October 2002

Luke 8:42-48

You have in you more power, more strength and more inner muscle, than you know.

You have in you all the resources that you need: tremendous potential, enormous possibilities and a vast depth of raw talent. You have incredible inner strength, more than you will ever know.

Those are bold statements. But I daresay not one of us is living up to our potential. Even for those of you who have achieved a great deal, there's so much more to be discovered and expressed.

One of the sad facts of human nature is that the cemeteries around this earth hold so much potential that was never developed, such power that was never discovered. From time to time I reflect on a statement made by Henry David Thoreau. I nearly shudder because of what it implies. Thoreau said, and I paraphrase:

The worst thing that can happen is to come to the end of life and discover that you haven't really lived.

For the next few minutes I'd like to somehow excite and motivate you so that when you approach the end of your life and look back, you can say, "I lived a great life. Yes, there were heartbreaks, disappointments, losses and failures. But I participated fully with what was given to me."

Let that be a goal, and let me say again and again that you are much stronger than you think. Let me share a few thoughts on unlocking that potential. The first is:

You have something that you're supposed to do with your life.

There is somebody that you are supposed to be. For some of us, part of our disappointment is that we don't yet know who that person is. We need to keep going deeper and deeper until we discover that truth, but many of us are stalled in that search. We've stopped trying. We have a volume of reasons for it. If only something had or hadn't happened to us, we would have become the person we were supposed to be. "If only," we say, "if only..." We're blaming the circumstances we've found ourselves in.

I'm going to counter that. George Bernard Shaw, one of the greatest thinkers England ever produced, said:

I don't believe in circumstances.

He meant that we are only stalling ourselves when we say, "I can't do that, because of circumstances." Shaw was saying to us, "Negative circumstances, so what else is new? That's the way life is! What's the big deal?"

Life is trouble. Life is challenge. Life is failure. But life's problems shouldn?t prevent us from becoming the people we really are. George Bernard Shaw tells us to nod at circumstances, but to then keep right on going until we make our lives happen.

Not long ago, a woman died whom many regarded as the most powerful woman in America. Her name was Katharine Graham. She was owner and publisher of The Washington Post, by consensus one of the most influential newspapers in the United States.

You might say that Katharine achieved so much because she was born into privilege and wealth. Her father owned the newspaper. She had everything going for her. But not so. Her obituary in The New York Times tells the real story of this great lady. Her father bought The Washington Post in the 1930s at a public auction. It had a circulation of fifty thousand and was nearly bankrupt. It was losing more than a million dollars a year, a considerable amount at the time.

Katharine's father knew that his daughter was interested in journalism. But instead of giving her the paper, he gave it to her husband, a young lawyer, making sure that this young man had more stock in the company than Katharine did. Katharine's father's philosophy was "No man should ever work for his wife."

Katharine's husband, brilliant as he was, did everything he could to contain and silence her. When she described the relationship she said, "He was the kite, and I was the tail to his kite." Just visualize a kite and how it gets into the wind and holds itself boldly. What does a tail do? It just flips around, an afterthought.

Katharine lived many years in that marriage, until she discovered her husband was having an affair. He was also operating behind the scenes to buy her out and take controlling interest of the paper. She became incensed.

She held the line and, as part of her divorce agreement, took a controlling interest in the paper. She was going to own that paper, but not for herself. She was simply holding it until the day she would give it to her sons. Then one day, she got a call from her friend Luvie Pearson, wife of the famous columnist Drew Pearson. Luvie said, "Katharine, why don't you run the paper?"

"Me, run the paper? I have no ability. I can't do it!"

"Honey, you have been pushed down so far that you don't even recognize what you can do," Luvie answered.

Those words marked the turning point. Katharine decided she was going to learn to run the paper herself. The rest is history. In just a few years The Post became one of the top five newspapers in the United States. It happened because Katharine recognized her own inner possibilities.

What Luvie Pearson said may apply to many of you. Perhaps you have been pushed down so far that you don't recognize what you can do. That is a fact of life for many people. Perhaps other people have pushed you down. Perhaps you have pushed yourself down.

But remember this. There is somebody you're supposed to be. Whether you're fifteen or ninety-five, for the rest of your days there is something that you are supposed to do, and you know it. Built into every one of us is the desire and the need for our lives to count for something. Remember, you have more strength, more ability, more raw talent, more possibility than you ever imagined.

You've probably heard this statement before, but listen to it. Absorb it. Take it in.

God believes in me; therefore, my situation is never hopeless.
God walks with me; therefore, I am never alone.
God is on my side; therefore, I cannot lose.

That's powerful. Then there is something said by Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. She was deeply involved in the struggle to win freedom for all slaves:

When you get into a tight place and everything seems to go against you, hang on for one minute longer. Never give up then, for that is just the place and time for the tide to turn.

There's a spiritual truth in this. We also hear it in the words of the English mystic Evelyn Underhill, who said:

God's power is brought into action just where our power fails.

How do we bring God's power into play? Most of you know that I have enormous respect for the Twelve-Step Program. It presents spiritual truths in a very simple, direct form. It changes lives. The first three steps teach us vital lessons about how we can use God's power to transform our lives.

The first step of the Twelve-Step Program is to say, "I've got a problem. I can't manage it. It's bigger than I am." Now, that's a tough thing to admit. We prefer to say, "No, no, I can handle this! I can do it! I've got tremendous will power! Don't you tell me I've got a problem I can't manage." But we all have such problems. I have them myself. We're not humble enough to say, "I need help." But that is one of the strongest things any human being can ever say.

The second step is to say, "There is a power greater than I am, and it is willing and present and ready to help me. This power can restore me. It can make all the difference in the world. It can heal me. It can empower me." We call this power God. Some people call it "higher being" or "higher mind." I don't think God cares what name we use. God just wants to be called. We can call on God by saying, "This power can help me."

The third step is, "I turn my will and my life over to this power," which is really saying, "I trust God to work on my behalf and to make something good happen in my life."

These three steps mean, "I trust You, God, I trust You with my life." They have worked millions of times. You don't have to be a member of AA to use them. God never makes a mistake. God always takes care. God always gives the direction. God gives the right way, the right light.

One of my favorite Bible stories tells about a wondrous encounter that Jesus had with a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years. She had gone to every known physician for help, and probably to mystics and anybody else she believed might help her, but nothing had worked.

She'd heard about Jesus, a man who was said to be a great healer. One day she decided, "I'm going to go, and I'm going to ask Him to heal me." But when she got to where He was, she found that He was mobbed with people, three and four and five deep. She realized, "There's no way I'm going to get to Him."

She was letting herself be stopped by circumstance. But she finally thought, "If I can just touch the hem of his garment, if I can just touch the corner of his robe, maybe that's all that I need. I'm going to trust it. I'll get healed."

So she managed to wiggle her way in and press elbows a little bit I would guess, as we do on the subways. She got close enough and, with great expectation and trust, she touched the hem of his garment. And she instantly knew that something had happened to her. She felt it come through her whole body. She was healed.

Then Jesus stopped and cried out, "Who touched me?"

Peter, macho Peter, speaking for the disciples, said, "Well, you're surrounded by people. Everybody's touching you! What do you mean, is anybody touching you?"

"No. Somebody's touching me," Jesus said. "Somebody touched me. I felt the power go out."

And the woman, who was shy, finally came over and said, "I touched you. It was I." And Jesus said to her:

Go in peace, my good and faithful servant. You are healed by your faith.

When she reached out and she touched the power of God and allowed it to come into her, she was made well. That same dynamic will work for you. It will work for any one of us. All the resources you need to have a fulfilled life are with you. It's a matter of giving yourself over to God, this higher power, of trusting it and allowing your life to begin to develop and to grow.

I'm going to finish by reading the words of a hymn called "The Strength of the Lord":

It's not in trying, but in trusting,
It's not in running, but in resting,
It's not in wondering, but in praying,
That we find the strength of the Lord.

Let us pray.

Lord, we yearn to become the people You want us to be. We long to live up to our great potential, but we often do not know how. Lord, help us learn to rely on Your help in that search. We pray that You will bring Your presence into our lives. Let us go in peace, go with faith, and go in love. AMEN