“All that stands between you and your best unborn tomorrows is the adjacent possible. . . . it’s the elevator between what is and what could be. It’s the thing that enables us to prayerfully dream bigger dreams — 10-story dreams, 20-story dreams, even 160-story dreams like the Burj Khalifa.”- Mark Batterson
As Mark Batterson moves on in Chapter 9 of Win the Day, he defines the adjacent possible as the thing that makes something else possible. In addition, the adjacent possible represents one small step that turns into a giant leap.
However, Pastor Batterson notes, we tend to think of failure in negative terms. But failure often introduces us to the adjacent possible. Because failure opens up to us options we never would have considered otherwise. So, failure isn’t all bad. Above all, Mark exhorts:
“Someday we’ll thank God for the doors He closed as much as the ones He opened. Why? They introduce us to the adjacent possible. Closed doors are God’s way of cutting the rope for us! . . . Sometimes our plan B is God’s plan A. . . . When we feel like we’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, God has us right where He wants us (emphasis author’s).”
Furthermore, Mark underscores, even when we feel that God’s letting us down, often He’s setting us up. Most significantly, Pastor Batterson stresses, everything we believe as followers of Christ hinges on an empty tomb. For impossible went out the window when Jesus walked out of that tomb. In addition, Mark observes, this is where:
- we begin imagining unborn tomorrows
- God put His love on full display on the cross
- God put His power on full display at the empty tomb
In conclusion, Mark offers these words of hope:
“Can I tell you why I’m so certain that you can win the day? Because Jesus won the day two thousand years ago. Just when it seemed like it was game over, it was game on. Never put a period where God puts a comma! Why? Jesus is the Adjacent Possible!”
Today’s question: What doors has God closed that you’re now thankful for? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The intersection of two theologies”
