Inspire, Winter 2003

22 Winter 2003 Our dreams are rarely what we expect them to be. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” I thought I was doing that. Why weren’t the desires of my heart turning out the way that I expected them to? Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” It was God who was working inside of me. It was God who would put those desires in my heart so that I could glorify Him. I couldn’t grasp that God’s plans for my life could blow my puny dreams out of the water. I was dreaming, I just wasn’t dreaming big enough. If you want to discover God’s desires for your life and start dreaming God-sized dreams, then you’ve got to be brutally honest about what you can and cannot do. To truly discover God’s desires for your life, there will come a time when you’ll have to let go of some of your dreams. A sure-fire way to find God’s desires for your life and to start dreaming God-sized dreams is to get into the Word and study it like you never have before. The more Scripture I read, I realized sometimes our plans have to die. I read the story of Lazarus. Mary and Martha thought, “When Jesus gets here, He’ll make Lazarus better.” But that was their plan. That was their way. That wasn’t God’s way. God was saying, “Be patient, I have a better way. I’m orchestrating something so beautiful and so incredible up here that you’re never going to believe it.” My husband, Troy, and I agree that adoption has been the greatest joy in our lives, although it started out as the greatest pain. In order to discover God’s desires for your life, you have to realize dreams don’t come attached with balloons and streamers, but that they are shadowed by pain. I was contacted about writing the biography of Rick Husband, the commander of the space shuttle “Columbia” that broke apart in the skies above Texas on February 1, killing all seven astronauts on board. I flew to Houston on several occasions to meet with Evelyn, Rick’s widow. Evelyn has a picture on her refrigerator; it is of her and her two children. They are standing in front of the large landing clock as they waited for the Columbia to land. The clock reads 11 minutes 18 seconds. As far as she knew, Rick was just 11 minutes from home. She had no idea that he’d walked through the gates of heaven five minutes earlier. I asked Evelyn when I met with her, “Evelyn, how did you get through that day?” And she said, “Because I have a history with God, I knew that He would lead me through my greatest heartbreak.” What is your history with God? If your dreams were ripped from you today, would you turn to God or would you turn away from Him? Dreaming God’s Dreams D o n n a P a y n e V a n L i e r e ’ 8 9 VanLiere’s Books Hit The New York Times Bestseller List ; You Can Receive Your Copy! Since its release on October 28, Donna VanLiere’s second book, The Christmas Blessing , has placed in the top 25 on The New York Times Bestseller List. It is joined by the first in the Christmas Hope series, The Christmas Shoes , which has placed in the top 25 for the third time in as many holiday seasons. “ Blessing takes place many years later when Nathan Andrews, the young boy who purchases the Christmas shoes for his dying mother, is now in medical school and learns many lessons of faith through a sick young girl,” Donna shared. “Will as many buy Blessing as they did Shoes ? Only God knows that.” Both books are inspiring reads no matter the time of the year. Would you like to receive an autographed copy of The Christmas Blessing ? Any alum who gives a gift of any size to Cedarville’s Annual Fund by December 31 will receive a copy. To give your year-end Annual Fund gift, please call Jeff Brock ’84 at 1-800-766-1115 or give a gift online at www.cedarville.edu (click on “Financial Partners”). The following are excerpts from Donna’s recent chapel message.