jesus Archives | Laughing Over Tomorrow

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

Patience Isn’t What Happens After the Wait. It’s What Happens Inside It.

I was at the park this morning praying, and my mind kept circling back to one thing. Patience. We talk about patience a lot as believers. It shows up on every list of the fruit of the Spirit, and most of us have prayed for more of it at some point. But I think we forget what patience actually requires of us. It’s not something God just hands you one day. It’s something He produces in you, slowly, while you’re still in the middle of the hard thing. Still waiting on the answer. Still waiting on the shift that hasn’t come yet. What “Do Not Grow Weary” Really Means There’s a verse that tells us not to grow weary in doing good, because in due season we’ll reap a harvest if we don’t give up. For a long time I think I read that as a verse about endurance alone. Just keep going. Don’t quit. But I’ve come to believe it’s deeper than that. I think it’s actually telling us this. When you’re in the middle of your stress, your pain, your trial, God is perfecting your faith right there. He’s producing patience in you while everything around you stays…

natural birth

The Birth of Eden

I have so much to say. Birth is such a gift. Like actual childbirth, is a gift. I knew this was true before I ever gave birth, but after Jonah’s birth, I experienced that it was true. I literally felt the presence of Jesus and had a revelation of childbirth as a praise offering to the God of all creation. I’ve experienced the presence of God many times in my life in different ways, but I’ve never felt such an extravagant worship offering as the labor of birth. Your body, your whole being, is creating, forming and birthing life through the power of Life Himself. When you think of it in that respect, no wonder birth gets a bad wrap. No wonder so many women experience trauma, pain, suffering and the curse of childbirth. I’m not going to get too deep in theology here, but I don’t believe that childbirth was ever supposed to be a curse of pain for women. It was intended to be a labor for women, just as men were to labor for food on the ground. Labor is simply work. But even beyond that, Jesus took the curse of it all in his labor of…

natural birth

The Birth of Jonah

Introduction First, I have to ask myself: why am I sharing my natural birth story? I’m sharing my birth story because after the research I did, the current condition of our culture, and the experience I had, I thought it was necessary. Necessary first, for myself on a personal level. I will always be able to reflect on each detail, and if and when I prepare for birth again, I’ll have encouragement for myself from experience. Also, necessary for others on a personal level. So many women experience childbirth. The question is how? Under what circumstances? Not just emotionally, but also physically. In the past, there was only one way to physically birth a baby. The way women were designed, naturally and vaginally. Today, there are many variations on the how. Medications, inductions, c-sections, etc. Thank heavens for the advancements of science and the time and place to use them. But that’s not what I want to spend my time writing about in my natural birth story. Women need to know that birth is normal. Our bodies were made for this. In fact, it doesn’t have to be painful. Yeah, it can be painful, but it doesn’t have to be….

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Laughing Over Tomorrow

Tag: jesus

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.

Patience Isn’t What Happens After the Wait. It’s What Happens Inside It.

The Birth of Eden

The Birth of Jonah