Chasing Happiness with Ryan DeMent

What does the death of a parent teach you about being present? Ryan DeMent lost his dad this week to a heart attack. In this raw episode of Chasing Happiness he shares the two and a half weeks from the ER to the morning they could not revive him, and what he is still learning: shiny objects mean nothing, and the work left is to show up present every day for God and family. Not a how-to on grief. P...

If you keep asking why God is making you wait, and nothing is changing, you are not alone. Ryan DeMent shares where he is right now, after more than 20 months of financial pressure and the sudden loss of his business partner, and how he keeps showing up every day: praying when his feet hit the ground and thanking God for the little things. With Luke 16:10, Galatians 6:9, and Lamentations 3:25- 26....

Why does God allow hard times? One answer in Scripture is that hard times can teach us, so the better question is what He wants you to learn. Ryan DeMent shares what changes when you stop asking why and start asking what, with Psalm 119:71, James 1:2-4, and a prayer to pray tonight. Ask God why if you need to; then ask what He wants you to learn.

Praying "God, get me through this" every day? Sometimes He answers by changing what is around you. Sometimes He changes you first. Every morning, I ask God for the same things: strength to get through this, peace, purpose, and wisdom to know what to do next. A couple of weeks ago, I lost a good friend, a mentor, and a business partner, and since then I keep sensing God say there is somet...

This week I lost a good friend, a mentor, and a business partner, suddenly, with no warning at all. It taught me life is far more fragile than we treat it. I am not saying this from a stage. I am saying it from right where I am this week. I do not want to make this about the details of what happened. I want to make it about what it is doing in me, because I think it is exactly what God wants to do...

The world lied to you about what it means to be a man. It said strength is control. The truth is, the strongest thing a man of God can do is surrender. It told you a real man handles it alone, never bends, never needs help, and never lets anyone see him hurt. After years of building businesses, leading a family, and sitting in rooms with men who look strong and are quietly falling apart, I can tel...

Feeling like you are going backward is not the same as going backward. The storm that comes back is often where God does the deepest work. You thought you were finally climbing out, and now it feels like you are sliding right back into the storm you just survived. I know that feeling because I am living it right now. After eighteen months in my own financial storm and years of walking people throu...

Stop asking God for more until you can be grateful for what is already in your hands. Clenched hands cannot receive. After years of watching people chase money and blessings they do not have yet, I can tell you the real reason God has not given you more. It is not that He is holding out on you. Gratitude is the open hand that receives, and a hand clenched around what it does not have has no room f...

What the parable of the talents says about investing is not what most Christians think. It is Jesus being blunt about money, fear, and stewardship. The parable of the talents is a money parable from the first verse. A master gives three servants different amounts. Two put the money to work and double it. One buries his out of fear and hands it back unchanged. The buried servant is the only one the...

Stop forcing the outcome. Obedience is your job; the outcome is God's, and mixing them up is why you are exhausted. After years of doing loans for Christians, I can tell you why so many faithful people are burned out. They are doing two jobs at once, their own and God's. Your job is obedience. Small, daily, specific. Show up, do the work, tithe, steward the little. God's job is the outcome. The gr...

Stop praying the problem away. It is the miracle you have been asking for, from a Christian lender who sees this every week. Every major miracle in the Bible has a problem attached to it. The problem is not the obstacle. The problem is the setup. Lazarus had to die before the resurrection. The wine had to run out before it turned into wine. The Red Sea had to be there before it could part. God doe...

Stop looking for the deposit. 3 signs God is elevating you financially, from a Christian lender who sees this every week. Most Christians assume the first sign of elevation is a deposit in the account. It is not. The first signs are quiet shifts in your character that you have probably not connected to God yet. You have been begging God for a financial breakthrough for months, maybe years, and you...

Stop tithing harder and start asking a different question. Most Christians spend their whole life begging God for the breakthrough and never realize the reason it has not shown up is not that they have not asked enough. It is because they are still doing three things every single week that make it impossible for Him to bless what is already in their hands. I am recording this one from inside my ow...

Most Christians spend the entire waiting season asking God for the breakthrough. Almost nobody stops to ask the harder question: what God is really waiting to hear an answer to. After years of doing loans, I have watched a pattern repeat itself. The client who prays for the refi to consolidate credit card debt closes the loan and maxes the cards again in six months. The cash-out that was supposed...

When a borrower stops hearing from their lender, they almost always assume the worst. They think the deal is dead. The file got lost. Someone forgot about them. Almost every time, the file is just in process. I have been in the mortgage business long enough to know that a quiet file is not a forgotten file. And I believe the same is true about what God is doing in your life right now. In this epis...

Rick Warren says the number one sin Christians fight every single day is not addiction, and it is not pride. It is anxiety. And once I understood what that actually meant, it changed everything about how I handle a season of waiting. This episode is not about how to feel less anxious. It is about understanding why anxiety is a sin, specifically, how it hijacks the waiting season God designed for y...

I used to think God was a vending machine. Put in the prayer, get out the provision. Pay off the debt. Done. What I did not understand is that God was waiting for me to move first. This episode is about the moment that changes. In this episode, I walk through five specific signs that God is calling you out of debt right now, not someday, not when things settle down, right now. Each sign comes with...

If you have been waiting on God for longer than a year and are starting to wonder if He has forgotten about you, this episode is for you. Waiting on God is not passive. There are three distinct phases, and most people get stuck in one without realizing it. In this episode, I walk you through all three phases, what each one feels like from the inside, and the one practical move you need to make at...

Are you in a season where God just feels quiet? You are praying, you are showing up, and you cannot hear Him. In this episode, I want to talk about what is actually happening in that silence. I share five signs that tell you God is preparing you for something bigger than you can see right now. And I get personal about my own story: 18 months ago, we were two days away from closing on a major prope...

Morning prayer is where most people start. But what if God is waiting for something more from you than a quick prayer before your day gets crazy? In this raw and honest episode, I share exactly how my week went in the middle of my financial storm. The battles. The anxiety. The moments where I went astray. And the two faith practices that are keeping me moving forward 1% every day, even when the st...

How to surrender to God is the question nobody wants to ask out loud. Because surrendering means admitting you cannot fix it yourself. And that is exactly where I am right now. In this raw and honest episode, I confess something I am not proud of. I am still fighting God on multiple fronts. Still stubborn and bullheaded even while my financial storm keeps going. And the things I try to fix on my o...

Surrendering to God is the hardest thing you will ever do. Especially when the storm keeps coming, and rock bottom keeps finding you. What if that storm was not sent to destroy you? What if God sent it specifically to change you from the inside out? In this raw and honest episode, I share where I am right now. Bouncing off rock bottom more than once. Chasing materialism and keeping up with people...

When you hit rock bottom, you don't need a motivational speech. You need someone who's actually there right now telling you the truth. In this episode of the Chasing Happiness Podcast, I get completely raw about the last few days of my life. Financially low, emotionally drained, and spiritually tested, I woke up angry at God. Legs off the bed, feet on the floor, asking "Why? What am I...

Why can't I just change this on my own terms? I've asked that question more times than I want to admit. In this episode, Ryan gets honest about something most people in the faith space won't say out loud. Being saved doesn't mean the storm stops. It means you finally start asking better questions. Ryan shares where he's at right now, still in it, still wrestling, and what God keeps nudging him to...

Be still and know that I'm God. That's one of the most quoted verses out there and one of the least understood. This week I'm getting honest about something I've wrestled with for a long time: I don't know how to be still. My still is anxiety. Worrying about what's down the road that probably won't even happen. Asking "why is this happening" instead of asking...