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By Doug Lanza

Twelve years ago I was working at a successful import/export company and making a very lucrative salary. I enjoyed the security of this job but was blinded to the toll it was taking on my family and me. My boss was a work-a-holic and his company was number one to him. He put the success of the company above his family and everything else in his life. He expected everyone else in the company to do the same. I remember being at work one day and talking to my wife, Anne, over the phone. At the end of the conversation I said,”I love you dear”. When I hung up, my boss tore into me. “Why are you taking company time to talk to your wife! You can talk to your wife when you go home but when you’re here at the job I expect you to work 100% of the time!” Sometimes my wife and I would be spending a quiet night at home when the phone would ring and when I answered, my boss would go into a tirade over the goings on at work that day. This was a constant conflict at my job but I enjoyed the success and the money so I overlooked these things. On numerous occasions my pastor, Richard Gazowsky, had offered me a variety of positions to come to work for our church’s ministry on a full-time basis. I never felt lead to accept any of these positions and was quite unwilling to leave my well-paid position with the import/export company. I was stuck on doing what I wanted to do and not on what God wanted me to do. What would it take to open my eyes to see what God’s plan was for my life? What would it take for me to let go of the security of being Vice President of a successful San Francisco import/export business to follow the voice of God?

Recently, a man who had just started attending our church in San Francisco stood up to give a prayer request during one of our Sunday morning services. When his turn came to speak, he simply said,”I want to know what I’m supposed to do next in my life.” Until recently he had worked at a large computer company in Silicon Valley and now he was asking God, “What’s next?”. Sitting in the congregation that morning and listening to this man’s question brought me back to a time when I also asked God that exact same thing.

It was on a cool April morning in 1995 and I was attending a Palm Sunday service at my home church, The Voice of Pentecost. That morning, we had a large group of special guests. They were a team of prayer warriors who had walked the old El Camino Real mission trail from the border of Mexico to San Francisco. They prayed over the state of California during the entire walk. Although many of these prayer warriors were from California, some came from as far away as Sweden. During the course of the service, Pastor Richard gave the California Prayer Walk Team a chance to preach, testify and prophesy. One of the prayer walkers, Michael Griffiths, shared a scripture from the Book of II Kings. Pastor Richard interrupted Michael and asked him to repeat the scripture again. This was the confirmation from God that Richard had been waiting for.

Several weeks earlier, Richard had come to me and told me that God had spoken something earth shattering to him but that he was not to share it with anyone until he had a confirmation from the Lord. Richard was coming to the end of a 40 day fast and had gone away to a mountaintop in Palm Springs, California to pray and hear from God. God talked to him there and gave him a fresh new direction for the ministry of The Voice of Pentecost.

As Richard heard that scripture from the Book of Kings on that Palm Sunday morning in April, he knew this was the confirmation he had been waiting for and that it was time to share the plan God had given him on the mountaintop in Palm Springs. As I sat in the middle of the sanctuary, my eyes were fixed on Richard and my ears were anxiously waiting to hear what God’s plan was for us. There was an air of expectancy in that place but none of us were prepared for what came next. Richard told the congregation that God had told him to launch seven channels of Christian programming and to produce 47 Christian films a year. As I heard these words I began to sink down in my chair. “I hope Richard doesn’t look at me when he says that”, I thought to myself. This was too big, too unfathomable! This was impossible! Yet, somehow deep in my heart, I knew that God was calling me into this new “impossible” ministry. I didn’t want to face it then but on that April Sunday morning God was calling me into the Christian Film Ministry and showing me what was next in my life. I felt the gentle touch of my wife, Anne’s hand touch my fingers. I held her hand tightly and looked over at my three small children, David(6), Matthew(3) and Elisabeth(2). I sank down even deeper in my chair and thought to myself, “How can I do this Lord?”.

At that moment, a battle began to rage in my mind. It was a tug of war going back and forth between the warm, fuzzy security of my position at the import/export company and the vast unknown of joining up full-time with this new Christian film ministry called WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). I agonized over this for several weeks. My flesh loved the security, success and money I had been enjoying with the import/export company but my spirit was drawing me to obey the call that God had on my life. Many nights after work I discussed this with my wife Anne for hours on end. As we talked, she would encourage me to follow the Lord as she had a deep desire in her heart to see me fulfill God’s purpose in my life. Even before I was saved, she prayed for me often and asked me to give my heart to Jesus. Now as I looked into her beautiful brown eyes and we prayed together, I felt secure and knew that she would support me in whatever decision I made. We joined hands and earnestly sought the Lord to have His will done in this situation. I really was asking God, “What next Lord? What is it that you want me to do?”. The more I prayed, the more peace I felt about leaving my job to join up with WYSIWYG full time.

I finally got up the courage to discuss this with my boss. When I presented the idea of me leaving the company to him, he was adamantly against it. He immediately began a concerted effort to entice me to stay with the business. I appreciated his desire to want me to stay. It made me feel important and needed. Once again I was thrust into a quandary of indecision. What should I do? What’s next in my life? This seesawing back and forth went on for several more weeks. When I talked and prayed with Anne about all this, I was always concerned about how I would be able to take care of her and the children. She told me that God was the source of supply for our family and not my boss, Benjamin. I began to lean more and more towards joining WYSIWYG full time.

Once again I told my boss that I felt it was time for me to leave the company and to work full time in our church’s Christian film ministry. He reiterated that he really did not want me to go and made me a very attractive offer. “Doug, if you sign a contract with me that you will work for me for the next seven years, I will agree to retire at the end of those seven years and turn the entire company over to you.” Wow! This shocked and surprised me. I could not believe that he was willing to turn his multi-million dollar corporation over to me. I began to calculate this in my head. I had already been working for the company for ten years. If I signed this contract and worked for another seven years, I would be a fool not to stay on for at least another seven or eight years beyond that. I added up the numbers in my head. “Twenty five years is a large portion of my life”, I thought. Do I want to devote most of my life to this business? Do I want to spend my entire life selling umbrellas, suitcases and other imported goods from China or do I want to take a chance and follow the voice of God? At that moment a light went on in my mind and spirit. No! This business isn’t what I want to devote my life to. Yes Lord! I will answer Your call.

I went home that night and shared the entire story with Anne. I reached over the table and took her hand and said, “Well dear, here we go”. We both stopped for a moment and listened to the joyful voices of our young children playing in the next room. I felt a bit like I was jumping off a huge cliff with no parachute but somehow I knew the loving arms of my savior would be there to catch me. Shortly after that night, I left the import/export company and joined Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks on a full-time basis. That decision changed my life and started me on an exciting adventure of following God’s plan for me and my family. “What’s next?” is a question I have asked God many times since. I am continuing to learn to wait on God and to be “anxious for nothing”. In future blogs, I’ll be writing about many of the spiritual lessons God has taught me along the way. Thanks for taking the time to visit with us.
Until next time, remember to answer the call. It might be God on the other end!

Doug Lanza is Vice President of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has been producer for the television series “Wysiwyg”. Producer of the feature films, “Guardians”, and “The Roman Trilogy”. He is currently head of marketing for the feature film “Gravity”.