Maximizing Your Potential

don’t expect that you’ll amount to anything either.” “You’re going to start a business at your age? That’s for young people to do.” “Only white folks live in fancy houses.” “They don’t let Germans, Vietnamese, Japanese, Italians, Puerto Ricans.. .live in that neighborhood!” “You can’t manage a restaurant. You never finished high school!” “No woman’s ever going to be the president of your country!” God doesn’t think that way. He walked up to Sarah when she was almost 100 years old and told her that she would have a son. Imagine telling your neighbors that you’re going to have your first baby at that age. They’d laugh at you and ridicule your dream of being a mother. Many dreams are killed by laughter and ridicule, but your dream doesn’t have to die. Dare to be different. Accomplish something. Trust God’s word rather than society’s expectations. Never is as old as the first time it changes . It only lasts as long as the person who refuses to allow society’s dictates to squash his or her dream. Those who say “I can” no matter how many people say “you can’t” transform dreams into realities. They have learned the priority of remaining true to their vision and they have developed the inner strength to trust God when society pushes them to abandon their goal. They are those who maximize their potential. > A Treasure Worth Maximizing When the apostle Paul described our potential as treasure in clay pots (see 2 Corinthians 4:7), he recognized that discovering and exposing that treasure is not always an easy task. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). He faced the discouragement, failure, opposition, negative opinions, and age old traditions that could have enticed him to forfeit his potential and forsake God’s purpose for his life. Yet, because he affirmed that this treasure is the “all-surpassing power.. .from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7), Paul persevered to the end. He relied on God’s power in his life to achieve what God had purposed. Like John, he stood firm in his faith that “the one who is in [me] is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4b) and his conviction that his Shepherd would take care of him: My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand.