Breaking Out Of The Box! Dream 5

Maximum Impact # 5

Breaking out of the Box - Dream!

On Wednesday morning, I stood among excited students at Good Shepherd Christian Academy. The older ones laughed, swapped stories, and postured to impress each other with their summer tales. The little ones quietly looked around, wondering about this new world they were entering - some fearful, some eager! As I watched it all, I let myself dream for a moment.

Who would these children be in 10, 20, 30 years?

Who was I talking to when I spoke to them?

What would they take from GSCA that would help them to become a productive, happy adult living in the service of God?

I have friends who lead churches who ask me,

“Why do you keep your school? They are expensive, draining a lot of time and money from other church work.”

Their remarks make sense to them because they do not share my dream. They just see lots of work and tons of money. But in my dream, I see the adults these children can become as we sow discipleship principles into their lives!

Tragically, many people are so consumed with the immediate that they will not dream.

I don’t know who first said this, but it is so very true... “The tyranny of the urgent drives the important from our lives!” You may think you’re too busy to dream, to think about a different way to live.

Or you may not dream because you have been told not to dream by others who fail to understand the power of a dream! Hans Finzel lists the statements that kill organizations stealing the dreams of those who lead them. They will kill your personal dreams, too. Sadly, I have to admit to saying some of these things to dreamers around me! I imagine you’ve heard most of these before:

1. That’s impossible!

2. We don’t do things that way around here!

3. We’ve never done it that way.

4. It’s just too radical!

5. We tried something like that before and it didn’t work, so what you think this time is any different?

6. I wish it were that easy!

7. When you grow up, you’ll understand.

8. Let’s get real.

9. It’s not our policy.

10. How dare you suggest I’m wrong about that? - Change is Like a Slinky, Northfield, 2004

Those around us are always ready to tell us why we shouldn’t, why we can’t, and how great a failure we will be if we ignore their advice. But sometimes the smartest guys in the world get it wrong. Here are a couple of examples of smart people who failed to see the possibilities.

· The Internet... will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.--Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld, 1995.

· The New York Times, in 1939, asserted that "The problem with television is that the people must sit and keep their eyes glued to a screen: the average American family hasn't time for it."

· IBM chairman Thomas J. Watson predicted in 1943 that there was a world market for "about five computers."

· “Man will never fly” so said the father of the Wright brothers’ father. He was an Episcopalian bishop who believed that flying was reserved for angels.

· Mark Twain decided not to invest in Alexander Graham Bell’s new invention, the telephone, believing it an interesting device without many practical applications. Instead he financially backed a cumbersome typesetting machine that bankrupted him!

Bad Predictions, Elsewhere Press, Laura Lee

Now, let’s bring this to our subject of living for Maximum Impact, Making a Difference.

I have no interest in being just another motivational speaker who tells you that you can have all you want, get what you want, and become rich or powerful! But, I do want to tell you this morning that God has a purpose for you, a place in His world uniquely shaped to your gifts, experiences, and interests.

Living in the center of His will is the way to have maximum impact, and it requires us to dream the dreams He gives us and then to take the risk of living them!

In the book of Genesis, chapter 37, we meet a young son of Israel (better known as Jacob!) for whom God has some very big plans. He clues the teenager into His plans with a dream.

READ - Genesis 37: 2, 5-11 PB 60

What a dream for a teenager who was near the end of the birth order, a person whose brothers do not respect him all that much. But remember this! He had to wait and work for that dream!

Dreams don’t ‘just happen’ to be fulfilled. WE have to own our dreams, apply ourselves to make them reality.

Joseph lived with integrity while he lived through a living Hell for the next 20 years. His brothers betrayed him and sold him as a slave. His employer’s wife tried to seduce him and when he turned her down, had him imprisoned as a sexual predator. Friends in prison that he helped out, forget him when they went free. But God never forget the promise, and I have to believe that Joseph never forgot the dream! Eventually he became Prime Minister of Egypt and saved his people from annihilation.