Equipping the Called

Some days I feel totally unworthy of talking to other people about Jesus. You know what I mean?  Who am I to offer anyone spiritual guidance, or even to talk about youth ministry?  After all, I blew it.  I sinned big time. I lost my ministry. I left people disappointed. I am a mess! I should be that last person God would call upon to write a blog and talk about about faith with an ever-growing audience. It seems to me that I am ill equipped to serve the Creator.  I mean, who am I?  And then I read my bible...

• Noah may have been the "one righteous man" God found before destroying the Earth, but that didn't stop him from drinking himself into a naked stupor in the days after the flood. (Genesis 9 :20-25) 
• Moses went on and on and on about how how he couldn't speak well enough to be God's messenger in Egypt.  Later he lost his chance to see the Promised Land by disobeying God. Yet he is among the giants of faith for leading the children of Israel out of captivity. (Exodus)
• David was called "a man after God's own heart." He wrote many of the Psalms. He also committed adultery (and perhaps even a sex offense) with the grandaughter of a trusted adviser, and then conspired to have her husband killed in battle. (2 Samuel 11)
• Jeremiah complained that he was too young and not fit to be a prophet. God told him to get himself ready, and he eventually led the nation of Israel to repentance. Not bad for a young whippersnapper who didn't want to go...
• The birth of Jesus was foretold to Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah by the angel Gabriel.  Zechariah doubted Gabe, and was made mute for the next 9 months or so.  He messed up- but he was the father of John the Baptist.  Still, you should never doubt an angel.  (Luke 1:5-22)
• Mary was just a teenager, and not even a very special teenager, engaged to a carpenter, when she was chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus.  As the song says, What a strange way to save the world!
• Simon Peter was a...well, he was an idiot! He got so many things wrong, was rebuked by Jesus on several occasions and denied even knowing him on three. And yet Jesus knew all along that "upon this rock I will build my church."  And he did. The idiot came through when it really counted.  Peter is the patron-saint of screw-ups like me.
• Saul killed Christ-followers.  That was his job, and he loved it.  But an encounter with the Risen Christ gave him a new name (Paul) and a new calling, and he became one of the most important men in history, spreading the gospel all over the known world.  

Now I am in NO WAY comparing my accomplishments and contributions to the world of faith to any of these great people.  I will however, compare all of us to their weaknesses and failures. None of them were anxious or ready to serve God, and many of them felt ill equipped to handle the work given them.  But they did.  One of my favorite little stories in scripture concerns a man named Ananias.  In Acts 9:10-19 he is told to go find a man named Saul of Tarsus (killer of Christians- see above) and restore his sight.  When Ananias points out that Saul is not a nice man, God says GO!  And so Ananias went. It wasn't reasonable. Ananias had no special training. Ananias did not want to go. And yet, Ananias went. He just went.

And so I sit here writing with the realization that while I am not ready, not trained and far from perfect, God can and will use me anyway! I don't know who said it first, but it has been said many times that "God does not call the equipped; He equips the called."  It is not about ability, it is about availability.  It is not about skill, it is about faith.  And if God can still use a mess like me to make difference, just think what he could do if we in the church would let go of our own issues and simply GO...and DO!  Something to ponder, isn't it?

Because of Jesus,