PROGRAM W-1753 – Part I

What do you want to be when you grow up? That’s a familiar question that most young children are asked at various stages and ages. You’ll hear answers like a doctor, a fireman, a teacher, an astronaut—whatever! But how many of us are now doing what we said we wanted to do when we grew up? Children are able to dream big dreams—they haven’t yet formed the bad habit of putting themselves in boxes.

It may be that you have never reached your potential and done the good things God has planned for you to do because you’ve allowed someone or something to convince you that it can’t be done or you’re not the one to do it. Maybe it’s time to become like a child, as Jesus said we should do, and dream some dreams and embrace some visions of what God wants you to do.

When I was a young career woman, the world was just beginning to open to women to pursue any career or job for which they were qualified. No longer were doors closed to us. It became illegal to prohibit a woman from a job just because she was a woman. I had choices that were not available to women in former generations.

The boxes that we had been kept in for years were pretty much limited to wife and mother, teacher, secretary, and nurse. Obviously, there were women who broke out of these boxes back then, but they were definitely a minority. You had to fit into one of those boxes or you were considered not quite as feminine as you should be; just a little weird.

Today, you would be hard pressed to find any job or occupation in which women are not involved and, in most cases, flourishing. My first job in sales had been closed to women previously under the pretense that women could not carry the heavy equipment! Well, not only could we do that, we could also carry heavy sales quotas and excel in that position. Not only did we women then have the benefit of those new careers, but the companies that hired us profited very nicely from having us on board.

But we still have boxes today—boxes of our own imagination; boxes that we have built for ourselves; boxes we’ve crawled into which someone else built for us.

Ask yourself in which box or boxes you have put yourself. Here are some common ones:

*  I’m too old to do that—or too young

*  I don’t have the right education

*  I don’t have the right experience

*  I don’t have enough money

*  I don’t have time

*  I’m not good with people

*  I’m too shy to do that

*  I’ll never be able to learn it

*  I don’t have the right looks

*  I’m too big—or too small

*  That’s not my gift

The list is virtually endless. You may be in your own unique box. Think about it: what have you been telling yourself you cannot do for some reason? It’s time to get over it!

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Could you be missing out on the good works God prepared for you to do because you’ve allowed others to put you in a box? Or, and perhaps more likely, have you put yourself in some boxes and you just can’t believe that God wants you out of the box and will equip you to do what he intended from the beginning of time for you to do?

Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Vision gives us hope and purpose and the ability to persevere and endure. If you’ve never had a vision of what you could do, if you’ve never aspired to something so big that it scared you, then you may be perishing on the vine. In the parable of the talents Jesus taught us the principle that if we don’t use what he gives us, not only will he not give us more, we will lose what we have! (See Matthew 25:14-30.) Without a vision we begin to shrivel up and settle for mediocrity. That inward deterioration occurs subtly and could go unnoticed—even by yourself—but eventually it catches up with you when you begin to see your life as hum-drum, boring, or meaningless.

From Passion to Vision to Ministry

After I came back to the Lord and gave Jesus complete control of my life, a passion began to grow in me. I didn’t know it was a passion; I didn’t call it a passion. I just couldn’t get it off my mind. That passion was to minister to women like me—women who went into the workplace regularly. I started where I was, with a Monday night Bible study in my home.

Then I realized that my church didn’t have any kind of a ministry for workplace women, yet the church was full of career women. So, I expressed my “passion” to my pastor and he encouraged me to start a ministry—which I did. It was a monthly luncheon addressing women in the workplace, applying biblical principles to real-life issues, and it lasted in that format for over twenty years.

Furthermore, I listened to Christian radio and never heard anyone talking about my lifestyle and its challenges. So, I prayed for about eighteen months about starting a radio program. One day I decided it was time to do something, and on that very day as I arrived at work there was a newspaper on my desk with an article about a new Christian radio station in Chicago. That caught my attention. I thought, “I wonder if this is the station I am supposed to be on.” I determined to give them a call and ask some questions. However, on that very day, before I could call them, they called me and asked me to be on a talk show coming up that weekend.

Where they got my name I still don’t know, but I didn’t figure that was a coincidence! When I went to do the talk show, I told a woman who worked at the station about my idea for this program. She encouraged me to move ahead on it. So I asked some questions and started the ball rolling to make it a reality. This was in May of 1984 and by August I was on that one station on Saturday mornings at 8:45 for fifteen minutes.

I believe God placed a passion in my heart and, since it would not go away even though it took me way out of my comfort zone, the passion became a vision. God opened some doors, and the vision became this radio ministry which is in its 34th year! There were any number of boxes I could have put myself in: I had no experience in radio, I had no connections with anyone in radio, I didn’t have the resources and money to fund a ministry—those are just a few of the boxes I could have built for myself. And if I had, I would have missed all the blessing of being a part of what God has done and is doing through this program for the past 34 years!

God deals with all of us in unique ways, so I don’t share my experience as a model of how it will work for anyone else. But God will guide you step by step and will lead you to new avenues of service that just shatter all the stereotypes and boxes that you or anyone else has tried to impose upon you.

Philippians 1:6 says, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” God won’t give you a vision or a passion and then mock you or frustrate you. If it is of God, you can be confident that he began it and he will carry it on to completion. It may take more time than you thought it would; it may look a little different than you imagined. However, if it is of God and he puts it in your heart, all you have to do is just take the next step! He’ll guide you each step of the way.

What vision have you had that has not yet been realized? As I’ve talked about this with many women, they’ve told me how they have always wanted to write a book, start a ministry, work in a different job, minister in another venue—maybe another country, or run a marathon. . .but they haven’t realized their dream because they’ve been in some box or another. They just couldn’t see themselves actually doing what they always dreamed of doing.

Without a vision, we perish. Have you let your vision die without ever pursuing it? I wonder if the loss of your vision has caused you to perish—to shrivel up on the inside, to lose your energy and passion. Romans 12:11 says, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” Without a vision, without a goal, you lose your zeal and your spiritual fervor—then life becomes pretty boring and lifeless.

Often we lose our vision because we become lazy. It takes energy and commitment to break out of your box, so laziness can be our worst enemy. God doesn’t take laziness lightly. We can laugh it off and think of it as no big deal, but it’s a big deal to God!

Remember in the parable of the talents as Jesus told it, the one servant who had done nothing with his one talent, gave a pitiful excuse when the master returned. He said, “Master, I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you” (Matthew 25:24-25). What box was he in? Well, he was afraid—that’s a very common box we build for ourselves. But his real problem was laziness.

As Jesus tells the parable, the master responds, “You wicked, lazy servant!” (Matthew 25:26). He calls laziness wicked, and the punishment was that this servant lost the one talent he had.

When Jesus told parables, he did it to teach certain principles. I think it’s clear that Jesus was teaching us not to make excuses, not to put ourselves in boxes, and not to be lazy. Instead, we are to take what he has given us and pursue the passion he has placed within us. Laziness is not a laughing matter with God.

Maybe it’s time you looked at whatever box you may be in and ask God to help you break out of it.