#8 - Not Enough Talent

#8 - YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TALENT TO BE A MISSIONARY....

or anything else God is calling to you to do or be.  You are not smart enough, educated enough, talented enough, strong enough, wise enough, ....  If you were there would be no need for God. 

As I have been following the trials a fellow worker in Spain is going through in regards to their VISA I have repeatedly had these moments of holding my breath and asking "what if that were my family."  I have said to friends and family I don't think I have enough faith to stand as strong as they are or I don't think I could let Scott come back to America and leave me there for 6 months or more with the kids.  I have worried that I don't know enough to navigate the systems.  I have been talking to a young woman who is raising her support for Spain as well and encouraging her that she can do it.  But after the conversation I heard that little voice inside my head saying "yeah, you told her she can do it, but can you?"

I have had to turn back to God many times and ask "are you sure you got the right person?" 

This morning I was reading the blog of a family we got to know this past summer (they have been in Ukraine about a month).  He summed up all I was thinking -

"Recently at a team meeting we were praying for various requests of Send’s missionaries in Ukraine. The list of requests included ministries such as teaching pastoral training courses in Russian, and it certainly portrayed an impressive depth of experience and giftedness…. people much more intelligent and educated than us! As I read this list and considered my own relative helplessness with the language, I felt very small. How will God ever be able to use us here? Then I remembered that we are not here because of a talent or education or something we can offer, we are here because of who Jesus Christ is. May this truth continue to transform us and those we meet as we continue our life here."

Now, to find a way to nail that thought to my brain.  God didn't call me to obedience because of a talent, education, skill, passion, or anything else within me.  He called me to obedience because of who He is.