God’s Timing NOT Your Timing

This morning I woke up a little late (5 am-ish) and did my morning routine. Then I walked out into the kitchen and noticed that my daughter’s dog, Rosie, wanted out.

So, I walked over to the back door and let her out.

Our back door faces the LaPlata Mountains.

As I looked up I noticed that the mountains were highlighted in orange and the sunrise was absolutely amazing.

If you follow me on social media you know that I LOVE the way that God uses the sky as his canvas. Especially for sunsets and sunrises.

We are truly blessed to live where we do and to be able to give God credit for everything.

After snapping a few pictures, I came back in and poured myself and Jenna a cup of coffee. Then I sat down and opened the bible app on my phone. Closed my eyes and said a quick little prayer.

God guide my fingers to direct me to the right book and the right chapter to give me what YOU NEED me to hear right now!

I keep my eyes closed and scroll up and down through the books. Then I click on one (eyes still closed) then I touch the screen 5-6 times in different places to ensure that I open a chapter (eyes still closed). Last I open my eyes, and if a verse is selected I highlight it in a color that I usually use.

Now I scroll back to the top of the page and read the full chapter.

This is 100% real. I do this pretty regularly.  It is one of my favorite ways to read the bible. I let God guide me where he NEEDS me. Then as I read the chapter I continually ask, Let me see what you need me to see.

He has yet to fail in showing me a verse or 2 (or 20) that I NEEDED to hear.

This morning he guided me to 2nd Thessalonians, Chapter 2.

Now I told you this to tell you this story. Lol

If you have been following me at all through these devotionals or on social media. You probably know that I am working on getting my pilot’s license.

Also if you know me I don’t usually do things the way everyone else does them.

Instead of going straight for my single-engine pilot’s license. I am going straight for a multi-engine. (They go faster, further, and haul more people)

It’s not unheard of but it is definitely harder to pick up on.

Anyways..

The instructor I was working with decided that it was no longer mutually beneficial to work together. (I pay him and he teaches me to fly safely. Seems to be mutually beneficial to me. But hey I’m not the one who said it. Also, I might still be a little sore as I write this. I’m working on not holding grudges.)

At first, I was a little upset, to say the least.

Jenna on the other hand was 100% in line with God. She told me, wait I don’t understand, aren’t you paying him for a service? I don’t understand? You do realize that God has someone better for you to learn with. This is going to be GREAT. I can feel it.

I didn’t want to hear it at the time. To be honest, I really just wanted to sit there and fume.

It’s been a week or so and I have reached out to several (about 25) different options.  We still don’t have a sure plan but we do have several different options. That God has provided.

What’s funny to me is that the day before that instructor called me I sent up a prayer with my whole heart. God, I want to give you every aspect of my life. Our bank accounts, our businesses, our relationships, my flight lessons, everything. You take FULL control, and I will stop trying to take the lead and start listening instead of leading.

Then the next day he took control and I didn’t like it.

Jenna could see that God was working, but I didn’t WANT to see it.

I didn’t tell you this short story to talk about the instructor. I told you this because I want you to realize that God is working for us, always.

Even when we can’t see it.

Take Action

I have 2 things I want you to do today.

  1.   Pray with all of your heart and GIVE EVERY ASPECT of your life to God.
  • Give him your finances, your work, your family, your relationship, EVERYTHING!
  • Don’t hold anything back.
  • This is important to really give it to him.
  • Then watch as he starts to work! The big thing here is not to fight him as he works!
  1.    I want you to read the bible at least 5 times the way that I do.
  • Start by closing your eyes.
  • Say a quick prayer, God guide my fingers to open to the book, and chapter that you NEED me to hear today.
  • Keep your eyes closed.
  • Open the Bible.
  • Eyes still closed.
  • Take your dominant hand and put it into a fist, not release your pointer finger so that you have one finger to point with.
  • Pray this prayer, God guide my finger to the verse that you NEED me to hear!
  • With your eyes still closed, allow God to guide your finger and place it on the page of the bible.
  • Open your eyes and read that verse.
  • Next, go back to the beginning of the chapter and read that whole chapter. Noting the verse that God had you point to.

Prayer

Father in heaven, today we come to you with full hearts. Our hearts are full of gratefulness and love not only for you but for the world you allow us to live in. God, today we pray that you would help us to understand why you do what you do. Give us the Godly wisdom that we need to be at ease with the decisions you make that help us grow.

God, we pray that you give us strength to preserve when things get tough. When things don’t go the way we expect them to, we pray that you help us to keep moving forward. God, you are amazing, and when we release control to give it back to you it is amazing how quickly you work in our lives. God, you are amazing and we KNOW that. We understand that things happen in your timing, not ours. We know that you are looking out for our best interest, even if we don’t like it. lol.

God, we know that you love us more than we can ever imagine. And today we pray that you help us to give you FULL credit for everything. And to know that everything happens for a reason. God, we know that your timing is ALWAYS better than our timing. Thank you for everything you have ever given unto us and will give unto us.

Thank you.

We ask all these things in your precious son’s name.

Amen.

A Little More

Today we talked about God’s timing, not ours.

Boy, do I have stories about how things happen in God’s timing and not mine.

But for today I would really like to tell you about my journey to starting a business with God.

Even if you are not into business I promise you will like this story.

I’m sure that you have heard parts of it. but for today I am going deeper than I ever have before.

Let’s start with the way that I was raised.

To start with I would like to say that I love both of my parents and that they did an amazing job, especially because I was a particularly hard child to raise.  I was not like either one of them.

I bucked the system every chance I got, and I would argue with a fence post. AND WIN EVERY TIME!  Mostly I would argue until everyone was tired. Yes, even the fence post. Lol

The thing is that my dad was pretty vocal with his opinions like I am. ( if you love a good laugh follow him on Facebook.)

I heard lots of this phrase growing up, I would NEVER want to own my own company because then I have to worry about everyone else’s paycheck. I wouldn’t want all those families depending on me to find work.

And for the longest time, I clung onto those beliefs too.

Up until about the time I was 30ish I said the exact same thing.

I would never want to own a business. I want to show up to work, do my job and go home.

While I can see why my dad thought that way, it was not the way God designed me.

And that is OK!

Isn’t it great that God DESIGNED us all differently?

Here’s the thing.

God needed me to learn lots of lessons so that I could be an AMAZING leader not only for our company but also for our tribe and my family. (Not sure what I mean by a tribe? Read the devotional on tribes)

Anyways..

God used different roles and positions to shape me into the person that I am today.

And if my dad had not instilled that thought in my head as a teen, that I didn’t want to own my own business. Then I would not be the person I am today.

As I look back on the roles that God has put me in they all shaped me.

When I worked for Coke he was teaching me the basics of mechanics for vending machines, and to be honest he was humbling me. As a teen, I was pretty arrogant.

We took this test in high school that told us what roles we would be a GREAT fit for. (PS in my opinion this is such a bogus test.) When I got the results from this test it said that I should consider being a vending machine repairman.

That was a huge SLAP IN THE FACE for me at the time. (See the issue, I looked down on certain positions. Not the way I am today.)

So, God placed me in a position as a vending machine repair guy. A GREAT job with GREAT people. Working for a GREAT company.

Next, he placed me in a position of manual labor and gave me my first taste of leadership. I worked in a feed mill (Basin COOP) and within the first year, I was almost fired several times, argued with my direct supervisor (who is now a GREAT friend), and was able to hire 2 part-time people to help me with bagging.

One of them is still one of my best friends to this day.

I’m sure that you can ask Brian, but my leadership was lacking, just a little. Ok, maybe a LOT!

After that, he placed me in several different positions with different companies where I learned tons of different things that he needed me to.

The big problem was that I KNEW I was meant to be a leader, but I was not able to secure a TRUE leadership position.

Then one day I finally came to God and said, “Alright God, I am missing something. I know that you are preparing me for greatness. I’m going to let you take the reins from this point forward.

I chose to be satisfied where I was. But if God showed me an opportunity I would not hesitate.

So he told me to start looking into becoming a CDL tester.

God I spent my whole adult life trying to get away from trucks, why would I do that?

But..

I listened.

I called the state of New Mexico because I was working in NM at the time.

I found out that in order to become a tester in NM you had to be part of the government or a school.

While I did work for the government. This was not something that they would have gone for.

So, I started researching Colorado and found out that it was possible. all I had to do was jump through about 10 million hoops.

I prayed and then started jumping through hoops.

It took me 1.5 years from when I started researching until I was finally accepted into a CDL testers course.

The funny thing is that I didn’t see this as a business. God blinded me for a reason.

Then I went to work for this awesome company, Crossfire. They hired me to start a CDL training program.

I worked for Crossfire for 5.5 years. I loved the culture, and the owner was amazing (I still have a great relationship with Ezra Lee.)

While I was working for them my role changed from a non-traveling position to one that traveled a LOT.

You should know that up to that point in our marriage the longest I had been away from Jenna since we got married was about 2 days and that was only once or twice.

When my role changed I was excited and scared all at the same time.

My first trip was a 2-week tour from Durango, to El Paso, to West Texas, to San Antonio, and then back up to Colorado.

I am sure that some of you are like, what a wuss.

I am a WUSS. Lol.

That was the hardest thing I had done in a long time.

But the more I made weekly trips to places the easier it got.

Until it got harder because I realized that I was missing my kid’s life. I was a weekend Dad and that’s not what I signed up for.

I changed what I did while I was traveling.

To begin with, I was watching shows on planes and listening to music in the airports. At night in the hotel, I would call Jenna to chat for an hour then watch more TV.

I changed from that to listening to business-related podcasts while taking notes and reading books.

At night I started working on plans for finding ways to be home with my kids and Jenna more.

I built a website for the company Jenna and I created.

I built product lists and prices. I did tons of research to figure out pricing and what the need for the customer really was.

I would sign off from work at about 6 or 7 pm and then work until midnight or 1 am on our business. It was SLOW. 

It took me over a year working this way to really get a good footing and even then it was scary as heck to launch it into the world.

Jenna could see that I was getting more and more excited about OUR business.

Finally, I went to the owner of the company I was working for and sat down to chat with him about everything.

We talked about what I was doing and I thought for sure Ez was going to fire me.

Instead, he gave me a few books to read and said, As long as you are not doing this on my time, I love that you want to start a business. Just make sure that you do not lose track of what you are doing here for us. And make sure that you build GREAT relationships!

Throughout my journey, Ez would continue to give me AMAZING advice.

My whole point of this is that I was not ready to be a business owner until I endured all of these other situations that God placed me in.

He needed to shape me.

I knew that I was made for LEADERSHIP but I never thought I would lead so many people.

The movement of Eclipse DOT and God First Life is amazing, and I KNOW that God is not done teaching me yet.

Looking back if God would have placed me in a leadership position at a young age I would have most likely never started Eclipse DOT or God First.

I would have stayed where I was.

God KNEW that I was made for more.

Just like you are.

So believe that God’s timing is WAYYYYYYY better than your timing.

Because if it was on my timing I would have been a leader right out of high school and never have been the person I am today!

God is GREAT all the TIME

All the TIME God is GREAT!