Unexpected Harvest

In many places, there is already a fall chill in the air.

Not here in Southern California.

For us, it has been one of the longest, hottest summers I can remember, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.

This endless heat can wear you out.

We are all praying for a reprieve. Give us a cool morning. Let me put on a sweater. Anything!

But all of this heat really got me thinking.

Sometimes life can feel exactly the same way.

Endless days and nights that feel like they will have no end.

• The relationship that is stuck.
• The job that is filled with stress.
• The financial pressure that seems like it will never end.
• The health problems that keep mounting.
• The prayers you have prayed over and over again without seeing anything change.

At first, you are hopeful.

You pray. You believe. You tell yourself this is temporary.

But then days become weeks. Weeks become months. Sometimes months become years.

And your hope begins to wane.

There is actually a verse for this:

Hope deferred.

I think most of us know exactly what that feels like.

And the truth is, sometimes it IS hard to keep hoping when life feels heavy and there is no solution in sight.

When Hope Is Deferred, Mind Your Mind

This is when you need to mind your mind the most.

This is when who and what you surround yourself with matters the most.

Are the people around you constantly confirming that everything is terrible? Or are there people in your life who will remind you of what is true when you are struggling to see it yourself?

I don’t mean pretending everything is wonderful when it isn’t.

I don’t believe in that.

But even when we cannot immediately change our circumstances, we can be intentional about what we allow those circumstances to do inside of us.

You are still in charge of YOU.

That is incredibly powerful.

But you can decide what you will do next.

• You can change what you consume.
• You can change the conversations you are having.
• You can change who you are surrounding yourself with.
• You can learn something new.
• You can ask for help.
• You can get into an environment that reminds you who you are.
• You can grow.

Sometimes the Harvest Isn’t What You Expected

Last month I wrote about harvest and what God has been showing me about seasons, change, and calling.

But I’ve continued thinking about harvest.

Because sometimes we have a very specific picture of what we think our harvest should look like.

Then God does something completely different.

What if the relationship struggle you’ve been walking through produces wisdom you didn’t have before?

What if the difficult business season produces a level of leadership in you that success never could have produced?

What if the season where you felt lonely taught you how to recognize healthy relationships?

What if the thing you desperately wanted God to change around you became the very thing He used to change something within you?

That doesn’t mean every painful circumstance was sent by God.

It means God is extraordinarily good at producing something from what we give Him.

Sometimes you don’t recognize the harvest because you are still looking for the thing you originally planted.

Look again.

Maybe something else has been growing.

Maybe the harvest isn’t what you expected.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.

You Can Change Your Atmosphere

This is one of the things I love most about Kingdom Alliance.

You can plug yourself right into one of our live academies and begin changing your atmosphere.

Think about that.

You could be having a terrible month. You could feel disconnected, discouraged, frustrated, or completely stuck.

And you can make one decision.

• Register for a class.
• Show up.
• Meet new people.
• Hear something you needed to hear.
• Be challenged.
• Have a conversation that gives you an entirely different perspective.
• And begin moving again.

What a blessing it is to know that you are in charge of YOU and that you can change your environment as quickly as making a decision to put yourself into a better one.

That is why Christian personal growth and faith-based community matter so much.

We were never designed to do everything alone.

And this October, I am especially excited about two opportunities available to you.

Relationship IQ: Transform the Way You See Your Relationships

First is Relationship IQ, our 9-week relationship academy.

If there is one area of life that can affect almost everything else, it is our relationships.

Relationship IQ will help you reframe the way you see relationships and give you new eyes to see the people in your life.

You will learn more about communication, emotional intelligence, relational patterns, personal responsibility, connection, and how you show up with other people.

And sometimes one new understanding changes everything.

If you’re not a member, this is a great time to join.

Don’t sit outside of something that could help you because you keep telling yourself you’ll do it later.

FREE Master Communicator Summit — October 27 & 28

The second opportunity is completely FREE.

How to Become a Master Communicator is a 2-day live summit designed to radically change the way you understand communication.

Communication affects almost everything.

And here is what fascinates me: we communicate every single day, yet very few people have ever actually been taught how to communicate well.

The Master Communicator Summit will help you understand how to communicate with different personalities, in different circumstances, and across different kinds of relationships.

Time Is Passing Anyway

Here is something I want you to consider.

Time is passing.

Right now.

Every second.

Whether you do something with it or not.

October will pass. Then November. Then December. And suddenly we will be standing at the beginning of another year.

What you do NOW will impact your future in dramatic ways.

So set aside the time for your own growth.

That’s the first step to any shift or change you want to make.

Do it anyway.

Because the results can be life-changing.

Your Unexpected Harvest May Already Be Growing

Maybe you are reading this in one of those seasons that feels like this California summer.

Long. Hot. Exhausting.

And you are wondering when something is finally going to change.

Don’t lose hope.

But also don’t spend the entire season staring at the thermometer waiting for the temperature to drop.

Your harvest may not look exactly like you thought it would.

It may simply be becoming a version of yourself that could not have existed without walking through the season that came before.

Don’t miss the harvest because it arrived differently than you expected.

And don’t underestimate what one decision to grow could produce in your life six months from now.