In today’s world, we are inundated with messages that sound like “be equipped.” We must have the right skillsets, the right work experience, the right entries on our resumes, the right degrees from the right universities, and the right interview mastery in order to excel in job acquisition and career excellency. There are always requirements we must meet, talents and abilities we must hold, in order to pursue some kind of academic or artistic or occupational pathway.
Well, we all know that God tends to work in opposition to this worldly trend. This isn’t to say that He doesn’t put us in positions to use the gifts that He grants us- after all, there are many different roles in the Body of Christ that are uniquely assigned to us! But we should also acknowledge: God often uses the “unequipped” to achieve His plans. If you've been in church long enough, you've heard the typical examples: Moses wasn’t the best public speaker, but God had him stand up to the leader of a world superpower; Gideon wasn’t exactly brave, yet God called him a “mighty man of valor” and created a warrior; and Jonah quite literally did not want to do the job God had for him.
Maybe these sound almost like clichés. It’s something you’ve heard many times before.
But there was something I found myself contemplating: if we know that God likes to choose unlikely candidates to go on mighty adventures and accomplish His glorious purposes, why do we only tend consider pathways for ourselves for which we are most naturally equipped? When we are struggling to discern the job or career God wants for us, are we only giving God particular options when we pray to Him? “God, do you want me to do X or Y?” After all, X and Y match my prior experience. Or X and Y allow me to build off of skills that I’ve already been practicing.
God may indeed call you to do something that make use of the experiences He has granted you, the things He has taught you. Of course! But should we be more open, more aware of the times when God calls us to something for which we feel entirely unequipped? That could be something like joining a particular ministry, making friends with someone who makes us uncomfortable, or- yes, this too- embarking on an occupational path that seems to come from way out of left field.
But how open to this are we, actually? Maybe the little things are okay. But the big things? The lifelong things? The vocational things? How willing are you to enter a space, embark on a journey, for which you feel “unequipped”?
Is God’s Presence, His support, His provision, really enough for you?
Prayer: Father God, please help me to be more willing and less willful, more open to Your beautiful plans. Cleanse of any sin within me, and open my eyes to Your truth. Comfort me, oh God. Remind me that Your Will for me is to be loved by You, to follow You, and to enjoy You. Remind me that you love me and have good things for me, that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! In Jesus’s Name, Amen.