Do You Want to Stay Another Day?

Life can be hectic and crazy and comfortably usual.  Some routine and some form of similiarity is a good thing.  However; I have discovered you can have "too much" of a good thing!  I mean, hey, chocolate - it's a good thing.  Coffee is a good thing.  Coconut cream pie is a good thing....get the point - too much is not good for you.

It is easy to get caught up in the demands of our lives.  You wear many hats.  You are a mom, a wife, a student, a teacher, a cook, a maid, a friend, a lover, a counselor, an employee, an employer......all of which are good things.  Everyone around you places demands on your life.  Somedays you don't even want to get out of the bed; for many reasons, but the most obvious is because you have to make it up!  The "maid" demand. 

I have come to realize that some of us are just going through the motions of living.  We are not living because we are not dreaming.  We are not pursuing anything.  We are marking off time.  We lose our sense of destiny, our sense of meaning and purpose.  How sad!  You were not put here to just spend your life without purpose.  You have a purpose.  You have a Big Dream.  But something is keeping you from embracing and pursuing it.

Bruce Wilkinson, in his book, The Dream Giver offers five deadly misconceptions that trap us and keep us living where and how we are - without purpose. 

• "I don't have a dream"
• "I have to invent my dream"
• "I have a dream, but it is not important"
• "I have a dream, but it is up to God to make it happen"
• "I had a dream, but it's too late"

If you are not pursuing your dream, do any of these resonate in you?  You may need to take a self-examination to see which one applies.  I am confident that one of them will.  You can look at your actions and they will usually show you the result of what you believe.  These misconceptions are a trap.  If you are caught in one of them, you will never leave your land of Familiar.  You will stay another day, and another day, and another day until your life has passed you by.

However, there is good news!  Today we are going to dispel the myths and lies of these misconceptions.  Get ready to pack your backs - you are going to want to leave Familiar by the time we are done.  Here are the truths:

You do have a Dream!  Did God have a dream when He created the earth and filled it with all of the wonders we see today?  If you answered yes, you are correct - guess what - you and I are created in His image and His likeness.  We are just like Him.  It is in our DNA to dream!

You don't have to Invent Your Dream!  "Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."  Ps. 139:16 says God wrote the dream for us before we ever came to earth!  Just like your eye color and your hair color was predetermined, so is your dream.  God has placed it in your heart.  You don't have to invent it.  You may have to take the time to discover it - but it is there.

Your Dream is Unique and Important!  Remember that the reason He has given us dreams is to be part of His Big Dream.  Every piece is important.  Your dream is no less important than anyone else's.  You are vital to the big picture.  Remember that someone else's dream may depend on you fulfilling their dream.

Your Dream is Yours to Act On!  This is huge!  God is waiting for you to value the gifts and talents He has placed inside of you enough to live in them!  This is where most dreamers get trapped.  We have to realize that it is not going to fall out of the sky and hit us on the head all wrapped in a nice gold package with a big silver bow!  We are required to work at it.  We are required to put our hands to it.  We are required to make the phone calls and the visits and write the chapters.  God has given you talents and abilities - now act on them!  He has equipped you with everything you need in order to succeed!

It is NEVER too late!!  Moses is a prime example.  Caleb is a prime example - at 80 and 85 these two men accomplished more than they had the 80 years prior!  Don't give up on your dream!!

Well, the lies have been revealed and the traps have been unlocked.  Now you have a choice.    Do you want to stay another day in Familiar?  Do you want to continue just letting life pass you by?  Do you want to stay trapped in the lies that keep you where you are?  You have to decide.  The choice is yours. 

Stay another day or take the next step?

From Dream to Reality

Well, the dream is getting closer.  You are walking a path that has taken you down many unexpected roads.  You have encountered border bullies, border busters, champions, wasteland, sanctuary, giants and now you are looking at the land of Anybodies.

Rich Wilkinson, in his book The Dream Giver, indicates this is a land that we all come to.  It is a place where there are hurting and wounded people.  It's a place where there are happy and satisfied people.  It is a land where we wonder and explore and meet people.  At first, we just believe we are passing through.  We are off to reach our Big Dream. 

However, maybe the Land of Anybodies is not temporary.  Maybe you begin to see needs and realize that the anybodies need your gifts and talents.  You begin to recognize the potential in this land and you begin to realize that this is your Promise Land - but it is your job to develop it to look like your Big Dream.  You see all the needs - and yet, all the potential.  The Dream Giver begins to reveal to you that you don't arrive at your Promise Land to see a completed dream.  You arrive in your Promise Land to develop and live your Big Dream.

How do you develop your Dream?  You start by meeting the need of the person closest to you and then the person next to him, and then the person next to him......pretty soon, your influence on the lives of others will develop into your big dream.  Then as you begin to see needs that you don't have the ability to meet, the Dream Giver will connect you to other dreamers that will have new resources and talents that will help you build.  After a time, you will look and realize you have been living in your Promise Land and your Big Dream will take shape.

Our dreams and our plans are like anything else.  They take time to develop.  How you start is not how it will look in the end.  It takes time.  It takes diligence.  It takes focus.  Don't give up in the Land of Promise just because it doesn't look the way you thought it would.  It will if you will just take the time to live it out.

One other thought about living out your dream is this - there is more to it than you can imagine.  The Dream Giver allows us to see as much as we can handle.  Your dream will never be "completed" or "finished" because the Dream Giver will continue creating and designing your dream right in front of you.  There will be aspects you have not thought of.  There will be people you didn't know needed your gift.  There will always be something new on the horizon. 

Live out your dream!  Don't give up.  Don't become discouraged.  Don't throw in the towel.  There are people out there waiting for the dream inside of you to be fulfilled because they need what you have.  Be someone's Champion.  God desires for you to fulfill every dream and plan that He has placed in you.  He created you to live life to the fullest!  So go Dream Big!  Go fulfill Big Dreams!  Go help someone else fulfill their Big Dream!  There's a great big world out there just waiting for you!  Go get it!!!

Be Encouraged,
Steph