Chad Veach - Faith Forward Future: Moving Past Your Disappointments, Delays, and Destructive Thinking

Chad Veach is lead pastor of Zoe LA in Los Angeles, California. Zoe LA is a young, thriving church with a goal of infusing Zoe life and Gods love into people from all backgrounds and walks. Chad is also an internationally known speaker who travels with the message of this life and the hope that is found in Jesus. He is the author of Unreasonable Hope, a book that recounts the story of how his family dealt with a heartbreaking diagnosis and provides faith-building insight and biblical truths for those facing struggles of their own.

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www.zoechurch.org

my queen: julia

our best friends: georgia, Winston, and mav

the greatest people on the planet: the people of ZOE LA

our amazing staff and elders: rich jr, pastor jude, and dave patterson

my parents: dave and windy veach

leslie harter: none of this happens without you

mark johnson: creative genius

My phone was screaming at me from the middle console of my car, shouting that it was time to pull the trigger and make the call.

It was the reason I had driven out to the middle of nowhere. I had escaped the noise of friends, family, and my world. I had committed that I would finally do the thing I had been avoiding doing for months.

I would end the relationship with the girl I shouldve broken up with a long time ago.

It wasnt because she was a bad person or that she was ruining my life, but, quite simply, it was a relationship I knew I wasnt supposed to be in. From the very start, it had felt like I was pushing against the world and even God himself to make things work. I was ignoring the signs that popped up at every turn. My work was hurting, my vitality was zapped, my friendships were crumbling around me, and a booming voice was telling me to stop before things got worse.

The phone screamed at me again.

Even though it was silently sitting there. No phone calls coming in. No one waiting for me on the other line.

But I couldnt reach for it yet and dial those numbers. Because to end things meant to end my dream. It would mean the death of a future me, standing in a suit, looking on as she walked down the aisle in a white dress. The death of the future I had been set on from day onethe romance and the life I had drawn up for myself. I know what youre thinking. But youre married to Julia Veach! How could life get any better than that? Dont worry, people. Im beyond grateful Gods better plan prevailed in the end, but in that moment, I couldnt see it. And even the idea of letting go of this dream I could see felt incredibly painful.

It was this original, flawed dream that had helped me drown out those resounding alarm bells all along the way. I had been clinging to it like a toddler clings to a toy hes been told not to play with. When God clearly communicated his no, I either ignored him or tried to convince myself that he was telling me something else.

The phone shouted at me again.

This time, instead of recalling the dream, I recalled the nightmare. The nightmare my disobedience had led me to: the crumbling ministry, the disappointed family, the rejected friends. The plan I had laid out for myself had failed miserably.

So I finally picked up the phone and made the call. I listened to confused crying on the other end and tried to hide my own similar emotions. With one conversation, I broke two hearts.

That day I began to learn that sometimes you have to lay to rest your dream to give life to Gods dream.

BROKEN DREAMS

I live in Los Angeles, a place that many have named the City of Broken Dreams. Each year thousands of people move here, hoping to make it as a director, actor, musician, or reality TV star. Because the industry is highly competitive and theres only room for so many to be the next big thing, many fail at achieving their dreams.

With an estimated 254,000 men, women, and children sleeping on the streets each night and also twenty of the worlds small number of billionaires in residence here, the city is a paradox. Its a picture of how society views both success and failure, achievement and heartbreak, arriving and losing. But this city is only a microcosm of the state of the world.

In a Social Forces study, researchers found that only 6 percent of people end up in the career they dreamed of as a child. Obviously, many conditions can cause you to veer from the path to becoming the firefighter or astronaut or ballerina you once thought youd be, but this dismal number proves that many peoples lives dont go the way they planned. Though often this is a good thing (thank God I didnt pursue that DJ career), our broken dreams can leave us feeling disappointed and affect the way we view our worth and potential.

The reality is that we dont always accomplish all that we set out to do. Our lives dont always turn out the way we hoped they would. We dream of a relationship with a certain person, a career path, or a perfect family. And when those dreams dont work out, like my own relationship didnt, were left to wonder...

Where do I go from here?

What do I dream of now?

Should I throw in the towel?

Because God gives us free will, we get to experience what it looks like to mess up and destroy our lives. And mess up our lives we often do.

While working as a youth pastor and dating long-distance, I refused to listen to the advice of others and even the voice of God about ending my relationship. I had my dream, and I was set on making it happen. Because of this, I was ignoring people I should have been more focused on, the youth ministry I was running was shrinking, and I started failing at what God had called me to do. I could barely look people in the eye.

Eventually, I came out on the other side of the heartbreak with an understanding of Gods better plan. But my decisions delayed my destiny, and it took a while to truly move past the pain of the whole experience.

THE PRODIGAL DREAM

My story, like yours, is beautifully depicted in Jesus parable about the prodigal son in Luke 15. Its the story of a father with a son who asked for his inheritance early. Though the father knew the request was a bad idea, he granted it, and, in return, the boy took the money and squandered it.

With his free will, the son pursued his dream. He chased after what Jesus described as wild living (v. 13). And, ultimately, he failed.

He failed hard.

The father in the story knew his son was headed for disaster. You want to test the waters out there? he probably thought. You want to go mess up your life? Thats fine. I would love to protect you from all of that, but you made your choice .

Jesus said that, once the sons money ran out, he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He went from living the dream to living in the pen with pigs and even long[ing] to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating (vv. 1516).

Its while the son was filled with disappointment and coping with his failure that the story takes a turn. Jesus told us that when the son was in the pen he started to remember his fathers house. He started to recall his fathers servants and how even they had food to eat and a bed to sleep in. So he got up and went to his father (v. 20).

In his darkest moment, he remembered that things were better his fathers way. He didnt know if his father would accept him back as a son, but he did leave that pen with a confidence that whatever his father had for him, it would be better than his current situation.