Wall Quotes and Picture Frames (Part 4)

“It’s one thing to dream, but when the moment is right, you’ve got to be willing to leave what’s familiar and go out and find your own sound.”
Howard Schultz

The above quote is from chairman and CEO of Starbuck’s Howard Shultz and it really hit home when I read it.  I think what Schultz is saying is it is important to dream but there is a time when one needs to go from dreaming to doing.  We all need to dream about the future.  It is important to make plans and have a vision for the future and I realize that in my dreaming, visioning and planning there will be a time when I need to make the jump from dreaming to doing.  As the quote says, “You’ve got to be willing to leave what is familiar…”  This usually involves change.

What does it mean to find your own sound?  Personally I think it means you have to be willing to go out and become who God created YOU to be and not who people think you should be.

 For the Church I believe it means that she has to become what God wants her to be and not what we or others think she should be.  This may and probably does mean believers need to be willing to seek God’s plan and purpose and not try to fit a human made definition of what is called “the church”.  It means we should be more than just a service or program on Sunday morning.  The Church needs to be more about being and not just showing up and doing.  We don’t attend church we are the Church.  We are to be a group of believers who unashamedly loves God, loves people and are disciples of Jesus who go out and make disciples of Jesus. 

Are you willing to leave behind the familiar to pursue your own sound?  Are we as a body of Christ willing to leave the familiar?  I know we like the familiar.  We like safe.  We enjoy the “norm”.  We like to sit in the same pews week after week.  But is God calling us to a familiar, safe, normal sit in same pew kind of faith day after day?  From what I read in the Bible God/Jesus is continually commanding/asking us to leave what is familiar and safe to follow him and sometimes that journey is unknown, dangerous and wild.  We see this is the cases with Moses, Joseph, Abraham, Jonah, all of the disciples, and so on.  May we learn from these men of faith.  Let’s not be afraid to dream in our lives.  May we be willing to leave the familiar and allow God to work in us so that we can find our own sound.