Weakness

One of the main reasons I took the job as youth pastor at South Hutch (soon to be Journey!) Mennonite Church was that I thought I couldn't actually do the job. I thought it was more than I was actually capable of doing. I knew, that everyday when I woke up to be a pastor at this church, it would be beyond what I could do on my own.

And you know what? I was right. Oh boy was I right. I mean, how may people get stuck in a country they didn't mean to be in where they don't speak the language with 11 high school students along for the ride? There have been more times than I can count in the last three years where I have walked into situations where all I can do as I walk in is say, "God, HELP!" I have cried more and prayed more in the last 3 years than I did in the 10 years before that. But I have also seen God bring healing and hope and restoration and himself  over and over and over.

And I am thankful, that after three years, I feel no more able to "control" or "handle" what God has called me to. It is still beyond what I can do.

Here's why I think it's important:

Moses led a couple million people and he didn't like speaking in public. So God did the leading.

Paul had a public image problem since he spent the early years of adulthood persecuting the followers of Jesus. The Holy Spirit sent him region to region to proclaim Christ. And he had that whole thorn in the flesh thing. And God did the leading and changing of people.

We could look through all of the Bible and see story after story of people who were insufficient for the task but followed a completely sufficient God.

Here's what Paul had to say in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10:

(God) said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Here is a great truth: God meets us in our weakness and works from there. When we quit thinking we can do any of His kingdom stuff on our own, then he will equip us to really do kingdom work.

How are you allowing God to meet you in your weakness and call you into His work?