It was around 2:30 on a Friday afternoon, and we were getting ready for the Illuminate event. I was just so super excited. Everything was going so smoothly and I was pretty fired up about the women who were going to get fired up that night about their life. We planned the entire night around fire, lights, lanterns, and sparklers. My husband walked into the kitchen to tell me what was coming our way around seven o’clock.
Rain. A massive storm front was covering the entire state of Ohio. It wasn’t just a little green blob on the radar. It was pretty much red and purple. I don’t remember even seeing any green. Let’s say it wasn’t going to be a little sprinkle. We are talking about a massive storm that would be a torrential downpour wiping out every fire that we had planned for the night.
No, no, no, no, no, Nope. It can not happen. I instantly texted a few of my friends and asked them to pray for that storm to pass. Everything was set up and ready to go. I’m telling you we were prepared. And if the rain came through, it would destroy the beautiful tables. So the prayer warriors were praying.
Just like that, twenty minutes later, my husband texted me the good news.
Everything shifted. The storm front just disappeared. Yet, the rain scare was just enough to make us go into backup plan mode.
We were talking about how we could play it safe. Well, if it does rain, what happens? Okay. I get it. It’s always good in life to have a plan B. How can we play it safe? What would that look like? If the rain did come through, what was it that we were going to do?
Flip out and allow the distraction to work? Would we open the door for the enemy to sneak in so that we would worry, doubt, and call it quits? Would we invite the chaos in so we get upset, for our joy and peace to be stolen? Would the open door encourage us to play it safe, take it all down, move it inside, and run away from the storm?
Do you see that? Do you see how doors open like that?
We can go down a path or hop on a court where we decide to sit it out. I have to ask you, are you playing it safe? Is your fire dying out, is your light fading away, does that flame inside of you need some fresh windblown to get that flame going again? To get you fired up again, to get you off the sidelines, to get you in the game?
God is calling us into this life of full surrender, calling us to make bold decisions, to speak bold prayers, to ask for big things in our life.
I mean, that’s what you and I are created for, right? We aren’t created to play it safe. And if we always play it safe, that’s only a life half lived. A life played safe is only going to be filled with regret in the end. I know I always talk about how life is short and how our life is passing us by, but I don’t want you to regret the time you spend here on this side of heaven.
If you ask people what they regret the most at the end of their lives, odds are they will tell you that they regret the things they didn’t do. They regret the times they played it safe and the times they sat it out, and where they let the moment pass without jumping in. It’s the times where they said no when there was a yes, available. And in the end, they regretted it.
I encourage you to get into the middle of your life and jump in with both feet. If you don’t, you’re going to regret it. And guess what? That gut feeling of when we ask if there is there more to life than this? Here to tell ya, the answer is yes.
The Lord is nudging you right now.
There’s something more for you in your life. There’s this calling for greatness and a call for you to live a unique and beautiful way that only you can. You’re worthy of this calling. It’s just now up to us, whether or not we’re going to live it, whether we’re going to step into it, if we’re going to claim it. Are you going to use, utilize, and grab hold of what God has given you, or are you going to play it safe?
Drop the expectations. Let your guard down. Open your hearts and be willing, be willing to be all in. Say yes to today and the opportunities you are given.
Now, think about this. Maybe you haven’t ever done this. Perhaps you have and maybe dismissed it. But there was a moment in time when God was at work forming you. You are not the result of some mass production. You were not on an assembly line somewhere. You were the result of the Lord, a creator who wanted you and had a desire for you that led Him to handcraft you with every single detail. Your heart, your eyes, your hands, the color of your hair, everything. He created it all.
But do you know what was even more important to Him?
Your potential. That was the Lord’s biggest dream and goal for you. He didn’t do all that for you just merely to survive and to play life safe.
He had this massive purpose with a destiny in mind. He could have made everyone the same. Robots. Cookie cutouts, but instead, he chose to make you, and he decided to make me. Do you forget your value and your worth?
Here is your reminder. The world needs you.
The world needs me. The world needs exactly what you have and who you are. The world needs the best of you. And all of you is what the world has been desperately needing. The world needs every one of us.
But here’s the thing, we’ve been playing it small. We’ve been playing little, and we’ve been sitting it out. We’ve been going through the motions and playing it safe. All that God-given potential that is within us has gone untapped, unused within you.
I shared this story in my book Set Free. I was going through the motions, the mundane routines of every single day. Get up and go through the cycle to survive the day and then get up and do it all over again. I was 18 weeks pregnant. I had three little boys at home in a middle of a snowstorm. I needed out of the house.
Long story short, my husband ended up running me over with a snowplow truck (you can get the full story in Set Free). It was a wake-up call. It was a gift from above, a miracle. My time on earth was not finished and your time is not up either. I know we often get distracted from our calling, fall short of our God-given potential, or go through life living in a fog. BUT, we have to stop living on autopilot.
Now I don’t think we need to be hit by a truck to up our game or to decide to live out our potential finally. But we do need to wake up. We need to grab a hold of the belief that we are called for all of these adventures, for His glory, and not waste what we have been given to impact the world, whatever that may be.
Wait? Me? Just going to stop you with the lie you might have been believing.
I’m just ordinary. Why would God want to use me? It would be best if you didn’t think that way because you have been given a gift. When we fully surrender those gifts back to the Lord, back to the creator, back to the giver, that is when the script gets flipped. Your gift will be used in absolutely amazing, incredible, tremendous ways that we can’t even imagine. So what have you been given? You’ve been given potential!
I’m letting you in on a bit of a secret.
I’m pretty ordinary. I’m 90% gray. I bite my nails. I have trouble remembering names. I failed my high school English state proficiency test. And I sometimes yell at my kids, but do you know what I have? I have the spirit of purpose. I have the spirit of drive. I wake up with intention. I wake up with a clear mind and vision, and I can speak life into others. I can speak life into others with ease. That’s my potential. This is my gift from my creator. And to be honest, I think I have always been that way. It always seemed ordinary to me. And it wasn’t until I fully surrendered it to God that he turned it into extraordinary.
What you can do on your own is amazing. You can get by, and you could survive, and you could do beautiful things. But when you give it back, the Lord is going to turn it into something incredible. More than you can even imagine. He’s going to use it in radical ways.
But here’s the thing. When you realize the gifts that you have, I’m telling you what, the enemy is going to come knocking on your door. Big time. It’s going to make you question and doubt everything. The work of the enemy is going to undermine what you have been given. He’s going to prowl around like this roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. He doesn’t go tearing your head off. He devours and undermines your value. He covers your truth up with lies. He finishes you by that continual questioning as to whether or not you are enough. He keeps you out of the game. He keeps you playing little. He keeps you second-guessing yourself.
So how much longer are you going to allow that to continue?
How many more days of your life are you going to keep quiet? To not use your voice? How much of your gift are are going to allow him to steal from you? All the untapped potential… is right there. It’s right there. But it’s up to you as to whether or not you’re going to use it. It’s available to you.
He wants you to use what he’s given you. And it’s going to blow your mind. The massive potential that you have within you, I encourage you to unleash it today. He has some radical plans for you and the possibility that is inside of you… Wow. Wow.
A few more questions for you to reflect on. Are you playing it safe? What gifts do you have? What area of your life are you falling short of your potential? What potential are you leaving on the table? What is the Lord asking you to do today with your gift?
Jill Allen
Author of Set Free
Host of Find Your Fierce Podcast
Founder of Just Breathe
Wife & Mom of 5
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