Category: God Can Use You More Than You Think He Can

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“Character Isn’t Developed in Ease and Quiet” -Helen Keller

Quite a bit of the Bible covers the idea of trials being used to teach believers to rely more heavily on God. That’s an important concept I think we overlook too often. God wants us to rely on Him. He wants us to take one step at a time even when we can’t see the path things are going to take. I’m going to put a twist on it, though. I’m not saying it will work this way for everybody, but I’d like to share a bit about how it’s worked in my life.

This hasn’t been true 100% of the time, but throughout our marriage, when my wife and I looked around at some of the people we knew who were in a similar life stage as us, we just seemed to have it a little easier. Maybe our version a particular challenge was less complicated, or our loved ones tended to have better health, or we just had trials that were fairly short in duration. It’s certainly been a blessing, but we didn’t want to grow accustomed to it. Concluding that God can take away as easily as He can give, we adopted the saying “to whom more has been given, more is required.” We considered ourselves blessed in certain ways, so we viewed ourselves as able to offer things others could not.

Years back, I finished some schooling I had been working on. It was such a relief! I took a bit to enjoy the sheer amount of free time after completing a years-long endeavor. Soon, though, I felt I needed to give some of that time back to the Lord rather than sitting on the couch and wasting it. I started looking for ways to use the gifts and talents He’s entrusted to me. After struggling for a bit with what that might look like, I settled on an idea. You can poke around the various pages of this blog and see I’ve had a bizarre collection of interesting experiences most people never come close to. I’m also able to write in a conversational, down-to-earth tone that people find easy to understand. The idea for this blog took shape and started getting off the ground, with the work I put into it following the same schedule my schooling previously did.

It didn’t stop there, though. A couple years after the blog started, the world got put on pause as covid spread across the globe. As you recall, the pandemic changed so many aspects of daily life. In our house, I worked from home for a long stretch of time. It was kinda nice…for a little while. Not having a commute was great, but missing out on the back-and-forth with folks at work drove my creativity to find new avenues of expression. A new, outrageous idea started forming. This time gave birth to the idea of a 10-part Christian speculative fiction book series.

To be sure, it’s an audacious goal, especially considering I’ve never attempted anything like it before. I’m excited about the series though, I’ve got the skeleton for the whole thing mapped out and I’m very far along on some volumes, but what I’ve found is that I get bogged down in the writing. I’ve put together extensive notes on each of the volumes, and it’s fun for me to base some of the characters on some of the people I’ve known in person, to write comedy into it, to write powerful emotional scenes, and ultimately point readers to Christ without making it preachy. But…the project has stalled because I simply don’t have the time, energy, or focus (or more accurately, all three at the same time) to make meaningful progress as far as getting words on paper. It’s incredibly frustrating for me to have what I believe is an epic story mapped out, but be seemingly unable to get it into a deliverable format that can reach the masses and become a tool God starts using to reach a new audience. This might sound a bit like I’m inflating my own ego, but in reality I’m simply treating it with gravity and a matter of urgency; I approach it as though the series will be part of what triggers or contributes to a large revival. Going back to the beginning of this post, the stalled nature of the project is something I’d consider a trial in my life.

In this post I’m taking the long way to arrive at this point: even though I’m facing this trial, it’s related to the work I’m trying to do for God’s kingdom, rather than a trial related to my personal life (finances, health challenges, etc.). Of course I’m interested in getting this story out for public consumption as soon as possible, but I believe the challenges associated with that goal come at a smaller cost to me personally than the trials I’d likely be facing if I had decided not to do anything significant to honor God. I believe when people step into the calling God’s given them, He plows the road for them, removing obstacles that would have inflicted some kind of expense on them had they not followed His lead.

God’s going to allow you to face trials in your life. While you obviously can’t escape all of the personal challenges in life, it seems like you get to bypass many of the especially taxing ones when you’re living in the power of God and walking the path He’s invited you to travel. Had I waved off the blog idea and the book series idea, I don’t know what different set of trials I would have faced in the interim, but I’ve also got a certain degree of peace of mind knowing I’m genuinely taking swings at the pitches God’s giving me. I’m in no way qualified to write a 10-part fictional series, but I’m not afraid to give it a try when I feel God’s saying “here, try this.” I’m relying on Him and His timing, and trusting He sees me and has a plan. In the meantime, in the words of TobyMac, “if I can’t walk, then I’m crawling.” I’m still working on it when I can, always trying to move it forward.

I write this to encourage you. If you’re already following the path you feel God’s calling you down, that’s fantastic…keep it up! If, however, you’ve been feeling a sort of “tugging” in a certain direction you can’t explain, and you’ve been avoiding it because there’s at least some aspect of it that simply doesn’t make sense on any level, I’m going to extend a personal invitation to you to give it a try anyway. Paradoxically, the excuses you’ll think of first could be some of the first obstacles to get plowed out of your way when God starts clearing the road in front of you.

God knows you and knows what you’re capable of when He empowers you. You act in obedience, then He clears the road. It’s not the other way around. Try stepping out in faith and see what happens.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6

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Your Best is Your Best, Regardless of Scope

Every now and then God will call somebody to do extraordinary things and change the way people think. Many of these people end up being giants of the faith. Charles Spurgeon. Billy Graham. D.L. Moody. Jim Elliott. C.S. Lewis. Joni Eareckson Tada. Some live long, full lives of service, others endure great misfortune that God uses for His glory. God uses all of them for His purposes.

But what about us “normal” people? What about those of us who aren’t going to fill a stadium or hold a revival, or be overseas missionaries?

I’ve got two things to offer for those folks.

The first is that just because you don’t feel like you have a grand purpose right now, that doesn’t mean you never will. Ask for a way you can use your life and your talents to honor the Lord. If you haven’t found a calling and you want one, you should ask for one. Ask every time you pray. Pray for it all the time. Keep praying long enough, and He’ll show you what to do. (Just don’t be surprised when it’s something bigger than you expected, and once that happens don’t be put off by it.)

The second is that even though we can’t all be Billy Grahams, we can be faithful to what God’s asked of us. He asks different things of different people, and somebody else could very well have been called to do something cooler than what you’ve been asked to do. We rarely know ahead of time God’s reasons for doling out tasks the way He does. Some things are little, others are big. The important thing is that when God asks something from you, you endeavor to give Him your best and follow through on it, even if you don’t understand why He would ask it of you.

It’s also important to keep in mind that your role may not be confined to a single function. Your calling could involve one big thing, lots of little things, or something in between. Sometimes the thing God wants from you is surprisingly ordinary. Just show yourself to be reliable. If you can’t be faithful with little things, how can you be trusted with big things? Love God, be faithful, and show love to others, in that order.

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Don’t Judge Others’ Spiritual Callings

Here’s a little spinoff of what we learn about spiritual gifts from the New Testament.

In 1 Corinthians 12, vv 4-6, Paul says There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

Later in the chapter Paul goes on to address the people who desired to have the spiritual gift(s) that someone else had, rather than the gifts they themselves had been given. He goes on to write his famous “there are many parts, but one body” text, where he addresses the error of desiring to be a different part (that is, to have a different spiritual gift).

I’d like to present a similar topic in the same light. Think back over your life about some of the Christians you’ve known. Sometimes their Christian walk, or even their entire life, can be summed up or characterized by a simple description. Some have a deep compassion for the poor, while others seem meant to spur others on in encouragement. While some are out on street corners or in auditoriums evangelizing, some people are just trying to hang on long enough for God to untangle the horrible circumstances of their lives. For the people who struggle just to make it through each day, something like having a fiery desire to see justice done seems like an impossibly distant goal, the luxury of someone with time and space to take a deep breath.

Every Christian has a testimony, very few of which are the exact same. Long before we were born, God knew what our lives would look like, and He orchestrated events in our lives to either impose circumstances or tee up choices that would affect our lives in big ways. While some Christians are seemingly on the front lines of ministry, there are many who are fighting for spiritual (or physical) survival. Each one is important and none of them is less valuable than another if it’s God-ordained. If they all stay faithful to the Lord, they all bring Him glory in His timing.

We have to avoid the temptation to judge others in light of the spiritual purpose you’ve been given in your own life. So whether you’re out there engaging with others or you’re just trying to hang on a little bit longer, give God the glory and the praise for the things He’s brought you through and the things He’s yet to do. Your calling is for you, so whatever it is, give Him your best as you live it out.

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A Little Tweak in the Right Spot can Have an Outsized Impact

Have you ever come across someone who was already very talented at something, but needed a little extra guidance to make them unstoppable?

In the book of Acts (chapter 18, verses 24-28) we encounter a Jewish fellow with an odd combination of knowledge. He had extensively studied the Old Testament and was very familiar with what it prophesied about the coming Messiah, but he was also a follower of John the Baptist’s teachings. That might not seem so strange, but the teachings of John the Baptist were the limit of this guy’s New Testament experience. He lacked a complete understanding of the significance of Christ’s death and resurrection, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and the Church as God’s new witness people.

His name was Apollos.

Apollos was unusually skilled in debate and public speaking. He arrived in the city of Ephesus and started accurately teaching in the synagogue what he knew about the Messiah. He eventually attracted the attention of two well-known followers of Christ, Aquila and Priscilla. This pair recognized that Apollos’ understanding of the situation was incomplete, so they pulled him aside and brought him up to speed, giving him a more full understanding of Jesus and His role in God’s plan.

Armed with a more robust understanding of “The Way,” Apollos then went on to “vigorously refute the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 18:28). Apollos went on to become a very prominent teacher in the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:12), and his knowledge and skills were so great, Paul wanted him to use him in different cities (1 Corinthians 16:12).

Apollos was a man that became a powerful tool of God’s Church, but before all that, when he first arrived on the scene, he wasn’t yet ready to be the full version of what he would later become. It took the husband/wife team of Aquila and Priscilla, a faithful Christian couple, to mentor and disciple him. This was an ordinary, faithful couple who saw a need and filled it. As a result of their faithful behavior, they helped enable Apollos’ ministry for years to come.

Faithful service to the Lord doesn’t always involve flashy events. More often than not, it’s quiet, unseen efforts with lasting effects. In what ways can you use your gifts to enable someone else for greater success in the Kingdom of God? Is there someone you know who could benefit from your Christian mentorship?

Lord, people have been following Your teachings for just about two thousand years now. So much of that has come from the passing of knowledge and teachings from one Christian generation to another. Please help me/us as we look to be taught by, as well as mentor, other Christians. Praise You for helping Your followers thrive even in the unlikeliest places. Amen.

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Sometimes it’s Time To Celebrate the Boring

I’m going to build a little on last week’s post. In that post I talked about how sometimes it feels like spreading the Gospel can seem like it’s having no effect or is falling on deaf ears. The post also highlighted the encouragement found in the parable of the sower, which teaches that all sowers (people spreading the Gospel) are fruitful to some degree.

I’ve been writing articles for this blog for some time now. Last month was the blog’s seven-year anniversary. I’ve written on some of the inspiring things I’ve seen, some of the weird things I’ve done, and some of the mundane things I’ve been a part of (and a whole lot of other stuff, too). If every person has a story to tell, this blog is the most centralized record of my story.

In the months leading up to starting this site, it was something I had to wrestle with. I felt led to start blindly sending these little anecdotes from my life out into cyberspace. “But why, God? I mean sure, I know You can use it, but…me? What do I have to say that others haven’t already said?”

I’m an introvert who gets drained by interaction with lots of people, but I still have a lot to say. It turns out the practice of putting these posts online is almost like God saying to me “Look, I know you. I know what’s too much for you, and I know what will break you. There’s a reason you’ve done the things you’ve done and lived the life you’ve lived, and this is Me asking you to turn those experiences into illustrations for people I want to hear something you’ve learned. At the same time, I’m allowing you to do it in a way that suits who you are. You’re not doing speaking engagements. You’re not on the road away from your family, doing events where you’re shaking lots of hands and pretending like you’re going to remember everybody’s name. You’re writing these posts from the comfort of your own home. I’ll tell you what…you just keep going until I let you know it’s time to stop. In the meantime, I’ll bring the people I want to the specific post I want them to see.”

And so here we are. This is post number 400 for DareGreatlyNow.com. That’s a big, round number, and a milestone worthy of reflection. I’m completely oblivious to what kind of impact all those posts (or sometimes individual posts) are having. I’ll only find out the full story after I’ve taken my last breath. I know the site has hosted visitors from almost every country in the world at some point or another, but don’t know the extent to which those readers agree with whatever they’re reading, or if it even has an effect on their thinking at all. It can be a little maddening in that sense. Sometimes I have to remind myself of the attitude I should be having. I picture God saying “Hey…eyes on Me. You don’t work for them, you work for Me, you understand? You just keep going until I let you know it’s time to stop, and I’ll take care of everything else. You’ve been very faithful with this so far, don’t think I haven’t seen it. I’m using your stuff in something I’m working on, so don’t give up now. Keep going. We’ll talk more about it later.”

Sometimes I take a look at what posts have been read in the last month, and it can be surprising. Something I thought would have been a great post gets minimal hits, while some unexpected little ditty from years ago is in the top 10. I guess that’s God bringing the people He wants to the post He wants them to see.

I heard a leadership speaker recently say something you don’t often hear: “Great leadership is boring. You don’t have to be the best to be a great leader, you just have to be consistent.” Then he threw this math equation out there, and it’s one that resonated with me. He said (Consistency + Faithfulness) x Time = Lasting Impact. That was an encouragement as well, because that’s the model I try to bring to DareGreatlyNow.com. Someday I’ll find out the whole story.

So with this milestone, thank you so much to those who have shown support over the years. I appreciate you reading some of my posts!

Lord I thank You and praise You for knowing me better than I know myself, and for a calling that is custom-designed to be one I can embrace. The consistent work on this effort, using what You’ve given me, is what I consider my version of “a living sacrifice,” and I offer it to You as an act of worship and dedication. Thank you that I don’t have to worry about finding the person who’s supposed to read something, knowing You’ll take care of that need. Thank You for providing such a wide variety of experiences to draw from, and for safety (mostly) during them all. I ask that these efforts will be a blessing to someone, and that You’d use at least one of them to grow or otherwise benefit Your Kingdom. With sincere gratitude, Amen.

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Is Anybody Even Listening to What I Say?

Very few people know this about me (or remember it), but I had an odd way of trying to make extra money once upon a time. After college I moved back in with Mom and Dad and my main job was working in construction while I paid back student loans. The money was good, but the job usually only went until about 3 pm and I had some extra time and energy as a young 20-something, so I went looking for a side hustle. Oddly enough, there was a brief chapter in my life where I was a telemarketer.

Now you have to understand, I hate when telemarketers call me, so it was an interesting development. This was more than 20 years ago; back then it wasn’t robo-calls, it was actual pick-up-the-phone-and-call-someone stuff. I got a huge list of phone numbers, broken down by Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones. I didn’t have names, just phone numbers. To provide privacy to our home phone number, the system was set up so I’d call and log into it, and then I’d be able to dial other phone numbers from there.

I had a script to use for pitching the product. Truth be told, I don’t even remember what I was trying to sell, or who I worked for. I called so many phone numbers. Hardly anybody answered. It would be some ridiculous ratio like, call 10 numbers to get someone who picks up, but only one in 10 people you talk to would even listen to your whole pitch, so you’d have to make like, a hundred calls before you even get a glimmer of hope. (And that’s probably being generous.) Between all those calls and tying up Mom and Dad’s phone line, it didn’t take me long to figure out that this wasn’t worth the effort for me. I quit without ever making a sale.

Not to discourage anybody, but it can kinda feel like that sometimes with spreading the Gospel. You can have tons of conversations, you can scatter that seed far and wide, and you can live your life in a way that people know there’s something different about you, but sometimes you wonder if you’re making a difference for the Kingdom of Christ.

For those of you who may feel this way, I’d like to point you to the parable of the sower, found in the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. As Jesus explained the parable to them, He explained that some people who heard the Gospel received it with gladness but then rejected it at the first sign of trouble, or how others had the Good News choked out by worry or wealth. Finally though, He talked about the good soil. Matthew 13:23 says “But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

This is very heartening news! Although there will be varying degrees of fruitfulness, this verse is saying that all Christians will be fruitful to some degree. Nobody’s wasting their time. Don’t quit spreading the Good News. You might not be there when someone “crosses the threshold,” but your efforts can be part of the collective body of work that it takes to get them to that threshold. Think of a tree branch that snaps under the weight of snow in a snowstorm. On their own, each individual snowflake doesn’t do much, but at the direction of the Holy Spirit, the collective weight of all of them brings them to the point where something big happens.

So keep spreading the news with gladness wherever you are and in whatever role you find yourself. You’ll only find out the full story of your impact in Heaven.

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You Can be 100% Right and Still Lose the Debate

One nice thing about having very young kids is having the freedom to vacation without being at the mercy of the school calendar. Before our kids were old enough to start school, we took them for a beach vacation the week of Labor Day, when rates dropped but the weather was still warm.

The Labor Day weekend was packed, of course, with lots of people wanting to cram in one last beach trip for the summer. Once Tuesday rolled around, though, we had the beach to ourselves. Even the lifeguards stopped working. The kids could chase seagulls all they wanted without worrying about anyone else on the beach.

While the kids ran around on the sand, I noticed a guy who was probably in his 50s standing in the dunes, just kind of keeping an eye on us. He was almost, I don’t know, disapproving in the way he watched us. After awhile he came walking across the sand to speak to me. He wanted to remind me that there would be no lifeguards on duty at all that day, and that “even he” wasn’t going to stick around much longer. In my mind I thought “dude, if you left, I’d probably be more at ease. Don’t stick around on my account.” He added something like “it would be a real shame” if we let the kids get too close to the water and something happened to them. Thanks buddy, we drove all this way to come to the beach and not watch the 3-year-old and the almost-2-year-old. I just assumed he was some kind of senior lifeguard switching off summer mode, but without introducing himself, the whole “even he” statement and his “helpful” advice landed in a way he probably didn’t intend. I believe he meant well, but without even introducing himself or stating his role, you can imagine that he just kind of came across as a little condescending.

Have you ever tried to tell people about Christ without taking the time to “read the room” first? Even if you have the purest of motives, people don’t often take kindly to folks who jump into a conversation with them and tell them how they should be living their lives. I’m not saying God can’t use the encounter, but it seems prudent to consider how the people you’re engaging perceive your entry into the conversation. Maybe at least try a little chit chat to demonstrate your willingness to listen to their perspective before hitting them with fire and brimstone or “sinners in the hand of an angry God.”

I’ll concede, though, that if it comes down to a choice between having a curt discussion about the need for Christ and saying nothing at all, being curt takes priority. The Gospel doesn’t get spread without people spreading it. My point here is simply that when you’re about to tell people they’re destined for eternal punishment because they’re living life apart from Jesus Christ, it’s best to have a little empathy because making people defensive right off the bat tends to help them reject what you’re saying.

Going back to the guy on the beach, nothing he said was incorrect. I even think he meant well. It was his attitude and delivery that overshadowed his message and made me want to tell him to buzz off, and I want to prevent anything like that from getting in the way of someone’s acceptance of Christ as their Savior.Lord, I know You call us all to spread the message. Even if I don’t feel well-practiced, give me the words and the boldness to jump in when I feel you calling me to do it. Help me remember that even though I could obsess over not “doing it right,” You can build poor attempts into something magnificent, and are pleased by my obedience.

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A Missed Opportunity is a Lost Opportunity

Ever hear of a sloppy, unrehearsed presentation trouncing a very polished one?

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve written about the urgency of our situation as Christ-followers. We’re not recommended…we’re commanded…to go out and make disciples of all nations. That can be tough. What’s that look like?

The most important thing is that we try. Making an honest attempt equates to obedience here, and obedience is one of the things God wants from us. Although a well-rehearsed, logical presentation of the Gospel is something to work toward, lack of a prepared version is not a good excuse for skipping the attempt. No matter how prepared you are for the pitch, you’re not the one who gets to decide if it penetrates the heart:

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. –John 6:63

God can use a fumbling and bumbling version of a Gospel presentation just as much as He can use a highly stylized, well-practiced delivery. Jesus is pretty particular in reminding us about this. Later in the same chapter, Peter started speaking a little pretentiously, and implied that he and the “true disciples” had somehow acquired superior insight, and as a result of this insight, had decided to believe. Jesus was quick to correct him about who did the choosing:

Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve. –John 6:69-70

God expects us to obey, but He doesn’t expect us to be rock stars at evangelism. Picture a dad playing with his young kids and a ball. “Throw Daddy the ball!” All the kiddo has to do is get it close, and Daddy will make the catch and complete the play. Same thing here. Just obey, and get it close. If it’s part of His plan, God will take it from there.

This leads to an important point. Not everyone who hears the Gospel will respond to it, especially the first time they hear it. That means there needs to be more presentations of the Gospel than there are acceptances. That’s where you come in. You don’t have to be successful, you just need to be obedient. Obedience is your responsibility; outcome is God’s responsibility. He won’t be disappointed in you for obeying what He told you to do.

I understand it’s a scary thing, and we’ve been conditioned not to talk about God in the workplace. Let’s start small and you can grow from there. If you’re not going to go out and tell people about God, use the times He brings people to you. The next time a solicitor knocks on your door, guess what? They’re not going to complain to HR about you discussing God with them. They came to you. They’re on your turf. Just because they have something to offer you doesn’t mean it’s a one-way street. I guarantee what you have to offer them is far more valuable than what they’re offering you. Don’t pretend you’re not home.

Not sure what structure to follow? There are a ton out there, and some methods lend themselves to different personalities or levels of memorization. As long as you’re covering these three areas, you’re sharing the Gospel. 1. Why we must be saved. 2. How Jesus can save us. 3. What we must do to be saved.

Try learning about some of these quick methods, with longer descriptions (and additional methods) available at https://dudedisciple.com/methods-of-evangelism/:

  1. The Pray and Say – More people than you’d think are open to having you pray for them. Try articulating the Gospel during a prayer with them.
  2. The Roman Road – Using five different verses in the book of Romans, you walk folks through the need for Jesus. Think you can memorize five verses?
  3. The 1-minute Gospel – Some people reject the Bible because it’s the Bible. No Bible verses required for this one.
  4. The Billy Graham Method – It worked for millions of people, and is pretty simple.
  5. The Five-Finger Method – Five fingers help you remember five points to make.

Ultimately, you’re the best judge of the method you should use…these are just some ideas to get you started and work with complete strangers. You’re welcome to use these, or any other method, on strangers, people you know casually, or people who are very important to you.

I encourage you to check out the link. We (Christians) are here for a reason, and the enemy doesn’t want you to follow through on it. Remind yourself that you don’t have to present the Gospel perfectly, you just need to present it, and it gives the Holy Spirit an opportunity to do some big stuff in a person’s life.

Lord, help me remember what’s truly important in this life and to be willing to follow through with what You’ve called me to do. When the time comes, give me the words to say, and may You be glorified through me. Amen.

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Quick Hit: That Could’ve Turned Out Way Different!

Well, another school year has come and gone. More than any of his report cards or achievements in extracurricular activities that came this year, I’d like to celebrate one of my son’s accomplishments.

A middle school lunchroom is not a fun place to be. It’s bustling, it’s loud, and I probably picture a little bit of a prison chow hall when I think of one. One day this past school year, a kid sitting near my son started choking on his food. The obvious look of distress on his face gave it away. My son asked him if he was choking, and the kid nodded with wide open eyes.

“Stand up.” My son walked behind him and did the Heimlich once or twice, dislodging the problematic food chunk. The kid was able to breathe normally after that, thankfully. During the whole episode, which probably lasted 30 seconds or less, no teachers or lunch proctors noticed. My son said only about three or four kids in the immediate area realized what was going on and witnessed the event.

I’m not sure where he learned the Heimlich Maneuver, but I’m glad he did. Way to go, Pal! I’m proud of you!

Have you ever been in a setting where you assumed you were there for one reason, but in reality your presence ended up being pivotal for something different? Don’t make the mistake of thinking God can only do one thing at a time through you. God can use you, His beloved, to walk, chew gum, and do yo-yo tricks all at the same time.

You limit what God can accomplish through you when you restrict your willingness to do the different things He calls you to. If that’s something you’re doing, God’s not the limiting factor…you are.

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The Difference Between Good and Great

As an enlisted troop in the Air Force, I picked up on some of the nuances of performance appraisals from a friendly Captain. I’m not sure how much things have changed since then, but at the time, it seemed customary to not say anything bad about the person being evaluated.

How do you distinguish between a troop that’s outstanding and a troop that’s sub-par? According to this Captain, it was all in the nuance.

“If you’ve got a troop who’s absolutely amazing, can do no wrong, and you think should be promoted immediately, you say things like ‘they walk on water,’ or ‘they stand head and shoulders above the rest.’ If, on the other hand, you’ve got somebody who still needs to do some learning, you talk about how much ‘potential’ they have.”

I protested a bit. “But isn’t ‘potential’ a good thing?”

“It is, but it means it’s not yet realized. ‘Potential’ refers to untapped talent that has yet to be harnessed.”

I was thankful for this little glimpse into the art of politely distinguishing between the skill levels of subordinates, and in a way, I believe it applies to Christ-followers today. You see, at the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit imparts spiritual gifts to Believers. He calls us to use those gifts for His glory, but He doesn’t often compel us to use them. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, our potential as Christians is absolutely through the roof, and we each individually decide how much we want to allow God to have His way in our lives. The more the better, as we’ll see when we get that final performance appraisal from the Lord.

(As far as I know, Simon Peter is the only guy other than Jesus who could have a performance appraisal claiming a literal ability to “walk on water,” at least for a little while.)

It’s not possible for us to be “too” good at using those spiritual gifts. Don’t worry, God will put a cap on what He wants out of our employment of those gifts. It’s the minimum ability we should be focused on. Our goal? By the time we take our last breath, we should have no remaining untapped potential to use our spiritual gifts.