Chase the Lion: If Your Dream Doesn't Scare You, It's Too Small

by Mark Batterson

Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention.

You are one idea, one risk, one decision away from a totally different life. Of course, it’ll probably be the toughest decision you ever make, the scariest risk you ever take. But if your dream doesn’t scare you, it’s too small.

In every dream journey there comes a moment when you have to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. You have to go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention.

At the end of our lives, our greatest regrets will be the God-ordained opportunities we left on the table, the God-given passions we didn’t pursue, and the God-sized dreams we didn’t go after because we let fear dictate our decisions.

Most people believe God is real, but few people actually live like it. The result is a widening gap between their theology and their reality. They allow their circumstances to get between them and God instead of letting God get between them and their circumstances.

You don’t overcome sin by focusing on not sinning. You need a dream that is bigger and better than the temptations you’re trying to overcome.

By definition, a God-sized dream will be beyond your ability, beyond your resources. Unless God does it, it can’t be done! And that is precisely how God gets the glory. He does things we can’t do so we can’t take credit for them. God honors big dreams because

The best way to discover your dream is to help other people accomplish theirs!

The God who is able to do immeasurably more than all you can ask will accomplish something way beyond what you can imagine,7 just as He did for David and his mighty men.

What impossibility do you need to repent of?

A God-sized dream will always be beyond your ability, beyond your resources. Unless God does it, it cannot be done! But that’s how God gets the glory. If your dream doesn’t scare you, it’s too small. It also falls short of God’s glory by not giving Him an opportunity to show up and show off His power.

Repent of unbelief in the possibility of your dream!

Imagination is God’s gift to you. A dream is your gift back to God.

More often than not, you don’t discover your dream. Your dream discovers you when you are faithfully tending sheep.

The mighty men were drawn to a dreamer with a God-sized dream. And that’s what will draw people to you.

Without his band of brothers, David’s dream of becoming king was a pipe dream. His destiny was tied to theirs, and their destiny was tied to his. David’s dream became their dream, a dream within a dream.

Your dreams are possible because of the dreams that were dreamed before you. And the domino effect of your dreams will be felt for generations.

Your greatest legacy isn’t your dream. Your greatest legacy is the next generation of dreamers that your dream inspires—the dreams within a dream.

Our dreams predate us. They were born long before we were. Our dreams postdate us. They make a difference long after we are gone.

Your dream has a genealogy. Honor your upline! Your dream also has progeny. Empower your downline!

One footnote: your legacy isn’t just your God-sized dreams. It’s also your small acts of kindness.

We are reaping where we have not sown.

The story God is writing through your life is someone else’s subplot. It was true for David’s mighty men.

If you want to live an epic life, you have to overcome some epic challenges. You have to take some epic risks, make some epic sacrifices.

Mismanaged success is the leading cause of failure. Well-managed failure is the leading cause of success.

Sometimes the seeds of our dreams don’t germinate for months or years or decades. But if we plant and water, God will give the increase in due time. Why? Because you cannot break the law of sowing and reaping. It will make or break you.

The true measure of a gift is what you gave up to give it.

We start dying the day we stop dreaming. And ironically, we start living the day we discover a dream worth dying for.

If you don’t have a dream, get around people who do. You might just catch what they have. Dreams are highly contagious!

I need a life goal to keep me going. I need a noble cause to keep me committed. I need a God-sized dream to keep me from getting demotivated.

over time your favorite scripture becomes the script of your life. The promises of God become the plot line of your life. And the more you rehearse those lines, the more you get into character—the character of Christ. Your life becomes a unique interpretation of that life verse.

“I despaired at the thought that my life might slip by without seeing God show himself mightily on our behalf.

One word of encouragement has the potential to change a person’s perspective on life, a person’s plot line for all eternity.

We tend to avoid situations where the odds are against us, but when we do, we rob God of the opportunity to do something supernatural.

When was the last time you attempted something that was destined to fail without divine intervention?

learn as much as you can about as much as you can.

great dream doesn’t just make a difference. It inspires dreams to the third and fourth generation.

Contextual intelligence is the ability to spot opportunity where others don’t. That’s what sets leaders apart; that’s what sets them up for success. Call it a sixth sense. Call it gut instinct. Lion chasers see and seize the decisive moment.

We shouldn’t just be trend spotters. With the Holy Spirit’s help, we should be trendsetters. If you want to reach people no one is reaching, you might have to do something no one else is doing. To be clear, the gospel doesn’t require gimmicks. In the same breath, irrelevance is irreverence. Innovation is a form of incarnation. And anything less is laziness!

“Sometimes the greatest opposition to what God wants to do next,” said R. T. Kendall, “comes from those who were on the cutting edge of what God did last.”20

We don’t just let the future happen; we make it happen with God’s help.

Our natural tendency is to think the way we’ve always thought and do things the way we’ve always done them. It’s hard to break old habits and hard to build new habits. But if you want God to do something new, you can’t keep doing the same old thing.

What do you need to stop doing today? What do you need to start doing today?

You can’t just pray as if it depends solely on God; you also have to work as if it depends on you. It’s your work ethic plus your prayer ethic that will inch you closer to your dream.

I don’t know what dream you’re chasing, but you have to prove yourself one swing, one rehearsal, one practice, one book at a time. And unless you want to be a one-hit wonder, you have to do it day in and day out.

Whatever dream journey you’re on, you have to take it one step at a time. And if you keep doing the right things day in and day out, one day God is going to show up and show off.

Obedience earns compound interest. Over time it’s called faithfulness. And there is a cumulative effect. Eventually the blessings of God will overtake you.

We overestimate what we can accomplish in a year or two, but we underestimate what God can accomplish in a decade or two. If you’re discouraged, zoom out. You can’t just dream big; you have to think long. In fact, you need some life goals that will take a lifetime to accomplish. Maybe even a few that can’t be accomplished!

Most of us give up after two or three rejections. But to achieve the highest level of success in any field, you need a high pain threshold when it comes to failure.

We glamorize success, but it always comes back to basics. You have to practice scales, practice skills, practice techniques over and over and over again. And it will take lots of sacrifices, which usually starts with setting your alarm clock extra early in the morning!