“I’m waiting for God to open the door.” I hear this phrase all the time. It’s a Christian cliche used to define those really difficult times in our lives when we are waiting for something to happen. I’m waiting for Mr. right, or Miss right to come along. I’m waiting for a job opportunity to work out. I’m waiting for the finances to come through. Sometimes it’s appropriate to use the phrase, other times it’s just an excuse. That’s what makes it a cliche. There’s a time to wait on things in life, but there’s also a time for grabbing the bull by the horns. Discerning the difference between the two is true wisdom. You don’t want to keep waiting when what you’ve been looking for is staring you straight in the face.
There’s a story in the gospels about Jesus’ disciples that has always grabbed my attention. Jesus is a relatively unknown, obscure teacher from the small town of Nazareth. Can anything good come from there? As he is walking the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee, he begins recruiting.
18 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 19 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 20 And they left their nets at once and followed him.
21 A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. 22 They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.
Matthew 4:18-22 NIV
Isn’t it crazy that they just walked away? Fishing was their livelihood. Family was their foundation. It wasn’t a prudent decision to just leave all that behind and follow an emerging rabbi from town to town simply because he extended an invitation to you. Somehow they knew that this Jesus was what they had been looking for and they were willing to forsake everything else to follow him.
I recently read an article about Apple’s twelfth employee, a guy named Mark Stephens. He was hired way back in 1977 just as Apple was moving out of Steve Job’s garage and into a real office space. Steve was very savvy in the early days about cutting costs and so he would often give employees the option of either taking cash payments, or receiving payment in the form of future stock in the company. Mark opted for the cash. His pay was roughly $6/hour. Mark made a prudent decision. Taking a wage was the sure thing. It would be risky to bank on the success of Apple computers. However, it’s painful to even think about how much money Mark Stephens lost on account of this missed opportunity.
Risk is the common denominator in the two stories. It’s easy to maintain the status quo. Sometimes we get comfortable with waiting and we don’t ever step out and take a necessary risk. Patience is a virtue, but it can also be the excuse we use when we are afraid. “I’m just being patient, waiting for God to come through.” It’s always worth considering that maybe God is waiting on you to act!
Mark Stephens lost out on millions of dollars by passing on an early investment in Apple computers, but what would Peter, James and John have lost out on? If you really are waiting for God to open a door, I hope that you are preparing yourself to act when that door does finally open up for you, otherwise, you will be waiting in vain.