From Bootstrap to Beloved: Redefining Purpose When You're Forced to Surrender with Tanya Prince ❖ 239

"The beautiful thing about going through crisis is that you're forced to pause. The Lord uses those experiences to burn everything away that’s not necessary and needed in our life and leaves us really clinging to Him." —Tanya Prince

Bootstrap to Beloved

• EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
• Your "Rubble" is Sacred Ground: The moments of absolute failure are where true faith begins to be rebuilt.
• Stop Striving, Start Resting:
  Purpose is not sprinted toward; it’s received in the rest that comes from remaining in Christ (John 15:5)
• Practice Open-Ended Prayer: Say, "Lord, what do you want to tell me about this?" and wait in the silence for the answer.​

• Write Down the Whispers: Journaling records divine communication, making the Conversations with Jesus tangible and trackable over a season.
• Heal the Roots: Identify the generational or cultural lies (such as the bootstrap mentality) that prevent you from fully receiving help and surrender them to healing and transformation.
• Outpouring, Not Performance: Let your actions be a natural outflow of Who Jesus says you are, not a desperate attempt to earn His favor.

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Kristen Wambach, your host, welcomes you back to the Interviewing Jesus Podcast. We've all been there: doing everything "right," hitting the milestones, only to find ourselves standing in the rubble of a life we thought was perfectly built. This is the profound moment of Spiritual awakening—the failure that forces surrender. My guest, Tonya Prince, author of the faith-based reflective journal Designed for Purpose, knows this journey intimately. After losing her career, her marriage, and her sense of self at 40, she found herself poured out, with the only place to go being back into the loving arms of Jesus. Her story is a testament to the power of returning to faith, receiving Divine wisdom, and accepting profound grace.

The Lord is never going to open a door for us that we’re not ready to walk through. He needs to refine, he wants to refine our character so that we’re prepared." —Tanya Prince

Tonya’s quote hits the heart of the matter: "We often treat purpose like a destination. But the truth is true purpose is not a grand future event. It’s a daily direction." This powerful truth dismantles the high-performance culture many Christians, including myself, unknowingly adopt. We trade connecting with God for chasing titles, equating vocation with identity, and attempting to earn a destiny that was already given to us.

The things I do need to be an outpouring of who I am. That who I am results in the things I do." —Tanya Prince

The first, and most painful, step in Designed for Purpose is the Pause. When life crashes down—whether through divorce, career loss, or personal failure—we are often forced into stillness. This is not punishment; it is sacred ground. As Tonya shared, the Lord uses these fires to burn everything away that’s not necessary, leaving us clinging only to Him. For the high-performance individual, this forced rest is the hardest spiritual discipline, yet it’s the essential starting point for Hearing God's voice.
Once we pause, we must Reflect. How does the Holy Spirit teach us to process the hard truth of our circumstances? By looking for His hand in the details. Tanya started by reading Psalms and Proverbs, allowing the raw emotions of David to match her own. The supernatural intervention that brought her back to faith was rooted in the Scripture, John 15:5: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." This became her life verse, a reminder that rest in Him replaces the need to strive.
But how do we practically discern God’s direction in our daily spiritual wisdom? Tonya emphasized two key practices:

We often treat purpose like a destination. But the truth is true purpose is not a grand future event. It’s a daily direction." —Tanya Prince

1. Open-Ended Prayer: Instead of listing needs and rushing off, we must pause after praying and give Him time to answer. This is where a clear image, a new thought, or a profound peace can emerge.
2. Listening in Movement: For many, like Tanya and myself, focusing on physical activity—running, walking, stretching—actually helps us hear God more clearly. Our senses are engaged in one thing, and the noise of the world is drowned out, allowing the Holy Spirit to speak directly to the heart.

CONNECT WITH TANYA PRINCE

Many Christians long for something more in life and are seeking to understand God’s specific purpose and direction for them. They often hear the phrase “Listen to God’s voice” or “Follow what the Holy Spirit tells you to do,” but they don’t know how to do this. 
Designed for Purpose takes individuals through a series of exercises and daily reflections to not only explore what it means to “hear God’s voice” but also apply the insights they experience to their lives. Christians will experience personal growth and spiritual renewal as they discover their unique design, understand how to observe God’s tangible leading in their lives, and boldly step into their purpose. 

Designed for Purpose provides an understanding of how individual and tangible moments weave together to demonstrate the voice of God in the lives of Christians.

Every day, God guides and speaks to us. Co-authored by teen Parker Anderson, Designed For Purpose brings together storytelling, real-life experiences, scripture, and insights to help every young man on his journey to hear and know God. With easy-to-understand truth and daily actions, this reflective journal will deepen your understanding of who God is, how He has made you, and who He has created you to become.

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When you take something unseen—a word, a vision—and write it down, it goes from the unseen to the seen and it becomes something that's recorded on the earth." —Kristen Wambach

The most transformative tool discussed is Journaling. Tanya has three thick books of reflections, a testimony to the Lord building a repertoire of Conversations with Jesus over time. Journaling takes what is unseen—a dream, a vision, a subtle prompting—and makes it seen and recorded on the earth. It aligns with the prayer: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Writing it down is the act of implementation, the faithful stewardship of divine whispers.

BINGE LISTEN

INTERVIEWING JESUS 

A Journey of Healing with Rhonda Britten

INTERVIEWING JESUS 

Your Voice Your Dominion Your Crown: The Power of Purposeful Words with Chantal Santiago

INTERVIEWING JESUS 

Divine Withdrawals, Harnessing God's Investment with Dr. Shelia Jackson

1. If you constantly 'suck it up,' then I can't come in and be the Comforter. I can't be your teacher and leader because you're hanging on to it to be strong." —Kristen Wambach

However, none of this is possible without addressing the deep-seated identity issues. For many of us, the bootstrap mentality—the "I can do everything on my own" lie—becomes a spiritual wall. Tanya shared a powerful personal revelation where the root of her bootstrap mentality was traced back to her mother's history as an immigrant, a necessary survival mechanism passed down but no longer serving her relationship with God. This spiritual Healing and transformation required her to stop "sucking it up" and allow Christ to be the Comforter.

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens." —Carl Jung

This is the shift from What would Jesus do? to Who does Jesus say that I am? Our actions, our "doing," must be an outpouring of our identity in Christ, not a performance for Him. This commitment to Spirit-led living is what opens new doors. As Tanya experienced, the day she completed an act of obedience—finally publishing her Teen Journal—a new door opened the very next day. This demonstrates the principle of stewardship: when we show we are faithful with the assignment He has given us now, He trusts us with the next calling. Our purpose is not a grand achievement; it is simply being faithful to the daily direction of the Holy Spirit.

Watch LIVE Recording

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Spiritual Growth and Purpose
05:06 The Journey of Returning to Faith
07:54 Learning to Pause and Reflect
10:32 Hearing God's Voice in Silence
13:17 The Role of Pain in Spiritual Growth
16:16 Understanding Different Gifts and Perspectives
19:03 Developing a Relationship with God
21:46 The Importance of Journaling
24:45 Identity vs. Vocation
25:38 Transformational Vocation: From Change Management to Coaching
27:13 Character Development: The Journey of Readiness
27:37 Breaking the Bootstrap Mentality: Embracing Community
31:02 Authenticity in High Performance: The Struggle of Compartmentalization
33:38 From Doing to Being: Understanding Identity in Christ
39:33 Green Vine Coaching: Faith-Based Leadership and Purpose
43:29 Fruit of the Journey: Embracing Joy and Connection
49:54 _Intro ONLY Video no sound IJP.mp4

Highlight Subjects

• The Spiritual Wreckage: How failure becomes the catalyst for Spiritual awakening.
• Purpose as Daily Direction: Shifting from earning a destiny to receiving one.
• The Discipline of the Pause and Reflection: Creating the space to Hear God’s voice.
• Journaling: Moving the Unseen to the Seen: Using writing as a tool for divine implementation.
• Identity Over Vocation: Dismantling the Bootstrap Mentality and performance culture.
• The Outpouring of Obedience: How faithfulness in the present assignment opens the next door.

Thank you so much for joining us on this vital episode of the Interviewing Jesus Podcast. Tonya’s insight that her corporate skills in change management now help people get from where they are today to where the Lord is calling them to be is a beautiful example of God redeeming all things. If you are ready to stop treating purpose like a destination and start discovering it in your daily life, then this is your moment to pause.

"Our failure to hear His voice when we want to is due to the fact that we do not,
in general, want to hear it,
that we want it only
​when we think we need it."
— Dallas Willard

MEET THE BLOGGER >>>

There are days you travel to see tomorrow and days you travel to accomplish a goal. Wherever you travel, move, go, and step,
hold the hand of the one who knows
all about tomorrow!
​
Following my Quest to answer ALL 70 of the most asked questions by famous Podcasters and Interviewers.
​Last Week...
Today's quandry: Where do you see yourself in five years?. 

Holding in my arms more grandchildren and the hearts of 2 more "daughter-in-loves", living in a larger home with more room for "said" grandchildren. Finishing my 4th book, enjoying traveling and speaking, and meeting all of you! Loving my husband and sons, on a continuous journey of knowing the Lord's Goodness. 

Ready to start your journey of discovery? Find Tonya’s book, Designed for Purpose, and all of her resources, links above.

Also, if this episode about Connecting with God and moving from striving to resting hit home for you, please subscribe, leave us a five-star review, and share this episode with a friend who is ready to pause their life and find their true, God-given purpose. Your feedback helps us reach more people seeking Authentic spiritual discussions and Divine wisdom.