Preparing for the More God Has for Me: Strengthen the Man Before Expanding the Mission
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. — Luke 16:10
In a few days, I'll be walking the Camino de Santiago with my father. I walked it last year, but this time I'm doing something differently: I'm carrying my full 30-pound backpack with me for the entire 200-mile journey.
That decision has become a metaphor for something God has been putting on my heart in this season of my life. I genuinely believe there may be “more” ahead for me… more growth in my company, more people to lead, more money to steward, more opportunities, and ultimately more responsibility to carry.
So leading up to the Camino, I've been writing about one question I'm taking with me: Who do I need to become to faithfully carry whatever God may entrust to me next?
Notice the question isn't, “How do I get more?”
That's the question entrepreneurs are usually trained to ask. How do I get more clients? How do I increase revenue? How do I grow the team? How do I scale the company?
Those aren't bad questions. We're asking plenty of them in the business.
But I've become more interested in another question:
What if the opportunity grows faster than I do?
That's a possibility we don't talk about very much in entrepreneurship.
We tend to assume growth is good. More revenue is good. More clients are good. More employees are good. More influence is good.
But growth doesn't only multiply what's happening around us. It can magnify what's happening inside us.
Growth puts more weight on whatever foundation is already there. It can expose weaknesses, magnify habits, test relationships, increase temptations, and amplify the consequences of our character.
Which means that if I'm praying for God to entrust me with more, perhaps one of the most important things He can do is strengthen the man who will have to steward it.
Jesus said:
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. — Luke 16:10
I've often thought about that verse primarily in terms of money, but Jesus' teaching in Luke 16 pushes deeper into faithfulness and stewardship.
WHAT AM I DOING WITH WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN ENTRUSTED TO ME?
Before I start imagining what I would do with more, maybe I need to examine how I'm carrying what I already have.
I think about this with Virtrify. We're doing around $5 million a year today, and I genuinely believe this company could become two, three, five, maybe even ten times larger than it is now.
I love thinking about that possibility.
But lately I've been asking myself a harder question: If Virtrify became 10x larger tomorrow, what would that multiplication expose in me?
Take money.
If God allows me to steward significantly more wealth, I don't simply need a bigger bank account. I need greater wisdom, discipline, generosity, and restraint. More money doesn't automatically create better stewardship. It simply gives me more to steward.
The same thing is true of leadership. More employees won't automatically make me a better leader. They'll magnify the consequences of the leader I already am.
If I'm controlling today, growth gives me more to control. If I struggle to delegate today, growth gives me more things to hold onto. If I need to be needed today, a larger organization gives my ego an even bigger stage. If I haven't learned to trust other leaders today, another hundred employees won't magically teach me.
Multiplication doesn't necessarily fix what's inside us. Sometimes it exposes it.
Then there's my family.
I can tell myself that I'm working this hard because I'm building something for them, and there is truth in that. But I also have to confront the possibility that I could build an incredible company while failing to become the husband and father God is calling me to be.
A ten-times-larger company won't create ten times more of me. I still get one life, one marriage, and one opportunity to father my children through each season of their lives.
Success can't replace what I failed to steward while I was pursuing it.
And the same examination has to happen spiritually.
I've learned that I can operate at a very high level. I can work long hours, solve problems, create, sell, lead, and push through exhaustion. But none of those abilities tell me whether I'm becoming more like Christ.
That's a completely different scoreboard.
Am I becoming more patient, loving, disciplined, generous, humble, peaceful, obedient, and dependent on God?
Because what would it profit me to build a company ten times larger while becoming spiritually smaller?
That's not the “more” I want.
My physical training has actually helped me understand this.
I've done CrossFit for years, and one thing you learn quickly is that you don't prepare for heavier weight by simply wishing someone would put more weight on the bar. You train for it. You strengthen weak areas. You practice movements. You work on technique. You recover. Over time, your body develops the capacity to carry something it couldn't carry before.
I'm starting to wonder whether some of what God is doing in my life right now is similar.
Maybe the challenges I'm experiencing aren't interruptions on the way to the next season. Maybe they're part of the preparation for it.
Learning to lead without having all the answers. Learning to delegate and trust other people. Learning to manage money wisely. Learning to forgive. Learning to become a better husband and father. Learning to confront sin instead of hiding it. Learning to ask for help. Learning to stay connected to God while the business is succeeding, not only when everything is falling apart.
Maybe this season isn't simply about growing Virtrify.
MAYBE GOD IS GROWING ME WHILE I GROW VIRTRIFY.
That changes how I think about preparing for more.
I've spent years asking questions about how to get more clients, increase revenue, build a sales organization, improve margins, create new services, and scale the company. Those questions matter. They're part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur.
But this season is causing me to ask a different set of questions.
What would more expose in me?
Where would more money expose poor stewardship?
Where would more authority expose ego?
Where would more employees expose weaknesses in my leadership?
Where would more opportunity expose my inability to say no?
Where would more responsibility expose a lack of boundaries?
Where would more success tempt me to depend less on God?
Where would more business expose neglect at home?
Those questions aren't nearly as exciting as dreaming about growth, but they may be more important.
Because perhaps God's preparation for more isn't primarily about preparing the opportunity… maybe He's preparing the steward.
That's becoming one of the biggest ideas I'm taking with me onto the Camino.
When I started asking God to prepare me for more, I don't think I fully understood the weight of that prayer. I'm not simply asking Him to make me more successful. I'm inviting Him to expose me, correct me, discipline me, strengthen me, prune me, teach me, and change me.
SO AS I PREPARE TO PUT THAT BACKPACK ON MY SHOULDERS AND START WALKING, THIS IS MY PRAYER:
Father, strengthen the man before You expand the mission. Show me the weaknesses that more would magnify and the habits that cannot come with me into the next season. Show me where my character needs to catch up with my ambition.
Teach me to steward today's money before asking for tomorrow's. Teach me to lead today's people before asking for more. Teach me to love my family well while building what You've placed in front of me. Teach me to remain dependent on You when things are going well.
And if there's something in me that wouldn't faithfully carry the weight of what I'm asking You for, strengthen it now.
Because I don't just want the capacity to receive more, I want the character to remain faithful when more arrives.
Before You expand what's around me, expand what's happening within me.
Before You increase the mission, strengthen the man carrying it.
Amen!
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