God calls us to contement, but not to settling. Here's a look as to why dreaming big is Biblical and and why all things are possible when we dream with Him.
As a mom to young kids and having had experienced an intense and lengthy isolation period during the COVID pandemic due to the birth of my second child in mid-2020 I began to have an overwhelming sense of this is it, this is all there is for me...I felt I had already had my big adventure-moving to another country but that was back in 2014 and now it seemed that if I'm being honest, I was stuck raising my kids for the next 18 years in a country that wasn't so foreign nor exciting anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, but I never dreamed of being the stay-at-home mom, driving her kids to this activity, and to that sport. But it seemed it was my lot in life since working in Guatemala would prove difficult for me, and by the time my kids wouldn't need me to drive them I would be too old to do anything new.
Now I know other mothers are working, using their hard-earned degrees, running marathons and even just exercising in general, traveling to new exciting places, but I honestly had no idea how they were doing it. I often still can't wrap my mind around how these mom's do so much, but then God began to nudge me on my long walks (and if I can again be honest my long 30-minute showers because, remember I'm a mother to young children who are. always. there.) that my life is very far from over. God helped show me that if I wanted to travel to Europe, I could. If I wanted to run the half marathon, I could. If I wanted to become a teacher, I could. If I wanted to write a book, I could! I remember one particular walk on a cloudy Sunday afternoon, after the pandemic calmed down and we all had our vaccinations I began to grasp and dream that I don't have to live my life inside a tidy little box that maybe society had forced upon me. Then as a 60+ old gentleman ran by me I was once again reminded that I'm way too young to give up my dreams. In fact, you're never too old to do something new.
Even with all this newfound hope and excitement to get after it, my reality was still there. Unfortunately, I think Christian society has taught us, and particularly women, to be content with what we have-that raising children is the greatest honor, and creating a loving cozy home is such a gift and we couldn't and shouldn't ask for anything more, just be content. Now this is certainly not to say we shouldn't be just that, content! I seek contentment every day and sometimes I'm successful and other days not so much...but I do truly believe God gives us all that we need and likely much more than that and we should trust what He has given us is very good. I also believe God is our greatest treasure and only hope. But although God wants us to be content, I believe with my whole heart He doesn't want us to settle.
I recently completed a Bible study with a few other ladies from my church titled, Numbers: Finding Contentment in a Culture of More by Melissa Spoelstra and it profoundly impacted my view of contentment and how it can coincide with my big dreams. The author took us through the book of Numbers, an often-overlooked book due to the nature of its math like content, but throughout the study I had two big takeaways. First, God is an organized God and doesn't just leave things to chance, and neither should we. Second, He calls us to get moving when it's time to go, and other times He calls us to be still, but He always calls us to obedience and through our obedience we receive His blessings. We see in Numbers that God called the Israelites of out Egypt-they were not to sit around and consider the idea of leaving, weighing the pros and cons, or take weeks or months to prepare. Then when God led them out, He gave them everything they needed but because they didn't obey and grumbled God took them the very long way around to get where they were going. We are to follow their example, and non-example of getting up and going when God calls us, yet we need to obey and allow God to lead us.
As this idea of contentment but not settling percolated in my brain I was led to Ephesians 3 which easily has one of the most famous verses in the entire bible, Ephesians 3:20 - Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. This verse is so familiar it can actually lose some meaning, and we can become small minded about what God can actually do. But if you take time to read the whole chapter, we see Paul writes about how God has for eternity planned to include the gentiles in His great act to save the world. No longer was God only the God of the Jews, His blessed people of the old testament, but to everyone and anyone who believed in His Son, Jesus as Savior. This blew up the preconceived idea that God would remain the God of the Jews-that was putting God inside a box. Rather if God could save the whole world, each and every human, then He is certainly able to do whatever we dream and hope for when we are rooted in His immense and great love.
When we allow our dreams to grow, and we share them with our Lord, He does not push them aside and tell us to just be content. He listens to you and values your hopes and desires, but I do know that He doesn't often give us what we desire on demand. He knows there is immense joy, growth, perseverance and maturity in the journey to our dreams fulfilled, just as our faith is a journey, and He wants us to experience all that He has to offer along the way. The business idea will start with a piece of paper and a business plan and grows through trust and loyalty; the book will have to be written and edited and then re-written; the master’s degree will take time, effort, and money; the marathon takes training over a period of months; the airline ticket to travel abroad has to be saved up for; the mission trip has to be funded and trained for; the church plant will start small but grow through faithful obedience. He knows when we take the time to achieve our dreams we experience the real joy and fulfillment as well as the knowledge that we can't do anything without Him, and can do anything with Him.
We see throughout the Bible stories of God's people realizing big dreams that they maybe didn't even have for themselves, yet God used them to do big things, but they all took time and His help:
Jacob - Ran away from home, found refuge at his uncle's house, became rich over many years of work, and found forgiveness in his brother Esau. It is through him and his father and grand-father the nation of Israel was born.
Joseph - Sold into slavery by his own brothers, was in jail, yet climbed the ranks to become second in command to Pharaoh and saved his family and all of Egypt from famine.
Moses - Didn't even want to go to Egypt, yet obeyed and God used him to save a nation, and he became one of the greatest leaders of all time.
David - A small, young, lowly shepherd was anointed as king and 14 years later finally sat on the throne as Israel's greatest king
Esther - a Jew in exile was chosen to be queen of Persia, faced fear and death but through her bravery and obedience saved thousands of Jews.
Mary - a small-town girl, chosen to be the earthly birth mother of her and our Savior and we are blessed because of her obedience.
12 Disciples - Outcasts of society yet called to study under not just any rabbi, but the Son of God. They built the church we are all apart of now.
Paul - Persecuted Jews, but was called by God to change his ways and became one of history's greatest missionaries.
God doesn't call us to just settle with what has been given to us in this life, instead He calls us into a life of obedience, contentment, and most of all abundance. He calls us to trust in and share with Him our dreams and count our blessings along the way. He calls us to action to do our part and do all that we are capable of doing to realize these dreams, and He'll take care of the rest.
What are you dreaming of today? What can you do to take action now and start moving towards your goals, keeping God with you along the way?
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