Welcome back to the 7-40 Challenge. It’s Day 2, and momentum is strong.
Today’s Progress : Bible study ✓ | Exercise ✓ (walking and yoga) | Reading ✓ (1 hour into Made to Stick) | Water & calorie tracking ✓| Content creation ✓| Gratitude ✓|
Seven habits, all moving forward. The system is working. The real test comes next week when I return to work and the routine has to fit into normal life—but for now, we’re building the foundation.
Today, I’m reflecting on the why behind this challenge.
Like many of you, I’ve set goals over the years. Some I’ve achieved—many I have not. Year after year, I found myself frustrated, asking: Why do I set a goal and then watch it slip away, unachieved?
The Discovery in the Files
Over the Christmas holiday, I cleaned my office and sorted through years of papers, notes, and scribbled dreams. A theme emerged: I had saved goal lists from multiple years, desires to get in better shape, make more money, whatever mattered at the time.
Side note: I believe there’s real power in writing things down. Even if we forget about them later, the act of writing and considering our goals can set us on the right path.
But as I read through these lists, another theme surfaced. For years, I’ve been searching for my personal focus. Why am I here on Earth? Why has God put me in this place and time?
I have concrete answers to some of these questions:
- I’m here to know God and serve Him
- I’m here to love and serve my wife and care for her
- I’m here to love my son and be an example for him
- I’m here to be a good friend
- I’m here to take care of people
But when I get to that last line—”I’m here to take care of people”—what does that actually mean?
The Ministry Years: 1998-2000
Let me rewind to 1998. At 20 years old, I felt called to serve in church ministry. I was still in college but had a deep desire to serve God and help people. I served nine months as a music pastor, then took on the youth pastor role for about a year and a half.
I enjoyed working with students, but the music ministry proved more challenging than I expected. Soon after, I moved to a different church to serve as youth pastor only—more enthusiasm, slightly higher salary, and the same desire to help people.
What I didn’t know then: I was woefully unprepared for either job.
Before the first position, I had minimal experience leading a choir—just a small ensemble at my college Baptist Student Union. Yet they expected me to hold choir rehearsals, help people sing in parts, make things sound beautiful, and work with people 30, 40, and 50 years older than me. I had zero knowledge of what to do.
With the youth group, I understood students better because I was closer to their age and knew how to communicate with them. But I had no idea how to interact with parents, build rapport with sponsors, or actually disciple students—because I was still very young myself. Whether through arrogance or oversight, I wasn’t receiving the training I desperately needed.
By the second church, my enthusiasm fizzled quickly. I became almost despairing in my misery because I didn’t know how to do my job, didn’t feel supported, and didn’t know how to ask for help.
At the core of it all: I wanted to help people. But I should have admitted sooner that ministry wasn’t the method by which I would help them. I became a “professional Christian,” and my own relationship with God suffered greatly.
26 Years Later: Finding the Answer
Why share all this? Why talk about failed goals and times when I wasn’t where I needed to be?
Because through 26 years of writing goals and working to achieve them, I finally figured out how I help people. I’ve discovered why I’m here. And now, I’m working to help others do the same.
There’s a famous quote: “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Now that I know why I’m here—to help people, to meet them where they are, to keep working on myself so I’m an example—it all works together.
The Pattern Behind Achievement
Looking over 25 years of notes, I see things I’ve accomplished and many things I haven’t. Here’s what I’ve learned: I accomplish things when I know why I’m doing them. When I understand my purpose.
The purpose of the 7-40 Challenge is exactly this: to use myself as the lab rat and demonstrate through my own life whether seven habits practiced over 40 days, with deliberate intent and built-in time for rest and recharge, can build sustainable change. Can this approach help build a community and help other people do the same—with authenticity, honesty, and a genuine desire to fulfill what I was put here for?
To help people.
That’s my goal. That’s where we’re headed in 2026.
What about you? Have you found your “why” yet? Or are you still searching? Drop a comment—I’d love to hear where you are on this journey.
See you tomorrow for Day 3.
The 740 Challenge 