If you have ever been around a bunch of young people, you know, kids entering their “teen” years and preparing to exit those same years into what most of us would call “adulthood”…well, if you’ve been around them very much you cannot help but spotting the Hidden Potential of just about every one of them!
Some potential is hard to dig out and share it to the light of day, while others are simply sitting there like putty in the hands of someone who doesn’t know what it means.
Talents. Skills. Personalities. Knowledge. Malleability. Inquisitive natures. Wondering spirits. Humor. Sticktoitiveness. Faithful.
The world our kids are growing up is a far scarier place than it was when I was a similar age. Coming out of the 60’s , I existed in a safer place, and time. Parental love. Solid church experience. And big happy families.
Today, we see a mixed up and messed up world where nothing makes sense. Choices are forced on them as something that must be accepted. Inclusion is foisted as the end all panacea of the new normal. Social pressures. Peer pressures. Political correctness.
Our young people are facing huge battles that make the adult world a scarier place than that monster that used to hide under our beds after a night watching an old black and white Friday night monster show called Weird!
Gone are the days of young people being equipped to step out as soon as school is over. It’s expensive! Most have never had an after school job, nor are they ready to work a job, go to school, and, if you are like me, be married by the time you’re 19! My first banking job that led me to a career paid me $1.05 per hour. Gas was about 40 cents per gallon, and my first apartment was $95 per month.
Somewhere, and somehow, I survived. My bride and I will celebrate 45 years of marriage this summer!
In this scary world, how do kids find the focus to step out and become the adult that will take charge of the planet in the next generation?
Here’s my thought today. Scripture is replete with examples of young people who have had to step out, and step up, and face their own scary version of life. The bible is full of stories like this. You just have to read between all the other words and find the example that challenges you to become the potential that is hidden inside of you.
I've learned to live by the examples I find in the Holy Bible. No one was perfect, but there are many who rose to live by that potential that was in hiding…just waiting to show forth. Share on XI’m not going to tell you the whole story, because, if you are interested then you can go read them for yourself. What I am going to do is point you to three different young people who grew into their potential while living through some pretty tough times.
Timothy (Timotheus, in some translations) was Paul’s Protege. He was raised in a mixed culturally experienced home (Acts 16:1-2). His mom a Jew and a believer, his father a Greek. Since scripture does not tell you anything else about their ethnicity, imagine for a moment the cultural differences that existed.
How do I know it existed? His mom was a Jew and Timothy had never been circumcised, an important sign of God’s covenant with Abraham (Genesis 17:11-14). If this wasn’t done, then the soul was cut off from God’s blessings!
Regardless, Timothy is circumcised and he travels through life with Paul, eventually becoming the Bishop of the church of Ephesus. Paul pens two letters to him and from this we find the instructions of an elder to the younger man.
Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
(1 Timothy 4:12-16 NKJV)
Could we have ever guessed Timothy’s possibility? Perhaps. What we do know is that he gave himself to his calling, and an elder poured into him that which would carry him far in life.
Daniel. His life is shattered when his nation is overrun and taken into captivity by a kingdom that was not like his own. The new king wanted the cream of the crop to be inducted into the system so they could “stand in the king’s palace.” (Daniel 1:3-4) We do not know of his lineage, nor whether his family survived, so here’s a time to get in the graces of the new life he finds himself in.
But Daniel refused to simply become like this “new world”.
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
(Daniel 1:8 NKJV)
This purpose saw him through a life time of advantages, as well as potential disasters. Think about it. If he had only given in then he could blend in with everyone else and simply survive.
Joseph. The favored son of Israel, his father for whom the nation is called to this day. Perhaps it was the age difference. Joseph simply means, “let him add”, to which I think, he’s the 11th child, and are there any more to come?
We read how Joseph was favored over all the other children and made him a special coat of many colors. (Genesis 37:3-4) His brother could barely speak peaceably to him and hated him. Joseph also had a ministry of dreams and prophetic visions, and this angered the brother even more. Finally, they sold him into slavery, bloodied his coat, and lied to their father that a wild animal must have taken him.
How would you act if you had an opportunity to revenge the wrong done against you? Well, I know what I would probably do and I’m sure it would not be a pretty sight. Through his years in Egypt, Joseph lived a roller coaster life of ups and downs, but finally makes to the top of heap, the second only to the Pharaoh. When, in the midst of famine his brothers come to buy grain, Joseph could have finally had his revenge.
But this was not Josephs way. God had given him a role to play in the salvation of his family, and an entire people. When his brothers realize who he was they were fearful.
Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.” Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
(Genesis 50:18-21 NKJV)
Even when he can pour a vengeful spirit onto his brothers, Joseph has the Heart of God to bring them into a land of protection and plenty.
Perhaps these are not enough examples. If you would devote yourself to God, his word, prayer, peaceful living, and all the other attributes we find in they young people, then perhaps your Hidden Potential will someday be realized.
Time will tell if you allow your circumstances to forge you, or defeat you. Regardless of the parameters and boundaries of your life, you have the ability to become what your Hidden Potential says about you. Are you ready to try? I’m praying for you!