How Saying Yes to Open Doors Led Arian Ghiacy from a Filing Cabinet to Nearly Two Decades in Nonprofit Leadership

DescriptionToday I’m joined by Arian Ghiacy. He grew up in a single-parent home in a rough part of Anaheim, and from a young age he clung to the idea that even though his earthly father had failed him, he had a Heavenly Father who never would. That conviction ends up threading through almost every decision in his life — a part-time bookstore job at Insight for Living, a season writing thank-you letters at Orange County Rescue Mission, an unplanned four-year run at an investment firm through the 2008 crash, and — almost by accident — becoming the interim pastor of a small Afghan Christian church in LA while working full-time in the corporate world.We talk about what it actually looks like to hear God’s voice at every turn of a career that never really had a five-year plan attached to it. Arian walks through building a development department and volunteer program from the ground up at Friendly Center over 13 years, why he believes relationships — not tactics — are what actually move fundraising, and what it cost him to keep saying yes to open doors while also building a marriage and raising kids. He also gets honest about the season he got caught up chasing certifications and credentials, and the question from his pastor that reframed his whole relationship to ambition. We close on his new role as Director of Advancement at a classical school, and what it means to finally stop trying to plan his own life.Most of the doors that shape your life don’t look like much when you’re standing in front of them — looking back is often the only way you ever really see how God was driving the whole time.Enjoy.10 Lessons from Arian1. A failed earthly father doesn’t disqualify you from a faithful Heavenly one.Arian’s story starts with a wound that could have become a lifelong excuse: a dad who wasn’t there in the way a father is meant to be. But instead of letting that absence define him, he let it drive him toward God — not as a concept, but as Father. That single shift becomes a thread through everything else in his life: the courage to step into responsibility early, the ability to keep showing up without needing perfect conditions, and the steady belief that he isn’t ultimately orphaned in the world. A lot of people spend years trying to “outwork” a father wound. Arian did something rarer: he let it become the place where trust in God got forged. (2:00–6:00)2. God’s leading is usually only visible in hindsight.Over and over, Arian describes a life that didn’t feel like a master plan while it was happening. It felt like doors opening, seasons changing, and him doing the next faithful thing without knowing what it would add up to. Only later could he see the through-line — how one strange job, one unexpected relationship, one “this will be temporary” season became the training ground for what came next. The lesson isn’t “you should be more strategic.” It’s almost the opposite: don’t demand clarity as the price of obedience. God rarely gives you the full map — but He does give enough light for the next step. (19:00–24:00, 1:08:00)3. Say yes to the small, unglamorous door in front of you.Arian’s defining opportunities didn’t arrive with a spotlight. They looked like filing cabinets, entry-level tasks, weird scheduling breaks, and roles that sounded unimpressive on paper. But he treated the “small” thing in front of him as meaningful, and that posture kept positioning him for bigger responsibility. There’s a quiet challenge here for anyone waiting for their calling to feel epic: sometimes God hides the next chapter inside a task you’d be tempted to dismiss. Humility and faithfulness with the small door is often the only way you ever get to the bigger one. (6:00–14:00)4. Discernment grows out of relationship with God, not a formula.When you listen to Arian talk about guidance, he isn’t describing a technique — he’s describing a life with God. “The more you pray and lean into Him, the easier it becomes to recognize those moments.” That’s not a hack; it’s a long obedience. What makes his decisions compelling isn’t that he always knew the perfect answer. It’s that he kept returning to prayer, wise counsel, and a willingness to be led — even when it meant changing direction. If you want clarity, the most practical thing you can do isn’t build a decision spreadsheet. It’s deepen the relationship that produces discernment in the first place. (24:00–35:00)5. Relationships outperform tactics in fundraising — and in life.Arian has been close enough to development work to see the temptation: lean on tactics because they’re measurable and repeatable. But his conviction is simple: donors don’t give because you found the perfect angle — they give because they trust you, they trust the mission, and they feel personally connected to the story. Strategy matters, but it can’t substitute for credibility and care. That’s true in fundraising, and it’s true in almost every arena: the long-term wins usually come from trust built slowly, not cleverness deployed quickly. (50:00–54:00)6. Servant leadership means being willing to stay in the background.Arian keeps circling back to a kind of leadership that doesn’t need attention to feel valuable. He talks about serving, supporting, and building — doing work that’s essential but not flashy. In a world that trains us to measure leadership by visibility, his posture is a rebuke: you can carry real influence without the stage. Servant leadership doesn’t mean you have no conviction or direction — it means you’re more committed to the mission than to being seen. And in development and ministry work especially, the person who can lead from the background is often the person who can sustain the work for the long haul. (54:00–1:00:00)7. Knowing when a season is over matters as much as knowing when to say yes.Most people can relate to the fear of starting something new. Fewer people have the courage to admit when a season has done its work and it’s time to release it. Arian’s story includes several closures that weren’t driven by burnout or disaster — just an internal sense that the assignment was complete. That’s wisdom: being faithful to a season without turning it into an identity. Sometimes staying too long is its own form of disobedience. The holy work is learning to recognize not only the doors God opens, but the doors He’s quietly asking you to walk away from. (13:00–19:00, 24:00–35:00)8. Credentials and career-climbing can crowd out contentment.One of the sharpest moments in the conversation is that pastor’s question: “Have you needed those things for God to lead you through all of your previous doors?” It’s a gentle but devastating dismantling of the assumption that the next step requires a new badge. Arian isn’t anti-learning; he’s anti-striving. The point is that ambition can disguise itself as stewardship — and suddenly you’re collecting credentials to quiet insecurity, not to serve people better. The reframe is freeing: if God has been faithful to lead you so far, you don’t need to manufacture legitimacy. You need to keep listening and keep showing up. (1:04:00)9. Trust has to be paired with patience.Arian’s life is a slow story. Not because nothing happened — but because growth, clarity, and answered prayers often took years to come into focus. He keeps pointing out that God’s timing rarely matches our urgency, and that the fruit of a season is often invisible while you’re in it. Patience isn’t passive; it’s active endurance — continuing to do the next right thing while you wait for God to make sense of it. Trust without patience turns into anxiety. Patience without trust turns into resignation. Together, they form a kind of steady faith that can survive long seasons of “not yet.” (1:08:00)10. Parenting becomes a mirror for your own relationship with God.That pants story is funny because it’s so human — and it lands because it’s so true. Parenting puts you face to face with your own limits: how quickly you get frustrated, how hard it is to release control, how often love gets tested by repetition. And in that pressure, you start seeing yourself in your child — and then seeing God with you in the same frame. Matt’s point isn’t that parenting makes you holy overnight. It’s that it reveals what’s already in you, and it gives you constant opportunities to practice patience, gentleness, and surrender. If you want a daily discipleship lab, you don’t have to go looking for one — it’s already in your house. (1:13:00) Get full access to Matt Heisler at mattheisler.substack.com/subscribe