When the Father Uses Our Calling to Drive Out Fear
Nearly six months ago, I wrote an article titled "Patient Endurance: Living the Dream Without Fear."
At the time, I believed the Lord was teaching me about endurance.
Looking back now, I realize He was teaching me something even deeper.
He was teaching me about fear itself.
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| Kayla and I in Fairhope, AL May 2026 |
An Unexpected Gift
The last three days have been some of the most unusual days I've experienced in a long time.
Not because I went on vacation.
Not because it was a holiday.
Not because business suddenly stopped demanding my attention.
Quite the opposite.
By the grace of YHWH, I simply decided to stop.
Tuesday.
Wednesday.
Thursday.
Three ordinary workdays.
I didn't go to work.
I didn't answer business questions.
I didn't build.
I didn't produce.
I simply rested.
For most people that probably sounds ordinary.
For me, after the last six months, it felt miraculous.
Looking Back
When I first wrote about patient endurance, I believed my greatest struggle was learning how to carry responsibility.
Today I see it differently.
The responsibility wasn't the lesson.
Fear was.
I have come to believe that the Father has been using Splash & Dash as one of His greatest instruments—not simply to teach me how to build a business, but to expose fear that had quietly lived inside my own heart.
That realization surprised me.
The Valley
About three months after writing the first article, I found myself at one of the lowest emotional places I can remember.
The business itself wasn't falling apart.
Operationally, things were actually fairly stable.
My schedule wasn't overwhelming.
But internally...
The darkness felt overwhelming.
Sleep continued to escape me.
My mind raced.
My heart felt heavy almost every day.
Looking back now, I don't believe the Father had abandoned me.
I believe He was exposing something that had been hidden.
Fear.
Not fear created by Splash & Dash.
Fear revealed through Splash & Dash.
Those are very different things.
Light in Fairhope
Then, by the kindness of YHWH, Kayla and I slipped away for a few days in Fairhope Alabama.
Those days became far more than a getaway.
They became a place of ministry.
The Father met me there.
He restored my soul.
He quieted my heart.
He reminded me that His presence—not my performance—is what sustains me.
When I returned home, the circumstances hadn't changed very much.
But I had.
Light had begun replacing darkness.
Peace had begun replacing panic.
Another Lesson
About a month later, another challenge arrived.
Because of significant differences in values, I had to let much of my staff go.
Almost overnight, I became a full-time dog bather.
For nearly five weeks.
If someone had told me a year earlier that I'd spend weeks bathing dogs after investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into this vision, I probably would have laughed.
Instead...
The Father smiled.
He wasn't humiliating me.
He was forming me.
Today, by His grace, we have an incredible team.
The business is operating better than ever.
Which makes these three quiet days in the middle of the week feel almost unbelievable.
Not because I earned them.
Because He gave them.
What Was the Father Really Doing?
Looking back, I no longer believe Splash & Dash was primarily about opening another business.
I believe it became a classroom.
A place where YHWH lovingly exposed something I didn't realize still held influence over my heart.
Fear.
More specifically...
The fear that grows whenever something besides God becomes part of our identity.
That realization has changed the way I read Scripture.
Fear is not simply an emotion.
It is often the evidence that my heart has attached itself to something that can be taken away.
Health.
Family.
Success.
Security.
Comfort.
Reputation.
Even ministry.
None of those things are wrong. They simply make terrible gods.
When my identity becomes anchored to things that can be shaken, fear becomes inevitable.
But when my identity is anchored in the One who cannot be shaken...
Fear begins to lose its voice.
The Spirit That Cannot Enter the Kingdom
One verse has stayed with me repeatedly throughout this journey.
Revelation tells us that the cowardly—the fearful—will not inherit the eternal city (Revelation 21:8).
That verse used to trouble me.
Now it challenges me differently.
I don't believe the Father is looking for naturally fearless people.
I believe He is forming a people whose love for Him has become greater than every competing attachment.
John wrote:
"Perfect love casts out fear."
Perhaps that is because perfect love leaves no room for competing idols.
When YHWH truly becomes the deepest love of our lives, everything else can finally be held with open hands.
My Prayer Today
Father,
Thank You for loving me enough not merely to bless me, but to transform me.
Thank You for using my calling to expose what was hidden inside my heart.
Drive out every idol.
Drive out every attachment that competes with You.
Teach me to receive every good gift with gratitude while refusing to make any gift my identity.
May You alone become the everlasting love of my life.
Teach me what it truly means to live without fear.
Amen.
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