CHALLENGE YOUR ABILITY

Genesis chapter 1






Today we are walking in: Challenge Your Ability






Job 34:16


If now thou hast understanding, hear H8085 this: hearken to the voice of my words.









UNDERSTAND



Today we look to the word-UNDERSTAND- H8085 shama`--to hear with attention or interest, listen to understand (language)








The Torah testifies...............


Genesis 11:7


Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand H8085 one another's speech.








The prophets proclaim..................


Nehemiah 8:2


And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear H8085 with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.









The writings bear witness...........................


1 Kings 3:9


Give therefore thy servant an understanding H8085 heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?



Chapter 6
Challenge Your Ability


Your ability needs responsibility to expose its possibilities. Do what you can with what you have where you are.
—Theodore Roosevelt


The people who are blessings to humanity are usually men and women who decide there is more to them than what other people have said. People who bless the world are people who believe there is an ability inside them to accomplish something that has never been done. Though they may not know exactly what they can do, they try because they believe they can accomplish something.


How High Can You Jump?


I remember the day I discovered that I could jump really high—about eight feet high. Now, I can’t jump that high intentionally, but I did it once when I was a little boy.


There was a lady who lived behind our house from whose fruit trees we would occasionally help ourselves and feast upon. When we were little kids, we would crawl under the fence. One day while I was on her side of the fence, her very vicious dog suddenly appeared. I had just touched down after climbing the fruit tree. As I carefully considered the distance between the fence, the dog, and myself, I knew I had to make a run for it. I ran toward the fence with the dog close behind me. As the fence came closer and closer, all I could say was “Oh Yah, I’m dead.” All I could think was, Jump! As I left the ground, my heart was pounding and my chest felt like an arcade full of shouting people. I was so afraid! When I landed, I was safely on the other side of the fence.


When I turned around and looked at the dog, he was barking angrily because he couldn’t get over the fence. I just thought, Yea, good for you. Suddenly I became very proud because I had gotten away from him. But when I started to realize what I had done, I looked at the fence and thought, How did I do that?


I thank Yah for that dog. He was a blessing in my life. I never jumped that high before, and I never have since, but at least I know that I did it. I discovered that day there is a lot more potential in me than I realized.


The same is true for you. You aren’t doing more because no one has challenged you. I want to take you from the realm of waiting for people to challenge you and encourage you to challenge yourself. Don’t wait for a dog to teach you how to jump. Jump by your own challenge. Don’t just look at life and say, “Well, I’m going to wait until a demand is made on me and then I will produce.” Make a demand on yourself. Say to yourself, “Look, I am going to become the best in this area no matter what people have done before me.” Then go after that.


You will accomplish it if you set out to do it.


Tell Me to Come


That reminds me of a young fisherman who decided, “I’m going to take a chance and try to walk on water.” One night as he and his friends were crossing a lake, it was hard rowing. They were being tossed about by the waves because the wind was against them. As they struggled, a man came toward them, walking on the water. In fear they cried out, “It’s a ghost.” Only when He spoke to them did they recognize Him. The young fisherman said, “If it’s You, tell me to come to you on the water.” The Man said “Come!” The young fisherman had the guts to respond.


I believe all those men in the boat could have walked on water. The potential was in them even as it was in the one who stepped out. But only he succeeded, because only he had the guts to say, “If You challenge me, I’ll take Your challenge.” Although we may laugh or criticize him for sinking after a few steps, none of us has ever walked on water.


Don’t die without maximizing your abilities—that’s irresponsible.


We need to be willing to say, “Tell me something to do. Give me something to challenge my potential.” Men and women who are assets to the world and bring change for the better are those who give their potential something to maximize. Give your ability a responsibility that would change the world. There is a wealth of ability in you, but you haven’t given it any responsibility.


Don’t die without maximizing your ability—that’s irresponsible. You have no right to die with all that latent potential just waiting to be shared.


Don’t Wait to Be Challenged


You have a skill or ability the world needs. Miracles happen when we give our potential responsibility. Don’t allow the things within you to die with you because you did not challenge them. The seed of potential is planted within you. You were made according to the potential principle—like the rest of creation. Don’t waste that gift. Give your potential some responsibility.


One of humankind’s greatest struggles is determining what is most important in life. Each of us must at some point decide what we are living for if our lives are to have focus and a sense of purpose and fulfillment. Compounding the challenge is the fact that we live in a culture that regards truth as relative and life as meaningless. If life is an evolutionary accident, then there is no such thing as absolute truth or morality and no high and exalted purpose for human existence. Consequently, many people give up on life and, if they don’t commit suicide first, retreat into a mindset of cynicism, hopelessness, and despair.


At the same time, there are many people who yearn for a simpler life free of the stress, struggles, and hectic pace of our high-speed, high-tech, multiple-option, anything-goes society. With so many choices, how do you choose the best, the most important? How do you make sure that you are spending your life on the things that really count?


Over the last 30 years or so my life has become very simple. That does not mean I am not busy. My life is quite full. I frequently travel internationally and rarely have an empty schedule. Yet, in spite of my “busyness,” my life is simple because I have spent the last three decades learning to live according to priorities I have set for myself.


Beat the Odds


Men and women who make changes in history are those who have come against the odds and told the odds it is impossible for the odds to stop them. Don’t throw yourself away; don’t let anyone else throw you away because you are up against some odds.


You have a skill or ability the world needs.

The minute we see someone in a wheelchair, something happens to us. Many of us think the person is half a person. We almost treat him as if we apologize for his condition. We look at a person who is blind, who has a withered hand, who walks with a limp, who has only one arm as though they are less than us. We limit their potential to the wheelchair or the limp or the missing hand or the short arm. We reduce everybody to their physical bodies. You are not your body. Some of the greatest minds in the world are in wheelchairs.


I think about President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a wheelchair. Did you ever think an invalid could be the president of one of the greatest nations on earth? I think of a young boy I read about. A great mathematician, who suffered from a disease that destroyed his bones. He just sort of faded away. He looked ugly compared to what we call beauty. His glasses were falling off to the side because his face was caving in. His nose was almost gone. His teeth were all messed up. His whole body was warped. He couldn’t write. Yet he could figure the greatest mathematical calculations of the time. Professors went to his home, sat at his desk, and wrote everything he said. They developed mathematical books for the universities from this brain in the chair. His illness had not destroyed his potential. His genius is not affected by his physical appearance. He was a young man determined to beat the odds by using all the formulas and potential stored within him.


Suppose you end up in a wheelchair next year with all the brains you have right now. Will you quit? Is your dream related to your body? Don’t say no too fast. You may just quit and get totally depressed and sad. You might say, “Oh, life didn’t work out for me,” and you’d allow all the dreams you have right now to die in the chair. You’d simply quit.


Suppose you end up in a wheelchair with all the brains you have right now. Would you give up on life?


I think about Mr. Penney who founded the retail store, JC Penney. Born an orphan (he didn’t even know who his parents were), he refused to be like many people I know who sit around and say: “Everybody treats me badly. No one cares for me. I guess I ought to go on drugs and just blow it.” Penney decided that there was a food store in him and a clothing store and a department store. So he acquired his first job working in a store packing bags. I can almost hear him thinking as he packed bags one day: One of these days they’re going to pack these for me. Like many others who have given much to humankind, Penney believed that he had the ability to make something of his life. And now we go and spend money buying things at his JC Penney stores.


Don’t give up because you are physically handicapped. Don’t give up if you are facing great odds. Your potential is not determined by whether you can see the fine print of a book, walk across the street, or lift heavy objects with one hand. Your potential is not destroyed because your mother is an alcoholic, your father’s a junkie, or you have no parents at all. There are many people in wheelchairs who have given up. There are many people who come from the wrong side of town or a bad family situation who have given up. Don’t be one of them. Beat the odds.


Shortcuts Don’t Work


Ben Johnson is an athlete from Canada who set many world records. In 1987 he set the world record in the one hundred yard dash at 9.83 seconds. In 1988 he broke his own record, winning the race in 9.79. But it is difficult to be correct in calling that a world record because the last record set was not the record of Ben Johnson. It was the record of a steroid pill. That record belongs to Ben Johnson plus the chemicals.


We will never know Ben Johnson’s potential as far as running the one hundred yard dash is concerned. Could he have run one hundred yards in 9.79 seconds without the chemical? Possibly, but we will never know because Ben Johnson negated his potential by trying a shortcut. There was no reason for his shortcut. He had a world record. He had his name in history, and it was a good name. How sad to destroy a good name by a little bit of chemical.


I picked up a magazine on an airplane in which there was an advertisement, “Would you like a doctorate degree? Call us.” I often read that advertisement and wonder how many have called. If I did not realize that you cannot get something for nothing, I probably would have called them. Many have. There are people out there with doctorate degrees, or with doctorate letters in front of their names, who will never know their potential. They didn’t allow themselves the chance to see what they could really do. They have the degrees, but they didn’t fulfill the requirements.


There are no shortcuts to developing your potential. You will never know what you might have achieved if you use a crutch to get there. You’ll never know what you may have learned if you get a degree without fulfilling the requirements. You will never know what you can do if you attempt to obtain it by a shortcut. Shortcuts negate potential. They destroy the possibilities planted within you.


Demand Something of Your Potential


Potential must be exercised to be fulfilled. Demands must be made on potential if it is to be released and fulfilled. You have potential. Unless you make demands on it, you will die with it. Unless you venture to try things you’ve never done before, you’ll never experience the wealth that lives within you. Decide today, “I’m going to do something I’ve never done before...I’m going to get a promotion this year in my job.” If you have a business, resolve to cut the overhead and increase service. Give your potential some demands. It needs to be maximized and challenged.


Potential must be exercised to be fulfilled.


The greatest works in the world will be done by people who don’t care who gets the credit. I don’t want to be famous, I just want to be faithful. I don’t want to be well-known, I want to be well-used. I don’t want to be powerful, I want to be potent. Success requires striking out on new paths instead of traveling those that are well-worn. As attributed to Albert Einstein, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” There are many people with great ideas, but they have no desire to try. There are four steps to the accomplishment of your dream: Prepare practically. Plan purposefully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently. Remember, failure is the path of least persistence.


Don’t Be Afraid to Try


People can’t climb beyond the limitations they have placed on themselves. Success is never final—failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts—courage and the willingness to move on. A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to the grave obscure people whom fear and timidity have prevented from making their first attempt to do something. Never tell a person that something can’t be done, because that person may hold the key to curing a disease, teaching a child to read, inventing a new energy source.


Success is never final— failure is never fatal.


The poorest of people are people without dreams. Don’t be so afraid of failure that you refuse to try. Demand something of yourself. Failure is only an incident. There’s more than the failure—there’s success deep behind that failure. Failure is the opportunity to more intelligently begin again. When you fail, that is a great chance to start again. Learn from it and move on. Don’t be paralyzed by the failure.


One good thing about failure is that it is proof that you tried. The greatest mistake you can make is to be afraid of making one. People who do nothing in life are usually people who do nothing. People who don’t make mistakes in life are usually people who didn’t have a chance to make any because they never tried.


Challenge your potential. Demand things of yourself that are beyond what you have already done. Expect more from yourself than the accomplishments that are easily within your reach. What you have is not all you are. You are the one who limits your potential. It is better to attempt a thing and fail, than to never try and not know you could succeed.

Principles


1. Believe there is potential in you to accomplish something worthwhile.


2. Unless you use your potential, you will never realize how much ability is inside you.


3. Jump by your own challenge. Don’t wait for someone to challenge you.


4. Don’t let the odds that are against you stop you from fulfilling your potential.


5. Shortcuts negate your ability.


6. Don’t be so afraid of failure that you refuse to try.