What a potato can teach us about potential and purpose

Have you ever really looked at a raw potato?

A dozen youths were asked that question at a church function recently as they each received their very own spud for inspection.

The descriptions were less than flattering.

Ugly.

Boring color.

Smelled like dirt.

Spotted and bumpy.

Based on looks alone, the potato didn’t seem to have much going for it.

But then the competition. Each youth was given a blank sheet of paper and a pen, and all were challenged to list as many uses for a potato as possible. The person with the most would be the winner.

The result … a dry erase board jammed with at least 50 responses. French fries and baked — mashed and fried into chips of countless flavor combinations. Potatoes are used in salads, soups and stir fry creations galore. From tater tots to steak fries, curly and seasoned, they make the perfect side dish. Potatoes have become a breakfast staple, too, via home fries and hash browns. You can scallop them, build numerous casseroles around them and cook them into pancakes, waffles and bread dough.

But why stop at food-based uses?

Potatoes can be launched in potato guns, used to unscrew a broken light bulb, remove rust, shine your shoes, as a decorative stamp, a paperweight and composted into fertilizer.

And, as one youth pointed out, the potato can used as a youth group object lesson.

If people can find hundreds of viable uses for an ugly, boring, foul-smelling potato, is there any limit to what God can do with each of us?

Through Jeremiah 1:5, God states: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Later in the same chapter, at Jeremiah 29:11, God takes the message even further:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

God has a definite, undeniable plan for each of us. As we learn in several New Testament verses (1 Corinthians 12:7-11, Romans 12:6-8 and 1 Peter 4:10-11 — among others), that plan involves special skills and talents that God has given each of us.

If the starchy filling of a potato can be used in numerous positive ways, there should be nothing stopping us from channeling our unique God-given talents and abilities into making a real impact on the world.

We all have days where we feel useless, ugly or just plain boring. Don’t let those moments stop you from reaching your full potential, regardless of how much peeling, slicing, mashing or frying it takes to get there.