Monetizing Your Passion and Purpose (Or Not?)

I’m a big believer that we all have a purpose. Many of us try to live out that purpose through our businesses. I think that’s one of the key reasons God is interested in our business lives. Business is a powerful way to do God’s work in the world.

But do you ever have issues with trying to focus on money and mission at the same time? I sure do!

Back in November I went to a marketing conference. I shared this God and Business idea with a few colleagues who were very encouraging. "I LOVE what you’re doing," they would say, even when it wasn’t apparent (and sometimes still isn’t) exactly what I am doing with God and Business Today.

Here’s the trouble…

I’m a mom of three. I run a copywriting and marketing consulting business. And now I’m trying to build something completely new, from scratch, that I’ve never actually done before. And in order to really have the time to dedicate to it, I’ve needed to serve fewer consulting and copywriting clients. That means my income is down. So what is the natural next step in thinking? Here it is: "How do I replace the money I’ve lost by generating income from God and Business Today?"

How do I begin to monetize my passion and purpose?

That’s where the trouble begins.

When I came home from that conference back in November, I felt so on purpose with this site. In tears, I told my husband, "I think I’ve found what I want to do for the rest of my life." I meant it. But as soon as I started worrying about how to monetize it, I started to lose that vision and that feeling of passion. It makes me frustrated and sad. I feel stuck like I’m not moving forward and even as I sit here writing this with tears running down my face there’s a voice in my head that is screaming, "Are you OUT OF YOUR MIND???? You can’t post that on the Internet! No one wants to listen to you blubbering about your purpose and your dilemmas and whether or not to try to make money or not. Start pounding the backspace button NOW!!"

But I have to believe I’m not the only one out there who feels like monetizing your purpose and passion is like trying to serve God and mammon. I can’t help but believe I’m not the only one who struggles with "being professional" online versus being who I really am. Don’t we all worry that if we put ourselves out there that it won’t be good enough? I feel like I’m trying to filter what I post through some set of criteria I can’t even clearly identify…and it’s frustrating me to tears.

But experiencing this is giving me a new perspective on a section of scripture that I’m sure you’re familiar with from the book of Matthew:

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon [the world]. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, [or who I’m trying to please or impress when I write a blog post!]….Is not the life more than meat [or money], and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?….But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:24-25, 33).

So I’ve decided today to move forward authentically. I’m not going to wait until I have some profit scheme devised to start communicating with you. As Jesus continues in Matthew, "Take no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself" (Matthew 6:34).

As of this post, I am officially focusing on today. I’ll leave tomorrow to itself and trust in my heavenly Father that by writing this post I am on purpose…and the rest will take care of itself.

 

Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.