The Daily CHEW™
Moving God’s Love from Head to Heart for Christian Professionals
My business is going through a transition. Nothing changes for clients — the work stays the same, the depth stays the same, the confidentiality stays the same. But behind the scenes, I have been wrestling with something that every leader eventually faces: the gap between the business you think you should build and the one God actually designed you to run.
For weeks I was focused on what the growth of CHEW would require — the team, the systems, the infrastructure. I was ready to morph into whatever the vision demanded. That sounds noble. It felt responsible. But my coach asked a question that stopped me: “What is really you?”
I thought instantly about my parents. Both were successful surgeons. Neither ever took a partner. They each had a small, excellent team that covered them well. They did the work they were built to do and they did it for decades. I grew up in both of their practices. I organized charts, watched the rhythm, saw how a solo practitioner with the right support could serve at the highest level without building an empire.
When my coach asked if I wanted a large team, I said not really — I love doing the work. And right there, the picture came into focus. I do not have to build something that requires me to become someone I am not. I can design a practice around how God actually built me — my gifts, my wiring, my calling — and get the right support for the things I do not do well.
That is not a small revelation for a man who has spent most of his career saying yes to anything he could figure out. It is a repentance. God did not give me this calling so I could exhaust myself trying to scale what was always meant to be personal, deep, and close. He gave me this calling so I could steward it — faithfully, within the design He chose.
Clarity
Where am I trying to build something that requires me to become someone God did not design me to be — and what would it look like to build around how He actually made me instead?
Hear
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” — Ephesians 2:10, ESV
God did not prepare generic good works and then ask you to figure out how to fit yourself into them. Scripture reveals that He made you first — your wiring, your gifts, your design — and then prepared specific work that matches. God shapes the calling around the person, not the person around the calling. When that truth moves from head to heart, you stop building what impresses and start building what fits.
Exchange
If I really believed God’s love is intentional enough that He designed the calling around me — not me around the calling — how would that change the one business or ministry decision I am overthinking right now?
Walk
Name one area where you have been trying to build something that does not fit how God made you. Ask yourself: What would this look like if I designed it around my actual gifts instead of around what I think it should be? Write one sentence that starts with “The version of this that fits how God built me is…” and let that sentence direct your next step. If this is the only thing I do from this CHEW today, it is enough.
With you on the journey,
Ryan
If you had to put this into one sentence for today, what would you say God is inviting you to rest in or return to?
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