Potential

One of my roommates recently introduced me to the popular American reality TV show “The Voice.” 

Similar to American Idol, contestants come from around the US to audition for the singing competition, and a panel of famous singers judge, and later choose, contestants that they want to “join their team.”

What makes this show different is that when the contestants come to sing their debut at the interview, the judges are facing the audience and cannot see who is singing. One contestant, with an amazing falsetto, actually sang Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” and the judges were shocked when they turned around to discover it was a guy! 

The judges can choose to turn their seat around during the song if they would like the opportunity to coach the singer. Throughout the song, the audience can see the judges’ faces, as each one deliberates over who they believe has talent . . . has potential, and if they would like to turn their seat around.

Overall, the show was really fun, and I enjoyed shouting out, “They’ve got talent!! Turn around, turn around!!”

But what struck me most was how quickly, and accurately, each judge could determine what they believed to be talent or potential. They even prided themselves in this skill. The competition was as much about the singers themselves, as it was about the judges who recognized their potential and later coached them. 

Later that same day, at the gym, I briefly watched a documentary on the life of a certain professional basketball player who had come from both poverty and family dysfunction. Amidst the odds against him for success, a scout spotted him at a high school game, and recognized potential. 

The key word was potential. The teenager certainly had talent, but he needed a lot of work. But the scout saw it . . . he envisioned what this boy could become. And the boy did. 

How absolutely motivating might a job like those of the judges on “The Voice,” or the basketball scout be!!! I was blown away thinking about it. How would it be to wake up in the morning and put on lenses that could see what others couldn’t see? To know what to look for that others didn’t know to look for!!!

The concept of recognizing potential still blows me away.

I notice this concept of spotting potential in many areas of my own life.

As a teacher, I’m constantly noticing that of my students. Not only do I teach the content and skills comprising each individual class, but I also often assume a “coach” role in many of their lives. They ask for advice regarding their future education, job searches, cultural uncertainties, even relationships. I mostly find myself simply listening and trying to encourage what they are already doing. But sometimes I wish I could “see” them even better, notice where their greatest strengths are and gently direct them to follow these strengths!

I also see “potential spotting” in ministry leadership. One of my sweet friends, and an amazing leader, encompasses what I admire as a “potential spotter.” She’s a pro!!!

At leadership meetings, she brings up lists of people she sees potential in, and in what areas. Her heart and spiritual gift is to be a Shepherder, and she’s constantly thinking about how to guide people to use their gifts, and she’s great at it! I can’t count the number of times I’ve sat in her office or across a lunch table to talk about the potential she sees either in myself, or in others. And she’s often “right on the money.” Again, how cool is it to wear those lenses of looking for potential!!

I don’t claim to understand the seemingly dueling truths of election and free will, but I do know that God spots potential to its fullest! Both in people and in situations, and that hope thrills me! I know that He’s created good works for me to walk in, and that no mind can imagine the things He has prepared for those who love Him. 

I often wish that I could tap into seeing THAT potential!! Who could the Body of Christ be as we fulfill the potential we were made for, we are called to?? 

What an awesome hope to set my imagination to on a lazy sunny afternoon!

This potential in my own life will probably be different from what I might expect. As I see more and more that everything I am and have is for God’s glory, not my own.  But this is encouraging!! Just as the competition in The Voice was as much about the judges as it was about the singers, to a much greater, and completely perfect degree!!, God’s working to show off His Bride is for His Glory!! 

And I revel at the thought that the God of the universe chose me, to be on His team so to speak, to train me in my potential, and to show off what He is able to do!!

And I believe His call in my life is to recognize potential in others.

Unsaved people I meet in the hallway, or at the printing office, in the classroom, or at the grocery store, while I’m walking at the Lake or grabbing coffee at a café, these precious ones, made in His image, imago dei, could come to life through the Holy Spirit and be image bearers, now, of the Son!! They could believe and have their lives transformed!!

And saved people. Whether from dysfunctions of the worse kind, or from sin bondages of the deepest darkness, these people can and do CHANGE! Through the Word, the Holy Spirit, and the working of the Body in community, PEOPLE CHANGE. I’m certainly living proof of that.

Jesus, let me really “see” as you do, everyone I meet. Let me see that lives can be transformed. That people can change. That You have an eye for, a vision, for those You love so much!! Let me see too!! Let me see potential.