This is nuts. It's 1:00 a.m., and my eyes are barely staying open. But I know that if I just crawl into bed right now, my brain won't shut off anyway. I have to get this out. Having something I need to say is both a curse and a blessing wrapped into one.

And if I wait until morning? Too many distractions.

So here's what I want to ask you:

How much money would it take for you to feel truly financially free and secure?

Is it a monthly income? A lump sum in the bank? A certain number you keep chasing?

For years, I told myself, “I’ll feel secure when we’re bringing in $____ residually every month,” or, “We’ll be good when we’ve got $____ saved or invested.”

But you know what I realized? No matter what the number was, once we hit it, I still didn’t feel safe. I could always see how quickly it could disappear, or how easily we’d grown into that level of income. And like clockwork, the pressure would creep in again—you need to earn more.

Let’s say your magic number is a million dollars. You think $1M in the bank would let you finally do everything you’ve been putting off—travel, give, invest, breathe. Now imagine I hand you a check today for that exact amount. No strings.

What would you do with it today?

I know you’re just reading this, but seriously—pause and answer that.

If your answer is, “I’d just stick it in the bank,” or “I don’t even know,” then you’re not ready to receive it. If $1M feels so huge that your brain short-circuits trying to picture it, then what difference would it make if I said $2M… or $400M?

If you don’t even know what the dream costs—what the cabin costs, what it’s made of, what flights and gear and logistics you’d need for the trip of a lifetime—then start there. Start shopping. Start researching. Let your imagination run like you’ve already got the money and now you just need to spend it wisely.

And then (this is the part that gives me chills every time), let go of the money part.

Visualize the experience itself. See it. Feel it. Not in some abstract “dream board” way, but like it's already happening. The money? It'll sort itself out. And when you visualize clearly and emotionally, life starts rearranging itself to make space for that reality. Maybe you get the cash. Maybe you get the opportunity another way—barter, gift, trade, miracle.

You don’t have to control the “how.”

This is why I’ve always hesitated to set money goals. Weirdly, they never work for me. Every time I’ve focused on a number, it puts me in some weird energy where the money runs the other way. Maybe that’s some subconscious thing I need to work on, but still—it’s real.

I’ve learned that for me, it’s not about the money itself. It’s about the why. The freedom. The life. The impact. That’s what moves me.

Because here’s the risk: if the goal is just a number, you might hit it at the expense of everything else that matters more.

But then what if I do want a pile of money in the bank?

Let me ask you this instead:

What is financial freedom, really?

What does financial security actually look like?

To me, it’s knowing that no matter what happens in the economy, or the job market, or life in general—my family’s needs will be met.

When our income tripled, we paid off cards, bought the groceries we actually wanted, enrolled the kids in lessons, fixed all the broken stuff around the house, and even moved into the kind of home that truly fit our family.

And it felt amazing.

But even then, we weren’t truly free—because Trevan was still gone too much. We had to ask permission to take time off. We worried about how he'd be treated if he got sick and missed a day.

We had money, but not time. And opportunities came across our table that could’ve changed everything—but we didn’t have the bandwidth to look into them.

That’s when we realized: the next leap had to be faith-based.

We believed that if he let go of the job—the steady paycheck—we’d finally have the space to really thrive. He’d have time to do the due diligence on investments, real estate, business partnerships. We’d finally get to build our big “money in the bank” moment and take a breather from the grind.

So we jumped.

Like the acorn, we let go of the tree. And let me tell you—it was terrifying. That tree had fed and sheltered us. We didn’t know if we could survive without it.

We expected to fly.

Instead, we fell.

Hard.

We faced more fear and confusion than we’d ever experienced before. Week after week, scraping by. I couldn’t even let myself think about what would happen when the money ran out. I'd play peaceful music just to calm the storm in my head.

But God kept showing up. Always just in time.

Month after month, He kept us afloat. And eventually, I stopped fearing the fall. I started trusting the process. If He’d kept us alive this long—fed, housed, together—why wouldn’t He keep showing up?

Year two, we moved forward with faith, let money flow through us, and let go of the anxiety. We acted like things would work out—because, somehow, they were.

And I found peace in that.

We didn’t need the tree anymore. We were learning how to grow on our own.

That’s when I realized: I was relying on God the same way we’d once relied on the paycheck. And He delivered. Not in advance, but just in time.

We practiced peace in the storm. (Can’t practice that without the storm.)

Related: What would you do if you ran out of money?

So what do I think financial freedom really is?

It's not having ten years’ worth of money today.

The seed doesn’t grow stronger by dumping ten years of rain on it all at once. It would drown. Just like we would.

Financial freedom is knowing where your sustenance really comes from. Your job doesn’t pay you—God pays you through your job. Your business isn’t your source—God is, through your business. If one stream dries up, He’ll send another.

Your only job is to keep showing up. One step at a time.

Because when you find peace in the unknown, in the dark, in the not yet, you start to see that miracles never actually stopped. You become the proof.

The acorn becomes an oak not by clinging to the tree, but by letting go—falling—and trusting that everything it needs is already available in its new environment. And once it grows, it becomes a shelter for other little seeds.

You don’t need a bazillion dollars in the bank.

You need faith that you’ll always have enough.

That’s the person who’s actually financially free.

Because no crash, no thief, no lawsuit can shake the kind of peace that comes from knowing Who your provider really is.

And that’s something money can’t buy.

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