Opportunities Find Leaders

For the past three years, I’ve been praying about what Lynn and I sometimes call our “third-third.”

The first third of life is often spent learning. The second third is spent building. Careers, businesses, families, reputations, and responsibilities fill our days. The final third raises a different question:

“Lord, what do You want us to do with what You have given us?”

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and praying about that question. The interesting thing is that I have not received a dramatic answer. No burning bush. No lightning bolt. No five-year strategic plan dropped from heaven. Instead, God seems to be revealing the answer one step at a time.

In ten days, I’ll board another plane to Africa. It will be my third trip to serve Young Life Africa, where I have been helping train and develop leaders across the continent. This upcoming trip to Mozambique will complete the opportunity to serve leaders in all three of Young Life Africa’s major regions.

What’s remarkable is that none of this was part of my plan. I never created a strategy called “How to Become a Leadership Trainer in Africa.” I never launched a marketing campaign or pursued this opportunity. It simply appeared. Or perhaps more accurately, God placed it in my path.

Young Life began in the United States, but roughly fifteen years ago it expanded into Africa. The growth has been extraordinary. Today, more than 3.5 million of the approximately 4.8 million children and youth connected with Young Life worldwide are in Africa.

One of their key performance indicators is something they call KKBN: Kids Known By Name. I love that. Not attendance. Not impressions. Not market share. Kids Known By Name. There is something profoundly Christian about measuring success by relationships rather than numbers.

As I have spent time with these young leaders, many of whom are leading in circumstances far more challenging than anything I’ve experienced, I have found myself increasingly drawn to their mission. Yet if you had asked me five years ago whether Africa would become an important part of my future, I would have laughed. It wasn’t on my radar.

Don’t Run Ahead

Fellow leader: this leads me to a leadership lesson I continue to learn, often the hard way. Throughout much of my life, I have had a tendency to run ahead of God.

I see an opportunity. I create a plan. I gather resources. I launch the initiative. Then I ask God to bless what I’ve already decided to do.

The problem is that leadership initiative and spiritual discernment are not the same thing. Many leaders are exceptionally good at making things happen. We identify possibilities before others see them, solve problems, and create momentum. Those are valuable strengths. But they can become liabilities for leaders of faith when we confuse our agenda with God’s agenda.

I’ve discovered that God is often less interested in the opportunities I can manufacture and more interested in the opportunities He wants to provide. That doesn’t mean we should sit around waiting for instructions.

The biblical pattern is preparation followed by opportunity. Joseph spent years developing character and competence before leading Egypt. David learned to shepherd sheep before he shepherded a nation. Paul spent years being formed before becoming Christianity’s greatest missionary. Preparation was their responsibility. Opportunity was God’s.

Fellow leader: I’m afraid we at times may reverse the order. We chase opportunities and hope we can develop ourselves along the way. God often develops us first and then opens the door.

Looking back, I can see that much of my life has been preparation for opportunities I never anticipated. Decades of leadership experience. Years of speaking and teaching. Lessons learned from success and failure. The ability to communicate across cultures and generations. I thought I was preparing for one thing. God may have been preparing me for something entirely different.

That realization is bringing me a certain level of peace about our 1/3rd-1/3rd. I don’t need to force the next chapter, manufacture significance, or manipulate circumstances. My responsibility is to stay faithful, keep growing, and remain available.

When God places an opportunity in front of me, I want to be ready. That’s true whether the opportunity is in Africa, Austin, or somewhere I haven’t yet imagined.

The older I get, the more convinced I am that leadership is not merely about creating a vision for your future. It is also about recognizing the opportunities God is already creating around you. The question is not always, “What can I make happen?” Sometimes the better question is, “What is God already doing, and how can I join Him?”

For leaders, that may be one of the hardest disciplines of all. Not inactivity. Not passivity. Availability. There is a difference. And perhaps that difference is where some of our most meaningful work will be found.