"Unlimited" Potential?
Do we really have the power to do "anything?"
September, 2017
Modern culture puts enormous emphasis on motivation, especially feel-good sound bites. Encouragement is helpful, but catch phrases are often counterproductive. Anything which sounds pleasant, but isn't true, isn't helpful. This is a point the Footnotes newsletter has made before: you can be truthful without love, but you cannot be loving without truth. That runs counter to our human ego, but it's crucial. Just because something makes us happy, or energized, does not mean it's true.
One of pop culture's overused clichés is that of "unlimited potential." This comes in different phrasings: "you can do anything you put your mind to," "the sky's the limit," "nothing is impossible," "you can be anything you want to be," and so forth. Unfortunately, none of these are Christian concepts. In fact, they're contrary to both Scripture and logic. That's not intended to be discouraging. On the contrary, it's a reminder that our lives are under the control of something more ordered, and more capable, than our own feeble efforts. We can find success, and happiness, and joy…but that does not mean we're immune to reality.
A person cannot literally be "anything they want to be." No matter how much an elderly man wants to be young, they can't do it. No matter how much a short Asian woman wants to be a tall African man, she can't do it. Feelings, contrary to current debate, do not turn males into females or vice versa. Toddlers may want to grow up to be dinosaurs or superheroes, but that won't happen. For every one person with enough talent to play professional sports, or be a professional singer, there are hundreds or thousands of people who have just as much desire, but not as much talent. Consider the Olympics, where thousands "want to" be a gold-medal winner; only a tiny few will actually be able to succeed at that dream.
Or, to summarize with another pop culture cliché: not everyone gets to be an astronaut when they grow up.
Everyone has potential, but everyone also has limitations. Simply "putting your mind to it" is not a magic wand. We can do quite a bit with what God gives us (Matthew 25:14–29). However, we can't take for ourselves what He has not given to us—and He has not given all people the same potential in all areas (Ephesians 4:11). Romans 12:3–8 explicitly says this:
"For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness." – Romans 12:3-8 ESV
In other words, there are areas where great success is possible through God-given talent. But God does not give all people unlimited, universal potential. That's not to say you can't be "good at" something, or improve in it, if you set your mind to it. Skill is something we develop, and not all people who are "good" at things are talented, they may just be skilled. I can make edible food at home, but I have no talent for cooking—just lots of training and experience (skill with little talent). On the flip side, I have relatively brief theatrical training, but I'm a more natural stage actor than most people (talent without much skill).
If you define success as enjoying something, then success is possible regardless of accomplishments. And there are many people enjoying hobbies and interests who also acknowledging they're not very good at them! But without actual talent—God-given ability and providence—no amount of hoping, wishing, motivation or training is going to guarantee us any particular level of accomplishment. This is where clichés and trite motivation become a tripwire. Striving towards a dream is noble, but not when it means ignoring what's actual in favor of a fantasy.
Worse, the legitimate joy we might have found can be ruined when we convince ourselves that we must obtain the pinnacle of success in some field. The truth is, we need to acknowledge our limitations. Of course, being timid or lazy with our gifts is not what God wants, either. But accepting realistic limits is just as necessary as having optimistic goals.
God wants us to have a positive, but realistic mindset: to use what we've been given, to the best of our ability, in faith. At the same time, we need to be careful not to waste what we have been given, trying to achieve what we have not been given.
-- Editor
