You Can Be or Do Anything
‘You can be anything you want to be.’
‘You can do anything you want to do.’
These are sayings which you might hear thrown around in our culture from time to time. They normally come from people who have struggled hard and have accomplished something impressive. Their struggle either had to do with the size of the obstacle or their fear of attempting it. They are typically the statements of winners, not losers.
Like most truisms, these statements are a mixed bag.
They are both helpful and unhelpful. In terms of their helpfulness, they encourage others to strive for something beyond themselves, and to break the shackles of fear. They are akin to the saying, ‘Don’t die wondering.’ But like many truisms they overreach. It doesn’t matter how hard you try you won’t be able to fly by flapping your arms; and if you are 4’1” tall you won’t make it in the NBA. At the end of the day, you can’t be anything you want to be, and you can’t do anything you want to do.
This independent conjuring up of something great to have a crack at is a poor imitation of the kind of life God intends to lead us in. It is God’s intention not just to lead you towards what you are merely scared of but to lead you into the downright impossible – to something you simply can’t do. The sooner you get used to this the better. This is his MO1.
Take the disciples for example.
Many of us know the story of Jesus and his disciples in the storm on the Sea of Galilee. We know the bit about them not being able to handle it on their own and their resulting cry to Jesus. But the most unsettling part of the whole story is the preface, which records Jesus as saying, “Let us go across to the other side.” (Mark 4:35) Did he know what was about to happen? I think he did… and he led them right into something they couldn’t do.
God regularly leads those he loves into impossibilities that are only possible in partnership with him. As you are led by him, and walk with him, you will discover you can do anything God wants you to do.
Let me illustrate by way of a personal story.
I have never been good at English. For most of my life I have neither enjoyed reading nor excelled at writing. When I was a young boy my parents could not get me to read books and as a last resort committed to buying me comics so I would at least be reading something. Throughout my schooling, English was always a bit of a mystery to me, and before long I began to believe I had reached the ceiling of my ability in the subject. When I reached senior high, I had the opportunity to work at a level that matched my ability. I was put in General English. My final grade for General English on my Higher School Certificate was the lowest of all my subjects.
I went on to study Design and Technology teaching at the University of Sydney. While I loved the practical subjects, I found most of the education related material unhelpful. I chose electives I was interested in, but I struggled to think, argue or articulate my arguments well, and ended up receiving mediocre grades. At the conclusion of this degree I vowed I would never study again. I was done.
But God had other ideas.
Fifteen years later, God began leading me back towards further study. It was unnerving. He was drawing me back towards the very thing I struggled with; something I said I would never do again. I began and eventually completed some diploma level theological and counselling study, and then some masters level biblical counselling study.
At the conclusion of my biblical counselling study I had what proved to be a critical conversation with one of the men who planted the Project Church alongside me. We were sitting in my school office, talking about what I was learning and he said, “You should do a Master of Education and then go on and do a Doctorate.” I almost believed him when he suggested a masters but laughed out loud at his suggestion of a doctorate. That was ridiculous. But he saw something in me that I couldn’t. I ended up enrolling in a Master of Education via distance; a strange decision for someone who doesn’t like reading. It was arguably my biggest challenge up to that point. Lots of reading. Lots of books. Not my strong point but God had led me there and I needed to trust him.
As I studied all these bits and pieces, I had numerous conversations with my wife about what the purpose of all the study was. So many random subjects, so few completed degrees, and a Master of Education for someone who didn’t really want to keep teaching in schools. Where was it all headed? What was the point? The only answer I could give her was that I felt God had been leading me to do what I had been doing.
And then there was a moment, which made sense of everything.
I was studying a research methods subject and had visited college for an intensive. I expected to find it boring, but as I dug in, I became more and more interested. Towards the end of the intensive I had a conversation with my lecturer which went something like this:
“I want to do some research in education but not entirely, some research in counselling but not entirely, and some research in theology but not entirely. What should I do?”
He answered, “You want to study a Doctor of Ministry.” In that moment all the fragments of my life, all the pieces God had been leading me in, were suddenly put together. I made enquiries into the Doctor of Ministry program, went through the process of qualifying, and finally enrolled.
My story of doctoral study is not an amazing, victorious tale.
For the most part it was a scrappy grind – like when you hear coaches say their sports team ‘won ugly’. For almost all of the five and a half years I studied my doctorate I felt like an imposter. I struggled, and often failed, to get past the thought that everyone else was smarter than me and I had nothing to offer. I felt this most keenly during my first presentation at a research seminar. I liken my delivery to a horse pulling a steel cart down a gravel road with bolts and panels vibrating loose and falling off along the way. I am not sure I have ever been so nervous.
Study leave would always be a particularly intense battle ground. During these weeks it was hard to get to sleep (and when I did it would be broken), I would tend to be quickly irritated and often absent even though I was physically present. I constantly battled the thought, ‘I can’t do this. I am not smart enough.’ Sometimes this internal conversation would slip out of my lips in conversations with friends and family.
For five and a half years I was in the middle of an impossible task and most of it wasn’t fun. But good and fun are not always the same thing. My struggle with the impossible spurred me to trust in Jesus more deeply. One expression of this was a line from scripture I had scrawled on a scrap piece of paper on my desk; it sat there for most of my study years. It was the first line of Jeremiah 29:11 – ‘For I know the plans I have for you …’ I thought the most likely outcome of my study was that I would fail. This verse regularly reminded me how I didn’t need God’s reassurance that I would pass, only that God had a plan for everything he had led me into, and it would be good – even if I failed. Those words were a solid anchor in my anxious storms.
My doctorate is finished now, and my thesis is hardbound.
He called me into something big, something much bigger than I could handle. I was never smart enough to study it, but God grew me, led me, and equipped me to do it. I don’t look back at it and marvel that I had some hidden talent which needed discovering or some fear I needed to overcome. I see a God who called me into something impossible and walked with me as we did it together. It was the impossible journey, but God deals in impossibles.
Faith shines in the impossibles.
It is in the impossibles that we learn who God is and how to trust him.
You can do anything God wants you to do.
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.