Steve Campbell - Why Are These Disruptions Happening To Me?

Show Notes

Steve Campbell - Why Are These Disruptions Happening To Me? by Browncroft Community Church

What is Why God Why??

If you could ask God one question what would it be? The “Why God Why” podcast is dedicated to exploring the questions that matter most in your life.

Deep questions often don’t have easy answers. We realize that we won’t solve all the world’s problems in one podcast. Our goal is to share our life experience, interview knowledgeable guests and look at how Jesus might interact with our concerns. We also hope to have a ton of fun in the process because even though the issues might be serious, it doesn’t mean that we always need to be.

No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, we are honored to have you with us!

Peter Englert: Welcome to the Why God Why podcast. I am one of the hosts, Peter Englert. We exist to respond to the questions that you don't feel comfortable asking in church. I'm here with our fantastic producer, Nathan Yoder. I'm also here with our illustrious cohost, Aaron Mercer. Aaron, how are you today?

Aaron Mercer: I'm great. And I'm excited about this conversation. I think it's... By the way, I should tell our guests here, he says illustrious every week and I don't know what to say back yet. I've got to come up with something witty, but I don't really think I'm illustrious. So, we just got to start off with that one. But-

Steve Campbell: Well, see, in the short time I've been on this podcast, you seemed fairly illustrious to me, so, you just go ahead and own it, and we're going to have a good time.

Aaron Mercer: I knew I liked this guy. This is great. Yeah.

Peter Englert: Well, the voice of the background, the guest, his name is Steve Campbell. He is asking the question why are these disruptions happening? And Steve, without further ado, why don't you just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your story and maybe why this question is on your heart and mind.

Steve Campbell: Yeah. Well, I appreciate you two guys having me on, and for those who may not know, Peter and I actually grew up together. We were in kids' church and who knew we'd find ourselves all these years later, both co-hosting podcasts and having the opportunity to have our lives be divinely connected again.
Before I say what I do, what I am is I'm a proud husband, father to four. I have four kids, six years old and younger. We are in the crazy season of our life. My son, Joshua's six, my son Jordan is going to be five. And then, in 2020, we had identical twin girls. Definitely married up to my wife, Stephanie, and they are, outside of my identity in Christ, the reason why I do what I do.
And then, from a day to day, I serve as the chief brand officer for our company, which is S.E.E.D. Planning Group. S.E.E.D is a fee-only financial planning firm. Basically, we have completely rediscovered and rethought of what it means to work with a financial planner, a financial professional, by making sure that advice wasn't carried along with commission sales or products or the messy things that can get in the way between probably a lot of listeners wanting to do the right things with their money, but just want to make sure that the person on the opposite side of the screen or the desk is advising them in a way that is in their best interest and not their own.
So, I have the blessing and benefit of representing our team, is the Tony Robbins of our group. I do all of our videos, our podcasts. I also help teach culture and lead our team. Just thinking about the why behind what we do and what I would say is I have the complete honor of representing our team in many capacities, and because of that, I get to do things like this.
So, today, you're going to hear really from my personal heart and my perspective, yes, I do have the honor of representing my team in most settings, but today, I'm just going to speak to you as a normal person who's had many disruptions in their life and had to navigate some difficult decisions, but in the end, our hope is that we will inspire you to know that if God's in it and He's leading you, that He always makes a way through it no matter how challenging it can seem.
That's a little bit of my story, and it's fun, as I said, having the ability to be a communicator, which is how God made me, and just love inspiring and encouraging other people to, as we say on our podcast, go out and live your best life.

Peter Englert: I love it. Yeah. Like Steve said, Steve grew up in Vestal, I grew up in Endicott, so, we will always have Broome County and spiedies and stuff and we might touch on a few stories, but-

Aaron Mercer: Yeah. I was going to say, do we have a fun Peter story here that our listeners need to know?

Peter Englert: You know, let's not waste our time here.

Steve Campbell: [inaudible] Peter story, yeah. But no pun intended, we grew up as '90 kids in church eating the paste that was flour and water. So, again, no pun intended being feeder, but maybe that's why Peter and I turned out the way that we were when craft time also became snack time, which is for anybody that was raised in the '90s, you're laughing because that was your experience too.

Peter Englert: Oh, man.

Aaron Mercer: That's great.

Peter Englert: That was great. Well, as much as I'd love to hear embarrassing stories and Aaron would of myself, so, you know, I think where your story really picks up is why don't you tell us about... You played lacrosse for Rutgers, and you were on a trajectory to become a teacher.
And really, the first disruption of your life was thinking that you were going to be a teacher, and then, going into financial sector. Why don't you just tell us that story and give us perspective of how you've engaged that.

Steve Campbell: You know, and it's so funny, if I even go back to my days of high school, probably my least favorite class was economics. So, it's now funny to think about what I do for a living, podcasting and speaking about the financial industry and how to empower people to live their life. God has a unique sense of humor of many times using the things in our past to bring us to a place of where he is trying to get us.
Even before I had started my career at Rutgers, I had ended up signing a division one scholarship to play lacrosse there. It was a great honor. But right before I signed my scholarship, unfortunately, I ended up blowing out my ACL in my knee in a high school football game and was supposed to sign my scholarship the next week. And so, my entire sports career was completely disrupted from that moment.
Even though I was able to go on to Rutgers and earn a fantastic degree, my sports career never really took off. And I was on a team of 42. I think I was number 42 on the depth chart. I was the Rudy of my team. When I had a tore of my ACL, I lost most of my speed, most of my ability. Most of the physical attributes that had gotten me to that place in my career were now diminished completely. And everyone in Division 1 was a highest caliber athlete at their school, and I just, those were really formidable years for me when you are an athlete, and the one thing you've leaned on is now kind of taken from you.
You know, I went through a series of years in college where trying to figure out who I was growing up in a Christian family, and now, being at a huge university as an athlete, the things that I was exposed to that really we're at war with, what I felt I should be doing. And God was so gracious through all of that, and really, brought some great people into my life during my college years to mentor me and to help me, and to really, I think, make my faith my own.
Pete, you and I laugh. We grew up in a Christian home, and sometimes, you show up at church because your parents take you there, but until you truly own it yourself, it's more of your parents' decision. And so, my crisis faith in my early 20s of not having a college career that I was proud of, not being what I thought I was going to be on paper, found that the Lord really began to speak to my life about what he had in store for me. And I thought it was to be a teacher.
So, I went on to earn a master's in education, through a series of disruptions in that part of my life, I was actually enrolled in the fifth year master's program at Rutgers before my father had a surgery accidentally that went wrong at a local hospital and was in the ICU for 42 days in the summer of 2008. And we just really had no idea what his life was going to be like, and I withdrew for my fifth year at Rutgers, and actually, enrolled in the master's program at the local university in Binghamton, Binghamton University and was able to earn a master's in education in a year and a half.
But when I got through... I thought I had way too much personality to do a normal nine to five job. So, I thought I'll be a teacher and I can be a clown all day long. What happened is as I went through the student teaching process and I got all the way through, sometimes, the experience and the expectations of life are two very different things. What you hope to experience, and then, or expect, and then, what you actually experience, there's a little bit of a divide that I think we all have to navigate.
And for me, that was what happened when I graduated. What I thought I wanted to be for years was, now, not really what I wanted to do. I came out of college with a lot of student loan debt. I'm probably like many of our listeners that are on this call today, who, honestly, just were trying to navigate life in the '90s and early 2000s and making decisions that they thought were in their best interest, because there wasn't a lot of knowledge at the time about student debt and how it works, and really, the epidemic that that's become today. But I was part of that group.
And so, I didn't want to go into teaching, and God opened up a door to actually sell cars, which, for most people, if you go to school to be a teacher, which is a very virtuous job, the last thing you think you're going to do is be pedaling automobiles. But that's where I found myself. I needed to pay my bills. I needed to be a good steward.
And I found my life was disrupted working at this car dealership, and I knew nothing about cars. I'm not a car junkie. I don't love cars. But I was just too foolish to fail. And I asked lots of questions and got to know, you know, how these things work, so that I could offer the best things for people coming in to see us.
And it was through that work that, within a year, I actually got connected and sold a car to a financial advisor at a local investment firm, and through a weird, crazy turn of events, my mom had worked for him in the '70s and he put two and two together and figured out I was her youngest son and called me and said, "Why in the world are you working at a car dealership?" And I said, "Honestly, I don't know how to answer you".
And they offered me an opportunity to come in for an interview at a very prestigious wealth management firm where everyone was wearing suits, and I came in not knowing any better in a polo and some khakis and interviewed, and don't know why, just found favor with the entire management team. And they were looking to go into more of a youth movement. And so, they decided to take a chance on this young ex somewhat teacher and give me an opportunity.
And yeah, I, 2012 started in the financial services world, in an industry where I had no knowledge, no understanding other than I just had a heart to teach. The teacher inside of me never left. How I teach now is the way that God has wired me. But I thought, man, if I could teach people about money and personal finance, what a great calling that would be.
But what I found is I spent five years working really in a place where there wasn't a ton of education. There wasn't a lot of training how to do your job as much as just survive and do what you can. And what I found myself was in a role and in a position that on paper years ago, I had never thought I would find myself in, without a lot of just natural guidance, I'm not talking about the Holy Spirit guiding you, but just like, how do I actually do my job effectively?
I found that, for five years of my life, what started off as an exciting opportunity slowly became something that was draining me completely because, one, I just didn't have the knowledge to do it, but if you've ever worked in a corporate culture, there was a lot of things that were beyond my control that I was faced with in having to put out fires that I never started and having to help manage people at such a young age that I had never really had a lot of experience in.
And truthfully, Pete, that transition from teacher to the financial world, for me, the big disruption, or the wake up call for me in that part of my life is, I've said this a lot when I go out, when I do speaking engagements, every day in my job, working at this financial firm, the world got Superman.
They got the guy that was always on that can make them laugh, make them feel welcome, but man, when I went home, my wife got Clark Kent, and it just wasn't as fun, it wasn't as exotic. It wasn't... I was a shell of myself. And I was in this place where God just began to put things on my heart that I truthfully didn't really know how to navigate at that point in my life.
So, bringing it all back, went to school, thought I was going to be a teacher, God totally disrupted that plan by putting me in a job that I never would've thought I would've found myself in, selling cars, which was actually the launching pad to the next position that God had. And that's what a lot of my life has been. These disruptions, some good on paper, some just really confusing, but in the end, He's been so faithful through all of them.

Aaron Mercer: Wow. I mean, that's pretty quite a journey there.

Steve Campbell: Sorry, that's a lot [inaudible].

Aaron Mercer: No, it's good. I mean, I'm interested to get to how you got to Tennessee, but even joining a financial firm in 2012, I think, you said, I mean, that's been an interesting decade to be in the financial management world, for sure.

Steve Campbell: Yep.

Aaron Mercer: But especially after coming from... that's a... What I'm really interested in actually originally is, you said you did a lacrosse, which, by the way, I think is great.

Steve Campbell: Yeah.

Aaron Mercer: I didn't know if you did any crosschecking of Peter at one point or not, but-

Steve Campbell: I wished to.

Peter Englert: I was smart enough not to get on the field with Steve. I know my role.

Aaron Mercer: They could have got you all the pads and stuff, and the helmet. Anyways, lacrosse is a great sport. I love it.

Steve Campbell: Yep.

Aaron Mercer: No, that's really interesting to hear. I mean, so you were in New York at that point.

Steve Campbell: Mm-hmm.

Aaron Mercer: And then, there must have been another disruption. I mean, you're in Tennessee now. So, how'd you get there?

Steve Campbell: Yeah.

Aaron Mercer: What brought you there?

Steve Campbell: Yeah. I started my career in this field at this major, you know, wealth management firm, wearing a suit every day, I played the part. In January of 2017, fatigue really started to set in. Just the joy of showing up at work every day just didn't exist. Again, I was having conversations at night with my wife, sharing of all the things that I was dealing with, and I could tell that she just wasn't interested, because it was very monotonous, it was a lot of the same thing.
And that began to really just put on my heart, what am I actually doing? And the way that the Lord has always spoken in my life has been just confirmations. And within a very short period of time, had three friends unasked for, mentioned the name of this local company, unasked for. And by the third time somebody said, "Hey, have you ever heard of this company called S.E.E.D. Planning Group?" I knew I was supposed to at least investigate it.
And I think that's part of my journey is, sometimes, the Lord puts things on our hearts, and unless we do our part to, at least, investigate it and look into it, many times, we're trying to make decisions without all the facts. Not replacing faith, that's not what I'm saying, but there's a lot of people listening to this call, and as Peter and I were talking about this idea, I'll get to the relocating in a minute, there's a lot of people listening to this call that are in positions where, man, they feel this tug to maybe do something different with their career, or they feel like maybe I should move.
Whether it's across town or across states like my wife and I did. Maybe there's relationships in their life that they just feel like I need to address, but I'm too scared to do it. So, in 2017, for me, when these three people said this, I did my due diligence, and it was a kind of thing where when I walked in and met with my current business partners now into their office, I immediately knew this is where I was supposed to be. You can know you're supposed to be somewhere, but, then, there's still the semantics of actually pulling it off. And what I found was this euphoric moment of like, God, this feels like this is what you had for me.
I, then, had to turn around and tell the company I worked for that I was leaving and going to a rival competitive firm within town, which is not like, "Hey, I'm having an entire career change, and I'm going to go be a registered nurse," where they're like, "Okay, that's fine". There was a lot of moving parts and a lot of fear involved with what if my career is ruined or what if they don't let me do it? What did I sign when I first started that could get me in trouble? And God just really helped me through that transition.
And so, in May of 2017, I started in my role that I'm in now. And this was the confirmation. I had been writing in my journal for years, through all of this chaos, what is the one thing that I really feel like I want to do with my life? And the one thing that I could think of is, man... Peter can tell you about this. I just want to rebuild our community. I want to be a part of that change that just helps see our community thrive.
And I had written this in private, in how many pages of my journal. And when I went to go meet with my current business partners and I said, "Why in the world do you want me to come here?" And they said, "Because we want you to rebuild the community". It was like, man, my hair on my arms stood up, just that moment, I knew this is where I was supposed to be. But, again, it didn't mean that it wasn't scary, because of then what I had to do to actually make that happen.
So, in 2017, started in my new position, really, working as the face of our company. At that time, we only had six or seven people. And then, over the last several years, we've just expanded, especially through COVID, which has been crazy. Our trajectory of who we could work with has gone from primarily being in upstate New York where our physical presence was to, now, everyone was doing telemedicine and Zoom calls with their kids, and people were just, all of a sudden, more open to technology and embracing it in a way, because they were being forced to do it in their day to day job.
So, our reach just went from like small to expanded, really big. And what that also meant was we all started during the quarantine in New York when we were all home in March of 2020, April, May, June. I mean, we all spent a lot of time by ourselves. And for my wife and I, we were not only at home during quarantine, working from home every day with four kids, but then, also, seeing a lot of what was happening in the nightly news and around the world and in politics and just race relations, all of that stuff, I mean, we all know where we've been the last few years.
And one night, my wife and I, as we were in this moment just really asked the Holy Spirit, "What do we do?" But I can't be a bystander and watch what's happening in the world around me and just throw my hands up and go, "God's got a plan" because many times, He points back at me and says, "Yeah, you're a part of that plan".
So, what I found is that when we really asked the Lord, "What role do we play?" The next day, we felt very strongly the Lord put it on our heart to sell our house, which, there wasn't really a plan as to what we were going to go do. It was just a confirmation that both my wife and I had that this is what we're supposed to do.
And so, we did, over the next of that next year, in 2020, a ton of due diligence, "Okay, Lord, we're going to sell our house, but where are we going to go?" And those confirmations that I talked about that got me to my role now at my company of three people saying things, I truthfully just started seeing Tennessee come up everywhere. And I'm a kind of person that when I see things a number of times, I really just begin to ask the Lord, "What does this mean?"
And we had booked a trip down here with our kids just to come visit, and I instantly fell in love with the area. That was a one-week trip, but we didn't want to make a life-altering move based on one week in a new area because it's very easy to assume life is just better somewhere else and be led by emotion.
So, last May of 2021, we actually booked a four or five-week Airbnb down here in the Knoxville area to come, to pray, to fast, to look for homes. We spent five weeks here, went to the local grocery stores. Tried to mimic life as much as we could. We went and looked out houses, and if anybody's trying to buy a house in today's market, there was no houses available, because they were selling too fast and were way overpriced.
And so, we had this dual feeling of, okay, we feel like God's called us to this area, which is strange, because we don't know anybody here, but we can't shake it. We feel like God's called us to Tennessee. But on paper, some of the things that we need in order to feel like this is what we should be doing, man, they're not really lining up, and we got four kids we got to think about. We've sold our house. We were living in a temporary housing situation. We could not find a house. All family and friends and people that love us started asking fair questions, "Guys, what's the plan? What are you guys doing?"
But through that, this disruption of you prayed for me to use you, I'm going to use you, but it might cost you comfortability. Are you okay with that? I can, now, almost one year being here in Tennessee and just seeing God's faithfulness over all of this, look back and say, man, if I could have seen what I seen now, this would've been easier. But in the time, I didn't have the big picture. I just had little spiritual nuggets here and there that confirmed keep going, keep going, while also trying to navigate family, friends, people sharing their opinion, and you're trying to make sense of it with kids.
So, we find ourselves here in Tennessee without any roots, but what we have found is that God, for my wife and I, feels like He is forging something of a new path in our life that coincides with the prayers that we prayed, not really what that meant. And so, here we are, again, our life was disrupted, but in this case, it wasn't a career move. It was, I'm going to move your entire family because I have work for you to do, and this is what that looks like.
So, it's been a wild, wild trip, and a lot of what I do on my podcast, or just speaking as I just share from my own experiences of what I've been through and that, sometimes, man, life can be really hard and really complicated, but thank God, we know Jesus who, again, we may not have the entire picture, but if you are in faith trying to do your due diligence, trying to understand the risk versus the reward and you're taking those actionable steps of faith, man, He is faithful to provide, usually, at the last hour when you need it, but man, He is faithful to provide.

Peter Englert: You know, I want to come back to your story to the first disruption, which was...

Steve Campbell: Yep.

Peter Englert: ... you know, that tearing your ACL, thinking you're going to Rutgers. I don't think that people really understand, when we think about athletes, even the high schoolers, there's that NCAA commercial, the majority will not become pro athletes.

Steve Campbell: Yep. Right.

Peter Englert: Athletics was huge for you. And I guess, as you think about, almost in a day, you went from this is the focus of my life to, now, I have to look at the other stuff, how did that first disruption really prepare you for the rest of the disruptions that you faced?

Steve Campbell: Man, a lot of tears and a lot of time by myself. When your physical attributes are what have gotten you to where you are supposed to be, which is, you know, if you play sports, it's how fast can you run? How hard can you hit? How fast can you shoot? And man, when you, in your mind, think you should be running faster than your body will physically now allow you to do, and, again, a lot of it is comparison. You knew where you were the day before. And in my case, man, I could have chased that kid down yesterday. And now, I'm like the tin man, I need oil on my knee to even get going.
It was a huge disruption. There was a lot of loneliness. There was borderline, not onset depression, but a lot of depressive thoughts, because I wasn't what I thought I should be. And not only with that, I had a coach that I loved and respected that knew how hard I was working, but just knew I couldn't do it. And he would pull me into his office and show me the depth chart.
And I'm not even kidding, out of 42 guys, Campbell was the last name on there, and he would talk to me and say, "Why do you try so hard?" "Why don't you go transfer to a Division 3 school and go be a star?" But I just, I couldn't. I knew this was where God called me, and He didn't release me.
And in that... I don't share this with a lot of people, my speed was gone. My lateral movement was gone. And so, I used to get up at 5:00 in the morning and run five miles a day, and I'm not a runner. Because I knew I needed to be as good of in shape as I could be. And you know, for me, no one saw those days of running with worship music on at 5:00 in the morning in the dark.
But now, I look back, I remember clearly, we played Syracuse University, which, for those of you who listen in Rochester area, Syracuse is a powerhouse school. They were one of our... I can't say rivals because they pummeled us every year when I was in college. But they were on our schedule every single year.
And man, I remember being an upstate New York kid going to school in New Jersey, and now, getting on a bus to come back up to really an hour from where I grew up and representing our area, and there wasn't any kids from our area on Rutgers at that time. And we played at the Carrier Dome against Syracuse.
And I want to say, guys, we lost 22 to nine. I mean, it wasn't close. And it was the kind of game where coaches clear the benches, guys that haven't played a lot, let's get them in and just give them some time, and let them get out there and run around. They got their uniform on.
41 guys got on the field, and my coach forgot about me. And I was there in Syracuse University with my family in the stands, with my cousins in the stands, and I was the only one that wasn't put into the game. And for the four-hour bus ride home, I cried my eyes out. Because, again, I had put in the time, I had worked so hard, and when I say that the Lord just ministered to my heart for those four hours, if you can't tell...
It's been a long time since I talked about this story. Man, that was tough. It was tough because you know how hard you'd worked, and it wasn't the Cinderella story, and not that I was going to go out there and score, pull a Rudy, but to feel forgotten in that moment, that was a challenge.
But now, I look back, and truthfully, a lot of what's shaped my life as a father, as a husband, as a leader in my company, I don't forget that bus ride, and I don't forget what it feels like. And if I would say that God has taught me one emotion in the last two and a half, three years is empathy. Something that I think is very different from sympathy, but empathy is just literally having the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes and trying to understand what life might be like for another person.
And God uses every detail of our past, both the mountain peaks and the valleys to shape us. And I would not be where I am today, leading in the way and capacity, which is all God's grace if I didn't have some of those heartaches and heartbreaks along the way that were opportunities for God to really form and shape the person that I was supposed to become.
So, yeah, when you're an athlete and you work your entire life for this moment only to find out that it's not going to go the way that you planned, that's a huge disruption in your life.

Peter Englert: You know, so, you're kind of a living paradox, and what I mean by that is, I'm sure some of our listeners are listening to you, and it just seems like in many respects that like, you have this clear idea, like this isn't a coincidence, this is God.

Steve Campbell: Correct.

Peter Englert: But even in the last story that you just told, you also said this is not where I wanted to end up, but I can see kind of God through this. And how do you wrestle, you know, for our listeners that might be new to faith, or skeptical of faith, how do you wrestle from, am I really hearing God, or am I really just hearing myself or what I want to hear? Like, what's that difference to you?

Steve Campbell: Well, I've always joked and said, you know, man, I wish when the Lord spoke to my heart, it sounded like James Earl Jones because, boy, it would sure make things a whole heck of a lot easier for me. But the amazing thing about God and His grace is He-

Aaron Mercer: That would be kind of like Darth Vader though. Right?

Steve Campbell: That might be... For people new to faith, we don't want the Lord to sound like Darth Vader.

Aaron Mercer: Right.

Steve Campbell: That sounds terrifying. Let's go with lion king, James Earl Jones.

Aaron Mercer: All right. All right. There you go.

Steve Campbell: Everything, the light... Okay. Right? That's just... I don't know, there's a destiny there. And for me in my life, God made us to be emotional beings. He created us with feelings. And I think the hardest part is we are truthfully trying to live this life following a savior that truthfully we've never seen with our eyes, but we know is real.
Because there are certain moments in our life that no one can take away from us, that we know we're not coincidence or we know... Like we just knew, in that moment, there is something much bigger than me that is writing a story, that I get the honor of being a part of.
But it still doesn't make it easy as you begin to get older and you have more responsibility. When you're 18 navigating your future, not that it's easy, but it's only you. I can go this way, I can go that way. When you get married, if you and your spouse both work, or maybe you are the main financial breadwinner, whatever it may be, there's now a 50-50 relationship where, man, I can't just make a decision off the cuff, because that could affect our marriage, our finances. And then, you start bringing children into the world and you want to talk about disruptions, their blessings.
And what I have found in my life is, as I was praying through this the other day, I think what we need to be very mindful of is not letting the blessings of God become burdens. And what I mean by that is there are things that God has blessed us with, spouses, children, jobs, opportunities that the enemy will try to convince you that they're burdens. That they're holding you back, that they're not allowing you to be the person you want to become.
That if you have kids, all you want to do is have a clean house for the day, but these kids just keep destroying the house, which doesn't allow you to go take care of yourself or rest or do the things you're trying to do.This job that helps provide and pay the bills, it just seems like it drains the life out of you. This marriage... When my spouse and I aren't communicating well, it totally just destroys my day.
They're all still blessings, but navigating these disruptions and these feelings is trying to keep at the forefront perspective, and for me, a life verse has always been a Colossians 3:17, "No matter what you do, do it with all your heart as unto the Lord".
That has been a life verse for me. Something that helped me years and years and years ago was the Holy Spirit reminding me that many situations outside of my control have nothing to do with me. And it actually became a very small thing that I do in meetings with clients, with people I talk to. I will repeat to myself before or as situations unfold, it's not about you, it's not about you.
Because, sometimes, you can interact with somebody at a church, a member, a staff member, a colleague, a friend, and man, from the moment they say go, something seems to be off, or they're taking things out on you, and you're just like, "What did I do?" And you may not say these things out loud, but a lot of times, these human interactions that we have on a day to day affect how we look at perspective.
And, for me, what's helped guard my own heart is to just remind myself, man, this isn't about me and I need to, and whatever God has put in front of me, do it with all my heart as unto Him, and not to anybody else. Whether that's being a husband, raising kids, leading my company, whatever it is.
But what you had asked about feelings and emotions, navigating this human experience, which is the wild science experiment you could ever come up with, there are certain things that I have found are good, but then, there are certain things that are great. And I want the great things that God has for me. And what I have found is that if I want the greater things, when I read my Bible and I see the promises of God and I see His favor over people that He's used in the Bible and in my own life, the favor that I've had, many of the great things that God has set before me come with a lot of challenges.
Maybe not setbacks, but this idea of disruptions. It's very rare that you just have a golden fleece moment where you ask God for something and He just lays this thing out where it's abundantly clear, "Hey, it's time to leave your job. I'm now going to send you over here". It's very rare that you just know exactly what to do. But what God will do in His sovereignty is He will work through your emotions to keep putting you on the right track if you continue to seek Him, which, I think is maybe where some of us fall short.
We pray with earnestness, we pray with passion about this initial feeling that we have, but along the way, we lose steam. We stop seeking the Lord, when certain details come up that we weren't expecting, rather than taking it to immediately to the Lord and asking him, "What do I do with this?" Like, I didn't expect this financial situation had come up as we're trying to close on our home. I didn't know that this was going to be an issue, and now, it's going to cost us. Like, should I have really bought this home? Is this You, God? Or I started this new job, which I'm super excited about, but I just found out that I didn't do this or this happen, like, is this really You, God?
And I think what's really hard in all of the disruptions in my life is faith does not mean a life of ease and luxury, but what it will do is put you in the places that God as the master coordinator is the only one that can continue to position you. But if we're ever so comfortable, then, we lose dependence upon him.
So, I think it is very hard for people out there listening to this podcast today that are trying to navigate some really big life decisions, leaving jobs, relocating relationships, what have you, but if you can, at the forefront, do everything you are doing in whatever decisions you are trying to make, whether you're at the gathering fact stage or you're actually at the point of like, you need to make a decision, whatever you're about to do, do it with all your heart as unto the Lord.
And I believe that if you do that in pure, genuine pursuit of following after Him, then, God won't allow you to fail in whatever he's called you do. But navigating those relationships, as I said, when you now have wife and kids, the more people that are dependent upon you, or that you are responsible, the more intense every decision becomes, because there's a lot of other people that are relying upon what we feel is quote unquote getting it right.
And I don't necessarily know that there is getting it right as much as letting God be God and getting out of the way.

Aaron Mercer: I'm curious... thanks for relating all that. Yeah, I love how you talked about... Has your family grown to... you mentioned disruptions grow, complications, but they're beautiful complications. Those are good things.

Steve Campbell: Yeah.

Aaron Mercer: But, yeah, so you've gone through this whole process. Obviously, you're not at the... At the end of life, there's more to come. But you've learned a lot...

Steve Campbell: Yeah.

Aaron Mercer: ... along the way. Have you had experiences already even where what God has allowed you to learn through, whether it's the disruption Peter talked to you about, about tearing your ACL and lacrosse, or going from the teacher to selling cars, to financial work, or the job change or the move to Tennessee, any of those things, are there things where you have been able to see someone else who is going through something similar that you've been able to identify, and what things that you've told them to encourage them along the way?
Or even, what have you seen in them, or seen around them that maybe they haven't seen yet that you could even just point out to them?

Steve Campbell: Yeah. I mean, that's a great question. I would say, in God's grace, what's incredible is how He will use people to confirm, and this is a caveat, because you got to be careful with it, but God will use people, songs, books, God speaks to me in a number of different ways. And when I'm trying to navigate difficult decisions... As I was getting ready to make this move down here to Tennessee, again, we did not always have, on paper, all the information that we needed to confidently look at every person we engage with and say, we know exactly what's about to happen.
And what's really hard is when you are trying to navigate difficult decisions, there's a lot of well meaning people, family, friends, whoever that want the best for you, but it can also confuse you with, maybe the way questions are asked or the opinions that they share, because in your own private or personal life, you are trying to, I think at the end of the day, honestly, seek the Lord and do what He wants you to do. And as you are going about trying to do that, you get the opinions of others, or, "You sold your house guys. What's the plan here?" And it's like, "There is no plan yet". You know, we're just, we're seeking the Lord.
And you can begin to, the longer that you are in a situation and the further you get away from that initial starting point, when you sell your home, God tells you to sell your home, you put your house up on the market, and within one day, it sells, God, you are so good. And you like... You did exactly what you said You're going to do. And then, when you get five, 10, 15, 20 weeks, 30 weeks past that initial sale, and the next step has not become evidently clear, doubt can really begin to set in. Did we really hear the Lord?
And that's why I'm such a big proponent of journaling. For anybody that's listening, if you want to totally transform your life, start writing down your own thoughts and different seasons of life, good and bad things, that have gone exceedingly well and things that were borderline disappointments, write it all down.
Because if you look at the life of David in the Psalms, it seems like he's a schizophrenic, but he's a real person just like us. There have been moments of my life where, man, I can go back and read years of journals that I've written where God was just in everything that I did, so faithful. And then, in other seasons, I remember what it was like in that moment where we didn't know how we were supposed to pay that financial bill, or we were supposed to come out of that situation.
And at the end of the day, now, looking back, I can see how God was just so incredibly faithful. But with me, what God has done along the way is used people in circumstances, if you will, to come along and confirm. And you know when it's a confirmation. What I would say is, I think God has given us whether you call it the Holy Spirit, or what I call a spider sense.
The ability to know when something is good for you, and there's a little analogy that I always share. Every person has a shelf, a plate, and a garbage can. When you receive information, if it's something that's really good, put it on the plate and eat it, consume it. If you're just not quite sure, and you don't have all the answers, put it on the shelf for another day. And if you just know it's trash, throw them in the garbage.
And I think what God has allowed all of us to do is filter through information that, when you receive it, you know if this is on track with what he's been saying to you or not. And for me, God has used other people, sometimes, randomly. When I was getting ready to move down here to Tennessee, I got a phone call very randomly on a morning the night before I had prayed, God, I need to hear from you, what are we doing?
Is this what we're supposed to do? Doubt was starting to creep in, all the details weren't being worked out. Randomly, got a phone call from a guy in my past who said, "Hey, I was praying for you, and I have a word that I feel like I'm supposed to share with you," which was exactly the confirmation in my prayer that I prayed for, like to the point where I was like, it just revved me up to keep going.
And, again, it's not that I had all of the answers at that moment, but in that moment, I realized I'm not alone. And I think there are people that, to your point, are out there, that what are the little spiritual nuggets that maybe God has been giving you along the way to not just totally dismiss as coincidence or like, you know, is if you're on that borderline between being a faith person and a realist, well, that's not God. That just, of course, that happened that way.
Be careful about what you call that's just what happened, versus what, if, along the way, God is actually trying to intervene, or provide more than we actually give him credit for, and when certain little details unfold in our life, how quickly do we take those things to Him, and say, "Hey, today this happened. Like, was this you?" And you'd be surprised how God, being so gracious to us, will wait for us to acknowledge Him many times before He just begins to speak.
And I don't know that if we are always sensitive to when life, sometimes, feels like we're drinking out of a fire hydrant and we're getting inundated with decisions and information, how quickly are we taking all of these things to the Lord and asking Him to reveal what we need to see in it. And it sounds like a super simple practice, but you would be surprised how many people don't actually acknowledge the Lord in their life as these details unfold, which, I think, could really help navigate some of these big decisions that people are trying to work through.

Peter Englert: Steve, our time has gone by really, really fast. So, just two more questions.

Steve Campbell: Yeah, yeah. Sure.

Peter Englert: So, disruptions are not going away.

Steve Campbell: Right.

Peter Englert: You know, we can look back to everything that you've mentioned about the past two years, so, how would you encourage people, and especially in an industry that fluctuates from good news to bad news in 24 hours. You're spending time with people that are trying to manage the disruptions in their life. What would you encourage them to think about? What are some practices?
You know, you've hinted at a lot of them, but how would you encourage them to go about this life that, you are going to get disruptive, accept it. But what does it look like to respond to that?

Steve Campbell: Yeah. Just in a practical way, being really aware of what you can control and what you can't. I think as just human beings, we spend a lot of time fixated on things that are truthfully beyond our control.
You know, sitting there and watching the nightly news and watching things unfold that either get you excited or they make you have a pit in your stomach, outside of prayer, there's certain things that you're just not going to be able to change just focusing on it more. But that's what happens, is we get really focused on things that we can't do anything about, while we let go of the people and the things that are in front of us every single day that God has called us to minister, to steward well, to encourage.
And if you find yourself in this place where you feel an agitation or a disruption is happening, where maybe you've asked God to reveal what He's trying to do in a situation, and you haven't gotten the confirmation one way or another, buy the house, sell the house, make the move, take the job, leave the job, do the thing, you know as you're listening, whatever those things are to you that you've been seeking the Lord on, don't forget about, just in your day to day, being the person that God has called you to be.
Because we can very easily make idols of decisions that we think are God, and we think are good, you know, until I get this breakthrough, I'm just going to pray harder about it. But I think, sometimes, God wants us to be so confirmed in who we are in Him, because disruptions are not going to leave.
But when I'm out about every single day, how can I, beyond a shadow of a doubt, know that one, You're my provider, You're my protector, and You've worked all of these promises out, what does that look like when I'm at the gas station, or I'm grabbing a coffee, or I'm just out and about, how can I still love the people that you've put in front of me, so that I'm not just living life totally amiss of what's happening around in my community because I'm so fixated on world news I can't change, or the decision in front of me is so big that I'm losing sleep at night.
Just give yourself a break. Realize disruptions are never going to happen or going to stop happening. God is not called you to a life of comfort, but He has called you to a life of being exceptional. When you put Him first, when you honor Him, He will put you in the positions that only He can as you continually trust Him along the way.
And so just be encouraged today, seek the Lord. If you haven't in a while, there's no shame, there's no condemnation. Turn to him tonight, and say, I don't know what happened on that podcast today, but I feel like maybe I just got to get back to the basics of seeking you journal, ask the Lord, are there areas of my life that I haven't given You full access to, and respond to whatever He shows you.
Because He's got all the other details worked out. He already knows what He's going to do. Just get back to the simple things of trusting that He's going to position you exactly where He wants to, but be obedient to the things He's calling you today, knowing that He's going to work out the bigger details.

Peter Englert: Well, Steve, it's an honor to see you and be with you...

Steve Campbell: You too, Pete.

Peter Englert: ... and stuff. The question that we ask to close every episode is, what does Jesus have to say about why disruptions are happening? Aaron and I actually get to respond to that question, and then, you get to clean up whatever mess we respond to. Sounds good?

Steve Campbell: Love it.

Peter Englert: Sounds-

Steve Campbell: You know, file seven, let's go. Good to hear.

Peter Englert: Sounds like Binghamton 1997, you're still cleaning up for me. It's all good. Who's going first? Is it you, or me?

Aaron Mercer: I can go this time, if you want. Yeah, sure.

Peter Englert: If you feel the Holy Spirit, you go.

Aaron Mercer: Well, I don't know. Now, I feel the pressure now. I don't know if I can claim that. But I'll just say, no, I think it's a great question. And it's a lot of... It's been a good conversation. And Steve, we definitely appreciate you taking the time to share your story, and your encouragement, I think, for people who are listening.
Yeah. I think disruptions are a part of life. Complications are a part of life. Those aren't bad.

Steve Campbell: Yeah.

Aaron Mercer: In fact, God blesses us with complications in our life. Otherwise, life would be boring, I guess. But also, it's a way that we grow. I mean, I think some disruptions are beautiful, amazing. I mean, you mentioned marriage and kids, like that's amazing. Some disruptions are not fun at all. Like, getting hurt your ACL or losing a job or having a job change that you're not sure about, or whatever. But God works through all of those things, and it's in those things that He teaches us.
I think, Steve, you alluded to this. Sometimes, we get too comfortable, and we need to be reminded that there's somebody bigger who has a even better plan for us than we could possibly imagine.

Steve Campbell: Yeah.

Aaron Mercer: So, no, I think it's a good question to be wrestling with. Peter, what do you got?

Peter Englert: You know, Philip Yancey, in the book, Disappointment with God, says "Faith is believing in advance what only makes sense in reverse," so, faith is believing in advance what only makes sense in reverse.
As you read the Bible and as you even look at Jesus' life, if we get too far out ahead, it's kind of hard to believe that, but I think about, the majority of my life, the disruptions from going to college in Philadelphia, living in Springfield, Missouri for five months, marrying my wife and moving to Rochester just for her, not necessarily career-wise, you know, each step along the way, when I look back, it makes sense.
But during the time, kind of what Steve, you've been hinting at, and even Aaron, someday, we will go deeper into your life, but these disruptions, at the time, they feel so disorienting. But God has a way of when you look back, that God was working, and that God was getting you to a place, or helping you become the type of person that He called you to be. So, I guess that's how I'd close.

Aaron Mercer: Yeah.

Steve Campbell: So, I would say, as I was praying today, there was three things that with all listeners, I think we need to really settle in our heart, that the Lord requires of us. Number one, what you do matters. Don't just do something, right? If we're going to do it unto the Lord, make sure that whatever you're doing is what God has called you to do. And that's not condemnation on if you're in the right job or the wrong job, but seek the Lord, and make sure that you understand why you're doing what you do because it matters.
Two, where you live matters. If God has called you to be in your community and plant a flag, then, you'd be the greatest community builder you can be wherever you are. For some people, God has called you to completely get up and move. You need to be obedient to whatever God's called you to, because where you live does matter. And there are things that will unfold in the next several years and decades that God wants to position people exactly where He's called them to be.
And number three, who you do life with matters. You need to be very careful of who you let into your life, but also, who you allow to speak into, but who you speak into. And don't take these areas for granted. You know, Jesus wants you to, in all of these areas, seek Him and look for answers, but He will make it abundantly clear. And there are some people listening today where you're supposed to stay exactly where you are and keep doing what you're doing, but there's still even greater work to be done within that.
And for some, God is totally calling you to a huge transformational life-altering change that seems really, really scary. But I can promise you that if He's in it and He's gone before you, that He will create a story that you'll never be able to tell on your own if you are faithful to trust Him in the details.
So, I think when it comes to these big, you know, choose your own destiny book story-type things when we grow up as kids, do you want to go on the cave, or do you want to jump off the cliff? As Christians, we are always trying to get it right, and sometimes, it's just more about being obedient. So, if God's called you to stay, stay and be the best you can be in His grace.
If God's called you to go, go with blessing and be the best you could be wherever you're about to go. But wherever you are, tying it back to Colossians 3:17, just make sure that in whatever you do, you're doing it all unto the Lord.

Peter Englert: Love it. Steve, you host a podcast, and where can people find you? Tell us a little bit about it.

Steve Campbell: Well, I'll make it quick because I know we're running out of time. The name of our podcast is called Ditch the Suits podcast. It is a play on words. My business partner, Travis and I, used to work for different, big financial firms, where we wore suits every day. And when you hire financial professionals, the assumption is that if you look the part, you play the part, and you must be giving good advice.
And what we had found is that just because you wear a suit doesn't mean that you might be the best suited for someone's needs. And so, it's a play on word to ditch the suits, but to many people out there today that have gotten to the point of they want to entrust a financial professional to help them be a good steward, you know, they also are, in essence, wanting to ditch this kind of image of what it means to work with a financial professional.
So, what we do on our podcast, Ditch the Suits, is we just help have real life conversations. It is not a hard pitch about our business and what we do, as much as just our experiences over the years, working with people, the big life questions that people have, and how can you begin to make sense of, really, an area of our life that, for many of us, doesn't make sense, which is our money and finance, to go out and live your best life.
The way that we always end our shows is you only get one shot at this thing called life, our goal is to help you get the most out of it. So, if you're looking for a personal finance podcast slash how to take all the information that we share, go find the best people that can help you do it, but get the information from people that do this every day that you need to be empowered to go out and do that. It's on every major podcast platform, it's called Ditch the Suits.
We've released, now, 34 episodes to date. Episodes are released every other week, and they're only about 25 minutes. So, driving in the car, pop it on. We'd love for you to listen, become a believer, and be empowered to help your family be in the best position possible.

Peter Englert: Steve, it's been such an honor, so, appreciate you.

Steve Campbell: Yeah.

Peter Englert: And for those of you-

Steve Campbell: Thanks, guys.

Peter Englert: Yeah. For those of you that are looking for our episodes, the best place to find us is whygodwhypodcast.com. Click the subscribe button, and you can get the email from us.
We hope that you've gotten some, just perspective on the disruptions in your life. So, thank you so much for joining us.