INNERMEORENEMY
Life isn’t about being better than anyone else. It’s about refusing to surrender to the inner voice that keeps whispering the easy way out. That voice has lived inside me for as long as I can remember. The part of me that wants comfort over growth, shortcuts over discipline, ease over purpose.
Growing up, I was fat. That’s not self‑criticism; that’s honesty. I remember crying because my clothes didn’t fit like the other kids’ or because I felt different in ways I didn’t know how to explain. My mom, doing her best as a mostly single parent, would tell me I was “big‑boned” or “husky.” But the truth was simpler: I was a kid without direction, without anyone teaching me how to steward my mind, body, and spirit.
I was born in 1980, raised on the food pyramid and Frosted Flakes, and I loved every powdered donut I could get my hands on. But somewhere in high school, something shifted. A question rose up inside me: Is this how I want to live the rest of my life?
I couldn’t accept being ordinary. I couldn’t accept drifting. It was a flicker of a lightbulb moment. The realization that if I wanted a different life, I had to live differently than what the world, the commercials, and even my own habits were telling me.
So I sat alone with my thoughts. No noise. No excuses. Just truth.
And the truth was: I didn’t like who I was becoming.
My habits were building a future I didn’t want to walk into. So I changed them; slowly, imperfectly, consistently. Over time, I became someone who could finally feel comfortable in his own skin. Not because I arrived, but because I started walking in the right direction.
That early lesson has followed me into every facet I carry today as a husband, father, son, employee, leader. If you want to change anything, you must sit in the quiet long enough to hear God speak and be brutally honest about who you are and what you’ve become. If you do that, you’ll get the answer you need. It may not be the answer you want, but it will be the one that sets you free.
You don’t become what you want.
You become what your habits are.
Today, I’m at peace not because the battle is over, but because I know it’s mine to fight. Every day I choose the habits that move me closer to who God created me to be. And I’ve realized something about my kids: the greatest gift I can give them isn’t what I leave for them, but what I leave in them. A light that won’t burn out.
Jesus said:
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden… let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” — Matthew 5:14–16
My prayer is simple:
May my life shine in a way that helps them see the Father.
-Joel E.J. Hinton