Today is my four-year anniversary. Four years ago Megan I stood at the altar and said our vows to each other and then a month later would pack everything we owned (which was not very much of the time) and moved to Dallas. When I look out over the past four years and all that Lord has done in our lives and the amount of growth He has created in me, Megan is the consistently stable rock through each and every part of that.
Yesterday, I was talking with one of my friends who has recently made a career change of his own and one of the things he said to me is that sometimes you can’t wait on opportunity to come to you but you have to create your own opportunity. I have always believed that one of the fallacies in today’s modern evangelical church is that if we just get on our knees and pray really hard that God will make our lives everything we dream it to be. There’s no place in Scripture or Church history where that is the case. God always demands action from His people. When Megan I moved to Dallas it could’ve been very easy for the two of us just to pray really hard and expect God to make lives for us here. However, the likelihood is that it would’ve just ended with Megan and I becoming really good at prayer and really good at being loners. The actual living part would have been nonexistent. We had to take the gifts and talents that God had given to us and create some opportunity for ourselves. God granted both Megan and I with initiative and with some specific talents. Megan is a top-notch speech therapist and this was affirmed by the numerous job opportunities presented to her upon arriving to Dallas.
In college I began praying to find a woman who embodied much of the physical attributes I find in Proverbs 31. Strength, dignity, honor, resourcefulness, initiative, are things I found wrapped up in Megan. However, just because she was all those things did not automatically mean that God was going to magically sweep her off her feet and into my arms. I prayed for a woman like Megan and made good on an opportunity to pursue and eventually marry her.
The is the reality of the world that God has called us to. He doesn’t fulfill our heart’s desires if we insist on living with a stagnant lifestyle. He expects us to take initiative and create opportunity and use the gifts and talents that he has given to us for His glory (Psalm 37:4).
Philippians 2:13-14 says “12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” God is working in is but He requires us to be working out our own salvation alongside Him. We are not called to be stagnant, docile Christians but to live on mission for the glory of God. I think back on Megan and I moving to Dallas. Our lives are drastically different today than they were four years ago largely because we both refused to be stagnant and removed from growth here in Dallas.
A couple years ago I read a book by Kevin DeYoung titled “Just Do Something” and it has had a massive impact on how I view opportunity and nontraditional, vocational ministry. I pray you’ll take the time today to recognize that believers are not given the option to remain stagnant. The Bible is full of imperatives commanding God’s people to be on mission. I pray that each and everyone of you who reads this will take that as a calling to create your own opportunity in this world and use it for the glory of God.