Keep showing up. Sometimes, it’s all you need to be successful.

They call it the “J-curve.”

It is exponential growth after a long period of waiting at the bottom.

I was talking to a missionary today who started a church in 2000 and spent 16 years trying to grow it.  He reached about 200.  

Suddenly, in 2016, it took off.  He now has eight campuses and 6800 people in his church….in seven years!

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”  (Gal. 6: 9).

That may be YOU.

Here are practical ways to “ride the J curve” until your miracle becomes real:

1. Don’t over-analyze.

Metrics are good but can yield the “paralysis of analysis.”

Quit counting so much.  Work on building a better you, a better product, and a better team more than spending all your time analyzing.

You are NOT a failure.  You are in the process of learning what DOES NOT work!

2. Try some new things.

My missionary friend opened a school.  The school exploded in growth and helped to grow the church!

He now has 23 schools. He will have 50 schools next year.

People say, “Schools don’t grow churches.”  Funny thing:  nobody told my friend that.

Ask God for creative insights, ideas, concepts, and inventions.  Innovation starts the “J-curve.”

3. The bottom of the curve is the beginning of the “J.”

My friend had a terrible three years before his breakthrough.  Everything went wrong.  I don’t know how he even survived that awful time.

Suddenly, the sun came out!

Sometimes, God allows a time of difficulty to bring out the very best in you.  You learn your authority over Satan, your enemy.

If you are in a dark place, you may prepare, like a pearl, for “exponential growth!”

4.  Faithfulness impresses God.

God is faithful.  He favors faithful people.

Don’t get negative, down-in-the-mouth, and want to quit every week.

Set a long-term date when you will even consider whether you should continue.  A friend decided only to consider quitting his church at the end of every year.  He never quit.

Abraham waited 25 years before his promised son, Isaac, arrived!  He NEVER QUIT believing God.

That’s what you call “faithfulness.”

5. Stay humble when you reach the top of the “J.”

If you stay faithful, persevere through hard times, quit analyzing so much, and attempt new things, YOU WILL SUCCEED.

How will you react to success?

Will you proudly publish your success and look like Nebuchadnezzar from his rooftop over Babylon?  Or, will you give all the glory to the Lord when you reach the pinnacle of the “J-curve”?

All glory belongs to the Lord.  Don’t ever forget it.

I pray for those of you who are currently at the “bottom” of the “J-curve.”  It looks dark and bleak.  

Hang in there.  

Like my friend, your breakthrough is just around the corner!