When You’ve Spent Your Life Making Things Happen
- Grayson "The Real GM" Marshall
- Jun 11
- 4 min read
There is a tension that many high achievers never talk about.
What happens when you’ve spent your entire life making things happen, and then God calls you into a place where the outcome is no longer yours to control?
For years, I lived in a world where effort produced results.
As an athlete, coach, leader, marketer, entrepreneur, and builder, the formula seemed simple: See a need. Create a strategy. Execute the plan.
Produce the result.
That mindset is rewarded in nearly every area of life.
Need more sales? Build a better campaign.
Need more clients? Improve your offer.
Need more wins? Train harder.
Need more influence? Expand your platform.
The world celebrates people who know how to make things happen.
Then comes the Kingdom.
And suddenly the equation changes.
The Kingdom formula is not:
Vision → Strategy → Execution → Results
The Kingdom formula is:
Assignment → Obedience → Trust → Fruit
The difference may seem subtle, but it changes everything.
In the Kingdom, obedience is our responsibility. Outcomes belong to God.
That sounds good in a sermon. It is much harder to live.
Especially for those of us who have built our lives around initiative, discipline, performance, and measurable results.
The Isolation of Seeing Differently
One of the most difficult parts of this journey is realizing that not everyone sees the Kingdom the same way.
Much of modern Christianity is comfortable talking about:
Salvation
Blessing
Purpose
Success
Leadership
Influence
Personal growth
Far fewer conversations center on:
Lordship
Surrender
Obedience
Dying to self
Kingdom citizenship
Costly discipleship
The language of today’s culture—even within the church—is often centered around self.
Be your best self.
Become the highest version of yourself.
Live your truth.
Build your platform.
Create your legacy.
Yet Jesus never preached self-improvement.
He preached surrender.
Jesus said:
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23 NASB)
The invitation was never self-actualization.
It was self-denial.
That message has never been popular.
It wasn’t popular when Jesus preached it.
It isn’t popular now.
The Danger of Measuring Faithfulness by Visibility
When a message doesn’t spread as quickly as we hoped, a temptation emerges.
We begin asking questions like:
Should I soften the message?
Should I make it more emotional?
Should I make it less confrontational?
Should I focus more on inspiration and less on surrender?
The pressure is subtle.
Not necessarily to deny the truth.
Just to dilute it.
To make it more acceptable.
More marketable.
More attractive.
But truth doesn’t become more true because it draws a crowd.
And it doesn’t become less true because it doesn’t.
Jeremiah preached for decades without seeing the response most ministers would consider successful.
Noah spent years building before anyone listened.
The prophets often stood alone.
Even Jesus watched many followers walk away when His teachings became difficult.
The Kingdom has never measured success the way the world does.
The world measures reach.
The Kingdom measures faithfulness.
The world asks, “How many people followed?”
The Kingdom asks, “Did you obey?”
The Hidden Remnant
One of the greatest mistakes we can make is believing we are alone simply because we feel isolated.
God has always preserved a remnant.
In Elijah’s discouragement, God reminded him that thousands had not bowed to Baal.
In Jesus’ day there were faithful followers far beyond the Twelve.
Some were visible.
Many were not.
Some had platforms.
Many did not.
The Kingdom has never depended on popularity.
It has always depended on obedience.
The challenge is trusting that God is working beyond what we can see.
The Real Battle Is Not Success
Contrary to what some may think, the issue is not success.
The issue is the throne.
The question is not whether we succeed.
The question is who receives the glory, who directs the path, and who occupies the seat of authority.
Many people are pursuing a better version of self.
The Kingdom calls us to surrender self altogether.
Those are not the same pursuit.
One seeks personal fulfillment.
The other seeks God’s will.
One says, “How can I become more?”
The other says, “Not my will, but Yours be done.”
One crowns self.
The other submits to the King.
This is why Kingdom teaching often creates tension.
It confronts the very thing our culture celebrates.
From Making Things Happen to Trusting God
For many high achievers, the hardest lesson is not working harder.
It is surrendering control.
It is learning that the Kingdom is not advanced by our ability to manufacture outcomes.
Paul understood this when he wrote:
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:6 NASB)
Notice Paul still planted.
Apollos still watered.
They still worked.
They still served.
They still obeyed.
But they understood something many of us forget:
Faithfulness is our responsibility. Growth belongs to God.
That changes the way we build.
That changes the way we lead.
That changes the way we minister.
That changes the way we define success.
A Question Every Kingdom Builder Must Answer
There is one question that eventually confronts every follower of Christ:
If the message never becomes popular, is it still true?
If the answer is yes, then keep teaching it.
Keep living it.
Keep sharing it.
Keep obeying.
Whether ten people listen or ten thousand.
Whether the platform grows or remains small.
Whether the world applauds or ignores it.
Because the assignment was never to build a personal kingdom.
The assignment was never to become influential.
The assignment was never to be seen.
The assignment was to be faithful.
Jesus never commanded us to build His Kingdom.
He commanded us to seek it.
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33 NASB)
He builds.
We obey.
And for those of us who have spent our lives making things happen, that may be the most difficult and most liberating—lesson of all
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