At the end of every podcast, we like to ask our guests to share what God has been teaching them in this season of life. This week’s guest is Brett Hagler , the CEO and Co-Founder of New Story, Y Combinator alum, Praxis fellow, author, cancer survivor, and a 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 Entrepreneur.

Psalm 127:1

Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.

I’ve been reading Psalm 127 that talks about God's grace. It says don't labor in vain to build a house, which, you know, you can say, okay, that’s cool. Then it goes on to say how many of us work so hard from early morning to late night, toiling to make a living for fear of not having enough. 

And I know that I've in the past definitely toiled to not just make a, “living for myself,” but to achieve, to accomplish. Right. And God is teaching me that this is his timeline. This is his work. And while I definitely need to work hard and have a humble pursuit of excellence. Ultimately, it's his timeline and it's all about what he wants to do. 

So, I’m trying to focus more on that. And I'm trying to focus and just understand that when you're in the kind of the nonprofit world or any kind of world that has impact, if you're out having an external impact on people's lives, but you don't have intimacy with Jesus, then you’re kind of missing the point. 

You need to have inside-out intimacy with Jesus first and then you can go out and,—you know, if he wants you to and if it's in his will—have a certain level of impact. And whether that's helping a thousand people or ten million people, that's up to him to decide.