Well, friends, here we are. The final day of our Hidden Potential study. Can you believe it?

Throughout our time together, I’ve been reminded over and over again of one of my favorite characteristics of God: He wastes nothing. Every piece of our story has a place in God’s Master Plan. This means those failures, fears, frailties and faults of ours don’t have to be viewed as waste. Instead, we can hand them over to God to be recycled and redeemed for His story and His glory.

This is a sin-soaked world — wouldn't you agree? So imagine, if you will, the sin surrounding us as a body of water we’re all in. As followers of Jesus Christ, we know this is just a temporary condition, so we hold our heads up, breathe in the hope of God, and keep wading through. Others aren’t so lucky. Having never known the saving grace of Jesus, they flounder and sink beneath the surface.

Enter our failures, fears, frailties and faults. With each one comes a choice: grasp it tightly in our hands, or release it back to God. For each we hold onto, we may save face, but we’ll also weigh ourselves down and wear ourselves out.

For each we choose to release back to God, though, something remarkable happens. Rather than disappear, that shortcoming of ours is recycled and transformed into a testimony. Instead of a point of shame, it’s now a landmark of hope for those still beneath the surface, pointing the way up and showing them another way, a better way.

That failure of ours we learn from? An opportunity to see that screw-ups aren’t the end.

The fear we face head-on? Evidence that with God on our side, we don’t have to remain frozen in place.

A frailty we’re able to move beyond? Proof that it’s not about who we are, but Whose we are and who God is.

And those faults of ours we refuse to quit working on? A reminder that while no one is perfect, we can still be perfectly His.

You see, ultimately it’s not about us. Never has been and never will be. It’s about God and pointing as many people to Him as we possibly can.

On page 187 of Hidden Potential, Wendy Pope says:

“There is no end to what God can do through a life surrendered to Him.”

There is no end to what He can do because the potential within us has never been dependent on us getting it all right. We can move into the future full of confidence that God can use us, not despite our mistakes and missteps, but because of them. We need only to give them over to Him.

Recycled and redeemed? That’s a label I’ll proudly wear!

Thank you for joining us, friends. It’s been an honor to walk this journey with you.

Stacy

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