I’ve grown up in a world in which I have constantly been told that people can do anything they set their minds to accomplish. For me personally, this way of thinking may have all started with the children’s book entitled The Little Engine That Could. You surely know the story: A stranded train is unable to find an engine willing to take it over a difficult terrain to its destination. Only a little blue engine is willing to try and, while repeating the mantra “I think I can, I think I can,” the engine overcomes a seemingly impossible task. As a boy, the takeaway I derived from the story was that there is no limit to what we can do when we combine a vision for something with a passion for it and—of course—with hard work.
This lesson is at the heart of “the American Dream.” For generations, people have immigrated to America because they felt boxed in and limited by the constraints of their own cultures. In my years of travel, I’ve heard the longing in the words of people who have asked, “Is it still possible in America to earn any degree, obtain any job, and become whatever you want to be?” In my view, there is something beautiful about that dream. The Bible tells us that we are made in God’s image and therefore can attain marvelous goals. The Book of Proverbs calls us to make plans and work hard to attain them. To live in a society in which we have the freedom to pursue goals is a wonderful gift that we should celebrate and protect.
However, this dream also has dangers. One danger is that it can lead to unrealistic aspirations. I remember the day when I came to the realization that as a 5′9″, 130-pound high school kid, I would not be able to become our state championship football team’s starting defensive tackle no matter how many times I might say, “I think I can, I think I can.”
But today, we will see that the greatest danger in this American Dream is that we can easily drift into embracing the idea that the most important asset we have is our own ability. The dream can lead us to place ultimate trust in ourselves. Then, we go to church and hear the words of Jesus saying, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
Today, we will seek to learn that eternal things happen when the Spirit of God works in and through us. We will see how a group of timid people who one day were cowering in an upper room were transformed into people who turned the world upside down. The beginning point was when they gave up saying, “I think I can.” And they said instead, “We can do all things through the One who gives us strength” (Phil. 4:13).
To His Glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor