Be All You Can Be: A Challenge to Stretch Your God-Given Potential (2 page)

I
’
VE ALWAYS TRIED TO TURN PROBLEM SITUATIONS
into opportunities for creative alternatives. On a warm day some time ago, my wife, Margaret, and I were traveling in a rural part of Ohio, and we were thirsty. The fast-food restaurant where we stopped had ice but no diet Coke. My solution was to obtain a cup of ice and buy a can of diet Coke at a nearby store. It seemed easy enough to me when I made my request, but the countergirl said with great conviction, “I’m sorry, I can’t do that.” No doubt she had a “No, I can’t” mind-set that needed to be reprogrammed.

I looked back at her, smiled, and said, “Yes, you can!” Her face brightened and she replied, “OK!” With a positive and eager response she produced a cup of ice. That’s all it took—my permission for her to respond to a creative alternative.

All she needed was somebody to say, “Yes, you can.” What I want this book to do is to give you that “Yes, you can” spirit in your life.

The second thing I want this book to do is to give you some success principles that really work. You see, there are principles of success and there are principles of failure. There is a simple process of applying these success principles. It involves four steps: know, show, go, and grow. You have to know the principles first of all, and then you have to show them. We’re to model these principles in front of others, since people have to see them. That’s more important even than hearing the principles. The going is the experience. You have to roll up your sleeves, get out into the field, and experience them. As you grow, assess yourself. Ask yourself:
How am I doing? Are these principles really taking hold of my life? Is it like breathing? Is it becoming natural to me?
I want to share principles that will help you grow—in your own Christian life and in your leadership.

Third, I want to provide tools for people in leadership positions. When I speak of tools, I’m speaking of information. Information is power, and every person has influence; that’s what leadership is, and the more information we have, the more power we’ll have in leading others. The more information we can impart to others, the more we can influence others in a positive way.

I want you to take the material that I give you and pass it on to others. It’s not any good if it’s just assimilated for yourself. It must be passed on.

The fourth goal for
Be All You Can Be
is to help develop Christian leaders who will make a difference. I’m interested in challenging you. If we are unchallenged, we are unchanged. Do you know the difference between leaders, followers, and losers? Leaders stretch with challenges. Followers struggle with challenges. Losers shrink from challenges. I want you to stretch with this material. I want you to be like a rubber band—it’s not useful until it’s stretched.

The last goal I have for this book is to help you develop healthy, joyful attitudes. You see, most of our problems are in our heads. It’s not what happens to us; it’s what happens in us. Joy is a by-product of following right principles.

As I was reading John 15 on a plane a few months ago, I came across Jesus’ words in verse 11, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” Those words leaped out at me, and I began to realize that Jesus was talking to his disciples, to Christians, and he was basically saying that even though they had been with him for three years, there was a possibility that they would not have continual joy in their lives. He was telling them that joy and happiness become real only as we put the right principles into practice. What I share with you in this book I share because I want to help you be a fruitful, joyful Christian.

chapter 1

VICTORIOUS BECAUSE OF A VISION

I
N
J
OHN
15, J
ESUS SAYS THAT FRUITFULNESS IS
fun. In fact, the theme of John 15 is that Jesus wants us to live fruitful lives. Look at verse 16: “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”

Let me share with you what I consider to be fruitfulness according to the Bible. When God speaks in his Word of a fruitful life, he means active, positive attitudes. The passage of Scripture that deals with the fruit of the spirit, Galatians 5:22–23, is the premier passage on fruitful living. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Fruitfulness is exhibiting positive, active attitudes on a daily basis in our lives. When that happens, we begin to sense real joy and to see positive things happen in our lives. When we put these attitudes together, four “PRs” must appear.

First of all, there are positive results. When you begin to inject these attitudes into your society, you’re going to see constructive results. You’re going to have positive relationships. You will begin to develop fruitful relationships with others.

You’re going to have positive reactions, especially in areas that were previously tough problem areas for you. You’re going to find that you receive reactions that are positive when you begin to have these active, positive attitudes.

You’ll receive positive reinforcement. Life is like a mirror; what you show is what you see; what you put in is what you get out. When you encourage others, you’ll find that they will encourage you. Attitudes are contagious.

Last, you’ll have positive rejoicing. That’s what Jesus says in John 15:11. “These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” People often tell me they’re not happy; they say they’re unfulfilled. They talk about not having joy in their lives. I get the impression that seeking for joy has become their purpose in life—but joy (or happiness or fulfillment) comes to us not when we seek it, but when we put the right principles into practice in our lives. It is a by-product of doing what is right.

It is when we live by the right principles that we begin to love the right principles. Most of the time, we want to love first. We want to fall in love with what is right and then have it happen to us. That’s backward—it’s when we learn what’s right and live according to it that we begin to want to be right; then we begin to have the by-product, which is joy. You have probably seen the bumper sticker that asks, “Are we having fun yet?” Every time I see that bumper sticker, I want to write another one: “Are we doing right yet?” If we’re doing right, we’ll be having fun.

In John 15:1–10, Jesus gives us the principles of fruitful living. Let’s look at them together. First, our potential for fruitful living is unlimited because of our source. Jesus starts by saying, “I am the true vine” (v. 1). Jesus is our source. When we realize that, then we understand why Paul could say, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). We become fruitful when we tap into the right source.

A friend of mine was discussing the implications of Micah 6:8 with his seven-year-old grandson: “What does the L
ORD
require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” The little boy, who was memorizing this verse, said, “Grandpa, it’s hard to be humble if you’re really walking with God.” That’s great theology coming from a seven-year-old. When we begin to get a glimpse of the unlimited resources at our disposal—the power of God himself—then and only then will we sense the assurance that we are fully equipped to do whatever it is that God calls us to do.

We might feel like the little mouse who was crossing a bridge over a very deep ravine with an elephant. As the elephant and the mouse crossed the bridge, the bridge shook. When they got to the other side, the mouse looked at his huge companion and said, “Boy, we really shook that bridge, didn’t we?”

When we walk with God, that’s often how we feel—like a mouse with the strength of an elephant. After crossing life’s troubled waters, we can say with the mouse, “God, we really shook that bridge, didn’t we?”

Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, said, “Many Christians estimate difficulty in the light of their own resources, and thus they attempt very little, and they always fail. All giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and His presence to be with them.”

Like David, who said, “The battle is the L
ORD
’s” (1 Sam. 17:47), we also need to understand that Jesus is our source, and we can be directly connected to him.

In John 15:1, Jesus says that we have potential for fruitful living not only because of our source but because of our care. Just as Jesus is the source, the Father is the vinedresser. The vinedresser takes care of the vine; he would be a man of skill and knowledge, an expert at growing grapes. But in this passage of Scripture, he is also the owner. When you think of an owner, you think of personal interest. You think of commitment—something more than knowledge and skill. As branches we not only have our source from the vine, but we have God who oversees us, takes cares of us, and prepares us to be productive and fruitful.

You’ve probably noticed that the person who owns something, whatever it is, has a certain pride that a mere observer never has. I remember when I was a little kid, my grandfather often walked me around his farm. As we walked and looked, he would find uniqueness and beauty in things I wouldn’t have looked at twice. He would see great potential in a run-down shed on a back lot; I would see kindling. He would show me a rusty, old tractor and see a machine with possibilities; I would see a piece of rust-covered junk. Why? How could we look at the same objects and see different things? He owned them and I didn’t. Ownership makes a difference. God owns us, so when he looks at our lives, he looks at them not as an observer but as an investor.

Our potential for fruitful living is great because Jesus is our source. The fact that God is our caretaker and owner adds to that potential. One of the things God does as vinedresser is to purge us. His purging greatly increases our potential for fruitful living. “Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit” (v. 2). God, the vinedresser, removes everything that hinders our usefulness. He knows that if he doesn’t cut back the deadwood, all of our resources will go toward producing more wood and we won’t be fruit producers.

I have found that productive people are continually being pruned, going through this process that God uses to make us more fruitful. And God knows exactly what to prune from our lives. He’s like the professional logger, who, when there’s a jam on the river, climbs a tall tree, looks over all the logs, and identifies the problem area. Then he takes a little bit of dynamite and blows that part up so the logs can continue to flow downriver. Now, that’s not the way I’d do it. I would probably jump in and start knocking logs around until I finally worked my way to the problem area. But God doesn’t mess around with peripherals. He goes right in with his dynamite and blows up only the areas in our lives that aren’t productive. He cuts away that “sin which so easily entangles us” (Heb. 12:1), whatever it is that keeps us from becoming the persons we really want to become.

Our potential for fruitfulness is also tremendous because of our partnership. In verse 4, Jesus talks about this partnership. (And in fact, you can see it throughout the passage.) “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” Ten times in verses 4–10 we see the word
abide
. Basically he’s saying, “Connect with the vine, and everything will be fine.” When Robert Morrison was on the way to China, where he would be a missionary, the captain of the ship was skeptical of his dream and gave him a hard time. As Morrison was leaving the ship, the captain said to him, “I suppose you think you’re going to make an impression on China.” Robert Morrison replied simply, “No, sir. I believe God will.” He was in partnership with God.