You can control a shark’s growth.

A long time ago, I was told that if you put a baby shark into a 2-foot aquarium, it will never grow bigger than 2 feet long. Put it in a 4-foot aquarium, and it won’t grow more than 4 feet long.

The size of the container determines the size of growth.

I’m not sure how sound that biology is, but I am certain that it’s sound theology.

Too often, I am contained more by my expectations than by my circumstances. You are too. How big you think determines how big you grow. How much you expect determines how much you inherit.

You were made just a little lower than the angels. The God who gives more than you can ask or think is on your side. The same power that conquered the grave lives in you.

Don’t let your thoughts be a 2-foot tank. Don’t dream in a 4-foot tank. Start the week by thinking and dreaming ocean-sized thoughts and dreams, and watch your life grow beyond in ways you never saw coming.

You have more potential than you think. God has placed more in you than you know.

How much more?

I was reminded this morning as I read the story of the Tower of Babel. The people were setting out to build a city and tower so great that they wouldn’t need God. Not exactly a noble or holy project.

God saw their malicious project and decided to scatter the people. But there’s a great insight in what God said to His angels just before causing the people to babble. He looked out and said,

“If they (people) all work together, there’s nothing they cannot do!”

That’s pretty astounding. Even when we are working at cross purposes with God, if we work together, our potential is huge.

So what would happen if we worked with God? With one another?

What would happen if our God given potential were coupled with the same power that conquered the grave?

The same power that conquered the grave lives in you. There’s more in you than you know. And when the church works with God, and with one another, there really is no limit to what we can accomplish.

As my friend Scott Williams consistently says:

Dream Big. Think Bigger.

And let God turn 2011 into a year of abundance that exceeds anything you have ever imagined.

You may have seen this before, but since our office is totally Apple driven, I thought I would post this Christmas song from our terribly creative friends at North Point Church - played entirely on iPads and iPhones.

Feliz Navidad!

This is making the rounds. Worth a look. Also worth a question….

How are you and yours telling the story in a way that connects today?

Have you heard of the phenomenon known as “Flash Mob.”

There are a whole lot of them out there, but this one was particularly good and fit for the season.

Take a look at the surprised crowd at this mall food court as singers break out into a performance that was planned to look unplanned.

What’s the best kind of gift you get at Christmas?

For me, it’s the gift I never saw coming, and the one I never would have thought to consider. That’s the thought I had as I watched. His grace breaks out when we don’t expect it. When we probably weren’t considering it. And when we least deserve it.

The hymnist William Cowper wrote a song called, “Sometimes A Light Surprises The Christian On His Way.” A melancholy guy, Cowper knew that even in a dark world, God’s grace surprises.

Think for a minute about His grace in your life. Remember the flashes of grace. Hold on to those memories.

And more than anything, expect them to happen again. He has promised that they will