Hey Makers,

Do you want an unshakeable, purposeful life?

Me too.

I thought I would do something a little different in today’s newsletter. I want to share a small section from the book Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller, along with a few of my own thoughts as I digested these words.

Nothing within this world is sufficient basis for a meaningful life here. If we base our lives on work and achievement, on love and pleasure, or on knowledge and learning, our existence becomes anxious and fragile — because circumstances in life are always threatening the very foundation of our lives, and death inevitably strips us of everything we hold dear. Ecclesiastes is an argument that existential dependence on a gracious Creator God — not only abstract belief — is a precondition for an unshakeable, purposeful life.

- Timothy Keller

“Dependence” has been a theme for me this past year, and it is the crucial word in the last sentence.

If I’m honest, here are a few of the things I tend to believe will give me a meaningful life:

Work achievements
A good family
Growing impact and influence

These aren’t “bad” things, but apart from dependence on God, these things cannot give my life meaning.

Sometimes, I’m not convinced that this is true, but then I see people who have these things throwing their lives away. I wonder if we are tempted to start over at 40, even though we seemingly have so many good things because we’re frustrated by how meaningless it all is.

Several years ago, I wrote and released a song about this btw.

We believe we can have a good life with a little bit of God, like seasoning on the real meat and substance of our lives. But until God is the meat, our lives will feel hollow no matter how much we fill them.

This is (for me) a high-school throwback - these Switchfoot lyrics always hit deep:

“This is your life. Are you who you want to be?”

There is only one real path to deep soul satisfaction. There is only one way to sigh with relief at the end of my earthly life and feel contented that my life was worthwhile.

It won’t be that my kids are grown, healthy, and doing well. It won’t be that I achieved a degree of success. It won’t be that I faithfully served in my church. It won’t be that I was a good friend. And it won’t be that I created my “magnum opus.”

These good things are empty apart from dependence on God through Christ.

Dependence on God doesn’t belittle my life; it expands it and dignifies it. Dependence on God is what infuses significant meaning into every moment of my life.

To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, I’m made to run on God. That’s how I was designed. If my life is not running on God, then I’m not operating as I was designed to. I’m not fulfilling the purpose for which I was made. I’m out of sync with myself.

Dependence on God is what my whole being craves. The madness is that, because of sin, dependence on God is also what I reject.

Here are two practical takeaways as I reflect on dependence.

1. How can I lean into dependence?

The best way I know to lean into dependence is prayer.

When I’m awake to my dependence on God, prayer is elevated from the ground floor of a nice “Christian” thing to do to the height of sustenance because prayer provides a way to live with a greater awareness of God.

If my very life depends on Him, how can I not pray? Even non-believers cry out to God in overwhelming and life-threatening situations.

If I want good things in life, like a good family life, increased impact and influence, and fruitfulness in my work, it’s important for me to remember that any true ‘good’ in these things comes from God.

Prayer functions as a sigh of gratitude and a way to ask God to give me the truest good found in these things.

2. It’s okay to be “all in.”

Jackie Hill Perry posted this excellent TikTok recently about being “extra” when it comes to loving God.

There is this idea floating around that we can be “so heavenly-minded that we’re no earthly good.”

I don’t believe that. I believe that true and radical dependence on God will increase and expand our earthly capabilities, impact, potential, and contentment.

By that, I’m not saying we will get everything we want. We’ve already seen that getting everything we desire doesn’t equal gaining the deep meaning and satisfaction we crave (this is basically what the book of Ecclesiastes is telling us).

There is no way to go overboard in our dependence on God.

What we lose by putting all our chips in His basket are false gods full of promise with no substance. Leaning into our dependence on God is not crazy. It’s the sanest thing we could do.

I want to see you thrive

I decided to write about dependence in today’s newsletter because I want to see artists, creatives, entrepreneurs, and makers thrive. We cannot thrive apart from dependence on God.

I believe a deep and satisfying dependence on God can unlock buried potential in you, fellow makers.

When God is everything to us, and we have Him, what do we have to lose? Who do we have to fear? What greater significance is there to earn?

Dependence on God sets us free to give all we have as we boldly make new things.

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THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG

4 tips to get unstuck

Last week, I was creatively stuck.

Every Friday, I send out a newsletter, but by last Wednesday morning, I hadn’t written anything because it was a busy week spent completing other projects.

That morning, the only task on my to-do list was “write the newsletter.”

But what did I do?

I decided to read a book for 45 minutes and then spend an hour on social media and YouTube.

In the throes of procrastination, I did whatever I could to avoid writing.

By 10:30 am, with no work done, I decided I needed to procrastinate a bit more, so I went on a walk.

During the walk, I finally sorted through what was going on in me and discovered where I was getting bottlenecked in my creative process.

If you find yourself creatively stuck or procrastinating on a project, this past week I posted a new blog with four insights and tips I'm learning about human nature and the creative process. Hope it's helpful to you.

READ THE BLOG

Quote of the Week

"What were the builders of the tower doing their work for? What are most of today’s ambitious workers doing their work for? …It was to maximize their power, glory, and autonomy. Yet even this boast reveals their radical insecurity. They built the city to “make a name for themselves” through their accomplishments — but if we lack a name, it means we don’t know who we are. “To make a name” in the language of the Bible is to construct an identity for ourselves. We either get our name — our defining essence, security, worth, and uniqueness — from what God has done for us and in us, or we make a name through what we can do for ourselves."

Timothy Keller

One of the many reasons why I'm thankful to be a Christian is that I get to work FROM my name and not FOR my name.

I can't tell you how incredibly freeing and motivating that is.

Things Worth Sharing

Taylor Swift drops truth bombs - It doesn't matter if you like T-Swift or not, it's undeniable that she is incredibly successful. When it comes to big stars, we're tempted to think they just got discovered or had one big hit, and their lives were MADE. But if we listen, we'll hear what it actually takes to make a living from creative work.
Maybe pretend to be Batman?