Stop Limiting What’s Possible Because You Can’t Explain It Yet
One of the fastest ways to limit your life is to believe everything must make sense before you can believe something greater is possible.
This thought came out of a Beyond-the-Church conversation that started with what sounded like a pretty heavy topic: creation versus evolution. At first glance, people tend to put those two ideas on opposite sides. You either believe in creation, or you believe in evolution. You either believe faith or you believe science.
But as we talked, I kept coming back to one thought: why does it have to be either/or?
If evolution exists, then it means God created the ability for things to evolve. That may challenge the way most people think, but that is exactly why I like the thought. Next-level thinking requires you to step outside what everyone automatically assumes and ask a better question: what happens when you add the God factor?
Look at the Beginning Differently
We started where the Bible starts: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” [1] Then the next verse tells us the earth was formless and empty. Something existed, but it had not yet developed into everything it would become. Darkness covered the deep waters, the Spirit of God hovered over the surface, and then God began speaking.
“Let there be…” [2]
And things began to change. Evolution was created.
Light appeared. The earth took shape. The seas were filled. The land developed. Plants appeared. Animals came. Eventually humanity entered the picture. When I read that, I see order, development, progression, and something becoming more than what it was before.
The larger point for me is that God is a God of process. And if that is true in creation, why would we think it would be any different in our lives?
You are not required to remain what you are today simply because that is the version of yourself you currently understand.
Faith Goes Where Proof Stops
One of the things we kept coming back to in the conversation was faith. Faith is difficult for people because we want proof. We want to see it, touch it, understand it, explain it, and then decide whether we are willing to believe.
But if you can already see everything, how much faith do you really need?
There are moments in life when you must believe before the evidence catches up. That does not mean abandoning intelligence, facts, science, or learning. I don’t believe science and faith have to be enemies. Science can help us understand what exists and how things work, while faith allows us to believe beyond what we can presently explain.
Think about how much of what we enjoy today once sounded impossible. Steve Jobs talked about putting a thousand songs in your pocket before most people could see how something like that would work. The vision existed before all the technology necessary to fully produce the result existed.
Sometimes you can see something before you have the resources to make it happen. Sometimes you can believe something before you understand exactly how you are going to accomplish it.
That is where faith enters the picture.
Add the God Factor
Years ago, I worked with a lady in church who used a phrase I have never forgotten. She called it “the God factor.”
Everything has a God factor.
What she meant was simple: what happens when you take whatever you are doing and add God to the equation?
Take your work and add the God factor.
Take your business and add the God factor.
Take your family, your education, your career, your ideas, your creativity, and your goals and ask, What would this look like if God were involved in it?
What would it hurt?
You are already doing whatever you are doing without it. What if adding the God factor allows you to see possibilities you could not see before?
For me, that does not eliminate science, innovation, or human intelligence. It expands them. We put satellites in space because people studied science, engineering, physics, and technology. Now those satellites allow us to communicate around the world, see images of the earth, share ideas, teach people, and even carry the Gospel far beyond the walls of a church building.
It all fits together.
Your Life Wasn’t Random
This is where the conversation became even more important to me. If everything is simply random, it becomes easy to start believing that you are random too.
You just happened to be here. You just happened to have those gifts. You just happened to meet those people. You just happened to go through those experiences.
Don’t believe that.
I believe there is intentionality behind your life.
Your gifts matter.
Your experiences matter.
Your opportunities matter.
Even some of the things you do not completely understand yet may matter more than you realize.
So keep learning. Keep studying. Keep thinking. Keep asking questions. But do not allow your need for proof to eliminate your capacity for faith, and do not allow faith to become an excuse to stop learning.
Use both.
And the next time you reach something you cannot quite figure out, try what my friend taught me years ago:
Add the God factor.
You may discover that what looked impossible was never impossible at all—you were simply trying to solve a God-sized possibility with human-sized thinking.
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References:
[1] Genesis 1:1 NLT, Bible.com, accessed August 18, 2026, Bible.com
[2] Genesis 1:2-3 NLT, Bible.com, accessed August 18, 2026, Bible.com
All Scripture references used by permission; see our Scripture copyrights.
