faith Archives | Laughing Over Tomorrow

Christian Entrepreneur, natural birth, Success in Jesus

Count It All Joy Sounds Impossible Until You See What the Hard Part Is Building.

We talk about labor a lot in the world of building a business and a life. The labor of showing up consistently. The labor of doing the work when you don’t feel like it. The labor of building something from scratch, of managing a team, of raising kids and running a home and still finding time to grow. That kind of labor gets talked about. It gets celebrated. And it should. But there’s another kind of labor I don’t think we talk about nearly enough. The Labor That Happens in You Think about childbirth for a second. Not as a metaphor you’ve heard a hundred times, but as a real, physical reality. Labor in childbirth is not productive in the way we typically define productive. You’re not checking things off a list. You’re not making progress you can measure from the outside. You are going through something that is hard, and relentless, and asks everything of you, and there is no shortcut through it. And yet. Something is coming. That is the kind of labor I want to talk about today. The labor that is happening in you, not just around you. The kind that’s forming something, producing something, building…

Christian Entrepreneur, Success in Jesus

What Happens When You Show Up With No Agenda (And Why God Loves That the Most)

I want to tell you about a farm. Not in a metaphorical way. An actual farm, the kind that still actually farms, with wide open land and a quiet that sits differently than the quiet you find at home. I was there for a gathering and I showed up with something I don’t always carry into a room. No agenda. No outcome I was chasing. No ROI I was measuring in the back of my mind. Just me, settling back, and asking the Lord to show me what He was going to do. Why Letting Go of ROI Is So Hard I talk about ROI a lot. Return on investment. What we get back for what we put in. As an entrepreneur, as someone who loves strategy and building and seeing things move, I’m very familiar with going into a room and quietly calculating what this is going to produce. And honestly I don’t think that’s always wrong. Intention matters. Clarity matters. Knowing why you’re in a room matters. But here’s what I’ve found to be true over and over again. Our definition of what a return is supposed to look like is almost always too small. Too flat. Too…

Christian Entrepreneur, Success in Jesus

Becoming Like Jesus Doesn’t Erase Who You Are. It Actually Reveals It.

I want to address something I’ve heard come up more than once, and maybe you’ve thought it too. If we’re all becoming like Jesus, does that mean we all end up the same? Does growing into the image of God slowly flatten out everything that makes you distinctly you? Does sanctification produce one kind of person? I want to sit with that question for a second because I actually think it points to something really important, and the answer is one of the most beautiful things I’ve come to understand about who God is. There Is a Standard. And It’s Him. Yes, there is a quality, a level of righteousness, a standard of goodness and kindness and love that every believer is moving toward. That standard is not abstract. It is a Person. It’s God Himself. God is love, and everything we’re becoming is rooted in that. As we grow into imitators of God, as Paul calls us to be in Ephesians 5, we are all rising toward the same character. The same fruits. The same spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. And here is what I find so merciful and so holy…

Christian Entrepreneur, Success in Jesus

The Holy Tension Every Christian Entrepreneur Feels (And Why It’s Actually a Gift)

There’s a tension I live with as a spirit-filled entrepreneur, and it shows up far more often than I’d like to admit. I’ll be moving through my work, building, creating, showing up, and out of nowhere I find myself stopping to ask the Lord some pretty hard questions. Are my motives laid down? Am I doing this for my own gain? Is this about putting myself in the limelight, or is it about love? Is it about loving others? Is what I’m doing right now motivated by fear, or is it actually led by God? I used to think that constant inner questioning was a problem. Almost like a kind of turmoil I needed to fix or push past so I could finally feel confident in what I was building. I think a lot of people would look at that wrestling and assume something’s wrong. That if you really trusted God, you wouldn’t have to keep asking. But here’s what I’ve come to believe instead. That inner struggle, that holy tension, is actually what keeps you whole. It keeps you holy. It’s Not About Earning Your Righteousness Here’s the truth I keep coming back to. No amount of inner judgment,…

Success in Jesus

The Striving Leaves Me Empty

It always happens this way. I find myself, at the end of myself, and realize…I ran out. How long was I running? When did I stop leaning into Jesus? What motivated me to do it in my own strength? What fear overtook me and forced me into this corner of striving? What hurt or trauma enticed me to control? Have you ever found yourself in this place? Have you found yourself in that moment where you recognize that you’re not operating in His strength anymore? Not operating in His grace, or freedom, or rest, or trust? You realize that you’re completely in your flesh, and as you take a moment, you get stuck trying to remember where you crossed the line. Let’s troubleshoot. How do we backtrack and resolve what’s happening? But, even better, how do we manage or monitor the engagement of our hearts and our whole selves to ensure that we aren’t leaving our Friend behind? If we’re leaving Him behind, we’re leaving ourselves behind. It’s like this ghostly picture of us is running ahead, and the real us is at rest in Jesus 10 feet back. The version of us that we thought was ok and moving…

natural birth

Getting Ready for Childbirth

I get it. The most overwhelming part about being a first-time mom and getting ready for childbirth is that there is SO much to learn. The most important thing to remember is that it’s okay to not know everything. You will never be FULLY prepared. You don’t have to be, but…your heart can be prepared. In fact, your heart should be prepared, and that is the most important thing to learn regarding childbirth. That might not mean you’re completely at rest, but it does mean that you’re working towards it. When you take the time to settle your heart in truth, get rid of anxiety and face your fears (which are most likely lies, fear is just a lie…), your heart will be prepared for childbirth. Then, your mind and body will follow. When I began the journey of preparing my heart, I had two vitally important resources that I want to share with you: First, Childbirth without Fear written by Grantly Dick Read. (You can click on my affiliate link to purchase on Amazon. If you’re going to have a baby, it should be the first item you purchase.) In the beginning of the book, his experience and knowledge…

Success in Jesus

Surprises from God

I was in the prayer room during worship and I had another one of those moments that cannot be described. I love these moments. I was singing about believing the Lord for all we have, all He’s promised. And the verse coming to the surface of my heart was this: Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her! Luke 1:45 So we began to sing, “Oh, I have believed and now I will see the goodness of the Lord.” As we did, it lifted up as a prayer of faith. And as we sang I knew that it would ring into the air, into the hearts and bring freedom for faith and pave the way for promises. A release was coming. And it did. In my heart, I saw myself in the mansion of the Father. His great big house, with full rooms, full tables, gifts and abundance for me. In my heart, I saw the warfare of my life manifesting promises, the goodness of the Father and His faithfulness laying out gifts, and the destiny and righteousness that I fought for…being affirmed by the King. A great big house, with everything I…

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Laughing Over Tomorrow

Tag: faith

Count It All Joy Sounds Impossible Until You See What the Hard Part Is Building.

What Happens When You Show Up With No Agenda (And Why God Loves That the Most)

Becoming Like Jesus Doesn’t Erase Who You Are. It Actually Reveals It.

The Holy Tension Every Christian Entrepreneur Feels (And Why It’s Actually a Gift)

The Striving Leaves Me Empty

Getting Ready for Childbirth

Surprises from God