Sometimes in life God asks us to hand over or give up certain things that we hold dear to us. Maybe it is a family member that you have been praying for for years and now you feel God calling you to release them into his hands, maybe it’s a lifestyle that you have become accustomed to, a lifestyle that is comfortable or a lifestyle that you understand, or maybe it’s a dream, something you have been striving for, desperately seeking, maybe it is even something you feel God himself has called you to.
If that is where you are now then I would like to encourage you by sharing this story of my own, a dream that I had, that God asked me to lay down. If you had asked me two years ago what my plan for the future was I would have given you a very simple and very definite answer, I was going to be an actor. I believed it was what God had called me to do, the very thing he placed me on this earth for. Everyone who had seen me act said that I had talent and it was everything my heart wanted to do. So I did everything that a normal actor would do, I got myself an agent, I put together a showreel, I got headshots done and put together a CV. I sent it to all the local casting agents, and I even got some work, not much but hey we all have to start somewhere. I was so certain that this was what God had called me to and I even knew why. So of course you can imagine my surprise when I felt God calling me to give up my agent. I didn’t understand, I thought this could not possibly be God, I must have been imagining it, but his voice grew stronger and stronger until finally I realized that it was God calling and so I gave up my agent, of course my thinking at the time was more along the lines of ok God so if you want me to be an actor then without my agent you will have to do the work and get me the roles, fully expecting him to just drop a role in my lap. I was still expecting to be involved in local amateur productions, but as time went on I began to realize that I was not getting any roles and everything that I signed up for got postponed for an extended period of time or just plain cancelled. I couldn’t even find any church productions to be involved in. I turned to God and said basically what on earth is going on here? Through my journey I heard God saying to me that I needed to lay down acting all together, I was still holding on to strands, trying to make it happen in my own strength. So without any understanding of what the future might now hold for me I had to gradually let go of the strands I was still holding onto one by one until I found myself holding up empty hands to God saying what now?
As I began to walk the journey considering what life might look like without acting I began to hear God reminding me of an older and deeper seeded dream. A dream that I had dismissed years ago because I thought it was childish, unrealistic and humanly impossible. Bu God reminded me is that just because something is humanly impossible does not mean that it is Godly impossible. After all he is God.
I do not want to go into too much detail about my dream at this point, simply because I do not yet understand enough about it myself, and that is not the point of the story. My point for the moment is simply this – sometimes in life God calls us to lay down things that are very near to us, even things that we thought were of him, and we may not understand it, we may not have any idea of what lies beyond it. Please be encouraged to just step out in faith and do what God is calling you to do. You may need to ask him to help you do it, that’s ok he never asked you to walk this road alone. Don’t be afraid, God will not let you fall, be encouraged and know that he has something in store for you that is greater than anything you can dream or imagine. Your heart may not be ready to hear what he has planned for you until you let go of whatever it is you are holding onto.
Just for those who are interested to know God is now allowing me to be involved in some drama productions. I am directing a church play that will be performed at a school in my area this month.
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