These can be some of the most powerful words that a man could say. You see, when a person decides that he no longer possess the power to complete a task, he has just limited himself to just that…an inability to perform a task. I’m going to be honest with you, I disagree with this statement 99% of the time. I know that in my short 21 years of life, I’ve had the opportunity to work for different people in different places doing things that if you had told me I would be doing them 5 years ealier I would have laughed and moved on with life. The fact of the matter is I am doing things I never thought I would be.
I currently stand at a crossroads that will help guide the next 5 years of my life and I’ve found myself wanting to scream this poisonous phrase, “I CAN’T DO IT.”
Then I thought about it…
I’m in the process of reading this book where some ordinary people did some impossible things. What I mean when I say ordinary is that they were the underdog, the last person to be picked, they were old and retired…but someone saw potential in them. Recently I’ve found myself believing for some things that seemed impossible to my logical human eyes. My heart is full of passion, but my mind is fighting with every reason why I shouldn’t…someone else can do it, that’s not your job, you could be doing something better than this, it will never work because of x, y, z.
Truth of the matter is all those points are valid. But so were the points that Noah was old and retired, building a massive ship was pretty much impossible to think about. Joseph becoming a mighty ruler was pretty much the last thing that would ever happen in his lifetime, but it happened (and it wasn’t the end of his lifetime). David should have never conquered Goliath, but we all know that he did. Nehemiah never should have been able to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, especially in the short time that he did. Esther never should have lived after she approached the king without and invitation. Joshua never should have won a battle against a fortified city called Jerico.  Moses never should have led one million Jews out of Egyptian captivity, but he did.
All of these people had a moment where they could have said (and many of them did) “I can’t do it,” but that’s what happened right before the some of the greatest accomplishments in their lives. I’ve never heard a story of accidental success, maybe they exist, but the greatest success stories I’ve heard involve impossibility followed but persistence and an attitude that says I’m not quitting until the mission is complete.
I know I’ve been called to greatness, not because someone told me, not because of my name, but simply because the one person in my life that could have and should have given up on me didn’t. Truth of the matter is I deserve nothing, I amount to a pile of dirt, and one day if time doesn’t end I will return to the ground and become a pile of dirt. The greatest love I’ve ever known has come from a person that I’ve never seen, or physically met, but His presence in my life has given me something to believe in.
My closing thoughts are this: things look hard, but if someone had told you 10 years ago where you would be today, you would laugh because it seems impossible. Truth of the matter is, you are here. Today. Successful. Healthy. Alive. My question to you…where will you be in 10 years? How many lives will you have changed? How many risks will you have taken? How many impossibilities will be hanging on your wall as trophies?
“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.” Ephesians 3:20