We Have Unlimited Potential

The first week of SD Allen has already come to a close and all of us are so thankful to have hit the ground running with all the Lord has in store for us and the people we will serve this summer. We have been working at Calvary's VBS, Plum Grove Baptist Church, training with Tuscaloosa Urban Mission, making furniture deliveries to families in need, as well as picking up donations, and preparing for the SD Allen garage sale.

This week Nathaniel and I had the pleasure to serve with Plum Grove Baptist Church and their boys program "Dare to Be a King." The program strives to teach young African American boys how to become men of God, make good choices, and how to deal with issues such as poverty, violence, absence of father figures and so much more.  

Every morning before we teach the Bible lesson for the day and at the end of every day, Corey, the program director, leads all the boys in an affirmation recitation in the gym. Corey calls it out and they repeat after him. It goes something like this:

I have unlimited potential.
I can make good choices.
I am never alone.
I am amazing, inside and out.
I am of great worth.
He has a plan for me.
I know who I am.
I am a son of God.

The first day we did this, I was blown away. Hearing those boys declare those things was groundbreaking, for them and for me. The experience echoed in my head for the rest of the day.  I confess I'm not one to always love motivational sayings. I can even be quite critical of them, and I tend to think they are corny and cliché. As I thought of the idea of having unlimited potential, the part of me that is self-conscious wanted to choke the life out of those words and dismiss them as nothing but fluff words with no actual substance. But as I dug deeper, the truth and weight of it all became evident. 

As followers of Christ, we truly do have unlimited potential because we have a God that is limitless. We have a God who sent his Son for our sins so that we could have life, so that we might be righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). In Him, we are new creations and the old has passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because His power is made perfect in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9), we have unlimited potential. Our limitless God is able to do more than we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).

This reminder has been an anchor for me this week as we go out. Fixing my identity not on who I am in my success or failures, but on the work that Christ has done.  I know I am only human. I know I am going to make mistakes, and I'm not always going to get it right. But the Lord is my strength and makes me able.

I can't wait to continue on with the work that is taking place. I've already noticed change in the hearts of the boys we've been working with and I'm already so proud of the boys out there.


--David Englert

The participants in the Plum Grove program began building a community garden this week.