04/01/2024
“Dare to Dream”
Why do we settle?
Why do we accept our lives the way that they are?
Why to we set the bar so low?
Is it our incapabilities?
Is it our fear of failure?
Is it our fear of pain and hardship?
Is it our fear of confrontation?
Is it our fear of “missing out” on the old traditions and old relationships?
Why do we stay where we are?
Is it comfortable?
Do we think that it is “good”?
Have we lied to ourselves that it is, so that we no longer have to live in disappointment?
Why do we accept disappointment?
What keeps someone from changing instead of accepting what they are disappointed about?
John 10:10
The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. I have come to give you life and life abundant.
We settle for mediocre depth of relationships.
We trap ourselves in methods of acquiring financial resources, trading our time for money.
We settle for less than average personal health and fitness.
We settle for mediocre earnings, preventing us from giving and sharing with others or experiencing a better life with those we love.
We fail to manage the time we do have because we are too busy soothing the pain of our existence with bad habits, laziness, alcohol, movies etc.
Or we simply give away all of our free time out of obligation and commitment bred through years of feeling guilted or shamed, we fail to simply say “no”.
Or, we don’t know how set goals and limit everything in our lives that does not fit into that goal setting plan… too much of a good thing, is a bad thing.
We busy ourselves with children’s sports and activities so much so, that we end up in the same place 15 years later and we wonder where the time went.
We “hope” that we will at least provide better for our children that “maybe” they will be the generation to pull themselves out of the pit.
Sounds miserable to me…
Sounds out of control, hopeless and less than a full life to me.
The truth is… we are all of these things. We are deathly afraid of failure, we are so afraid that we don’t even dare to dream. We accept things the way they are but we complain about them constantly.
You don’t have to settle.
You don’t have to be afraid.
You are not incapable.
You are just hopeless.
There is an answer to your hopelessness, to your struggle.
Church won’t teach you this. Church will lead you to the well but it will not teach you how to drink.
Mathew 6:33
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all things will be added into you.
You, me, we all have the same opportunity. If you have a brain and a heart, we have all been given the same opportunity.
You can dream. You can hope. You can believe, that our father in heaven will honor his commitments.
But you have to do your part.
You have to learn to seek.
You have to learn to abide in the presence of his peace, his power, his love.
He will lead you into the desert where you will be tested and refined.
So that… you can become who you must become to have this “abundant life” that Jesus came to give.
What are you waiting for?
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Mathew 7:7
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2
Chad
