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Starting in February, on Wednesdays we are thrilled to fling open the doors to all of YOU! We love hearing your dreaming stories…the lessons you’ve learned, the roads you’ve walked, the dreams He’s planted in your hearts! Today we are so excited to welcome our God-sized Dreams sister, Rosanne, to this space. She shares the reminder that God can have an awesome plan through our dreams…but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to work for them. We’re so excited to have you here today, Rosanne!

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I’m going to be honest with you – I don’t like to do hard things. I too easily give up on the hard if I can justify it.

I’ve always been wimpy.

Right now, I am in a season of hard work and transition. I have always prided myself on the fact that I like change and I like to try and learn new things. While that is certainly true for fun things, the sad truth is when those new things include putting my nose to the grindstone, I’m less than enthused.

This spring and into summer, I felt God nudging me to expand my freelance writing career. I currently write two articles and this little round up of upcoming events weekly for my local newspaper. It’s been a good job in that I work from home, I’ve learned a ton, and it provided some much needed income.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide much income. That’s kind of par for the course when freelancing for a newspaper. I’ve known for a while that my time there was done, but I talked myself into just staying. I had all kinds of reasons – good ones. After all, my weekly article gave people and organizations a voice and passed on information to those who needed it.

But the truth was, that staying where I was meant I wasn’t positioning myself to do what God had called me to do.

God showed me my pat answer of “waiting on God,” was really me walking the path of least resistance. That staying in my rut was easier than doing the hard work of climbing out and forging a new path. Ouch!

This spring I started working on making the transition to freelancing for better paying markets. I worked on a professional website, watched webinars and took copious notes. Finally, I was ready to begin.

That first day, I sat down and got out my notebook. I turned to the first page and stared at that pristine, white page.

And nothing. No ideas – not a one – showed up.

I wondered if maybe I had gone off the path, that maybe I wasn’t hearing God correctly. Maybe, I should just stop and keep doing what I had been doing. It would certainly be easier.

Then, in October, I took an intensive class on pitching ideas and writing queries for magazines. It was hard and humbling.

As I sat down to do the hard work of fine tuning ideas, finding experts to do pre-interviews with and studying markets, it hit me with the force of a train that transitioning my freelance career from the newspaper to bigger markets was not going to be easy. It was, in fact, going to be really hard work, especially as I straddled the leap from my newspaper job to those bigger markets.

I know – did Captain Obvious just come into the room? I’m not sure why I was so blindsided by all the work I was going to have to do over the next three to six months.

I could certainly see the benefits – down the road. I could see how working smarter would net me time for both my God-sized dreams and the people in my life.

But getting from here to there – well, that path was one that is going to require some sweat equity. It isn’t a flat path I can stroll down. It isn’t even just slightly uphill. It’s a mountain climb.

Looking at that hard road ahead, it would be very easy for me to just “wait on God,” and not make any changes – to just keep doing what I am doing, to keep spinning my wheels because even though I’m not going anywhere, at least I know where I’m at and it seems so much easier.

Yes, God comes in and works with and through us to accomplish His God-sized Dreams. Yes, it doesn’t come down to just us and our abilities.

But that doesn’t mean God doesn’t ask us to do the hard in this whole dream thing.

Remember the story of the walls of Jericho coming down? Yes, the Israelites just blew a trumpet and all the walls fell right down. They didn’t have to fight.

But before the walls fell down, they had to march. (<====Tweet this.)

They didn’t just have to march for one day. They had to get up and march around the city of Jericho every single day for six days. Then, on the seventh day, they had to march around the city not just once, but seven times.

From what I can gather, that march was about a mile long. So, they marched a mile every day, and then marched seven miles the final day. That’s a lot of walking when you are wearing sandals and not Nike Elites.

God delivered the city into their hands, but they had to do the work first. Their march, their work, positioned them in the right place for God’s intervention. (<====Tweet this.)

So, when you are in the beginning stages of your dream or you are transitioning to the next step, don’t be surprised (like me!) about how hard you have to work. Don’t let the feeling of climbing a tough mountain peak make you want to stay at the bottom because you’ll miss it. You’ll miss the beauty of the climb and the breathtaking wonder that you don’t fully appreciate until you are standing at the top. Instead, find that next hand or toe hold and keep climbing – even when you are sweaty, even when you are out of breath, even when you are tired. The glory of God’s intervention waits for you at the top.

Blessings, Rosanne

Photo Credit: Ronny Mehne

Rosanne Bowman writes about God making a difference in our daily lives at Divine Ordinary. A mom of two teen boys (who she spends much of her time feeding) and a wife to the Coach for almost 22, years, Rosanne is a Bible study geek who gets ridiculously excited to share the truths God shows her that transform the everyday ordinary into something extraordinary.

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Do you have a God-sized Dream story to tell? We’d love to have you share your journey with us!
Visit our Guest Post Submissions page to learn more!