“Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” – 1 Corinthians 3:7
This was the verse I read yesterday morning, and it was quite applicable to what’s going on in my life these days. You see, for the past 11 months I’ve been working on developing three products for Mills Creative Minds. Doing the research, studying the market, gathering statistics, writing up a persuasive sell sheet for each, and finally preparing to get them in the hands of prospective manufacturers.
Although I’ve learned how to be my own licensing agent, I honestly don’t feel that’s what I’m supposed to do at this time. My strength lies in the forming of ideas. They come to me constantly, fluidly. My weakness is in negotiating contracts & playing the cold calling, salesman game. Understand, I’m not saying I can’t do it or don’t want to, I simply don’t think that’s what I’m supposed to do in the immediate future. So what does that mean? It means I’m going to go through a licensing agent instead.
A licensing agent is the guy who will look at my idea, see if they want to represent it, and then take it to the Big Boys. Some of them take a commission, some don’t. I’ve done a lot of research and praying, and decided to go with Harvey Reese & Matt Yubas.
So what does this have to do with the verse? Simple: I’m reaching the stage where the success of my ideas is going to be out of my hands. I’ve done my part, and now it’s time to foster partnerships and hand my precious product ideas off. As you can imagine, it’s an intimidating prospect. Terrifying, at times. But I choose not to give into my fears. I choose to have faith instead.
Not faith in the agents themselves, necessarily. Or in the validity of my ideas, for that matter. I’m talking about faith in God. Because the parallels between the verse and my life are multifaceted. A farmer plants his crop, waters it and does everything in his power to help it succeed. But ultimately? It’s up to God. God controls the weather, the soil, the very DNA programmed into the seeds themselves. Nothing can grow or flourish without the help of God. Absolutely, positively nothing.
The same is true in my life. God’s given me the ideas, the seeds. I’ve taken them, nurtured them, watered them and planted them in the most fertile area I could find. But whether they’ll grow into maturity is completely out of my hands. It’s in His hands. (This also applies to the governing scripture behind Mills Creative Minds. “All things were created by Him and for Him.” – Colossians 1:16)
And you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way. His hands are more capable than mine. His WAYS are higher than mine. He can see the things I can’t, and I know that I can trust Him with my life, much less my spiffy product ideas.
This point was emphasized even more yesterday afternoon when I took a break from working. I went outside, sat on the bench and just relaxed. Enjoyed the moment of the day. The sun on my skin, the wind in my… goatee… the sounds of the birds and the traffic up the street. And as I sat there, God kind of gave me a vision.
I saw a small seedling, in the slow motion capture kind of film we’ve seen on the Nature Channel all our lives. (Kind of like this one on YouTube.) Anyhow, this seedling slowly pushed its way up from the soil, straightened up, and another seed suddenly popped out of the top and fell down beside it. I had expected the seed shell on top, but not the extra seed. Heck, I don’t even think such a thing is POSSIBLE in nature. At least, not in the time frame of my vision thing…
To top it all off, last night we had our LifeHouse and as a guy closed us in prayer, he prayed specifically on how all we can do is plant the seeds and commit them into God’s hands to make our plans grow. I tell ya, I got goosebumps on my neck. (If I had hair, it would’ve raised up tall…) To read that verse in the morning, have that vision in the afternoon and end with that prayer at night? Incredible. Humbling, really.
I’m excited about the future. I look forward to see what God is going to do, the doors He’s going to open, the partnerships that He is going to establish. I choose not to be afraid and play the “What If…?” game of questioning and doubt. I choose instead to Trust God with my future.
Kevin