God-sized Dreams

Where Dreams Set Sail

It’s Time

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Pssst! It’s time.

We’ve come to the end of the book. Have you been waiting?

Are you holding your breath?

Are you standing at the edge of your dream trying to decide if now is the time?

If you’ve followed through this entire series on Holley’s book, You’re Made for a God-Sized Dream, you already know what you need to do. It’s time to take the step off the edge and into the unknown. It’s time to put your dream into motion, to move from believing to seeing. You already know what awaits you.

You know that you’re going to have to face the chihuahuas of fear that will be your constant companions.

You know you might face opposition from unexpected places.

You know that you might be the only one in the room passionate about this dream.

You also know that you were made for this.

You know that you’re not alone because the Giver of the dream is cheering for you (and all of us here at GSD are, too!)

You know that all the experiences you’ve had up until now have been preparing you for this moment.

You were created and placed on this planet for such a time as this.

It’s your time to shine.

What are you waiting for?

Perhaps you’re a little like me. Have you had the dream for a long time but years and seasons have seen it moved to the back-burner? Your dream baby is back there somewhere…it isn’t fresh anymore, but it still burns inside you. You’ve been in a holding pattern for quite some time. That’s me, too.

I was part of the launch team for You’re Made for a God-Sized Dream. Holley asked our group what our dreams were, and she walked us through a lot of these exercises and gently pushed us out. My dream of publishing a book on raising a traumatized child was there then and it still is now. It wasn’t time then for that particular dream to take flight. I watched as others from the God-sized Dream Team saw their dreams come to fruition, and I felt denied. When would it be my turn?

Recently, I was at a large conference and one of the speakers, Albert Tate, said this, “You may have been delayed, but you have not been denied.” He was talking about dreams and encouraging those of us who have had our dream or vision sitting on a shelf, gathering dust, to not abandon that dream…fulfillment is on the way. The time for your dream will come because it doesn’t originate or end with you; it’s all about the Dream-Giver.

So I want to say the same to you.

[clickToTweet tweet=”You may have been delayed, but you have not been denied! (Albert Tate)” quote=” You may have been delayed, but you have not been denied! (Albert Tate)”]

Is it your time, sweet friend, to reach for the dream…to blow off the dust and step forward? You can hold my hand if you need to because I’m blowing the dust off my manuscript and starting to work on it again, and I could use a hand-holder.

My son is almost twenty now. We’ve learned so much in the years that this dream has been on hold. Our relationship with him is different and growing. He is the one who stood in my kitchen and said, “Mom, it really is time to write that book. People need to know how it is.”

Is it your season? Is it time RIGHT NOW to get on board with that dream? Does it need to marinate a little longer? That’s valid, but don’t let it discourage you. Be discerning!

There is a great cloud of witnesses cheering you on. The world needs you to do this. Your country, your city, your neighborhood, your friend needs you to do this. You are part of a greater puzzle that we haven’t seen the picture for.

Only you can add your piece.

We’re all waiting to see you step off that cliff and fly.

Go get ’em, friend!

Shared by Lani Wiens

Photo by John Gibbons on Unsplash

                               

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Start Dreaming

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Start Dreaming

Five years ago I entered an online community that still exists today. I really had no idea what I was getting into becoming part of a launch team for a brand new book. I had never been part of a launch team. I had never even been part of an online anything really.

We had to apply to the launch team and one of the questions on the application was about our own dream. I remember not being sure how to answer. So I think I wrote down that I wanted to write a book and publish it. As we prepared for the launch Holley Gerth coached us and encouraged us and prodded us toward dreaming big, God-sized dreams.

Perhaps you’re a little scared to dream because you’ve been disappointed one too many times. I understand, but here’s the thing, there IS a dream inside you. A God-sized one. One that might stick out a little and feel a bit impossible.

Newsflash –

If it’s God-sized it SHOULD feel a little impossible, maybe a LOT impossible.

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Over these next weeks many of us who were part of that team and some who’ve joined are going to go back through the book that started all this, You’re Made For a God-Sized Dream by Holley Gerth. If you haven’t picked up a copy you might want to get one. It’s a step by step guide through the dreaming process.

More

Chapter 1 is “The “More” You Were Made For”. Your more and my more aren’t the same. I’m a Canadian farmer’s wife with six kids. You might be from Hawaii, single and upwardly mobile. We might be different as night and day in every way but this one…we’re both made for more than what we can see or imagine.

God has big things in mind for us. Your big and my big aren’t going to be the same. I may never move off this farm or maybe I’ll start touring the world with my husband, speaking and sharing the music and wisdom God has given us as we’ve raised our kids and lived out the dream that we’re currently in. You might hit the big screen or a corporate boardroom or foster a gaggle of children, write books or design clothing.

Your dream and my dream are different but both are equally important to the kingdom of God!

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I looked back at some of the posts I wrote while part of that launch team. I made a HUGE list of dreams I wanted to see happen. I say WANT because they are still part of me, some of them have changed, some of them haven’t come close to happening and some I am in the middle of.

LIES

In chapter one Holley lists some lies that you might be believing:

  1. Dreaming is selfish.
  2. I don’t have what it takes
  3. It’s too late
  4. I don’t deserve to dream
  5. I don’t have time

“The lies don’t ever go away. Every step of your dream, they will chase you. It doesn’t mean that you’re not spiritual enough or you’re on the wrong path. It just means that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12). You are in a battle – expect opposition.” ( pg 26)

TRUTH

The truth is that God has a purpose and a plan for you and He WILL prevail. He WANTS to give you a dream and He WANTS to see it accomplished. God is on your side. So let’s dream.

Grab your book and go to the end of the chapter, there is a Go Deeper Guide – a printable version is available at www.holleygerth.com on the “Books & More” page. There are great exercises to get you thinking and dreaming.

You’re braver than you think and you’re already awesome so let’s do it, let’s dream together!!

Shared by: Lani Wiens

Photo 1: Photo by Jurica Koletić on Unsplash

Photos 2 and 3 courtesy of Holley Gerth

                       

The winner of last week’s giveaway is…Mareedee2016! Congratulations! Email Alecia at godsizeddreamers@gmail.com with your info and she will get your book in the mail!

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What Is Your Next Thing?

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Two images come to mind when I think about wilderness.

Desert. Wide open vistas of nothingness. Dull, wind-whipped colors. Lifeless and void. No edges anywhere, just the vast expanse of sand in all directions.

The other is a forested mountainside where no light has reached the earth for decades and no human foot has crushed a pine needle. Endless acres of trees so dense that, once deposited in their midst, there is no edge that is visible.

Both feel claustrophobic to me. I tend to want to edges, some defining mark that lets me know I’ve arrived somewhere. Wilderness doesn’t have edges.

If you read my post last month here at GSD you’ll remember that one of my dearest dreams is to be a mom, which God has allowed me to live for over twenty-one years now (can I just say that adding ‘grand’ to mother is a dream that I hope I have the opportunity to live now that I have a married son!!). It has been a roller-coaster of a dream, taking us on dips and turns that we may not have signed up for if we’d known they were coming.

I also mentioned that we have a chosen son who came to us with a host of behavioral and emotional issues due to the trauma he experienced in his first two and a half years of life. Something that you may not know about trauma victims is that their need to be in control is very high. Their desire to control a situation at all costs is a driving force if that trauma hasn’t been adequately healed and dealt with.

Our son’s need to control and ‘normalize’ his inward state allowed us to experience our own trauma at his hands. Our home was a war zone for all the years he lived under our roof. We never knew what would set him off or when the explosions would start again. We were under attack constantly.

These many years of trauma led me into an emotional wilderness. I shut down and numbed my emotional responses so that I could survive the attacks that came on such a regular basis. This led to physical and mental health issues that we are still trying to find the edges of.

When I think of wilderness, I can’t help but think of Moses. He had the opportunity to become extremely familiar with the wilderness that he would lead the people of Israel through. He lived there for forty years before leading the people of Israel back out there for another forty years. In that first forty, I imagine he had a lot of time to think and allow God to smooth out that hot-headed youth, to hone his leadership abilities and perhaps to learn to listen first and act later.

While Moses was out there he did what was in front of him. He got married. He raised a family. He tended sheep. He talked to burning bushes. Then he left the wilderness to tend to the next thing that God had in mind for him. The thing that the wilderness prepared him for.

God uses our wilderness experiences to blow off the parts of our character that are not in line with His desire for us. He uses the wilderness to grow a hunger in us for the things of the kingdom. [clickToTweet tweet=”The wilderness is an avenue to the next thing.” quote=”The wilderness is an avenue to the next thing.”]

The phrases “do the next right thing” and “do the next right thing in love” have become buzz words in the online world that I live in. I will admit that these phrases bother me greatly, mostly because figuring out ‘right’ things was what I longed to do and couldn’t. Analyzing my motivation was paralyzing. My foggy, traumatized heart, mind and emotions couldn’t sort out the “right thing”. “In love” was a confusing concept that lacked definition.

One day I picked up Elizabeth Elliot’s book Secure in the Everlasting Arms, and in it she shares her own wilderness experience and offers up handholds on the cliffs of despair. In the midst of these messages, she shared one that stood out to me and became an anchor. I reach for this concept whenever I find myself frozen by anxiety or fear. When faced with incredible losses and difficult decisions, she said she simply brought herself to do the next thing.

Not the next RIGHT thing, not necessarily even IN LOVE, just the next thing.

What do you need to do next? Pick up the kids, throw in a load of laundry, draft an e-mail, pay the bill, write the article, patch the hole, show up at work? What’s the next thing in front of you? Do it. Then the next thing will present itself.

Moses’ next thing was to pack up the fam and go back to Egypt. He just kept doing the next thing as God revealed it to him. God used his wilderness to prepare Moses to deliver the Israelite people from their bondage. 

Wilderness is a preparation ground for the next thing.

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This concept of the ‘next thing’, when stripped of being right or wrong or trying to discern motivation – because that decision often put me into a state of stress paralysis, freed me to put one foot in front of the other. It allowed me to be a mom to all my kids in the various state of need they were in even though I was in a needy state myself and the things that needed to get done, got done. Even some of the things that pertained to my dreams. And some things didn’t get done, and that was okay.

My personal wilderness is gaining edges…I can see the forest for the trees now, and there is an oasis that isn’t a mirage. Some of my dreams will be left behind in the wilderness. Some are beginning to take shape. All the time I am being prepared for the next thing by a God who loves me and knows what the next thing is. I trust that He will help me get it ‘right’ and do it ‘in love’.

I’m not the same person who entered the wilderness. It has changed me, hopefully for the better. The wilderness has led me to value listening and silence and awareness of the work of the Holy Spirit guidance system that is in me. The wilderness is shaping the dreams that are yet to be.

What do you do while you’re in the wilderness?

Do the next thing.

That’s all.

Shared by: Lani Wiens

Photo Credits:

Desert Photo by ian dooley on Unsplash

Forest Photo by Adam Kring on Unsplash

When Fear Chases You Down

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We are told to be brave, to take courage.

We are told to face our fear, to take that thing head on.

What on earth do we do when fear assails us right in the middle of this dream that we hold dear? I’m not talking about me facing down the fear, I’m talking about the fear that was deep in my heart that came leaping up and grabbed me by the throat.

This is life unexpected, unscripted and undefined.

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When I was a little girl I wanted to be a mommy…and a movie star. Later on, I wanted to be a journalist, a linguist, a writer, a teacher, pretty much anything to do with words, but the mommy bit never left me. It was the dream I held most dear.

My worst fear came true when we were told we wouldn’t be able to have kids unless my husband had surgery…and even then it would be iffy at best.

Sometimes, maybe a lot of times, we are staring at our fear’s dark gaping maw, not because we want to but because we have to. There was no choice involved…we didn’t get in an airplane and jump out to conquer a fear of heights. We didn’t purposefully stride across the stage to deliver a speech to face a fear of public speaking.

Often, our deepest fears come to get us. What are we going to do about it?

My dream to become a mommy did come to pass. My husband had that surgery, and we now have five biological children and one by choice. That choice, to bring in this boy with more issues than I care to think about, unhinged my dreams for an idyllic family life. We were thrown into a minefield that keeps blowing up that dream to this day. We are often asked how we handle it.

How do we handle fear? One hope-filled prayer at a time.

When our boy triggered and things would start flying, fear choked me. I was often paralyzed by it. I still suffer from PTSD, anxiety, and depression. I needed to learn how to deal with all the fear that those explosions caused. There were practical things we could do, things we could learn but my soul needed to know how to walk toward my God, rather than to someone or something.  It was a long lesson that I still struggle with. My instinct is to try to be the savior, to fix it, but there is only one Savior, only one Fixer, and it isn’t me.

When fear comes knocking at my door, who, or what, am I trusting?

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Am I trusting my own strengths and abilities? Am I trusting someone else to fix things for me? Am I trusting a method, a program, a medication or therapy? I have had to learn to point a finger at the thing I’m trusting and if it isn’t God, I need to realign myself.

There are, however, things you find out about yourself when the things you fear come to pass in the middle of your dream.

  1. You are stronger than you thought you were because He is strong. (Philippians 4:13)
  2. You are braver than you thought you were because He is standing with you. (Joshua 1:9)
  3. You will have a gift to give others because He gave it to you. (II Corinthians 1:3-7)

I never, for one moment, knew that I could endure the tumult that has been our home for the last 17 years. I never knew that I could love a child who didn’t trust me and told me often that I wasn’t his parent and that we didn’t love him. I never knew that I would be able to bring comfort, hope, and wisdom to other parents in similar situations.

I am living the dream, in the midst of the fear, knowing that my God, Who is good, is bringing good out of the suffering and pain that we’ve gone through.

 “We have this hope as an anchor for our soul, firm and secure!” (Heb 6:19a)

Shared by: Lani Wiens

                                       

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A Community of Dreamers

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There we were, sitting around the table at the farm eating lunch. My husband was away hanging out with the prayer community at Breakforth (it’s a huge equipping event in Canada). The kids and I had decided it would be fun to head to the farm for the weekend and chill. My son brought his best friend along and we were doing what we’d come there for…chillin’ at the table. A community of chillers!

My 10-year old started it all. She said something about using her math skills as a super-power and the tangent exploded and the Whiz-Nurds were born. We started throwing ideas around and pretty soon we had a whole cast of characters with amazing super powers and a setting and some plot lines. My kids were so excited they kept coming up with new ideas for the rest of the day. They wouldn’t let me leave it alone; I was required to write down all the ideas so we wouldn’t forget anything! My task, now, is to write it because they want to read our dream.

That evening, as I spoke with my husband about our crazy ideas, he added a few suggestions of his own that lent depth and purpose to our story line. We were a community of dreamers…all ages, genders and, at that moment, provinces.

Community, in this instance, was a flash in the pan blaze of ideas. It was inspiring and motivating and so very much fun! We weren’t following a set of ‘think-tank’ rules. We didn’t plan for it. It just happened and it was beautiful.

Not all forms of community look like that. I used to be a loner, feeling like I wasn’t part of anything. I took a chance going to a blogging conference once, stepping way out of my comfort zone, and this beautiful group of women caught me up in their net of friendship. Through the Allume community online I’ve met so many wonderful people.

My writing community is all over the place; my sweet group of writing ‘Deevahs’ lives in a huge circle around North America, but we are no less a community than if we lived next door to one another. Thank you, internet!

The God-sized Dream Team was, I believe, from all over the world! And out of that community came this brilliant idea and the dream has carried on and invited all of you, dear readers, to join in.

I derive great delight from the pockets of women I meet with regularly in real life. I need that sort of community as well, warm bodies that are nearby that I can hug and sip tea with across a kitchen table. They don’t have a set pattern either, I meet with quilters, women on similar journeys to mine, from the same church, from different churches, from my kids’ school…you get the picture.

Community doesn’t need to fit a mold…its parameters are far more fluid and gracious.

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Perhaps you’re feeling alone on an island, longing for the kind of connection that I’ve just described. May I encourage you, friend, to reach out beyond your comfort zone?

Take one step, one click. Perhaps the community you need for this season is right in front of you, waiting for you to join in. There are so many amazing groups to be found through the internet for whatever your interest is; look at your library, your favourite hobby store, your church bulletin board.

What journey are you on right now? Raising kids, pursuing a dream, needing to lose weight? Start a group of your own and ask others to join with you. Read a book together, take a class. Drink some warm and wonderful and just talk.

Dream a little of community. Then, make your dream come to life! Go fishing, find something that works for you and join in. Scripture tells us that two are better than one, and iron sharpens iron.

We need one another, you and I, so come on in! I’ll get the tea started.

Shared by: Lani Wiens

Photo courtesy of: startupstockphotos.com