Dare to Dream!
How many times have you heard yourself saying, “Someday I’m going to…”? Fill in the blank.
Sound familiar? I believe that “someday” is the enemy to the gift of today. “Someday” is daydreaming. Before Jesus Christ transformed my life, I did a whole lot of daydreaming. I used to sit in school, stare out the window, and daydream hour after hour. I had the grades to prove it. But daydreaming and God-dreaming are not the same thing. Daydreaming is putting off today what you dream of for tomorrow. God-dreaming means putting feet to faith.
I tell the people in my congregation that my job is to remind them every week that they are going to die. Now, that may not fit your perfect picture of how to win friends and influence people, but time is short! The Book of James urges us to embrace the gift of today and start experiencing no-regret living: “You don’t really know about tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for only a short while before it vanishes” (James 4:14). How much of our energy is focused on reaching our version of tomorrow, when we may dropdead before tomorrow ever arrives? James goes on to say, “It is a sin when someone knows the right thing to do and doesn’t do it” (4:17).
God didn’t create us to sit around waiting to die so we can leave Planet Earth and go to heaven. He created in each of us a unique God-dream for getting more heaven into Planet Earth. We need to start living the life that God created us to live.
I am so blessed that I have been given a God-dream worth living for—and dying for. It gives me the energy I need to get out of bed every morning. It gives me purpose and makes my life one continuous song of ascent. It gives me a glimpse of what Jesus meant when he said, “I am come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 KJV).
Without a God-dream, it would be so easy for me to plateau. I know too many people who have gotten stuck. They hit their forties or fifties and just stop. Life for them begins to be about looking back instead of moving forward. I meet other people who are in perpetual motion but aren’t going anywhere because they lack direction. Motion and direction are not synonymous. Does either of those descriptions sound like you?
I wrote Dare to Dream with three purposes in mind.
First, I want to wake you up to the God-dream inside of you. You have one; I am sure you do. Jesus gave the dream to you when he came into your life.
Second, I want to help you develop a life mission statement. You may have life goals, but that’s not the same. Goals can change by season or circumstance, but a life mission statement never changes.
Third, I want to challenge you to commit fully to your God-directed life mission, starting now. Remember, you are going to die. Today is the day to seize the present of the presence.
Let’s pray before we begin.
Father, you have created us for so much more. Reveal to us how to live life in the abundance of your empowering Spirit. May we say with Jesus when our days on this earth are done, “I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” Amen.
excerpt from: Dare to Dream: Creating a God-Sized Mission Statement for Your Life by Mike Slaughter Copyright©2013 by Abingdon Press. Used with permission.