Fall Back

Let's be honest with each other for a minute. It's hard right now for a lot of people.

Business is tough. Life is expensive. Groceries, insurance, gas, tuition, the monthly bills that never seem to shrink. There's uncertainty in the headlines and fear in a lot of conversations. I feel it too. Some mornings I sit quietly carrying more than I'd like to admit.

This morning, I opened a small leadership devotional I read each day and landed on a page I'd apparently underlined a long time ago. At the bottom, in my own handwriting, was a note I'd forgotten I ever wrote: "Stay focused on a righteous goal."

Sometimes the encouragement you need comes from a version of yourself who wrote it down before the storm.

When the Great Depression hit, towns across America watched factories go quiet and paychecks disappear. In Pennsylvania, Milton Hershey made a different call. Instead of pulling back and bracing for impact, he started building. A hotel. A community building. A sports arena. New facilities for the school he'd founded. Those projects kept hundreds of local men working through years when work was nearly impossible to find.

Hershey didn't ignore the hard times. He just refused to let fear decide who he was. He fell back on what he already believed, that a business exists to serve people, and in doing so he steadied an entire town.

That's what convictions do. They hold when circumstances don't.

Solomon understood this. In Proverbs he didn't say, "Figure out the economy." He said go back to the basics.

"Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Avoid all perverse talk...Look straight ahead...Mark out a straight path for your feet...Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil." (Proverbs 4: 23-27) 

Guard your heart. Keep your eyes forward. Watch your mouth. Watch your steps. Don't drift.

Principles like these do three things for us: they guide us down the right path, they guard our hearts, and they give us a gauge to honestly measure where we are. In a shifting season, that's exactly what we need.

And here's what isn't uncertain: God loves you. He cares deeply about your present and your future. Nothing about this season has caught Him off guard.

So when things get hard, don't go looking for something new. Go back to what you already know. For us, that's six core convictions:

• Serve others without exception.
• Be the hardest working person in the room.
• Be the expert.
• Leave people better for the encounter.
• Do the next right thing.
• Mornings matter. Take care of yourself.

None of those are new. None of them are flashy. That's the point.

Seasons like this come with plenty of temptations to turn to the right or the left. Gimmicks promising a shortcut. Fear spreading faster than facts. Shiny things pulling our eyes off the road. Don't chase any of it.

Instead, show up. Have the knowledge. Serve others. Bring the energy. Do what's right. Know what the market is asking for, and deliver it. And keep your focus on the team, not on yourself.

People are watching how we carry ourselves right now. Clients. Coworkers. Neighbors. The kids at our kitchen tables. Most of them don't need us to have every answer. They need someone steady. Someone who shows up the same way on a hard Tuesday as on a good one. We encourage people best not by pretending it's easy, but by standing firmly on what doesn't move. Fall back of your convictions and lead others along the way.

Lord, it's hard right now, and You already know that. Thank You that Your love for us isn't subject to markets or headlines. Guard our hearts from fear. Keep our eyes straight ahead. Help us fall back on what we know to be true, and show up in our work, our homes, and our communities in a way that steadies and encourages the people around us. Help us serve, work hard, and do the next right thing, not for our own sake, but for Yours and for the people You've put in our path. Amen.