Once upon a time there was a sweet little family of four. There was a Daddy and a stay-at-home-Mommy and a little girl and a baby boy. Life was happy and sweet and their plates were full.

The Daddy and Mommy always stayed very busy. The Daddy was climbing the career ladder at work and the Mommy stayed busy with the children and their many activities.

The little family had big dreams. They dreamed of building a big, beautiful home on the lot of their tiny 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house. They dreamed of taking their two childen on exotic, international trips every summer. They dreamed of country club memberships and educating their children at the very best private schools in Atlanta. The Mommy dreamed of upholstered furniture and custom window treatments for each room of their home. The Daddy dreamed of a lake house and early retirement and expanding his stock portfolio.

And then one night in the midst of all this dreaming the Lord gripped our hearts – both mine and Dan’s at the same time (what a blessing!). He gripped our hearts, gripped our faces in His beautiful hands and said to us… “My children, do you really think I went to the cross for THIS? For your abundance? For your comfort? For you to live in outrageous luxury in comparison to the rest of the world?

Do you think the point of your life is to make things as easy and comfortable and as fun as possible?

If so, you are missing it. You’re missing your calling and you will miss the blessings I have for you. Because this life you are dreaming of is not the Christian life – it’s just man’s invention and it’s called The American Dream.”

Dan and I were Christians then. We knew the Lord. I rose early every morning and sat on my porch to pray and read my Bible. We were active in our church and attended small group Bible studies. I even led my neighborhood Bible study. Dan and I both have read the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation. And yet I knew, even then, that something was not quite right. I had this constant feeling of tension that perhaps there was something I just wasn’t getting… I even confided the feeling to Dan one night. “Honey,” I said. “I feel like there is something I just don’t understand about living the Christian life. Somehow I think we’re off base.”

Dan felt it too, but we didn’t know what to do about these weird feelings, so we pressed on. We lived our lives like every other respectable Christian family we knew. Sure, we had a lot of stuff – but we were good people and God had obviously blessed us, right? We attended church regularly, we tithed 10% of our gross income, sometimes we even gave more. We volunteered in the community, we occasionally ventured downtown to feed the homeless, we hosted Backyard Bible Clubs at our home. And yet deep down, we knew there was more to the Christian life.

Well, 4 ½ years later from that picture taken on the beach, our family picture looks different.

We’re still in that tiny 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in Buckhead but other things have changed. Our goal is no longer how fun, how easy, how comfortable can we make our lives – but now we ask, what is God’s plan for our lives? How can we live each day for His glory, not ours?

These days our dreams are different too. We dream that one day each of the 163 million orphans in the world will have a family. We dream of restoration and redemption for each broken, hurting child in Uganda. We even dream, just a little bit, of selling everything we own — you know, all those things that used to be so important to us, and moving to Africa one day. (At this point, we’re not dreaming about that one too seriously, so don’t mark my words).

If nothing else, what Dan and I have learned over the last year is this: if you’re clinging too tightly to your things, to your plans, to your comfort and convenience, to your idea of what your family should look like — God cannot move in your life.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2, NLT

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Shelly Owens

Dan and Shelly live in Atlanta, Georgia with their five children. Dan is the CEO of SixtyFeet, a ministry serving the imprisoned children of Africa. Shelly is a stay-at-home-mom who does volunteer work for SixtyFeet and delights in homeschooling her crew.