“Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.”

I was fortunate to work very early in my career under the ultimate leadership of PepsiCo Chairman/CEO Wayne Calloway.  I presented to him a couple of times and once had a chance to ride next to him in van for about half an hour and talk about leadership, most of the time him asking me questions and him listening.  He made me feel very important. Our CIO at that time was Charlie Feld, who has recently written a book on Wayne’s leadership principles and the affect he had on the growth of PepsiCo.  Charlie quotes Wayne with this, “A company dedicated to innovation has boundless potential.”  I wasn’t there when Wayne made that comment during a speech, but I remember him using the word innovation as a cornerstone of the PepsiCo growth strategy.  Today, we bounce that word around as a ball that all can throw and catch, but back then, innovation wasn’t a household word, it was something hard that took real work, real creativity, real commitment and real talent.  And it still does, although technology seems to remove much of the friction for us today.  Regardless, the outcome is the same…boundless potential.  But, as Wayne said it takes “dedication” to innovation and that is where most of us fall short.  When it does get hard, we back away from the investment, time, and/or staffing. And when we do, we romance the status-quo and leash our potential of growth and improvement.

God gives us unfailing love and faithfulness, which created us with boundless potential.  We were the ones that messed it up and since then we’ve been searching for things like mission and purpose.  When Jesus came to the earth He brought new hope and potential and He proved himself the great innovator as he shifted mores, views, opinions and ultimately actions and reactions.  He drew huge crowds and at the same time welcomed children to his knee.  And, he took 600+ commandments and boiled them down to two, which released all of us to love.  And even more, He stands at the door even today waiting for us to open it to Him to maximize all of our potential for His Kingdom. So, let’s consider today what we are doing to let our potential be released?

Reference: Psalm 36:5 (New Living Translation)