Stick with the what long enough to experience the how

​I have watched from a distance this week as my friend chased and realized a giant dream. For a long time, she's known what this dream is. I think maybe this week is the first time she's known for sure how that dream was actually going to come about.

What and how. Those words often compete against one another instead of working together.

How, that's often the ugly word. It might be the mightiest 3-letter-word dream killer known to man.

How many mornings have you woken up with something on your heart? A new dream. A vision. Something calling you into the sunrise?

I've had many of those mornings. Oh, this is going to be a great day. I have a dream....

And I start thinking about it. Until I can't STOP thinking about it.

But then I start thinking about HOW I'm going to pull it off. And I'm suddenly faced with the truth that I have NO idea how this dream can come to be.

I lack too many skills. I don't have the time or the money or the connections to people who can help make my WHAT a reality.

I know WHAT I want to do in this world, but I suddenly have no idea HOW I'm going to pull it off.

And too often, by the end of the day, by the end of the process that takes me from dreaming of what to trying to figure out how, the energy found in a dream becomes mourning.

Mourning the death of another dream that will never happen.

How many times have I credited God for being able to put a dream on my heart only to turn around and abandon his capacity to pull it off?

Many, that's my answer.

One thing I'm trying to do about this, though, with a huge lift from my friend this week, I've tried to stop interpreting these things God puts on my heart as suggestions.

I've tried to stop hearing God say, "hey Keith, I have a cool idea you might be interested in" and I've tried to start hearing God say, "hey Keith, I have an idea, and if WE don't pull this off we're going to miss a chance to impact the world."

Andy Stanley says this about a vision God puts on our hearts:

"In light of a divine vision, our daily faithfulness takes on new significance. It is no longer faithfulness for faithfulness' sake. There is something at stake. If the visionary doesn't act, something significant won't get done."

Something significant won't get done.

I think it's easy to dismiss a dream when we believe God is just bouncing around ideas. What if we start interpreting dreams as a sense of urgency from God, as God putting dreams on our heart because he knows we are the only one who will make sure something significant gets done.

Something God NEEDS done.

What if God is putting dreams on our hearts because he knows we'll keep chasing WHAT he needs done long enough for him to show us HOW he intends to make it happen?

If you have a dream today, lean into WHAT. Lean into what you know. And part of what you know is this: God isn't going to light your life on fire with a what only to watch that fire die because you don't know how.

God loves it when we don't know how, because God's love is found in the how.

God loves it because he knows how much more we're going to love him when he ultimately shows us the how. Because make no mistake - you might not know HOW, but God does.

So please, don't ever stop chasing your what long enough to experience the how.

There is beauty and love in the how, especially when you see someone you care about glowing in the light of it.