Rise to the Top

Some shaping moments come through people. Some come through experiences. And some come through simple objects that preach a sermon without saying a word — like a half‑full jar of beans with a single pecan sitting on top.

At first glance, it looks ordinary. But the message it carries is anything but.

In my Rising to the Top sermon, I used this jar to show a truth we often forget: What God puts inside you is bigger than what surrounds you. And when life shakes you, rattles you, or even turns you upside down, what He placed within you will rise.

The beans represent the pressures, the demands, the noise, the expectations — all the things that try to bury us. The pecan represents the person God is shaping you to be. When the jar is shaken, the pecan doesn’t sink. When the jar is turned upside down, the pecan doesn’t stay at the bottom. When everything is rattled, disrupted, and unsettled, the pecan rises to the top.

Why? Because it’s bigger on the inside.

That’s the shaping work of God. He forms something within us — character, faith, resilience, courage — that cannot stay buried. Even when life feels chaotic, even when circumstances flip everything upside down, even when the pressure is heavy, what God has shaped inside you will rise.

The jar of beans is a simple object, but it carries a profound quarry truth: God shapes you from the inside out, and what He builds in you will rise above whatever tries to cover you.

The full “Rise to the Top” story — and the moment the pecan proved its point — is shared inside Shaped in Life’s Quarry. It’s one of the book’s most memorable lessons.