At What Are You Not Failing?

“People who do not attempt to recover their dreams fail 100 percent of the time.”

-from Quitter, by Jon Acuff

So I am reading Quitter in an effort to figure out what direction my life should go. At first, I thought the book was going to inspire me to walk away from corporate America and chase after my dream with focused determination. But, there was this fear that I wouldn’t be able to provide for my family; simple things like food and school tuition, healthcare and a home. I kept praying that God would give me some guidance and all I kept hearing was “trust me.”

Trust me? Yeah, I get it. I should put my trust in God and not worry about the details. The only problem was that I was specifically asking about the details and all he was saying was “trust me.” I thought, “OK, this must mean that I should walk away from my job, and salary, and just go for it!”

And then I opened my kindle app and downloaded Quitter from the cloud and opened up to read about how I was going to risk it all and not look back. But instead, in big bold letters were the words, “Don’t Quite Your Day Job.”

In an instant my outlook was changed. I thought I was coming to the end of my 6 years at my current job; 10 years of cubicle life. I thought I was going to walk away at the end of August and trust God to take care of all the financial struggles I was going to face. But instead, I found out I was staying at my job, and if my dream was that important, then I was going to have to figure out a way to work, provide for my family, and chase my dream (which also means clearly defining what my dream even is). It was a relief to know that we weren’t going to have to depend on just my wife’s income; that we would be able to keep our health insurance, keep our son in one of the best Christian schools in the area, and keep on eating and not being homeless. But at the same time, I want that excitement. I want the adventure. I want to get crazy and see what happens. Crazy has never really been my style though. I am going to stick with consistent, and make the time to make my dream come true, God willing (yes, I am a Christ follower so I always have to add “God willing” to the end of otherwise selfish sounding statements in order to keep my Believer Card). I am going to trust that God has been, and will continue to, prep me for whatever it is that he has planned for my life.

Jon is right. If we don’t do, then we always fail. If we do, then at least there is a chance of success.

How has God unexpectedly changed your life?