Matthew Barnett on This is All We Need to Serve God

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1.

Uniqueness is a powerful thing. It’s a wonderful thing. The thing we often think is a liability to the world is the very thing God can use to change it.

Right now focus on the greatest liability you think you have. Not smart enough, not talented enough, not creative enough. Stop right there! If you feel disqualified — in any way — to be used by God, then you need to know right now that your feelings of inadequacy are actually a qualification of usefulness. The Bible is a book of misfits. It’s what intrigues us, inspires us, and allows us to see God at work through people who were totally unqualified. We can often identify with people’s failures even more than their success.

Everything about my life screams, “Misfit!” The neighborhood where I pastor had been abandoned for years. I came right after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, so things were still very intense. Also, many churches had moved out of the urban community for the safety of the suburbs, creating a void in the community. At any given moment there were more people in the bathroom at the church my father pastored in Phoenix than there were in my entire church on a great day.

“God, I can’t do this! I can’t relate. I don’t have any experience with the needs of this community. Why did you send me to the one place where I have no foundational knowledge of what to do?”

I hated that about my life then.

“Why did you send me, God, to a place where I clearly don’t understand the culture, poverty, or community?”

But then God began to speak to me: I didn’t call you to the inner city to be relevant, but to be revolutionary. You can honor Me in a greater way by being simply available than if everything came easily for you.

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SOURCE: Christian Post, Matthew Barnett