Difference Between Dreaming and Developing

It's been an incredible last week and weekend! I attended the Catalyst conference last week in Atlanta and then just returned from a bridal shower I threw in Orlando. More on the bridal shower in a later post, but for a great recap you can check out my good friend Leah's post here.... it includes lots of pictures of us and the luau theme!

So backing up to this past week where I attended the majority of Catalyst, a conference for church leaders. I love this conference because it includes speakers from many fields including Geoffrey Canada, Simon Sinek, Susan Cain, John Acuff, and Francis Chan. 

The Catalyst theme was "Make." Are you consciously making yourself into a leader?

Though I heard many great messages on leadership, the key takeaway that I have been mulling over all weekend is the dichotomy between wanting to dream big versus simply living out of my gifting.

I am a follower of Michael Hyatt’s blog, so I was very excited for the opportunity to hear him speak on building a platform to get noticed in a noisy world. One point that he made was that many of us set goals that we already know we can reach. Oftentimes, I would rather play it safe than stretch outside of my comfort zone, risking failure. Yet, how will we ever grow if we don’t test the limits? When we only set goals we know we can accomplish, we don’t give God the opportunity to show up and do amazing things.

Part of allowing God to “show up” is believing that He has an incredible plan for us. Andy Stanley, North Point pastor, reiterated this point by saying, “God has a plan for your life, and you don’t want to miss it.” I desire to walk in the good works that God has set out for me to do (Ephesians 2:10). Walking in this path requires trust – trust to get outside of the comfort zone and dream big.

And yet with this comes the temptation to want to dream big for the sake of making myself known and glorifying my own work. I want to focus on the future and set big goals. But I don’t want to miss opportunities or where God is calling me to go because I am too future-focused.

Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring Church, further convicted me on this point when he said that we need to say “develop me” rather than “discover me.” 

I began Catalyst Day 1 (the pre-conference labs) being pumped up to set big goals and dream big. The morning of Day 2, I critically thought about whether the goals I wanted to set aligned with God’s plan for me. By Perry Noble’s talk at the end of Day 2, I then saw that goal-setting and dreaming about the future need to first start with my motives and mindset. Am I expecting God to show up big for the glory of my own name? Or am I first living out of my calling?

What about you? Why are you setting goals?