The Cost of Miscounting

In January, 2017, a jockey aboard the horse Locally Sauced rounded the bend in a race in Hokitika, New Zealand and urged his mount to run hard.

Locally Sauced complied and opened a large lead on the straightaway, pulling ahead of the rest of the competitors by several lengths. After passing the finish mark, the jockey slowed the horse and saluted the crowd, eager to celebrate his victory. It seemed the other jockeys weren’t impressed, and instead of slowing down after passing the finish mark, they kept racing around the track.

It was then the jockey realized he had miscounted. He’d only ridden three laps instead of the required four. He quickly turned Locally Sauced back into the race, but instead of being greeted with the first-place trophy, he secured fourth place and a five-week suspension.

Has miscounting ever cost you? Or helped you?

Of all the math we perform in life, how we calculate our capacity will have immeasurable outcomes.

It will absolutely make the difference in how you finish the various races in your life. The incredible design of life allows each person to finish first in their race. To do this, a person must know their capacity -- their potential.

You cannot be anything you want. You cannot accomplish anything you set your mind to. You can become the person God desires you to become. You can accomplish anything God empowers you to do.

What turns can into will is choice, and choice begins with knowledge. You not only need to have a proper understanding of God’s nature, you need to know your own. Being made in God’s image means the more you know God, the better you can know yourself.

The opposite is also true.

The greater your self-awareness, the greater your ability to grasp the nature of God. It’s crucial to understand the distinction between self-awareness, which always increases our God-dependence, and self-deception, which magnifies self-reliance. Everything about us is not “God-like” as we have been incredibly misshapen by sin.

However, while sin corrupts our nature, it doesn’t obliviate the presence of God’s image in us.

Comprehending our capacity isn’t an epiphany -- a moment when we immediately gain clear insight into who we are. It’s a process.

In both the Old and New Testaments, we see the difference in people’s lives when they lived within and outside of their capacities. Almost always, we see one person who does both. Again, this is a process.

Failure is an invitation to grow up, not an excuse to give up.

In 1 Samuel 10, the prophet Samuel anoints Saul and proclaims that he will be king over Israel. For a young man out searching for his dad’s lost donkeys, this was quite the turn of events! Saul receives a new heart from God, prophesies, and experiences miraculous circumstances.

Later, when Saul is to be officially coronated, he way underestimates his capacity and instead of walking in with confidence, shaking hands and kissing babies along the way, he scurries like a scared rabbit into a hiding place, cowering behind baggage.

Imagine this scene today with a politician running for office. Reporters with camera crews running around at a rally looking for the candidate, only to find them cowering behind the grandstand, afraid to come out and speak to the audience. Definitely wouldn’t inspire a lot of confidence! Imagine the tweets and headlines and memes that would generate!

Saul does not get off to a great start as king. (Understatement!) Although some people, “whose hearts God had touched,” (v. 26) supported Saul, other “worthless fellows” (v. 27) despised Saul and refused to honor him. And yet Saul rules for 40 years, and while he later takes some disastrous turns in his life, he also accomplishes much good for Israel.

Capacity is not dependent on or determined by confidence.

You cannot rely too heavily on your academic resume, job title, social position, relational successes or failures to make a final judgment about your capacities. Some people are “big fish in small ponds” who may have entirely overrated their abilities; others may be “small fish in big ponds” who have undervalued their abilities.

Opportunities you’ve had available due to socio-economic conditions, upbringing, finances, and even geographical features have powerful influences. A musician in Nashville is going to have different opportunities than one living in Anchorage. (Anchorage is an awesome city, by the way, just not known for being a music capital!)

If confidence isn’t a reliable measure of capacity, what is? Here’s a guideline: Adequate instruction + sufficient resources + sustained effort + results = a strong possibility of assessing capacity.

There’s a familiar phrase in Christian circles which requires correct context and careful application:

“God doesn’t call the qualified; he qualifies the called.” Right & wrong. Correct in the sense God can provide people opportunities through divine intervention and direction. Incorrect when used to justify not developing one’s capacities. Our capacities are investments, and how we handle these matters – on earth and in heaven.

Charles Schulz penned, “There is no heavier burden than an unfulfilled potential.” We read about this in Saul’s tragic life. Don’t let it be your story! Calculate your capacity. Make it count. 

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