WOF: What prompted you to write God Has a Dream for Your Life?

SHEILA: It came from a deep place inside my heart. I believe that God wants us all to be free, inside and out, to dream the dream  He  has for us. At our conferences and through e-mail I hear from women who have given up on dreaming. They look at their circumstances and think that it is either too late for them or life has taken such an unexpected turn that their dreams are lost. I believe that as long as there is one breath left in our bodies it is not too late to live God's dream for us.

WOF: One of the hallmarks of Women of Faith – perhaps your messages most of all – is the ‘tell it like it really is’ style.  Is it difficult to be that honest in front of so many people?  (And in print?)

SHEILA: One of my life verses is taken from the first letter that Paul wrote to the Church in Thessalonica. He wrote,
               
"We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us." 1 Thessalonians 2:8

That is my heart as I write or talk from stage. I think that it's one of the greatest joys and holy privileges in life to be able to share the hope and comfort that you have found in Christ with another women who is still struggling in the darkness of despair. I don't find it hard to be honest now. One of the hardest things for me to do in the past was to face the truth about myself. I felt that at some core level I was a bad person and I had to hide behind a mask of appearing to be the perfect Christian woman. At the darkest and loneliest place in my life I found myself embraced by my Father based on his love for me and not on my attempts to get it all right. At Women of Faith it is clear to us that we are not the good news, Jesus is. He has given us a platform to tell our stories and share the grace that we enjoy.

WOF: Many people feel that God can’t possibly plan to give us what we long for.  Why do we expect God’s plan for our lives to be something that will make us miserable?

SHEILA: I think that it is very hard for us to embrace who God really is and how much  He  loves us. Grace is almost impossible to wrap our human hearts and minds around. At our core we know that we don't deserve the favor of God. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, in that moment they saw what they looked like apart from him and so they covered themselves. We have been doing it ever since.

When I was growing up as a young Christian I believed that if I wanted to really please God I had to walk away from the things I loved. It seemed to be too good to be true to think that God wanted to give me a life that I would love. Part of that was my own brokenness. I thought I had to earn God's love. During the month that I spent in a psychiatric hospital dealing with clinical depression I began to understand that God loves me based on nothing that I bring to the table but based on who He is.

WOF: You said that “self-preservation is not a fruit of the Spirit.”  That’s unfortunate.  Why isn’t it, do you think?

SHEILA: Self-preservation springs from fear and God wants us to be ruled by love. When our motivation is to protect ourselves from anything that life might throw at us, then at a deep level we question the sovereignty of God. Now, I don't mean that we shouldn't use wisdom in life to stay away from certain people or situations, but God longs for us to trust him. It is risky to love and to step out and dream again, but when we don't something in us dies. Many women who have had a difficult relationship with their father believe at the depth of their soul that they have to take care of themselves or no one else will. I have been there but I know now that I have a Father who watches over me all the time. I take great comfort in Psalm 121:

"I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip ― He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." Psalm 121: 1-4

WOF: In the book you talk about “the false assumption that ease of circumstances is an indication of the pleasure of God.”  How can we know if God is pleased with us?

SHEILA: In the Old Testament God's people believed that family and financial blessing were indications of God's pleasure. That was one of the reasons that Naomi, in the book of Ruth changed her name to Mara, which means, sorrow. When her husband and sons died she assumed that God was angry with her. The flip-side of that would be that if you had a large family and were financially secure then God was pleased with you. But time after time no matter how God blessed and prospered his people they
rejected him and his ways. God spoke again through the prophet Micah,

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

Finally God spoke to us through his Son. Jesus showed us what matters to God. He told us to love God with everything we have and are and love others even as we love ourselves. The apostle Paul wrote that he learned to be content in every circumstance of life, when he had little or much.

Comfortable circumstances are not an indication of God's pleasure. Think of the believers who suffer for Christ or those who live in dire poverty that we have met through World Vision. God looks at our heart. When we wake up every day and say, "Today Father I trust you. Let me be a channel of your grace and love," I believe all of heaven rejoices.

WOF: You say that our broken dreams (even the silly ones) should be mourned.  Why is that? 

SHEILA: We live in a very fast-paced world and many times we neglect the things that matter most. Even small dreams that appear to be lost should be mourned. When we do that I believe we honor the gifts and desires that God has placed in our hearts. When we just move on as if nothing matters we bury the pain and as Marilyn Meberg says, "You cannot go around pain, you have to go through it."

WOF: Do we ever reach a point when it’s too late to dream?

SHEILA: The only time when it is too late is when we are finally standing in the presence of God. As long as we have a pulse it is not too late. Many times as children our dreams are stepped on or ignored but God has not forgotten them. In Matthew 25 Jesus told his friends a story, the parable of the talents. The story makes it clear that God has given each one of us gifts. Some of us use them and others bury them, afraid that they are not worth much to the Kingdom of God. The point of the parable is that it's not too late to dig them up and use them.

WOF:  You’re sharing the stage at Women of Faith’s 2007 Pre-conference event with Dr. Henry Cloud.  How did that come about?  What has the experience been like so far?

SHEILA: When our President, Mary Graham asked me to do the Pre-conference, I got to dream, too! Of all the people that I love and respect there was no one that I thought would be a better gift to our audience than Dr. Henry Cloud. Henry is a very gifted psychologist who understands how our dreams get lost or broken. He is also a student of the Word of God who is able to bring both the world of our pain and the transforming power of Christ together. The first few that we have done so far have been amazing. In my experience, the Pre-conference is a life-changing day.