Good Enough?
Were you ever asked to tackle a job or responsibility you felt you were not qualified or prepared to do?
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. - 1 Corinthians 26-29
In today's reading Paul seems to be offering left-handed compliments. Look at yourselves, he says. You are not the wisest or the most powerful and yet God called you.
How do you think they took that?
It may have been more of a boost than a put down, but taken out of context, it sure sounds like he is addressing a group of outcasts or misfits.
All throughout The Bible, God calls the least expected to lead. Why would He do that?
Paul tells us it is to shame those who build themselves up, those who feel they are most qualified, more highly educated, well-bred, physically fit.
I think there is another message in this madness, one that I find more appealing to those of us who fall short in the qualifications and criteria sections.
David is a good example of what I believe God does with and for us. David was not a warrior. He would have been weighed down by the armor he was offered in his battle against Goliath, and yet he was victorious because he relied on what he knew as a shepherd.
God called a shepherd, because He wanted a shepherd.
It sounds obvious, but we may miss the significance of that when we hear God calling us.
He doesn't want someone else, someone better, wiser, smarter, more fit. He wants us, and He wants what we bring.
It is not that we are good enough for God, but that we are exactly right for the job He has for us.
Now that doesn't mean we should let that go to our heads, but it does mean we should go forth in confidence that He is before us, beside us and behind us.
What a relief that is!
More to come...