Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
7 8 2026
Trapped in a World Too Small
Does My Life Really Matter?
It’s a question most people never ask out loud, but sooner or later almost everyone wrestles with it.
We’re born. Another is born. Another dies. The cycle continues. We stand at the shoreline and attempt to take in the magnitude ir an Almighty God. But, if we’re in a season of struggling, we can become tiny sprinkles in an ocean so vast that it’s easy to believe we’re insignificant. We can almost hypnotize ourselves into thinking our lives are nothing more than a brief flicker of light before fading into darkness.
Solomon certainly wrestled with it. “All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.” (Ecclesiastes 1:7)
Nothing seems to change for very long.
Generations come and go. Empires rise and fall. Mountains slowly erode. Even California’s great mountain ranges were once beneath the sea. Everything appears to move in endless circles. Solomon, at the end of his life, looked at life under the sun and concluded that if this world is all there is, nature eventually wins. Time wins. Death wins.
And if that’s all we can see…he’s right.
But maybe that’s exactly where the enemy wants us.
Because if Satan can convince us that this physical world is all there is…that what we can touch, measure, explain and control is reality…he doesn’t have to stop us from believing in God.
He only has to keep us trapped inside a world that’s far too small.
We become prisoners of what our eyes can see. Prisoners of what other mortal men tell us is possible. Prisoners of the natural.
Wow…how very small is that prison. Is that really where you want to live?
The tragedy isn’t simply that we die.
The tragedy is that many believers spend their entire lives living as though the natural world is all that matters, while the greatest realities are happening all around them in a realm they rarely acknowledge, all because our faith isn’t large enough to see beyond. Worse yet, we don’t just believe that lie ourselves—we unknowingly pass it on to our children,
our friends, and the very people we love most.
Yet Scripture tells us something entirely different. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
God is Spirit. Satan and his cohorts are spirit. Most people never realize they’re living in two worlds at the same time. One is temporary. The other is eternal. One is seen. The other is unseen. One is passing away. The other will outlive the stars themselves.
Yet we spend almost all of our energy on the world that is disappearing.
The greatest battle of your life isn’t taking place in Washington…or on Wall Street…or even in your workplace. It’s taking place in the unseen world and inside your own heart. Yet we keep trying to fight spiritual battles with natural weapons.
We trust our own understanding. We chase more information. We look for another podcast…another book…another expert.
Meanwhile God quietly keeps saying,
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)
How long will we keep trying to measure the depth of a puddle while ignoring the vast ocean of God’s wisdom? Jesus completely shattered Solomon’s hopeless circle.
“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed…nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20)
Think about what He just said. That isn’t a statement for the natural man.
He isn’t talking about positive thinking. He isn’t giving us motivational advice.
He’s inviting us into another Kingdom…a supernatural Kingdom…where faith accomplishes what human strength never can.
Faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain.
Really?
Most of us smile politely because we’ve seen very little of that.
Maybe that’s because we’ve spent so much of our lives trying to live by the rules of the natural world while expecting supernatural results.
Look at it another way. What natural accomplishment lasts forever?
Build a skyscraper? Someday it crumbles. Make a fortune? Someone else spends it.
Become famous? A generation or two later, most people have forgotten your name.
Even mountains eventually wear away. But lead one soul to Christ…
Disciple one struggling man… Help restore one broken marriage…
Encourage one weary believer… Share the Gospel with one searching heart…
Those things echo long after oceans dry up.
Only God gives mortal men and women the privilege of participating in something eternal.
Maybe we’ve been looking at the wrong mountain all along.
Perhaps Jesus wasn’t asking us to stare at rocks and telling them to move.
Perhaps He was asking us to move hearts.
To rescue marriages.
To lead one soul home.
To help someone cross from death into life.
Tell me…isn’t that the greatest mountain a man or woman could ever move?
Isn’t helping someone cross from a lifetime on earth into an eternity with Christ the greatest mountain-moving proposition of all?
Not because of who we are. But because of who works through us. Suddenly Solomon’s conclusion isn’t the end of the story.
Jesus is.
The journey from fearful to fearless…from natural to supernatural…hinges on which force wins the battle for the inner man.
Fear… Or love.
Natural or SuperNatural
On August 17th we’ll begin another semester of Courageous Men’s Group and our Beautiful Women’s Group every Monday evening from 7:00 to 8:30 at Grace Family Church in Land O’ Lakes.
Why do we gather? Because none of us naturally drift toward the supernatural.
We encourage one another. We sharpen one another. We remind one another that we were created for far more than simply surviving another week. We learn to trust God more deeply.
To obey Him more faithfully. To become better husbands…better wives…better fathers…better mothers…better friends…better disciples.
And in doing so, we become instruments through whom God changes someone else’s mountain…someone elses…eternity.
That’s the life Jesus invites us into. Not merely existing. Not merely surviving.
But crossing over from the limitations of the natural into the limitless power of the Kingdom of God.
The question isn’t whether your life matters. It does.
The real question is this:
Will you spend your life trapped inside a world that is passing away…or will you step into the Kingdom where every act of obedience echoes into eternity?
If you’re tired of living in a world that’s too small, come join us. Let’s learn together what it means to walk by faith, not by sight, and to discover the joy of living in the Kingdom God has already invited us into.
“What part of this hit home for you this morning? What are you carrying today that needs prayer? If you’d like, send me a prayer request here. Let’s invite the Holy Spirit in together. (where two are gathered.) You are not walking alone. Just hit reply…
I read every response.”
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