the first circle–dream big

I’m blogging my way through Mark Batterson’s book The Circle Maker.  For more info on Batterson or the book, click here.

Dream big.  It sounds good.  It sounds right.  Batterson spends 3 chapters lining out the correlation between the size of our God (more accurately, our awareness of God’s size) and the size of our prayers.  Here are a few thoughts that caught my attention:

Nothing honors God more than a big dream that is way beyond our ability to accomplish.  Why?  Because there is no way we can take credit for it. (p43)

In order to experience a miracle, you have to take a risk. (p 46)

3 lessons from a failed business venture:
1.  our prayers are often misguided simply because we’re not omniscient
2.  no doesn’t always mean no; sometimes it means not yet
3.  we shouldn’t seek answers as much as we should seek God. (p62-63)

the link between amazed and perplexed:  It’s at this place where God wants to do something unprecedented that many of us get stuck spiritually.  Instead of operating by faith, we switch back to our default setting of logic. (p67)

Are your problems bigger than God, or is God bigger than your problems?  Our biggest problem is our small view of God.  (p 71)

With God there is no big or small, easy or difficult, possible or impossible…To the infinite, all finites are equal. (p 72)

By definition, a big dream is a dream that is bigger than you.  In other words, it’s beyond your human ability to accomplish.  And this means that there will be moments when you doubt yourself.  That’s normal. (p 76)

Is your dream too big for you?  It better be because that will force you to pray circles around it. (p 80)

Some questions that I have to wrestle with…

1.  Do I want God’s dream or am I more interested in taking credit for my dream, my plan accomplished in my power?

2.  What dreams did the mighty men and women of God in the Bible leave on the table because they were unwilling to believe God?  If they were anything like me (and I have to believe that they were) then there were some dreams spoken by God that they were too afraid to pursue.  And on the other side of that coin, how do I find the faith like them to believe that God is big enough to accomplish the things that he wants to do with and for and through and in me?

3.  What is God’s dream for me?  For 20 years I lived like youth ministry was God’s dream. I’m no longer a youth pastor, so there must be something else, something next.  What is that dream, and what are the correlating dreams that will accompany it?

Stay tuned for part 3.  The second circle deals with perseverance and intensity–praying hard.