I went to a Promise Keepers convention years ago and the guy speaking said to the crowd said, “If you were the valedictorian of your school stand up.” Several guys stood up and then he said, “if you went to college on an academic scholarship stand up” And a few more guys stood up and people started to clap a little and he said don’t clap yet. Then he said, “if you stand up if you went on an athletic scholarship?” A few more stood.
“If you were on the homecoming court, if you were voted most likely to succeed” and he just went through all these honored things and once he had finished with all these categories there was about a third of the men standing in the room. So, the guys standing there were kind of the who’s who of the room. These are the guys with bragging rights. Then the man speaking said this “I’ve got good news and bad news for those of you standing up right now - - The good news is, God can use you, too!!
The bad news is you aren’t His first choice! His first choice is those who are seated beside you. Because God chooses the weak and the unlikely and God wants to do things in the world in a way that the glory won’t go to the strength of a man but will go to Himself!!!
In other words, God doesn’t need your ability He just wants you and your availability.
I shared in my last blog a movie reference, allow me to do share another. Uncle Drew is a movie about a team of old retired basketball players that enter into a citywide tournament. They walk onto the court, slowly, with their gray hair and wrinkles and one of the team members in a wheelchair and everyone laughs! Everyone snubs their noses and mocks these elderly gentlemen who go on to not only win the tournament, but they dominate the tournament!
I would assume it was similar scene when God said “I am going to build a nation” and He promises to start this nation with one couple. One would expect this couple to be a young, vibrant couple with gleaming white teeth and tanned and toned bodies but instead in walks a 75-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman!!
This is who God chose to begin His plan to launch a new nation, one that would impact the entire world. As God would say, a nation through whom “all the nations of the earth would be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).
Abram and Sarai stand there, adorned perhaps by dusty old robes and crowned with wispy white hair and loosely fitting skin and probably as befuddled as anyone else. God chose them to begin a nation. An unlikely pair, especially after factoring in the fact that Sarai was barren. How could God expect to start a nation with a woman who could not bear children?
To complicate the story line, it will be years before they actually have their child of promise. By that time Abram and Sarai will be 100 years old and 90 years old. Perhaps Social Security checks will help this special couple decorate the baby’s tent and they’ll be able take naps when the baby does.
God picks people you and I wouldn’t necessarily choose to take part in his story. Unlike the way we do business, he taps people, not merely because of their abilities, but for their availability. God searches for people who are open to be used by Him and He uses those who are willing to be used for his purposes. He is not looking for qualified and equipped people, He is looking for available and willing people and He will qualify and equip them!
That’s good news, isn’t it? In the business world, you may not have a great resume’. In academics, you may not be a Rhodes Scholar. You may not have a lot of money and you may have average looks. You may have a really checkered past and you might be way up in your years. But you may be sitting in a pretty good position to be a top pick for God’s work! Question is – are you available?
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