I was watching a show with Steve this weekend and I saw a commercial for one of the cancer centers that really got me thinking. This lady had been diagnosed with cancer and she was told by her Dr. that she had 2 months to live. Like any of us would be she was devastated. She then went to one of the leading cancer treatment centers where they began by running a wide variety of tests. She looked at the Dr. there and said so how long do I have. He said something like, after all the tests I have ran I did not see anywhere on you that there was an expiration date! He said I don’t see anything that is telling me you only have 2 month to live.
This story shook me. I got up off the couch and wrote that down. This is how so many of us live. We have all these hopes and dreams when we are young and we feel like we can accomplish it all. Some where along the way we begin to feel that our time has expired to accomplish those dreams. For some they know the very things that are burning deep with in them but feel that they have plenty of time. That their expiration date is far off. They don’t have to start pursuing them just yet. It amazes me how many of us have a longing desire to do this or that yet we are doing nothing to reach that place. We get stuck in the now. Everyday begins to be the now and we then stop looking at the future. We stop believing that we can make a difference. We stop believing that God put that burning desire in us and we begin to settle. We settle for what we are good at. We settle for what seems to be right. We settle for what will pay the bills and all the while wishing we could fulfill that burning passion from within.
When Steve and I moved to Alabama I knew it was the right move at the right time but that didn’t make it easy. We left all of our family and friends. We left our church and our life to start anew. At first it was exciting as all new adventures are but then reality began to set in. I missed my family and friends so bad that there were moments I wanted to run home. Steve travels a lot so that left life with the kids on my shoulders. It wasn’t bad until I found out 3 months into this new adventure that I was pregnant with twins. I was so unbelievable sick for the entire pregnancy and started contracting at 15 weeks so I was on the bed or the couch getting bigger by the day for months. During this season I had a lot of time on my hands. I realized that life was passing us by at an excelerated speed. We have been involved in some amazing ministries and I know many lives have been touched but I knew inside of me that there was more. I knew that the things that God spoke to me years and years ago were bubbling at the surface. It took until now for me to begin to believe in the bigger picture. I now have 4 kids and a husband that travels often and I am seeing the clear picture. We (Steve & I) are finally on the same page moving together in the right direction and excited about the future. We are trusting God and slowing down so we can hear clearly the direction of the Lord.
All of this to say I have no expiration date on me and either do you. The plans that God has for you have never changed. You may have changed your mind or your direction to fit your life plan for the now but God is holding the dreams and passions He has put in you in the palms of His hands waiting for you to step back and believe. Rachel in the bible could not bear children yet this was a burning desire that she carried and it did come to pass when her womb should have “expired”! God doesn’t work within our time frame but that doesn’t mean that time has passed you by. Don’t give up on the things that are burning with in you. Hold fast to the promises of God and wait on Him. Sometimes it takes us slowing down to see the plan so plainly laid out in our pathway.
