goals vs. stewardship= both win?
In my last blog, I talked about goals, and how setting goals wasn’t working for me in that season. I wanted to make it clear that I don’t think goals are bad. I think that they are amazing, and have the potential to help people find a way to walk into their dreams. I also think that in another season, setting goals & planning might totally work for me.
As I was being coached, and as I started to walk into what I thought a lot of my dreams were for that season, I began to make plans. Again, plans are not bad. I know and have heard of countless stories of people who set goals, make plans, and it totally works for them as they progress into their dreams & destiny. But for some reason, even though I think it’s a good thing, it never has worked for me. It generally goes this way: Lora makes plans. Door shuts in Lora’s face. Lora waits all the while being totally awesome wherever she is waiting. God opens up amazing opportunity.
One thing that I learned about myself during the time that I was being coached in the direction of my dreams was the importance of stewardship. I took a look at my goals and my dreams, and I had to ask myself the question: What can I do today that will steward the gifts and talents I’ve been given, and help me move toward who it is that God says that I am, and make me a person that is able to live out my dreams today?
Doing this was much more profitable to me than “making plans.” I began to see what I really liked to do, and what I didn’t really like to do. Things that I thought I could see myself doing, I began to realize maybe were not the things I actually enjoyed doing, because I started to actually do them.
I made plans, only to realize that they were things that left me lifeless and tired. And then I realized it was okay to change, and that it was okay to totally be myself. And that it was okay to wait for God to open up doors for me, and to be patient because I knew the ones he opened up for me would be more exciting than the ones i might open for myself.
So I have been in that tension of stewardship vs. goals for a while. I realize it’s not bad to set goals, but for my personality and lifestyle stewardship has worked better for me.
Once God gave me a picture of my life, and I was like this hot pink bouncy ball to the nations. I would bounce all over the place, and there would be seasons where He would pick me up and let me rest. That’s pretty much how it has been so far, and I can’t wait to bounce to all those other nations! That picture gives me life, because it is me! It is who God created me to be. Spontaneous, fun, and always ready for a new adventure to bring hope, joy & revival to the nations.
