potential

i'm drinking starbucks via coffee and eating mini reeces peanut butter cups in red and green foil wrappers.  mike is asleep in our bedroom.  it doesn't get much better than this.

the other day while driving the kids to school i was behind a very slow, as in, barely moving, old truck.  it was slow and pouring out black exhaust, burning oil, and i was wondering if it would actually make it up the hill we were on.

can you see what it says on the mudflap?

POTENTIAL

yep.

potential- the inherent ability or capacity for growth, development, or coming into being *
                                                                 
i started to laugh and reached for my camera. potential for what? breaking down soon? potential for being sold for scrap metal?  seriously- TIA.

but.

then i thought about how God sees us.  inherent ability.  inherent capacity for growth and development. all of us.  each of us.  you.  me.  that guy on the street with his face on the sidewalk.  that high up business guy who just lost money for his company.  the child who can't seem to make the right choices.  those of us who put 'stop yelling' at the top of our new years resolution list every year- again, and again and yet again. 

i am that old truck.  i'm trying to get up the hill. 
i'm often about to give up, to pull over, to let everyone pass. how amazing that God sees something different.  that she sees intrinsic ability for growth.  that i am made for redemption and renewal.  that i am created for ongoing development.  that it's never too late.  that my life is about coming into being. 

wow.

there is hope in that.  i have faith in that.  that changes things- for all of us.  it changes how we think of ourselves and each other.  what if we saw each person, not as their old skin and their bad choices, but the way we look at a newborn baby? full of potential.  full of options, ability, and capacity.  what if we helped each other come into being?  what if we spent less time judging and more time remembering our own broken-down-ness?  what if we used our potential to help others reach their potential ? what if we were the hands and feet of God here?

we are.
we have.
we can.
lets.









* the free dictionary