Stop Waiting. Make a Move - Intermissionary Part II
If I had a nickel for every person who’s told me recently, they’re praying for clarity and waiting for direction, I’d buy you a drink.
Sometimes I’ll say to them:
What if it’s not clarity you need, but courage?
What if God’s waiting on you?
I think an overblown fear of failure has a lot of people stuck and rationalizing their inertia; like “running out ahead of God” is the worst thing you can do. While that sounds kind of right, I’m convinced there’s a distortion there. It sounds like: “If I choose the ‘wrong’ path, will I disappoint God? Will I lose His blessing? Will he punish me?”
Does that sound like the character of God to you?
Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? So if you - who are evil - know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him. - Jesus.
NEWSFLASH: IT’S just FEAR.
Pastors and teachers sometimes pick a particular attribute of God and amplify it to make a point. So if your pastor is bullish on obedience but shorts mercy and kindness, it makes sense to wait for a wet fleece, a dry fleece, lightning, signs, words and goosebumps before you make a move, but don’t forget, people in the Bible acted on sketchy direction all the time.
Jesus told Peter to get out of the boat. He didn’t say what would happen when he hit the water.
God told Moses to go see Pharaoh. He didn’t tell him what to say.
The Holy Spirit told Peter to go see Cornelius. He didn’t say why.
The Holy Spirit told Ananias to go baptize Saul. He didn’t say if Saul would arrest him for it.
In these instances and a zillion others, the obedience was found in the movement, not in the waiting. Trust in God was the catalyst AND the result of taking action.
I’ll bet you have some direction in mind - a spark of curiosity - and you just need to start walking toward it. Figuring it out as you go. As far as I know, that’s how this works.
Having said that, I am a professional at running ahead of God, and I do it for bad reasons:
Some part of me still believes God is withholding, so I have to get what I want myself.
Some of my ideas are so bright I get excited, and forget to ask God if they’re as bright as I think.
Trusting anybody but myself doesn’t come naturally to me. Controlling stuff does.
But I’m growing! I wait so much better now than I used to, but even still, when I get ahead of God, I think He smiles at my gumption. When I fall, he doesn’t spank me and say “I told you so.” He picks me up, dusts me off and leads me to something more suited to my skill level.
What does KJ have to do with all this?
I knew when the time was right - not too early, not too late - Girl Catch Fire would hire an operations manager: Someone who could catch the vision, sort it out and action it in fun and innovative ways. Even when I was first starting the company, KJ’s name was on my dream list.
Well, the time is right and KJ is officially on board at Girl Catch Fire.
She is a master at moving complicated projects from A to B. Plus, she’s super efficient, talented, kooky and she gets what we’re doing. She is leading the charge on the big changes we are making to Intermissionary that I mentioned in my last post. (Non-profit, new branding, The Gathering etc.)
That allows me do other things like, writing a practical PRE-reentry manual for use by global servants BEFORE they leave the field. Want to hear more about that?
In my mind, hiring KJ is a perfect example of the balance between waiting and walking, courage and patience, trusting myself and trusting God, and I can’t wait to see what He does with it.