You Are An Investment - you could be a God-sized dreamer

Original Art by D. Bolton

I didn't write for my God-sized dream last week, the assignment that Holley Gerth gives us God-sized dreamers to teach us and to encourage us to pray and think about where God is taking us, or what step God might want us to take next.  And it just hit me, although I have never had an official life coach, that Holley is life-coaching us.  She is being a shepherd, but she is encouraging us to go to the Shepherd of all shepherds and sheep, Jesus.  Maybe, I will go back and do last week's assignment another day this week;  but for right now, I am going to write despite the band of pain around my head,  because I am not too fatigued to think clearly.  

Here is this week's assignment:

Take this "do what you can" step for your God-sized dream:  Find a way to pay it forward.    You've been encouraged in your God-sized dreams by your sisters here the last few months.  How can you spread that encouragement forward by investing in other dreamers?  It can be small and simple or BIG and wild.  Ask God what you can do and get creative.  

At first, I felt a little flummoxed by this request, but I realize I am already doing that in the area of getting my home decluttered.  This is one of my God-sized dreams.  The other one especially for this year is reading my Bible all the way  through.  

 

Image Courtesy of[Grant Cochrane]/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Have you ever seen the picture of the cat hanging on to the tree limb by it's nails?  When you are ill every day, that is often how you feel --like you are barely hanging on.  It has nothing to do with whether you have faith in Jesus Christ.  It is like being constantly battered, until you have only faith left.  And if Satan could take that away from you, he would.  But He can't.  He may cause you to doubt, but he and all his cohorts cannot separate you from the love of God, absolutely not!  

Read Romans 8: 31-39.

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (KJV)

For years, I struggled, I read books, I read the Bible, I went to doctors, and I was not able to be the person I was before I got sick.  Guess what I discovered.  I would never be that person again.  God had been allowing me to go through the valley of the shadow of death, only instead of dying and going to heaven (believe me --I would have much preferred heaven), He had something He wanted me to do.  And that thing is what I am doing now.

If I had never been sick and if I had not been down to the very depths of my soul, I could not do what I am doing now.  And because of that I have been able to do more than I thought I could do, because God gives me the strength.  And when I don't know what to write, He pulls it out of me.   And I rejoice in the confusion and adversity I have experienced, when I see how crystal clear God can make even one moment of the reason for my life, as it is.  I rejoice in Him, because His Word tells me to rejoice. 

Sometimes, when I  write I feel the same joy and closeness to God that I experience in  worship.  And is it so strange to think that our lives  should be engaged in praise to Him in all we do?  Not to me, although I know that is not always so, because I am not perfect, so not every moment of my life is praise.   Sometimes, it is tears, depression, or griping.   However, even in my lack of perfection I can praise Him, because He has made me a creature that can only be saved by faith in Jesus.  And that is closure for sure -- wonderful, marvelous full circle Grace.  What a  wonderful Gift that God would do that for mankind,  send His only Son as a sacrifice for our sinful selves.

So what crazy, wild or small, simple thing am I doing or planning to pass on the encouragement of my sisters in Christ?  I am continuing to step by small step pass on the things I have learned about decluttering my surroundings, as a person who is still very ill.  I am going to continue to administer the facebook pages I have started, and to encourage the people who God is connecting me to, as long as I am able or God calls me to do so.  At least, that is the plan.  Proverbs has a verse that says,  "Do not boast about tomorrow,
For you do not know what a day may bring forth" (Proverbs 27:1, NKJV).
So I guess I am not really doing anything wild or crazy, although I have thought of various things like:  a new award for bloggers (one which I have received, but I have not finished writing about yet), or start a magazine, or start my own .com, which is wild and crazy when you don't have the money for that.  I really don't know right now.  I just keep putting one foot in front of the other, so to speak, baby steps all the way.  And then, I look back and I cannot believe how far I have come.

This is what I would like my sister  dreamers, wherever they are to do.  I would like them to have moments they can look back and see that step by baby step, their lives can change.  Even if they have a chronic illness, if they know God, He has not left them.  They may feel  alone, or like they can never have joy again.  They may think they can never get the clutter out of their houses.  They may feel stuck in that miry clay of whatever valley they are in, but God has a way of escape.  He gives us hope.  He gives us people in our lives that can encourage us.  

So I suppose I am already doing my crazy thing.  I am an imperfect person, who is definitely clutter impaired to a degree, especially since I have been ill;  and, I am encouraging/people to declutter their houses.  Not only that, there are other people who do it better than me.  Well, that is kind of crazy too.  Why bother when I could just point people somewhere else?  I do it because, I was tired of failing;  and, I think one of the reasons I was failing was that I could not keep up with the other ways offered to learn a better way of keeping house, so I would feel even worse about myself.  By the way, if I think of any other ways to encourage other dreamers, I will let you know -- I am pretty sure of that. 

What can I do to invest in other dreamers?  I can encourage them almost daily online.
I want other people to know they don't have to give up, and I want to suggest simple, small steps they can grab hold of to make their own.  We don't have to be perfect to start something:  but we do have to be willing.  In fact, the most proficient professionals mess up.  I know that every time I watch a baseball game with my husband.  Does that keep those guys from playing the game?  No!  They are out there playing day after day.  They cannot fold up  and say, "I made a mistake:  I will never play again.  They keep practicing and they keep playing.  That is life.


So, are you ready to have God-sized dreams, dreamer?  He will help you to take the right size steps for you.  If you have experimented with a dream in the past and you think you failed, look to it as experience, as a lesson learned.  Don't be afraid to dream.  God made us to dream.  He made us in His image, and He is the creator.  Come join us at Holley's blog.  Perhaps, you need to join us, Sister Dreamer,  from  right where you are.

A Letter to God-Sized Dreamers

Last Tuesday,  I was supposed to publish a letter.   Here is Holley's assignment:  Last week your "do what you can"step for your God-sized dream was to write a post entitled "A Letter to the God-sized Dreamers" telling your sisters why what they're doing and who they're becoming through this process is worth it even on the hard days.  However, I had a problem:  I was feeling sick, tired, and depressed.  I didn't even want to read the other blog posts.  Have you ever felt like all you want to do is hide your head under a blanket, because you are even sick of yourself?  Ugh!

I was in a bad spot, ignoring my letter-writing, because I didn't think there was any way I could possibly write a letter to my sisters when I wasn't measuring up to my own expectations.  However, the good thing, about being in a hard place in your life, is that it forces you to pray.  And God has answered my prayers in unexpected ways this week.  So here it goes, my letter to you.

Dear Sisters, 

Did any of you expect the process of following your God-sized dream to be easy?  I think sometimes we feel like it will be easy;  because in our excitement over the initial dedication to obeying God, we are thinking of the end results and not seeing the whole picture.  However, any of us, that have followed other God-sized dreams, know it is not that simple.  

Don't feel bad if you were feeling idealistic and excited, but you were disappointed when life hit you with some unexpected curves.  They happen:  such is life.  Even at the ripe age of 60, I get that same expectancy when I am planning something new, especially when I am convinced it is a God-thing.    

As I sat here writing you, I began to think of one of the biggest God-sized dreams I have ever embarked upon.  If you guessed marriage, you are right.  This June, my husband and I will celebrate our 42nd wedding anniversary.  I was 19, and he was 21.  We knew the Lord, and he was called to the music ministry.  Wow!  What an adventure!  I had never lived away from home, because I wanted to go to university in our town.  A week after we married we moved to New Orleans, so he could go to seminary.  That was a summer of mixed emotions:  from the high of the honeymoon to the low of being terribly homesick.  And that was only the beginning.

However, the important thing here is our God-sized dream, which was the consecration of our lives and marriage to God.  You see, we really believed in those vows we took, and I think the only one we haven't dealt with is "until death do us part."  God has blessed me with a wonderful, godly husband.  In fact, one of my young prayers was for him to be the spiritual leader of our household;  and, he is. 

I think you will find that God gives you different God-sized dreams at different stages of your life.  If you read the post prior to this one, you will see that I had to trim mine a little.

I hope this gives you some encouragement, that it is worth it -- even when your path gets rocky and hard -- to follow your God-sized dream.  Life doesn't always give us what we expect.  I did not expect to have a chronic illness that is difficult to manage;  however, God has used this to grow me in directions I did not plan.  Also, God was there even when I doubted my own dedication to Him.  He was there when I felt like I could not stand another moment of pain, fatigue, and depression.  He was there when our son and son-in-law died, when 3 of our parents passed.  God has been there every step of the way.  

God gave me back my dreams, when I thought there was no use in even asking for a God-sized dream.  Also, he has showed me I do not always have to take large steps to get there.  When I fall, He picks me up again, just like I would help my own child rise.

Yes, it is worth it God-sized dreamer.  It takes fire to refine gold.  And that is you:  you are a nugget of unrefined gold.  You are God's child.

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise
God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.  Amen  (KJV, Jude 1:24-25)

Lovingly, from your sister in Christ,

Deborah





P.S  Not Failure, But Discovery -- that is part of what a God-sized dream is about.