Episode 36: Coffee with Gabi! Let Your Dreams Expand
Have you had a certain dream in your heart since you were young?
Or is there something you've been dreaming about or working toward for a long time? What would you think if God wanted to expand you beyond that dream into something you haven't even imagined yet? Will you let Him lead? Is it possible that all the seeming detours in your life have been leading directly to that dream expansion that He's always intended?
Let's chat through these questions and thoughts on today's episode of Pain to Passion Live! I'll share some personal stories and how this has played out in my life as well. Be encouraged, my friends! God holds your dreams in His hands.
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(TRANSCRIPT) Ep. 36: Coffee with Gabi! Let Your Dreams Expand
Note: Transcript is created by AI. Please excuse any errors.
Gabi: Hello, my beautiful friends. How are you? I am back doing a Coffee with Gabi episode for Pain to Passion Live, sitting in my car in between running errands. Today I was really on the struggle bus trying to work from home, so I've gotten out to do some things. It's a gorgeous sunny day here in Spokane. And before I go into this coffee shop and do some work, I wanted to be sure to record an episode for you guys.
Um, today I wanna talk about letting your dreams expand. Which this may come as a bit of a surprise, how this ends up going, um, because this is a specific story that I like to share that really has come to mean even more to my heart as the years have gone by. So let me share a little story about when I was living in China, which I know I have mentioned.
I was living in China in 2007 and 2008 and, um, while I was there, I had an incredible experience. Now, backtrack a little bit that I actually had the dream of going to China from the time I was eight years old. It was something that God spoke to my heart when I was a little girl. I'm writing all about this in the book that I'll be releasing later this year, or you may have read about it if you've read my book, the Footsteps of a Dreamer.
But at eight years old, God placed on my heart to go to. . And so I went several times and after I graduated from college, I moved there and I absolutely loved it. To this day, I still have dreams about the city that I was living in, about the food that I ate, and I can't wait to be able to go back again one day soon, I hope.
But while I was there, like I mentioned, I had this opportunity to go speak at a service, a church service, and. Go and just pour into the lives of some beautiful Chinese nationals that I had come to love and share with them from my heart. And it really felt like the culmination of a lifetime of dreams.
And to me, I felt like, okay, this is just the beginning. It's just the. because it was like that taste of destiny. I'm sure you know what I mean. If you've ever had the experience of dreaming about something and then getting to experience at least some of it, you're like, oh my gosh, this is destiny. This is what it feels like.
It was absolutely incredible. But I'll never forget, as I was walking home, it was a bit rainy in the dark. The city light's glowing. I was walking back to my apartment that. And I felt the Lord say, so how was that ? And I said, that was amazing. And then I just sensed that he said, your dream came true. Now move on to the next one and let your dreams expand.
And I did not know what to do. Because I wasn't done with China. I wasn't done with this dream. I really at that point, was ready to just stay there forever, give my entire life to this country that I loved, the language that I had studied for all these years, and to hear him say, Uh, move on to the next one Was a bit confusing.
I was like, what do you mean ? This is supposed to be our deal. This is supposed to be our lifelong thing. What do you mean? Move on to the next one. What do you mean let your dreams expand? I mean, there's a billion people in China. Um, how does it get bigger than that? And I just sensed, like seeing this whole map of the world just lighting up before my eyes.
And you. Not be one who believes in like mystical experiences like that, which you know, that even that word is a little bit off-putting for some people. But I always had a really close relationship with the Lord and he has spoken to me in different ways, impressions on my heart through the word, through different, um, songs and things like that my whole life.
And in, during that season, I was hearing from him. And I think it was because I was really, honestly, very lonely and I was sick, and there was a lot of hard stuff going on, but I, I definitely remember this so vividly, just sensing. His presence and this picture of the world just lighting up before my eyes.
So fast forward over the coming years, I got married, I had children, um, and through the course of realizing how much time. and effort it was going to take to make sure that my kids were okay. Um, especially because with my son's adoption, he has quite a lot of trauma that he has to work through. I realized like, okay, I don't know that this China thing is ever actually gonna pan out the way that we expected.
Both my husband and I had expected to move to China and live. . But here we are, you know, 13 years married and we are living still in America. Um, and over the intervening years, I have had the opportunity to visit many different places and. that has been a gift, but they've all been short term. So I've been to Cambodia and India and Bhutan, Nepal, um, Ecuador, Ethiopia, oh, bunch of different places and just have fallen in love with people all over the world, which is something I'll talk.
In another episode too, cause I have a really cool story to share about some of that. Um, but during that I would keep thinking about this, this encounter with the Lord of let your dream expand. And I would think, man, here I am just loving all of these other places. Maybe, maybe I'm not intended to be in one place for the rest of my life.
I don't know, maybe God is wanting me to love more people. And then guys. what? What has really astonished me in the past several years is how my dreams have expanded in a completely different dimension. As you know, I am now very, very passionate about trauma recovery, about different healing modalities, about trauma informed practices, connection, parenting, all of these things, and helping people find freedom and healing to find safe spaces where they can be seen and.
and none of that was on my radar at all over all of those years, and because of my beautiful son and because of the story that he brought with him and the story that he uncovered in me, this has become my passion. where I now know so much more about how the human brain and body works about the importance of understanding your nervous system and just helping people engage in their own healing.
It is a world that I was completely a stranger to it. I didn't even know that this trauma informed world existed, and I never, ever, ever would have thought that it's something that I would engage in at such a deep level. . And what I think is so beautiful about that is God didn't say, let your dreams expand and go like, pick a new one.
He said, let your dreams expand so that my heart would maintain hope as I waited. Through all of this process, through all of this journey, which in some points has been extremely difficult, where there have been times when I've been tempted to lose my faith. But when he says something to you like that, you have to believe that his dreams for your life are so much bigger than you can imagine.
And the expansiveness of what I understand now, my purpose to be blows my mind In fact. I know for sure that I will be spending time among the nations. Again, it is my heart. It always has been, but now understanding my own story, my own trauma history, understanding my own suffering, and my healing from that.
Has helped me to be able to connect with people suffering around the world in such a unique and tender way that I never would have been able to, had I not engaged in my healing and engaged in learning about these things. So now when I travel, when I speak to people, when I encounter people whose stories are completely different than mine, but they involve.
They involve pain. They involve seasons of time where they have felt unseen or buried or hurt or broken or lonely. I understand. I understand and I know how to attune with these people and help them to feel seen and safe. , and that is such a gift. I am so, so grateful for this way that God has allowed my dreams to expand.
And what I want to do is just ask you like, what is that dream that you've had on your heart for a long time, and has it been difficult? Have you felt discouraged about how that has unfolded or how it hasn't unfolded? , is there something that you've been holding onto desperately hoping that someday it will happen when maybe just maybe.
consider that God might be saying, let your dreams expand. And what he could mean by that is let him do his work in you and show you an entirely new realm, an entirely new world where you will be able to. Open up your life and use your life in a way that you're really designed to do, that even your story up until now was written so intricately into this space where you never would've imagined yourself.
But when you discover it there, you will feel more alive and more alive, aligned with your purpose than you ever would have. Imagine. I would love to hear how your dreams have expanded or maybe how your discouragement. Could be lifted somewhat by listening to that voice of letting your dreams expand and knowing that God is the ultimate dreamer and he holds your life in his hand, and he has such an intricate and beautiful plan for you, for your healing, for your purpose, and for the lives that you will touch between now and the day that you die.
So thank you for listening to this little story. I just thought it would be fun to share that, because today I've been working on a bunch of stuff and I'm just amazed that I get to be in this field that I'm in, and I don't know where it all is going, but I'm just so grateful to have the understanding that I have now and the tools and resources that I have now, and I look forward.
To just utilizing that and touching as many lives as I can. You're beautiful and you're gifted. You're chosen. You're called. Remember that You're created on purpose for a purpose, okay? Your dreams matter. Your heart matters. Take care of yourselves today, and I'll talk to you next time. Bye friends.