Blogger: Wendy Lawton
Location: Round Top, Texas
Elizabeth Barrett Browning said: “God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.” At the beginning of a new year, our job is to dream.
Hopefully by now, you’ve spent time analyzing the past year. Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. I believe that. So once you’ve looked over 2011– seeing what goals were met, which were left for the coming year and which ones no longer matter– you’re ready to embrace another year. Wouldn’t it be awful if there were no new beginnings? If every day just lined up in a row? No Mondays. No Januarys. No first day in a new birth year. No opening day of school. No first game of a new football season.
Happily, that’s not the case. We are a people of new beginnings. My friend and client, Debbie Macomber, just celebrated the launch of her newest book, One Perfect Word. More than twenty years ago, Debbie and a group of her friends decided to pick one word for each year. Over the years that practice has shaped her life. When she took time to intentionally focus on just one word for a whole year it not only changed her life but it changed the lives of those around her. Debbie says in the book, “In this information age words swirl around us every day. Tens of thousands of words—maybe a hundred thousand words on a crazy, busy day. We read newspapers, we check out blogs, we may follow Facebook and even Twitter. We respond to e-mail and we listen to real people talking . . . and talking . . . and talking. We drive with the radio on. We try to squeeze in time to read books and magazines. We may turn on the television at night. Words come at us incessantly.” She suggests we all go on a word diet and instead of trying to take in millions of words we concentrate on one word. One perfect word.
I started following her practice a few years ago when I read her book Thursdays at Eight. I highly recommend it. In fact so much so that I decided to choose just one word to blog about each day this week. I chose five words that are vitally important to you on your writing journey. Of course they are five words that are vital to living a life that matters.
Your word for today is: Dream.
We are called to dream. To imagine what could happen. I’m reading a book that just came out a couple of weeks ago,The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson. If you want to be challenged to live big, this is the book for you. In it, Batterson says, “If you’ve never had a God-sized dream that scared you half to death, then you haven’t really come to life. If you’ve never really been overwhelmed by the impossibility of your plans, then your God is too small. If your vision isn’t perplexingly impossible, then you need to expand the radiuses of your prayer circles.”
Perplexingly impossible. That sounds like trying to get published in this ever changing climate doesn’t it? In the Bible study, Chase the Lion, based on his other book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Batterson says, “I think part of us wants God to reduce the obstacles. We like situations where the odds are in our favor. But sometimes God allows the odds to be stacked against us so he can reveal more of his glory through it.” Hmmmm.
I’m dreaming big for 2012. Dreaming big for myself and dreaming big for my clients. How about you? Are you going to dream impossible dreams? Are you brave enough to tell us what you are dreaming? Remember that when we say the words, we commit to the dream. What are your dreams for the future?
My dream is to become a better writer this year. I have a novel completed, but I want to go back through it one more time and see if I can make it even better. I would like to finish at least one more book and start another. Ideas are rattling in my head, and it’s time to be more intentional with my dreams. 2012 is the year!
“‘…sometimes God allows the odds to be stacked against us so he can reveal more of his glory through it.'”
Thank you so much for passing along these words. The truth of his strength made perfect in our weakness rings in it (2 Cor. 12:9– http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=2Cr&c=12&t=NKJV#comm/9 ).
What freeing words, and how exciting to know that His plan is perfect, whatever it may hold. To seek his dreams for us, find out what desires he’s placed in our hearts– what a joy! Thanks for the reminder of what a singular gift that is.
Yes, Wendy, I am dreaming big and trusting in God’s plan for me. I don’t know what 2012 will bring, but I know I’m bringing hope to the table. 🙂
Thought provoking.
And maybe this sounds silly, but I have been amazed at how my writing has brought me closer to God. See, God is the author of life, and He’s also quite creative, so I feel like writing has given me a different understanding of what those two things mean. Now, I am not suggesting that He is writing our every move like a book author, but He does have a hand in our lives.
The quote by Batterson you shared,”…God allows the odds to be stacked against us so he can reveal more of his glory through it.” makes so much sense!
As authors don’t we try and put our characters through the impossible, one turn after another to bring them through it on the other side? And for what? Character growth.
God grows us through adversity.
Thanks for sharing.
I love this! It totally reminds me of Debbie’s keynote speech in Denver in 2009. It was the very first writing conference I had ever been to. I didn’t have an agent or a book deal. I just had a dream. She told us to write five big-dream goals on a note card.
I still have the card.
Number one said: Get an agent.
Number two said: Get a book deal.
I was able to check both of those off. First when I got an offer of representation from Rachelle. And a year later when I signed a two-book deal with Waterbrook Multnomah.
I can’t share the final three. But I’m hoping I get to check them off someday too. This writing dream is definitely impossible on my own.
And now, as hubby and I venture into the uncertain waters of international adoption (Congo, here we come!), we are learning anew that nothing is impossible with God. We are learning that when we step out in faith to accomplish what the human eye see as impossible, HIS power and HIS glory shine the brightest. We are already seeing Him move in amazing, amazing ways.
Such an inspiring post, Wendy!
“Perplexingly impossible.” Thanks for the encouragement — I’ll stay the course!
My dream (and prayer) is that I will write — and write well – for the rest of my life.
I’m dreaming that I finish my rough draft and do a good edit on my memoir. That the new blog I’ve started as a platform for my story takes off, that the other blog I keep still shares the Word of God. That I become a better Bible teacher and that my husband and I continue growing in love after 25 years of marriage.
I pray you achieve your dreams.
Heather
What an intriguing blog post. I haven’t read Batterson, but what you’ve quoted has me interested.
This –
“I think part of us wants God to reduce the obstacles. We like situations where the odds are in our favor.”
Definitely! *hangs head in shame*
“But sometimes God allows the odds to be stacked against us so he can reveal more of his glory through it.”
I’m trying to keep that in mind this year.
My word for the year is Faith. Faith in God, Faith in his plan for me, Faith in myself and my writing and on and on.
I’ve never given a year a word before, but reflecting back on 2011 I would describe the year as surprising. Learning I was a finalist and then that I won Genesis was a huge surprise. Falling back in love with my writing brought an even better surprise. Discovering that my writing can expand my own faith was perhaps the biggest surprise of all and is what brought me to choose Faith as my word for this year.
Thanks for making me think.
Mary
Katie, I’ll be praying for you in your adoption journey– I know first hand how absolutely amazing it is to experience God guiding, providing in every single way (wisdom, finances, direction, words, sustenance, patience, comfort, trust… and the list goes on) on the adoption road. So excited for you. We are in the middle of adoption #2– in one of the many waiting periods. 🙂 Praise God!
I’ve been reading this book by Debbie Macomber since it came out. Almost done. I started thinking and praying about it (choosing a word for the year to chew on, study and pray about) in December after going through a horribly impossible year.
Now, several days into my word I’m not sure about anything, except that God’s Grace is sufficient. Do I dare to dream? Only in God’s Grace.
Looking forward to your blogs this week.
Wonderful and inspiring post, Wendy. I like dreaming and the bigger the better. Toward the end of the year, one dream didn’t get fulfilled: I received a rejection on a project I loved from an agent. I’m still working on that dream for 2012. I’ll look at the manuscript again, see if it needs some changes, and move forward. I also have two WIPs I want to complete and begin look for homes for.
Thanks for starting the year off right.
Somewhere along the line, I also heard of Debbie’s one word a year. After reading your thoughts here, Wendy, “work” melted into my mind. Whoops, not exactly what I would have chosen, lol. But it’s persisted so I’ve decided it must be the one.
One of my huge dreams, is to go to Mount Hermon. Several of my friends have attended the conference, with one becoming a teacher, B.J. Taylor. Thank you so much for this post.
Dreaming big sometimes seems greedy, and yet… God instructs us to ask. He tells us to do it. So I’m getting better at asking, but then leaving it in His most capable hands. I’ll be the clay because I’ve got a great potter working on me. I’ll do the work of the clay, but then the potter works the forge and the kiln. Raw material: needing finessing. Fine-tuning. But still dreaming big!
I know i am experience the leading of GOd to have come across your blog. You have bless me so much. All I can say is thanks for the encouragment. Iwill now get to writing for this year. My goal is to write my first book this year. AND teach young and old how to make dolls and write their story.