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

by Mark Batterson

We are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.6 In other words, our universal destiny is to think like, act like, love like, and be like the prototype—Jesus. If you pursue that common destiny, it will lead to an uncommon life.

Like happiness, destiny isn’t something you discover by seeking it. It’s a by-product. You don’t find it by looking for it. You find it by looking for God. Then your destiny finds you.

Be like Christ. Be yourself. That’s your double destiny.

Faith isn’t linear. Faith is exponential. Every decision we make, every risk we take, has a chain reaction. And those chain reactions set off a thousand chain reactions we aren’t even aware of. The cumulative effect won’t be revealed until we reach the other side of the space-time continuum.

Don’t despise the day of small beginnings!

Every decision we make has a domino effect way beyond our ability to predict or control. We can’t predict when or where or how, but our seeds of faith will reap a harvest somehow, someway, someday. And it’s often when and where we least expect it.

We think that what God does for us is for us, but it’s never just for us. It’s always for the third and fourth generations. We think right here, right now, but God is thinking nations and generations.

The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off.4

Even when you feel as if you aren’t making a difference, God might be using you in ways you aren’t aware of. And it’s not the immediate impact that matters most; it’s the exponential impact, to the third and fourth generations.

An inheritance is what you leave for someone. A legacy is what you leave in someone.

Until you can selflessly invest yourself in someone else’s dream, you’re not ready

for your own.

Never underestimate the power of one well-timed, well-phrased word of

encouragement. One sentence can alter someone else’s destiny!

Your legacy isn’t your dream. Your legacy is leveraging the dreams of those

who come after you. Your legacy is your downlines—those you parent, mentor, coach, and disciple. You may not influence a million people, but who knows? You may influence one person who influences a billion people.

They are not dead who live in lives they leave behind. In those whom they have blessed they live a life again.6

We don’t get where God wants us to go by ourselves! If we go it alone, we’ll get lost somewhere along the way. Then who’s going to pick you up when you fall down? And who’s going to push you to your potential?

Adding a relational component to my life goals reduced their selfish nature. It was no longer about me, myself, and I. My life goals now leverage others, and that doubles the motivation.

Without a team, don’t dream very big. But if you rally others to your cause, it’s game on!

Rally others to your "cause". What is the cause that I can rally people around and make a massive impact on this city, country and world?

In an individualistic culture like America, we tend to overlook the power of friendship. But friendship is the Nth power. Without a team your dream will fall short of its full potential. Call it a Holy Club. Call it the Inklings. Call it what you want, but it takes a team to accomplish a God-sized dream.

Your potential will be determined by the people you surround yourself with. So hiring decisions become the most important decisions you make because they have an exponential effect.

Our natural tendency is to surround ourselves with people like us. But if you want to grow yourself and your organization, you can’t surround yourself with a bunch of yes men and yes women. You need people who think differently and lead differently. That creates a healthy and holy tension, but as with a stringed instrument, tension keeps you in tune. Without tension there is no melody, no harmony.

If you want to get better at any sport, you have to play with someone who is better than you are. In other words, you have to be willing to lose to win. In much the same way, if you want to grow spiritually, you have to be around people who have more faith, more wisdom. Their God-sized dreams will stretch your faith.

I need to be around people who

make me feel small because their dreams are so big. I need to be around people who make me feel far from God because they’re so close to Jesus. I need to be around people who make me feel as if I’m doing next to nothing because they’re making such a big difference.

Whether it’s a Holy Club, a literary club like the Inklings, or a band of brothers like David’s mighty men, you will ultimately reflect those with whom you surround yourself. And they will reflect you. Bad company corrupts good character,8 but good company helps you go from good to great.

Chuck Feeney “the James Bond of philanthropy.”

God-given dreams are more about others than they are about you. Selfish dreams always short-circuit, but dreams that involve and excite everyone else have a long tail.

Is your dream about you? Or is it about others? If your dream is about you, no one will rally around it. If your dream is about others, you won’t be able to keep people away.

Then came the moment of truth. “I knew that I was no longer waiting for God,” Kate said. “I knew that God was waiting for me.” So Kate chased her lion!

We should do what we do for an audience of One, but I also believe that the good news should make the news. We should be making such a huge difference in our communities that we’re unignorable.

If you are big enough for your dream, your dream isn’t big enough for God.

There is a trend in Scripture that is unignorable. Many of the greatest leaders were understudies.

There is a season to go after your dreams, but there is also a season to serve someone else’s dream. The best way to learn leadership is to serve under a gifted leader.

Don’t seek opportunity; seek God, and opportunity will seek you. I’m not suggesting that you don’t keep your eyes open or put your best foot forward. And if opportunity knocks, answer it. But the best path to your dream isn’t seeking a position of leadership; it’s posturing yourself as a servant.

If you stay humble and stay hungry, there is nothing God cannot do in you or through you.

God won’t put you in a position of leadership until you take a posture of servanthood.

years—considering long and acting quickly.

One of the biggest mistakes we make is thinking in terms of one generation. It’s not only shortsighted; it’s also selfish. We think that what God does for us is for us. And it is, but it isn’t. It’s also for the third and fourth generations.

What are you doing today that will make a difference one hundred years from now?

Every generation must steward what’s been entrusted to them. It starts with honoring the generation that has gone before us by learning everything we can from them. But that’s only half the equation when it comes to passing along a generational blessing. It continues by empowering the generation that comes after us. That’s how the baton of blessing is passed to the third and fourth generation. And that is what the psalmist advocated in Psalm 78: So the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.6

Your dream is setting up someone else’s dream. You are planting seeds that someone else will harvest, just as you are harvesting seeds that someone else planted.

a strategic plan. We establish priorities and put timelines to our dreams. Of course, God surprises us every year with things we most definitely didn’t plan.

One of my annual rituals is doubling back and rereading my journal. It’s my way of making sure I’m learning the lessons God is trying to teach me. It also helps me connect the dots between my prayers and God’s answers. My dream journal is the seedbed where God ideas germinate.

At different points in my life, I’ve felt like the dream God has given me is too big for me. And that’s because it is. By definition, a God-sized dream is beyond your ability, beyond your resources. If a dream is from God, it will require divine intervention. But I’ve also learned that sometimes a dream feels as if it’s too big for us because it’s not just for us!

No matter how far or how long you run away from God, if you turn around, you’ll discover that God has been following you. He’s right behind you with arms open wide, ready to embrace you.

Jesus didn’t die just to keep you safe. He died to make you dangerous!