Latest / The Voice: Breaking, Believing, Becoming / Look How Far You’ve Come

Transcript

Look How Far You’ve Come · The Voice: Breaking, Believing, Becoming

• 0:10
  Welcome to The Voice, where Breaking the Leaving and Becoming finally have a place to be heard.
• 0:17
  I'm Kim Munoz, and whether you've been here since episode one,
• 0:23
  or today is the very first time you've crossed play, I want to thank you for being here.
• 0:30
  As season one comes to a close, I honestly don't even know if I can fully put
• 0:35
  into words what I'm feeling.
• 0:38
  20 episodes ago, this podcast was simply a dream, a dream that grew out of a
• 0:43
  book I started writing after my father passed away in 2024.
• 0:49
  Although, if I'm honest, I think I've really been writing that book my entire life.
• 0:55
  After my dad died, something became very clear to me.
• 0:59
  I suddenly knew what I wanted the book to say, day, how I wanted it to unfold,
• 1:04
  and why I didn't want to waste another day putting it off.
• 1:08
  And I have no doubt part of that was him still pushing me forward.
• 1:14
  When I first started writing, I thought the book would be enough.
• 1:18
  It holds the stories, the details, the heartbreak, the healing,
• 1:22
  the moments that shaped me.
• 1:25
  But the more I wrote, the more I realized there were so many conversations that
• 1:30
  didn't belong only on a page.
• 1:33
  Some of them needed a voice.
• 1:35
  And every time life got busy, every time I got distracted, every time I convinced
• 1:41
  myself it wasn't the right time,
• 1:44
  There were a few persistent little gnats in my life who kept bringing me back
• 1:49
  to this idea of starting a podcast,
• 1:52
  They wouldn't leave me alone, and I'm so glad they did not So eventually,
• 1:58
  I took the leap And the funny part is, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, and I still don't,
• 2:06
  Like so many people hearing themselves recorded for the first time,
• 2:10
  I couldn't stand the sound of my own voice And I tell you that because maybe
• 2:15
  there's something in your life right now that you keep talking yourself out of.
• 2:19
  Maybe you're wondering if you're good enough, smart enough, qualified enough, or worthy.
• 2:26
  Sometimes you have to stop waiting until you feel ready and take the leap anyway.
• 2:31
  Do it scared. Figure it out as you go.
• 2:35
  When I was younger, my father gave me a book called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.
• 2:40
  And that idea became a kind of backbone for so many of the decisions I have
• 2:45
  made throughout my life.
• 2:48
  Not because I stopped being afraid,
• 2:50
  but because I learned that fear didn't always deserve the final vote.
• 2:55
  And 20 episodes later, these conversations have taught me something I never expected.
• 3:02
  I thought I was creating a podcast, and what I didn't realize was that somewhere
• 3:08
  along the way, the podcast was creating me too.
• 3:12
  Maybe that's what becoming really
• 3:14
  is. It's what happens when brokenness no longer gets the final word.
• 3:20
  It's choosing day after day to let faith shape your identity more than your
• 3:25
  wounds, your past, or the opinions of others.
• 3:30
  Becoming isn't perfection. It's transformation.
• 3:34
  And my hope from the very beginning has been that somewhere in these conversations,
• 3:39
  you've recognized a piece of your own story. and mine.
• 3:44
  Because if you have, then I hope you've discovered something else,
• 3:47
  too. You were never alone.
• 3:51
  Twenty conversations ago, I
• 3:53
  sat in front of this microphone wondering if anyone would ever press play.
• 3:58
  Well, I knew a few people would because I have one of the most supportive cast
• 4:02
  of characters God has ever blessed me with.
• 4:06
  But would anyone else? I worried about everything?
• 4:10
  Was I talking too much, not enough? Was I funny enough, serious enough?
• 4:15
  Would anyone care what I had to say?
• 4:18
  Looking back now, I can laugh a little because I know something I didn't know then.
• 4:24
  Our minds can be terrible storytellers. Mine had me convinced I wasn't ready,
• 4:30
  that I didn't know enough, that my voice wasn't interesting enough,
• 4:34
  that someone else could probably say it better.
• 4:38
  Isn't it amazing how quickly we'll believe the worst things about ourselves?
• 4:43
  We don't always question those thoughts, right? We just assume they're true.
• 4:48
  Looking back now, I realize I was asking the wrong question.
• 4:53
  Because this was never really about whether people would hear my voice.
• 4:57
  It was about whether these conversations would help all of us hear our own voice.
• 5:03
  Because if we're honest, we're often much better at recognizing truth for the
• 5:08
  people we love than we are for ourselves.
• 5:11
  We can encourage a friend to take the chance or to leave the unhealthy relationship,
• 5:16
  to believe that they're worthy, to trust God, to stop settling.
• 5:22
  And then we struggle to follow that same advice in our own lives.
• 5:27
  Maybe that's why these conversations have mattered so much. They were never
• 5:31
  meant to tell you what to think.
• 5:33
  They were simply an invitation to slow down long enough to hear the voice inside
• 5:38
  you that had been trying to speak all along.
• 5:42
  When I look back over these 20 conversations, I'm struck at how different they
• 5:47
  all seemed on the surface.
• 5:49
  I mean, one week we were laughing about dating after divorce and trying to figure
• 5:53
  out if there are any normal people left on the ass.
• 5:57
  The next we were talking about motherhood and the incredible privilege and responsibility
• 6:02
  of shaping little lives while those same lives are quietly shaping us.
• 6:08
  We wrestled with friendship and betrayal, and the painful realization that not
• 6:13
  everyone who walks into our lives is meant to stay there.
• 6:17
  We talked about waiting and how life doesn't stop while we're hoping for the
• 6:22
  next chapter to finally arrive.
• 6:25
  We reminded ourselves to make one new memory every day because tomorrow was never promised.
• 6:32
  We celebrated the gift of having two dads and discovered that family is often
• 6:37
  defined far more by love than biology.
• 6:42
  We had hard conversations about infidelity, the other woman and women,
• 6:47
  and the truth that broken people often leave broken places behind them.
• 6:53
  We laughed our way through girls' trips and realized that sometimes healing
• 6:57
  happens around a dinner table surrounded by people who know us and love us anyway.
• 7:04
  We sat together in suffering and learn that loving someone doesn't always mean
• 7:09
  being able to fix what's hurting them.
• 7:12
  Sometimes love simply means refusing to leave their side.
• 7:17
  We looked at the relationships we normalize, recognizing that our children learn
• 7:22
  far more from what we model than from what we say.
• 7:27
  We stepped into unfamiliar places like fish out of water and discovered that
• 7:31
  courage often feels awkward before it ever feels natural.
• 7:36
  We talked about being women, the changing bodies, changing seasons,
• 7:40
  and somehow learning to laugh our way through all of it.
• 7:45
  We talked about the luxury of choosing, because every yes we give is also a
• 7:51
  quiet no to something else.
• 7:54
  And yes, we even talked about junk drawers, only to discover they were never
• 7:59
  really about junk drawers at all.
• 8:01
  They were about the things we keep, stories we carry, hurts we avoid,
• 8:06
  memories that we treasure, and the versions of ourselves we're finally ready to let go of.
• 8:13
  And looking back now, I realize something.
• 8:17
  None of these conversations were ever really about dating or motherhood,
• 8:22
  friendship or waiting, or even junk drawers.
• 8:26
  Those were simply the doors we walked through. Because on the other side of
• 8:30
  every one of them was the same question.
• 8:33
  Who am I becoming because of this?
• 8:37
  And I think that has been the heartbeat of the voice from the very beginning.
• 8:42
  Not simply surviving what life brings us, not just understanding what happened
• 8:46
  to us, but asking what it's doing within us.
• 8:52
  What is it teaching me? What is it revealing? What am I carrying forward?
• 8:57
  And what am I finally ready to leave behind?
• 9:01
  Because every experience, beautiful or heartbreaking, has the ability to shape us.
• 9:08
  The topics were never really the destination. Becoming was always the journey.
• 9:14
  These 20 conversations have changed me in ways I never expected.
• 9:19
  I don't think I'm quite as afraid of silence anymore. Silence used to feel uncomfortable
• 9:24
  for me. Now it feels like clarity.
• 9:27
  Because silence is often where I hear my own voice the clearest,
• 9:31
  and most definitely where I hear God's voice loud and clear.
• 9:36
  I've learned to trust my own voice more than I used to because once I started
• 9:40
  listening to it instead of talking over it, I realized it knew far more about
• 9:46
  me than I had ever given it credit for.
• 9:49
  I don't feel as responsible for fixing everyone anymore.
• 9:53
  I spent a lot of years believing that if I just found the right words,
• 9:58
  gave the right advice, loved hard enough, or showed up enough,
• 10:02
  I could change someone's life.
• 10:05
  Now I know that's not my job. Every minute I spend trying to fix someone who
• 10:10
  isn't ready to change is a minute I can't get back.
• 10:13
  And our time here is far too precious to spend carrying responsibilities that
• 10:18
  were never ours to carry.
• 10:21
  I laugh just as easily as I always have. Well, if we're being honest,
• 10:26
  I've probably always laughed a little too easily.
• 10:30
  I genuinely believe laughter is one of God's greatest gifts,
• 10:34
  even though most of mine is inappropriate laughter.
• 10:38
  It has a way of loosening the grip of anger, softening disappointment,
• 10:42
  and reminding us that joy can still exist in the middle of hard things.
• 10:47
  And yes, I cry easier too, Although more often than not, it's because I've laughed
• 10:53
  so hard that tears are rolling down my face.
• 10:56
  I've stopped rushing through difficult seasons. Instead of asking, how do I get out of this?
• 11:01
  I find myself asking, what is this trying to teach me?
• 11:06
  Because if there's a lesson here, I'd rather learn it now than keep repeating
• 11:10
  the same chapter until I finally do.
• 11:13
  And maybe the biggest change of all, I don't need every chapter to make sense
• 11:17
  before I can appreciate it.
• 11:20
  I've come to trust that every chapter, even the ones I would never have chosen,
• 11:24
  is moving me toward the person God is inviting me to become.
• 11:29
  I may not always understand where He's leading me, but I trust that He does.
• 11:35
  And today, that's enough.
• 11:38
  Recently, I watched the sweetest movie on Netflix called Voicemails for Isabel.
• 11:44
  It happened to be right around the same time I was trying to figure out how
• 11:47
  I was going to end this first season of The Voice.
• 11:51
  The story begins with a young woman who continues leaving voice messages on
• 11:55
  her sister's old phone after her sister dies.
• 11:59
  Not because she expects an answer, but because sometimes love doesn't stop talking
• 12:03
  just because someone is gone.
• 12:06
  I couldn't stop thinking about that, because it reminded me of something I've
• 12:10
  done ever since my dad passed away.
• 12:12
  I couldn't bear the thought of never hearing his voice again,
• 12:15
  so I saved his voicemails.
• 12:17
  I saved the sweet text messages he sent me over the years, and every now and
• 12:21
  then when I miss him a little more than usual, I'll pull one up and press play.
• 12:27
  And for just a moment, it feels like he's sitting right beside me again.
• 12:32
  Not because I'm looking for new advice, but because hearing his voice reminds
• 12:36
  me of what I already know.
• 12:38
  That I was loved. That I was believed in. That I wasn't alone.
• 12:44
  Somewhere between listening to those old voicemails and watching that movie, I realized something.
• 12:50
  Maybe that's what these 20 conversations have really been.
• 12:54
  Little voice notes. Not something I expect you to memorize, but something I
• 12:59
  hope you'll remember when life asks you to.
• 13:02
  Maybe months from now you'll be sitting on your porch, taking a walk,
• 13:06
  driving to work, or folding laundry.
• 13:08
  Something we talked about here will quietly find its way back to you.
• 13:13
  And maybe you'll remember, make one new memory every day.
• 13:17
  Because life isn't only built on extraordinary moments, it's built on ordinary
• 13:21
  Tuesdays that become precious when we finally learn to notice them.
• 13:26
  Or maybe you'll find yourself in another season of waiting and remember,
• 13:31
  don't miss your life while you're waiting for your life to begin.
• 13:35
  Because waiting was never meant to keep us from living.
• 13:39
  Maybe someone will promise you everything with their words, and you'll quietly
• 13:43
  remember, actions tell the truth.
• 13:47
  Maybe you'll catch yourself believing you'll always be who you've always been
• 13:52
  until another little voice reminds you.
• 13:55
  You don't have to stay who you were. Maybe you'll find yourself watching your
• 14:00
  children, your grandchildren, or even the people you love most.
• 14:04
  And you'll remember that every family, and really every relationship, normalizes something.
• 14:11
  And you'll stop and ask yourself, what am I teaching the people I love without ever saying a word?
• 14:19
  Maybe you'll walk into a room where you don't know anyone, start a new job,
• 14:23
  try something you've never done before, and instead of turning around,
• 14:27
  you'll remember that sometimes feeling like the fish out of water is exactly where courage begins.
• 14:35
  Maybe after being hurt, you'll meet someone new and catch yourself building
• 14:39
  walls they never asked you to climb.
• 14:42
  And you'll remember, don't make someone new pay for wounds they didn't create.
• 14:48
  Or maybe one Saturday afternoon, while cleaning out a drawer,
• 14:53
  you'll laugh and think, sometimes the junk drawer isn't in the kitchen.
• 14:58
  Sometimes it's the resentment we've held onto, the fear we've carried,
• 15:02
  the stories we've kept telling ourselves, and maybe we're finally ready to sort through some of it.
• 15:09
  And even if one of these little voice notes finds its way back to you at exactly
• 15:16
  the moment you need it, then these 20 conversations have done exactly what I prayed they would do.
• 15:23
  And if you're listening today and realizing there are episodes you missed,
• 15:28
  or maybe you found the voice somewhere in the middle.
• 15:32
  This isn't goodbye. You've got a little time to go back and catch up while I'm
• 15:37
  preparing season two. Start wherever you want.
• 15:41
  Pick the title that speaks to you.
• 15:43
  Listen in order or don't because maybe there's a conversation sitting somewhere
• 15:49
  in these first 20 episodes that you haven't heard yet and maybe that's the little
• 15:54
  voice note you need right now.
• 15:56
  When season two begins, we're going to pick up the conversation from there.
• 16:01
  Because these episodes were never meant to replace your voice,
• 16:04
  they were simply meant to help you recognize it.
• 16:07
  And maybe when you finally do, you'll discover something beautiful,
• 16:11
  that it was there all along.
• 16:15
  As I've been thinking about season two, I realize something.
• 16:18
  These conversations don't actually end when the episode does.
• 16:22
  At least they don't for me.
• 16:24
  I'll finish recording, turn off the mic, and then days later,
• 16:27
  I still find myself thinking about something we talked about.
• 16:30
  A story, a question, a scripture.
• 16:34
  Sometimes just one sentence that keeps echoing long after the episode is over.
• 16:39
  Maybe you've experienced that too. Maybe you've gone for a walk after listening
• 16:43
  to an episode, sat in your car for a few extra minutes, or found yourself lying
• 16:47
  in bed that night thinking, I never looked at it that way.
• 16:52
  I think that's the beautiful thing about meaningful conversation.
• 16:55
  The best ones don't really end. They stay with us.
• 16:59
  They keep asking something of us. And that's exactly what I want to carry into season two.
• 17:05
  The voice isn't changing. We're still going to laugh together,
• 17:07
  tell stories, wrestle with fate, relationships, identity, healing,
• 17:12
  and all the beautiful messy parts of being human.
• 17:15
  We're still going to have honest conversation, but we're also growing.
• 17:19
  In Season 2, I'll begin welcoming some incredible guests whose stories I believe
• 17:24
  will challenge us, encourage us, and give us perspectives beyond my own.
• 17:29
  And through all of it, we'll keep coming back to the question we've been asking
• 17:33
  since Episode 1, Who are we becoming?
• 17:37
  But I also want to create something for those of you who sometimes finish an
• 17:41
  episode and think, I'm not quite done with this conversation yet.
• 17:45
  And that's where the inner voice will come in.
• 17:49
  It'll be a companion to the voice. So the voice is where we'll gather together
• 17:54
  each week, and the inner voice is what you take home with you.
• 17:57
  It's where we'll slow down, reflect, journal, pray, explore scripture,
• 18:03
  and ask questions that don't always need immediate answers.
• 18:08
  We'll go deeper into some of the conversations we begin here,
• 18:12
  and we'll hear more from guests, give ourselves permission to stay with an idea
• 18:17
  long enough for it to actually begin changing us.
• 18:21
  Because sometimes the greatest transformation doesn't happen while we're listening.
• 18:25
  Sometimes it happens later, when the noise settles, when we're alone with our
• 18:30
  thoughts, and when we're quiet enough to hear that inner voice asking,
• 18:35
  what does this mean for me?
• 18:37
  And whether you choose to join me there or simply keep showing up here each
• 18:41
  week, I want you to know how grateful I am that you're here.
• 18:45
  Because this community has never really been about subscriptions,
• 18:49
  downloads, or platforms.
• 18:51
  It's been about people willing to have honest conversations about what it means
• 18:55
  to break, to believe, and ultimately to become.
• 19:01
  And I cannot wait to see where these conversations take us in Season 2.
• 19:06
  Before we end this season, I want you to think about the person who pressed play on episode one.
• 19:13
  Or maybe it wasn't episode one. Maybe it was seven or 12 or 19.
• 19:19
  Whenever you found us, even if that's just today. And I want you to ask yourself something.
• 19:26
  Who am I today that I wasn't then? Not because life got easier,
• 19:30
  but because I kept showing up, because I kept healing, because I kept believing,
• 19:36
  and because I kept becoming.
• 19:38
  Before we go, I want you to remember something. You were never listening because
• 19:43
  my voice had all the answers.
• 19:45
  You were listening because somewhere in these conversations,
• 19:48
  you began recognizing pieces of your own story.
• 19:52
  And if that's happened, then this season did exactly what I prayed it would do.
• 19:57
  So don't just remember these episodes. Remember yourself. Remember how far you've come.
• 20:03
  Remember the prayers you survived. Remember the waiting you walked through.
• 20:09
  Remember the laughter that returned. Remember the courage you found.
• 20:14
  Because season one may be ending, but your becoming isn't. It's just getting started.
• 20:22
  If you're breaking, I want you to keep believing and becoming.
• 20:27
  Well, we know that's already happening.
• 20:31
  I'll see you in season two.