Isn’t it so like God to take a “restroom encounter” and turn it into a Divine appointment? Last week in Tulsa, a woman’s comment to me as we washed our hands at adjoining sinks opened the door for a wonderful discovery.
“I love your red jacket!” Norma said. I had already noticed her striking blue blazer and was thinking the same thought but she beat me to the punch. Two strangers quickly became friends (it’s a woman thing) and I soon found out that Norma was the sister to Avery Willis, the man who wrote the Bible Study Masterlife that has impacted millions of lives worldwide.
“Our entire church is studying Masterlife!” I bellowed. I reported how all of our adult classes at Pathway had begun the study in January and God was using it to help our members grow spiritually and practically.
“Today is Avery’s birthday,” Norma said. “Well, it would have been his birthday, but he went home to be with the Lord last July.” I expressed my condolences and Norma went on to tell me that Avery had been the one who had encouraged Henry Blackaby to write Experiencing God, a Bible Study that is also impacting millions of lives worldwide.
Books that touch millions — the stuff dreams are made of! Impossible dreams for most of us, but not for God. When God planted His dream into the heart of Avery Willis and Henry Blackaby, He was calling them to live out their destiny. God does that for you and for me too. There are some Big Dreams the God has for each of us and those dreams involve everything we’ve got. Those dreams are often the culmination of a lifetime of preparation and when we pursue them, we discover the reason we exist.
The way that we manage to live out the “nuts and bolts, day to day working” of our Destiny Dream is by saying yes to hundreds (at least dozens!) of what I like to call Deadline Dreams — these are the short-term goals that take us, yes by yes, to the realization of our Destiny Dream. For instance, the pathway to becoming a doctor involves many “deadlines” whereby you achieve personal and academic goals that take you toward your goal. The pathway to becoming an author usually involves many “deadlines” in other print media like newspapers, journals and magazines that all contribute to preparing you for that larger goal of a published book.
So where are you right now? Has God planted a Destiny Dream in your heart? Has He called you to write a life-changing book, to take on homelessness in your city, to invent a time-saving gadget, to impact young minds through teaching, to influence people for holiness, to bring hope to addicts? What is it you were made to do? Are you wondering how you’ll get there? Maybe you don’t know your destiny and you want God to reveal it to you. Start by asking Him to reveal to you the first Deadline Dream that will be part of the process of getting you to your destiny. When He does, say yes. And take the first step.
Hope for the Rest of Us 