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Welcome to the Toilet Paper Salesman Podcast. My name's Mike Markey. I'm glad you're here today. Because today we're going to be talking about purpose. Everybody wonders at some point in their life, why am I here? What is this all about? Why am I on this earth? Is there a God? Does

The Big Question Of Purpose

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he care? Is he there? There's so many questions that people ask about purpose. What's the whole purpose of being on this planet for the short period of time that we're here? So today what I'm going to do is start with a story. And this story takes place up in Rockland, Maine, a couple of years ago, when I was there with my wife, who is an artist, and she was up in Rockland, Maine, doing a painting class. I decided to go up and do a little bit of work and then also take a couple of

A Birthday Trip To Rockland

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days off because it was in September and it was my birthday. So on my birthday, I decided to go and take a sailing trip. And so early in the morning I got up, went on a sailboat. It was an incredible day. It was a perfect day for sailing. As a matter of fact, the ship captain even said, usually the wind doesn't kick up this early. This is a perfect morning to go sailing. And so I had an incredible sailing trip. And then I went to this great hot dog stand and had a hot dog, and then I went to a car museum and just had a wonderful day. Later in the day, I went back to the art studio and everybody was critiquing at the end of the day. The artists critique each other's work. And they went out and they were painting lighthouses that day. So they went out, sketched lighthouses, and then they did their paintings. So when I walked in, one of the artists that is leading the art classes named Bill, and Bill was working on this painting, and it just looked like two green blobs. And I thought to myself, wow, that's a hot mess. And so I watched him for a little bit, and he was really looked like to me like he was having trouble with it. And then I turned my attention back to the critiques. And so as they went around and critiqued each other's art, finally when that was finished, maybe 20 minutes later, I looked back and I looked at the painting that Bill was working on, and I was amazed at how much better it looked. It wasn't finished, but man, you could really see it coming together. After that, we came back for dinner that night, and while we were driving to dinner, I said to my wife, I said, Wow, I said, I was watching Bill paint, and man, that painting looked like a hot mess when he was working on it. Her comment to me was, he always works like that. When we went in for dinner, I walked in and I saw the painting and it was almost complete and it was gorgeous. I mean, it was just beautiful, and I was amazed at how beautiful it was. And I said to Bill, I said, Wow, Bill, I was watching you paint that painting, and man, it looked like a hot mess. And he chuckled and he said, Yeah, he goes, I was having trouble with it because of the paper I used, and but it really turned out great. I just admired this painting and I told him how much I liked it, and I asked, he would be willing to sell it to me. And he said, Well, it's one of my favorite paintings, but yes, I would be willing to sell that painting to you. And so I purchased the painting. Afterwards, I was thinking about the painting and how it relates to our lives, and it really hit me. And what hit me was is that we are God's creation, and God created us for a purpose. What the painting represents is our life, and man, we're a hot mess, but when we're in the will of God, he works with us, and even though we're a hot mess,

Watching A Painting Transform

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it comes out to be an incredible painting. Now it turns out that there was also a sketch came with the painting. I was able to acquire the sketch as well, and as a matter of fact, both paintings, the sketch and the painting are hanging in my office. Then I was thinking about the sketch, and then it really hit me. The whole thing came together. In Psalm 139, it says we're knitted in our mother's womb with a purpose, and we have a book in heaven. Our life is laid out by God. So what is our purpose? Our purpose is to discover what God's will is for our lives. He's created us for a purpose. And so what the sketch represents is the sketch in the book of our lives that God created for us. What the painting represents is when we live out that life, it becomes a beautiful painting. Every day we have the opportunity to paint a painting of our life. One day we'll be able to get to go to heaven and be able to see what we've actually created. And so each day you have the opportunity to do a painting. And so then it came to me that we're all artists. And so every day we get an opportunity to paint not only our own picture, but also into other lives as well. We paint into other people's lives as well as our own. So we're painting our own painting, and then as we're interacting with other people, we're painting into their paintings as well. So it's all a kind of an interactive thing, right? And the paint that

Psalm 139 And Your Life Sketch

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we use are the actions that we create. You know, it's it's us interacting with these people. And so if we smile at someone, we make their day, we buy them a coffee, whatever it would be, or buy them groceries. Now all of a sudden you've painted a beautiful painting into their life. On the other hand, you also can use what I call black paint. Now, most artists don't use a lot of black paint because it's not really necessary to get the effects that they're trying to get. Black paint are things like gossip and um, you know, jealousy and anger and all those negative emotions. And when you talk to someone and you bring that into their space, you're painting black paint into their painting. And you know, if there's black paint on your painting, it's hard to get it out. And sometimes it takes a long time, depending on how much black paint you throw onto their painting. And so you've got people around that just do nothing but just paint with black paint all day long, throwing negativity into people's lives. And then you have others who paint beautifully into other people's lives. So it's really your choice. My point of this whole thing is we're here. God's created us with a purpose. Read Psalm 139, and you'll see what it says, which is that God knitted us in his mother's womb. He knows us that intimately. He knows every hair on our head, how many we have. And in my case, it's not a lot, but that's okay. Uh He still knows how many I have. He also created us with a purpose. And so your life purpose is to figure out what that is. And how do you do that? How do you even start if you don't have a relationship with God, if you don't know him, if you're not a believer, whatever you believe, the way you start is to just ask. God, if you're real, present yourself to me. Show me, show me that you're real. Help me to find my purpose. And then he will,

How Actions Color Other Lives

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slowly but surely, he'll present himself to you and he'll show you what you're supposed to do. And it's usually centered around your gifts and talents, the things that you like to do, the things that you love to do, things that you've always wanted to do. He will point you and help you to understand that those are the things that you're created to do. If you have a natural talent for music, for example, it probably somewhere there's music that should be involved in your life's purpose. Or if you're an artist, or if you're good in math, or whatever it happens to be, wherever your skill sets lie, what your natural skill sets are and the things that you really love to do, that's where your purpose is going to lie somewhere. And so it's just this process of once you ask, Lord, if you're here, God, if you're exist, if you're even there, please show yourself to me. And once he does, and once you develop a relationship with him, then you'll be able to start discovering what his purpose is for your life. It's an incredible journey, and it's one full of joy and peace and happiness. It's not always easy. As a matter of fact, sometimes it's hard, but it really gives you the joy that you're looking for. A lot of people have a hole. They don't understand. There's a place in their heart where there's just an emptiness, and they try to fill it with all kinds of things. They buy cars and they buy watches and they buy all kinds of fancy things. They utilize those things to try to fill the hole, and it does for a little bit. It works for just a little bit. And then all of a sudden, you have another hole, and the car doesn't fit the hole. It doesn't work. But what really fits in that hole is God and our relationship with Him, He fits in the hole perfectly. Jesus died for our sins so that we can be

Asking God To Reveal Your Purpose

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reconciled to God so that we can have a relationship with Him. That's the key to this whole thing is a relationship. And then God will mentor you and help you step by step to get to the place where you discover your purpose. It's an incredible life. I ask for you just to ask the question. It's simple. I'm not asking for you to believe. All I'm asking for you is if you're curious about this, to just ask the question and then let God answer you. Because He will. He will certainly answer. That's my podcast for today. Who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous? Thanks a lot and have a great day.