Dying Empty

28 posted on May 28, 2010

POSTED IN: Blog Posts, Makes You Think

I was recently re-reading Dream Releasers by Wayne Cordeiro (a great book to pick up if you don’t have it already) and I landed on the chapter called “Die Empy.” In it, Wayne talks about the untapped potential and unrealized dreams that so many people take with them to their graves.

Too many in our families and churches die rich, with dreams clutched tightly to their stilled hearts. Too many go to their graves with their potential trapped inside. My motto in life is “Die Empty!” I aim to give the graveyard nothing but a vacant carcass of a used-up life. I want the words on my tombstone to read “Empty!” Nothing left. No more gas.

This paragraph seems contradictory from someone who later went on to write a book on burnout called Leading On Empty. Is he saying that we should just give and give until we’re completely used up and burned out? No, what he is saying is that each of us have potential that lies dormant within us. We each have dreams that we’ve been holding onto, in some cases for 20 or 30 years, and we’re waiting for the right time to make those dreams a reality. The sad thing is that without even realizing it, many people continue to put off that dream inside their heart until one day their life has passed them by.

I think some people treat their dreams like collectible baseball cards or comic books – they talk about them, show them off to friends but wouldn’t think of taking them out of the plastic wrapper for fear of tarnishing them. Dreams are meant to be ripped out of the plastic wrapping and put into use! Potential is meant to be used and explored, not quietly cultivated and kept on the shelf!

God has given Lisa and I some pretty big dreams. Dreams that sometimes scare the crap out of me! And yet I’ll be darned if I’m going to let the potential God has placed within us remain untapped. I’m not tooting my own horn or thinking I have some special ability that no one else has. The fact of the matter is that we all have untapped potential. God has filled every one of us with a treasure that this world desperately needs.

Those dreams lies wrapped up inside of you. The question is, will the grave inherit your dreams? Will you deprive this world by taking your God-given potential with you when you die? Or will you go to the grave with Paul’s words on your lips,

“My life has been poured out as a drink offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.” (2 Timothy 4:6-7)

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May 28, 2010

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1 adam herod said:

Thanks Brad…needed this today. So want this to be true of my life. Thanks again.
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May 28, 2010

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2 Dave Wilson said:

Great post Brad! Dying empty has been the cry of my heart too.

What forces work to keep dreams trapped within us? Reminds me of a song by Cheap Trick, one of my favorite bands from the 70s and 80s (yeah, I’m old as dirt).

DREAM POLICE
I try to sleep, they’re wide awake, they won’t leave me alone.
They don’t get paid to take vacations, or let me alone.
They spy on me, I try to hide, they won’t let me alone.
They persecute me, they’re the judge and jury all in one.

‘Cause they’re waiting for me.
They’re looking for me.
Ev’ry single night they’re driving me insane.
Those men inside my brain.

The dream police, they live inside of my head.
The dream police, they come to me in my bed.
The dream police, they’re coming to arrest me.

I’m sure there are some “Dream Police” keeping some aspirations handcuffed within me.
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May 28, 2010

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3 Brad Ruggles said:

100 points for finding a legitimate reason to quote the lyrics to a Cheap Trick song.
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May 29, 2010

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4 BJ said:

Boom
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May 31, 2010

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5 Matt @ The Church of No People said:

Brad, great point! It’s fear that keeps people procrastinating, living mediocre lives. And I’ll be the first to admit to letting fear rule me.
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June 14, 2010

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6 Rudolf said:

I think my problem is: there’s certain things I’d like to do, but I’m not sure if it’s from God, or from myself. I’m not talking about “dodgy” things, but just not God-inspired. For example: I live in South Africa, and have always wanted to go live somewhere for a time where I can start snow-boarding (we don’t get snow here in SA). I’m not saying it’s wrong, I just want to be sure that I do with my live what God wants, not what I want. I mean: we can serve God’s purposes, or our own purposes, and at the end of the day this world is going to pass away and it’s only God’s purposes that’s going to stand.
But I’m unsure if this is correct or if I’m just being too “super-spiritual”.

I’d love to hear some opinions out there.

R
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June 15, 2010

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7 Jason said:

I love the idea of having that phrase on my tombstone.
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June 15, 2010

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8 Chelan said:

Brad – Have you heard of Dr. Myles Monroe? Your post title instantly reminded me of a sermon I heard from him as he spoke at Generation Church in Kirkland,WA (as a guest speaker of Judah Smith’s). And “Dying Empty” is a huge point he drives home in his writings (ie: Understanding your Potential; Discovering the Hidden You…and his following one, “Maximizing your Potential”).

After skimming the archives, I finally found the sermon about this very important topic of fulfilling your potential and living out God’s destiny for you. Here is the link:

http://www.generationchurch.org/stream/3065

Until listening to it, I never realized many things:
like…

* Our potential (our strength or power, is a derivative of God’s potential ~ Omnipotence ~ He has always been “ALL potent” and will always be the embodiment of potential.

* Potential is “never what you’ve done. the moment you have done something, it ceases to be your potential.” Myles says, “God is bored with your past accomplishments”.

* And the coolest thing, “The Potential Principal” from Genesis 1:11 & 12 – “I have placed the seed of everything in itself”. An AMAZING concept of God’s.

My husband & I learned how God made every living thing able to recreate. Whatever a thing is able to become, He made inside of that thing! He doesn’t “make” things anymore…no, instead, all living things He created once, and since that time, they have come from themselves…from a seed within themselves (for a perfect example of this, listen to his sermon from around minute 19-22 ish about the apple seed).

I could go on on & on some more, but ONE more thing… A book that also made a huge impact in MY life regarding this subject of dreams and potential, which I read 8 yrs ago & still remember much of, is Bruce Wilkinson’s “The Dream Giver”.

OK, that’s all I got. Thank you for touching on this subject. I hope people read it, learn more about it, and dive further into it, discovering much of their own hidden potential. God bless!!

~ Chelan