2022 is the Year to Launch

Welcome to the year 2022. I know that I’ve already released a post about it being the time to launch but I wanted to go a bit deeper into the thought. It is estimated that about 400, 000 new businesses launch each year. Out of that 400,000, it is also estimated that 80% will survive their first year of operation. Of that 80%, there is typically 50% that will survive after five years. Seeing that this is a season for the apostles, prophets, builders, pioneers, innovators, and creatives, the idea of launching a business seems quite an enticing venture.

I’m often fascinated by those who have an entrepreneurial spirit and the wherewithal to actually launch the business that at times was merely a dream. It reminds me of the parable that Jesus conveys about talents. In that parable, Jesus says that a wealthy businessman approaches three of his servant and commissions them each with an allotment of money to “do business until he returns (Luke19:13).” In some translations, this commissioning is recorded as saying “occupy until I come.”

So often, this parable was spoken after an encounter that Jesus has with a wealthy tax collector and prior to going to Jerusalem. It’s also said that he shared this parable because many of the people had an expectation that the Kingdom he was speaking of was close at hand. Even today, there are many people who are living as though God is just moments away from “rapturing His people” out of the many ills of this world.

What I pray that many of you who read this understands is that whether God is soon to come in the next week, month, year, decade, or 500 years from now, our job is to do business until He does in fact return. We are called to use the talents, gifts, and anointing that He has given us and put them to use as good servants. Our business is His business. I’m not talking about each of us starting a church or ministry, although those who are called to do that do well to follow that leading. What I’m talking about is launching into the business that God has commissioned you to do through the life span that He has blessed you with.

Have you heard God tell you to launch out into the deep and do something? It is interesting to note the definition of the word launch. It can be defined as, “to throw forward or release; to set afloat, to give a start, to put into operation or in motion; to get off to a good start; to spring forward.” It can be scary to launch something; especially if we find that what God has impressed upon our heart is something that we believe has not been done before or we feel ill-equipped to do.

The desire to launch is a great thing. Those who have been gifted with the mind to launch out into anything like a business are great in the sense that as culture healers, they are providing service to those that have need. They are providing a product or service and thus fulfilling a specified need. They are also providing jobs for others in the community and creating an economic flow of currency throughout that community.

What must be dealt with before you launch into anything is fear. So many people fail to launch into the things that God has called them to for fear of failure, fear that no one will show up, fear of being overwhelmed, fear of not being able to finish. However, note the admonition of the master in that same parable of the talents, who said to the servant, “at the very least you could have made a deposit in the bank where it could have gained interest.”

God doesn’t want you to be afraid to do anything and simply bury the talents, gifts, and anointing that He gave you. He wants you to at the very least entrust those talents, gifts, and anointing to someone else who will at least help you to develop what you have at the most basic level.

If you feel that 2022 is your year to launch, dare to seek God for how He would have you do this. Sometimes it takes a mentor, a coach, a trusted voice to help you to focus on those things that will enable you to get in that place where you can launch. As I’ve said before, this is the year for the builder, pioneer, innovator, and creative. These are often people that don’t always have a template to follow because what God wants to do in them, no one else has gone that way before. It’s like Abraham who God told to get out of a place of familiarity and go to a place that He would show him. Abraham had no clue where he was going, only that God told him to go and that when he arrived, God would reveal it to him.

Launching can often feel like this. Perhaps, you may be one of those 400,000 whom God is calling this year to launch something. Perhaps you’ve felt led to start a non-profit that helps underprivileged youth become active in the arts or in STEM-related learning. Perhaps, you’ve been called to help runaways or those victimized by human or sex trafficking. Do you feel led to do something that will enable out-of-work single mothers to earn a living from home through crafting or something else? Whatever the case may be, don’t let your talents be buried. Pray for direction, find your support, face your fears, find your courage, and when God says launch, you launch! At the end of the day, you want God to be able to say, “Well done!” Dare to launch!