Weekend Preview: One Thing That Limits Our Potential
By David McNeely
Dick Van Dyke once said, “I’ve made peace with insecurity … because there is no security of any kind.”
One thing that limits our potential in life is our battle with insecurity.
We can be insecure over a million things like hair, ears, hair in ears, personality quirks, relationship deficiencies, work deficiencies, and so on. We struggle with surface level insecurities and deep-seated insecurities. Even the most secure of people will, at times, have their confidence give way to uncertainty.
Insecurity is a slippery slope. Trying to overcome it feels like trying to sprint up a mountain of ice while wearing dress shoes. We may be inspired to overcome insecurity but actually doing it is impossible. Or is it? I would respectfully disagree with Bert … Mr. Dawes, Sr. … Dr. Mark Sloan … or for you younger audience members, Cecil from Night at the Museum. I think there is a genuine security that can be experienced. But it will not be generated from within.
F. B. Meyer shared an illustration once about two men who wanted to climb the Matterhorn. They hired three guides and started the climb at the most difficult part. They tied themselves together in an alternating order of guide, traveler, guide, traveler, guide. Sure enough, not far into the journey, the last guide lost his footing. At first, the other four could rely on the toeholds in the ice to keep themselves from falling. But quickly the next man slipped and pulled down the two in front of him. The first guide, however, had driven a spike deep into the ice. He was secure. Because he was stable, the other men were able to regain their footing and they continued the climb. Meyer drew this application, “I am like one of those men who slipped, but thank God, I am bound in a living partnership to Christ. And because He stands, I will never perish.”
Here are just a few questions to ponder before we meet on Sunday:
What gives you a sense of stability and security?
On what are you basing your life?
Is it something that can be removed or replaced?