day 2990: Overnight Success?

“Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years!”

My more knowledgeable Venture Capital friends can correct me, but the days of a company being founded, products launched and gaining an exit within a short time frame seems like days of the past.  An entrepreneur asked me recently, “How long should it take for a new company to get to a liquidity event?”.  Of course, there isn’t an answer that is one-size fits all, but I did say, “Wrap your mind around running a marathon and if something comes along before then, consider yourself to be fortunate.”  As I see it these days, it’s not unreasonable to think that it could be seven to ten years of hard work to realize what we once would call an overnight success.

Why can’t God just answer our prayers on the spot?  Why all the waiting? For whatever reason, while running yesterday the Diana Ross and The Supremes song, “You Can’t Hurry Love” popped into my head.  “You can’t hurry love, you just have to wait…”  That’s also part of our waiting on God.  His love knows best for us and sometimes what we really need is to just wait.  It demands patience of us.  And consider, if God has the patience He has with all of our human misgivings, starts and stops, sin, doubts and disobedience, then surely, we can have patience to wait on His divine timing.  So, let’s not find ourselves pursuing overnight successes when it comes to our prayer life.  Let’s let God’s love have its’ timing with us.

Reference:  James 5: 17 (New Living Translation)

Note:  As you might be following along, we are approaching the 3000th post of Purposed worKING.  Many of you have been with me since the beginning in October 2008.  Others might have just recently subscribed.  Either way, I’d like to thank you for reading along daily with a special 1/2 hour Thank You Zoom Call on Wednesday July 14th at 1:00pm PDT/4:00PM EDT.  If you are interested in attending, email me at rusty@rueff.com and I will send you the link.