Burnout’s Thief—Faith’s Heist (Podcast Gold)
Hey fam,
Marcus Hart here—your vet-turned-truth-teller. Burnout’s a punk—it drained me dry in Iraq, jail, even church. Dr. Rob Carpenter knows it too—life’s hits left him reeling. We chopped it up on Transform U! Live Show, and it’s raw gold—faith and creativity flipping adversity into purpose. Here’s the juice:
Marcus’s Tent Miracle: “Iraq ’06—demonic whispers had me mute. Screamed ‘Jesus!’ inside—bam, light flooded in. ‘Jesus refilled me with shameless grit,’ I told Rob. That’s faith—a heist on burnout.”
Dr. Rob’s Lifeline: “Creativity’s my rope outta the pit,” he said. Lost his brother—wrote through it. “God uses it to pull me up.” Real talk—your spark’s a weapon too.
Hope’s a Fight: “Burnout’s a thief—faith’s the heist to steal your life back,” I said. Rob nodded—hope’s no vibe, it’s a brawl. We’ve fought—won. You can too.
Want the full convo? Read it on Medium—deep dive’s there. But here’s the exclusive: my prayer that night in Iraq—“Jesus, refill me.” Worked then, works now—try it.
Next Move: Share this—someone’s depleted out there. Subscribe to Transform U! here—weekly faith fire’s dropping. Grab my “5 Faith Fixes” checklist—free, gritty hope at https://www.marcus-hart.com/home. Let’s crush burnout together!
Stay shameless,
Marcus
Transcript
Marcus Hart (00:01.032)
Welcome back Transformers to another episode. So I want to jump straight in and give you guys a little back story that will help set the stage for what we're expecting today. So let's get real. 2020, I hit a wall so hard, I thought I was the crash dummy in a faith flick. Dr. Rob, he has a journey that will make my nap and dodge ball look like a warmup. So let's set the stage here. How's it going, Dr. Rob?
Dr. Rob Carpenter (00:07.854)
It is fantastic. is so great to join you this morning.
Marcus, I really appreciate you, appreciate your platform, what you're doing for so many people across the country and around the world and inspiring them and giving them great stories and hope and specific strategies. So really excited to be with you today.
Marcus Hart (00:44.998)
Yeah, and I'm definitely more excited than you are to be talking with a person who's a leader in his own right and doing great things and equally transforming the world with your message. So let's get into it, What's your big burnout to breakthrough moment when life smacks you up and then you have to use faith to pull you up?
Dr. Rob Carpenter (01:09.71)
That's a fantastic question. It reminds me of an experience I had a little over 10 years ago. I was living in downtown Los Angeles, which is basically where I'm from, from Southern California. And I was walking across the street physically on foot. And as I was going from left to right in the intersection, a car came to make a right-hand turn. I turned around and I said, slow down, motion with my hands. And as I did that, a car came and hit me from the left. I flew over it. I smacked the pavement. Blood was gushing down my face. Couldn't feel my two front teeth.
Marcus Hart (01:22.792)
Here we go.
Marcus Hart (01:30.119)
No.
No.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (01:38.134)
and they rushed me to the emergency room. The doctor said I had facial lacerations everywhere. I have a skull fracture and that's going to be very expensive. And I looked at them and I said, I don't, I'm not going to have scarring. I don't have a skull fracture. I'm not paying for any of this. And they probably thought that I was crazy, but being a man of faith, being somebody who deeply believes in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, I was just hoping that I would come out of that. And several weeks later,
Marcus Hart (01:53.886)
it.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (02:05.422)
I went back to the doctor, they took off the mummy mask they had me wrapped in and I said, Doc, how do I look? And they said, you have a lovely face. said, hallelujah. Then the kid, not true story. I went to the neurologist and the neurosurgeon. They looked at my brain scans and they said, wait a second, there's something wrong with these. So they called the department that did that. And they said, you've missed diagnosis. He doesn't have a skull fracture. That was the second thing. And then they went to the back, consulted with each other, came back to the room.
Marcus Hart (02:14.116)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (02:33.282)
And I said, this is all gratis. And I said, what does that mean, doc? And they said, this is all on the house. You don't have to pay anything, nothing. And so I had experienced a genuine miracle and I knew that God spared me for a purpose, spared me for a reason. And whenever we have those kinds of big moments, sometimes they're dramatic like that. Sometimes they're just, we feel this general mylies in our soul and our mind and our hearts where life is worrying on us. just have to have.
a smidgen of hope. We just have to have a kernel of faith. We only need faith the size of a mustard seed, just a little bit, because God can take that and He can make it something transformational. And so He was able to break me out of that moment. And I always look back to that if I'm facing struggles, if I'm facing doubt, if I don't know where to go, where to turn, I look back at that experience and I look back at so many other victories God has given me.
Marcus Hart (03:09.278)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (03:29.501)
in life to say, you know what, he's got another one, another chance. And that's what he tells us to do in his word. He tells us to not to forget, not the past things. If you look at, for example, Jewish believers, they are wonderful at remembering the Passover. They're wonderful at remembering the miracles from the past of Moses and of what's gone on in history. And they would create memorials. And one of the things that I try to do is in my mind and on paper, remember where God has brought us from.
not just circumstantially, but emotionally and mentally. And so that's just kind of how I help recalibrate myself when I'm trying to break through some barriers or obstacles.
Marcus Hart (04:11.656)
Wow, that's powerful. First of all, let me just say that we are happy that you are still alive with us today and we are more appreciative. And I'm grateful for the fact that God was able to use that moment and allow you to have the choice of like, I take this as something that's just bad as it's happened to me or do I take it as an opportunity to realize that God has called me?
to something greater to do and move forward in. And a lot of times, people take those opportunities for granted and we also are blessed with like free will and we don't know what to do with it sometimes. And God can definitely nudge us in the right direction. And your leadership activities is evident that you have that revelation. So where did you learn to turn chaos into creative goal?
Dr. Rob Carpenter (04:50.761)
Mmm.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (05:05.353)
Ooh, that's fantastic. think when I was little, I was with my sister. She's older by about 14 months. She is a Harvard-educated nurse. So she's very, very smart. Both of us are first in our family to go to school because I skipped grades. But we started a little business at nine years old when we were living in Ohio in a little village of 1,000 people named Dresden, famous world's largest basket and world's largest basket building. so we would go from home to home in the neighborhood. We'd pick people's flyers from their yards. We'd wrap them in a bow. Then we'd sell them back to them.
Marcus Hart (05:24.52)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (05:33.897)
You know, it's to say they've realized, wait a second, there are, you know, they're taking our own flowers and selling them to us. And so I've always been creative. I've always thought about starting things about trying to bring something new and using whatever resources we had. And we come from a people that are very much that way that sometimes the only thing we have is not money and it's not power and it's not resources. It's not connections. It's creativity.
Marcus Hart (05:37.129)
Yeah
Marcus Hart (05:55.485)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (05:59.994)
what can we do with this little morsel in our hands to turn it into something that is gold? And so I think I was naturally always inquisitive and intuitive. And then over time I would gain skill mostly by, you know, I have multiple degrees. I've got three degrees, a doctorate, but I think my primary learning came from two things. One, experience and two, reading outside of school. There are so many amazing.
Marcus Hart (06:15.486)
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (06:25.712)
resources that are out there on Amazon, so many amazing resources on YouTube that you can really curate an education for yourself as an entrepreneur, as a creative, without having to spend thousands of dollars because all of these resources have been made available for either cheap or for free in many cases. And so I remember when I was in school, Marcus getting my doctorate, I was so, I was just much more interested in my outside reading.
Marcus Hart (06:35.646)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (06:46.589)
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (06:53.564)
than I was in the stuff that they assigned me because it's like, well, this seems more relevant and applicable to life and more interesting and more creative and more fun. And so I just, think partly I was always naturally curious, but also too, I looked to see what sort of resources are out there. There was a great book I read almost 20 years ago called life entrepreneurs. And it was about how do we create not just entrepreneurial endeavors, creative endeavors, but how do we create an entrepreneurial life? How do we create a life where we're able to
Marcus Hart (06:54.497)
Hahaha, yeah.
Marcus Hart (07:01.0)
Right.
Marcus Hart (07:15.027)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (07:23.079)
launch things and create things that are true to our identity, true to our faith, true to how do we start serving other people. And I always sort of thought of it that way that, okay, well, I'm not just here to launch one thing. There are a variety of things. Some of the things will be well known. Some of them will never be known at all. And one of the things that's what I was thinking about as we're getting here together today, I was thinking about when we're creative, so we're entrepreneurs, we don't have to serve huge
Marcus Hart (07:29.022)
Thank
Dr. Rob Carpenter (07:52.656)
grand visions or markets or consumer bases. If you think about it, if you're a very successful surgeon, all you see is maybe a few thousand clients in your entire career. And the low thousands of clients, if you're an incredibly successful attorney, you may have at the most 500 cases throughout your entire career for litigating. so as creatives, as entrepreneurs, we don't necessarily need a huge
Marcus Hart (07:55.454)
you
Marcus Hart (08:06.514)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (08:21.2)
group of people to serve. We just need a group of people to serve that God has called us to and said, I want you to take your gifts and your talents and I want you to make their lives better with what I've given you. And sometimes it's a few people. Sometimes it's a lot of people. And I think a lot of times for me, the most difficult part was early on, especially I wanted a huge audiences. wanted the, I've got to have 10 million people. I've got to sell this company for this many.
millions or even more billions of dollars. And I create a lot of unnecessary stress on myself because I got caught up, Marcus, in the world, the worldly conformity of we have to have selfish ambition and we have to be greedy for money or greedy for professional accomplishment or greedy for achievement. Now money, accomplishment and achievement are not bad things in and of themselves. It's all about our heart posture and our motivation. Are we doing this to serve God's kingdom?
Marcus Hart (08:56.006)
Hmm.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (09:18.156)
Are we doing this to serve others? Because if we don't have those motivations straight, it can be really challenging to basically focus on the actual people we're supposed to serve. we oftentimes end up going out of bounds like, that's not quite my lane. And we cause stress, we cause heartache, we cause a lot of piercing in our minds and in our hearts and sometimes in our relationships and definitely in our finances.
Marcus Hart (09:34.778)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (09:44.678)
that's fire. I really felt all of that in my bones. I think that's really incredibly remarkable to have that type of insight. Going back to just the book form, the standard that's given in college, take what they give you versus going outside of the routine and just gaining more life experience through self-study.
experiencing the actual thing that like is talked about in the book and being able to write your own story out. It really speaks to how you came to where you at now, where you have a realization that the world can have you all tangled up in chaos because it tries to take you away from your uniqueness and your true self and
what God has really formed you to be. You you think you gotta be like everybody else, copy and duplicate and wash and repeat off of some of these things, these things don't even apply to you. And that surgeon metaphor was very good. It painted a real clear picture, man. I thank you so much for that.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (11:01.857)
No, absolutely. And I think it's definitely true where we have to really focus in on overcoming what the scripture calls the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, where the lust of the flesh is not being content what we have and with constantly wanting more, never being satisfied or
Marcus Hart (11:12.892)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (11:21.698)
only having pride in our achievements. Now, it's okay to have pride in our achievements, but sometimes that gets out of control. And you see there's this constant cultural drumbeat that says, I can celebrate the accomplishment temporarily, but then I have to go to the next thing because I've never satisfied. And literally when I was studying Ecclesiastes, which of course we know as a very kind of challenging book because Solomon's so depressed in it, but I actually found hope in it because Solomon says that satisfaction
Marcus Hart (11:22.995)
What?
Marcus Hart (11:27.197)
you
Marcus Hart (11:36.635)
Mm-hmm.
Marcus Hart (11:48.144)
It was.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (11:50.256)
only comes as a gift from God. So when you are doing things for the right reasons, for the right motivations, when you've been able to finally clarify that in your heart, God will give you his satisfaction. And literally it says in that book that he will keep you so busy enjoying life and being happy, you won't have time to worry about having to get more or brooding over not having as much as your neighbors or not conforming to the societal standard.
Marcus Hart (11:53.736)
Thank you.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (12:19.868)
And I started living that more and more. I'm not perfect and I'm not quite completely there, but I'm on this journey. And I'm like, wow, God literally gives me a satisfaction where I feel, you know what? I've got enough. I really do have enough and I'm content. And if all I have is what he's given me so far, I'm okay with that. Of course, we have dreams and desires and what more, but it's this tension we have to live with. On the one hand, we should be content because
The reality is, if you look at the statistics, if we make $35,000 in a year, which the average American makes more than, then we are in the top 1 % of the world's people. We are the wealthiest people in the world. And so it's, okay, how much more do we want? Honestly, God says, be content with food and with clothes. And of course it's good to have standards and those types of things, but it's just constantly recalibrating, are we not satisfied because we're not
Marcus Hart (13:06.174)
you
Dr. Rob Carpenter (13:17.703)
following what God wants us to follow, which is just to be content in Him and be content with what He's given us and to recognize our limitations. And when I was younger, Marcus, I did not think limitations was a good word. was like, no, I can have it all. And here's the thing, we can try to have it all, but we're going to stumble and trip and fall. And we're going to view other individuals as either objects to manipulate or obstacles to overcome.
Marcus Hart (13:28.627)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (13:34.813)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (13:45.032)
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (13:45.503)
And it really warps our sense of self. so God's like, OK, just do it my way. It'll save you a lot of pain. I want to give you satisfaction as a gift. I want to give you joy as a gift. I want to give these things to you by my grace. And so it's leaning into what he's saying as creatives and as people that produce things. And he will give us that contentment. And the funny thing is, based on my experience, God then says, I can trust you with more because you don't care about the more.
Marcus Hart (14:13.043)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (14:13.496)
you care about me and following what I'm doing.
Marcus Hart (14:18.206)
Man, that's really like great. It's so much to unpack in there. And the very reason why so many people that like were my faith mentors has pointed me to Ecclesiastes because the first book to read and then you start, you know, after Ecclesiastes, then Proverbs, of course. And what I came to get out of, you all you said is
You know, it was a verse that kept coming up in my head in his 23 number song. I always mention it on his podcast. you know, I think about how God restores your soul and you don't need anything else to help refresh you because you could be a hot mess one day, but God can turn it all around for you the very next day and restore you into the position you're supposed to be in.
And that's very purposeful and intentional for what you mentioned about chasing after these imaginary boundaries that supposed to guarantee us that they have it all. When in fact, we got to move to his beat. We can't be just dependent on ourselves. At some point we get burned out.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (15:40.335)
Absolutely, I completely agree. And for me, we all face the dark night of the soul. And part of that is our own making, because we buy into the cultural narrative that we have to go after those boundaries and exceed them. But when we actually lean into God, God,
gives us the peace. He does give us the joy and it took me many years to realize that I was somebody, Marcus, I worked at the White House when I was 19. I had a multimillion dollar startup when I was 21. I was the youngest transportation commissioner in the history of Los Angeles at 24, overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars. So I was somebody who you would define as being selfishly ambitious. And it took many years for God to change that mindset because I saw nothing wrong with that. I assumed, well,
Marcus Hart (16:00.328)
Yes.
Marcus Hart (16:07.677)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (16:13.074)
Thanks.
Marcus Hart (16:25.63)
You know?
Dr. Rob Carpenter (16:25.803)
That's actually a good thing that I'm able to accomplish these things and advance my career, but I wasn't doing it for God. was doing it for my own glorification. And I wasn't necessarily miserable all the time, but I wasn't necessarily happy either. And I would kind of ping pong back and forth between a lot of frustration, even when you get success, even when you're in these rooms. And I was like a minor character in Charles Dickens novel. I wasn't the guy or a main guy, but I was somebody on the scene.
Marcus Hart (16:36.222)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (16:41.95)
Thank
Marcus Hart (16:53.731)
you.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (16:55.31)
And just like watching history in the making in some cases, and I just thought, OK, well, if I can just get a little bit more, more recognition or more power or more respect or more of insert whatever it was that somehow I would be content and satisfied. But it took God to put me through a season of time out and of self-reflection. And I asked him, I prayed this prayer.
And it was a scary prayer. said, Lord, show me the conditions of my heart. And he did. And I kid you not, Marcus, I was depressed for three days because I assumed nothing was wrong. But he was gentle about it. And he said, wait a second, let me show you this greed. Let me show you the selfish ambition. Let me show you the things that you never thought were wrong because you, this is what's led you down these paths.
Marcus Hart (17:27.358)
Yes.
Marcus Hart (17:33.053)
Yeah, we're doing. Yeah.
Marcus Hart (17:42.072)
Dr. Rob Carpenter (17:51.637)
all these wrong turns and you can make a wrong turn into a million dollars. And that's the crazy thing. It takes discernment and wisdom to say that's not from God. All the success is not necessarily from God. And sometimes it is, but it's seeking after Him as men of God, women of, know, brothers and sisters in the Lord. We have to go after Him, intimacy with Him, intimacy with Jesus, intimacy with Holy Spirit.
Marcus Hart (17:52.19)
Thanks.
Marcus Hart (17:58.237)
Well.
Marcus Hart (18:04.327)
Yes.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (18:21.183)
We have to go after godly character, godly fruitfulness, the love and the joy and the peace and the patience, and ultimately ask this question, God, how can you use me to serve my generation? But more importantly, how can you work within me so that I can demonstrate that Christ-likeness? Because Gandhi once said that, I love your Jesus, I just don't like your Christians. Because Christians have not demonstrated that. So if we're creative, we need...
It doesn't matter what we're doing for launching a book, we're launching a new tech product, we're launching a platform, we're in an office job. Wherever we are, we should be, we're sent on assignment to be like him, to spread that light and that love. And I can tell you, because I'm a professor at UCLA, among other things, I can tell you, I have incredibly diverse students, all types of religious backgrounds, non-religious backgrounds, ethnicities, and the non-religious, as Mitch as the religious, come up to me and say, I want to be just like you.
Marcus Hart (19:02.162)
then.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (19:20.157)
people that deny God, and it's not me, it's saying, if I'm being true to what I'm supposed to be, which is to represent that light, then people are gonna be drawn to the light, because everyone loves Jesus. Everyone loves Jesus. And it's to show that in our creative process, it's to show his hope in what we're doing. And it's funny because as creatives, I was actually researching some scripture in Exodus and the
Marcus Hart (19:34.558)
Yes,
Dr. Rob Carpenter (19:48.86)
The person to be filled with the Spirit of God was a creative. Bezalel, who was the creator of the tabernacle, was filled with the Spirit of God, with wisdom and understanding and all types of skill. But he was first filled with that Spirit, filled with God, and then God gave him more to be able to create something beautiful.
Marcus Hart (19:54.066)
See you.
Marcus Hart (19:58.856)
Mm-hmm.
Marcus Hart (20:05.852)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (20:14.398)
This is so much, I'm grateful for all of this. It's really provided us some true transformation for people who are listening here today. Rob, you really dropping the gospel here today. Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (20:26.673)
Well, it's one of those things, I love it because I could come on and sort of say, well, it's about education, it's about being out of school, it's about, no, it is about Jesus, it is about his kingdom, it is about allowing him to transform us. And he'll use both religious sources and individuals, but also non-religious ones to transform us because that's what the gospel is about. It's about becoming a new creation. We should be different.
Marcus Hart (20:33.339)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (20:39.868)
Yes.
Marcus Hart (20:49.554)
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (20:54.415)
than who we were last year versus 10 years ago versus 20 years ago. We should constantly be in a process of change going from faith to faith and glory to glory and recognizing that He is the one who is literally authoring our faith and taking us on this journey. And when we allow Him to do that, He turns us into the best version of ourselves. And so I think it's really putting Him center. And my name is unimportant, but Jesus' name.
Marcus Hart (20:54.514)
and
Marcus Hart (21:18.142)
Yes.
Marcus Hart (21:21.949)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (21:24.144)
and what He's doing, His kingdom, His cause. He's the one that gives us life. Our lives are on loan from Him. Our creativity is on loan from Him. All of these things. I think for some listeners, it's kind of empowering them to say, actually, you know, I need to lean maybe further into my faith. to seek Jesus more because God will give us the desires of our heart. But we have to want the desires of His heart first, which is to become like Jesus more and more.
Marcus Hart (21:34.493)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (21:53.807)
And then all of a sudden he's like, okay, well, can give you this thing now because it's unimportant to you.
Marcus Hart (22:01.756)
Yeah, I was gonna go to a, you know, a break, but like, I really feel like, you know, I need to be obedient to the Holy Spirit right now because the ultimate remix king is the Holy Spirit. So you might be going one way and then, you know, it might be totally different. And we're gonna keep with this vibe, know, Rob. So we'd like to have some practical tips for...
Dr. Rob Carpenter (22:15.183)
I love it.
Marcus Hart (22:30.332)
our audience out there, I know you got a bag full of them, you know, how do we turn our mess into Rob's magic, which is really, you know, coming from Jesus?
Dr. Rob Carpenter (22:40.469)
absolutely. That's a fantastic question. And I think a big part of it is if you look at many of the great spiritual leaders of the past, like, for example, John Wesley, or even the disciples, they all had a particular routine. They all followed a practice, a discipline that enabled them to be with God. First thing that enabled them to get their learning in, that enabled them to go out and do things. So in my own case,
Marcus Hart (22:43.666)
Yep.
Marcus Hart (22:57.075)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (23:08.589)
The Lord gave me years ago a process called two, two, two. And basically it's two hours of praying, meditation in morning, going to the gym. It's two hours of reading in the morning and it's two hours of writing because I'm a writer. I've written six books, lots of screenplays and directed and written some movies and things like that. And so this is before the day starts. And so I can literally get everything that is important and strategic done in this routine. And so I have my God time.
I've got, you know, investing in my body. I've got the learning necessaries. I need to keep learning and being transformed by the insights and wisdom of others. I mean, there's no greater time to be alive. You think about people like yourself and people who have written so many other books. And we have the greatest teachers alive today and so many around the world. so just to be investing in what the Lord is showing them and even obviously non-believers too, the Lord has given them many good things and we can learn from.
Marcus Hart (23:58.514)
Yes.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (24:08.741)
And then of course, applying the practical things he wants us to do. So if there's one thing I learned that took me from just desiring to be accomplished and successful to actually going out there and getting things done consistently in a prolific way, it's that routine. It's developing whatever that routine is. Now, some people would do well with the 222. Some people would have their own version of it. I would recommend a version of that because the 222
Marcus Hart (24:33.427)
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (24:37.832)
When God first gave it to me, I couldn't do it because the level of focus that's needed for that, it seems easy. I've students, I've actually given it to students and they're like, I tried it and I could only do an hour because, you know, it requires grace. some whatever routine that is, it could be 30 minutes, you know, you get up, you pray for a few minutes, you get up, you sit in God's presence, you you start learning again. It could be a podcast, your podcast for an hour. It could be.
Marcus Hart (24:43.238)
Sure.
Marcus Hart (24:49.426)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (25:06.694)
you going and producing that product, but it's taking a dedicated amount of time and setting it aside, particularly when it's quiet. Now, some people aren't morning people like myself, like my wife, she's not a morning person. She's like, how do you get up at three or four in the morning, do this stuff? And some people are evening people, but whatever that time is, it's having that time where it's just you and you're able to create and you're able to be filled with the wisdom of God and you're able to learn.
Marcus Hart (25:19.997)
Mm-hmm
Marcus Hart (25:30.835)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (25:35.647)
And so I would say that's the biggest thing. Even for example, I worked on the show called Ballers when I was in college with The Rock and that man's like a thousand pounds of muscle wrapped in baby skin. It's ridiculous. Like he's just, he's huge. And he's like, my gosh. And everyone's in awe of him physically when you, when you meet him and, and he, his whole success is based on routines. And he said, if he doesn't have his workout routine,
Marcus Hart (25:46.91)
Thank you.
Marcus Hart (25:54.035)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (26:00.784)
you
Dr. Rob Carpenter (26:02.725)
Mark Wahlberg's the same thing. If he doesn't have his workout routine, his eating routine, that they're not able to actualize in the way that they want. So I would say that's the biggest tip. If we want to become people who fulfill our calling, we do it with routines.
Marcus Hart (26:08.264)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (26:13.278)
Hmm.
Marcus Hart (26:18.822)
Yeah. Well, you definitely answered my next question. shout out to The Rock and Art. They definitely got it mostly a great deal figured out. And you lead with your soul. And I can tell that, man. You really got a heart behind how intentional you are.
and four o'clock, three o'clock. I think those are the perfect. I haven't been, I have fell off that wagon. I would love to get back on that wagon and be able to return to waking up at those hours. There's something special that happens in those hours that allow you to really put out your best foot when you walk alongside God and creating and making relationships and.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (26:49.881)
You
Dr. Rob Carpenter (26:55.718)
Thank you.
Marcus Hart (27:16.414)
You have a whole day like just kind of set out and ready after those hours. And I like the 222. I might give it a try myself. So.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (27:26.861)
You know, I think you, I think you'd love it. And it's just, it's one of those things where you, you, just, it's strategic accomplishment. And cause for me, I always, whenever I get bogged down in emails and I get bogged down in administrative stuff, that's where I'm like, man, I, I'm, I get distracted. I get fatigued. And like, I, I, if I didn't have a routine, if I didn't have the dedicated time, I wouldn't be able to do what God is calling me to do because there are too many other things.
Marcus Hart (27:30.717)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (27:35.857)
Mm-hmm.
Marcus Hart (27:49.096)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (27:54.162)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (27:55.907)
calling on my time and like, just have to be able to prioritize certain things in a focused way.
Marcus Hart (28:06.3)
I am speaking of prioritizing. I know that a great deal of being able to chase after your purpose and continue on your purpose is just having the right squad around you, a good community. And it's easy for you to shed your light out there and attract people. But sometimes we just don't have the discernment sometimes to pick the right people. how do you do it?
Dr. Rob Carpenter (28:31.169)
Hmm. Ooh, that's a great question. And I would preface it by saying this. Every time I have failed, it's because I've had the wrong people around me. Every time I've succeeded, it's because I've had the right people around me. And so when it comes to failure, I've failed a lot in life. When you go for things and you strike out or you get on second base and you never make it to...
Marcus Hart (28:43.987)
What?
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (28:54.017)
home base, it's because either I didn't have individuals I was leaning into, I didn't have the network and we need a multi-generational group of individuals. We need people who are grandparents, people who are parents age and people who are our age and people who are a little bit younger speaking from different vantage points. And so whenever I didn't have that, I tended to lean on my own understanding and what seemed good often ended up in a mess or a train wreck or just something that was underperforming.
Marcus Hart (28:55.923)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (29:12.542)
Good night.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (29:23.212)
Now, whenever I've had good people around me, people who loved me, supported me, cared for me, and you always have good people, but sometimes the bad people can distract you either from the good people or they can just through their influence, lean into deception or lean into where things that you shouldn't be doing. And so I think for me, a big part of it was really recognizing that you have to have
Marcus Hart (29:32.327)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (29:46.568)
Hmm.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (29:53.601)
one men and women of God around you and they have to be praying for you and you to be praying for them. And it doesn't matter if they don't have your specific gifting or skill set or if you don't have their specific gifting or skill set, but God puts people in our lives for a reason. I was just teaching on the book of Esther last week and Esther, she was 12 to 15 years old. I she was very young and she was married to a king who was in his forties. If you do the math on that, it's kind of crazy.
Marcus Hart (29:56.958)
Okay.
Marcus Hart (30:16.754)
Yes.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (30:22.754)
Her adversary Haman was in his 50s or 60s. So he was much more shrewd. And God though put her uncle Mordecai into her life. And he told her everything she needed to do and she followed it. Now Mordecai was more qualified than her to save the Jewish people, but God sent her instead. And so she listened very carefully to him. And so I think part of it is listening very carefully.
to those who are around us, it's really making sure we're listening to the scripture very carefully, like daily, that it is a mirror. And if we don't listen to that, we're gonna easily venture off course. And then of course it's listening to even people who don't necessarily believe, but who have different perspectives and who have different giftings and insights because they always sharpen them. And I think one of the things that's really helpful to do is listen to our critics because...
Marcus Hart (30:55.07)
Mm-hmm.
Marcus Hart (30:59.774)
Done.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (31:21.257)
Sometimes, a lot of times they have unfair criticisms. like, okay, that's just like, for example, if I get, I'm grateful to have mostly positive book reviews, but if I occasionally get a negative book review and I read through something and say, well, that's unfair, but is there any insight in it that I can take? Or same thing on campus with students. If I get, and again, it's all very positive, but if I get that occasional negative review, what are they saying that either I need to dismiss or I need to learn from?
Marcus Hart (31:25.491)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (31:39.857)
huh.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (31:51.36)
And so our critics actually can teach us a lot more about what we need to change or correct. I used to get stubborn over them. used to be like, they're terrible. then, and then all of a sudden it's like, well, is there any truth to what they're saying? Is 10%, 5%, 1 %? And even that 1 % can be enough to lead us in a positive direction. And so again, I don't hope people get criticized or rejected or haters or those types of things, but
Marcus Hart (31:52.766)
you.
Marcus Hart (31:58.504)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (32:18.823)
Sometimes they do have something valuable to say and we should be willing to not dismiss them. And so I think, it's just surrounding yourself with the right types of people continuously, constantly, making sure that the people who are around are changing from season to season. And there are different types of people. So some people will be mentors.
Some people will just be there to invest and other people though will be golden connections. They're just there to help connect you to this next part of your destiny, your career, your life, your creativity. Other people, you need to teach other people, proteges. And so if we're not investing in the next generation of individuals, we're often actually not learning as much as we could. So I found that when I teach, actually learn more than when I'm just sitting there listening to others. And, you know, of course,
Marcus Hart (33:06.385)
I'm not in
Marcus Hart (33:09.645)
Yes.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (33:11.534)
We need, we also need enemies because enemies help us overcome without a Goliath. There is no David, you know, and, so we need a variety of types of people to help us succeed in life. And, it's recognizing that whenever we try to do it on our own, there's no self-made man or woman in the world. And for me, when I thought, well, I can do it on my own. Some things, yeah, you can get a good grade on your own if you study really hard in class, or maybe you work really hard at a career. But if you want to be successful,
Marcus Hart (33:23.198)
Mm-hmm.
Marcus Hart (33:37.47)
and
Dr. Rob Carpenter (33:41.272)
in life. If you want to be successful in general without alienating people, without becoming stressed out and by getting the approval of God, you go with others. There's a great African proverb that says, if you want to walk, if you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, you go with others.
Marcus Hart (33:59.87)
Love it. That's a really important tip from building the verse, faith first tribe. And I like the concept of like, really embracing the haters and the critics because one thing I used to always hear, oh, you know, when people, you know, point that view, you know, they were actually a reflection of what they feel about themselves. I take that a little bit further is like, you know, they wouldn't be able to see that in you because
Dr. Rob Carpenter (34:26.294)
Mmm.
Marcus Hart (34:27.282)
Yeah, obviously, they are a master of like, the bad haves or the bad, you know, mess ups or whatever it is they're pointing out. You they, you know, they, they wouldn't be able to see that in you if it wasn't, you know, some truth to it. And if you know, and how can you harness some of that truth to be able to like improve and get better, you know, so that like, it's not constantly pointed out. And, you know, because we're not perfect, we're obviously not perfect. sometimes we like to think that like,
Dr. Rob Carpenter (34:40.451)
Hmm.
Marcus Hart (34:56.714)
I've been doing this so long that I have reached a master level, but there's no master level. There's always, yeah, it's always, yeah. Yeah, unless you know you live another life, but there's not too many people who that in tune with like the spiritual world to really confirm that. Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (34:58.766)
Hmm.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (35:03.189)
Absolutely, it's all of our first go-arounds. Like this is all of our first lives or only lives.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (35:15.448)
Right? No, absolutely. And you know what's interesting, Marcus, the average person believes hundreds of thousands of lies, usually between five or 600,000 in a lifetime. And so a lot of times the haters and the critics will show up and will reveal the truth about us. And we have lied to ourselves. No, that's not true. And then, like you said, we go on the counterattack. And one of the things that God has shown me to do is literally just to pray. First, I pray.
Marcus Hart (35:25.381)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (35:44.864)
that the Lord blesses them with every blessing that I have in my life, that He blesses them with salvation, with success, with sanctification, with good things, that He heals their heart, and that good things come into their life. And what I found is it's easy for me, it's easier for me for the people that have either criticized me or people that I don't necessarily naturally like. If I pray for them, all of a sudden my heart grows very tender.
and very loving and very kind over time. And I remember there was one situation where there was just somebody that was just attacking and attacking, attacking for months at a time. I prayed, I was immature and I prayed those Lord will give it to them, know, they can pay and give them the consequences of their and, and, and I was in frustration this whole time. And then all of a sudden I'm like, well, what if I just prayed for them? And the first day I did not want to do it. You know, I didn't mean the prayer.
Marcus Hart (36:14.557)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (36:32.383)
Thank you.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (36:43.423)
I was not sincere. Then I did it again, then again. And all of a sudden, now my heart, years later, is actually loving toward them. I love them and I don't have a relationship with them. It's from afar, but it's like, I want the best for them. And I think that's what Jesus said, love your neighbor as yourself or love your enemies. And because you will have enemies and those critics are any enemies, anyone who stands in the way of your God given destiny or appointment.
And so sometimes those critics are enemies, especially if they're trying to stop you. And we just got to love them through it and praying for them, praying for the best for them is the easiest way for us to love them because we can't do it in our own natural strength. is impossible.
Marcus Hart (37:27.14)
Absolutely is. It really is. And, you know, we got to have neighbors that love us and also have enemies and then be able to give that love to both equally and not be a respectable person because our God is not, you know, he has a diverse children that he loves and that he, you know, oftentimes correct and oftentimes also rewards, you know.
and of from what I'm taking from you is that
When we, I'm just gonna put it out there because like, and I normally don't like, bring it to mainstream into my conversations, but there's people that we see in the mainstream media or different leaders around the world and locally too, that we start having like these different opinions about it. We start like, giving all this negative energy to and.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (38:16.754)
Mm.
Marcus Hart (38:36.062)
a lot of times, you know, if there's praise, it's because we can see, we can openly see that praise, but if it's negativity we're throwing at them, maybe there is something that we can see that like oftentimes we haven't owned yet. And this is why we have this division we have in our country where, you know, there's people who's expecting perfection out of
Dr. Rob Carpenter (38:49.068)
You
Dr. Rob Carpenter (38:54.977)
Hmm. Hmm.
Marcus Hart (39:05.138)
to these different people that's spotlighted, but not owning what parts of them that they should lead with and be able to help, encourage, and pray for those who may have these, may in fact have these struggles that, like I said earlier, we are actually the masters of, and we don't want to reveal that we are the masters of some of these.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (39:15.404)
Mm.
Marcus Hart (39:31.634)
some of these like nasty things that we, you know, accuse people of or criticize people. What's your take on that?
Dr. Rob Carpenter (39:39.375)
No, that's a fantastic question. And I just love your thought process on it. And I think you're absolutely right. think that there are a lot of stones being thrown in today's society. And I remember during the 2024 election, I had to really encourage those around me to pray equally for Trump and for Kamala, because if they didn't like Trump, you're not going to pray for Trump or if you don't like Kamala, you like to pray for Kamala. Or it's just so natural to not pray and to criticize. But I remember
Marcus Hart (39:51.262)
Okay.
Marcus Hart (39:58.93)
Yes.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (40:07.756)
the admonition from scripture that says, judge not lest you be judged or with the same judgment you give, it will be given unto you. And that literally terrifies me that when I use my words to diminish somebody else, it doesn't matter if they're famous. It doesn't matter if they're powerful, if they're rich. When I use them, that is being stored up as judgment against me. And I don't want to go super Old Testament or anything like that, but it's
Marcus Hart (40:22.397)
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (40:37.332)
Literally that is being taken into account in terms of, I walking the kind of walk that I'm supposed to be walking? Now, we have to speak the truth, but it's in love. And it's easier to that if we're praying for someone. So we can still disagree with people. We can still advocate for our causes. We can still say this person is wrong or they're being false or leading people in the wrong direction. Those things are okay, but still saying, I love this person. I'm praying for them.
Marcus Hart (40:37.534)
you
Marcus Hart (40:43.678)
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (41:03.502)
One of the things we see even in the church where there's so much division in the church and I see people blasting each other and pointing out where the theology is often all these sorts of things. And one of the things I was like, OK, well, if I was doing it, I would just say I'm leading with humility and I've been praying and fasting for these people. there's, you know, and if there's I've been praying that they come to the truth or maybe it's me who needs to come to the truth. Because a lot of times
Marcus Hart (41:31.826)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (41:33.602)
If God doesn't change them, maybe he's trying to change something in us. if we see leaders or we see celebrities or see musicians that are acting a fool, and there many that are, and maybe God's trying to say, don't point out them acting a fool. Maybe I want your heart to become softer. Do you realize that I shed my blood for those people just as much as you? I put out my arms on that sin-soaked cross for them too, that I love them.
Marcus Hart (41:38.056)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (42:03.031)
I love them. I love them. I sent my son for them and to ultimately see these people not in dehumanized ways. So I think that's how we see them oftentimes. Again, that's again what I've noticed because I've worked with lots of presidents or celebrities by the grace of God and people don't see them as human. They just see them as caricatures. But whether
Marcus Hart (42:26.493)
Yeah.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (42:28.591)
We criticize and judge them and say all sorts of negative things against them or whether it's somebody who's literally in our lives, it's still the same judgment. And it's not the proper way to live. We live in a society that is full of so much offense. And it said in the end that there would be so much offense that would come and people would walk away because they're so easily defended. Men and women of God should not be offendable. And in our flesh and our nature, it's okay, but not in the spirit.
Marcus Hart (42:37.658)
It is.
Marcus Hart (42:45.854)
Thanks.
Marcus Hart (42:51.569)
Yeah.
.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (42:58.542)
And so how do we do that? We just stay connected to that vine. We stay connected to prayer and we say, you know what? And again, I felt this all the time. I'm trying though, where I'm going to try not to just criticize and label and judge those who disagree with me or who are different from me. And it's all around because here's the thing. You can build a huge YouTube platform by blasting people. You can build a career by taking people down on cable news. You can build a political empire.
Marcus Hart (43:23.001)
Okay.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (43:28.491)
by assaulting the other side, and countless people do, but that is not the way of Christ. It broadens the way that leads to hell, that leads to the separation of the practices of God, and narrows the way that leads to Christ and leads to life.
Marcus Hart (43:45.918)
And said, that's beautiful. we could also buy a big billboard that says, you without sin cast first stone to go along with that. Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to either. I moved so far away from that. And thank you so much. So as we land this plane, let's recap just three major things that we got out of this, just owning it.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (43:52.723)
Right? I don't want to do it.
Marcus Hart (44:15.838)
lead it and build it, know, build it with love and those who are diverse and just so cool that, you know, all matter in some way, shape or form to keep you faith first. So like Rob, with that all being said, is there anything else you'd to put out there, you know, to give us a finale on a beautiful conversation? I got to tell you, man, you know, this is one of my best.
episodes this year, probably the best.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (44:45.342)
Well, thank you. I appreciate it. I would just say that there's one word we should really be thinking about and that's trust. Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him. For He is good. He has good plans for you. Plans to prosper and give you a hope and to give you a future. Trust Him. He is going.
to make a way for you in the wilderness, trust Him. He's going to open that door for you. Trust Him. He's going to give you the peace that you need. Trust Him. He's going to open up that relational door. Trust Him. He's going to bring that reconciliation. Trust Him. He's going to do it. It may not be right now. It may not be tomorrow. It may not be next week. Eventually, it's going to do it. Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him. I would just say trust Him. That trust is so foundational. And you'll put a huge smile on His face.
Marcus Hart (45:35.09)
Yes.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (45:37.189)
as you learn to lean in, to trust Him more, that you get manifested in His presence. And when we have the presence of God, because of that trust, nothing else literally matters. We can walk through the day with smiles on our faces. We can walk through the day beaming with joy, because we know that there is somebody who is not only greater than our circumstances, He's greater
Marcus Hart (45:37.957)
Hmm.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (46:02.043)
than any criticism we get. He's greater than any failure we've had. He's greater than the people honking the horns at us. He's greater than all the social media trash. He's greater than all the nonsense we in political news. He's greater than all of these things. Trust him. He is reality. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the beginning and the end. He is your creator and my creator. Trust him.
Marcus Hart (46:15.912)
Yes.
Marcus Hart (46:30.078)
You know, Rob, you are truly a faith first living legend. And I thank you today for dropping so many true bonds.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (46:38.373)
No, I really appreciate it. This has been so much fun. And it's funny because I very rarely get platforms, especially working at UCLA to be able to do this. So I really appreciate you, Marcus. I appreciate your love of the Lord. I appreciate your love of creativity. I appreciate your love of transforming people and blending those things because they're typically in such different silos. You have so many people, for example, who are on the transformation journey and they don't want to talk about God because it's too scary or they'll lose money or so many people who are on the faith journey.
Marcus Hart (46:47.352)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (47:02.864)
And there.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (47:08.143)
They don't understand creativity and they don't understand these types of things and how important it is to God and how important it is to so many people. And I just love how you mix it all together to create that holistic vision for holistic people. So thank you for this opportunity and this experience.
Marcus Hart (47:26.27)
Oh, yeah. Thank you, man, you know, for acknowledging that. I'll be honest, completely gone with you. Like, I had to truly transform myself to get to this point where I'm in right now, where I fully embrace, you know, having conversations about God and Jesus on my platform. I stand it up that way. But then at some point, you know, I slipped into that that that mindset he was talking about, you know, when you were 19 and and through a little bit a partial 20s where
where I thought like, oh, okay, I got to please to a certain audience. So, you know, I'm going have to remove some part of my Christianity from conversation and kind of like balance this new age stuff with my faith. And it was definitely like not working, not working for my soul and not working for my relationship with God. And God woke me up and, you he told me like, hey, know, this is religious cynicism.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (48:14.082)
Hmm.
Marcus Hart (48:25.174)
rather you look at it or not, you have to choose. So draw the line and choose. So that's, like, thank you for acknowledging that. And that's my testimony about all of it.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (48:31.647)
Dr. Rob Carpenter (48:37.676)
No, I love it. I love it. Well, God bless you brother. I appreciate this. This has been so much fun. Glad we were able to connect. It's been real joy and hope you can again in the future.
Marcus Hart (48:41.854)
Yeah, we... yeah, we'll stay connected brother, you know, so this won't be the last time we connect here. I'm gonna bug you after this. Okay, so like to my listeners out there and also those who watch on YouTube, I want you to share this with whoever is burned out in your life and if you are the one burned out, I want you to drop in the comments right now and say...
Dr. Rob Carpenter (48:54.407)
No, I appreciate it. No, this is fun.
Marcus Hart (49:11.76)
Rob woke me up, you know, hit the subscribe button, make sure you like and share, share, share. Don't forget to grab some of the tools that I always posted in the episode link and there will also be a way to connect with Rob. Rob, is there a way to connect with you?
Dr. Rob Carpenter (49:27.264)
Yeah, absolutely. So I'm pretty accessible through LinkedIn and it's just linkedin.com slash dr. Rob Carpenter or I think it's dr. Rob, but you can kind of see me in there. I have an email up on the UCLA website as well and just type in my name and UCLA and got the email there and those are the easiest ways to connect to me. Also robcarpenter.org is another way you can reach me that way as well. So whether you want to inbox me on LinkedIn or reach out to email or go to the website, those are.
Marcus Hart (49:32.177)
Yeah.
Marcus Hart (49:36.028)
that.
Dr. Rob Carpenter (49:56.254)
some easy ways to get in touch.
Marcus Hart (49:59.422)
And we'll make sure we have both of those links to the LinkedIn and also to your website in the episode description for those who are joining us today and also want to get like dig up more and more on you and maybe ask some questions that may be burning for them. So thank you guys again for joining us and thank you Rob for joining us. Until next time, many blessings and peace. My warriors out there.
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