Often we, like Moses, stand before a task of greatness and feel as though there must be someone more suited to the task than we ourselves.  We must be the most unlikely to do the job sufficiently, to be called to such greatness.  What began for Moses with a lisp and many doubts progressed with such clarity and correctness; he was clearly the man for the job.

Moses happens to be my favorite biblical character.  Knowing so much as we do about him and his life and ministry, I find it so easy to see why God would have called him to the life and purposes that He did.  But that’s not the way Moses saw it.  He saw himself as unlikely.  As clear as the bush aflame before him, he knew what he was being called to do, but even so he doubted that the calling was properly placed.  It is only in hindsight and from an outward perspective that the calling seems so well suited.

Today we lack creativity and we have an overabundance of good old common sense.  The combination has stifled the blaze of many a burning bush.  We feel a stirring over a ministry need, the Lord is brewing something.  It could be the beginnings of the miraculous, the calling to great things.  But.  But we lack the ability to dream in God-sized paint strokes.  But we aren’t the ‘right’ one for such a task as this, this one needs a decorator or an administrator or an accountant or just someone who has more time on their hands.  And we take the water bottle and we coat the flames of calling, gather our sheep, and move to the next hillside.

Moses was a murderous shepherd, David was an adultering little brother, the first witnesses were untrustworthy women, Christ’s mortician was from the enemy camp, His right hand man was an uneducated hot head.  They were all unlikely and yet so perfectly suited to the tasks before them.  Do you think they saw it that way?  Do you think that a single one of them looked at the life to which they were being called and said, “I totally get that!  I’m perfect for this job, I know just how to get started!” They felt ill-equipped and unlikely, they surely felt too small for the task and certain they must have heard things wrong.  The reality is that God probably wouldn’t have called them to it if they were sure from the outset that they could get it done.  There would be no need for them to depend on Him if they could carry the load alone.

He’s looking for the unlikely.  He’s used them all along.  Yesterday, today, and forever.

From history long past, God has, in His infinite, sovereign, and mysterious wisdom, partnered with mankind to bring about His will.  While He could, doubtless, do all things Himself without even having to stand, He chooses to use us, to intervene in the lives of men through the vehicles of men themselves; God-sized works through man-sized receptacles.  What man could possibly be big enough to house that load?  What mere human could ever feel up to the challenge of carrying a God-sized burden?  None.  None ever did and you will not be the first.

Take courage, He’s done this before.  You aren’t a test case.  You are a proven plan.  While the vessel hasn’t carried such precious cargo before, the manufacturer has filled many of these in His time– with beautiful results.  The world awaits the cargo you bear, they need the miracle that you are called to deliver.  You don’t have to be the one to create the thing, you just have to be willing to take it where it needs to go.

Take courage.  Though you may feel the most unlikely of candidates for the job to which you have been called, He knows what He’s doing and, if He chose you for it, you’re the perfect person for the job.

So put down the water bottle, look for the blaze of fire, concede to your own unlikeliness, and let Him do something grand.

(I apologize for my absence of late.  Satan is crafty with electronics and he’s nastily wiped out mine.  My husband’s computer will surely be his next target as it’s the last resort at which I now type.)