The Idol of Potential

You're tuned into Made for Mondays with Justin Lester. Justin Lester is an average guy who refuses to let Mondays control him. Justin is a husband, dad, pastor, student, and Jesus follower. He's done a lot, he's learned a lot, and he wants to see you at your best. Let's win Mondays. Hey, Justin, what's up today?

Hey, everyone. Well, welcome to Wade from Made for Mondays, Justin. And I'm glad you guys are joining with us. I want to use the next couple of weeks to partner with a sermon series I'm currently preaching at my church about different idols, things that get into the way that we use to compete with purpose and compete with possibility for the future. Today I want to talk about what it means to crucify and destroy the idol of potential. The idol of potential. You ever thought about the times in your life where you worship what you're capable of and don't actually pursue and get it? We worship what we think we can do, worship what others love saying about us to a point where we manipulate others and their emotions to like what we think we're capable of, but don't actually pursue it. I want you to move from the thinking of what you're capable of and your potential to actually doing what you know you're capable of doing. You're unbelievably gifted and called and equipped with, with opportunities and gifts and connections to do great things. But it starts when you get beyond worshiping what you're capable of and actually get up and go do it. What did it look like for you this week to not just think about or talk about what you think you can do, but actually go ahead and doing that thing? You know, the brothers who founded and started the made the first plane. It was very interesting because they were in competition with the government, with the United States, and as they're in competition with the government of the United States, the United States said, listen, here's what we're going to do. We believe that if we're going to make the first airplane, the first airplane has to be a plane that goes straight, goes straight up, goes straight down, makes hard corners and turns hard just like a car does. Because if we're going to have a plane has to look just like a car. With these brothers. One day they saw a boy and getting onto his bike, and he saw that when he got onto his bike, he was wobbling. When he got onto his bike, every time he turned a corner, he was wobbling because he had to get used to the wind. He had to accelerate and decelerate but he had to get used to the wind, and therefore it was the wobble. And they said, if we're going to make a plane, we're not going to make a plane go straight and make hard turns. But what if we intentionally embraced the wobble? And if we embrace the wobble, we'll be able to adjust. Teach the plane how to adjust instead of making the plane tell the wind how to adjust. Because we can control the plane, we can't control what's around us. Maybe that's the opportunity you have this week to embrace the times where you don't want to bring yourself into places. Embrace the wobble. Embrace the times you want to vacillate from your opportunities and your future. Embrace the wobble. Embrace the times you want to vacillate. Embrace between being what you know you can be and what others are telling you to be. Embrace the wobble. This week. Go into this week and don't look for hard corners, but embrace the wobble. When you don't want to go into something. When you do want to go into something. So you don't worship what you're capable of, but you honor the space that you're brought into. You honor the life that you're living. You honor the gift you are to the world by embracing the wobble. So what are points of purpose? How do I do this? Number one, I want you to check the names you call yourself. If we're going to embrace not just our potential, but embrace what we can do. Check the names you're calling yourself. What do you tell yourself in the morning? What do you define yourself by when you see yourself in the morning? How do you speak to yourself in the car? What do you say to yourself in quiet moments? I want you to check the names you call yourself and remind yourself of the names that you know are true about you. That you're gifted, you're qualified, you're called, you're. You're selected, you're set apart, you're overcomer, you are healed.

You.

Whatever those names are, I want you to check the names you call yourself and to allow the names of your past or your failure to be the names you call yourself over against the names of your future. And then lastly, be mindful of your connections. I've learned in my life that you are the five people who are closest to you. They're the ones who are the ones who are crafting language. They're crafting the ways you engage in spaces. They're crafting how you move into the world. You are the five people closest in your circle. Be mindful of your connections. Are they simply there to push you to keep talking about what you can do or are they there to push you to be the person that you know you can be? Check, check the names you call yourself and be mindful of your connections. And this week, let's crucify, let's kill the idol that you don't keep talking about the idol of potential but you lean into the doing with what you know you're capable of. Let's say our affirmations for the week and let's jump into the week and you repeat after me. Just say I am me, I can be me and no one will ever stop me from being me. Have a wonderful, wonderful Monday. You were made for this. Now go win. This week.

This has been made for Mondays with Justin Lester. Be sure to follow Justin online at mrjlester and online at www.jluster.com. see you next week. Go win. You were made for this.