One night, God gave me a dream that changed my life. While the dream didn’t make much sense at the time, I felt it was a clear prompting from God. There were many ways that God seemed to be pressing, “Georgia, follow your dreams!”
In my dream, I went to a distant place and found myself surrounded by nuns. I felt I had no business being there. These nuns insisted that I give a speech, although I felt I had nothing to share with them that they didn’t already know. Afterward, many of them told me how my words had touched their hearts. I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of peace and joy, thinking I’m finally, finally doing what Jesus wants me to do!
When I woke, I was excited by the thought of becoming a nun. The problem is, I’m not Catholic. That’s when confusion set in.
Right away, God brought additional ways to plant His vision in my heart. A pastor I watched on television spoke about finding the courage to follow our dreams. Then an advertisement for the International Women’s Conference caught my attention when I heard, “as women… we need to achieve our dreams personally, professionally, and spiritually!”
I froze at the mention of the word dream and broke out in holy goosebumps. I immediately knew that God wanted me to attend that conference. As I researched the conference details, one particular seminar jumped off the page. It was taught by Marilyn Heavilin and I thought, “That’s it! That’s why I’m to go.”
I began to revisit some of the dreams I held in my heart and let myself imagine that I’d meet Marilyn Heavilin and show her the book I had already outlined. She would introduce me to a publisher, my book would become a bestseller, and maybe I’d become rich and famous. As it turned out, these were my dreams, but not God’s.
Questions and Disappointments
When I arrived at the conference several months later, I met Marilyn and asked her to review my outline. She said, “Looks good—keep working on it.”
That’s it? my heart cried. God, you sent me the whole way to California, and I had to take money out of my savings to hear ‘Looks good—keep working on it’? This can’t be! Something is wrong.
I turned to Marilyn and said, “You don’t understand. You are to tell me something.”
Marilyn was obviously uncomfortable, but after a long pause, she began to ask me about my relationship with God. Through that conversation—which had little to do with my writing career—I realized something significant. While I leaned on God heavily during the tough times, I didn’t have a daily relationship with Him.
I felt so foolish wondering how I could have missed this.
Marilyn suggested that I pray to invite Jesus into my life. All of the confusion about following my dreams dissipated and I knew this was the reason God had brought me to California. I realized that my life had not been centered on God and His glory. It had been centered on me. I recognized there were many other dreams in my heart that were mine, not God’s. But on October 11, 1990, I discovered that only a life centered on Christ and His vision for me would bring purpose and meaning.
The Consequences of Refusing to Follow Your Dreams
Looking back, I shudder to think of how staggering the consequences would have been had I not followed that dream. It would have been so easy to say to myself, “Well, that was just a stupid dream, why should I go to California?”
Even today, I am amazed at how God engineered it all. Over time, Marilyn, who is a Christian author and speaker, helped me get started in speaking. These were the first steps of establishing roots in a totally new area of my life. God used the heavy winds of adversity to transplant me.
Where has God transplanted you? What dreams has He given you? His dreams, not ours, become the seed of our new lives.
As we rebuild our lives, we need to be careful that we don’t tell God where we want to be and what we can do for Him. We must allow His dreams for us to guide our actions. While it may feel risky, the risk can mean establishing roots where God wants to transplant us even when we think we have no business being there.
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you” (Psalm 32:8).
Warmly,
Georgia Shaffer
