In the previous blog, I told you I had a dream. A big one! I mentioned the ways in which I am trying to develop in order to achieve the dream and thrive when I arrive.  I share this with you because it really does determine the course of my life and the way in which I live.

Some people I encounter tell me they don’t have a dream. They ask me how I identified mine, and it’s tough to explain (as you saw in the last blog). There is a book that has helped me dream boldly. I have read it multiple times, and it is very familiar to me. In this book, we find the concept of a circle. This circle is means little until you read the purpose of it. Let me introduce you by starting with a question…

Make it big

How big is your circle? I am not talking about your circle of influence. Let me rephrase: If you were to circle your dream, what would be the radius of your circle? Ah! Any time I mention a dream, I mean that thing you secretly dream of having or accomplishing were anything possible. Think about it.

Honi who?

In The Circle Maker, a New York Times Bestseller, Mark Batterson, gives an account of a 1st century B.C. man named Honi who prayed for rain. Now, this was not a prayer in secret or a modest ask from a religious man. This was an ordinary man who sought an extraordinary miracle four hundred years after the last of the prophets died off. Imagine. After four centuries, miracles were a distant memory—some of which people began to doubt as little more than a children’s tales.

He did what???

Honi could have easily given himself an out, prayed in secret, or asked for God’s will to be done, but he didn’t. He took his six-foot staff into a public setting and publicly drew a circle in the dust. Three hundred and sixty-degrees later, he was standing in the center of his circle. He dropped to his knees, lifted his hands and his voice to heaven saying,

Lord of the universe, I swear before Your great name that I will not move from this circle until You have shown mercy upon Your children.

Fate sealed

Honi was to be a crazy person or a hero. He publicly made a miraculous demand leveraged on pure faith. It also strikes me that by drawing a complete circle around himself, he allowed himself no outlet, no escape clause, no expiration date. Honi created a situation, where the only way out, was a miracle.

So, what? I should pray for rain? I should do it publicly? What’ s the application?

If we aren’t seeing miracles, we aren’t dreaming big enough

Deep within my bones, I feel that our dreams should be bigger than us. In fact, I honestly believe that bold dreams are healthy. The bigger the better. Why? Well, if we dream something bigger than we are capable of achieving, we challenge ourselves, and we challenge God. Challenging ourselves creates an opportunity for growth. Challenging God is…well, a good thing. Now, before you get sacrilegious with me, God tells us to test him.

Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. -Malachi 3:10

Bold prayers honor God. In return, God honors bold prayers. I agree with Mark when he says, “God is offended by anything less.” If your prayers do not require divine intervention, they are not bigger than you, and God has no reason to work in your life. Batterson puts it this way…

The greatest moments in life are the miraculous moments when human impotence and divine omnipotence intersect–and they intersect when we draw a circle around the impossible situations in our lives and invite God to intervene.

Review

Today, we talked about the value of a BIG circle.  Of course, the circle represents prayer admitting that it can only be achieved with divine intervention. The size of the circle, not only represents the size of the prize, but also the degree of intervention required. Have you drawn a circle around your biggest dreams? If you don’t know where to start, it’s OK! In the next blog, we find that it all starts with a desire to grow. You won’t want to miss it!

Challenge

If this is relevant in your life, it will probably be relevant in someone else’s life. So, don’t prevent others from benefiting from this blog. LIKE it and SHARE it with your co-workers, family, and friends. Post it on your Facebook or LinkedIn. Do it now and be a change agent!

 

[1] Batterson, M. (2011). The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.