Are You Already Living Your Purpose Without Realizing It?

What if you’re already walking in God’s purpose for your life—and just haven’t seen it that way yet?

So many of us spend years searching, striving, and stressing over what our “true purpose” is. We wait for a big sign, a dramatic shift, or a perfect opportunity to make it all clear. But what if God is already using you, right where you are?

In this episode, we dive into the idea that living in purpose isn’t always about doing something new—it’s often about seeing the familiar with fresh eyes. Through faith-filled conversation, we explore how God weaves purpose into our daily lives, our relationships, and even our struggles.

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re missing your calling, or if you’re “falling behind,” this episode will encourage you to stop chasing and start recognizing how God is already at work.

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"Imagine Yourself" is hosted by Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach—two dynamic voices with a passion for inspiring and uplifting others. Lanée, a TV writer, producer, motivational speaker, and podcaster, brings powerful storytelling and insight. Sandy, a radio personality, voiceover artist, and podcaster, delivers warmth and wisdom with every conversation. Broadcasting from the Detroit Metro area, they welcome guests from around the world to share valuable perspectives on health, career growth, faith, and personal transformation. Tune in and imagine the possibilities for your life!

Transcript

Lanee Blaise [00:00:03]:
Today I want to say to you all, imagine yourself not worried about your purpose. This is Linnae here with Sandy and gosh, Sandy and I have just been talking this past week because most of us worry so much about finding our purpose. And right now, the way personally my life is going to, I don't even need to know what my purpose is. I just need to rest in the reassurance that God has me here for a purpose and that he will use me for his purposes. And that's all I need to worry about right now. And you know, Sandy and I were just like, this is something that a lot of people struggle with. We need to talk about it. So, Sandy, what? Yeah, Your thoughts too now?

Sandy Kovach [00:00:52]:
I feel like almost the word purpose itself is kind of got us stumbling a little bit because they're all things that we're good at and that we're not good at. And I think as you get older and you go into different areas and you try different things, you figure out what you're good at and what you're not so good at and gifts and your talents and, you know, however you want to put that. And I think, and I'm not putting down this book because it was very popular back in, I can't remember, was it the 90s, the early 2000s, purpose driven life? I feel like we all kind of got obsessed. And it's not just that. It's like all these books about your five year plan and your goals and your this and your that and all that's good stuff. But especially for somebody like me who can be a little scattered and just kind of go on day to day. Not that I don't have, you know, certain plans, but it just intimidated me. Like, okay, so I don't know exactly what my purpose is.

Sandy Kovach [00:01:47]:
I'm sitting over here feeling like kind of a loser.

Lanee Blaise [00:01:49]:
Okay, so that's my issue as well. I start to have fear, feelings of worthlessness. And I have struggled with feelings of worthlessness for decades. And then I had, you know, it goes up and down. You know, sometimes I'm really vulnerable. Sometimes I'm. I'm not. And I know that a lot of people would say, like, how do you get there? And I begin.

Lanee Blaise [00:02:13]:
There are certain seasons in my life or slumps in my life where I'm just like, I'm not where I want to be, I'm not where I should be. It becomes the negative self talk, which we always talk about, but it's even deeper than negative self talk because it really, really starts penetrating how worthless I feel. And that's where. When you go to Bible studies or when you are around people who are uplifting or who think about a God centeredness, you can think of it one of two ways. You can say, well, we're basically all not worthy, but God loves us anyway and God infiltrates our heart and our soul and makes us worthy as God's children. Or you can say that it doesn't really matter what I'm doing or what you know, this world will have you thinking that you have to have this checklist of what you have done to prove yourself to be worthy. Sandy, you and I were talking the other day about this in preparation for this. Like it was that whole part about what does the world see me as? How does the world see me? Does the world see me as beautiful or powerful or purposeful or fearless or strong? Who cares? I'm starting to be like, I don't want to care about what the world sees me as.

Lanee Blaise [00:03:38]:
And I want to even be careful of how I see myself because I really want to see myself the way God sees me. And that's that part again. He obviously made me. I'm still here, alive on this earth. There must be something he's doing and. And I don't even have to know what it is. I just have to trust them.

Sandy Kovach [00:03:55]:
Amen. First of all, it's really hard for me to look at you and think you would ever feel worthless. But isn't that the way we are with our friends? It's like, you what? And then we all kind of fake it till we make it and we get through these seasons. Like you said, there are seasons in life where we're not really doing much or maybe we're even between jobs or because our society defines itself, you know, buy employment so often or whatever, or we're ill. You can have seasons where you're just down or you can't really do much. There's things that people go through and you brought up God's purpose. And I think God's purpose is what we as believers can kind of hang our hats on. And I read this interesting thing because the call of faith, they say, is often small, hidden and present focused.

Sandy Kovach [00:04:46]:
We want a big picture vision and God just gives us the next right step. So very often his ways are higher than our ways, as we've often said. Psalm 119, 105 says, the lamp under your feet, that's just enough to light the next few steps. And I never really thought about it this way until I was reading this. And yeah, God just, He calls us to trust and he calls us also. Another big thing that I feel like we need to talk about is he calls us more to live for others than you know us to always be so obsessed with. Well, okay, is this fitting in my five year plan? Is this fitting in with the purpose that I have defined here, like my own personal mission statement or, you know, whatever the case may be. And we talked.

Sandy Kovach [00:05:33]:
Yeah, we talked about that quote. I know. In another podcast from Pope Francis, the late Pope Francis. Rivers do not drink their own water. Trees do not eat their own fruit. The sun does not shine on itself. Living for others is a rule of nature. So you know all the things there.

Lanee Blaise [00:05:51]:
That is beautiful. Gosh, you almost even have me thinking, like if there is one little flower, maybe a tulip by itself, and it thinks, gosh, I'm worthless. I'm just sitting here by myself. I'm not really surrounded by any friends. I'm in a weird spot kind of behind a tree, nobody can really see me. I'm whatever yellow color instead of pink or whatever color. And I am just not all that. I just wondered like, you know, speaking back to that part about even my own personal struggles that like you said, many people don't know.

Lanee Blaise [00:06:28]:
I want to help people pull out of that type of thinking. And there's probably no one on here that's listening that's in danger of being conceited or arrogant. I'll preface with that. So we want to pull, pull all the beautiful things that are inside of us. And like, again, the way God thinks is so differently. God is not concerned about how much influence we have pushed out the numbers of people that we've influenced. God cares so much if there's one person that we have touched or been a blessing to or given that hope to or talked about God with. God loves it when we take time.

Lanee Blaise [00:07:14]:
I always call it, like, I'm my friend, I tell my friends I'm going to go within, you know, where we go within. And we just spend time with the Lord in a restful kind of be still and know that I am God component. And there's a lot of hustle and bustle, there's a lot of tiredness. That's another one. When you're tired, you can become vulnerable, you can be less productive, you can be less optimistic, lay down and rest that, that, you know the Psalm 23, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. Makes you think, wow, God has to make us lie down because if not, we just run around like little Little busy bodies. And that was never God's intention or purpose.

Sandy Kovach [00:08:04]:
And.

Lanee Blaise [00:08:05]:
But back. We're back to purpose, you know, his purpose was, what is God's purpose for us overall? To love God with all our hearts and soul and strength and heart and to love others as we love ourselves.

Sandy Kovach [00:08:21]:
Yeah.

Lanee Blaise [00:08:22]:
That is the simplicity of it and the beauty of it. And we get way into, well, God will be more pleased with me and the world will be more pleased with me if I go out, I write a book, I start a podcast, I film something, I have a job that become. I get my law degree so that I can advocate for all and do it all at one time and bring in foster children and do all these things. And. And God might be shaking his head and said, you didn't do the biggest thing that I said in Psalm 27, which is wait for the Lord, be strong, take heart, and wait for the Lord. Because many times you'll get to see, when you wait that extra second, you will get to see if I was supposed to do A or B or neither, you know, or both, I guess. And that is so crucial because we can lose heart when we run ahead of God's plans.

Sandy Kovach [00:09:20]:
And even, like all you said, those things were good things, but it doesn't mean you have to do them all at once, or you have to do them to have worth waiting on God to see what his purpose is. There's that word again. But God. I feel like it's different when we're talking about God's plan and purpose, and that's biblical. And certainly there's nothing wrong with us saying, you know, here's my purpose, or whatever. It's the obsession. I almost feel like our society just took it in a completely different direction. And maybe that's because we're all insecure.

Sandy Kovach [00:09:58]:
We're all. I wouldn't say everybody in the world is insecure, but most of us have our insecurities, even though, you know, we don't necessarily talk about them. But social media, marketing, all of that stuff plays into our insecurities. But I do like what you're saying about reaching people who feel like they're not enough. Are you loving others like you were saying? I think both of us brought that up. I brought that up with a quote from Pope Francis and you quoted directly from the Bible. Those little quality times, those little interactions, even whether you're an actual caregiver for someone, whether they're your kids or your parents or anyone, if you are spending some time with someone making them feel better and being of service to them. And how good does it make you feel when you're able to do that? Right? I mean, would that happen if it wasn't supposed to be, like, one of the number one things we're supposed to be concerned with?

Lanee Blaise [00:11:02]:
You're on target. Because how about this? It will make you feel good from the inside out, like you said. If possibly society has taken the word purpose and hijacked it for, I guess, to get more out of us, to type squeeze everything out of us, then what we need to do is switch it back and partner any concepts that we have of purpose back with God where it originally started. I mean, can you imagine if we passed away and we're up in heaven and God is giving us like a rundown or review of our life?

Sandy Kovach [00:11:38]:
He's got the slideshow going and he's like an Instagram reel and there's music and you're like.

Lanee Blaise [00:11:43]:
And it's.

Sandy Kovach [00:11:44]:
But you.

Lanee Blaise [00:11:44]:
But he.

Sandy Kovach [00:11:44]:
And he's showing.

Lanee Blaise [00:11:45]:
He's pointing, like right here. You're thinking that you're doing so much for the cause or whatever. And I had really. I was trying to get your attention amidst all the noise and the music and, and the power and the everything. And I was trying to get you back to focus on me for some other purpose or plan that I had for you and God. You'd just be shaking your head. I got caught up.

Sandy Kovach [00:12:14]:
Yeah.

Lanee Blaise [00:12:15]:
In all the hoopla. Another part. As far as having grace with yourself. I had a dream the other night. Sandy, I know that we talk a lot about. And you have been the influence. I. All my dreams for almost my entire life were always stupid, dumb, purposeless dreams.

Lanee Blaise [00:12:34]:
And now I'm starting, you know, every blue moon, I'll have one that really has meaning and purpose. I dreamed that I was talking to my dad and I was saying, dad, my life has become ridiculous. I'll preface this real quick just to say Sandy knows this because of. Even scheduling has been difficult, but I keep having out of town trips. I've been doing great things for family members or friends and for work and for TV and film stuff and all that stuff. But it is just like my whole calendar has just. And I color code my calendar, so it's just become a rainbow of stuff and it's becoming overwhelming to me. So right now I'm not feeling worthless.

Lanee Blaise [00:13:19]:
I'm feeling overwhelmed and. And which maybe is why I'm like, I almost don't even care about my purpose. I really. I feel God calling to me to just sit with him and Just have some stillness. So in this dream, my father. But I think it was symbolic because in the dream I said, dad, my life has become ridiculous. And he said, linnae, your life has not become ridiculous. Your schedule has become ridiculous, and it's making you feel as if your life has just become a ridiculous show.

Lanee Blaise [00:13:55]:
And I really believe that was God speaking to me through my dream. My heavenly father speaking in the form of my earthly father. And it has impacted what I will take on from now on because after more reflection, it's like, Lynnae, you have stopped saying no to things. Because I used to love saying no to things. I love saying no. You have stopped checking with me first. You'll say yes before you like, and you'll kind of check and see if you can squeeze it into your calendar, but you don't check with your father, God, before you move forward on things. The whole image that I always loved of being like a little kid who's at a playground and I'm like, hey, when you're a little kid, you sometimes look at your parents, say, hey, can I go get on the swings? And the mom or dad says, yes, and you go get on the swings.

Lanee Blaise [00:14:50]:
Hey, can I get on the jungle gym? Yes, but just don't climb too high. I've stopped checking back with my parent God to see, hey, should I do this? Hey, well, yes, but just in moderation. There's been no moderation. That's the thing. And, and all of it started back about a year or two ago when I was like, I want to make sure I have a legacy or purpose or put something on my name. And that was maybe arrogance, but it's hitting me in the face now, and I don't want it to hit anybody else's face.

Sandy Kovach [00:15:23]:
Wow, that is interesting. So, you know, because all the things you're doing are good, and there's nothing wrong with having a legacy and a purpose. But what you're saying is you took it without limits. You just instead of checking with God or instead of looking at through those eyes, you're looking at, through, okay, here's the promise I made to myself. And then I'm gonna do everything to get there. And, you know, there are definitely seasons in our life where we're busier than others. And there's nothing wrong with that. But for our listeners, just so you know, we got on this podcast, Linnae said, let's get on at 11:11 now.

Sandy Kovach [00:16:01]:
Who talks like that? Somebody with a color coded calendar up.

Lanee Blaise [00:16:05]:
To the dang second every minute, Every second, every minute. It's just been, it's been really wild. And you have me thinking too, all of this is really about reflection to reflection with God and reflection in a godly way. But I wonder now, like I said about a year or a year and a half ago, did I have a little slump of feeling worthless? So in my, you know, mind I'm like, okay, I'm going to fix that by doing all these things to prove to myself and to the world that I'm not worthless. And then God is just probably sitting there the whole time shaking like, poor baby, this girl does not realize these are, these are not all, you know, some of them God specifically has asked me or nudged me to do. And others God did not. It's like, poor baby, this girl is trying to prove something, running around in circles, trying to prove something to the world and to herself that she doesn't need to. And, and I think sometimes when we take that message of purpose too far, then you end up talking about, I'm going to have a meeting at 11.

Lanee Blaise [00:17:13]:
11, yeah.

Sandy Kovach [00:17:15]:
And I know we touched on this a little earlier and again, Purpose Driven Life was a huge book, but I think it brought the word purpose and goals and five year plan and vision board and none of those things are bad if not taken to extreme, but it brought it into the Christian faith. So how do you think we as believers can, with all due respect and the good things that were in this book reframe it in our own minds that yeah, we can believe that God has a purpose, but maybe it's not like written on stone tablets, like the ten Commandments or something.

Lanee Blaise [00:17:53]:
I think that it can. My answer is like in one sentence, My one sentence would be the only purpose that I want to define for myself is what I come to when I have had proper self reflection with God away time with God to determine when you do that away time, just you and God sitting there in the quiet and in the stillness and you are listening for God's nudges and you are praying to God for guidance and direction. You will begin to live a life of calm and love. And that will in itself be the purpose. You'll reflect God's love, you'll reflect God's calm. And again that will be your purpose. And when you get to heaven and you're with God and he's got that slideshow, he's got that slideshow with the highlight reel and the low light reel, that's when he'll say, well done, my good and faithful servant. You were able to be with Me be present with me and show that off.

Lanee Blaise [00:19:19]:
And then I guess the crushing part would. He'll take, like, the big time. The big time where you won the award for, like, best mom of the Year, best employee of the month. And God will say, oh, that. When we can. We can snip that part out of the. Of the reel, you're like, wait, what? That was my best part. Like, yeah, that was.

Lanee Blaise [00:19:35]:
That was nice. But we're gonna do a different type of highlight reel.

Sandy Kovach [00:19:39]:
Yeah.

Lanee Blaise [00:19:39]:
And it's gonna have all these times where you're on your knees or on your face on the floor and you're praying or you're holding someone's hand who's going through a tough time and you're praying over them. That's gonna be the new highlight reel. And all the other times where you got the awards or you were being applauded by humans, all that part gets snipped out. You're like, dang.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:02]:
Because those parts are nice. But you know what? They don't last. But the feelings that we get from helping people, holding someone's hand, as you say, maybe being their shoulder to cry on. Even the parts where you're, like, on your face praying to God, or you're in the middle of praise and worship, and you're really feeling that connection, those are lasting, and they change you. I guess, since your thing is going to be staying connected to God. I think my thing is going to be, instead of striving, I'm going to try trusting. Because surrendering and trusting. And, you know, we can say surrender.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:45]:
And there are songs about surrender. I surrender all. I surrender some. You know, even when we say it, there's these little corners of our life where we're thinking, you know what? I got that. That's cool. I can do that. But really. And I have yet to do it, because I try to, but I'm always afraid that if I just give everything, the only way God's gonna be able to teach me is for me to go through some crap.

Sandy Kovach [00:21:15]:
And I don't want to go through the crap, because you know how that journey develops. Yes, I'm afraid. But it's all for our good. And that's what I really need to do. I need to stop striving and start.

Lanee Blaise [00:21:27]:
Trusting more or even trusting that you can have a new view of the way God can do these things through you, where you start trusting. I definitely know that God uses the terrible times to develop us, But I also believe wholeheartedly that God can use the wonderful times and the beautiful moments to mold us. Also, as long as our heart is open, our posture is open. I know that Mel Robbins always says, like, what if it all works out? And I like that. But I'd like to add, like, what if God works it all out without even having to have the terrible parts? I mean, I definitely understand the Bible says there will be tribulations, but I have overcome the world. But what I'm kind of getting at is I don't want us to always be waiting for the other shoe to drop in a bad way. If we have this childlike view of my father. God provides, loves, teaches, and there may be teachable moments, but it doesn't have to be things crash and burn in order to have to rebuild all the time.

Lanee Blaise [00:22:44]:
You might be like, hey, I have done that. I've been there. And, hey, God, we know that. I've been there. And let's believe and hope and shoot for the better. We did the bad, now let's do the better. Of course we know. This is your Romans 8, 28.

Lanee Blaise [00:23:01]:
We know that God works all things together for good. Those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.

Sandy Kovach [00:23:09]:
There's that word there's right in our scripture. Yeah.

Lanee Blaise [00:23:13]:
Yes. Called according to his purpose. And his purpose for us might be a particular season, a particular lifetime, a particular incident, a particular moment. And it may change. It doesn't mean that, you know, Linnae was born to be this and Sandy was born to be that. And that's the whole trajectory. That's all we focus on, the whole life. It may change.

Lanee Blaise [00:23:39]:
And again, if you think about the people who come into our life, we may have to share certain other parts of ourselves that we didn't even know we had in us to benefit and bless them. There's so many ways to take this. I really pray that this episode uplifts everyone who listens. We're going to shift some of that worthlessness, feeling or fear that we're going to have to walk through these hard times or concern that we're not enough. All these things we're having God wash away and cleanse and change and. And brighten. Of course, you and I are always. We're always realistic.

Lanee Blaise [00:24:24]:
Anything could happen today, tomorrow, in the next moment that could be in our eyes, horrible. But we know that we won't have to go through it alone. And we believe that God will, you know, walk us through and through that reflection again, get us. Get us to the other side of it and. And then, like my daughter always says, when she gets to heaven. She will definitely ask God, so now, why did that, you know, catastrophe have to happen? I was rolling along great and I was very faithful, you know, and so, you know, we find out some of these things on this side of heaven and some on the other side. But it's just, I don't know that this is just a beautiful talk amongst friends. I'm feeling like right now, between me and you and everyone who's listening and anybody who has felt that vulnerability or that desire, like, I've got to be more.

Lanee Blaise [00:25:19]:
I'm not enough. I need to do A, B and C. Really listen back to some of the thoughts that we expressed today and determine if you want to think differently, choose differently for yourself.

Sandy Kovach [00:25:35]:
It's such a relief, isn't it? I mean, to just not be thinking, oh my gosh, I'm not. I haven't done this. I'm. My purpose is what?

Lanee Blaise [00:25:44]:
Or, how about that? I need that. I'm sitting here minding my own business and having a happy, well balanced, blessed life and being a blessing to others and saying, oh my gosh, I gotta go find my purpose. I gotta stop what I'm doing and find my purpose. And God might be like, you are living out your purpose already right now, ma'. Am.

Sandy Kovach [00:26:05]:
Right, exactly.

Lanee Blaise [00:26:06]:
Just embrace that. See that you are already doing it. You just finished checking on your next door neighbor. You just finished babysitting for your daughter or your sister, so you're babysitting your niece or your granddaughter. You just finished reading scripture, you just finished reflecting with me. You're doing all the right things. They're just not as glamorous as this world would have it.

Sandy Kovach [00:26:34]:
Yeah, they're not Instagram worthy, so to speak. Yeah, forget that. Social media has pushed us even further in that direction. Yeah, don't worry about how things are going to look or who's doing something else. Or how about the moment where you're feeling good about your life and then you pick up your phone and your friend is on vacation or she's just got a promotion or all great things that should be applauded or got married or had a grandchild or a child, and then all of a sudden, here comes Mr. Or Mrs. Worthless in to sit on your lap.

Lanee Blaise [00:27:10]:
Yes, exactly like, oh, man, I'm not there yet. And for all we know, your thing that you've prayed for so much might be right around the corner. God is waiting to bestow it upon you and give it to you. And it's about timing. And that's that part too. Like God's timing sometimes has to do with a lot of things that we don't factor in. How we'll behave when we get that gift, how it might affect others, setting it up so that many people can win along with you at once. God is a mastermind.

Lanee Blaise [00:27:44]:
So if you think about like God is the mastermind and all these pieces on the board have to align a certain way to be a blessing to all of God's children, then it kind of might take you out of the head space of well, I wanted this promotion now and I wanted this relationship now, now, now, now. And, you know, it just maybe takes some of that pressure off too.

Sandy Kovach [00:28:08]:
Absolutely. Well, I have really enjoyed covering this. We'll continue to get your feedback on this. We'd love for you to go to imagine yourself podcast.com or on Instagram and Facebook or just rate the podcast or leave a comment. There's even a way to text this. I mean, in this society, there's a million ways to get in touch. Yes, we'd love to hear your stories too, because this is I just never knew what kind of can of worms we were opening here.

Lanee Blaise [00:28:33]:
Yes, you started when you it was that one sentence we were talking about just resting in the reassurance that God has us here for a purpose. And something in your brain went, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. This should be our topic. And this has been a beautiful little nugget of a topic for all of us to expose our own quirks or insecurities and then put a soothing balm on top of those quirks and insecurities in a way that makes us better and stronger and happier and healthier and more blessed.

Sandy Kovach [00:29:13]:
There we go.

Lanee Blaise [00:29:15]:
So imagine yourself taking that time in a mental, physical, spiritual, real way to reflect and connect with God our Father and realize that the word purpose will definitely mean something else when it's coming from God.