Why Peniel?

Within all of us is a story that’s waiting to be told. Success is always the goal, but my attention will always direct towards hearing about failure. And it’s not so that I’ll feel better about myself (perhaps a lie). I’m just more interested in the response.

In the Bible, there’s a story about a person named Jacob who spent a night alone by himself, terrified of his future. He ended up in a physical battle against a man that lasted until sunrise. Jacob was by no means stronger, but he refused to let go, and when the man saw that he could not defeat him, he dislocated the socket of his hip. It was later revealed that the man was God, and being given a new identity, Jacob called the place Peniel, meaning the "Face of God." He had faced the ultimate confrontation and survived.

Peniel is a framework for how I view the world. It’s within our very nature to avoid struggle, but learning to embrace it is how I have come to learn and grow. That’s not to idolize struggle. If a conflict can be avoided through better planning, that is where my focus lies. But when the struggle is inevitable, I trust that navigating that tension is what actually gives the work its value, as well as the person leading it their perspective.

This blog is a record of that wrestle. It’s an invitation to focus on the effort more than the outcome. It’s about the process of being refined throughout the journey.