Noah teaches us that WHO is at the center of our lives is much more important than WHAT we are building. Noah didn’t find his identity in the ark—the thing that he was building. He lived in the dream but found his identity in the Dream Giver.

Noah didn’t make the ark the center of his life.

The dream itself didn’t take the place of God in Noah’s life. The thing God told him to build didn’t take the place of WHO was central to his passion. Jim Elliot understood this in saying, “Dreams are tawdry when compared with the leading of God, and not worthy of the aura of wonder we usually surround them with. God only doeth wonders. He does nothing else. His hand can work nothing less.”

Let me ask you this: What is at the center of your life? Is it your dream? Or is it Jesus? Is it your God-given assignment? Your role in the dream? Or is it God Himself? God never gives you an audacious dream so that it can take the place of Him in your heart. He gives you an audacious dream so that you can make much of the Dream Giver; lean into Him more, grow in His grace, and bring Him glory through your labor of love and faithful toil.

(excerpt from my book Audacity)