NEVER DISQUALIFIED

NEVER DISQUALIFIED
Read: Exodus 3
“But he 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV
Voltaire once said, “Perfect is the enemy of good.”
A recent email conversation with my old youth pastor brought to mind this famous utterance, because it is so applicable to an issue I – and I have to imagine many others – struggle with often.
Since I was a teenager, I felt drawn into a ministerial role, something which I have already spent time in these pages writing about. However, I never really heeded or explored the call much, and spent a lot of my 20’s as a wanderer, a “prodigal” if you will. I took many wrong turns, and made several grievous mistakes I have spent a lot of the last years trying to reconcile in my own heart.
As I got into my mid-thirties and started to feel that pull to minister renewed, I could never really escape the feeling that the sins of my past were a barrier to that. Because of the things I’d done, I never felt “qualified” to serve in such a capacity. In fact, to carry that a step further, I have always felt my past disqualified me from being used by God in a ministerial role.
But then the pastor, who is a longtime mentor of mine, and an example of this himself, told me essentially that instead of looking at my past as a barrier to ministry, perhaps I ought to look at it as a catalyst for ministry, and for what roles the Lord might want to lead me into.
I think sometimes we get caught in the trap of believing that we have to be perfect and have everything figured out for God to use us in the ways He wants to use us. We fail to follow leadings, because we see ourselves as too broken to be effective in areas the Lord leads us into.
In short, the Devil wants us to believe that our past disqualifies us from being ministers of the gospel.
But the pages of Scripture are full of fallen, broken individuals that the Lord took, transformed, and used in mighty, and often miraculous, ways to accomplish his plan and be ministers of His word. From Moses, to David, to Peter and Paul, and countless others in between, God showed time and again there is no mistake too great for Him to overcome with grace, to transform us and do great things through us.
Yes, as believers, we are always to strive for holiness. We are always to pursue God and aim to be more like Him everyday. But we also need to understand that our past – our stumbles and sins – do not disqualify us from His grace, and do not prevent us from being transformed and used by Him.
In fact, it may be those very stumbles that the Lord uses to transform the world around you in ways greater than you could ever imagine!
Prayer: Lord, help me not to be trapped by thinking my past will keep you from using me. Instead, help me see how my mistakes can be a catalyst for ministering to the lost and pursuing the calling you have for my life.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FINDING LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS - RACE REFLECTIONS

It is amazing sometimes how God's plan can so vastly differ from my own. In the past couple of days, I have begun to reflect on my experiences at the Run for the Rocks Half Marathon, and the aftermath thereof. A week ago, I was approaching it with no real concrete goal in mind. I planned to take it easy, and run little more than a relaxed (for me), leisurely pace - a chance to recover after a difficult, but fulfilling, summer of racing. But somewhere about three days before the race, I started to feel like God's plans for this race were far different than my own. On His leading, I decided to run the race to support and represent Prodigal Ministries of Kansas, a small men's transitional shelter I have been involved with on several levels for nearly a decade. It felt like a calling to be a voice of light for a ministry that, on so many levels, changed my life and my heart many years ago when I was in a dark, dark place. With this renewed focus put on the race I was r
Read more

FINDING REFRESHMENT IN A BITTER WORLD

“ Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your  words  will be an  encourage ment to those who hear them.” Ephesians 4:29, NLT Most of my mornings start early – like, no daylight, crickets-still-chirping early – around, or often before, 5 a.m. If I’m still in bed at six, even on the weekends, you might want to check my pulse. The pre-dawn hours before the day turns the wind-up crank on my energetic two year old daughter Makenzie is my time of refreshment and renewal. In those times, there are generally three constants – a pair of running shoes, multiple cups of coffee, and a camo-covered Bible. By way of confession, sometimes there are too many cups of coffee and not enough time with an open Bible. With a hyper personality made significantly moreso by seemingly endless refills of java, finding the balance is not always easy. Countless stresses that overload and overwhelm the already hectic pace of life. The morning news is filled with stories of grief, disaster
Read more

MAKE YOUR DAYS COUNT

Nine years  ago  last Monday, I ran my first road race. Eight months  ago  today, I finished my third marathon. But four months ago, the real race began.   I have spent the last four months literally, and figuratively, having my heart tested over and over again.    Physically, the aim has been to diagnose exercise-exacerbated chest soreness through an extensive battery appointments and tests culminating in a heart  cath  Tuesday which leaves me sidelined, even from lifting my daughter, for the next two weeks.   So far, the results have been positive, in a sense. There are some issues my heart that go along with getting closer to 40 – some leaky valves and now, it appears, some slight narrowing of the arteries. So, as long as it’s monitored, I am not, God willing, going anywhere anytime soon.   Hmm...God willing.   These words carry a lot more weight and a lot less cliché now. I have spent a lot of time the last four months wrestling with my own mortality, at t
Read more