A Mind Stayed on the Rock

Isaiah 26:3–7

Peace is rare for an entrepreneur, and rarer still for one running a social enterprise. I know the arithmetic of anxiety well. When sales dip, my chest tightens. When the team falls out of tune, I replay conversations in my head. When one person isn’t pulling his weight and we must roster another to cover him, I can see the wage bill climbing before the month has even turned.

So I plan, often late into the night. I tell myself it is not about control. It is about making sure costs do not overrun at month end, because I have seen what one careless season can do. The Star Vista lease taught me that. Negligence is not a theory to me; it nearly ended TCE. That memory is why I plan. If I am honest, it is also why I cannot sleep.

But I am learning that planning with a troubled mind is not the same as planning with a stayed mind. Isaiah sang this promise to a people whose hearts had wandered and whose thoughts were in turmoil. He did not tell them their troubles were small. He told them where to fix their minds. The word “stayed” carries the picture of leaning your full weight on something. The Lord is the everlasting Rock. He is not a mood, a strategy or a good month of sales.

I see this most clearly at Changi. The men in our Crossroads Bible studies control almost nothing. They do not choose their schedule, their meals or the date of their release. Yet some of them carry a peace I envy. I have sat across from a man with years still to serve who told me he sleeps well now, because he has finally stopped carrying what was never his to carry. I went home humbled. I hold the keys to our cafés and an academy, and I am the one lying awake.

So peace does not come from getting rid of the cost spreadsheet. It comes from the presence of a Person. Verse 7 says the way of the righteous is made level. That happens because the Lord Himself weighs and smooths the path, not because of my midnight calculations. My planning still matters, because stewardship is faithfulness. But it must become an act of trust, not a substitute for it. I do my sums, and then I lay them down.

Tonight I am giving Him the roster I cannot fix and the number I cannot yet balance. Perhaps you have your own: a debt, a broken relationship, a restart that feels too steep. Why does trusting God bring peace? Because He is the Rock, and I am not. What worry will you hand Him today?