“…Like a Tremendous Machine!!”

The Belmont Stakes 1973.

Secretariat’s margin of victory 31 lengths.

It doesn’t matter how many times I watch the race, I get emotional.

As I watch Secretariat, or Big Red, thunder down the track, I can’t help but feel my heart thump in unison with his hooves. With Each breath-taking stride My own greatness is revealed in me. Secretariat and I are one for a moment. I can see the finish wire. I feel the air rushing over my body. The power of my magnificent legs is intoxicating. I am in that moment running with the Horses. Jeremiah 12:5 asks the gut-check question, “If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” (King James Version).

The sheer magnitude of Big Red’s accomplishment resonates deep within my soul, “We were made for Greatness!”

We have a capacity to accomplish the impossible. It is in our DNA, our essence and our being. We are all made in the Image of God, after His likeness. The only true limitation is Time, and after that who knows what we can accomplish in Eternity!

I don’t fear greatness, but I don’t relish the elevation it brings either. It is not about getting to the highest point and then hang gliding to the next apex. It is about the continual climb. An atmosphere of greatness cultivates and attitude of action. People who actually achieve great things rarely desire accolades and acknowledgments; they are driven by the desire to press in the stratosphere and beyond.

I challenge you today to allow yourself to be great. Take your talent, your gifting, or your heart’s true desire and begin to hone your craft. When you take natural giftings and you forge it in the depths of discipline and fortitude, you become a Dynamo. The potential that was laying dormant in your belly will have been heated and molded in to something that the world has never before beheld…because there has never been anyone like you on the earth before.

I know how hard it is to become more than potential, to bring dreams into fruition. We are creatures with a fallen nature that wants very little resistance, and if we allow that nature to rule us, we will always be less than God intended and less than the world needs, nay deserves. You are meant for Greatness.

Allow yourself to believe that. But don’t think that it will come free or easy. Remember, your natural tendency is to flow like water down the path of least resistance. You must conquer yourself, in order to free yourself; you are captive to your own demise. Christ gives you a new nature, a new spirit, a new mind and a new heart…you become a new creature; limitless and magnanimous.

I leave you with this quote from “Coach Carter”

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people don’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Jesus is the Light of the World and we were made to reflect the Light…so let Our Light shine before all men. (Matt. 5:16)