A Product God Makes

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11

This story is a truth I discovered about life, business and God’s heart.

As most of you know, I am the Founder of Hemp with a Cause, known for Hemp Honey. We make a specialty product formulated for sleep, relaxation and anxiety. We’ve spent years in R&D and continents of travel & research…

But it hasn’t been easy. I’m going to tell you a lesson I learned through it all. This is vulnerable but because God co-writes stories through us, here we go.

In the lone years of 21-22’, it was just Kristina and I working what we hoped would provide a future for our family. We invested the only little money we had from COVID relief into a tiny office room in Farmington, CT where we faithfully drove 25 minutes to every day after preschool dropoff. From this cozy room, we walked, prayed and poured our hearts into restarting our business, which had sat dormant for 2.5 years while we worked out a more important matter in our lives: salvation. Story for another day.

If you wanted to formulate the best CBD honey product in the world like me, you’d discover the same hair yanking formulation issue which nearly made me quit. At that point i’d already made 200K+ honey sticks.. but honey and oil don’t mix, they separate. Thats a big problem. So, I prayed.

Somehow, we were rapidly introduced to a Cornell PhD food science chemist and specialty supplier. Months of testing, a production batch and lab test later, the issue was solved. We discovered a trade secret worth some pot of gold.

Consecutively we were put in touch with a private group ‘rolling up’ companies like ours to take them international. We were told: “We want to buy your entire company. Financials are fine as is. You are on our priority list. Get your due diligence ready and have your lawyer talk with ours.”

Whoa! For a guy using EBT for overpriced avocados at Whole Foods, thats hope! The industry was then at a peak so it could have been a multi-million dollar buyout. I was pumped, and already shopping beach houses in Hawaii.

Nine long months later, that company lost their capital. We experienced the sober reality of “not until the fat lady sings” and were left with “sorry.”

In the waiting, I had resolved not to stop improving things. This led to a chance encounter at Doro marketplace with a zealous fellow named Chad who was pouring over a Bible study. We bumped fists & exchanged numbers. After a delicious salmon dinner at my house (he told me a year later he hates fish) we were on a plane together to London for a business conference (he wore sweatpants 🤦‍.)Two weeks later he quit his well paying corporate job without warning to join me (had a mortgage and hungry dog.) I told him I had nothing to pay him. He did it anyway. That’s Chad 3:16. Bold, brave or stupid i’m still not sure - but i’m glad he did.

So there we were, broke, working at Chad’s house when he intro’d me to Brady.

Now this guy is something else. I wish I had boldness to tell you the awesome & unconventional things he did from day one. I suspect angels in heaven looked down on us with 1 parts awe and 1.5 parts pity. Brady quit his better paying than Chad corporate job to join us. Bold, brave or stupid i’m still not sure - but i’m glad he did.

For the sake of 30 more paragraphs, i’ll keep this short. Our crew went on an adventure. We traveled across the country, met in home offices, coffee shops, living rooms, mountain hikes, and others in between. We raised money, built websites, bought ingredients, hired marketing firms, and did all we knew to build a successful business. We all went all-in, full-time.

But at the onset, I told them there was one bylaw: “pray at every meeting."

And we did.
Everyday, along with far more noble prayers… we would include something like:

“God, please make our business successful.”

Mmhmm - that meant financially successful, of course, and I figured what I couldn’t do on my own we certainly could do with 3 brilliant praying lads.

Only problem is… 3 years later we are still in the red and no ones collecting a paycheck. It’s not because we lack a great product. It may be the best in class. I mean, have you seen the website?

In October 23’ I was burned out, celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles with our messianic community. The Lord spoke to me while on a brisk morning walk down a country road and said: “you should step down.” As I processed this to myself, the next day Brady & Chad called & said “would you like to step down as CEO?” I love when God does that.

Out of work, and out of money again, with an 8 month pregnant wife I began searching for job & home. Months later, I asked the Lord:

“We prayed our business would be successful. What happened?”

Clear as day, I heard:

“I did make it successful… You are the product.”

That changed my perspective on everything.

Business is hard. But God uses the hard things in life to shape and mold us… ultimately into His character. Consider this passage (thanks Chad), which brought us meaning in the midst of our struggle and disappointments:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. - James

See, I know the process we went through between these paragraphs grew us into better men as we committed to prayer, faith and diligence.

Our squad agrees. We were the product, and despite the setbacks, we were successful. Facing trials together, testing our faith and relying on God. And it’s no spiritual bypass… we’re at peace with it. The Word is living.

Trials can make us patient, understanding and hopeful. Full of faith, forgiveness, and encouragement. Everyone goes through hard stuff. It’s your attitude and perspective through it that shapes you. Because whatever trial you are going through, even if it’s hard to imagine, it is for your good - because He cares more about our character than our comfort.

So let the test of your faith produce perserverance, maturity and completion.

It’s hard to understand, and the process can be stretched out over years — but in the end, the handiwork of a product of God is revealed:

You.

With love,
Eric

_{PS - checkout hemphoneylife.com and consider trying: Relax - Cinnamon Vanilla Honey w/ L-Theanine.}

_{PSS - The next story is about time. It may be the most important lesson i’ve learned yet.}