Soul Cravings Part II - Destiny

A couple posts back I shared some lines that moved me from a book called Soul Cravings. Here are some lines, quotes, passages (whatever you would like to call it) from the chapter 2 that really spoke to me.

We humans are most alive when we passionately pursue our dreams, live with purpose, and have a sense of destiny.

Bottom line: we cannot live the life of our dreams without an irrational sense of destily.
And all of us have dreams.
More than that all of us need dreams.
Some of us sadly are just sleeping through them.

All of us long to become something more than we are. We are driven to achieve, moved to accomplish, fueled by ambition.

I was born to run.

All of us long for our lives to count in some way. We all have an internal need to achieve some kind of success or to somehow find significance. Pursuing the future we desire energizes and inspires us.

Every one of us longs to create even when we don't know exactly what. All of us, at the very least, want to create a better life, a better future, a better us.

A part of growing up seems to be acquiescing to mediocrity. It's death to our souls. When we stop dreaming, we start dying.

It is amazing how much we can endure when we are convinced there is a purpose to our struggle.

There is a destiny that awaits us all. It calls us, and if we ignore it, we are soon haunted by it.

The butterfly effect proposes that small and apparently insignificant incidents can set in motion a chain of events with far-reaching consequences. The bumblebee effect describes how great and apparently impossible dreams can set in motion a chain of events resulting in a seemingly insignificant person living an extraordinary life. We are more capable than we think.

Bumblebees are a great reminder that we should never underestimate potential.

Without dreams we have nothing to pull us forward.

Not only is ambition a good thing; it's a God thing.

*God calls us out of the life we have known and calls us to a life we have never imagined.*

When there is no future there is no HOPE.

The maddening reality is that each and every one of us has been created with a soul craving to become-- to become something-- something better, something different, something special, something unique, something admired, something valued, something more than we are.

Dream as if you will live forever. Live as if you'll die today.

As soon as we become fully aware of life, we become fully aware of death.

"It's All About the Dash."
You will see different dates of birth and times of death, but they all have one thing in common -- the dash in between the two.
The dash represents the totality of our lives. We are all born with a terminal condition.
It's called being human.

What is fascinating about the human spirit is that we can live with a conscious awareness of death and not be paralyzed. In fact, it can actually inspire us to live a life of passionate urgency.

Is it possible the reason we find God in our deepest despair is that this is when we are most listening?

It is in the worst situations that we are able to discover the best in us. It is also in these moments that we able to see more clearly what is true and what is real and what it means most fully to be human.

The Hebrew imagery is that we were created out of the breath of God. We are the product of a divine kiss.

When we live genuinely human live, we become translucent reflections of divinity.

Strength is unleashed within us when we are convinced our lives have a purpose yet to be fulfilled.

Only God can take you where you were born to go. There are a lot of roads you can choose, but one path chooses you.

The more proactive you become in pursuing your destiny, the more responsibility you will take for your life. When you choose to become, you become an enemy of the status quo. To become is to change and to bring change.

When we connect to God, we begin to care more deeply about the world around us.

... your soul is never satisfied with the life you have.

If Jesus was nothing else, he was an activist for change.

No one must remain a prisoner of fate.

Why have we come to value a sea turtle's egg more than a human fetus?

You are given one life, and it translates into eternity.

Jesus - he was a nonconformist; He was anti-institutional; He surrounded himself with outcasts; We was everything except what they expected. Jesus life was a model of uniqueness, and his movement was nothing less than that.

God, his value would not be uniformity, but uniqueness. Imprinted on your soul is the fingerprint of God.

You were made to GROW, to dream, to achieve. Your soul is letting you know you come from God and your life is intended to be God-sized and God-inspired.

Let him change you at your core, then let your passions fuel your life.
...genuine spirituality results in the passionate pursuit of life.

Metamorphosis- A change that literally moves us from crawling to flying.
...the process strengthens our wings and prepares us for flight.

It's in the struggle, in the process, even in the search for God, that he is making you strong enough to take flight.

Fear can hold you prisoner and hope can set you free.

Our ability to endure, to persevere, to overcome is fueled by this one seemingly innocuous ingredient called hope.

Everything that drives us,
every effort to succeed,
every attempt to be significant,
every moment we pursue a dream,
advance a cause,
or work to make the world better in any way
is an act of HOPE.

Where There is Hope, There is Life.

Soul Cravings by Erwin Raphael McManus

~

Lord this is my prayer. Oh my heavenly father God-size me! God-inspire me! Thank you for giving me this thought provoking book. Help me not underestimate my potential. I know I have a purpose. Never let me stop dreaming. Fill my life with hope. Thank you for the inspiration you have put in my life. I do not want to be stagnant any longer. Don't let fear and self doubt hold me prisoner any longer. Amen