I consider giving up almost every day.
I think it’s time to stop writing.
I think it’s time to stop learning.
I think it’s time to stop putting myself out there.
But then I realized something else.
If a dream doesn’t freak you out, you’re dreaming too small.
If you’re not facing resistance, your dream is too easy.
If you don’t fight feelings of giving up and cowering under pressure, you’re not doing anything worthwhile.
So next time you feel like giving up, remind yourself that you’re probably doing something right.
Don’t give up. Keep writing. Keep singing. Keep speaking. Keep creating.
Keep doing what you do.
Expand. Innovate. Create. Take risks. Put it out there.
Join the party.
Question: What is a dream that you feel like giving up on? Share it in the comments. There’s power in some good, healthy confession. You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Sometimes i think of giving up pursuing music carrer…for the simple fact that…my family is sooooo important to me…but I know it will take a toll on them and me…
Even just recording a couple times a week. for only 2 hours. is Hard!
But God won’t leave me alone and keeps putting words and melodies in my head! and he keeps stirring my heart for worship!!!….sooooo I say Yes my King….do what you will of me!
P.S. I sent you the video of me playing the song…
What’s the status on your recording, bro? Are you close to finishing the record?
Arny, don’t give up.
So true, no resistence is like a huge red-flag that what your doing is too easy. You gotta take the risks, put yourself out there, and keep the vision alive.
But I also think that a dream worth pursuing has to show some return. What would you tell someone who is not seeing a return (either in form of comments/post sharing/compliments)? And how do you measure if this return is significant enough to keep pursuing the dream?
Don, I think return should come over time. It shouldn’t be an instant measure. I don’t know how long that is, but you should eventually start to see it catch. People will notice the difference you are making. How long do you think?
As far as a significant enough return, I would say as long as you LOVE what you’re doing, believe in it with all your heart, and have a hard time seeing your life without it, just keep doing it. Even a small return would be worth it, in my opinion.
Agreed, I really don’t know how long it should take, but talking to some others who started out blogging a while back said anywhere from 1-3 years. Also agree with the point “as long as you love what you’re doing.” I was reading something by Seth Godin the other day (The Big Moo) and he listed ways to be a failure. And two of the points resonated with me in that list: “focus more on what other people think and less on whether your idea is as good as it could be.” and “assume that a critical mass must embrace your idea for it to work.”
Good stuff Don, thanks, very helpful…like the SGodin resource. Collaboration of these kinds of thoughts and expressions are invaluable, I think Master Card would say ‘priceless’.
Good stuff, Don. 1-3 years sounds good, but I also think you should probably be seeing steady growth each month, even if it’s small. That’s what I’m shooting for, at least 🙂
After going through a trastition period of laying down the traditional role of professional clergy about 5+ years ago, allowing the dream to be defined in me, I finally stepped away from my pursuits of full time income with my wife willing to bear the brunt of the financial load to free me up to launch the dream she and I hold in our hearts.
After doing that a couple of months ago and taking the steps to launch this effort locally with some friends and hoping that it grows from there, my days are often filled in confronting giants like I never imagined. They yell out as loud as Goliath with the message, “There is no use, this is not going anywhere.”
But I am learning to stay in the fray of the battle and all the taunting, load my sling, and find the strength to sling the ammunition at the giant one step at a time. With the help of the good Lord and a small band of people who believe in me and my dream, which is a different way of helping men and women find their hearts and get them back and then building redemptive community around those rescued hearts, I fight my way through it all. Thanks for the encouragement.
Beautifully spoken, Greg. Do you mind sharing what you’re working on? What’s the dream?
Don’t mind at all. Thanks for asking. In 2006 I sensed the Lord leading me to lay down 20 years of pastoral ministry to ‘cast our nets to another side of the boat in different waters. A very clear call that flowed from an inner healing of ‘childhood wounded heart experiences”. It culminated with an experience in 2003 at a Ransomed Heart/John Eldredge retreat. Walked in the experience for two years to let God define this experience, the what’s and the why’s. During that 2 year journey, I offered it out to my church where for the most part it wasn’t embraced. At the end of the two years, taking all I had learned and asking Father God who and what this was really for, it opened the door to hearing this call.
In 2006 I resigned, with the support of my wife, with nothing to go to but this dream. Neither of us really knowing what this would look like or if it would even develop. But allowing God to teach us and guide in our own personal walk with this, we began to learn and understand the answers to these questions we had. So many men and women have lost heart, for one reason or another, even Christians. Jesus actually spends more time than I thought teaching about this. And 2 Chorintians Paul warns about losing our sincere devotion just as Eve did. Well, it happens to the church and the unchurched.
Through our experiences of having our own hearts rescued, Father began to teach both of us of how there are a number of people who need to be rescued and shown this path of life of freedom that He offers. He has put something in our hearts of how we can build a ‘redemptive community’ of hearts rescued (Psalm 107) from all places of life. Not as much another church, but a community of deeply redeemed people who know the reconciliation, restoration, rebuilding and release of Jesus’ full redemption. And then with a heart fully restored in this it fully reflects the glory of God that Father God designed within that person’s heart–their true identity, their true calling (their deepest dream and desires). John 1:12, The Message says in talking about Christ’s mission for coming, is that he enables men and women “to be their true selves.” Loss of heart causes people to live as somebody we were never meant to be. Step one, help people discover their loss of heart and how to get it back, Step 2 being to enable them to discover their true self. And as the movie Gladiator states and shows, we are only able to survive whatever comes through those gates if we stick together. So, the community aspect plays a vital role. A redemptive community that lives the journey together.
How will we accomplish this? For one we have a small band of folks we’ve lived this out with for the past five years that want more and they believe we can reach more and help them find more LIFE like we have with them. These folks presently make up our board of directors, we do have a 501c3 non-profit. We are using the launch gatherings in our home to introduce retreats that we will do this fall and in the late winter where we hope to develop a nucleus group to go through an extended teaching cycle I’ve developed of what this is all about and how men and women can experience this for themselves and as a community, and it is much deeper than what I can share here. While developing that nucleus group we want to develop 2 or 3 more leaders who in turn might share the call to develop a new nucleus group after that teaching cycle in their ‘neck of the woods’. And on and on the journey could go. As this develops we hope to take these teaching to churches, businesses, prisons, individuals, and communities to spread this way of life. Willing to go any where where hearts are ready to be set free in this way.
Its funny, all the years in pastoring, I had the sense that where I was is where I was suppose to be at the time but it wasn’t the final destination of the desires of my heart. I most often felt like a renegade pastor due to some views I held about people’s hearts and God’s work of redemption and who I could reach seemed not to be the type folks that most church folks I was around had in mind–and we see a strong response from men, something I rarely saw in the institutional church. It seems I was frequently having to fight those battles. But since we stepped out into this arena, where we are now, I have more freedom and therfore effectiveness with a person’s heart than I could have ever dreamed of in the institutional church scene I spent all those years in. No bitterness there, it was all part of the journey to get me to see my ‘true self’. I discovered a whole new world out from behind the pastor’s desk. There really is so much more to this eventhough I have rambled on way too long here, but I appreciate you asking.
You can take a little bit of the journey through our website, http://www.bhoprc.com – we call it Brave Heart Outpost, based on Ephesians 6,and especially verse 19 where Paul asked the Ephesian believers to pray for him to have a brave heart and I ask you do the same for me,”Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declarie it fearlessly, as I should.” That is my earnest desire.
I now see why Paul asked for that prayer. There are a number of things of uncertainty and insecurity about the move we’ve made and the steps we must take to see this happen. And every step of the way for the most part for the last two months, I have to stare down the enemy in all this and overcome the taunts and the tricks to make me try and give up on it all. So finding your blog today helped me to know more of the ‘triumphal procession of Jesus Christ.” Thanks be to God! 2 Corinthians 2:14, my favorite passage in the NT.
Also, I really apologize…I didn’t see until after I read this article that your blog is developed around worship leaders, but thanks for the interaction today–this was really good for my heart and soul!!!
One dream I ultimately hold, is to pen much of what I am learning in a book to share with many people one day called the Long Road to Liberty. And there is a whole other story to that one!
Thanks for sharing, Greg. Sounds like great things are in store. And you don’t have to be a worship leader to read my blog. Actually quite a few readers aren’t!
Thanks David, I am praying for you and I really appreciate your heart and encouraging words! If the opposition I face inside me on a regular basis indicates the importance of what I hold in my heart, your words ring so true!
Hello, Greg…sounds wonderful…your spiritual dream in the Lord. God is amazing! May your ministry be blessed and Lord protect Greg and his family from the enemies schemes. Amen.
I have a dream, too, and I know Greg well. My dream feels like a nightmare, most times, as it haunts me more these days than fulfills me. I dream of owning a ranch, a small one, that is not for growing things, necessarily, but growing fathers. A few years ago, God brought me a grand vision, through a mentoring/counseling job I had teaching troubled teens how to make better choices. He brought that vision through Malachi 4:6-“I will turn the hearts of the fathers toward their sons, and the hearts of the sons toward their fathers…”. I imagined a ranch where dads would bring their sons, for a weekend of fun, challenges, and learning to be intentional. Dads are too busy being hooked up to the plow, and not busy enough being intentional in the raising of their children. I want that to change. And so, the weekend would consist of ‘Beloved Son’ weekends, and ‘Cowboy/Warrior’ weekends. The idea is to bestow a real sense of masculinity in our boys, so that they know they are loved, and know when they have crossed the threshold of manhood. It was a watershed moment…and the beginning of one of the roughest patches in my life.
I want to do this, really want to throw caution to the wind and just…go. But there is so much fear. So much doubt. So many wounds still unhealed in me. Writing the previous paragraph brought me great joy, so I know it’s still there. I need the courage to take the faith of leap. (Yes, I meant to write it that way). Thanks for writing this. I need it, and need it to seep into my core.
Jason, what fantastic, beautiful vision. I found myself getting inspired as I read your comment. Praying for you in this endeavor!
To be honest, I was getting pretty discouraged as I looked at my blog numbers over the last week. Steady decline… and then I tried to write and nothing.
Except for that sneaky small voice: are you really cut out for this? Maybe you’ve hit the ceiling of your creativity. what is u never have anything good to write again?
Then I read this post this morning and I’m a little more energized. Still tired but i’m not gonna give up this easy. Thanks again bro for the timely encouragement.
No problem, bro. You are totally slamming it with your blog. I love it and I love the community you are fostering. You’re a gifted, creative writer and pastor, bro. Really believe great things are in store for you!
I have this idea growing in me to create something that could have the potential to take the Church back to a place like we see in Acts 2:42-47. I always thought that sounded socialistic so I like that it is the passage God used to birth this idea. This idea began as a way to help church plants raise money but the more I explore it, the more potential I see in it for more. I had started my blog to help churches discover tools to help them be more effective in reaching people, whether it be tools to help directly, or tools to help them behind the scenes so that they can devote more of themselves to the front of the scenes.
I’ve been in a transition so I have ashamedly but posting on the back burner but this new dream is an extension of a dream that was only partially revealed. Do we do that sometimes? In our own best interest, God sometimes only reveals part of the dream until we’re ready for the rest. Do we sometimes just stop at the first part because we think that’s good enough? Do we think that’s all God has up his sleeve? I know I’ve done that a time or two.
That sounds like an awesome idea, man, and very timely! The church I lead at is heavy into church planting. It’s some serious business!
I just found your site today. And I’ve read through at least 20 posts. But this one really touched me. I’m to a point in my dream where I’ve got some opposition. And I know that it was from God. Thanks for the post.
Glad to hear, Tina! Thanks for stopping by!
I want to have my own business doing Nutrition Response Testing. I want to help people be healthy especially children. I want to get so successful that I can mentor other people. Thank you for your blog.
Jennifer, that’s awesome! Have you taken any steps to start this?