Are you being called to something, but you find yourself waiting? Holding back? Thinking, “I’m not there yet. Don’t have all my ducks in a row. After I ____________ then I’ll be ready.”

Maybe you’re being called to lead something.

To start writing.

To seek a mentor.

To begin a Bible study or a prayer group.

To become more involved in your church.

To begin a blog.

To step out in the community.

To open up to someone about your faith.

To make a leap far bigger than you feel comfortable with. With no guarantees of success.  

You’ve received confirmation. You know He’s calling, and now the pull is so strong you can’t seem to shake it.

Yet, sometimes a voice is louder. The voice that says, “Who do you think you are? You need to learn more. You need to clean up your act. You need to have children who are near-perfect and a marriage only found in fairy tales, and never ever goof up in any of those. AND then, you’ll be able to start. Then you’ll be ready. But now? Not now. Not when your life is a mess. You are not enough.”

Friend, that is a lie.

And that lie is convincing. And can cause you to respond with, “Better to be safe than sorry. I don’t want to goof up. I’ll do it … just not now.” But that causes us to overlook something important.

It’s not us. It’s Him. And when He calls, anything we do in Him, will succeed, no matter what it may look like in our worldly eyes. Because His idea of success is vastly different. It’s not about perfection, or getting to a certain place before we begin, it’s about getting back up every time we goof and saying, “God, I am not enough and will never be. But You are. And I’m not taking my eyes off You.”  

It forces us to look to Him much more than we might otherwise.  

God can use you. Now. Right where you are. 

Even if your children aren’t on the straight-A list, or winning awards for perfect etiquette. Even if your marriage feels more like a roller coaster ride, than a smooth journey. Even if you didn’t grow up in church. Even if you’re a ragamuffin at heart. Even if you come dragging your exhausted self, sometimes hourly, to the throne of grace to confess yet another sin. Even if you can’t find beautifully phrased words to pleadings so deep, that sometimes all you can manage is a whispered, “Jesus”, through your tears, so wiped out from another battle.

I am all of those things, and friend, He is using me, one of the most unlikely of people. One day I had to put my own feelings about His call aside and just say, “Yes.” I had to hang it all up. All the worn out thoughts about myself and pick up His.  

My feelings were lies. His were the truth.

And on particularly bad days, I still think, “Me? God, how could this be right?” yet the call is there, so I go. And out of my biggest (on-going) struggles — the ones in which I plead for the thorn to be removed from my side — a la Paul — these are the very places that God seems to be building a ministry. And it almost brings me to tears when I think about what would have been missed had I waited until I was further along, or was satisfied I scored low enough on my own, self-imposed sin-o-meter.

And that’s how I can tell you in full confidence, if He is calling, go. Do not wait. You are enough. Your qualifications are enough. Just go.  

Because He is enough.

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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. —2 Corinthians 12:9, NIV