The Unexpected Tipping Point of Your Dream

Dreams can be crushed in an instant. Stepping out of the shower on an ordinary day, I discovered my two-year-old daughter with a bloody nose. After an hour of trying all the usual tricks to stop a bloody nose and finding myself in a pool of blood, I phoned a dear friend who lived in our neighborhood to come help me.

Thankfully my friend was home! She didn’t waste any time getting to my house. After reacting in shock to the amount of blood, she watched over my daughter while I dressed, and then we sped to the emergency room.

Hours later, after the doctors and nurses had stopped the bleeding by cauterizing my daughter’s nose, the news was not good. It was serious. They didn’t know exactly what it was. Maybe it is Leukemia or maybe something else.

I drove home navigating through my tears and wild thoughts. My daughter’s life flashed before me – would she live long enough to go to school? Graduate from high school? College? Ever get married and enjoy a family? There were so many unanswered questions!

The hardest question of all: had I really given my daughter 100% to Him? While my husband and I had dedicated our daughter to the Lord, in this moment the reality of that was overwhelming! I cried out to Him: “Yes! She is yours. Whatever you deem best – she is yours!

For the next seven years we battled what we later discovered was ITP. Those were hard years. God did heal her and she has gone on to graduate college and get married. Her life has been an amazing blessing to our family. You can read more about her story here.

Surrender

Surrendering my treasured baby was not easy. It depended on me fully believing that God loves me, loves my daughter, and that He would truly do what is best for us. It meant having faith that He would sustain me through it all, and that He would be glorified.

Looking back on that season now, it is easy to see God’s hand all along the way. At the time, however, there was much uncertainty.

Often our dreams are like treasured babies! We revel in the joy of their presence just like we did when my daughter was a baby. Then suddenly there comes a point in the pursuit of your dream that it all seems at risk. The excitement fades, confusion sets in and you wonder if your dream, once thought to be from God, will ever become a reality!

That is the surrender moment – the moment you have to give your dream 100% back to God and trust Him to do with it what He wills.

So many dreams end there – abandoned. The flame of passion left to fizzle out. Maybe you stop dreaming altogether or you settle for easier and less risky dreams.

Maybe you haven’t abandoned your dream, but you have not nurtured and pursued it with gusto either. It is hollow, lacking substance and drive. It only vaguely resembles the dream it once was.

In order to press on with your dream, you must first surrender your dream to God. Give it back to the one who planted the dream in you in the first place. Be willing to let go of something that seems very good and near and dear to your heart in order to receive something even better. That’s hard!

The Tipping Point

That surrender place is your tipping point. It is the place where your faith increases, your willingness to risk and try new things surges, and you recognize your need for God in order to reach your dream. You can see how God has been at work all along, orchestrating things and preparing you for your dream. It also becomes clear that God will be glorified through your dream.

Where are you on the path to your dream, purpose, or calling?

Life is rarely neat and tidy! Often as we are walking out our dreams, (step 6) we discover that God is giving you an even bigger dream. Then the process begins all over again (back to step 1 or 2)! More growth and more challenges, but as the dreams get bigger each time, we come to see how trustworthy God is. It sinks in a little deeper that the process, while stretching you, is making you better. It is conforming you more and more to His likeness. You experience growth, fulfillment, and awe of how God has revealed Himself by working out seemingly impossible situations.

Surrendering a child is incredibly challenging! It doesn’t always mean that God will heal them in the way that you hope or that things will turn out the way you wanted. It can be painful. However, if you love Him, you can trust that He will use that pain for something good for you, and that He will be glorified.

The same is true for our treasured dreams.

How about you? Take a minute to share where are you in the process of your dream, purpose, or calling?

Originally posted on 10/7/14, it’s been revised and updated just for you!