You Can’t Do It

I’m sitting in Starbucks today for some work and writing before a meeting. This is where I wrote “Holy Hustle” and every time I sit in these incredibly uncomfortable wooden chairs, with their lack of leg room and phenomenally loud squealing noises as they move across the floor, I think of you.

I think of you because I wish you were here with me, having a coffee and talking about what God has called you to work on this year. I want to hear how He is transforming your understanding of success, and how you’ve seen Him show up in ways that surprise and delight you as you commit to serving instead of striving.

I wish I could hear what you’re struggling with and what your dreams are – not because I’m an expert in fixing things or making things happen, but because I would tell you that you can’t do it.

You can’t do it on your own. You can’t do it by striving, fixing, manipulating, avoiding, or trying to fit in. God has called you to do work for His kingdom, which means you are qualified because of Jesus, not because of anything you can bring to the table. It’s not the kind of encouragement you might expect to hear, but I have a feeling you’ve had plenty of people telling you that you can do it, just try harder, work later, say “yes” more often, ignore it, or be “more like her.”

Being more like the world will only make us less like Jesus.

Listen – we aren’t enough. I know it’s tempting to buy the super cute notebooks and planners at Target that tell us we are, but we’re not. We’re a bunch of work-in-progress, limited life-span, faulty, broken and put back together women who can truly do some incredible work for God – but not when we do it on our own.

We need Jesus. We need to trust Him as we wait, rely on Him to be our strength when we’ve done all we can, and believe that He will keep His promises in our lives when we don’t immediately see the results of our labor. We can’t continue to work with a “me first” attitude on Monday but claim that “I’m third” on Sundays. Putting God and others first one day a week doesn’t change the kingdom, our communities, or our homes.

Use those skills that you’ve been given, absolutely. Chase the dreams you know God has put on your heart. But if you’re looking at your agenda for this week planning how YOU are going to do it all, you can’t. We need God and we need others to help us, even though many of us tend to think that asking for help is showing weakness.

Guess what? We all need help sometimes. My daughter hates asking for help because she is determined to be independent and stubborn enough to stand by her decision regardless of how much time, energy, and emotion she wastes. How often do we stubbornly refuse to ask God or others for help with our dreams and our work? How much time, energy, and emotion could we save ourselves if we were willing to view success as an opportunity to work in community instead of standing under a spotlight on our own?

Assuming you haven’t thrown your coffee at me yet, I need you to know that I believe in you. I believe that God has called you to do something remarkable for Him and with Him right where you are. With every word I wrote for “Holy Hustle” I thought of you, because it’s for you. For every woman who reads these words and wonders if she has influence, if her work matters, or if she’s missing out. It’s for all of us to know how to come back to the sweet spot of holy hustle when we find ourselves on the extremes of striving or laziness.

You were created in the image of an endlessly creative God who worked and called it good and rested and called it holy. With Him, you can do anything.

Speaking of “Holy Hustle” be sure you’re signed up to receive emails from me because over the next few months I’ll be sending exclusive “sneak peeks” of the book cover, the interior (GAH! It’s AMAZING), launch team information, and maybe even some audio snippets of a few chapters. You, and all the ladies you know who resonate with this message are SO welcome here. Sign up here.