What's It Going to Take? — Carol McLeod Ministries | Find Joy in Your Journey — Carol McLeod Ministries | Find Joy in Your Everyday Life

What is it going to take?

What is it going to take to become the person that you have always wanted to be?

What is it going to take to leave your pain and regrets in the past so that you are able to fully embrace the joy that is singular to today?

What is it going to take to live with fearless enthusiasm and heartfelt passion?

What is it going to take?

You know … there is “something” that threatens to hold all of us back from living in our destinies.  That “something” can be a minor distraction or a massive challenge … but it holds us back just the same.

For some people it might be fear … or worry … or shame … or regret … or insecurities … or sin … or disappointment … or anger … or … or … or …

Do you see your “thing” in that cancerous and ominous list?

What’s it going to take?

Often, when I am in a public situation, I find myself looking into the faces of the people who are within my scope of sight.

In airports, in restaurants, in a hotel lobby, on my daily walk, I peer intently into the eyes of strangers.

I cannot escape the emptiness that is so apparent in their aching countenance.

I watch the insecure body language of these unknown yet familiar people; I hear their hollow laughter and look into their languishing eyes.  

As I study each precious person in their futile pursuit of desolate values and deceitful choices, my heart is broken.

Absolutely broken.

I try to imagine the person that God created each one of them to be.  

I can only suppose what God had in store for each individual life when He thought of them long before the beginning of eternity.

Was one of these nameless but significant people created to discover the cure for cancer? 

Instead, he or she has needle tracks on their precious arms.

Was one of them created to be an astronaut?  

Instead, that person has settled for a life that has been frustratingly earthbound by compromises and mediocrity.

Was there a face in the anonymous crowd who was created to write books that would touch thousands of hearts? Or to write the worship songs of a generation? Or to lead a nation?

What’s it going to take?

As much as I would love to control the lives of the random folks who walk around the boundaries of my life, the truth is, I can only control my life.  My choices.  My destiny.

But … what is it going to take for me to live a life worthy of the plans that God has for me? 

Is that even possible?!

You know … I happen to believe that it is possible.  

I can assure you that it is indeed possible for a man or a woman to partner with God in living a life so grand that heaven roars with approval. 

Now, I don’t believe that it is possible to live a perfect life … but it is possible to live an extraordinary life.

David wasn’t perfect … but he had a heart after God’s own heart.

Abraham wasn’t perfect … yet still he counted the stars with God.

Jacob wasn’t perfect … but he chose to worship his way into eternity.

I am not perfect … but I choose to pursue God!  

I am not perfect … but I love to dream with the Father! 

I am so not perfect … but I will worship regardless of what my circumstances seem to be.

So … back to my original question … what is it going to take?!  

Perhaps what it takes is for a person, made in the image of God, to pursue the heart of the Father with every fiber of one’s being.

Maybe what it takes is to dream with God … and to have no regard for human limitations.

Maybe what it takes to live with the very fingerprint of heaven upon one’s ordinary soul requires a commitment to worship in the storm and in the fire.

And maybe … just maybe … those frustrated faces in the crowd are longing to watch somebody else live well.  

Perhaps a stranger will be encouraged to embrace a seed of greatness by observing my decision … or your decision … to live a life of heavenly proportions.

Is that all it takes?!

It takes the acknowledgement that we were made for so much more than this.  

You and I were made for the plans and purposes of God at our moment in history.

You and I were made to pursue God fully … to dream without limits … and to worship extravagantly!  

Those daily choices are the building blocks of what it takes to live a glorious and historic life!

That’s what it takes.

I can do what it takes.

I can do it because He lives in me.

I can do it because I was made in His image.

I can do it because David did it … and Abraham did it … and Jacob did it.

I can do it because I now know what it takes.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:10

Thanks for listening to my heart this week.  As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart, but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me.  And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!