August 10, 2026

I have good news for y’all. Life is hard. I even have bad news for you. It gets worse. And you know what? Life was designed to be exactly like that. 

I know there are a bunch of good Christians out there who are eternally optimistic. For that we are blessed. But the worst news is Life is even harder on us! I try to walk that Christian life only to recognize that it is possible to visit happiness but impossible to stay there. You’ll find that Peace is a heck of a lot easier to maintain.  

This peace is the peace you know when you studied for a test and there is no way the teacher can throw you a curve ball. It is the confidence you feel when the sales meeting seems hopeless to a few but you know the character of the room. It is the feeling of going to bed exhausted because you spent your day doing what mattered. 

Peace.

Every one of those examples had pressure attached to it. Peace came from knowing the pressure had a purpose. 

Life gets worse, Mr. Tim? Absolutely, and the sooner you recognize that the happier you will be. (Smile emoji)

Stop Chasing Happiness. Chase Peace.

What is Peace? Peace is moving in harmony with God’s purpose for your life. Simple to say, but sometimes not easy to do. If that language is foreign to you, remember you have priorities in your life. Your priorities will be revealed the more you move around.    

You can exist in all emotions if you learn the path back to Peace. You can be grieving and have peace. Scared and have peace. Excited and have peace. Angry and eventually return to peace.

The Peace Flow Chart.

 Movement x Purpose = Peace

Peace is the presence of purpose:

 Movement without purpose creates exhaustion.

 Purpose without movement creates frustration.

 Purpose with movement creates peace.

In college I did data processing for an accounting firm. Forty hours a week of repetition was rough on my soul. The third week a new younger supervisor walked in. A college graduate in statistics. This gentleman loved numbers. In his first meeting with us he showed what a great job we were doing. He explained that our accuracy helped their clients make better decisions. He showed us data crunchers that we were making a difference in real people’s lives. Put simply, he made us feel that our job was important. Just reading that paragraph makes me feel warm inside.

He knew how to keep our spirits up despite a very tedious job. We weren’t swinging from chandeliers but now we cared a lot more. What changed? He gave us meaning. Our work was more than a cog in a wheel. It served a purpose.

Remember that student who had a big paper assignment due in four weeks but waited until the last minute to start? Much of that stress would have evaporated if he had started the paper weeks earlier.

Movement:

Our character is revealed in the work we do. I have a blog out called, The Money In the Middle. (sunlit-leadership.com) That article demonstrates how to turn the grind into purpose and meaning. “My dramatic days didn’t make my life, the repeatable ones did.”   

As we mature, life hands us increasingly difficult challenges. So how do we cope? Keep moving.

Understand. Really understand. Life is going to become increasingly challenging. There is no amateur mode. As we grow, the problems grow with us.

Life gives you heavier weights.

All of us faced the same early problem in life. It doesn’t matter what heritage you have, what income level you grew up with, or what products you put in your hair. We all had the same problem: how to get someone to get us out of the crib. That was a major problem when we had limited physical skills and no native tongue to call out. Yet, we all managed to get picked up. The next universal problem was mastering door knobs. Then riding a bike, driving a car, holding a job, DATING. In a healthy life, each conquered problem prepares us for a harder one. The progression doesn't usually stop because life runs out of challenges. It stops when we surrender to one.

Make the movement smaller.

The amateur looks at the whole job and asks, “How am I going to finish all of this?”

The Pro Goal-Getter asks, “What can I finish next?”

I had a rather large cleaning company. One of the tasks was carrying 70 pounds of water thirty to fifty feet three times per job. There were days I didn’t feel like going to work. I would rather hold down my 70-pound sofa. I then realized this important lesson, I didn’t have to do the whole job. I mean, that was my job, but I realllllly didn’t HAVE to. I learned early that I didn’t have to finish the whole job at once, just focus on one trip. Just this one little trip. Then pause. Now, all I have to do is move some equipment. Then pause. Now I will move all the tables over. Pause. I keep setting 15-minute mini-goals until the bigger job is done. Every completed mini-goal gives me something important: evidence that I'm moving. When I move enough, the job will be done. Completion is a good feeling.

Peace is moving in harmony with God's purpose for your life.

Purpose answers the question: Why does this matter? Why are we doing what we are doing? Why do we clean our house? Why do we go to college? Why do we cut our lawn a certain way? Why did we leave Mom’s basement? So many whys but very few we think about. 

Knowing why we're doing something gives our movement value. All the movement in the world times zero equals zero. (Total Movement x Zero Purpose = Zero Peace) Let's “zero” in on why we have “to do” things.

We were created with the ability to imagine something that doesn't exist yet and work toward it. That's why purpose has so much power over movement. 

Beware! Rocking chairs.

Where God provides pathways and opportunities, the devil builds rocking chairs. Don’t sit in one. Rest is intentional. Stagnation isn’t.

I should start a class called, Mastering the Deadbolt. A home’s deadbolt is the most common rocking chair in America. Far too many people forget how willing they once were to try new things. They have surrendered to the average. They work then come home and cave. They are such great cavers that most people don’t know their neighbors. Ever heard of a bat-person? A bat-person is someone who comes home from work, remotely opens the garage door, parks the car, and disappears into their house. They won’t even get the mail until they are sure nobody around will see them. Then they wonder why their world isn't changing. Bat-people.

Rest: 

I don’t go to bed because I’m tired. I rest up for the next battle. If life is going to get more challenging, plan your rest. It seems to help me keep the rocking chairs away. Rest is purposeful inactivity. A rocking chair is purposeless inactivity. Rest should always prepare you to move ahead. Most people have a routine life where rest neatly fits in. The problem is those pesky rocking chairs the devil lays out. A series of video clips on their phone and they lost that night’s rest. In the daytime we rob ourselves of focus on those dopamine-pumping phone games. Some people have spent three hours exhausting their minds on those puzzle-type phone games. (I know, I was one of them. Is there a sin here I haven’t done?) They’re all rocking chairs, I tell you. 

Routinely plan time to work your purpose/priorities. The operative word is, Plan. Once again, most of us have routine lives. Cut out solid time to work those priorities. Plan it like a classroom, or more accurately, a part-time job. Our culture programs us to report to a job on time and duty-ready. Report to your dream, t h e e x a c t s a m e w a y. On time and duty-ready. Punch a time-clock if you have to. We naturally do it for our day job. What’s more important, your dream or your boss’s boss’s wife’s dream?

But What if I don’t know my purpose?

“But, Mr. Phillips”, you say, “I still don’t have a solid purpose or a goal to focus on. I’m not at peace and I feel my life eroding. I am not even that young!” So glad you asked. Here is an activity that is mega-rewarding and almost completely stress-free. 

Set a goal to get 100 rejections in three months. The three months is important. First step, create a bucket list of things you are interested in. Travel, clothing, books, music, etc. Add some details to each interest, then start reaching out to people and organizations connected to them. Say you love Sammy Hagar’s music. Write him and see if he will send a fan some of his sheet music? You like to travel? Write a letter to a city mayor or chamber of commerce and see if they could sponsor you on a tour. Want to learn a skill? Write a letter to various school deans and see what cost-effective resources they have. My favorite, you like clothes? Write a letter to marketing at various clothing lines and see if they can send you some samples. You could find a hundred people or organizations to contact in any one of those categories alone. Do the activity in three months and watch how your priorities, your purpose, or your magnificent obsession starts to come into focus. You are now in possession of a powerful tool: a win-win situation. You've just created a goal where “no” moves you forward and “yes” opens a door. The only way to lose is to stop asking. If you get rejected, so wha? That is EXACTLY what our goal was.  

The amateur sees rejection as evidence to stop.

The Pro Goal-Getter counts it. “No.” Excellent. That's #37. Who's next? 

What if someone responds with a positive result? Well, I’m sure we can work it in.  

You don't always move because you know the direction. Sometimes you move so the direction can be revealed.

 Movement → Exposure → Discovery → Direction.  

Movement exposes you to people and possibilities.

Exposure produces discovery.

Discovery begins producing direction.

Don't like what you're discovering? Change where you're moving.

Everyone is moving toward something. The question is whether that movement is intentional. Life gets heavier. Good. Make the movement smaller when you need to. Rest when you should. If you don't know the direction, move until you begin discovering one.

Ask. Get rejected. Ask again.

A “no” moves you forward. A “yes” opens a door. The only way to lose is to stop moving.  

Future Goal-Getter—Keep Moving.

Timothy Phillips

sunlit-leadership.com