Your stage is far more about willingness than dreaming

​Hey all, happy Super Bowl Sunday.

One of the things I love hearing most from the players in the week leading up to the Super Bowl is, “I have always dreamed of playing on the biggest stage.”

Because this year one of the world's biggest events is being played on one of the world’s biggest entertainment stages, Las Vegas, it’s easier than ever to get stuck focusing on the stage.

It’s easier than ever to get mesmerized by the stage and not become curious about the path it took to get there.

We all have a stage. At least I hope so. The stages we dream of in life are often the reasons we get out of bed in the morning.

But that IS the key. Getting out of bed each morning and taking the steps we need to take to get to our stage.

Get out of bed and keep marching when it’s hard, keep marching when critics suggest we aren’t worthy of the stage, keep marching when even the brightest lights on the stage are getting harder and harder to see.

Because it turns out that quitting dreams is easier than imagining them. It turns out that bright lights never get turned on at all if we aren’t willing to get out of bed in the morning to turn them on.

We are going to see plenty of stars roll onto the big stage today. We’ll see the Kelce family and Brock Purdy and Usher and Jake from State Farm and, dare I say it, Taylor 😊. We are going to see them all and it will be easy to be star struck by their stage and not their path.

Talent is big. Some people never make it to their stage because they just don’t have the talent that particular stage demands. But there are a whole lotta people who never make it to their stage because they got scared off by the path.

It’s easier for us to believe at times that the stars on the stage are there because they are stars. It’s easy to lose sight that stardom is almost always a journey and not an anointing.

Maybe you want to play in the Super Bowl one day. Maybe you want to be a deacon at your church or be a teacher your student wants to trust with their biggest dreams or biggest struggles.
Maybe you want to write a book or be a parent your kid longs to talk to when life gets tough. Maybe you want to be the one who let’s someone know Jesus loves them.

I don’t know what your stage is, I just hope you have one. It’s often the difference between wanting to get out of bed and wanting that bed to be your forever stage. I just hope you have one and when you watch the stars today you imagine their path to their stage.

I hope you imagine it and are inspired to get out of bed tomorrow and blow the dust off the stage of your dreams.

I hope you are inspired to embrace that path it will take to get there.

Because the difference between dreaming of the big stage and standing on it is almost always the path. Knowing the path. Staying on the path. Turning the lights back on when others insist on turning them off.

Standing on the big stage starts with a dream. That dream ends when our willingness to keep marching toward it ends.

When you watch the biggest stars stand on the biggest stage today, be reminded far more of their willingness to get there than stardom.

Then get up tomorrow morning and double down on willingness.

Your stage is waiting on you!!