فصل 2

CHAPTER 2

Give Your Dreams a New Beginning

Years ago, I went into a government building that had two sets of double doors spaced about fifteen feet apart. The doors opened automatically as I approached, but for security reasons, when I went through the first set of doors, I had to let them close tightly before the next set of doors would open in front of me. As long as I stayed at the first set of doors, the second set would not open.

In many ways, life operates in a manner similar to those automatic doors. You have to let go of your disappointments, let go of your failures, and let those doors totally close behind you. Step forward, into the future that God has for you, knowing there’s nothing you can do about past disappointments. You cannot change the past, but you can do something about the future. What’s in front of you is far more important than what is behind you. Where you are going is more significant than where you came from or where you have been.

Understand this: God did not create any person without putting something extremely valuable on the inside. Life may have tried to push you down through disappointments or setbacks. You don’t see how you’re ever going to be happy. You need to dig your heels in and say, “I know what I have on the inside. I’m a child of the Most High God. I’m full of His ‘can-do’ power, and I’m going to rise up to become everything God has created me to be.” The Apostle Paul urged his young understudy, Timothy, “Stir up the gift within you.” Similarly, you need to stir up your gifts, talents, dreams, and desires—in short, the potential within you. Maybe these qualities and traits are buried beneath depression and discouragement, negative voices of people telling you that you can’t; beneath weaknesses; beneath failures or fears.

But the good things of God are still there. Now you’ve got to do your part and start digging them out.

Granted, you may have gotten off to a rough start in life. You may have had more than your share of unfair things happen. But it’s not how you start that counts. It’s how you finish. Shake off the past; shake off discouragement. Remind yourself that God is still in complete control of your life. If you’ll keep your trust in Him, He promises that no weapon formed against you will prosper. Your situation may seem unfair, it may be difficult; it may seem that the forces working against you are winning momentarily, but God said He’d turn your circumstances around and use them to your advantage.

Don’t get complacent. Don’t let “good enough” be good enough. Keep yourself stirred up. The forces that are for you are greater than the forces that are against you. The Scripture says, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy is coming in the morning.”

You’ve got to get your dreams back. Get your fire back. Don’t just survive your marriage; get a new vision for it today. Don’t just drag into work doing the same thing: start taking some steps of faith. You’ve got more in you. Push yourself a bit. What you are hoping for may not have happened in the past, but this is a new day. If you’ll keep pressing, hoping, believing, not only will you rise higher, but also you’ll see things begin to change in your favor.

“Joel, I tried and I failed. My dream was dashed.”

Well, dream another dream.

“But I’ve suffered a big loss, a major setback.”

Get back up and go again. That’s what we all have to do.

Imagine the disappointment and devastation Adam and Eve must have felt when they discovered that their son Cain had killed their son Abel. Despite their pain, they said in Genesis 4:25, “God has appointed another seed unto us.” They were saying in effect, “We are horrified that something like this could happen in our family, and we feel wiped out. But we’re not going to mourn forever, because we know God has another seed.

God uses the word seed because that hints at what is coming. Remember, if you will do your part to let go of the old, and start pressing forward, you will give birth to more in the future than you’ve lost in the past.

Many people have a tough time letting go of what lies behind. They’re always focused on who hurt them or how unfairly they have been treated. “Why did this happen to me?” Meanwhile, their gifts, talents, and dreams are pressed down. All the potential is lying dormant.

Please, don’t let that be you. If you’ve made mistakes, know this: God is the God of a second chance, a third chance, a fourth, and more. If you have been through a loss or one of your dreams has died, of course there’s a proper time for grieving. But at some point, you need to get up, dust yourself off, put on a fresh attitude, and start pressing forward in life. Don’t let disappointment become the central theme of your life. Quit mourning over something you can’t change. God wants to give you a new beginning, but you have to let go of the old before you’ll ever see the new. Let that door close behind you and step through the door in front of you.

Maybe you’ve allowed other people to convince you that you’re never going to rise higher, that you will never see your dreams come to pass. It’s been too long. You’ve messed up too severely.

Don’t believe those lies. Instead, take courage from the Old Testament character Caleb. When Caleb was a young man, he and Joshua were part of an exploratory spy mission to determine the strength of the enemy before God’s people moved into the land that God had promised them. Of the twelve spies, only Caleb and Joshua presented a positive report to Moses. They said, “We are well able to take the land.” The other ten spies said, “No, Moses, there are giants in the land; the opposition is too formidable; the obstacles to overcome are too large.” And the majority tried to talk Moses and the rest of the children of Israel out of pressing forward into the blessings that God promised them. They were all too willing to settle for second best, to dwell for the rest of their lives right where they were. Unfortunately, that group of negative thinkers never did make it into the Promised Land. They spent the next forty years spinning their wheels and wandering around aimlessly in a desert. Eventually, most of them died with their dream still in them, as God raised up an entire new generation of people.

By then, Caleb was eighty-five years old, but he hadn’t given up on the dream God had placed in his heart. A lot of people that age would be sitting back in a rocking chair, thinking about the good old days, but not Caleb. He kept himself stirred up, and he kept himself in shape as well. He told Joshua that he was still as strong as he was when the promise first came to him.

Caleb went back to the exact same place; the same mountain that the others had feared to climb. He said, “God, give me this mountain.” Caleb was saying in effect “I don’t want another place to live. I still have this dream in my heart.” Interestingly, Caleb did not ask for an easy inheritance. In fact, the mountain he claimed had five giants living on it. Surely, he could have found a place less fortified, more accessible, or more easily occupied. But Caleb said, “No, I don’t care how many obstacles are there. God promised me this place. Although it is forty years later, I’m going to keep pressing; I’m going to keep believing until I see that promise fulfilled.” That’s the kind of attitude we need to have. Keep pressing forward and keep believing. Keep yourself stirred up. You’ve got the gifts, the talents, and the dreams. Don’t allow complacency to keep you from seeing God’s promises fulfilled in your life.

Another important key to reaching your full potential is putting yourself in an environment where the seed can grow. I know people who are extremely talented. They have incredible potential. But they insist on hanging around the wrong sort of people. If you are close friends with people who are lazy and undisciplined, people who don’t have great dreams, people who are negative and critical, they will rub off on you. That environment in which you place yourself will prevent you from rising any higher. You cannot hang out with negative people and expect to live a positive life. Most likely, you’re not going to pull them up. If you continue to spend too much time in their presence, they will pull you down.

Certainly, you love your friends; you can pray for them and try to encourage them to make positive changes in their lives, but sometimes the best thing you can do is break away from negative people and put yourself in a healthy, positive, faith-filled environment. This is extremely critical, because it doesn’t matter how great the potential in the seed, if you don’t put it in good soil, it will not take root and grow.

Natalie was living in an extremely negative environment, complete with physical, emotional, and verbal abuse. Although her husband Thomas was domineering and controlling, and refused to seek help, Natalie remained in that marriage year after year. She was afraid to leave; afraid she’d be lonely, afraid she couldn’t support herself and her two daughters, afraid she’d never meet another man who would be willing to love and accept her, let alone her children.

When Natalie asked me if I thought she should stay in that abusive relationship, I replied, “I don’t believe that’s God’s best. I’m all for sticking together and trying to make things work out, Natalie. But understand that God did not create you to be mistreated and abused. Your mother was in an abusive relationship, and now you are, and unless you make some changes, your daughters will be as well.” It was heartrending for her, but Natalie finally mustered her courage and let the door close on that relationship. She made a fresh start, went back to school, and graduated with honors. She found a good job and met a man who fell in love not only with her but with her children as well. Today, Natalie is happily married and is thriving. Yet none of that would have happened had she not let one door close and walked through another.

I’ve had people tell me, “Joel, I don’t know why I’m drawn to abusive people like that. I get out of one bad relationship and I get into another one that’s twice as bad. I know it’s not good for me. But I just can’t leave. I’d feel guilty.” I usually answer, “No, you have a responsibility to keep yourself healthy and whole. You have a gift. God has entrusted you with His talents, with His dreams. And it may be painful, but the best thing you can do is get away from somebody that is a constant drag on your spirit. Don’t allow somebody to treat you that way. You are extremely valuable. You are made in the image of Almighty God.” “Joel, if I take a stand and set some boundaries, that person may leave; he or she may walk away.” In truth, that would be the best thing that could ever happen. I heard somebody say there’s something called “the gift of good-bye.” That means when somebody who is pulling you down chooses to leave, you may not realize it, but he just did you a great favor. Don’t look back; instead keep looking forward. Get ready for the new thing God wants to do in your life.