I started True Potential Publishing to address how we define success and human potential in this culture. Before founding the publishing company I had been in business for several years and had been in full time sales for years before that. As a young, energetic, thinking salesman I gravitated toward books and audio tapes about how to become more successful in my career and in life.
All of the success literature I read and listened to had pretty much the same message. “You are in control of your own destiny.” Their action steps were pretty similar as well:
1. I deserve and I can accomplish anything I can imagine.
2. I will determine that nothing will get in the way accomplishing my goal.
3. I will make a plan for my life.
4. I will execute my plan – every day, every week, every month, every year – until I accomplish my goal.
5. I will look in the mirror every morning and tell myself, “I am good.” “I am worthy.” “I deserve success.” “I can accomplish anything.”
6. Putting myself first will enable me to help others later.
See a common theme here? The words “I” and “me” come up a lot don’t they? I am in control, I decide, I make it happen, I deserve it, I am the center of my own universe; it’s all about me.
As I studied I could see the self-serving and self-absorbed focus of this kind of success literature. I had been raised in a Christian home, believed that Christ was my savior and down inside knew that there had to be something a little more to success in life than “I” and “me.” So I went looking for the success guys who claimed to be, or at least hinted at being, Christians. But I was disappointed. What I found was the same old “I” philosophy dressed in “God” verbiage.
If you dress a pig in a tutu you haven’t turned it into a ballerina; it’s just a pig in a tutu. You can’t make a carnal philosophy holy by dressing it in religious words or preaching it from a pulpit. No matter how you dress it up, it’s still a pig in a tutu.
I had to completely dump everything I had learned about “success” and “human potential” and begin again from an entirely different perspective – God’s.
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The ancient Greeks came up with the idea that the earth is the center of the universe and all celestial bodies - the other planets, the sun and the stars revolve around it. This belief persisted for a long time; nearly two thousand years.
The idea that the universe revolves around the earth made sense to pretty much everyone; it seemed true from where they were standing. The sun came up in the east every morning and went down in the west. Likewise the moon rose and set in an arc across the sky. The stars, from their observation, rotated around them in the heavens. From their perspective, everything seemed to rotate in its orbit around the earth.
It was also evident to them that the earth didn’t move. If a man jumped off the ground he landed in the same spot he jumped from - not two feet away. If the earth traveled in an orbit around the sun, they reasoned, it would be moving so fast that surely everyone would be flung into space. The earth didn’t move, therefore it must be the center of the universe.
Another reason the idea of the earth being the center of the universe hung around so long was that it just appealed to folks. The earth being the center of the universe and man being the dominant inhabitant of the earth meant, by extension, that man was also the center of the universe. Thinking this way puts me, being the man I’m most closely acquainted with, in essence, at the center of the universe. What a nice thought!
Until Copernicus came along in 1514 and proposed that the earth really revolves around the sun and isn’t the center of the universe after all. Drat!
Well, today’s humanist philosophy and most success and human potential gurus prefer the old view; being the center of the universe works well for them and they’d like to stay that way.
Problem is, as Copernicus found out, we’re not. Not only is the earth not at the center of cosmos, I’m not at the center of my own little universe – although I tend to act like it sometimes.
So if I’m not at the center of the universe and fulfilling my purpose and achieving my potential as a human being isn’t about me, me, me … what is it about? As I said, I had to throw out everything I learned about success, purpose and human potential from the “gurus” and go back square one.
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If I believe in a personal and intentional Creator; One that knows me and put me here for a reason, then it would follow that my purpose has something to do with His purpose and my potential as a human being has to be connected to fulfilling the reason He put me here for.
Then it occurred to me why I couldn’t be the center of the universe. He created me for His purpose; I was the object not the subject. I’m not the author of my purpose. I don’t decide my destiny; He does – He already has. For me to say that I am the author of my own purpose and the captain of my own destiny is as silly as a teapot saying it’s a hammer. It’s not. It’s a teapot. That’s what it was created to be – it was the intention of the teapot’s creator that it be a teapot. The teapot can only fulfill its full potential as a teapot. If it lives under the delusion that it’s a hammer the delusion and the teapot will be shattered the moment it tries to drive its first nail.
When I discovered that I had to see my purpose and potential from the eyes of the One who created me, I had to relearn what success, purpose and human potential were from His perspective. So I asked Him. “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:8).
True to His word, He told me. I’ve said before; don’t talk to God if you’re uncomfortable with Him answering you. Because He does. He may speak to you in the quietness of your own heart and mind, He may speak to you through a teacher or preacher or friend, He may speak to you in an audible voice from above (although most folks quickly qualify that they don’t hear Him that way; people would think they’re nuts). Mostly though, God speaks to you from His Word, the Bible. That’s what it’s there for.
So I started looking for definitions of success, purpose and human potential in the Bible; to get God’s opinion on the matter. And boy, what I found didn’t look anything like what the gurus were saying. Stuff like “deny yourself,” “take up your cross,” “if someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn your left to him also,” “sell all you have and give it to the poor,” “do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.” This wasn’t in the success literature! Jesus apparently never listened to tapes and CD’s.
So that’s why I started True Potential; that’s why I write this letter every week – because everything the gurus have told you is wrong. It’s not about you; it’s about Him. It’s not about being rich on earth; it’s about being rich in heaven. It’s not about receiving praise and glory; it’s about giving praise and glory.
Fulfilling your true human potential is about fulfilling His purpose; the one He assigned you before creation began. To do that requires a whole new way of thinking. It’s not so new, actually, it’s about two thousand years old, and the guru who showed it to us is God’s own Son.
For the next nine weeks we’re going to embark on a journey into the heart of God’s perspective on human success, purpose and potential. When Jesus left us to return to His Father he promised us a Helper – God’s own Holy Spirit. He promised that His Holy Spirit would indwell us, that is, live inside of us, and change us to conform to God’s perspective.
According to the Bible, there are two groups of things that come along with the Holy Spirit. One group it calls the Gifts of the Spirit; things like messages of wisdom or knowledge, faith, the power to heal or perform miracles, prophecy, speaking in tongues. These are gifts the Holy Spirit gives to people. Christians seem to pay a lot of attention to the Gifts of the Spirit; they’re flashy so folks like to focus on them … or fight about them.
The other group is the Fruit of the Spirit. They’re more like results than gifts. They’re what happen to you when you let God’s Spirit start reshaping your life. They’re what your life produces, that’s why they’re called fruit.
In his letter to the Galatians (5:22-23), Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit and lists nine: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Each week, for the next nine weeks, we’re going to cover one of these fruits of the Spirit. If you’re looking for success and purpose, if you want to live up to you true potential as a human being, this is a good place to start. If these nine fruits, or results, are a part of your life, you can bet you’re on the right track from His point of view. If they’re not, no matter how successful you are in any other area of life, you will have failed the success test in His eyes.
I’d like to thank Anne, one of our readers, for her suggestion for doing this series. It was a great idea. What you produce, your fruit, is what measures your success. So fasten your seatbelts! We’ll start next week.
