POTENTIAL // the scary word redefined

This is for you. 

If you’re graduating, if you’re scared about the future, if you’re worried that you’ll never understand the future, or if you’re just worried about the next step. THIS IS FOR YOU.

POTENTIAL. My word for the summer.

It’s something we talk about all the time. It’s said about us, hinted at us, and even directed to us.  “You have potential.”

But during this time of the year, potential can be a scary word. For graduating seniors (both high school and college), the real world (or college, for my high school friends) that was always two steps removed is finally here, and everyone keeps reminding you how much “potential” you have. They remind you of all the amazing things you’re going to do “out there in the real world.”

For all the people in between those graduations, myself included, it’s at this time that people like to remind us of the “potential these next few years hold.” They tell us we don’t have to have it all figured out, that things will be revealed to us in time.

Every reminder of our potential brings another moment of excitement about the future and the potential it holds, but if you’re like me, it also brings a second of panic.

The reality is, we don’t have it all figured out. None of us do. The only difference between graduating seniors in college and graduating seniors in high school is that the former have a bit more experience. That’s it. So it’s just as scary for the college seniors as it is for the high school seniors, that word potential.

Because of that, I thought this would be the perfect time to examine what the Word says about our potential. And to remind myself and everyone else who needs to hear it that while God does have potential for our next few years at / after college, He has a huge potential for all of us for our whole lives.

For believers, there is so much potential, because we have such an important task, and because we have the most important person by our side. We have the potential to heal people. We have the potential to show people grace and love. We have the potential to point people towards He who installs this potential in us. We have SO much potential.

And even more than that, we have been granted the authority to fulfill our potential. God placed us on this earth as His workers, and gave us the tools with which we could fulfill the potential He gave us.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” —Ephesians 2:10

This verse reminds us that not only did God make us His workers and give us tasks to complete, but He also prepared the way for us beforehand. Paul says in that verse that God knows our potential because He already laid it out for us.  All we have to do is “walk in it.”

Bottom line? We have to remember that God gave us our potential, but He also gave us a way to fulfill it. And while we have potential relating to our careers and vocational futures, we also have spiritual potential–to help God in the task He gave us to be fishers of men. (Matthew 4:19). THAT is our ultimate potential.

Last Thursday at OUTCRY, pastor Levi Lusko said that we need to be careful about being busy with worldly things, and instead strive to be busy about the Kingdom of God.  He was speaking directly to single people when he spoke this next phrase, but I think it applies to everyone: Don’t play the field, reach the world. It’s obvious how this applies to single people, but not-so-obvious is how it applies to anyone in a waiting period.

Think about it. Single people are only one group of people who define themselves as being in a waiting period. You don’t have to be single to be waiting. In some way, we are all in a waiting period, or at least have been at some point or another–We’re all awaiting God’s plan for our lives. For some people, that means waiting on a future relationship, such as the people Levi Lusko was speaking to. For others, it means waiting on the next career opportunity. But what we can’t miss–press in here guys–what we can’t miss is that we should all be anxiously awaiting the next opportunity we have to bring someone to the Kingdom. If you’ve read any of my previous blogs, you know that I fully believe that we cannot be idle in the waiting periods, in fact I think just the opposite. I think waiting periods are not for waiting, they are for doing. THAT is how Levi Lusko’s quote applies to us all–while we’re awaiting the next step, we should be actively seeking out opportunities to witness, to teach, to heal, and to save the lost. We should be actively seeking out ways to heal the broken, and remind them that God has potential for us all. We should be actively seeking ways to “reach the world.”  THAT is our task, and THAT is our potential, given to us by our Heavenly Father, who knows the potential for us all.

I’ll close with this. Genesis 11:6. “And the Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.'”

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF WHAT THEY WILL DO.

They being YOU. And me. And every believer.

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING. Nothing is impossible with the help of God.  All things can be done through He who grants us strength. (Philippians 4:13).

…

Here’s a song that might help:

“I wake up I feel it
Those fears are back again
Can’t shake them can’t make them
Ever fade ever end
Am I good enough do I measure up
Feels like a war I can’t win

But I wasn’t given the spirit of fear
I was given the power of love
Everything I’ve been fighting against
I’m gonna lift it up

I wanna be fearless
No holding back no backing down
Fearless
Because I believe you’re with me now
Bring on the unknown
Lead me and I’ll go
Come set me free
God, I want to be
Fearless (I want to be)
Fearless (I want to be)

These mountains these giants
Will fall at a single word
In your name in your strength
I’m more than a conqueror
…

I won’t be afraid
I won’t be afraid
I’ll call on your name
I’ll walk out in faith”

–Fearless, Jasmine Murray

Let us all walk out in faith today.

…

If you’ve been keeping up thus far, you’ll know that this is fifth in the series: patience, presence, plans, places, potential. If this is your first one, I would love if you looked back on a few of the other blogs, because together they form a huge picture that I’m trying to help piece together about life. Disclaimer, definitely do not know it all, and I don’t try and pretend that I do–this is just me writing what I know and what I’ve learned, and if it helps anyone at all, I have fulfilled my task.

xoxox