"THAT'S BUSINESS SUICIDE!", or "You're going to become irrelevant!"

These are the usual responses we get when we tell people we're NOT going to sell courses in 2023. That instead we've set our minds to honor a sabbath year of 'letting the ground rest'.

What does that mean? Well, the idea comes from our faith, and what God commanded:

"The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 'Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food.'"  -  Leviticus 25:1-7

For the majority of modern society, this command felt antiquated and out of touch. Besides, with the best fertilizers and crop rotation, the same agricultural problems of old had become irrelevant. Yay scientific progress! Or maybe not...

What we've now come to realize is quite alarming actually... that decades of industrial farming have depleted the once carbon-rich topsoils of their vital nutrients. As a result, we are witnessing widespread soil degradation, lower crop yields, and warning signs of a global food supply shortage.

More than that, good soil acts like a sponge. When it becomes degraded through constant, non-stop farming and poor biodiversity, erosion increases further stripping the land of nutrients, spiking soil acidity and accelerating the demise of a soil base that took centuries to produce.

In real talk, geo-fertile areas like the prairies of Iowa once boasted a rich topsoil nearly 18" thick. Now that "black gold" otherwise known as loam has decreased by more than 35% on average, with some areas having lost ALL of their topsoil.

In fact, it is now estimated that the rate of loss to desertification is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12 million hectares of land annually, and increasing.

Going back now...

Was this commandment by God designed to take from His people?

Or was it designed to give back?

It is a truly American-centric concept to work until you die. We take great pride in boot-strapping it, in being "productive" and pushing for the constantly elusive more, more, more. It's an 'identity'.

But that's not THRIVING.

In fact, that might be the opposite, because it lacks all meaning. No one does anything for more, they do it for a sense of enough and strangely, that never comes... you just end up wanting more.

The beauty in this command is that more TRULY looks like doing less.

Davina and I believe in obedience. It is one of the highest values in our home. Obedience is a byproduct of belief, because more often than not, obedience is tested in times of lack, pain, suffering and loss. Belief is all well and good, but you evidence belief via your obedience.

It is typically only AFTER the trial that you then see why obedience was asked of you.

Fallow ground, aka 'soil left to rest' for a year has statistically shown to produce 2-3 times the annual harvest simply by letting it be. No pruning, no tilling, no sowing. All because you rested!

That's the power of obedience and trust.

But it goes far beyond that for us. It's not just about the return on investment. What if that doesn't come? Would you then say your obedience was in vain?

Rest is a time to fill up and give from your overflow. It's a time to listen, to learn, to devote yourself to those you care most about. And that's exactly what we're going to do this sabbath year.

We're building out more content for our docs, to pour into them. We're learning, we're listening, we're doing whatever we can to help them move the needle.

That's why we're calling it the year of fulfillment, versus enrollment.

We want to pour into our THRIVE Tribe docs and fill them up, those who have already trusted us to guide them and teach them by purchasing our Masterclasses and programs.

And to do that, we're going to be taking a step back from enrolling new docs.

If that's you, and you've just now stumbled across THRIVE or have been on the fence for a little while, we're happy you did and want you to subscribe so that we can start a relationship with you. We want to send you some great free content, and as you can imagine, it comes with zero upsell... because we're not selling at all in the first place! Just pure giving.

We hope you enjoy. Here's to 'letting the ground rest'.