At a Crossroads...

It seems like 80% of my close friends or family members are there these days.

(and I spent all of 2007 there...)

At a crossroads.

Most of them being in their early to mid-thirties (man, last time I checked we were all in our early to mid-twenties and just 'starting out' in the World...) they're at this place where they've being doing something, or trying to do something for about ten years now.

They say seven to ten years of effort is the time it takes to begin 'making it' in your chosen field. Frank Darabont said it about screenwriting and directing, Robert McKee said it applies to any industry and, certainly, most of my anecdotal experience bears this out.

I have a lawyer friend who said it took him seven years before he figured out how to make a good living as a lawyer. 

My friends who are Church planters and who've finally 'made it' in terms of viability (which equals 'success' in that field and 'viability'=enough people and money to cover your costs) have been 'at it' for about ten years (some more) now.

I've often said that you hit this point where you've been working at it for a while and realize that it's either happening or not happening at the level you'd hoped for, or at a level that is sustainable both in terms of the practicalities (money/momentum) and the spiritualities (passion/ability to keep at it...) 

That point is 'the crossroads'.

It's at that point that you have to decide if you're going to 'keep at it' or change course.

I have a friend who was working for many years towards becoming a recording artist.  He did it, very successfully (given his 'home market') during his early to mid-twenties.  Then he hit the point where it became clear he wasn't going to hit the 'next level' (and there were many factors involved: getting married/having kids/making a reliable income etc...) so he adjusted.  He trained his focus into becoming an audio engineer and then a producer and translated the musical performance side from a 'pop star' trajectory to a 'worship leader' trajectory.  

As a result, today he's making more money, has more contacts, more influence and a greater access to audience than he ever had before.  He's one of the few I know who successfully made the transition.

And kudos to him for it.

'Cause if you refuse to acknowledge that a transition is looming, let alone work your hardest to weather said transition, you end up embittered and broke, or (if you just give up your dream altogether) working for 'the man'.

I think the key is to hold onto the 'essence' of your calling while transitioning the practicalities/actualities of said calling into a different form or forum than you had been expecting.

This is, I think, the 'crux' of making it as a Preacher/Church planter or as a writer/producer/director--and that makes it applicable to any kind of risk-taking trajectory or industry.  

How long can you hold onto your dream?

(AND)

Can you make a living, and build a life (family) on the back of that dream?

And, if you get to the point where 'the dream' isn't happening, do you have the fortitude and (let's be honest) humility to take it for what it is, and begin steering your wagon in another, new or somewhat new, direction?

My brother in-law and his family were with us earlier this week.  They own a restaurant that he runs.  That fact (restaurant ownership) puts them in the very top percentile of the people who are called/gifted to work in the hospitality business--and even so, he's stressed to the max and feeling like he doesn't want to do it anymore.

"I'm at a career crossroads..." he said to me late the night before last.

So at breakfast yesterday, when the moment was right, I said to him; 

"You know, if you find yourself at a crossroads, I figure you ought'a take a good look at it, then throw your wife and kids in your wagon, cross that road, and like Abraham our Father (he's not necessarily of the exact same 'faith persuasion' as me, but enough that he understood the metaphor...) go to the land that God will show you."

'Cause there's nothing worse than standing at that crossroads forever.

It's inaction, not transition that'll kill ya'.

So sure, watch the people go by for a bit.  Figure out the timing of the lights.  Try and deduce where the roads are going from their curvature and attitude but, for the love of your calling and your loved ones and your happiness/fulfillment, don't stand there too long.

A crossroads can open up whole new worlds, or it can cause 'soul atrophy'.  

Cross the damn thing.

Andiamo.

T