God Measures by Potential

When we moved into our house 15 years ago, there was a little Blue Spruce out in the front yard just off the deck. It was just a few feet high, and we wondered if it would survive the harsh winters and dry summers when some unnamed person neglects the watering.

A couple of winters later, the tree was badly mauled by vicious Rocky Mountain rabbits with big buck teeth. The poor thing was pretty deformed, but finally recovered. Then, one year on June 10th, it snowed a foot and froze hard the next morning. Of course, the silly tree, thinking that June indicated summer, already had its sap up and the tips of all its branches died from the frost. This led to another several years of deformation, and our wondering again if it would survive.

Today, that tree is around 15 feet tall and 8 or 10 feet across at the bottom. It has gotten so large that it crowds one of our parking places in the driveway, and threatens to overtake the deck. It has become very evident that whoever planted that tree did not take into account its potential size when they chose a place in the yard for it.

This begins to get to my point. We tend to measure things by their size. As a culture, we disdain the small things, and admire the big things. The bigger the better. Big means powerful, strong, healthy. We are drawn to crowds. Big concerts, big games, big churches, big companies – we assume that if it is bigger, if more people are there, then it must be better.

There are a couple of problems with this line of thinking. First, as far as big crowds go, it is simply not always true. People are drawn to all kinds of things, some healthy, some not so much. Jesus at times did specific things to challenge the crowds that followed Him. The result was that those who were following His popularity, or following for a show, left and those who were really committed to Him stayed. In this way, Jesus thinned the crowds that followed Him and increased the overall level of devotion in His followers.

Another flaw in our bigger is better mentality is the fact that although people measure things by size, God measures things by potential. Examples? Here are just a few: God looks at the heart of a person, and weighs the invisible motivations of the inward man when He evaluates our actions. Sometimes, in our haste, we only look at the outward part of a person, a life, a community, and misjudge it.

Another example – God designed the earth to work on a seedtime and harvest principle. Seeds by nature are outwardly unimpressive in comparison with the fruit and multiplied harvests they can produce. If we judge a seed by its size, we might never put it in the ground and receive the benefit of its inward life. Within every tiny kernel of corn, there are many fields of abundance–the same is true of human lives.

This principle works in reverse too. Many times we allow seeds, whether thoughts, ideas, attitudes, habits, or influences to enter our hearts because they look so small and innocuous. We will go to movies, read books, have conversations that sow negative seeds into our hearts.

The Bible also tells us specifically that bad company corrupts good character, and yet we will build relationships with “bad company” at times because it doesn’t feel like a big deal.

The point is that God does not measure things by size, but by potential. When He looks at you and I, He does not merely see what we are today; He sees our potential in Jesus Christ. Did you get that? Not just our potential, but our potential IN JESUS CHRIST. That is an entirely different picture than we get when we look in the mirror. This is why He gives us such a big vision, why He encourages us to big things, Why He believes in us so much more than we do. He isn’t just looking for big, but for multiplied harvest from the life that He Himself has sown in us.

So when we look at one another, when we choose places to go and things to do, it is always wise to look for the long-term potential outcome of a choice. What can the small decision I make today do in the long run? Like that Blue Spruce, the little choices that we are making today will probably be with us for a very long time. They will grow and take over more of our lives. What are we allowing to be planted, who are we hanging out with, what priority are we giving to the various aspects of our lives? Potential – it’s a big deal.