As my home group is reading and discussing the book "Just Walk Across the Room" by Bill Hybels we talked last week about recognizing potential in people. I've thought a lot about that.
How can I recognize someones potential? Does that mean I should be able to see the Sunday School teacher in the drug addict? Or the team leader in the business man? Or the middle school youth worker in the rebellious college student?
I don't think I can do that. Does that mean I am not "in tune" with God? I don't think that is necessarily true. But I have thought about seeing potential as remembering what it was like for me to be lost...the emptiness, the futility, the frustrations, the lack of contentment. If I can meet people living far from God and remember what I felt and how I lived, then I can relate better to them. I can not dismiss them as unworthy of my time or energy. I can remember how God changed my life and know that they too can have the peace of God and the fruit of the Spirit. The love, joy, peace, patience, etc can exude from their hearts and minds and life can be lived with real purpose. The real potential of every person is to have a new life in Christ, to be a new creation.
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