Maximizing Your Potential by Myles Monroe

I tend to be very careful about the books that I recommend, but this one is a keeper!!!! And, it has an excellent workbook in the back of it so that you can begin immediately to reflect and strategize about using the information right away. I've been telling anybody who will listen to purchase this book. I'd like to do a synopsis of each chapter in my weekly blog for those of you who are too lazy to go out and purchase the book and apply its principles to your life. The title of the first chapter is Why Maximize? Here is the subscript that introduces this chapter, "Nothing is more irritating, guilt-producing, and incriminating than an unfinished book; live to your last chapter."

In this chapter, Monroe shares that while traveling in Europe a friend invited him to take a drive on the autobahn. As you know, travelers are allowed to drive as fast as they want on the autobahn. His host in Germany invited him to go as fast as he wanted to with the only limitation being he would not be able to go any further than what the car was built to travel. Hold on to that point, we'll come back to it in a moment. As Monroe opened up the power of his vehicle, he found himself initially trapped by his conditioning of limitations. As his host kept challenging, he was able to get past that internal mechanisms that probably told him it was illegal to go so fast. When he got to 120 mph, he says a Mercedes Benz cruised past him at 150 mph. That is when his host turned to him and said, "So you see, you are not traveling as fast as you can, but only as fast as you will." Get the point? Once we get past our sense of limitations and what we can't do and how we aren't cut out to accomplish certain objectives, then we must deal with the fact that no matter what you have accomplished, it probably was not as much as you could have willed it to be. Finally, the only limitations you really have are the ones that God placed in you when he built you. Think about that for a week, and join me for the second chapter entitled, "How to Become Your Potential."

Not By Chance

In one of my reflective moments just recently, I shuddered to think that I had almost missed God's will for my life. I looked back and wondered to myself what would have happened if I had failed to do something which was connected to something else which was connected to yet something else. Each thing in the chain was so critical to the moment of my life that I now found myself in, that I had a really bad moment as the understanding came to me that life is really very tenuous and vulnerable, and we can miss out on God's best by one bad decision. It was one of those things that I couldn't let go of and I needed the Lord to help me put things in perspective. You know what I mean? If it is true that success in life hangs by the thread of one bad or good decision, how could I ever know I was truly walking in divine purpose at any time in my life. The Lord spoke something to me at that moment that blessed me powerfully and that I want to share with you. I queried him, "Lord, what if I had made the wrong decision a year ago. What would it have cost me now?" The Lord answered, "You couldn't have made the wrong decision a year ago, because it wasn't your idea - it was mine." In other words, when we love the Lord and we truly want to do his will even when it feels like we are feeling around in the dark, his promises are true that he will never leave us or forsake us, and he will establish our going out as well as our coming in. His word also says that everything works out for the good for those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. Wow - that means I never have to be afraid of missing God's will for my life - when we walk in him and we allow him to walk in us, his very thoughts become ours.

Finding Home Position

A good friend once explained to me that once a house is built, it will continue to shift and reposition itself until it reaches what is called "home position." What an interesting concept. When I hear people talk about "searching" for their purpose, I am always intrigued by the idea of seeking something that should come as naturally as breathing and living. Perhaps we tend to think of purpose as something to seek for or search after because we tend to spend our lives trying to reach "home position." The discomfort of not knowing what we shall be and what we will ultimately become keeps us shifting and changing and repositioning ourselves (to use Bishop T.D. Jakes' term) in hopes that it will lead to personal discovery and some sort of self-awakening. I once had someone accuse me of being a jack of all trades. I found it offensive because that cliche ends with "and master of none." As I pondered the label, however, I realized that it was probably a great compliment in disguise. While I do believe I master some things during the many shifts and make-overs of my life, I am still me - an individual ever seeking to grow and respond and mature and thrive. I'm trying to reach home position before my life is done - but in the meantime, I'm having fun refusing to be typecast. I may bend too far sometimes and realize that what I'm doing is not really who I am, but its okay, because as long as I have Christ as my center and my anchor, I can always come back home - and without a doubt, reach home position.

How Can You Know What Your Purpose Is

I was sitting in a Sunday School class just recently at my home church, when someone asked the instructor the question, "How can an individual know for sure what their purpose is?" I listened with great interest at the responses given her - all of which were good. When the instructor asked her if she was satisfied that her question had been answered, she nodded her head yes, but her eyes said no. Plus, there were many others in the room, who looked just as unsure as she did. I knew the look well - as a seminar and workshop presenter, I've been asked the same question many times in the past several years. I wanted to raise my hand to add my opinion to those already given, but I felt that probably much of what she had been given had served to deepen her sense of unknowing rather than easing it.

I feel certain that as this woman continues to insist on an answer to this question, that she will no doubt find it. In fact, it is the seeking to know one's purpose that ultimately provides insight to purpose. I would also say to you, if you too are secretly perplexed by a sense of not knowing what you were born into this earth-realm to do - that most often it is the case that we find ourselves doing what we were born to do. In other words, what is it that you are most passionate about? If someone were to ask someone who knows you well what turns you on, what would the answer be?

For example, my closest friends would probably tell you that the thing I talk about most is seeing people set free of controlling habits, bondages of whatever kind, negativity, unforgiveness, and past failures. My purpose in life is to set people free. Hence, I always find myself positioned to encourage, inspire, motivate, bless, uplift, and provide godly counsel to people who are stuck. In this instance, what I was born to do creates avenues and opportunities for me to do it. To clarify further, my purpose is not necessarily what I do in terms of my occupation or even my ministry - rather, these are expressions of my purpose. Finally, I will leave you with a powerful example that Bishop TD Jakes gave in a message about being confident that God is guiding your life so that you don't miss divine purpose. He shared with the listening audience that he struggled - as a teacher - to think of a way to illustrate the point of God's guiding hand in our lives. Frustrated, he started his journey to his church that morning and when he climbed into his car, his attention was immediately drawn to the GPS system in his vehicle. As the Holy Spirit began to speak to him, he saw a powerful example through the GPS device.

He explained that when he sets the destination, as he is traveling, the device is silent. It will not given a command for a new direction, until it is time for a new turn. Jakes pointed out that sometimes the silence of the device may bother him and can make him feel that he has lost connection - but a nudge of the device results in the audible consolation, "keep straight." In other words, you are where you should be, doing what you need to do for this day and this moment - just keep doing what you do. Let's say he makes a wrong turn in his effort to obey its directions (as we sometimes do in life because of distractions, bad counsel, misguided intentions, etc), the GPS will re-calibrate itself to get him to the destination he wants to go in. Isn't that wonderful? My purpose never changes - even when I mess up, I was still born to do what I was born to do! What a marvelous example of God's guidance in our lives. If we seek to know what our "Why" is for being alive, God will guide us for certain and we should never be afraid that we are out here alone and on our own. We are never alone in this search to find our way home, and even if we make a wrong turn in our earnest to know, we can rest assured that God will re-calibrate our wrong turns so that we wind up where we belong!