Called to be

I once heard it said that our graveyards are full of potential – meaning there are lots and lots of us that find our ways to the grave without ever really fulfilling our full potential in Christ. I wonder just how often that has happened, but at the very end of life the one that is facing the grave really looks back and sees just how many wrong turns they took on their way. The way we take today makes all the difference in the way we will take tomorrow. We aren’t always assured of our tomorrow, are we? Some of us live as though our tomorrow was a guarantee – leaving things undone today that really need to be done now. We find our pursuits get sidetracked – all because something seemed too hard, another opportunity arose, or we just plain lost interest. The road to somewhere may be hard, windy, and even a little rutted by time. It doesn’t mean we don’t take it! We might find we are not surrounded by tons of others taking the same road, but it doesn’t mean it was the wrong road for us to take! We might just find a little more of our potential impacting this world now if we’d stay the course on the road God asks us to travel today.

You can enter true life only through the narrow gate. The gate to hell is very wide, and there is plenty of room on the road that leads there. Many people go that way. But the gate that opens the way to true life is narrow. And the road that leads there is hard to follow. Only a few people find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Potential is something linked directly to our passion. We find fulfillment in those things we find pleasure in doing, but not so much in the things we ‘have to do’ because they are things we are obligated to doing, right? We all have ‘potential’ – the ‘possibility’ of doing something that will matter in this lifetime, but more importantly, in the legacy we leave behind. There are tons of ‘legacies’ we can leave behind, but the most important types of legacy have very little to do with our career, wealth, or even our fame. The most important legacy we leave behind is really in the lives of those we have touched along the way. The lives that are somehow different – impacted by our lives - by our testimony of Christ lived out in our daily walk. If we find ourselves looking at a narrow road ahead, it may not always seem inviting. As a matter of fact, it can be downright scary. I know some of the most awesome places I have discovered on my travels have been down roads I may not have normally chosen to travel. Why is that? The road ‘less traveled’ by others most frequently holds the greatest treasures.

Potential isn’t of value in the grave, my friends. Did you know that potential is really a ‘latent excellence’ just beckoning to come forth? If that be the case, what is the ‘latent excellence’ that God has been trying to kindle in your life? What road is he asking you to explore with him that you have been reluctant to travel? What relationship has he been prompting you to spend some more time developing so there is a greater legacy of his love and grace left behind when you are no longer on this side of the grave? Narrow minds steer clear of the narrow paths, don’t they? Allow God to open your mind, in so doing you may just find your heart is opened afresh to the possibilities that he has for you in this lifetime. A life of passionate pursuit requires leaders – you may not feel like you are called to lead, but I think God may have a different picture of who he has called you to be than you are seeing for yourself right now. Just sayin!

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