Erwin just published a book called Wide Awake so he’s now speaking on each chapter. Yesterday’s podcast was on adapting, which is key to knowing how to live our lives to the fullest, be changed and bring about positive change in our world.
On April 1st, 2008 I turned 25 and I cried. Perhaps it was what some call the beginning of my quarter life crises. I was living alone and working a pretty good sales job, designing custom cabinetry. I guess I’ve always thought that if I wasn’t married and pregnant at 25 I would be living a little more like Mother Teresa. There were so many other things I wanted to do with my life, it bothered me that I was just doing what was comfortable and easy. I had just finished paying off my car and my mom and step-dad were happy to welcome me home, so that month I quit my job and moved home to pursue my dreams. Wow, it was HARD!! I didn’t know where to start so I just did. I had all kinds of ideas, failed at most of them but at least I was trying and working to figure it out. Most morning I woke up wondering, “What should I do today?”… Really, how do you just follow your dreams? What does that even look like?
My mom gave me until the end of October to either move all my furniture and stuff in to the house from the garage or move out again. A few days ago I moved everything in again, a humbling experience since I moved out when I was 17! But its right, it’s awesome, really! As crappy as this all sounds, I have recently just started to see the fruit of my willingness to adapt and change. I AM FOLLOWING MY DREAMS and love it!! I can honestly say that most days are still pretty hard, I’m learning a whole new way of life, but I feel like I’m actually living ‘wide awake’ and starting to understand my full potential, passions and what God created me to do in the world…
Below are some of the notes I later took from Erwin’s podcast (www.mosaic.org/podcast):
If you’re not willing to change yourself, you cannot bring change.
If you’re going to pursue a dream bigger than you, that dream will change your life and will change you.
Your real measure of character is your ability to adapt without losing your core.
Daniel went from a free man to a slave and had to relearn everything… he adapted
Joseph was sold by his brothers and needed to adapt, but never lost his core.
Esther was a prostitute living in terrible circumstances but she adapted to her environment, learned not only how to survive but how to thrive, and she rose to the top.
Moses adapted to many places and circumstances.
Abraham and Sarah were called to leave everything they knew to go to a land, people and world they couldn’t even imagine.
The language of the Bible is all about being willing to change.
The world doesn’t come at us the way we expect, things change, stability doesn’t always last, crappy things happens, the world flips upsides down… but if we don’t learn how to adapt and adjust we’ll feel like all our dreams could be lost in an instance. We NEED a solid core/foundation.
Do we embrace rigidity instead of adaptability- adaptability releases our abilities.
Flexibility (adaptability) is connected to the strength of our core. If you want to become more agile you need to become stronger. (Anyone who works out knows how true this is. I have an unusually long and weak core which has made training my whole body hard, to the point that I even got a hernia from lifting and working out. When my core is strong it’s wayyy easier to strength train and gain flexibility. I constantly need to be working at my core- physically and spiritually!!)
The strength of character actually gives us the capacity to adjust. When our core is weak everything becomes rigid and inflexible, which of course is why God wants to dig deep into our center to deal with our core, strengthen who we are… so we can face every challenge, every crises, every moment and know that you can see it through, with strength and flexibility. (not rigidity!)
We have to be willing to fail in the new, if we’re going to start to pursue new dreams.
How many of us make the choice to live the lesser life because it costs us less? There is a dream worth pursuing that could (and probably will) cost us everything… And it will fulfill you more than anything you could hold because this dream will actually holds you.
I’m learning that I’m not willing to live the lesser life because it’s easier. I would rather follow my dreams, even if it costs me everything.
The beautiful thing about Jesus is that when you open up your life to him he changes your heart (changes a heart of stone to a heart of flesh) and your dreams… He takes us up out of the fear of rigidity and complacency and living a life of comfort, safety, predictability, routine into a far better life.
Living in a world that I can’t control, I think, will awaken me to my dreams.
1 comment:
good to see you blogging!
Post a Comment