You can thank me for the title later.
As a Pastor I'm constantly in contact with amazing people who are thirsty for someone to call out the potential that sits dormant in their lives. Everyone has some level of it and like all things, God has given people unique areas. For some their potential is obvious and for others it takes a little digging but everyone has it.
I'm not one of these people who believes everyone can be anything they put their mind to. Not everyone will be able to swim like Michael Phelps and win 8 gold medals in one Olympics for instance. I can barely swim a lap without holding the side for a rest. While I have played football, baseball and basketball you're not going to find any articles written about my skills in any of those sports being very noteworthy.
Potential isn't about everyone winning gold or everyone holding a microphone or everyone being the PTA president. Potential is becoming the man or woman that God created when He brought you into being. It is fulfilling every ounce of opportunity with what God gave. I've often read that the human mind only fulfills 10% of it's capacity. In my unscientific estimation I'd say that's about what the average person uses in their total potential.
What keeps us from reaching our potential? The lure of the lackluster.
Lackluster is the word I use for the life not challenged. A lackluster life is one that returns to the same behavior as the day before. Usually the lackluster life is one that becomes routine and predictable. The lackluster life does not challenge assumptions, does not work through difficult circumstances, it worships comfortable and often wakes up fighting the same battles and noticing little change over long periods of time. That's a lackluster life.
YAWN! What a waste of potential.
The book of proverbs speaks to this life:
As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. Proverbs 26:11
I really believe that many people live the lackluster life because they have accepted returning to the old ways of life just like a dog returning to eat their own vomit. The very low expectations they have continue to ruin them time and time again. Sin is not viewed for what it is - the reason for Christ's execution (2 Corinthians 5:21) - but rather the lackluster Christian sees sin as nothing more than an acceptable alternative to momentary boredom.
What will it take for some to finally put an end to the wasted life? What will it take for some people to wake up and realize that they are created in the image of God and through the power of the Holy Spirit they can overcome their lackluster approach to living? I believe for many people they have to see their current existence for what it is. Vomit.
Once a person can view their current situation and begin to taste status quo as vomit then they will have enough. So long as you continue to spray Cool Whip on your problems you'll continue to eat the meal of mediocrity and never fully realize the abundant life that is found in obedience to Christ.
I'm not interested in people achieving material success and using the cross as a means to an end. Quite the contrary. I'm interested in people getting so frustrated with the status quo that they get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit move them into communion with the Father through the sacrifice of the Son. I believe God does not create junk and every person has been wired to fulfill their potential to the glory of God.
When we don't fulfill our potential, God gets his glory reflected into fewer places where people need to know Him. Christian man or woman, God put you right where you are to shine for Him and to make his name famous. Part of achieving our potential is to leverage all of our influence for his Glory. When we live the lackluster life then we miss out on one of the most powerful parts of our existence... to have God use us to touch the eternal destiny of another soul.
So when will people finally let go? When will Christians who know better quit "falling" (read: mistake, slip, accident, oops, screwed up, mess up) repeatedly? When they trust in Christ not only as fire-insurance but as Lord of their lives and begin to notice that sin tastes like vomit. Then and only then will they see their life as Jesus sees them. They will see that they are eating a meal not befitting for a child of the living God.
If you're living a lackluster life because you continue to return to your vomit I pray today is the day you see it for what it is. See that temporary gratification you run to as the very wall separating you from the fullness of Christ living in you.
Don't waste another day on excuses and lackluster living. Fulfill your potential, give God glory and change the world by living out the reason for which God created you.
No comments:
Post a Comment