God-Sized Dreams: A 30-Day Journey of Faith and CourageSample

When You’re Just Not Feeling It

Someone sends me an email, walks up to me at a conference, or whispers across the table at lunch. The conversation starts with something like, “I know I’m called to write or speak or cook or do spreadsheets, but what about the days when I’m just not feeling it?”

I nod. Because I know. Oh, how I know.

What I don’t know is how our culture has convinced us that any other skill is okay to practice, but if it’s spiritual or art or both, then you have to feel it every time.

Think about the Olympics. Imagine an interviewer asking an athlete, “How often do you practice?” The reply will not be, “When I feel like it.”

We don’t ever hear that from athletes at that level. As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”

What do you do when you don’t feel it? You do it anyway.

It’s different if you don’t know what God wants you to do. But if you know that words, or food, or corporate work is your thing, then you do it. Over and over again.

That’s stewardship—which really just means taking good care of what you’ve been given and making the most of it.

So if guilt has been chasing you around and yelling in your ear about how you can’t do something unless you really feel it, then it’s time to kick guilt to the curb.

Then do your dream.

Do it today.

Do it tomorrow.

Do it for the rest of your life.

Your God-sized dream is just as much about perspiration as inspiration. In the early stages, when we’re filled with enthusiasm and passion, it’s easy to take action. But at some point, that will begin to subside, or life will get busy, or the dog will eat our business plan. And we will begin to think, “Maybe I’ll do something else.”

So let’s clarify one thing: If you try a dream and realize it’s not truly a fit with who God has created you to be and what God has called you to do, then move on. That’s wisdom.

But if you’re giving up on a dream just because you’re bored or don’t feel the same way you did in the beginning, then think twice. There is no such thing as a God-sized dream that doesn’t have seasons that are just hard, unglamorous work.

When you choose to be disciplined in the pursuit of your dream, even when you don’t want to, you do a lot to destroy the work of the enemy. And even though it doesn’t feel like it, your faith is probably even stronger than when you have all the warm, fuzzy emotions that we like a lot better.

Keep going.

You’re doing better than you know.

You’re growing more than you realize.

You’re making a difference even if you can’t see it.

And someday soon, you will.

Go Deeper

Read more about perseverance and the rewards that come with it in Galatians 6:7-10.

God, thank you that I can bring you joy and be obedient even when my emotions don’t line up with what my heart truly desires. I choose to embrace your will for me. I will continue to do what you’ve asked me to, whether or not I feel it. And I trust that, as I do, you will bring forth new life and growth in ways I can’t even imagine. Amen.

What’s one truth you want to remember?

What’s the next small step you’ll take?