Sunday, January 08, 2023
Let your limitations stir up innovation
On Albert’s urging I visited Renewal Lutheran Church today for the first time in 15 years. I sensed a heart of melancholy the whole night. My feelings are mixed, not confused, just rather ambivalent. On reflection of the miserable years that lapsed, my emotions are filled with both joy and sorrow from the battle scars and preparation God needed me to go through.
The years rolled as God has brought me through the anguish, extreme pain and tears. 2023 is the beginning of a new 7 year cycle ( Deut 15:1-2). Last year was the year of debt cancellation. Like Joseph who spent 13 years total in Potiphar's house and prison, some have been in various cycles much longer than 7 years; but God’s molding is intrinsic; you can’t get away from it. It’s the “Power of Preparation”. Ps Joshua reminded that our past mistakes are cancelled. Jesus has paid for our debts on the cross.
The message was entitled “Let your limitations stir up Innovation” in you resonated with my spirit. Every individual or organisation comes to a standstill when there is no innovation, especially in this changing post-pandemic business landscape with the application of AI and rapid technological advancements. Innovation is the fuel for business acceleration. It is the trigger that breaks every limitation and pushes us to the next level.
Naturally we are “limited” mortals. We all are prone to failures and had made bad choices. But our failures are never final. God’s word and His promises are. No one is perfect. Trying to be can stifle creativity in us and others. It can be the enemy of progress as we dare not fail and hence never even attempt anything worthwhile, not even God-inspired ones. And as Elon Musk famously quipped “If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough”.
Therefore sow into your innovation with anticipation and pray in expectation that 2023 and beyond will be your bonanza years. For “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Corinthians 8:9).Let God amaze you with multiple possibilities as you rest in Him for divinely-inspired innovations. When you know God is with you, all the cards will fall into place.
Be committed to be innovators who will ‘act’; not merely be the so-called creative dreamers. “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”― Theodore Roosevelt.
We rest on God who is faithful to His promises. That’s how we overcome our limitations. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12: 9.) “He let loose the east wind from the heavens and by his power made the south wind blow” (Psalms 78:26). No more will the breakthroughs just trickle in, but like gust winds they will blow us over to our amazement. We will be blessed from all directions - multidirectional and multidimensional. That’s grace in activation! When grace is activated, there are no limitations. Amen.
