Intangibles

It is that time of the year – Major League Baseball Playoffs! I enjoy all sports, but baseball is one of my favorites and especially if my team is playing. That team is the Red Sox! You know Red Sox Nation, the beloved team of America and the enemy of the Evil Empire the New York Yankees!

One of the things that I always look for in a team is the intangibles. By definition an “intangible” is something that is incapable of being perceived by the senses, of being realized or defined. You have to watch a team closely to even know the intangible things that they are capable of. Clutch hitting, the ability to advance a runner to the next base or the pressure of speed on the base paths are all examples of intangibles that a team can possess. They don’t show up in the box score in the morning, but the person who watches the game is well aware of the impact they have made in the game that night.

Whether you are a coach evaluating talent, a fan evaluating a team, or a person trying to make quality choices in life it would behoove you to look for the intangibles. It is often the things that we don’t see that cause us to fail in relationships, fall short in the workplace or become disappointed with God concerning our personal lives. Most often when things are not turning out the way we perceived they should it is because we failed to see the intangibles.

If we are to succeed in all aspects of life we must learn to see what others can’t see. Jesus is our example as He spent more time with people who were outwardly lacking the characteristics that most people would say would be necessary to succeed in life. His choices for disciples would have been challenged by mainstream Christianity today. His time spent with a tax collector, an adulteress, or the poor would have sparked great debate over the use of His time.

But He saw what others didn’t even perceive. He saw the intangibles that made the cast offs of society into world changers! He was able to assemble a team of disciples that would impact society in a way that would be read about and modeled through centuries of debate with no logical explanations. That’s what makes intangibles so powerful, they don’t make sense! There is a mysticism to intangibles that defies logic, yet provides story after story in which David kills Goliath! These stories make believers out of those who have been cast off’s themselves. In that moment of triumph everyone who is watching history be made, is saying “How could this be?” But deep inside they are crying “YES!”

Maybe you feel defeated. You have looked at your own situation and said there is no hope of succeeding. Right now I pray that you will see the intangibles of Kingdom life, the things that most people can’t see, but that have been revealed to those who believe. They believe they have a purpose in life and a destiny to fulfill. A destiny, that’s right! Intangibles create people of destiny! My wife once said, “Life is not about finding yourself; it is about creating yourself!” Your destiny is waiting to be created!