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

by Mark Batterson

But that one act of courage completely changed the trajectory of Benaiah’s life. The same is true of you. 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.

You can run away from what you are afraid of, but you’ll be running the rest of your life. It’s time to face your fears, take a flying leap of faith, and chase the lion!

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.

I have a theory: your favorite scripture will become the script of your life.

Lion chasers measure everything against almighty God,

That’s the difference between being a scaredy-cat and a lion chaser.

If you focus on not making mistakes, you won’t make a difference.

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 big dreams honor God.

Destiny is a decision—a difficult decision, a daring decision, a counterintuitive decision. You fulfill your destiny one opportunity at a time.

If you’re looking for an excuse, you’ll always find one. If you’re looking for an opportunity, you’ll always find one.

Lion chasers have an eye for opportunity. There are amazing opportunities all around us all the time, but you have to see them to seize them.

Our destiny is more intricately interwoven with others than any of us realize.

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

But your greatest legacy isn’t your dream; it’s the dreams you inspire in others! You aren’t just a dreamer; you are a dreamcatcher.

And remember, if your dream doesn’t scare you, it’s too small.

What impossibility do you need to repent of?

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.

All they had was a dream, but that’s all it takes if it’s coupled with tenacious stick-to-it-iveness.

The impossible is temporary.

Repent of unbelief in the possibility of your dream!

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

Dream dreams. That’s the natural, supernatural by-product of being filled with God’s Spirit.

You never know when or where or how destiny will knock on your door, but it rarely has a scheduled appointment.

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

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.

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

Too often the church complains about culture instead of creating it. The energy we spend on criticism is being stolen from creativity.

We need fewer commentators and more innovators.

Quit complaining about what’s wrong, and do something that ...

You are one encounter away from your destiny. One off-the-cuff conversation, one crazy idea, or one glance across a crowded room can change everything.

Epic movies demand epic conflict. That’s what makes them epic! And what’s true of great movies is true of great lives. Great conflict cultivates great character.

In every storyline there are defining moments. The technical term, in terms of plot structure, is “inciting incident.” It’s a turning point, a tipping point. It’s a point of no return.

Inciting incidents come in two basic varieties: things that happen to you that you cannot control and things you make happen that you can control.

What we perceive as positive sometimes turns out to have negative side effects, and what we perceive as negative often turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to us.

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

What do you need to do to make your dream happen? Maybe it’s taking that first step of faith or burning some bridges behind you. After all, you can’t steal second base if you keep your foot on first.

That one act of kindness had a ripple effect across nations and generations.

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

One of the best ways to discover your destiny is to study your history. The seeds of your dreams are often buried in your memory, three levels down.

Big or small, good or bad, a handful of experiences influence the way we see ourselves, the way we see life. It’s not until we inventory our inciting incidents that we begin to see why we do what we do.

You have to inventory God’s faithfulness so you can draw faith from those past successes, past miracles, past blessings. And the good news is that God’s faithfulness cannot be overdrawn!

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

over time your favorite scripture becomes the script of your life.

Impossible odds set the stage for God’s greatest miracles! And apparently God loves long shots.

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?

“Life isn’t about finding the answers,” Brian said. “It’s about asking the questions.”8

What I am sure of is this: God is in the business of strategically positioning us in the right place at the right time.

I don’t believe in coincidence, not if you are living a Spirit-led life. I believe in Providence.