Are things looking bleak right now? Are you about to give up hope? Throw in the towel? Turn a new page? Forget the dream you've been pursuing you just knew in your heart of hearts was from GOD?
If so, take heart, my friend. GOD is going to make a way. Big dreams come from a big GOD. After all, he is GOD and we are not. He created the entire universe. Surely, he can help you with your wildest, biggest dreams!
I write this, not only to encourage you, but to encourage myself because we are currently in the midst of a big dream, a GOD sized dream. It is a dream he gave us a few years ago requiring much faith. So much faith, it would be impossible without him.
He gave us the dream of building a retreat center. A place where people can come and play or stay. A place where wholesome fun, support for life's challenges, and tranquility can be found. A cool, versatile space offering all sorts of activities and events that are reasonably priced to bless others. A spot to get away from the cares of this world for a little while and have some respite, relaxation and good, old-fashioned fun. As if this dream wasn't big enough, we heard GOD say he wants us to do it debt free. DEBT FREE! This means NO mortgage. Oh, and did I mention he wanted us to leave our corporate jobs too? Say, what! Yes, he did. Needless to say, this counts in our book as a GOD sized dream.
Fast forward to now, three years later and we are in the midst of this GOD sized dream. We have gone "all in" so to speak. Left corporate America, sold our main home and boat, cashed in our savings, and earned enough funds to purchase a space. We've designed plans and began the permitting process with our local city and are currently in the midst of all of that fun.
There are moments when the roadblocks seem unfathomable and our dream seems impossible, yet, GOD has made a way each and every time and he will continue to do so.
If fact, he says in Isaiah 43.19 "...I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." How cool is that. Amidst all our failures, wrong turns, and empty spaces, GOD is making a way. Amidst all our huge, GOD size dreams, GOD is making a way. In every heartbreak and broken place, GOD is making a way. Amidst every struggle and successful space, GOD is paving our way.
Which brings us to the picture I placed at the beginning of this blog post. I was sorting through different verses and images about GOD and his amazing ability to make a way for us and I stumbled across this very cool image of the parting of the Red Sea.
Except in this image, instead of oodles of Israelites or their leader Moses with his staff, there is only one man.
As you can see by this image, he is carrying a back pack, so we can assume he is on a journey. The road beneath him is paved and the sea has parted for his benefit alone. With sturdy ground below him and the sea that roars divided for him, he walks. He has done nothing to create this way except walk in it. By faith, he stepped into a parted sea and began to walk trusting GOD to keep the way safe for him. Trusting he would not be overcome by the waves. Believing he would not drown.
It is the same with you and me, my friend. GOD will make the way. But we must step out in faith and do the next thing he is calling us to do no matter how impossible nor how crazy it may seem to our human minds and hearts. All we have to do is take the first step. Begin the journey. Leave the results to him and walk with peace in our hearts knowing whatever the outcome, we are in the very palm of his hand.
So, where are you in your journey with GOD today? Wherever it is, like the Israelites or this man, it is never too late to take the first step. Then the next, then the next. Eventually, you WILL find your promised land and what a land it is. Deuteronomy describes it like this...…..
"The Lord your GOD is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper" (Deuteronomy 8:7-10)
Now that's a land I want to find :)
