Sent Day 3: Tires, Tiny Boxes, and the Question We’re All Avoiding

Sent Day 3: Tires, Tiny Boxes, and the Question We’re All Avoiding

We started this morning with team building, pulling a tire off a twelve foot post as a group, and figuring out how to get everyone standing on one small box at the same time. Both only worked by leaning on each other. That set the tone for everything else today.

From there we headed over to HOPE, an organization that pours into moms and kids who need somewhere to land. We played games. We built a homemade slip and slide out of nothing but a tarp and a hose and pure joy. I can’t show you pictures of the kids we were with, but what our students did out there was beautiful to watch. On Friday we go back to learn how HOPE actually pulls off everything they do, not just the fun stuff but the real work, the resources, the skills, the steady presence they offer to families who need somewhere to turn. What they do is the kind of ministry that never makes headlines but changes the whole trajectory of a family’s life.

Tonight in devotions we talked about being called, and it circled right back to that tire and that tiny box.

We looked at Moses, standing in front of a burning bush, telling God he wasn’t the right guy for the job. We looked at Jeremiah, insisting he was too young. We looked at Gideon, calling himself the weakest man in the weakest family in Israel. Every one of them stood face to face with God Himself, and every one of them tried to talk their way out of what He was asking.

We like to think we’d be different, that if a bush lit up on fire in front of us we’d say yes immediately, no hesitation, no excuses. I’m not so sure. I think most of us would do exactly what Moses did and start listing reasons we’re not good enough, not qualified, too messed up, too ordinary for anything God could use.

I don’t believe calling is a special category reserved for a handful of Christians who happen to be gifted or bold or put together. I believe every single one of us is called. We’ve just gotten comfortable cheering from the sidelines for the people who say yes, while quietly convincing ourselves we’re not the ones God had in mind. And in doing that, we risk missing what God actually had for us.

Ephesians tells us God prepared good works in advance for us to walk in. In advance. Before we did anything, before our first mistake or our best decision, God already knew every single thing we would ever do, and He still prepared work for us to walk into. Not work for the cleaned up version of us He hoped we’d become. Work for us, exactly as we are.

This morning none of us got that tire off the post alone. Nobody stood on that box by refusing to lean on the people across from them. Our calling was never meant to be a solo project either. Part of walking into what God prepared for you is learning to lean into the people around you, and letting them lean into you, instead of trying to prove you can carry it by yourself.

We sent the students out tonight with one challenge. Ask God the same question Moses asked. Who am I. Keep asking until you remember the answer. You are the one He said He would be with. Whatever He asks of you, He is not sending you out alone to figure it out. More often than not, He surrounds you with people to walk through it with you too.

You may not feel qualified. You may not feel smart enough, good enough, or like you’ve done enough right to earn a seat at the table. But God. His strength is made perfect in weakness. He is with you. That was never conditional on you having it together first.

Be willing to follow the call. And be willing to hold onto the people He puts next to you while you do.