and they have a glory gaze story, right? Past, but future, looking forward, trying to be positive, trying to find silver linings, remembering mind yourself past if we can, or the hurt, the sorrow, the pain, like the philosophy, hate you look at me song, now song. But what about tomorrow? Trying to move forward, trying to bring positivity into our own and others' lives. Positivity, right? Mr. Whiskey, and I I won't joke, right? Whiskey tango foxtrot, right? WTF. Sometimes we have those days that were not so positive. But as a whole, are we trying to move on and move forward and be positive and so good into the world? Plant seeds of positivity into the world. Make this fallen planet a better place. All right, anyway. I've rambled now too much. Mr. Whiskey should be joining us here any second. So I don't want to drag out this intrude too long. But that's why Mr. Whiskey is here. Help people face the darkest parts of their lives and walk out of them with a purpose. And that purpose needs to be posit, no matter how down we may feel now, making it positive. At least hopeful. In prayer. Hopefully. Can we make this world, a solid world, a better place? All right. I've dragged this out again. I said it was gonna be a weird intro. And in fact, if Mr. Whiskey, I can't talk, my mouth is dry. I'm gonna pull a Merkel Rubio here. Mr. Whiskey may look back on this episode and behind the scenes video or hear it across the 25 plus audio platforms, and then he'd say, Whiskey tango foxtrat. I missed all that because I'm pre-recording that ahead. And hopefully you won't be upset by the intro. Let's get on with the show, as Graham Norton used to say. Full disclosure, actually. It's only 10 to 1 now. He's expected to join in 10 minutes. So there's gonna be a 10-minute void here. I'll be editing out. Full disclosure. You know me, right? Didn't mean to, but like another book, right? Podcasting hook start guy. You're getting some behind the scenes look at podcasting. I'll be editing out from this point to when Mr. Whiskey actually joins. Oh, hey! Good thing I wandered back. You did get in early. How are you?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, sir. Well, I always show up ten about ten minutes early, but I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Here is Mr. Whiskey, and uh apologies. Zoom, we're getting a bit of a delay here today. Don't know why. I'll do my best to edit out the pauses between, but there is a delay going back and forth between us here. But your bio, as I had already previously explained to the audience, said help people face the darkest parts of their lives and walk out of them with purpose. And as I led into the show, we're all human, we all have down and negative times, but what about tomorrow, right? Trying to make tomorrow and the next day and the day after better and more positive for ourselves and others. But before we get to that, let's do the proverbial where were you born and raised? Where are you now? Where have you been? Significant places in between.

SPEAKER_01:

For sure. First of all, thank you so much for having me. It's always a grateful opportunity to be able to guest on someone's show and share what I have to say, and hopefully people find it very insightful. I was born and raised in New Jersey until uh shortly after I turned 18. Just a few days later, I was out for boot camp, ended up stationed in Goose Creek, South Carolina for two years, and then I was stationed in the Norfolk Newport News area of Virginia for a year after that. For anyone who is not familiar with that area, it is uh terrible place. It is very dangerous, very just full of crime and scams, a lot of sailor and soldier casualties there. It's also about seven military bases almost are terrible because everyone from every state has their own driving rules in their head. And on top of that, you've got lots of merged lanes into a single tunnel or bridge, so that was terrible. And then I ended up moving to Savannah, Georgia after that, and I've been there uh to this day. So it's been uh going on three years come this May that I've been living in Savannah, Georgia.

SPEAKER_00:

Interesting. You said a couple things. Insightful. My audience knows I can't pass on wordplay and lame puns, right? Hopefully, it's insightful in an I-N-S-I-G-H-T way, not an I and C I T E that they get all angry upset and go burn something down. We want positive incitement, right? Hopefully they are I-N-C-I-T-E-D, incited to go out and spread love and harmony, right? And the other thing you said with my O C D brain, Savannah, Georgia. Oh, great. Now the rest of today, December 1st, Tuesday, that we're recording. I'm gonna have, oh Susanna, won't you cry for me tune in my head? So yeah, help people face the darkest parts of their lives and walk out of them with purpose in your pod match bio. All I needed to see, I gotta have this guy on. Doing that how sharing what, trying to move towards what indeed, you know, Rick Warren's purpose-driven life book, of course, comes to mind. And there was a movie with Kate Mara. Uh I, you know, I'm not a part of Rick Warren's church, I'm not trying to promote that book, but that book played a part in a Kate Mara movie called Captive. And indeed, you don't have to be a fan of Rick Warren to want to embrace the concept of purpose and hopefully a positive purpose. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

So you talk about purpose, and for me, we have our purpose given to us. It's in the end of the book of Ecclesiastes, the wise teacher, often accredited as King Solomon, but referred to as the wise teacher, says this is the conclusion of the matter, and I'm paraphrasing here. But he says, after living several cycles under the sun, seeing everything under the sun, both good and bad, doing all the great pleasures of life and also being a godly man at one point. His conclusion is this to serve and worship God. There is no other purpose. And so that is at the forefront of my purpose. And then I have people second, because helping people, serving people, uh is serving God. As Jesus Christ said, anything you do for these people, you have done also for me, right? That's different from indulging in this fallen world, from being of this fallen world, of conforming to the pattern of it. There is a renewing of your mind, and there is, and I really learned this as well in addiction recovery. There is enablement, right? A lot of addictions are fueled by people enabling it because of this sense of false purpose to help that person's emotions to take care of them. But there comes a point where there is accountability and boundaries set, and that doesn't mean you're not serving your purpose. It actually means you're serving it to a greater degree. And people often mistake accountability with judgment, and that's a whole conversation on its own in our world and media right now. But for me, that purpose is to serve and glorify God. And the Bible breaks down how we do that and how we should do that. And I I believe it's two parts. Here's what you do in your private life as a believer, your relationship with God, and here's what you do for his people, his children. And what you do among them and with them is reflective of that purpose of serving God. And so helping people to navigate this fallen world, to repent of their sins, and to have the knowledge they need to make right choices is super important to me. But oftentimes it's hard to reach people to serve God when they are in the midst of hardship and struggles. That is what kills their faith or any potential for them to listen to the word. And so you have to help get people out of their situation first to be able to preach to them. But on the other hand, sometimes their situation is what God's using to get someone to bring the word into their life, and so it it all works together interconnectedly, but again, all leading back to that serving God and serving others.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh Amen. Uh, and a couple things. One to what you said, to your point, serving God, uh, ultimately in the long run, this world as well as even more importantly, the next eternity, serving God, we are serving our own best interests as well as others at the same time, too. So uh people there because there's a lot of people who think, well, you people of faith are foolish, you you have no self-interest, that's not true. Uh, you you uh uh you have no free will, that's not true. God gave us free will, and part of our free will is to want to serve God at the same time, helps fulfill and give us as well as others a very uh meaningful life. And oh, I've I forgot the second thing else. Oh, the other thing I was gonna joke. Uh, this is not an AI spoof. This is part of kind of the whole problem issue with Zoom delay today. I assure you, Mr. Whiskey is a real person, right? He's not an AI fake. This is not an AI gimmick here, right? Please explain to the people you're a real person. Yes, Mr. Whiskey?

SPEAKER_01:

It's interesting because on my side of the internet, you are lagging, and you are like just a blur of pixels. And so I I'm very curious what your recording end will be like. And um, I probably should have hit record on my end so we could have merged the two videos. But it is what it is. You know, it's technology doesn't always play. And often I find that when it is a faith-based episode or gathering or something, faith-based that is when technology acts up the most, and we know why. It's because the wicked principalities of the airways, the devil, the enemy, uh, always does what he can in the most annoying ways, like lagging zoom, to hinder conversations that would oppose them. So I am real proven. I'll take my shirt off right now.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh think that's important, right? We need to keep a sense of humor uh about things. And and also I'm putting on my tinfoil hat figuratively, not literally. Also, this show deals in politics, biblical community, free will, charity versus worldly communism, theft, redistribution, force at the barrel of a gun. No, we are to want to be our brother's keeper. Free will, charity. So uh the the figurative tinfoil hat uh the NSA is out to get us again, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I've got a tinfoil hat on underneath my cowboy hat. That's that's what it's hiding. If I lift it up, it's a big old piece of tinfoil.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, well, now the joking and kidding aside, you know, but again, need to keep a sense of humor and hey, let's make fun in light of the zoom lag here. And again, in post, most won't even notice it. I'll kind of cut out the uh the the lags uh between you and me, but back to purpose. And I I mention it right, God gives us free will. We are free, and a whole lot of people sadly do choose their free will to be negative Nellies. In my the Book of Kennedy Project Carpe Diem, I I've I coined the hashtag decades ago, but I've finally introduced the term in that book, mass holes, right? The masses of asses, they're always negative, they're miserable people, and they want others to be miserable. They choose their free will to sow pain and discord and sometimes outright evil in the world. So we have a choice, and you and I, and we are here to try to encourage others to choose positivity and good and try to make this fallen world a little less painful to get through on our way through to self-final salvation and eternity in heaven. Hopefully, everyone watching the show will be there with us. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

That is the plan, and you know, I think people we talk about self-interest, which I think is interesting because I don't I've never once felt like being a believer meant you had no self-interest. If anything, worshiping God and serving God uh is not for God. He doesn't need us to worship him, he is a perfect being. He has the Bible command us to worship him and to give us this guideline to follow for our own age of celebrities in social media is so sickening and dangerous and poisonous. But when you have God as what you're pursuing, when you have the morality and righteousness of the Bible in alignment with your purpose, um, it almost is self-serving because you are following down a path that will ultimately benefit you. If our goal is to get into heaven, then that is a self-interest to a degree. Uh but there's a difference between self-interest and selfish uh self-serving. And so I think it's very interesting. I haven't heard that before, but you mentioned it, and I didn't want to address that. You know, purpose is it serving others is serving ourselves in a way, but that's not the goal. Most believers would say, if I could send a hundred people to heaven and not myself, then so be it. You know, that is what that mindset is. You know, it's always about uh taking care of one another, and I think serving others in self-interest being complete opposites are not true at all.

SPEAKER_00:

I hate to do this, but I fear the way Zoom is acting today, a complete collapse, and I don't want to lose this. We've only had a short time together, but I think we've packed a 10 pounds of Sirius into a five-pound bag of uh of shortness. You know what I mean? So I I do want to wrap it up and save this so we don't lose it. It will be shorter, but it will be, I hope, very impactful and insightful in the IN F-I-G-H-T way, as well as a positive INCIT way. Uh, where can people find you? Now we found each other via PodMatch, but do you have a website where people can look you up and interact with you and whatnot, or do you have a book on Amazon?

SPEAKER_01:

My website is couplees.com. That's C-O-U-P-L-E-O-N-U-K-E-S. Couple Nukes.com has all of my contact links, but it also has every show I've ever been on and every person who's ever been on my show with all of their resources from books to courses to guides to products. It is a plethora and treasure trove of resources. Uh, if you're here because of the interest in faith, I also have my online ministry there where I have my solo sermons as well as faith-based guests who have been on my show from preachers to conversion stories to just scriptural knowledge and study. There's plenty on there about health, fitness, finances, mentorship, leadership. The whole idea is that you go there and you find something that you can use to improve your life or the life of others around you, including women's health with domestic violence and sexual assault prevention, and men's health with men's retreats and male sexual assault awareness. So it has just a whole ton of resources, again, for free. Books, courses, guides, episodes, and I highly encourage you all to check it out. And if it's not for you, never know too much and pass along too much information to one another, as long as it is in alignment with that which is morally righteous.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you mentioned I'm not sure how this is. I from my side, the recording is looking pretty good. You've had a few freezes and stutters, but I think the quality will be good enough for everyone to understand. I hope. And when I'm done here, I will quickly edit up the video and send you a link and allow you to provide the video as a behind-the-scenes sneak peek before this ever airs on my side of things. And I will end with a joke like I did the other day. Like you said, you have a ministry, M-I-N-I-S-T-R-Y, right? Well, it's got many in it. Well, my apologies, you only have a mini stree. I have a large street. Pum bum. Thank you, Mr. Whiskey, for joining today. Take care. God bless. Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist Politics Podcast and share episodes. We need your help. Thank you for having tuned in to another Christitutionalist podcast show. I really appreciate that you stop by. Again, please like, share, subscribe. We need you to help spread the constitutionalist movement. Thank you again. Take care. God bless. Love you all.

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Joseph M Lenard

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