Tag Archives: goals

Throwback Sundays…Dreaming With the Dream Team

Dreaming With the Dream Team was the first blog post I ever wrote. Crazy to think of how much has changed since then. I dream with different people these days…in a different state. But still, I dream…and I’m blessed with some incredibly crazy cool people to do it with!

This prayer from Sir Francis Drake is still like a punch in the gut…“Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves. When our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little. When we arrive safely because we have sailed to close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord.”

You can check out the rest of the post here. Do you have a dream team of friends you get to dream with?

A Lesson in Stacking Blocks

Stacking blocks…do you remember those? As you can see from the picture above they’ve become a bit more sophisticated these days. But, the concept is still the same.

I don’t know about you but I was taught to stack the pieces in order from biggest to smallest. And something innate told me that whenever I was playing with a child using this toy I should teach them the same thing.

Well, yesterday I was playing with an almost 3 year old and I decided to mix things up on her. Without help, she stacked them like this:

I took off the top piece from each stack and moved them around. She immediately told me I was wrong and fixed it. Deciding to start over I emptied the stacks and proceeded to replace them all like this:

The little girl got quite upset and proceeded to empty the stacks and replace them correctly. We went back and forth like this a couple of times. But, eventually, she stacked them like this:

I smiled. And I wondered what future generations would do, what they wouldn’t do, what they would dream, what they would risk…if we we didn’t teach them they were wrong and incompetent if they didn’t stack the blocks in the proper shape and size order.

Did you stack the blocks the “right” way as a child?

Inviting Others into Your Dream

What is your dream? What’s the big idea sitting on your “someday” list just waiting for attention?

I think we all have them. Sometimes we may be afraid to admit that we do, but I think even then they’re there in us somewhere no matter how deep we’ve tried to bury them. I’ll be the first to admit that there is always some degree of fear when I verbalize a dream or big idea to another person for the first time. We fear being laughed at, being thought foolish.

And I have that fear despite the fact that I’ve been blessed with incredible people in my life who support crazy dreams and big ideas. They have their own and together we share, encourage, and push one another to go beyond dreaming and start doing.

Ben Arment is a master of the process of making dreams a reality. A conversation with him always inspires me to DO something. Ben had a dream called STORY. He invited other people into that dream and God brought it to life. I wonder what this world, what the Church would look like if we invited others into our dreams and surrendered them to God to bring to life more often.

I’ve learned in recent months just how important it is to have people in your life who support your dreams. I’m blessed to have a couple friends who do just that. They encourage my ideas and push me to think bigger. If you don’t have someone you can get lost in big idea conversations with for hours over dinner or coffee, find that. I think it’s the first step towards DOING something. Invite someone into your dream. Find someone who doesn’t think you’re crazy, who wants to encourage and support you. Someone who believes in your dream as if it’s their own. It’s more fun that way. :)

Live out your dream. Don’t just live in it.

These Are the Stories of a Girl (Writing Stories Pt 2)

I have been wrestling with this post all day…really all week. But, I said I would post it, so I’m going to keep my word. If you missed part one, you can check it out here for the background on this post. These stories are in no particular order and in fact I believe they are interwoven and depend on one another.

Bridge the Gap
Although I can’t quite put a finger on it or give it a Webster worthy definition, I’ve had a feeling in my heart for a while now that there is a gap in the Church. A gap between what the Church is and what God intended the Church to be. God has placed a burden on my heart for this gap and the impact it has on how we live as the Church. He’s waking me up to the realization that His people, His Church, needs to be awakened. I’m not sure what that looks like exactly, but I know WHY. I think that in many areas we have strayed far from God’s heart, from what is important to Him. And I think it’s time we find our way back to that. I feel like God is calling me to be a very small part of the solution, one small gap stander. But, before I can be a part of the solution He needs to wake my heart up a little bit more and better prepare me to stand in the gap. I have a feeling this is more of a life story, not one that is going to be anywhere near written in 2010…but I pray I’ll at least see the first chapter.

Experience the Church Outside of America
Fact: I haven’t been on a mission trip since high school. And none of those were international. I would definitely call the volunteer work I did during college local missions, and while that started the opening of my eyes, it isn’t enough. If I am going to help others see what’s possible outside of the box I have to step outside of the box myself first…far outside! This story is in motion…more on it later. I think this story is an important part in how the bridging the gap story is going to be carried out.

Invest in Relationships and Community
I wholeheartedly believe relationships are at the foundation of everything. At the end of the day it’s my relationship with God, with my Savior that matters. His command to us is centered around relationship – Love Him and love our neighbors. That simple…and also that important. But I’ll be honest, relationships don’t come naturally to me. I thoroughly enjoy serving people, hearing their stories, and showing them Christ’s love. But, truly investing in relationship and community means sharing my story and who I am. That is something I have never enjoyed doing because it requires trust, and I suck at trust. But, in this season of surrender, I feel God calling me to surrender all…my fear of trust is included. And so, I’m challenging myself to truly, authentically, and transparently invest in relationships.

Be Okay with Being a Creative Doer
Call me quirky, but I’m a “quote collector.” I’ve always loved them. I often have trouble finding sufficient words to describe what’s in my head, and oftentimes quotes do the trick. One I like is from Sarah Ban Breathnach who said, “The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the worlds needs dreamers who do.” Now, I’m  not so sure about the “above all” part, I think there is a reason God gifted us each differently and created us to work together. Some are created to be dreamers. Some are created to be doers. But I think there are some created to live in between those two worlds. And I feel like one of those. I honestly feel like there are two halves to me – the dreamer side and the practical organized (doer) side. For a long time I thought that creativity was limited to the dreaming, but I’ve come to realize that it can be just as linked to the doer side. I feel that for some reason I’ve held on so tightly to the dreamer side that I haven’t used the doer/implementer side as much as God created me to. And so, I’m on a mission to embrace that and to use it for His glory. This is another instance of “what that looks like I don’t know,” but something like getting behind the dreamers and serving behind the scenes to make their dreams a reality for the Kingdom.

Those are the stories God has placed on my heart in this season of life. Please feel free to hold me accountable to them, to ask me about them in conversation – virtual or otherwise.

What stories has God placed on your heart? I’d love to hear them!

Writing Stories Part 1

May 28th. Wow. The year isn’t even half over and already it looks entirely different than I could have ever predicted.

In January I had every intention of sitting down and writing some stories for my life in 2010. And although I thought about them a lot, right now I’m glad I didn’t write them down. Because God has done a number on my heart since then and most of those stories would be obsolete and quite frankly unimportant to me, stories I wouldn’t even want to pursue. But since this year started, I feel like God has placed new stories in my heart. But this time, they aren’t mine, they are His for me. And that makes all difference.

As I write this I am still having an argument in my head as to whether or not I’m going to write stories for my life for the rest of 2010 (and beyond). Part of me just wants to get them down on paper and out of my head in order to process them. Part of me is afraid to put them down on paper because what if they don’t happen or they become obsolete. And the other, bigger, part of me is afraid to put them down because putting them down on paper means being held accountable for them, it means they’re real. And as exciting as that is it can also be completely terrifying at times. Because I know that the stories that God has placed on my heart are not going to be easy, they’re not going to be comfortable, they’re not going to be safe, and I like all of those things much more than I like risk.

But, let the risk taking begin. The stories are scheduled to post next week…even if in very rough draft form.

On a side note, “thank you” to those who have been a part of my bigger life story. I continue to be humbled and amazed at the people and relationships God has used to bless my life. Conversations I have had over the last five months have forever changed me. And I love that.