SEPTEMBER 24, 2026

 “Decision-making based on emotional intuition, without the aid of reason to keep it in line, pretty much always sucks. You know who bases their entire lives on their emotions? Three-year-old kids. And dogs. You know what else three-year-olds and dogs do? Shit on the carpet.” 

― Mark Manson

ISAIAH 1-3

17Learn to do right; seek justice.

Defend the oppressed.^a

Take up the cause of the fatherless;

plead the case of the widow. (1:17)

GALATIANS 2

 20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”^e

JOURNAL 

Leadership is not about eliminating stress, difficulty, or uncertainty. Maybe I have been thinking about that backwards. The objective of life is not to arrange circumstances so that I am never overwhelmed. The objective is to become so in tune with God that I can engage whatever comes in the way He designed me to.

A musical instrument does not become beautiful because the music is easy. In fact, the most demanding music often reveals what the instrument is capable of producing. But before any of that matters, the instrument must be in tune. An instrument that is out of tune cannot reveal its full beauty no matter how skillfully it is played. The problem is not the difficulty of the music. The problem is that the instrument is not properly aligned.

Maybe the same is true of me. When I am out of tune with God, I begin trying to control circumstances, avoid discomfort, manage outcomes, and follow whatever emotion happens to be loudest. Fear, frustration, pride, anxiety, and desire start determining how I respond. Mark Manson's point about emotions is important because emotions are real, but they were never intended to be the sole authority directing my life. I need something greater by which to tune them.

Paul writes, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." That changes the objective. Surrender is not losing myself. It is allowing God to tune me toward the person He created me to become. His Word, prayer, quiet, obedience, and the Spirit continually bring me back into alignment. They allow me to recognize when fear, emotion, ego, or habit has pulled me out of tune. Isaiah says, "Learn to do right; seek justice." Learning implies practice. Tuning is not something done once. An instrument must continually be brought back into tune, and so must I. That is why coming before God each morning matters. It is not simply a religious routine. It is recalibration. I am reminding myself who God is, who I am, what matters, and how I want to enter the day.

Perhaps the narrow road Jesus describes is not a life without difficulty at all. It is a life increasingly aligned with God in the middle of difficulty. I don't need every problem removed. I need the power, love, and self-discipline to meet the problem in front of me well. The hard things may even become the music through which God reveals what He has placed within me. So the question is not, "How can I make today easier?" It is, "Father, how can I become more in tune with You today?" Because when I am in tune with God, I can more fully become what He designed me to be and engage the life He has given me in a way that is good, beautiful, courageous, and life-giving.

Thank you, Father, for Your Word, Your Spirit, and another day. Tune my heart toward You. Let me stop asking You to remove every difficult note and instead surrender myself to Your hands so that my life can become the music You created it to make.

13“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

MATTHEW 7:13-14