The Chicken or the Egg?

It is the quintessential question. The question that has likely passed the lips of everyone reading these words at some point, in some context or another, because it is ubiquitous. Which came first the chicken or the egg?

If we think it through logically, it’s not such a complicated question, especially if you believe as we do that God created all things. The chicken came first. That’s obvious enough. God created the chicken, the chicken laid the egg, and the universal question was answered at its genesis.

I woke up early this morning. I usually do. It’s quiet. The kids and wife are still sleeping, the house is silent, and it’s my time to be alone with God. Some mornings it’s as early as 3 am, others as late as 4, but for at least an hour I get to read, pray, and meditate on the Word of God.  

As I looked out my window and watched the breaking of the dawn, a thought forced its way to the forefront of my mind, and would not relent: Which comes first, passion or vision? Do you first have to have the vision to stir up the passion, or do you first have to have the passion to birth the vision?

Simple as this question might be on its surface, it is an intellectual conundrum, one that took up most of my morning. In the end, as I heard the rustling from upstairs, and knew that my alone time would be short-lived, the conclusion I came to was that passion must exist for vision to materialize.

Passion must precede vision. If you have a passion for serving God, He will provide you with the vision, and since the passion is already there, you will take the necessary steps to make the vision a reality.

It begins with an all-consuming desire to serve. Once that passion, that desire is there, God will supply the vision, but not just. Not only will God tell you what to do, He will also show you how to do it, and instruct you as to when to do it.

Because you desired to serve, and not to make a name for yourself, or be great in your own eyes, you will be humble enough to follow the instructions you are given without deviating from them.

This is where countless souls get stuck in the mud. They have the passion; they get the vision with the requisite instructions, then start believing they can do it better, faster, or on a larger scale.

Why just have a congregation of fifty when it can easily be five thousand? Why just preach to one nation when I can be an apostle to the nations? Why just have one orphanage when you can have five?

Because fifty souls, or one nation, or one orphanage, was the extent of the vision God gave you. Be faithful in that, and if a new vision is birthed in you, you will once more receive the necessary instructions to accomplish it as well.

The importance of following God’s instructions to make a vision a reality cannot be understated.

One of the most humbling experiences of my life was putting a child’s bed from Ikea together. I leafed through the instructions, and they made no sense. They seemed out of sequence, so I lay the instructions aside, and proceeded to do it on my own. How hard could it be? It was a child’s bed, not a nuclear reactor.

Three hours later, frustrated, and sweating, I had to take apart everything I’d put together up until that point, and go back to the instruction manual. I was done within the hour.

If God gives you a vision and gives you clear instructions, even if they seem out of sequence, even if intuitively you would have started somewhere else, trust the plan, follow the instructions, and you will see the vision come to life.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.