Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lori Ann Wood. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Lori Ann, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
Most of us have at some point had a role we loved taken away from us, whether from a company downsize, adjusting to an empty nest, or the encroachment of retirement. Mine came from the onset of chronic illness. Suddenly, I could no longer stand and lecture to college students as I’d done the previous 20+ years. So when my heart failure diagnosis came in, it was easy to feel that my purpose was gone.
I remember that same thought creeping in during my ten-year-old summer. I was always an average-type athlete. I might make the team, but usually not the starting lineup. Although loyal and hardworking, I was never the star on the court or on the field. But that summer after fifth grade, I had finally risen to the top of the pitcher pile for the youth softball team. Just before games were to start, I boasted in my diary that I was “the #1 pitcher.” I worked hard at scrimmages to make sure I didn’t disappoint. I practiced solo with the pitchback every day, braving the scorched front yard in the dry June heat as my parents spent long hours harvesting wheat. My sister was finally old enough to drive me into town for practice, so I could complete the entire season. It seemed the stars were lining up for me. And then the unthinkable happened. I got in a hurry up some uneven steps and sustained a season-ending broken pitching arm.
I wanted to believe I had lost my purpose then, too.
Despite the lost feeling I had, something I couldn’t shake was the foundation my parents had laid. The one that said I was more than what I did. That not being able to do something didn’t diminish my worth, or my purpose. My role as a pitcher had changed, but my true purpose in life never could.
Decades later, after a much more serious ER visit, it still took lots of prayer and soul-searching and wise counsel, but I’m re-learning that our purpose is different from our role. Once we can untangle the two, we realize our purpose never really changes, despite the rollercoaster we sometimes live.
In our effort-focused society, we often confuse our “purpose” with our “role.” A role is associated with functions, behaviors, and parts played. Purpose, on the other hand, is more abstract and alludes to reasons, intentions, and objectives. We will have different roles at different stages of our lives: mother of toddler, realtor, artist, advocate, caregiver. Sometimes we will be very busy in a role, and it can feel all-consuming. Roles will take us on different paths. Roles come and go.
But purpose is another matter. It never changes. Purpose is constant. Purpose is eternal.
As a Christian, my eternal purpose is rooted in my faith. Jesus was alluding to purpose and roles when He summed up the law: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39).
Loving God is our purpose. How we serve others is our role. Our everlasting purpose is our relationship with Him, which we will continue and complete in Heaven. Here on earth is the only chance we have to bring others with us into a relationship with God. So, our role—our function and behavior—has to involve others, and it has to evolve to bring more and more people into our orbit. Our constant purpose, throughout every season and within every role we take on, is to develop a closer relationship with the Father and become more like His Son. Our changing roles should always involve ways of helping others do the same.
Our lives will only make sense when we realize that God’s purpose for our lives is unchanging, but the roles He has for us constantly evolve as we age and grow. God set it once and for all, a long time ago, as part of our identity as believers. “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11: 29).
Our God-designed eternal purpose is a sign we are made for something bigger than ourselves, bigger than our families, bigger than this world.
Whatever new role is ahead for us, it should be driven by our constant purpose to know Him. And turns out, like my new post-diagnosis role as author and speaker, my post-softball role involved more “downtime” with family and friends, and more opportunities to make eternity-impacting relationships.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I live in an empty nest in beautiful Bentonville, Arkansas. Having discovered a serious heart condition almost too late, I write and speak to encourage deep faith questions along the detours of life.
My work has been published in several anthologies and numerous print and online venues, including The New York Times, The Christian Century Magazine, Just Between Us Magazine, Bella Grace Magazine, Truly Magazine, and Pepperdine University Press.
My award-winning book, Divine Detour: The Path You’d Never Choose Can Lead to the Faith You’ve Always Wanted, was published by CrossRiver Media, and is available on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Detour-choose-always-wanted/dp/1936501759/). Learn more about the book (and read the first chapter free) here: https://loriannwood.com/books.
My passion it to walk alongside others on a difficult, unwanted path. I’d love to connect on my website (https://loriannwood.com/), on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/loriannwood/) or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DivinelyDetoured). If you are on a detour, and find it difficult to communicate with God, get my free gift, 5 Prayers & Promises When You Can’t Talk to God at https://loriannwood.com/hope/.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
After I was diagnosed, I quickly learned that heart failure is a chronic, progressive disease. Three pillars have sustained me on my unwanted journey.
1. Faith (modeled by my mother) has grounded me, provided purpose, and fueled hope in something more permanent. By focusing past this world, I have gained strength to endure the difficulties this side of eternity.
2. Resilience (from my father) has given me permission to fail, to fall short in life—and in health—and still find meaning and purpose. By bouncing back from bad news, hard realities, and difficult diagnoses, I’ve been able to enjoy a less-than-perfect life and embrace imperfections as opportunities and moments of rebirth.
3. Questions (from my own journey) have allowed me to own my handed-down faith and value system, to tweak it, personalize it, and allow it to enrich my real life. When we embrace questions and wrestle with our faith, it gets stronger and more broken-in. Faith becomes a lifeline rather than an obstacle during hard times.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
As a Christian communicator, one of my biggest joys and encouragements is connecting with others in that same role. I would love to collaborate with writers and podcasters in my niche. I host a guest blog series on my website called “The Seasons Series,” that shares unique stories of how God has been ever-present and faithful in various seasons of life. I am always looking for contributors. In addition, I have guested on over sixty podcasts and would love to share my story to an audience who could benefit from my faith story as well as from my heart failure diagnosis story. I have been trained at Mayo Clinic as a Community Educator for WomenHeart, and share the heart failure warning signs I missed so others may have a better outcome. I also share my faith story of embracing difficult faith questions as a means of strengthening faith. Contact me at https://loriannwood.com/contact/ to share your idea of how we can work together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://loriannwood.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loriannwood/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DivinelyDetoured
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClsYrW5KIUqMBVvRxzNZG5Q
- Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lori_ann_wood, Threads :https://www.threads.net/@loriannwood
Image Credits
Abbie Treme Photography (on personal photo only)
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
