Living on Faith

What is the crazy dream God has placed inside of your heart? 

Before you answer, I want you to pause and really think about this question. I'm not talking about the kind of dream you could accomplish on your own simply through hard work. Yes, that is often a requirement, but I'm talking about the kind of dream you know there is absolutely no way you could accomplish on your own. I'm talking about a God-sized dream. The kind of dream or vision that will require complete and total surrender in order to achieve. 

2 1/2 years ago God told me to leave my job of 13 years in the corporate world. What led to this was spending a week's vacation with my daughters in which we genuinely spent quality time together. Granted the vacation was at Disney, but that is not the point. When I returned to work my boss asked how my vacation was and before I could answer I simply started crying. She assumed that meant the vacation was bad, but what had caused me to cry was how much I enjoyed the time with my daughters and how after just one day back at work I was missing them. The week with them allowed me to see who they are as people and how much I was missing with them by being away 5 days a week for 12 hours a day. God had stirred in me the desire to be a "full-time" mom. 

Being a single parent, the idea of quitting my job seemed ridiculous to most people. Honestly, it seemed ridiculous to me too. God given visions rarely make sense. I had absolutely no clue how being a stay at home mom could possibly work for me. Yet I knew God was speaking to me and I trusted in His plans. People would ask what my plan was to provide for our family and my answer was a sincere, "I don't know." In order to appease people I would say I was thinking of starting an in home daycare. Growing up with a mom who did this career, I knew it was not really the right one for me, but it was something to tell people in order for them to leave me alone. 

I rarely get asked this kind of question anymore. I believe there were many people who expected me to fail. To be homeless. To fall flat on my face. I did have a car repossessed, but God provided a vehicle after that...for FREE. The lights have never been turned off. Once I had a friend of a friend on Facebook message me saying God told her to pay my electric bill. She saw a comment I made on our mutual friend's post. There have been people who have offered to give me gas money and then given enough to fill up my tank three times. These are all just a few examples of how God has provided for us. 

You could argue, "well, you can't always expect God to work like that." But the truth is that I kind of do expect Him to provide. When I left my job I knew that if God was leading me to take such a huge step of faith, then He was responsible for the outcome. God is not a failure. God cannot lie. God will not lead you to follow Him just to turn around and abandon you. Even though I have made many mistakes in the last few years, He has still remained faithful. 

God does not always show us the big picture of His plans. I've found He usually gives us just enough to stretch us. He speaks to us one step at a time and then waits for us to move. Shortly after leaving my job I was visiting a church where the pastor was preaching on God visions and he used the example of Abraham. I know it was God ordained for me to be there that day because the sermon has never left me. 

"The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you." Genesis 12:1

God did not give Abraham all the specifics at the start of his journey. He simply told Abraham to get moving away from what was familiar and he would fill him in on the details along the way. Read the rest of this chapter. Abraham took a lot of people with him. He was responsible for their provision. Yet, he trusted God's word. It's a great story!

What is the vision God has given to you? Is there a longing in your heart for something, but you have been so focused on all the details you have become paralyzed by inaction? Or maybe you have read this and thought, "I don't really have anything big God has shown me." Remember....my dream was simply to be home with my children when they needed me. God has made that happen. 

How will you trust Him today?


(I do run my own house cleaning business now....lest anyone think I sit at home all day eating ice cream.)