OCTOBER 30, 2026

  “A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing.” 

― Albert Einstein

JEREMIAH 27-28

 6Now I will give all your countries into the hands of my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; I will make even the wild animals subject to him. 7All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes; then many nations and great kings will subjugate him.

8“ ‘ “If, however, any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon or bow its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation with the sword, famine and plague, declares the Lord, until I destroy it by his hand. (27:8)

2 TIMOTHY 4

1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

JOURNAL 

Reading Jeremiah 27–28 reminds me just how little I truly understand about the ways of God. Nebuchadnezzar was a ruthless, power-hungry king, yet God called him His servant and used him to accomplish His purposes. By human standards, this makes little sense. We want to believe that righteousness produces prosperity, obedience guarantees favorable outcomes, and success is evidence of God's blessing. But Scripture continually challenges these assumptions. God is not bound by my understanding of success, nor does He exist to fulfill my expectations. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to truly knowing God is my persistent desire to make Him fit within a narrative I can understand and control.

This connects directly to what I have been wrestling with lately about achievement, purpose, and the pursuit of a meaningful life. For so long, I have attached significance to outcomes—to what I might accomplish, build, earn, or become. Even when those ambitions are rooted in a desire to do good, they can quietly become another attempt to control my future and establish my worth. But yesterday's conversation helped clarify something important: the real joy is not found in arriving at some extraordinary destination, but in the daily pursuit of becoming the person God created me to be. There is tremendous freedom in that realization. I can pursue great things with all my heart without needing those things to validate my life.

Paul's words in 2 Timothy 4 reinforce this beautifully. Be prepared in season and out of season. Endure hardship. Keep your head. Fulfill your responsibilities. There is nothing here about guaranteeing results or achieving worldly recognition. It is a call to faithfulness in the ordinary responsibilities of each day. This is the essence of Deserve Victory. I cannot command the outcome, but I can devote myself completely to the process. I can teach with excellence, coach with intention, love my family, build meaningful things, and pursue opportunities with enthusiasm and discipline. Not because these efforts guarantee some future reward, but because there is intrinsic joy and meaning in doing them well.

And perhaps this is what it means to offer myself as a living sacrifice, as Paul describes in Romans 12. It is not merely surrendering my ambitions, but surrendering my need to control what comes from them. It is allowing God to transform the very way I understand success. I do not have to abandon the extraordinary possibilities I envision for my life. I simply need to stop making their realization the condition of my peace, satisfaction, or happiness. The pursuit itself can become an expression of worship when it is grounded in love, guided by discipline, and surrendered to God.

Ultimately, the question is not whether I will achieve everything I imagine, but how I will show up today regardless of what comes of it. Am I running toward God or toward the security I believe an accomplishment might provide? Am I working out of love and the joy of becoming, or out of fear that I will somehow fall short? I want to become so immersed in the privilege of living, loving, learning, creating, and serving that the outcome loses its grip on me. To find genuine satisfaction in the work itself, knowing that ordinary days lived with extraordinary intention become a remarkable life. I do not need to know what God is building through me. I need only to be faithful with what He has placed before me today.

1Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

ROMANS 13:1-2