Hello Reader,

Most plans don’t fall apart when everything is going well.

They fall apart when something changes.

You work late.

You get home hungry and realize dinner isn’t ready.

You’re tired, irritated, and standing in the kitchen thinking about how much easier it would be to grab fast food and start again tomorrow.

Suddenly, the commitment you made yesterday feels negotiable.

The worst time to decide what matters is when pressure is already deciding for you.

That’s why one of the most useful things you can do is make certain decisions before the difficult moment arrives.

Not every possible decision.

Just the predictable ones.

If you regularly get home from work exhausted and abandon your eating plan, that isn’t an unexpected problem anymore.

If you’re consistently 2,000 steps short after dinner, you already know the decision point is coming.

If staying up scrolling keeps costing you sleep, tomorrow night probably isn’t going to surprise you.

Those are patterns.

And patterns give you something valuable:

A chance to prepare.

A firefighter doesn’t wait until the building is burning to learn how to use the equipment.

A paramedic doesn’t wait until the patient stops breathing to study the protocol.

Preparation happens beforehand because pressure makes clear thinking harder.

The same principle applies to stewardship.

Instead of:

“I’ll try to eat well tomorrow.”

Try:

“If work runs late, then I’ll eat the meal I already prepared instead of stopping for fast food.”

Instead of:

“I’ll make sure I get my steps.”

Try:

“If I’m still short after dinner, then I’ll walk before I sit down for the evening.”

Instead of:

“I need to stop getting angry during these conversations.”

Try:

“If I feel myself becoming angry, then I’ll pause before answering.”

That’s not fear.

That’s wisdom.

Proverbs teaches that the prudent see danger and respond before suffering the consequences.

You don’t need to predict everything that could go wrong.

You can’t.

You just need to stop being surprised by the obstacles you already know are coming.

And there’s a deeper question underneath all of this:

Who do I want to be when the pressure arrives?

Not just, “How do I save the plan?”

Do I respond with integrity?

Wisdom?

Discipline?

Perseverance?

Do I remain faithful to Christ when circumstances become inconvenient?

Because sometimes the right response is to push through.

Sometimes it’s to adjust the plan.

Sometimes it’s to rest.

Preparation gives you the chance to make that decision from principle instead of impulse.

That’s what this week’s episode of The Rebellious Remedy is about:

​Decide What You’ll Do Before Pressure Hits [WATCH THE SESSION]​

But knowing this principle isn’t enough.

You need to decide what you’ll actually do before your next pressure point shows up.

So I created a free tool to help you do exactly that.

The Pressure Prep Playbook walks you through a simple five-minute process:

One commitment.

One likely obstacle.

One prepared response.

One clear if-then plan.

​[DOWNLOAD THE PRESSURE PREP PLAYBOOK]​

Don’t rehearse fear.

Rehearse faithfulness.

Then when the hard moment arrives, you won’t be meeting it for the first time.

Rooted in Christ, Jonathon Ennis Founder

​