Thanks to my amazing friends and family, I was able to go to Uruguay last week to visit a great church, and to know more of South America. It was an amazing adventure. While in one of the craft marketplaces, I met a man with a very unique talent. He collects coins from all around the world, and carves out the inside until only the image of the coin and the outer rim are left. I and my friend who came with me talked with him at his booth for about an hour, marveling at his ability to create beauty from these coins.
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| One of the most amazing coins he carved |
This random encounter with coins naturally made me think about coins, which led me to create a metaphor for what God has been telling me lately. Many times we have a two-sided mindset: the one side of the coin, and the other. The one side of the situation, and the other. The one way to solve a problem, and the other. But we forget that there's always a third side - the side of the miraculous. The side of blessing. Of comfort. Of strength. Of love. Of courage. Of value. Of peace. Of joy. Of perfect timing. The side of God.
The only way to live in this third-side mindset is to continually dwell in His Presence. Another metaphor: when you're always around someone (your best friend, husband/wife, etc.), you start to see the world through their eyes. Even when you're away from them, you have experiences that remind you of them, and you think about how they would react. It's the same with Christ: the only way to see the world through the eyes of Christ is to spend an abundant amount of time with Him.
Let's go personal. I don't know what the next step of my life looks like. I'm an extremely analytical person; therefore, it's normal for me to have at least one plan, if not three or four. I'm continually looking at all the facts of my situation, and trying to figure out the best way to move forward. One of my many plans for the near future is to come back to IBRP in January. In order to do that, I would need two very important things: permission to come back, and about $8000 for a year's worth of travel, food, place to live, etc. To complicate the matter, I also think of the fact that I'll be with my family for Christmas during most of my time in the States, leaving hardly any time for working, or publicizing my desire to return. Therefore, I end my well-thought-out plan thinking "for this plan to actually come to fruition, one of two miracles has to happen: either someone at IBRP pays me to come back, airfare and everything, or I raise all $8000 in less than a month." I end my well-thought-out plan thinking "there are only two sides of this coin: either God will provide a miracle in one of these two ways, or I'll have to stay in the States until I get enough money to come back." Obviously, this well-thought-out plan leaves me very nervous, kinda stressed out, and totally unsure about the future. But, as I dwell in His Presence, I'm reminded of the third-side perspective.
This third-side perspective gives me peace, confidence, and profound joy. This third side tells me that I don't have to think about how it's going to happen, because God already has thought it out for me. And not only that, but He's already started His plan of making it happen. Even more, He knows exactly when He's going to tell me, how I'm going to react, what I'm going to learn, who is going to learn from me, and what's going to happen after that. Wow. What a side. Why wouldn't I keep my thoughts focused on this side forever, right?!
Another thought within the third-side perspective:
It's so scary to dream big. Because once I start thinking about it, I feel like I'm setting myself up for failure. But this is a lie from the world, from myself, and most likely from the devil. I know for sure that I will win either way; failure doesn't exist with God. Either He will accomplish these dreams through me, or He will release me from the responsibility by showing me that another person is already set up to accomplish them. Either way, these dreams of mine will happen. That said, here's my seemingly-impossible-bucket list of dreams:
1. To have more than 50 "kids" via starting a permanent foster home system in a Latin American country, and training Christian couples from that country how to be parents of orphans.
2. To coach missionaries from many different countries in figuring out their strengths and how their strengths correlate with leading their ministry, to teach them how to be coaches, and to equip them with resources that will help them lead their ministry.
3. To be a loving parent of orphans, and a loving wife to the most perfect-for-me man of God I know.
4. To change the world perspective of Self via resourcing every Assemblies of God pastor in the whole world with self-talk material so they can teach it to the leaders in their church, and the leaders can teach it to the people in their church, and so on. (It's okay if you're confused on this one -- I'll explain what I mean by self-talk in another blog sometime. :)
5. To obtain a Masters of Organizational Leadership, coaching certification, counseling certification, certification to teach Styles-of-Influence material, and doctorate in some sort of missiology.
6. To encourage all believers to a higher level of holiness/sanctification via making seminars and resources about purity, integrity, holiness, love, joy, and peace accessible to and understandable at all levels of maturity (kids, tweens, teens, young adults, adults, older adults, etc.).
7. To be a role model of encouragement/inspiration to all girls like me via teaming up with Jamie Grace and Moriah Peters, having conferences all over the USA for girls our age and younger about the concept of truly making God your first love, and believing about yourself the things He says you are.
After I wrote this list of life-dreams, I was reminded that God's Word says He has plans for us that are so much more than we could ever imagine. We were built to be amazed by how God is working in and through us. These dreams of mine are HUGE! At least to me they are; I can't even fathom how God could do more with my life than what I've listed out here. My little ole self has HUGE dreams, but God's are bigger?! Unbelievable. So exciting!!! I went from being really scared of dreaming big, to really looking forward to being amazed by the way God works in and through me. Dreaming big makes life so exciting. :)
