CEO Kingdom Seekers

What if the thing you’re extraordinarily good at is producing results….but isn’t actually being expressed the way God wills?

In the last few episodes, we’ve been talking about identifying our gifts and then looking beyond identification to formation. Because while a gift can be highly developed, that doesn’t mean it’s rightly directed. 

You can build a career with it, make money with it, help people with it, receive praise for it, and become known for it. None of those outcomes, by themselves, tell us whether the gift is being divinely directed.

So in this episode, I’m taking us into 1 Corinthians 12:31 through 13:12 and putting a familiar passage back into the conversation Paul was actually having about gifts.

At the end of chapter 12, after talking about spiritual gifts and the body of Christ, Paul says he will show us a “still more excellent way.” Then he begins chapter 13 by describing extraordinary giftedness: tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, radical generosity. His conclusion is striking. Without agape love, those expressions become noise, nothing, or gain us nothing.

That gives us a different way to evaluate our gifts.

Instead of asking only, “Am I good at this?” 

We can also ask: What is driving the way I use it? Is the good of God and the person in front of me directing its expression? Or has my gift become a way to be right, needed, admired, safe, successful, in control, or indispensable?

Then I walk through all seven motivational gifts and show how each can remain recognizable (and even effective) while being expressed without love.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why 1 Corinthians 13 belongs inside Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts
• Why effectiveness is not enough to tell us whether a gift is divinely directed
• Agape as willing the genuine good of another in alignment with God
• The difference between a developed gift and a divinely directed gift
• How the Judge gift can become harshness—or become diminished by fear of being judged
• How the Professor gift can prioritize information and accuracy over serving the person in front of us
• How the Coach gift can make transformation or the outcome more important than the person
• How the CEO gift can turn people—and ourselves—into assets for a vision
• How the Consoler gift can move from mercy into rescuing, depletion, bitterness, or withdrawal
• How the Steward gift can use giving, resources, or usefulness for influence, leverage, control, or approval
• How the Builder gift can turn service into indispensability
• Why resentment can reveal that we have been giving with an expectation of receiving something back
• How 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 can become a reflection tool for how we treat others—and ourselves
• Why our gifts and knowledge remain partial even when we are mature and highly developed

One of the most important distinctions in this episode is between fruit and results. A distorted gift can still get results, and I know this because I’ve lived it. 

I could express my gifts in ways that worked for a while, yet the fruit eventually rotted…and the way I had to use myself to keep producing those results left me exhausted and depleted.

Paul gives us somewhere else to look. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not seek its own interests. It rejoices with truth. It does not keep a record. It moves with humility.

So we can ask those questions of the way we teach, lead, coach, discern, console, give, manage, and serve. 

Then we can turn the same passage toward ourselves: Do I receive God as patient and kind toward me? Do I lead myself with patience and kindness? Do I keep a running record and use it to grade my worth?

This isn’t a scorecard. It’s an invitation to notice where formation is needed and turn back toward God.

A question to carry with you from this week’s episode:

Is the way you are showing up in your gifts increasingly resembling Christ?

Grow In Your Gifts™

Grow In Your Gifts is a seven-week formation experience where we’ll identify your motivational gifts and then go much deeper into how they have been developed, diminished, distorted, and divinely directed. We’ll look at how all seven gifts are ordered, what your primary motivation actually is, and how to steward your gifts with greater joy and better internal and external fruit.

Learn more and join at www.regulatedroots.com/giyg

Connect with Dr. Lee, TLC, & the High Responsibility Humans™ Community:

• Discover your Primary Motivational Gift: www.growinyourgifts.com
• Join Our High Responsibility Humans Community: https://regulatedroots.com/hrh
• Explore our Agency services: regulatedroots.com/agency

Follow on TikTok: @leechelseacordell

Connect on LinkedIn: Dr. Lee Cordell

What do you do when you know God has put something in front of you—and you’re still afraid to walk through the door?

Chris Whittington knows something about that tension.

Chris has spent decades as the owner of Whittington Steel in Texas while also continuing to write music, record, lead worship, and pursue a creative calling that began when he was young. His story doesn’t fit neatly into the idea that we discover one calling, choose one path, and leave everything else behind.

It also isn’t a story of immediate obedience.

Chris shares candidly that he told God “no” for about ten years when he sensed he was supposed to start his own business. He had a wife, children, and very practical reasons for questioning the risk. Eventually, the circumstances became clear enough that he stepped through the door, beginning Whittington Steel with a $5,000 loan from his in-laws.

What he learned wasn’t that obedience guarantees the outcome we pictured. It was that God can be trusted with what happens after we obey.

That theme runs through so much of our conversation.

We talk about the gifts and desires God gives us, the experiences that can make trust difficult, forgiveness, our attempts to gather enough information to feel safe, and the difference between taking time to recover and remaining still when it’s time to move.

And for those who wonder whether they’ve waited too long to use something God placed in them, Chris’s answer is wonderfully straightforward: get after it.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Chris’s lifelong relationship with music and the influence of the Jesus Movement
• Building a life that held both business leadership and creative expression
• The ten years he spent telling God “no” before starting his own business
• Why walking through a door God opens still requires trust
• The difference between trusting God and trying to gather enough information to control an outcome
• How painful experiences with an earthly father can influence the way we relate to our heavenly Father
• Forgiveness as an ongoing process rather than a single emotional moment
• Work as part of our participation with God rather than something separate from our faith
• What Chris would tell someone in the second half of life who has left a creative desire or gift unexplored
• The difference between a restorative pause and remaining idle after it’s time to move
• Why obedience gives us opportunities to become better at recognizing God’s leading
• The role Scripture, Christian community, correction, and practice play in developing discernment

One of my favorite threads in this conversation is the relationship between trust and information.

I tell Chris about a small moment with my husband involving leftover bacon that exposed something much larger in me: I was asking question after question because underneath the questions was an assumption that I needed to make sure he had considered what mattered to me.

Later, I realized I had been doing something similar with God.

I'd been demanding more information as an asset to help me discern, when in reality I was trying collect enough information that I wouldn't need to simply trust God (or those He sent to love me!) 

This is a common theme for High Responsibility Humans because we are often very good at evaluating risk, anticipating problems, and taking care of other people. And while those abilities can serve us beautifully, they can also make it tempting to believe we should be able to understand the entire path before we take the next faithful step.

Chris’s story gives us another possibility: use what God has given you, take the step available to you, stay close enough to Him to receive correction, and trust Him with what you cannot yet see.

A question from this episode to consider this week: Is there a door you’ve spent so much time evaluating that God may simply be asking you to walk through it?

CONNECT WITH CHRIS

Chris Whittington is a business owner, musician, songwriter, and worship leader. He is the owner of Whittington Steel and has spent decades integrating his faith, leadership, work, and creative life.

Chris’s music and other work: chriswhittington.com

Whittington Steel: whittingtonsteel.com

Connect with Dr. Lee, TLC, & the High Responsibility Humans™ Community:

• Discover your Primary Motivational Gift: www.growinyourgifts.com
• Join Our High Responsibility Humans Community: https://regulatedroots.com/hrh
• Explore our Agency services: regulatedroots.com/agency

Follow on TikTok: @leechelseacordell

Connect on LinkedIn: Dr. Lee Cordell

You can be genuinely gifted, successful, useful to other people- and still have your gifts out of order.

I've experienced this myself.

There have been seasons when I was coaching, motivating, consoling, judging, building, or taking responsibility for someone else's transformation.

I could do all of those things, and could even do most of them well.

But eventually, I began recognizing that the place where I experience the deepest intrinsic joy is teaching: helping someone understand something they couldn't see before and then helping them embody that wisdom in their actual life.

That's my primary motivational gift- the Professor.

And when I began looking at the rest of my gifts through that lens, a lot of my own experiences with capacity, exhaustion, restlessness, and joy started making more sense. 

In Episode 34, we're talking about how knowing your spiritual gifts is valuable, AND why identification is only the beginning.

We dive deeper into why we also need to ask how (and why) our gifts were formed, how they are currently being expressed, and (perhaps most importantly) if our gifts  are ordered in a way that reflects how God actually designed us. 

In this episode, we're talking about:

• The difference between identifying your gifts and actually forming them
• The role joy plays in understanding how God has designed you
• Why spiritual gifts still need to be developed through practice, formation, wisdom, experience, obedience, and even failure
• How past painful experiences and worldly influences can affect the way our gifts develop
• How your capacity can increase when your gifts are properly ordered
• What to do next if you’re ready to identify and grow in your Spiritual Gifts 

One distinction I especially want you to hear in this episode is this:

Your primary motivational gift isn't necessarily the thing you're currently best at.

You may have spent decades developing another gift because your career required it, your family rewarded it, painful experiences made it feel necessary, or the world told you it was valuable.

This is an invitation to look underneath all that competence and ask:

How did God design me to experience joy as I serve Him and others?

Because your gifts were given by grace- and as we grow in the way we understand, order, develop, and surrender those gifts back to God, they can increasingly become an expression of His goodness through us. 

Go deeper

If you're curious about your own gift expression, there are three ways to continue:

1. Start with the Primary Motivational Gift Assessment- if you want to identify the gift that may most naturally motivate you.
2. Take the SAGE (Spiritual Assessment of Gift Expression) Diagnostic-  if you want to look more closely at how all seven gifts are currently being expressed in this season of your life.
3. Join Grow in Your Gifts 10-week Academy-  if you're ready to go deeper into the formation process. We'll spend ten weeks learning to recognize our gifts, surrender them to God, develop them with wisdom, and become more discerning about the fruit they're producing. 

And next week, we're going deeper into Paul's teaching on spiritual gifts and what he calls the “more excellent way.”

Because it is possible to possess extraordinary spiritual gifts and express them in ways that become functionally useless (or even harmful.)

That's where we're headed next.

Connect with Dr. Lee, TLC, & the High Responsibility Humans™ Community:

• Discover your Primary Motivational Gift: www.growinyourgifts.com
• Join Our High Responsibility Humans Community: https://regulatedroots.com/hrh
• Explore our Agency services: regulatedroots.com/agency

Follow on TikTok: @leechelseacordell

Connect on LinkedIn: Dr. Lee Cordell

“Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Romans 12:1–2

What happens when you're exceptionally good at helping everyone else perform.... while you're slowly running yourself into the ground?

This conversation with Justin Roethlingshoefer felt like the perfect follow-up to our recent conversation about the leaders who help everyone else still being human.

Because one of the things High Responsibility Humans can become exceptionally good at is functioning.

• We can work while tired.
• Lead while overwhelmed.
• Make the decision while stressed.
• Push through the signals our bodies are sending us because something important still needs done.

Sometimes our ability to continue functioning becomes the very reason we don't recognize how much we're asking of ourselves.

Justin knows that experience from both sides.

He's spent his career studying health and human performance, including serving as a director of health and performance in the NHL. Yet while building a career, traveling, writing, speaking, and growing a family, he found himself experiencing significant health problems of his own.

As he describes it in this conversation, he had become the expert helping everyone else while failing to live in alignment with much of what he knew. 

That experience eventually became part of the foundation for his work around Holy Health: bringing together faith, stewardship, identity, daily rhythms, and the way we care for the bodies God has given us.

In this episode, we talk about:

•  Justin's journey from childhood struggles with his body and an eating disorder to studying exercise science, nutrition, exercise physiology, and cellular biology 
•  What he learned working in high-performance athletics 
•  The health crisis that forced a health expert to examine the way he was actually living 
•  Why high-capacity people tend to double down when something starts working 
•  The difference between continuing to function and actually being well 
•  Why discipline can become another form of performance 
•  Justin's “Michelangelo principle” and the idea of chiseling away what doesn't belong 
•  Romans 12:1–2 and what it means to offer our bodies and lives as a living sacrifice 
•  The five patterns Justin calls the pleaser, protector, performer, perfectionist, and pessimist hearts
•  Why identity matters when we're trying to change our habits 
•  The relationship between physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health 
•  What can happen when wellness itself becomes something we obsess over 
•  The other extreme: asking God to care for something we've been unwilling to steward 
•  Obedience, responsibility, and partnership with God 
•  Why high-capacity people so often sacrifice sleep first 
•  Creating rhythms that reflect who God says we are 
•  Gratitude, prayer, and heart posture 
•  What we're teaching the generations coming behind us through the way we live 
•  Why Justin believes health can become an expression of worship 

One of Justin's observations especially stood out to me:

“The disciplines we white-knuckle our way through become the goal rather than becoming the path to the goal, which is to be more like Christ.” 

That feels particularly important for High Responsibility Humans.

Because we can turn almost anything into another standard we're expected to meet.

• Sleep perfectly.
• Eat perfectly.
• Exercise perfectly.
• Regulate perfectly.
• Have the ideal morning routine.
• Get all the numbers right.

And suddenly caring for ourselves becomes another place to prove how capable we are.

Justin offers another question:

What would change if the way we cared for our bodies flowed from our identity in Christ and our desire to faithfully steward the life we've been given?

This begs an even deeper question for the High Responsibility Human to ask themselves today: 

Where have you become so accustomed to functioning that you've stopped noticing what functioning is costing you?

About Justin Roethlingshoefer

Justin is an author and health-performance expert whose work explores the integration of faith, health, identity, habits, and human performance.

In this conversation, we discuss his book Holy Health and his work helping entrepreneurs, executives, and other high-capacity leaders think differently about the way they steward their health.

Connect with Dr. Lee, TLC, & the High Responsibility Humans™ Community:

• Discover your Primary Motivational Gift: www.growinyourgifts.com
• Join Our High Responsibility Humans Community: https://regulatedroots.com/hrh
• Explore our Agency services: regulatedroots.com/agency

Follow on TikTok: @leechelseacordell

Connect on LinkedIn: Dr. Lee Cordell

“For He knows what we are made of, remembering that we are dust.” Psalm 103:14

What happens when everyone around you becomes so accustomed to your capability that they forget there's a human being underneath it?

And what happens when you forget, too?

This episode is for the person everyone calls when something goes wrong. The leader. The CEO. The expert. 

The person who stays composed, makes the decision, carries the responsibility, and figures out what needs to happen next.

Somewhere along the way, highly capable people usually begin believing their capability means they shouldn't need care themselves.

In this episode, I'm talking about why the final word in High Responsibility Humans™ may actually be the most important one: human.

God may have equipped you to carry extraordinary responsibility, gifts, resources, authority, influence, or capacity....

But He never asked you to become superhuman.

And He certainly never asked you to become GOD.

In this episode, we talk about:

• What I've been hearing from people experiencing High Responsibility Humans™ for the first time
• Why some of the most capable people can have such an emotional response to simply being reminded they're human
• The particular loneliness that can accompany leadership, influence, expertise, and responsibility
• What happens when other people see your position, authority, resources, or capability before they see the person carrying them
• Why blessings don't disqualify you from having burdens
• The quiet question many leaders carry: “Who am I to struggle when I have so much?”
• Why gratitude and exhaustion can coexist
• Psalm 103:14 and the significance of God remembering exactly what we're made of
• The difference between being made in the image of God and attempting to take on attributes that belong to God alone
• How self-reliance can begin masquerading as faithfulness
• Why being good at carrying something doesn't automatically mean God asked you to carry it
• The temptation for highly responsible people to believe, “If I can handle it, I should”
• Why limitations aren't necessarily evidence that you're failing your calling
• What it looks like to let God be God while allowing yourself to remain human
• Why High Responsibility Humans™ isn't about teaching capable people how to carry even more
• The importance of spaces where you don't have to be the expert, fixer, caregiver, leader, clinician, CEO, or person with the answer

God remembers

Psalm 103:14 gives us an extraordinarily tender picture of God: He remembers that we are dust.

God isn't surprised that you get tired.

He's not caught off guard when you don't know what to do.

He isn't disappointed to discover that you have a body that needs food, sleep, movement, connection, and rest.

He already knows that you cannot be everywhere, know everything, control every outcome, or save everyone.

The question is really whether you remember.

Because sometimes we're holding ourselves to a standard God never asked us to meet.

Questions to sit with

1. Where am I demanding more from myself than God is actually demanding from me?
2. Where have I confused self-reliance with faithfulness?
3. Am I carrying this because God entrusted it to me—or because I'm capable of carrying it?
4. What would it look like today to let God be God and let myself be human?

High Responsibility Humans™

High Responsibility Humans™ is a space for capable, responsible people who want to carry what God has genuinely entrusted to them without believing they have to become endlessly capable in order to do it.

It's not about making highly responsible people even more productive.

It's about creating rhythms that help you return to Christ, notice what you're carrying, receive wisdom and care, deepen into your gifts, discern what is actually yours, and remember that you are a human before you are a title, role, responsibility, or resource.

You can experience High Responsibility Humans™ free for seven days at regulatedroots.com/HRH.

You can be deeply responsible without becoming over-responsible.

You can be extraordinarily gifted without trying to be God.

And you can faithfully lead other people while allowing yourself to remain human.

Connect with Dr. Lee, TLC, & the High Responsibility Humans™ Community:

• Discover your Primary Motivational Gift: www.growinyourgifts.com
• Join Our High Responsibility Humans Community: https://regulatedroots.com/hrh
• Explore our Agency services: regulatedroots.com/agency

Follow on TikTok: @leechelseacordell

Connect on LinkedIn: Dr. Lee Cordell

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” - Psalm 139: 23-24 

What if some of the things you've been trying to fix aren't actually the problem?

In healthcare, we learn quickly that treating a symptom isn't necessarily the same thing as healing what's causing it. 

We discover that you can stabilize someone without making them well, or quiet a symptom without addressing its source.

Sometimes, we do the same thing spiritually.

In this episode, I'm joined by Vanesa Alcantara, author, speaker, and founder of Soul Scan, a ministry helping women deal, heal, and grow through biblical truth and inner healing.

Vanesa and I originally met at a Women of Good Work event in Columbus, and what started as a conversation about her calling and the work she's doing through Soul Scan became a much deeper conversation about suffering, surrender, spiritual formation, our gifts, and what happens when we finally stop trying to heal ourselves long enough to let God show us what's actually underneath the symptoms.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How Vanesa first sensed God's call to speak into women's lives as a young girl
• The health crisis that forced a woman accustomed to constantly doing to stop
• What happens when suffering makes us question God's goodness
• Knowing intellectually that God is a good Father versus actually trusting Him as one
• Why difficult seasons can sometimes become places of deeper dependence and formation
• Vanesa's vision for Soul Scan and the idea of allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal the “dark spots” we've learned to live around
• The difference between medicating symptoms and addressing what is happening underneath them
• Why we sometimes try to heal ourselves first and invite Jesus in afterward
• What Lee discovered after revisiting 33 journals spanning years of her own spiritual journey
• Knowing about Jesus versus actually knowing Jesus
• The difference between treating disease and cultivating health—and the spiritual parallels Lee sees from her years in healthcare
• Why identifying the root doesn't mean we have to heal the root ourselves
• The importance of continuing the work through trusted community, counseling, therapy, Bible study, mentorship, and other appropriate support
• How our spiritual gifts can become slightly misaligned even when we're still doing objectively good work
• Why operating “close” to your primary gift may still leave you wondering why successful work doesn't feel joyful
• What Romans 12 teaches us about each member of the Body of Christ functioning in their God-given role
• Why spiritual formation isn't a one-time event but an ongoing willingness to let God search, reveal, heal, and redirect us

A question to sit with

Psalm 139 doesn't say: God, let me identify everything that's wrong with me so I can fix it.

Instead, David asks God to do the searching.

Search me. Know me. Test me. See me. Lead me.

This ask of David gets to be the same ask for us to God:

• to help us become more willing to get on the table
• to help us stop medicating long enough to notice the symptoms
• to let the Holy Spirit reveal what we've normalized.
• And to trust Jesus enough to let Him into the places we've been trying to heal without Him.

About Vanesa

Vanesa Alcantara is an author, speaker, and founder of Soul Scan—a ministry helping women deal, heal, and grow through biblical truth and inner healing.

Vanesa is passionate about honest conversations that lead women closer to Jesus and into the freedom He has for them.

Her book, Soul Scan: Facing Hard Realities to Heal What's Broken, walks women through facing the difficult places in their stories and inviting God into the process of healing and growth.

Mentioned in this episode

• Soul Scan Conferences Vanesa shares more about upcoming Soul Scan gatherings, including Ohio, New Jersey, and future locations.
• Grow In Your Gifts We also talk about identifying your primary motivational gift and what can happen when you're operating in a gift that's close to how God primarily designed you (but not quite the one that produces the deepest intrinsic joy.)

Take the Primary Motivational Gift Assessment at growinyourgifts.com.

And if you're a High Responsibility Human who wants a place to practice this kind of reflection, discernment, and spiritual formation in community, you can learn more about High Responsibility Humans™ at regulatedroots.com/HRH.

Connect with Dr. Lee, TLC, & the High Responsibility Humans™ Community:

• Discover your Primary Motivational Gift: www.growinyourgifts.com
• Join Our High Responsibility Humans Community: https://regulatedroots.com/hrh
• Explore our Agency services: regulatedroots.com/agency

Follow on TikTok: @leechelseacordell

Connect on LinkedIn: Dr. Lee Cordell

What happens when the skills that make you exceptionally good at carrying responsibility follow you into every room of your life?

High-responsibility humans are often trained—professionally, personally, or both—to notice what others miss, anticipate what could go wrong, make difficult decisions, and run toward problems when everyone else runs away.

Those abilities can be gifts....But what happens when you never take the armor off?

In this episode of CEO Kingdom Seekers, Lee shares candidly about her own experience of hypervigilance, her years as an ICU nurse and acute care nurse practitioner, and what God has been teaching her about the difference between faithful stewardship and attempting to carry sovereignty.

Because you can leave the battlefield, hospital, boardroom, or crisis without the posture you needed there ever leaving you.

And eventually, vigilance can become an inability to receive. Responsibility can become control. Discernment can become constant threat-scanning. Preparedness can become restlessness. 

And stewardship can quietly become the belief that everything depends on you....But it doesn't.

You are a resource. God is the Source.

In this episode, we talk about:

• What it actually means to be a High Responsibility Human™
• Why we intentionally chose the word human instead of leader, CEO, clinician, or Christian
• How high-responsibility roles can train us to remain perpetually on guard
• Dr. Lee's experience carrying the ICU home long after leaving the hospital
• Why some of the adaptations that helped us survive earlier experiences can later be rewarded as leadership strengths
• The difference between nervous-system regulation and simply being calm
• How discernment can become threat-scanning and stewardship can become control
• Learning to let God care for the part of you that believes you always have to be the one doing the caring
• The difference between stewardship and sovereignty
• Why we often wait until there's a proverbial “hole in the parachute” before asking God for help
• What Isaiah 30:15 teaches us about returning, rest, quietness, and trust
• The simple 10-Second Protocol for noticing tension you may not even realize you're carrying
• Why the six practices inside High Responsibility Humans aren't six more things to perform correctly
• How to carry meaningful responsibility without believing you have to play God

Scripture for this episode

Isaiah 30:15–16

Lee also reflects on Deuteronomy 31:8:

A question to sit with this week

Can you let God care for the part of you that believes you always have to be the one doing the caring?

You don't have to become less capable, responsible, ambitious, faithful, or effective.

You may simply need to learn when it's safe to take the armor off.

Come experience High Responsibility Humans™

High Responsibility Humans is a faith-centered, gifts-based, science-backed space for people carrying significant responsibility who want practical rhythms for creating space, deepening their relationship with God, and becoming more rooted in who He created them to be.

Inside, we practice:

The Rooted Return. The Space Scan. The Fruits of Leadership. The Advisory Board. The Gathering. Seasonal Integration.

These aren't six more things to get right.

They're rhythms designed to help you listen, notice, receive, discern, be cared for, recognize God's provision, and remember that underneath everything you carry, you are still human.

You can experience High Responsibility Humans with a 7-day free trial today.

Connect with Dr. Lee, TLC, & the High Responsibility Humans™ Community:

• Discover your Primary Motivational Gift: www.growinyourgifts.com
• Join Our High Responsibility Humans Community: https://regulatedroots.com/hrh
• Explore our Agency services: regulatedroots.com/agency

Follow on TikTok: @leechelseacordell

Connect on LinkedIn: Dr. Lee Cordell

The power went out while Dr. Lee was teaching about Peter taking his eyes off Jesus in the storm.

At first, she thought she had lost the ending of the training.

Then the interruption became part of the lesson.

In this continuation of Episode 28, Dr. Lee moves from the external storm in Matthew 14 to the internal work God is doing while we are in it.

She explores the difference between knowing God’s Word and embodying His wisdom, the meaning of Peter’s “little faith,” the danger of double-mindedness, and what mature faith looks like when leaders are afraid.

The goal is not to become someone who never doubts.

The goal is to catch the doubt quickly, call out to Jesus, receive His hand, and keep walking.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why seeing God provide for someone else does not automatically mean we know how to trust Him in our own storm.
• The difference between memorizing Scripture, understanding its context, and embodying its wisdom in real decisions.
• Why “little faith” in Matthew 14 can mean short faith — faith that begins boldly but does not yet last when the wind gets loud.
• How distazo, the word translated as “doubt,” describes being divided between what Jesus says and what the wind says.
• Why mature faith is not self-sufficiency, certainty, or never needing help from God or other people.
• How an unexpected power outage, 33 journals, and more than 40 hours of reflection became a clearing for Dr. Lee’s writing, speaking, and deeper relationship with God.

Key Moments

00:00 — Welcome to Part 2 Dr. Lee explains that listeners can begin here, then recaps Part 1 and introduces James 1:2–8.

01:04 — The external storm and the internal work The disciples’ storm becomes a picture of what God forms inside us while we are under pressure.

03:42 — Knowing God’s Word is preparation Dr. Lee explains why mature faith becomes visible when wisdom moves from information into lived experience.

07:27 — When the power went out The interruption mirrors the teaching and creates an unexpected moment of surrender.

10:55 — Peter sinks and cries out The episode revisits oligopistos, “little faith,” and distazo, double-mindedness.

13:12 — What spiritual maturity really means Maturity is not about age, education, or knowing every answer. It is about surrender, obedience, relationship, and embodied wisdom.

16:48 — The peanut-butter-and-jelly test Dr. Lee uses a familiar teaching exercise to explain why doing something and teaching someone else to do it reveal different levels of understanding.

23:15 — Faith has depths and stages Peter’s story becomes a compassionate picture of ordinary people learning to trust God personally.

29:21 — When we forget the Law Dr. Lee connects James 1 with Joshua 1:8–9 and Jeremiah 31:33, where God’s instruction moves from the page to the heart.

33:05 — The same storm, a different response Dr. Lee reflects on facing a familiar storm with more wisdom because she had learned how to call on God.

37:00 — Will you embody what you know? The teaching moves into leadership, obedience, boundaries, rest, contracts, offers, writing, speaking, and the next faithful step.

42:57 — The clearing in the darkness Dr. Lee shares how the lost ending became the space where God gave her language for what He was forming.

46:13 — Turning away and finding her way back She speaks honestly about New Age practices, false gods, losing the fruits of the Spirit, and returning to Jesus.

54:19 — Maturity is not self-sufficiency Dr. Lee reframes maturity as knowing where to go when you are afraid, confused, or sinking.

01:02:18 — The August vision and the lesson she missed Dr. Lee shares what she heard about August, what she assumed it meant, and what God actually wanted her to learn.

01:04:44 — Do not become so wise that you become foolish The episode closes with humility, mystery, and the reminder that we never outgrow our need for Jesus.

01:08:32 — Introducing High Responsibility Humans Dr. Lee announces the new online community for Christian leaders who want to embody wisdom and mature in their faith.

Quotes from the Episode

• “The goal is not to be able to never doubt. The goal is to be able to catch the doubt as quickly as possible before you start sinking and reach for Jesus.”
• “Maturity comes not just from understanding things abstractly, and it also doesn’t come from witnessing things. It comes from personally experiencing things and embodying wisdom so that it becomes second nature.”
•  “Information is what’s going to help prepare you to leave the boat. It cannot do the walking for you.”
• “Maturity is not self-sufficiency. It’s knowing where to go when you realize you’re scared.”
• “God did not give me what I wanted. He gave me what I needed.”
•  “If your eyes are fixed on Jesus, then it doesn’t matter where you’re going. It doesn’t matter when things work out. It doesn’t matter how long things take.”

Scriptural Focus

• James 1:2–8 — trials, steadfastness, wisdom, and double-mindedness
• Matthew 14:22–33 — Peter walks on water, sinks, and is immediately caught by Jesus
• Joshua 1:8–9 — meditate on God’s instruction and walk forward with courage
• Jeremiah 31:33 — God writes His law on the heart

High Responsibility Humans Community

This episode introduces High Responsibility Humans™, an online community for Christian leaders who want to move beyond merely knowing the right thing and learn to embody wisdom in the way they lead, build, decide, rest, and respond under pressure.

The community is for people who carry a lot — teams, clients, patients, businesses, families, ministries, and the expectations of everyone who depends on them.

You can become a founding member HERE .

Before joining, take the invitation back to God and ask the Holy Spirit whether this is the space where He is calling you to grow.

Continue the Conversation

If you have not listened to Episode 28, Part 1, go back and hear **The Fourth Watch: When the Storm Takes Longer Than You Expected**. Part 1 establishes the external storm in Matthew 14. This episode explores what God forms inside of us while we are there.

#CEOKingdomSeekers #ChristianLeadership #MatureFaith #James1 #FaithInTheStorm #BiblicalWisdom #ChristianEntrepreneur #HighResponsibilityHumans

Connect with Dr. Lee, TLC, & the High Responsibility Humans™ Community:

• Discover your Primary Motivational Gift: www.growinyourgifts.com
• Join Our High Responsibility Humans Community: https://regulatedroots.com/hrh
• Explore our Agency services: regulatedroots.com/agency

Follow on TikTok: @leechelseacordell

Connect on LinkedIn: Dr. Lee Cordell

This was originally a live Regulated Roots Academy training.

Right as Dr. Lee reached the final section, the power went out in the middle of a severe morning storm. She kept teaching in the dark until the connection failed. The interruption became part of the lesson.

In Part 1 of this two-part teaching, Dr. Lee walks through Matthew 14:22–33 and the storm that came after Jesus fed the five thousand.

She explores what it means when Jesus sees us struggling but does not immediately remove the storm, why fear can make us misidentify help as a threat, and what Peter’s “little faith” actually means.

If you have been rowing through a business, leadership, or personal storm longer than you thought you should have to, this episode is for you.

Part 2 is coming next.

Dr. Lee will continue the conversation on James 1, double-mindedness, asking God for wisdom in the storm, and what she learned after the lights went out. She will also share a new offering for people carrying a LOT of responsibility: the High Responsibility Humans Community.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why the fourth watch matters. The disciples had spent six or more hours rowing through a crossing that should have taken two or three — and several of them were skilled fishermen who knew this storm was serious.
• What Jesus was doing on the mountain. He saw the disciples struggling, prayed, waited, and came to them in the darkness. His delay was not absence.

Why leaders need solitude too. Jesus made space to grieve the death of John the Baptist after caring for everyone else. Dr. Lee connects that to the leaders who care for everyone but do not make room to feel their own grief.

• How fear can turn help into a “ghost." When Jesus came walking toward the disciples, they did not recognize Him. In exhaustion and fear, they assumed the thing approaching them was there to harm them.
• What “little faith” means in Peter’s story. Peter had faith enough to step out of the boat. The issue was not that his faith was too small. It was that it did not last when the wind grew loud.
• Why doubt is more than a question. The Greek word distazo describes double-mindedness: trying to hold Jesus’ voice and the wind’s voice at the same time.

Key Quotes:

•  “You thought you were going to be further along by now. You thought that the crossing would only take two hours. It has been three-plus times as long as you thought that this was going to take, and you are exhausted.”
• “I’m not praying for Him to take me out of this storm. I’m praying for Him to come to me in this storm.”
• “The very thing they’re praying for...when He shows up, they react out of terror.”
• “Peter didn’t have a small faith. He had a short faith.”
•  “The storm stops being out here and it starts being in here.”

Reflection Questions:

1. Where have you been rowing longer than you expected — in your business, leadership, health, family, or calling?
2. Is there an unexpected change, closed door, person, or opportunity you have been calling a “ghost” that may deserve a more curious look?
3. When the wind gets loud, what helps you return your focus to Jesus rather than trying to calculate every wave?

Connect with Dr. Lee, TLC, & the High Responsibility Humans™ Community:

• Discover your Primary Motivational Gift: www.growinyourgifts.com
• Join Our High Responsibility Humans Community: https://regulatedroots.com/hrh
• Explore our Agency services: regulatedroots.com/agency

Follow on TikTok: @leechelseacordell

Connect on LinkedIn: Dr. Lee Cordell

Chantell Cooley was in her mid-thirties when her father died. 

At the time, the online university she helped build had nearly 7,000 students (a fraction of the people who'd end up being served.)

And in that season, she saw a worn bomber jacket come down from heaven.

It was too big.

Chantell understood it as a mantle — full of the assignments and abilities God had placed on her life. And she learned something that changed the way she leads: the mantle will not shrink. You have to grow into it.

Today, Chantell is a faith-based leader, spiritual mentor, and former co-founder of Columbia Southern University, which grew into one of the country’s largest online universities. In this conversation, she and Dr. Lee talk about what it means to carry the Kingdom into the marketplace without forcing faith on people, own the gifts God gave you without false humility, and keep taking the next step when transition feels too big.

If you have been wondering whether you can really fit the calling in front of you — or whether it will fit you — this conversation is for you.

In This Episode, Listeners Will Learn:

• Why the marketplace is ministry — how Christian leaders can bring the church with them through the way they treat people, build culture, and lead under pressure.
• What a mantle means for a business leader — how Chantell understands it as the unique collection of assignments, abilities, grace, and authority God has given you.
• Why false humility keeps leaders stuck — and how to own what you are good at without confusing confidence with arrogance.
• How to discern God’s voice in a real decision — why Scripture, wise mentors, ongoing relationship with God, and a willingness to realign matter more than legalistic formulas.
• What transition is actually for — why it is not a place to live, but a space to walk through one foot at a time.
• Why every great assignment is not yours — and how saying no to the wrong opportunity protects your soul and makes room for the one God actually gave you.

Key Quotes:

• “The mantle will not shrink. You have to grow.” 
• “The mantle gets exposed when you start having the language for what you’re good at.” 
• “Not every assignment that’s great is ours.” — Chantell Cooley

Connect with Chantell Cooley:

• Website: chantellcooley.com
• Instagram: @chantellcooley
• Books and mentorship information: available through her website and Instagram bio

Connect with Dr. Lee, TLC, & the High Responsibility Humans™ Community:

• Discover your Primary Motivational Gift: www.growinyourgifts.com
• Join Our High Responsibility Humans Community: https://regulatedroots.com/hrh
• Explore our Agency services: regulatedroots.com/agency

Follow on TikTok: @leechelseacordell

Connect on LinkedIn: Dr. Lee Cordell