God Size Dreams
One of my heroines of the faith stepped into heaven this week. Perhaps you have never heard of Ann. She was a college dean of women, a marathon runner, a singer of songs and a dreamer of dreams.
Ann wrote books that changed my life when I was just a college girl myself. Her books, although simply written, were heartfelt and stirring. Ann helped me develop my belief that we serve a BIG God to Whom nothing is impossible.
Have you ever read …
“I’m Out to Change My World!”
“I Love the Word Impossible!”
“I’m Running to Win!”
“Yes!”
When Ann finally got married at age 35 to a potato farmer from Idaho, she wrote the book,
“I Gave God Time!”
Ann and I both walked the long and lonely road of infertility and God answered both of our prayers. Ann adopted 4 little boys, fed them ice cream cones, raised them on a potato farm with her husband, Will, and sang the songs of life to them. After Ann adopted these 4 miracle boys, she wrote another book,
“And With the Gift Came Laughter!”
Ann’s spirit was contagious and her love for Jesus was all-consuming. When I was 20 years old … I wanted to BE Ann Kiemel. But God made me Carol. Ann and I each had our own races to run and although they intersected at times … she was she and I was me.
If Ann’s life taught me anything at all, it was that we serve a BIG God and that He puts dreams in the hearts of His children. Your dream is NOT the impossible dream because you serve a God to Whom nothing is impossible!
All you have ever prayed about … longed for … asked for … and dreamed about is possible because you serve a God Who is big enough to pull it off!
“Now to Him Who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we or think according to the power that works within us!” – Ephesians 3:20
God is capable of accomplishing far more than you or I could ever ask for or imagine!
You can never out-dream God! I dare you!!
The Cistine Chapel started out as a dream …
Disney World started out as a dream …
Flying in a man-made contraption started out as a dream …
The cure for polio started out as a dream …
The end to slavery started out as a dream …
Women getting the right to vote started out as a dream …
Your biggest, most gargantuan dreams pale in comparison to God’s tiniest, most miniscule dreams for your life!
“… according to the power that works within us …”
Paul’s God … and Ann’s God … is your God! You and I have the same power that my heroine, Ann Kiemel Anderon, and the apostle Paul shared.
In honor of Ann today, I am stirring up my dreams again. I am making a bucket list of things that might seem stamped “IMPOSSIBLE!” but God looks at and says with a grin, “Yes!! We can do that!!”
It’s time for you to dream again and to stir up the gift of God within you!
Stretch your thoughts … increase your delight in Him … enlarge your desires … multiply your prayers and petitions to the utmost
You honor God when you dream big dreams! You honor God when your prayers are unrealistic! God never thinks that a child of His is being presumptive in prayer … most of us are guilty of asking for far too little!
Whatever we ask … or even think to ask … our big God is able to do more … exceedingly, abundantly more!
You and I have been joined to Someone Who is more powerful than you or I have ever begun to imagine!
This was Ann’s prayer when she became a youth director in the inner city of Boston. Today … let’s allow it to become our prayer as well …
"Jesus, You called me.
i am nothing
but You are everything
and i only make one request --
that You do things
so big
so unusual
that people will be able to look on
with such a sense of awe
and say it is too wonderful--
only God could have done it."
Ann Kiemel Anderson … thanks for dreaming big dreams and praying big prayers.
Thanks for singing your song and running your race. Thanks for saying a resounding “YES!” to God.
And Ann … just so you know … you really did change my world.
