This episode of the Nourish The Dream Podcast features special guest Justin DeStoppelaire, CEO & Founder of C Service Consulting, Inc.

Justin provides insight into what we need to do to operate our businesses in this new season. The conversation ranges from the economy to Google and includes valuable information on how to adapt.

 

 Nourish The Dream Podcast with special guest: Justin DeStoppelaire - Nov 7 2008 [42:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hosted by David G. Johnson, founder of Nourish The Dream

If you want to connect with Justin, here’s the survey he mentioned.

It always happens in an election year — some kind of upheaval. But this year it really seems to have teeth. Banks failing, huge drops (and gains) in the stock market, businesses closing, layoffs, etc.

As believers, how do we respond?

I’ve spent a lot of time studying this subject this year. With ups and downs in my own business and perhaps more personal financial pressure than ever, a serious question emerges:

Does what we believe have the ability to produce what we need?

Notice the question does not address the One in Whom we believe. His character, His love, His ability and His goodness aren’t even remotely in question.

But what I’ve learned is that it matters what we believe about Him.

If, for example, I don’t believe that His help is available — whether it’s because I’m unaware of it or because I haven’t built up trust in Him through relationship and experiential knowledge — then I won’t seek it out. If I do seek it out, I might choose not to do what He leads me to do.

And guess what? That means that I don’t get the result that He promised. It’s that simple.

In today’s Proverb is this verse that caught my eye:

“Every word of God is tried and purified; He is a shield to those who trust and take refuge in Him.”
(Proverbs 30:5 AMP)

With the storms of economic bad news raging around us, it’s time to “trust and take refuge in Him.” You may be surrounded with wreckage in the midst of this economic storm. You may have even taken some personal blows in your business or your family. But now’s not the time to leave the battlefield. It’s time to surround yourself with the shield and take refuge in it.

It occurs to me that shields are unnecessary if you’re not getting fired upon or attacked.

More on this in the days ahead.

Your thoughts?

Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.
(Proverbs 16:3 AMP)

Last time, we talked about anxiety, stress, and a foreboding that can sometimes overtake our hearts and leave us flustered. As I said, that had happened to me.

In reality, it hadn’t “happened to me.” I had permitted it. This is what we must begin to comprehend. We have in our lives what we permit to exist. In my case, I needed to take some aggressive action — which I did — in order to banish anxiety and worry from my mind and heart.

What’s unfortunate is that these kinds of things have a way of becoming self-fulfilling prophecies. When our minds are occupied with the possibility of a negative outcome, then our creativity becomes hampered, our vision becomes less clear, our focus becomes diverted, and we miss opportunities.

But the Scriptures make it clear that we are in charge of our minds. And in fact, the passage I quoted above from Proverbs gives us one way to handle foreboding thoughts. The picture is of a beast of burden which is carrying a load. In fact, when a camel is “loaded up” with its burden, it kneels down and the load is quite literally “rolled” onto its back. This would’ve been a familiar word picture in the time of David and Solomon.

Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass.
(Psalms 37:5 AMP)

The thing of it is… when a load is “rolled” onto the camel’s back, there’s absolutely no way for anyone or anything else to carry the weight of that burden.

Yes… what God is saying to us is that we have not been built to handle the mental and emotional stress that we try — particularly in today’s society — to carry. We must roll the load off onto Him and refuse to take the weight of it back upon ourselves.

I won’t kid you. This is a discipline. It takes diligent, attentive effort to ensure that we are not burdened down in this manner. But this is a form of trusting God — not a passive, nonchalant, “Oh well…,” kind of trust.  Instead, it is an active trust. It is an engaged trust. It is an expectant reliance upon Him.

This brings up the tension that exists between what I am to do and what God is to do. There’d be no way to cover that in this setting. However, suffice it to say that engaging God in this manner and actively looking to Him for guidance regarding what we are to do is key.  Too many times we take action out of fear and end up in trouble. The action that God would have us to take will many times be quite different than our instinctive reactions.

Either way… if you’re dealing with an inner storm today — particularly due to financial stress — it is time to decide what you will tolerate in your life… and what you will not. You’re in charge.  What will you do?

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” — Thomas Paine, The Crisis

Anxiety. Worry. Concern. Fear.

All too often, these are the “norm” in times of crisis. Perhaps even worse, they are the norm in times of perceived crisis.

Regardless of whether you’re facing a very real and authentic crisis right now, we live in an environment in which the talk of financial difficulty and stress is all around us.  Terms like, “economic downturn,” “slowdown,” and, “recession,” can be found on the pages of nearly every newspaper and fill the teleprompters of the news media.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve let it affect me this year.  It “dawned” on me this morning that for some time now — days, possibly weeks or even months — there’s been an overarching sense of impending doom that has hovered over my mind and heart.

Why?  I’m not really sure.  But the notion that somehow everything could unravel and leave us (my family and me) “exposed to the elements” of financial disaster has somehow become a daily companion of mine.

It’s a subtle thing.  We’ve watched as a neighbor family packed up all of their stuff and moved out of their house, turning it over to the bank with no warning. We’ve seen other homes in our community go into foreclosure. We hear stories of industries that are suffering and men and women who go scrambling to find work.  Initially, it never even crossed my mind that we could be affected by it.  But somewhere along the way a creeping fear made its way into my mind.  Had it shown up all in one day, I’d have recognized that it wasn’t from me and wouldn’t have tolerated it.  But, like the proverbial frog in the kettle, my thought life has gradually accepted this growing anxiety.

It occurred to me that this was the case today when I read these words:

“The reverent, worshipful fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it rests satisfied; he cannot be visited with [actual] evil.” (Proverbs 19:23 AMP)

Reading, “…he who has it rests satisfied,” I felt like a drop of cool water had landed on my parched tongue.

“Resting” and “satisfied” both seemed so far from my current reality that it really made me stop and think.  I’ve re-read this verse any number of times since then, and I’ve decided that it’s time to calm the inner storm. When the disciples awakened Jesus in the boat during the raging storm, he let everyone know — including the natural environment — what He was going to tolerate.

Since He’s not here (at least in the physical sense), it must be my job (like the disciples whom He rebuked — apparently for not taking charge of the situation themselves) to deal with this storm.  And so, that’s exactly what I’ve done.  And you can, too.

More on this next time…

Check out Michael Pink’s comments today on the recession of 2008. I can’t tell you how strongly I feel about the notion that it is time to get out of debt. In fact, some recent interviews with people who have tremendous expertise in banking and law have led me to believe that this message isn’t only a passing spiritual fad.

My wife and I became strongly convicted about this several months ago, and I’ve shared the conviction in just a handful of conversations. But each time I do, I’m amazed at the responses I get — others not only feel the same way but are hearing it from a variety of sources.

What’s interesting is that we’re changing our level of expectation. We’re not just talking about paying down some consumer debt that accumulated. We’re talking about eliminating business debt, paying off the one car note we have, and even getting rid of the mortgage. We’ve shifted into “aggressive mode” and we are looking to have all of this done in just a few months — even if that means selling the house rather than paying off the mortgage. That’s how urgent we feel these instructions are, at least for us personally.

Recently, a friend of mine pointed out that in any market transition, fortunes are won and lost. In times of shift, opportunities emerge that simply cannot exist when the status quo predominates. Right now is a time to re-evaluate your business — and even those dormant ideas — and see if there isn’t a unique opportunity to deliver value or otherwise benefit from the changing conditions.

For who is God except the Lord? … He teaches my hands to war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. (Psalms 18:31,34)

We’re pressing in to Him right now to receive ways to do what would’ve seemed impossible a few months ago. How about you?