Discovering the potential within

God of life, be with me, breathe through me, as I ponder this life that I am fashioning.

Society, culture, family, and religion all shape our sense of self. Experience has shown me that the most effective people are the ones who are most comfortable with themselves. They are the ones that have been able to separate themselves from the myths and expectations projected onto them by others.

In the book of Genesis is the story of a young woman named Rachel. Rachel was a shepherdess, the daughter of Laban, and the sister of Leah. One day, as she was leading her flock she met a young man named Jacob who had traveled to her land in search of a wife. When he saw the very beautiful Rachel, Jacob knew instantly that he had found his wife.

Jacob approached Rachel's father and as was the custom of the time, entered into an agreement to work for seven years in return for the right to marry Rachel. When the time came for the marriage, Laban tricked Jacob by sending to the wedding ritual a heavily veiled Leah instead of Rachel. When Jacob discovered the deception, he approached Laban and was told that he could marry Rachel as well, but would have to work for another seven years. Jacob, who desired Rachel above all others, agreed.

You can imagine the competition that was being set up between the two sisters. Both desired Jacob's love and attention. Rachel is described as being very beautiful, while Leah is described as having weak eyes. Rachel had her betrothed stolen from her and given to Leah through their father's deceit. Both sisters were dependent on a father or husband for their survival. And if that were not enough, it turns out that in a society that valued the birth of male children, Leah was able to produce sons while Rachel was barren.

Each sister must have felt inadequate as a result of the cultural, family, and religions expectations of their time. Leah knew that her sister was prettier and it must have stung knowing that that Jacob had to be tricked into marrying her. I am sure that she felt if she could produce one more son that perhaps her husband would love and accept her a little more. And Rachel must have felt betrayed by her family who should have been offering protection and support. I am sure she longed to give her husband the sons he desired and feared that he would no longer love her if she could not.

I can certainly identify with the longings and frustrations of both sisters. Often times our sense of self worth is tied up in external things that are beyond our control and these things can cause us to feel inferior and worthless. As happened to Rachel and Leah, when this happens we can become envious and demanding. In order to overcome our feeling of inadequacy we often seek validation in external rewards. But these external rewards will never be able to fill the emptiness inside. Our house won't be big enough, our car won't be nice enough, our significant other won't be cute enough, our salary won't be high enough. When our sense of worth is tied up in external things, the problem is not with what we don't have, but with how we see ourself.

We grab for external rewards hoping that they will increase our value. Those external rewards may take many forms. They may be the things we buy to make ourself feel better. They may be the crowd we hang with in hopes of gaining popularity and acceptance. They may be substances we ingest to soothe our emotions. But in reality, in order to become powerful and transformative people, we have to find our value inside ourselves, not by grabbing more and more external things.

A time came in the life of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel when God commanded them to pack up their belongings and make a pilgrimmage to Bethel to make an altar before God. As part of this pilgrimmage, they were commanded to put away their household idols - all the outward objects that they worshipped. We, too, face this same call. Before we can come to our place of destiny, our Bethel, we too must set aside our idols. We have to make a choice. We can continue to compare, compete and project a false image, or we can identify and discard those things that have become a substitute for God.

Giving up our idols can be a daunting task. When we do, it causes us to come face to face with ourselves. We are left with nothing but us. And that can be a scary prospect. But if we will only give it a chance, we would find that within ourself we can find great potential. When we give up our idols, we have a chance to reclaim our true selves. Underneath the glitz and facade, lies the person that God created and that person is filled with a reserve of awesome potential.

For us, Bethel represents our God place, the place where we can listen to the voice of God and experience his love. This is the place to which we are drawn in order to reconnect with a God who renews and restores us. It is a place of transformation where we can shed the false self imposed on us by society. It is the place we can come to to accept the gift within ourself that is ourself.

In the end, Rachel and Jacob's clan were invited to remain in Bethel and live there forever. We, too, are invited to become permanent dwellers at our own Bethel. We can no longer afford to be occasional visitors. We need to settle in and make ourselves at home. We need to take the time to look within ourselves and become the genuine person that God created us to be.

The story ends with Rachel in Bethel having given up her household idols. Finally her womb is opened and she gives birth to a son. Unfortunately, she died in childbirth - giving birth to her dream. May you reclaim your true self in time to give birth to your dreams.

Text: Genesis 29:1-35; 30:1-24; 31:1-21; 35:1-4

Consider the following:

1. What idols have you held on to or have held onto you?
2. In what ways do these idols surface in your life?
3. In what ways have these idols stifled your potential?
4. What's the first step you need to take on your journey to Bethel?

Resource: Leading Lessons by Jeanne Porter