Most people have big dreams, but few people follow through with them. That’s why I loved getting to see the end result of a God-sized dream recently while I was in Virginia.
For many years, my friend, Donnalynn Davis, had wanted to open a community theater for her town, a place where the fine folks of Brookneal could come to enjoy the arts, but it had seemed like such an impossible dream.
I remember her asking me to pray about it with her. Not many months later, I saw a photo on Facebook of a woman’s hand holding some keys–the keys to a building that Donnalynn and her husband had just purchased.
Over the next months I saw many photos as 246 The Main came to life, with months of demolition and remodeling, and then the final stages where the building turned into a picture-perfect theater.
As with any big dream, there were days when it wasn’t an easy process, days of discouragement like the time when volunteers were supposed to come help–and nobody showed up. Donnalynn told her husband, “I don’t think I can do this. I don’t have the strength.”
Swallowing her disappointment, she decided to clean. Her daughter, Tionna, climbed on a counter to wipe off a high shelf, and then she found something. It was a solid piece of metal, a few inches long, painted with a brown finish.
The raised letters said "Strength." A word of encouragement at just the right time, a sweet reminder of God’s care.
And that wasn’t the only thing God sent to Donnalynn and Carl. He provided volunteers, seats for the theater and every other necessity to turn 246 The Main into the jewel that it is today–including the old glass blocks that they needed for replacements on the front of the building.
Those unusual-sized glass blocks had been sitting in a man’s barn for many years–and there was just enough for what they needed.
You see, God doesn’t call us to a task without equipping us with everything we need to accomplish that task. Today, Donnalynn’s God-sized dream is a reality because she took that first step of faith.
What dreams for God are on your heart today? Sometimes I think we limit Him because we pray for us-sized dreams instead of God-sized ones. We limit Him because of a lack of faith.
Pray this with me:
Dear God, don’t limit my dreams to what I’ve been thinking about. Do all the things I never thought to pray for and let me fulfill Your dreams for my life. Open God-sized doors so that I can accomplish those big things You want me to do, and don’t let any of Your dreams for me go to waste! Amen.
