Dreaming Big

"Don't let anyone keep you from achieving your goals."

Surprised, I looked up at my father, who'd spoken while quietly watching me use his home office computer to surf the web. It was early July and I was in Sacramento for a week-long visit. During his afternoon naps. however, I hopped online in search for a job to replace the one I lost last month to lay-offs.

I hadn't even heard heard him moving around.

"Huh?" I asked, smiling briefly before looking back at the screen.

He repeated the comment, paused, then added: "Do whatever it is that you really want to do."

"Yeah," I said, tapping the keys. "I know."

Everyone's heard the wistful platitudes. Follow your passion, be true to yourself, love what we do with your life...blah, blah, blah. But I felt I'd followed my bliss. My co-workers drove me crazy sometimes, but I LOVED the people I got to meet and the stories I got to tell.

I didn't get to say good bye to nearly enough of those great people before I left.

So here I was, without a job for the first time in 20 years. And here was my dad, speaking the simple truth of God's direction.

God's grace is infinite.

My upcoming DREAM BIG bash is a part of that truth, in that it represents the first step toward living out my potential to positively impact the lives of others. A real stepping out on faith. And the support I receive through that even will motivate me surely more than even I realize right now.

But only tonight have I realized that a lack of support for anything I do within God's will won't be enough to ever again stop me from reaching for my dreams.

God's hand is on my life right now in a way that I've never felt before. That doesn't mean that my faith is perfect, or that I'll will never stumble. That's never been what faith has ever been about.

What it means is that I couldn't turn back now, even if I wanted to. Forward is the only direction that will lead to peace and to my destiny.

I don't remember much of the rest of that conversation with my dad; I think I mentioned something about how to program music into the iPod nano he bought himself for Christmas and that he fussed briefly about needing to find a charger cable for some other gadget he was fooling around with that afternoon.

But what I will always remember is that comment. And the ultimate source of its wisdom.

Thanks, Dad.

Thanks, God.