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

by Mark Batterson

In the meantime don’t worry about meeting the right person. Focus on becoming the right person. If you keep doing the right things day in and day out, God will hold up His end of the bargain!

Nothing sets us up for a miracle like going the extra mile—“just a little farther.”

But I soon discovered that some of God’s best premoves are closed doors.

“What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.”

Someday you may thank God for the closed doors even more than the open doors! It’s one of His best premoves.

Destiny doesn’t make appointments. It usually shows up at the door unannounced. And it often knocks quietly, so you have to listen carefully.

For most people their first job is not their dream job, and neither is their second or third or fourth. But that’s part of the process of discovering our destiny. It’s those odd jobs and unenjoyable jobs that help us identify our dream job once we find it.

Instead of climbing the corporate ladder, focus on the learning curve.

If you don’t have a dream, keep learning while you’re waiting.

We fight darkness with light, fear with faith, and hate with hope. And when we do, the gates of hell cannot prevail against us.

Don’t let what you cannot do keep you from doing what you can.

For the record, the other tribes are referred to as warriors or soldiers. Only those from the tribe of Issachar are called leaders.13 Why? Because of their contextual intelligence. They didn’t just have a pulse on the social, political, and spiritual temper of the times. They were innovators and entrepreneurs who knew how to turn their ideas into strategies.

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.

The game has changed, but the rules haven’t. There are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet. 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.

But like Eleazar, you need to identify the battlefield you’re willing to die on. Then you need to fight the good fight until your hand freezes to the sword.

“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.”

What got you here might not get you where you need to go next. At critical junctures you have to jump the curve. You have to reinvent yourself, reimagine your life. That’s what dreamers do.

you’re afraid of making a mistake, you’ll probably miss the opportunity.

But more often than not, you need to obey your gut instincts. And that takes good old-fashioned guts.

a dream without a to-do list is called a wish list.

In my humble opinion, no one is a natural. Sure, some people are more naturally gifted than others. But unless that giftedness is coupled with a complementary work ethic, it’ll only result in wasted potential.

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.

That’s the difference between chasing and catching the five-hundred-pound lion. You can’t outrun it, but you can outwork it. You can’t outsmart it, but you can outlast it.

This could be the greatest year of your life, your dream year, but you have to win the day. That’s how you win the week, win the month, win the year. No one achieves his or her dream without daily disciplines.

It could be argued that no one needs to be coached less than Aaron Rodgers, yet no one wants to be coached more! That’s a recipe for success in any endeavor.

I don’t believe our greatest shortcoming is not feeling bad enough about what we’ve done wrong. I think our greatest shortcoming is not feeling good enough about what God has done right. When we undercelebrate, we fall short of the glory of God!

When it comes to discerning the will of God, I subscribe to a twofold litmus test.23 You have to be released from and called to. And in my experience, the calling is easier to discern than the releasing.

If God has released you, then continuing to do what you’ve been doing isn’t faithfulness. It’s disobedience. You need to let it go. And don’t look back. If God hasn’t released you, don’t let go! You have to hang in there. And when it feels as though you can’t hold on any longer, remember Eleazar, whose hand literally froze to the sword. That should help you hang in there a little longer!

change of pace + change of place = change of perspective.

Your dream is more than a dream. It’s a calling. Sure, someone hired you and someone can fire you. But they didn’t call you. God did. And if you forget that fact, you forget why you do what you do and Who you do it for.

This was where he took his stand, made his name, and won the greatest battle of his life.

Before going wherever God wants to take you next, is there some place you need to go back to? Sometimes the way forward is backward. “The farther backward you can look,” said Winston Churchill, “the farther forward you can see.”3

More often than not, what we perceive as a no is really a not yet.

When we operate in faith, we aren’t risking our reputation. We’re risking God’s reputation! And God can handle Himself just fine, thank you. You may doubt yourself because of your lack of education or lack of experience. But if God has called you, you aren’t really doubting yourself. You’re doubting God.

Sometimes God will put a dream in your heart that is actually for someone else to accomplish. And sometimes there is more joy in watching someone else do it.

Don’t settle for your plan A. Go after God’s plan

If you wait for God to part the Jordan River, you’re going to be waiting the rest of your life. You have to step into the river and get your feet wet before God will part the river.

Faith is taking the first step before God reveals the second step.

Sometimes you have to take a stand by taking a step. And when you do, that one small step can turn into a giant leap.

Faith is climbing out on a limb, cutting it off, and watching the tree fall down.

Faith is unlearning your fears until all that’s left is the fear of God.

Faith is the willingness to look foolish.

faith is taking the first step before God reveals...

Gratitude is thanking God after He does it. Faith is thanking God before He does it.

That’s faith—the willingness to look foolish.

If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.

If you want to experience the supernatural, you have to attempt something that is beyond your natural ability. If you want to experience God’s miraculous provision, you have to attempt something that is beyond your resources.

One of the first steps in going after your goals is going public.

The cave of Adullam wasn’t where David wanted to be, but it’s where David needed to be for a season. It’s there that we discover that the dream isn’t about us at all. The dream is from God. The dream is for God.